Numerous factors come together to kill your productivity.
In the 2024 Executive Productivity Report, 52% of survey respondents identified stress as their biggest productivity barrier, while 43% cited meetings, and another 43% mentioned administrative tasks. Regardless of the cause, productivity blockers affect you daily. How are you overcoming them?
One way to get there is by adopting a productivity system.
Productivity systems are methods designed to help you accomplish more in less time. They don't do the work for you, but productivity systems can help you organize and prioritize your tasks, making it easier to progress. Here are some popular productivity systems and how they work.
Autofocus Productivity System
Mark Forster developed the Autofocus productivity system as a response to the most common time management advice—prioritizing tasks based on one's subjective opinion of their importance. Forster found personal prioritization unhelpful at best and harmful at worst.
Humans tend to focus on what they perceive to be most threatening, and the Autofocus system balances what is most threatening with what is most important.
This is an old-school notebook productivity system that consists of three simple steps:
- Start with a sheet of lined notebook paper and list everything you must do. As new tasks come to mind, add them to the list and review them without acting.
- Reread the list slowly until a task stands out to you. Work on that task if you "feel like doing so." When you stop, whether you are finished with the item or not, cross it off the list (re-enter work that you did not complete at the end of the list).
- Repeat this process of slowly reading the list and tackling tasks as they stand out to you or until none of them stand out to you.
Bullet Journal Productivity System
We are all familiar with the bullet list as a method for breaking down complex ideas into a series of concise statements.
The Bullet Journal Productivity System organizes work using a set of logs. It helps you be more mindful of your daily tasks, prioritize the right things, and reflect on your emotions.
Unlike other planners, this notebook productivity system is designed to be fully customized based on your unique goals. However, there are some key components every bullet journal must have:
- An Index: The Index is the backbone of the Bullet Journal. It is how you organize everything you add to it.
- Future log: This is where you list your long-term projects and milestones six to 12 months in advance.
- Monthly log: For each month, list every day and the corresponding day of the week, and add your tasks for each day.
- Daily log: List your to-dos by task, event, and notes for the day.
- Collections: These lists you use to track repeated tasks or times you monitor and organize by content types, such as shopping lists and fitness activities.
At the end of each month, review your daily logs and mark the completed items.
Review the unfinished tasks and ask yourself, "Is this still worth my time?" If so, move it to the next monthly log.
For tasks due in the coming months, put them in the monthly log. You create a page number in your journal and add the item and the page number to the index.
Don't Break the Chain Productivity System
The "Don't Break the Chain" productivity system originated from comedian Jerry Seinfeld. At the beginning of each year, Seinfeld would take an extensive calendar and put a big red X over every day that he spent time writing. It is that simple. This system works well for work that has the same output or goal every day.
Here is how the system works:
- Get a calendar.
- Decide on your daily goal.
- Mark a big red X over every day you accomplish your goal.
As you progress, you will see a chain of Xs across the calendar, and you will grow motivated to avoid breaking the chain.
Eat The Frog Productivity System
The next productivity system is kind of the opposite of the Autofocus system.
And it has the most creative name: Eat That Frog.
The title references a quote by Mark Twain: "Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day." It suggests beginning your day by addressing the most challenging or intimidating task. Completing it first makes the remainder of the day smoother and leaves you feeling more accomplished.
What do you do if you have two "frogs" on your list? Eat them both.
The Eisenhower Matrix Productivity System
The Eisenhower Matrix productivity method is based on a well-known quote by former U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower: "I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent."
Here is how it works. You use a four-quadrant grid to rank tasks/decisions based on two key characteristics:
- The importance of the work to the overall success of the mission.
- The urgency of the job.
|
Urgent and important Do it first |
Important but not urgent Do it later |
|
Not important or urgent Do not do it |
Urgent but not important Delegate it |
Place your tasks in the quadrants and tackle them as follows:
- Important/Urgent quadrant: you do these tasks first.
- Important/Not Urgent quadrant tasks: schedule time to do these later.
- Urgent/Not Important quadrant tasks: delegate these tasks to someone else.
- Unimportant/Not Urgent quadrant tasks: drop these time-wasters and distractions.
The beauty of the matrix is that it applies to any role in any business. For busy executives, it can be an invaluable tool for remaining focused on what matters most.
A similar system: The Franklin Covey productivity system also uses the Eisenhower Matrix.
Iceberg Productivity System
Do you spend hours scouring your email inbox, trash, and sent items for unsaved messages containing information you now need? Motivational speaker Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You to Be Rich, developed the Iceberg productivity system specifically for this situation. It’s simple and practical. You create email folders to categorize and store valuable information that you don't intend to use right away. Examples Sethi mentions include:
- Create folders named after cities with emails from people you might want when traveling there. Then, on your way, you could review the folder for that destination and reach out to contacts.
- Create folders for skills you might need in the future, such as "How to create a great webinar," because you might want to do that later in the year.
- Create folders where you can store insights about topics you plan to write about in the future, such as "how to understand cryptocurrency."
Take a few seconds today to save something now, which might otherwise take hours to find later. If you didn't receive the item via email, paste the link into a blank email, send it to yourself, and save it. Your inbox represents just the tip of the iceberg of your information, showing only about a third of your stored data. The rest remains hidden but accessible when needed.
Ivy Lee Productivity System
One of the most reliable productivity systems is over a century old. In 1918, Charles W. Schwab, unrelated to the renowned Charles Schwab of finance, was eager to improve Bethlehem Steel's efficiency. He brought in business consultant Ivy Lee, who requested 15 minutes with each of the company's top leaders. During these brief sessions, Lee instructed the executives to follow a specific daily routine:
- Write down the six most important things you must do tomorrow at the end of the day.
- Prioritize the list in order of importance.
- The following day, begin with the first task on the list.
- Work on the first project until finished, then move on to the next task.
- Continue until every project on the list is complete.
- Add any unfinished tasks to the top of the list for the next day.
Similar systems: To-do lists.
The Getting Things Done Productivity System
Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen is one of the most popular productivity systems. Unlike structured systems like the Ivy Lee system, GTD features a flexible, five-step framework:
- Capture - Take notes on all your thoughts. Notes clear your mind and prevent you from forgetting key ideas.
- Clarify - Decide if your thoughts are actionable, and if so, determine their level of urgency.
- Organize - Create reminders for all your action items.
- Reflect - Review your to-do lists regularly to ensure you stay on track.
- Engage - Do the work that is on your list in the most efficient way possible.
GTD begins with the premise that our productivity is related to our ability to relax. When our minds are clear and our thoughts organized, we achieve effective productivity and unleash our creative potential.
The Kanban Productivity System
Kanban, which means "card" in Japanese, was invented at Toyota to streamline the manufacturing process. The system also applies to personal productivity. Kanban is a column-based project management system that conveniently keeps tasks and projects on track. You create three columns on a spreadsheet (or whiteboard):
- To do.
- In progress.
- Done.
Next, you create physical or virtual cards or sticky notes for your tasks and position them in the relevant columns. Kanban is effective for projects with multiple subtasks or when team members collaborate and need clear visibility of task statuses. Digital tools such as Asana, Monday, and Trello are online implementations of the Kanban system.
Similar systems: Agile, Kaizen.
The Pomodoro Productivity System
The Pomodoro productivity system schedules blocks of 25 minutes. Each of these blocks is called a Pomodoro. Here is how it works:
- Decide on the task to be done.
- Set a timer for 25 minutes.
- Work on the task.
- End work when the timer rings and take a short break (typically 5–10 minutes).
- If you have fewer than three Pomodoros, go back to Step two and repeat until you go through all three Pomodoros.
- After four Pomodoros take an extended break (traditionally 20 to 30 minutes). After the long break, return to step 2.
Similar system: Timeboxing.
The Single Tasking Productivity System
Multitasking is a proven productivity killer. Numerous studies show that it has adverse effects, including:
- Increasing your stress levels.
- Decreasing productivity by as much as 40 percent.
- Reducing your cognitive abilities.
Yet 92% of knowledge workers multitask during meetings, but this wastes time and attention because switching tasks and applications takes about 20 minutes to refocus. Single-tasking involves concentrating on just one task at a time. Here's how to implement it:
- Use only one browser tab or application at a time.
- Use pomodoro-like time blocks to force yourself to focus.
- Turn off alerts and notifications from devices and applications.
- Set your status to "do not disturb" on your instant messaging app.
- Block off your calendar to avoid getting called into meetings.
Similar system: Timeboxing.
The Zen to Done Productivity System
Zen to Done (ZTD) focuses on habit change for better productivity and effectiveness. Developed by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, it guides you in building habits gradually, one at a time, and establishing a workflow management system. ZTD promotes a straightforward method to enhance productivity by encouraging the formation of a single habit before moving on to the next.
Here are the steps in the ZTD productivity system:
- Collect: Get ideas and to-dos out of your brain and onto a list.
- Process: Review your list daily and determine how to proceed with each item.
- Plan: Pick a few high-priority items to accomplish each week and every day.
- Do: Schedule time to complete your selected to-dos without interruptions.
Related: Health Habits to Increase Productivity in the Workplace
How to Pick a Productivity System
The million-dollar question is, how do you choose a productivity system that will work for you? A lot depends on your work style. For example:
- Eat The Frog is an excellent choice for procrastinators.
- The Bullet Journal is well-suited for individuals who enjoy lists and are detail-oriented.
- Autofocus works well for big-picture thinkers.
- Pomodoro is great for people who need structure to focus their time.
- ZTD is a good fit if you want to change your habits while improving your productivity.
- If you struggle with multitasking, try focusing on a single task.
- Use the Ivy Lee method if you struggle to set priorities.
- To keep a team on track, use Kanban.
The bottom line is that you will not know if a productivity system works for you until you try it. Getting started is often the most challenging part of adopting a productivity system.