#3: When Your Productivity Setup Gets Too Complicated
I've been experimenting with productivity tools in the last two years.
Always on the lookout for ways to optimize my workflow, I keep trying new apps. Early this year, I set up the improved Reminders on my iPhone based on the principles of Getting Things Done. In the last quarter, I ditched that and spent hours building my GTD dashboard on Notion.
While it's fun trying out new tools thinking a shiny app might be the panacea to all my productivity woes, I noticed how I spend more time building systems on these apps than actually using them to, you know, get things done.
But I rediscovered a simpler way: analog notebooks.
In the past few days, I went back to the good old journaling approach. It wasn't a conscious decision—I just happened to have a new cute linen journal lying around and I thought, "Why not use it?"
The result: I've consistently journaled for a week now, which I haven't done in a while because I was fussing over whether to journal on Notion, Logseq, Obsidian, or Apple Notes. (Here's a gentle reminder to stop tinkering with tools and just do the thing!)
Our habits have 4 core elements: cue, craving, action, reward.
The cue for me is the physical journal itself, which is the first thing I see when I sit down in front of my desk every morning. My desire (aka craving) is to feel grounded, be productive, and get clarity on what needs to get done for the day. The action is journaling, and the reward is the rush of checking things off my quick to-do lists (by hand!) and seeing my journaling streak. ✅ ✅ ✅
The Daily Page Setup
Instead of relying on apps for my daily journaling and to-dos, I crafted a format to help me...
1. Solidify my journaling habit.
2. Prioritize tasks for every day.
This daily page looks like this:
Date
I am letting go of...
1.
2.
3.
I am grateful for...
1.
2.
3.
I am focusing on...
1.
2.
3.
Most Important Task
1.
Secondary Tasks
1.
2.
Remaining Tasks
1.
2.
3.
Habits
⚪️ Movement ⚪️ Mindfulness ⚪️ Mastery
I marked two other sections on my journal with a cute sticky tab: one for my weekly task dump and another for the maybe/someday ideas that pop up in my mind now and then.
I use this journal together with Cron calendar (highly recommend!) where I block out the times I do tasks and pencil in appointments. If you're wondering what happened to the complicated Notion GTD dashboard I built for myself, I still drop tasks there that I need to be reminded of on certain dates (my analog journal can't remind me after all).
So...
- Appointments go on Cron calendar
- Time-sensitive reminders for future me go to my Notion GT dashboard (for automated reminders, status bars, a space for important attachments, etc.)
- Daily journaling and planning of to-dos happen on my analog notebook.
This is the simplest system I've ever tried since 2020, and the most productive I've been for a while now.
Try simplicity.
It's underrated, but it works.
• • •
Hi, and thanks for reading! I'm Kishly, a cheerleader of creatives and copywriter turned marketing strategist. Bookmark this blog to read my daily atomic essays on marketing, compassionate productivity, creative living, and lifelong learning. Or subscribe to Process, my weekly-ish newsletter for young adults (and the young at heart) in pursuit of wisdom and wonder. ✨