Do you use a productivity system you can trust?

Things in life seem to come at you at such a quick speed. Your work demands are always increasing. At home, you have chores, projects and family you want to spend time with. Balls get dropped and energy levels are low. Each day has a new urgent thing that needs your attention instead of what you planned. You’ve tried productivity systems before, but they seem to be more of an obligation than a help to you.

Earlier in my career, each year seemed to come with even more work and more responsibility. That also meant more of a chance of letting someone down by dropping what they handed me. I was excited for the challenges, but I struggled to complete things in the way I wanted to. 

One time, I tried a first-in first-out system. I was getting increasingly behind on the things coming in to me. So I thought my customers would understand if I processed things in the order I received them. 

But my workload was such that I had 20 days worth in front of me at any given time. It not only frustrated my customers to wait 20 days, but it was demotivating to me to even try.

Then I tried another system where I didn’t work on anything the same day. I would work on the most urgent thing that was on my lists from the days before. That didn’t work either because one customer’s urgent item was more urgent than another customer’s. So the less urgent item didn’t get done.

I tried sticky notes and got lost. 

Then I tried working on things as soon as they came to me. But some things would take too long, and I’d get behind again.

After lots of trial and error, several books I’ve read, and systems I’ve used, I’ve learned some really valuable things about organization, workflow and productivity. 

These things have proven so helpful to me over the last decade that I want to share them with you in detail, in the format of an online course. You can read more about the course here. 

Overall, here are the biggest takeaways I’ve learned over the years:

Use a system you’ll use

If your system is too complicated, you probably won’t use it. Your system should be easy to use, easy to maintain, and easy to reference. It should work for you, and help you want to use it. Ideally, it should be able to handle increases and decreases in your workload too.

Use a system you’ll trust

If you can’t find things in your system, or you forget things, you won’t trust your system. It has to serve you. It has to make life more doable so you can put your attention on the right things. 

Use a system that challenges you to consider the big picture

Your system should be more to you than a way to get things done. It needs to support effectiveness and doing the right things. You won’t know what the right things are unless you are able to take a step back. You have to decide why you are doing the things in the first place. Your system should remind you to look at the big picture and match your “why”.

Use a system that has your back when “life happens”

Unplanned things will come at you daily. Your system needs to help you manage those things. And if you get off track, behind, or don’t touch the system for a couple weeks, your system should allow you to get back on track relatively easily. If it’s a huge burden to use the system after getting behind, it’s not the right system to serve you.

I would encourage you to check out my online course if you don’t have a system, or if you want to grow your current system. Set yourself up to handle things that come to you in a way that’s simple to learn and use. Make sure you can trust it, it guides you to working on the right things, and it has your back. 

Why? Because you deserve to thrive.

Discussion questions

What do you appreciate about your current system and how it helps you?

What have you learned you need in a system to help you work on the right things?

Comment below or send me an email