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The annual productivity post
# forum
j
It's too early to say for sure, but I think I've figured out a way to organize my todo lists that actually fits how I work and doesn't require too much effort to maintain and stuff. Instead of organizing the top level by project (e.g. a "yakread todo" note, a "biff todo", a "writing todo" note etc), I have two fixed categories: main and alt. Main contains stuff that feels "high leverage", regardless of what project it falls under. Alt contains stuff that probably won't have a big impact in the short-term but that I still want to make some progress on. So far (about 2 days) this has made it feel easier to focus on the essential stuff and not have my main todo list get crowded out with too many items. I try to keep each list to 7-ish items, and each item can branch out to a separate note with 7-ish items etc. So for any given note I can prioritize the tasks without too much effort. I have found that using google keep for the notes is essential so that I can organize them on my phone.
Another sort-of productivity-related thing which I've been doing since the start of the year and has been a huge improvement: I keep a paper notebook on my desk and write down a log of my working hours in 15-minute increments. I've given myself a fixed number of vacation days for the year, so each week I work until I either hit 40 hours, or less if I decide to use a day/half-day of vacation. Then each week I put the hours I worked + vacation days left into a row of a spreadsheet. working from home and having kids and stuff, this has made it 1000 times easier to be able to get my work in, not feel like I'm never getting enough time to work, and not be stressed out when I'm not working And so far this year I actually have been doing ok in terms of working 40- hours per week
at one point I tried using a desktop app for tracking my work hours, but the paper notebook is way better. it's easier for me to remember, and it's easy to make edits and stuff if I do forget
and that's a wrap, I'll be back next april with more productivity advice
d
I've been thinking about how to measure how I spend my time lately, so I'm glad you mentioned the "paper log of 15-minute blocks" idea... that's a lot less work than building a more advanced solution (which is always where my mind goes first 😅 )
I like the 7-items rule. I use Todoist to track everything I need/want to do, but it often results in a big never-ending pile of tasks that's really hard to prioritize
j
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