As you work to cultivate a productive workflow for yourself and set off to get some real work done, you’re likely to run into some sticking points on your journey. Don’t worry, it’s all normal. Here are a few essential and helpful building blocks that can help your workflow take off.
The humble to-do list
It’s deceptively simple, but the single most important element to a productive person’s life.
- Get the mountain of tasks and ideas out of your head, where they’re swimming around loosely and clouding your focus, and into a singular place in the physical world. Once they’re there, the list can be 200 items long, but at least it’s complete.
Take what you need
Mix and match, and experiment, and design the perfect system that works for you
- You can rest assured knowing that working and experimenting with these won’t waste your time. In fact, they’re likely to make your time a whole lot more productive and enjoyable.
Any and all writing
Digital writing apps are different than to-do lists. They still often function as a way to quickly intake thoughts, but they’re more formless by design.
- They can also expand to fit longer form documents, which, depending on your line of work, might be the most single most important element to your productivity suite.
Blocking out the fun
Apps can set to block you from accessing certain areas of the internet, or applications on your computer, or both, depending on how you set them up
- Freedom is the industry standard and app of choice for many
- For something simpler and utilitarian, there’s also Cold Turkey
- The balance here is something that is hard enough to turn off but also isn’t impossible
Dreaded email
Unsubscribe from shopping digests and other spam-like messages, and unsubscribe from newsletters that might be good but you don’t read
- Spend a few hours a day working through at least the top layer of your emails, and commit to a workflow with your email.
Build up your habits
It can be a great help to have a helpful digital hand behind you, pushing you along the path.
- Two options here for habit tracking applications
- Momentum: Swipe along with your habits and watch progress bars satisfyingly fill up with green
- Habitica: Create a pixelated avatar for you and give you points when you accomplish a task or habit. You can use those points to level up your character or give it armor, or a pet, or go on an adventure.
A bird’s eye calendar
Every time you get a job or a commitment, in your work life or personal life, it goes on the calendar.
- You can see your life from a top-down perspective, and get a sense of how your days are filling up, and what you are devoting time to.
Tracking your time
Toggl allows you to simply press “Start” and “Stop” on a labeled timer to track the exact amount of time you spent on a task or project.
- RescueTime runs in the background of your computer or phone and tracks your activity – time spent on each app, and in each category of work.
