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Curt Fowler: Finding Your Productivity Process

Curt Fowler

Thursday, September 3rd, 2020

“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” – David Allen

Last week, we laid out the unique terms of the Getting Things Done, or GTD, productivity system. I hope the article piqued your interest in developing (and implementing) your own productivity system.

As I mentioned previously, I’ve been making strides toward my system for many years. Every time I start I have grand visions of the perfect system where I am at complete peace throughout my days without ever dropping a ball. I fail every time. At least I fail to reach my grand vision. What I gain with every attempt is a better and better system. 

So, I encourage you to take the journey with me. Your system will be far from perfect, but it will be a lot better than it was!

A huge win for me in this round of reworking my productivity system was finding the book “Zen To Done” by Leo Babuta. Leo is the founder of zenhabits.com and a pretty famous guy on his own. In “Zen To Done,” or ZTD, Leo took a look at the major reasons people fail at implementing GTD and how to overcome those obstacles.

Leo found people were failing at GTD because it requires individuals to implement a long list of habits in their daily lives. As a general rule, we all stink at creating positive habits and we are even worse at implementing multiple positive habits at one time. As a long time, wannabe, positive habit creator this struck a chord with me.

The reason I was failing to implement the productivity system of my dreams was I was trying to create too many habits at one time. In my habit setting history, I have failed a lot at creating multiple habits at once. But I found success in implementing one or two positive habits before adding more.

This time I will look at personal productivity as a list of habits and focus on implementing one or two of the habits successfully before adding more. So, let's discuss the habits required to create a great productivity system.

Habit 1: Start With The End in Mind

Starting with the end in mind is important for two reasons. First, it ensures your habits are pointing you toward a destination you want to reach. Second, reviewing your exciting destination will give you the motivation to do the work.

We should all do a regular and full review of the major areas of our lives and know what we want our outcomes in each area to be. In this exercise, I want to narrow our focus to what we want our productivity system to look like. How will it work? How will it make us feel? Create the habit of looking back at the inspiring vision for your productivity system to motivate you and keep you going.

My dream productivity system has me diligently, but peacefully, working toward my most important goals. My system ensures I will not drop any balls and helps me avoid last-minute rushes. What outcomes do you want your system to produce?One more thing on start with the end in mind. ZTD’s 10th habit is to pursue work you are passionate about. If you can make a living doing something you are passionate about, your task list will almost seem like a list of rewards. I recommend you put this step into your first habit. If you haven’t found your passion yet, stay on the lookout for work that excites you, that you are good at and that will pay the bills.Habit 2: CollectThis is where your productivity process gets started. Collect every idea, to-do, task and project where you can find it later. I started carrying around a spiral-bound notebook years ago for this purpose. My notes go on the front of the pages. Things I need to get into my system goes on the back of the pages. It is quick, easy and cheap – especially if you buy stacks of them when they cost 10 cents during the going back to school sales.Carry your trusted collection device with you everywhere. I have mine with me whenever I am in business mode. I use Evernote and Basecamp on my phone as back-up collection devices when I am off work. Try to stick with only two places to write down items. If you have too many, items can fall through the cracks.Your email, voicemail and physical inboxes are collection places as well, but those fill up automatically. Your job is to write (or type) everything down so you don’t forget it.Habits one and two are all we have space for in this article. Work on these two and you’ll be well on your way to a productivity system that works for you. We’ll push ahead into the other habits next week.We love helping leaders build great businesses. If you’d like to learn more you can check out our free resources at www.valuesdrivenresults.com/resource-library/ or give us a call at (229) 244-1559. We’d love to help you in any way we can.Curt Fowler is president of Fowler & Company and director at Fowler, Holley, Rambo & Stalvey. He is dedicated to helping leaders build great organizations and better lives for themselves and the people they lead.Curt is a syndicated business writer, keynote speaker and business advisor. He has an MBA in strategy and entrepreneurship from the Kellogg School, is a CPA, and a pretty good guy as defined by his wife and four children.