Video: The Science of Productivity

Applying a scientific approach to anything is a good idea, but it becomes difficult when dealing with something as ill-defined as “productivity”. The definition of “being productive” depends completely on the situation. It is hard for me to equate violin practice to getting a project done at work. The end goals are nothing alike.

Still, this video has some principals we could all apply to our work that will probably make us at least more organized in our approach.

To-do List Apps

The to-do list is one of the oldest task management utilities known to man. The iOS app store has no shortage of to-do list apps. I use several, in addition to old school pen and paper. You’d think that keeping everything in a single place would be the most ideal, but I enjoy separating it out over a couple apps. I think of the phone as one single place because it can send me push notifications. I use a different app depending on the type of task.

The stock reminders app that Apple pre-loads on every iOS device is not great. I don’t enjoy the interface. However, there is something to be said for the Siri integration. (When it works) It is so convenient to be able to tell your phone to remind you of something, and then have that happen. I begrudgingly use the reminds app, but infrequently. If I need to check on pizza in the oven it is very easy to tell Siri to “remind me to check on the pizza in 15 minutes.” Or, “remind me in 6 months to change the water filter in the fridge.” Pretty seamless.

Any.do is a free app that looks pretty and works well. It has become my main to-do list for personal items, whether they are time sensitive or not. It isn’t quite robust enough to handle all the things I have to manage for work, so I have designated it for all non-work stuff. I enjoy having completely separate apps for work and home. It keeps things cleaner. Any.do allows you to add things via voice, but you still have to have the app open. It is barely better than using the microphone button on the keyboard. For the less-demanding task management at home, Any.do works great. It has a chrome extension that allows you to easily interact with your to-do list in the browser - a nice feature.

For work tasks I use Wunderlist. They recently had a major update that added a lot of functionality to the service, so I’ve only been using it for a few weeks. Wunderlist has apps for tons of device platforms, but they also have a really great way of interacting with your items though a web interface. It allows me to quickly and easily lay out the tasks for a project and define due dates. It has been quirky, but I like it. I also like the major face-lift the iOS app received. It still hasn’t locked itself in as my long-term solution, but for now it is the leader.

The apps described above are great for time-based reminders. You want to know when things need to be done and organize your day/week/month. But sometimes I just want to make lists. For that I use Clear. It is nice looking and easy to use. I haven’t had it for too long, but it gives me a place to keep track of books I want to read, or music I want to check out… things like that. I wish they had an iPad app. I am using the blown-up version of the iPhone app and it makes me sad whenever I have to do that.

So those are the apps I actively use. Believe me, I have tried others. I have the Checkmark app on my iPhone but I never use it. It has some cool location based features, but I haven’t found a lot of good situations where that was useful for me. I’ve used other generic to-do list applications that I’ve long since deleted of my devices.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Due app, and have almost downloaded it a couple times. I just didn’t feel like trying out yet another new app.

I’m sure the great and powerful Omnifocus could replace all of those apps and give me a better overall experience, but I don’t use a Mac. I don’t have one at home and I can’t use one at work. That is a deal-breaker for me.

Probably the best to-do app that I use every day is my calendar. I try to plan out my week and then adjust accordingly as things change. Google calendar is a great for that, and it syncs everywhere. I have the very nice Fantastical app on my phone, but the one I use most is the Calendars app by Readdle. It has the best day view of any calendar app I’ve used.

I’m sure this has been confusing to follow. I have a complicated workflow. Even though I have all these to-do apps, most everything for work still goes though my GTD system that is driven by Evernote. I collect all my tasks into a single inbox, then decide whether it needs to go on a to-do list, have a calendar entry made, or just is something that needs archived for reference.

For home I tend to put more trivial things directly on the to-do list and I skip the whole universal inbox step.

I’m sure this wasn’t helpful to any of you, but it was beneficial for me to write some of this out to make sense of my own constantly evolving, disjointed process.

Get Organized With Evernote

I’ve been using Evernote for a while, but I finally was able to “figure it out” this past year. It is so extensible and can be used for tons of different stuff. I was a mere plebeian in the Evernote game… and probably still am. However, I have figured out how to get a ton out of it over the last 12 months.

Evernote is essentially a digital file cabinet for your stuff. You can put whatever you want in there, and it will be accessible from pretty much any internet-connected computing device. I won’t go beyond that with my description, but you should read more about it and see if it is something you wan to use.

In the past I was using it more like an attic. I would stuff things in there in an unorganized manner, but if I needed something I would always be able to dig around and find it. Over the last year I have started using Evernote for task management. It works great because you can add all the reference material right in your notes. It works really well for keeping a research project organized. You can put all your notes in one place and easily find what you need. While I don’t follow it exactly, The Secret Weapon has some great tips on using Evernote for task management.

Evernote has become a very important player in my GTD1 workflow. I use it for my universal inbox of things to address.

The iOS app used to be one of the worst ways to interact with my Evernote data. They came out with a major update a couple months ago that greatly improved the experience. I still don’t love it, and don’t use it a ton. You can easily email things into your Evernote if you need to, or I use Drafts to save items there. By far I use the Evernote desktop app the most, but their web interface is really great too.

When I first started with Evernote I wasn’t sure how to use it and I almost gave up on it. I’m glad I stuck with it and it has become a valuable tool in how I organize both work and home life.

  1. Getting…Things…Done! Copyright David Allen Co. ↩