I’ve been through 100 productivity systems in the last year. Everything from sheets of paper to GTD and the gospel of David Allen. Some of it promised to supercharge my work flow, most of it failed miserably and in the final tally, all of the techniques that I bought into cost me more time than they saved.

What’s the problem?

I suffer from an incurable lack of organization. It’s a trap that a lot of people who spend their time working on the web end up falling into. You’re constantly working on eight things at once and focusing in on any one of those tasks is nearly impossible. After years of trying, I learned two things about organization that I think are worth sharing.

Organization is personal

What has always thrown me off about out of the box organization systems is that they are too generic. If you’re writing a book about how to get people working smarter, the first thing you’re going to do is render down the fat and try to make your system as applicible to the masses as you can. The flaw here is that while the tools (todo lists, folders, labels, sorting) are all useful, no matter what arrangement you pick it’s only going to work for people who think like you. Thus, my first piece of advice for finding the right fit is to ignore the systems and just try out the tools. See which todo list or software packages are actually useful to you, and figure out what is the best way for you to use them. If you pigeon hole yourself into the details of a particular method, you’ll lose track of the parts of that method are pertinent. Pick and choose the right parts and stitch together a whole that fits.

Next Steps and Goals.

As far as organization techniques go, the only one that has always made sense to me is the idea of next steps and goals. When looking at any project, whether it’s saving up for a gadget or getting your business off the ground, one of the more effective ways to tackle it is by keeping the “next step” at the top of your mind at all times. The brain has a funny way of ignoring “big goals” and locking in on details. If you know your goal but clearly enumerate the details, you will find that you will get through your todo lists a lot more quickly. This kind of thinking should also go into how you design your todo list. Try to be as specific as you can manage. Instead of saying that you will finish designing your layout by Monday, instead break it apart into actionable chunks:

• I will mock up three pages today.
• I will find five pieces of stock art on Sunday.

etc . . .

What productivity really boils down to is tricking your brain into doing its job effectively. Instead of spending days and weeks trying to change your thinking to fit the system, take a little time to introspect and design a system that fits your thinking.

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