over-systematized

Are You Over-Systemized?

I've believed for a while it is possible to be over-systemized. At the point where our productivity systems, whatever flavor they are, begin to take up more time than they save, they have crossed the threshold and have run up against the Law of Diminishing Returns, where at some point, each additional unit input yields less output.

So where is the sweet spot?
kindle book list

Getting A Kindle Book List From Amazon

I've been buying Amazon books since 2009. That's a whole lot of books. And while writing a recent article on backlogs, I realized that I have built up a huge backlog of unread books on my Kindle.

How many, exactly? Well, there's no easy way to tell.

Because Amazon doesn't have a way to export your purchased book lists from their system.That annoyed me. So I wrote a tool to help.
podcast

Podcast Episode 32: A Thousand Cuts

I was having to decide, time after time, what I was going to do every single time I looked at my tasks. It was draining my productivity as surely as a thousand tiny cuts would drain my blood. So I needed to revamp my task system.
checking out the expert

Checking Out the Expert

There are experts everywhere. Some are self-proclaimed, some lauded by others. But before we give credence to their words, we really owe it to ourselves to begin by checking out the expert's credentials.

How much can you trust your "expert"? How much can a person teach you? Do they have any experience in what they are teaching? All valuable questions.
get started faster

Get Started Faster

How many times have you started something just to be stopped by having to fetch needed material or run to the store or do another task first? Wouldn't it be nice just to have everything ready to go? It would certainly help us get started faster.
little and often

Little and Often: A Key To Consistent Progress

One of the things that I still struggle with, years into the productivity space, is making my to-do list doable. I don't want to put each step to complete something on the list, because a) I don't need to be reminded that I need to fetch the stepladder when changing a light bulb, and b) the list gets far too long the more granular I go.

On the other hand, if the tasks are too big, then I can't get them done in a small amount of time.

Enter Little And Often, one of Mark Forster's concepts.

I've been a fan of Mark Forster for a long time now. Besides being an eloquent writer, he takes it upon himself to innovate new systems and then try them out in his own life.
phone

Productify Your Phone

A friend of mine called from the road and asked me for the phone number for my mechanic. She had a breakdown, and even though I had given her the number when she told me about her concerns weeks before, she had lost it and never made the appointment. She writes down phone numbers in various places, and never has them with her when she needs them.

If you have a central place to keep your important phone numbers that is always with you, you will never face this situation. And if you enter important phone numbers - before you need them - you'll be even further ahead of the game.
right tool

The Right Tools For the Job

I am aware that you can re-purpose things to serve functions the designer never intended. For example, in college I never owned a tool set. If I had to hang up a picture, I would use a high-heeled shoe to do the pounding.

Not only can the right tool make the job go faster, but finding places where your productivity is pinched can help you pinpoint where you need to find better tools.