Get Stuff Done in 2022 - A Simple Productivity System

Does a Productivity System Really Work?

Sweat is pooling in my armpits.

Hands barely able to hold the pen.

How come I missed preparing this presentation? The clock is ticking in the background. Tick. Tick. Tick.

Ok, focus you got this.

*Ring, ring, ring* my boss calls.

I can reassure you in the end I did finish the presentation on time. But it would have been a lot easier if I were more organized and had a Working Productivity System.

Are you always busy and your long-term goals — albeit important — are often not urgent enough? We have to face it, if we don’t do anything about it, our life goals will draw the short straw.

Last year, I started scheduling and planning. A necessity when you work at home with all the distractions.

And guess what? The productivity system worked. I moved and actually registered my own business. And the year has just started.

I’d like to share with you my scheduling system and planning tools for 2022. Also the new productivity methods I would like to set up for the coming year to create my own productivity system.

The Master To-Do List - As Core Part of the Productivity System

Instead of a daily to-do list, I use what I call a Master To-Do List.

When you start the new Master To-Do List take a piece of paper and write down all the open tasks that come to mind.

This might take a few minutes. Here are some questions that might help:

What things need to be done at home?
Which appointments do you have to make?
Do you have skills you want to learn?
What work-related tasks are open?
Are goal-related tasks open?
Are there little things you’ve been procrastinating on?

Additional points are added to the Master To-Do List along the way.

Wherever I go I bring my little notebook and when a task comes up, I write it down.

For example:

I work on the blog and suddenly I realize I am running out of shampoo; I jot it down.

While listening to an audiobook on the train I realize I need to make my yearly dental appointment, I jot it down.

I have a new idea for a blog freebie. I jot it down.

I have to prepare something for work. I jot it down.

Throughout the day and the week, I write down everything that comes up. No more forgetting tasks.

No more distractions, while working.

When the page is full, I start a new page. When something gets done or is no longer relevant, I cross the points out with highlighters. The list is usually color-coded.

green = completed

blue = need to do something else first

pink = no longer relevant

The goal of the Master To-Do List isn’t to work it off daily. The goal is to be aware of all my open tasks and when they need to be scheduled. This way I don’t forget anything. It is a task collection tool. With this list, I do my weekly time blocking.Are

Time Blocking & Task Batching

Time Blocking is a Time Management Tool that helps you organize your day. For time blocking you divide your day into time blocks. Each block is for a specific task or a task batch.

If you do task batching you group together similar tasks and do them within a time block. I do the planning once at the end of each week.

With time blocking you’ll complete tasks in one go without distractions leading to massive productivity and focus.

Usually what happens is that you work on an important task, get interrupted, start again, and get interrupted again. Get lost in the details. People plan meetings throughout your day disturbing your workflow.

Is Task Batching the Right Tool for You?

You might say your day is too reactive for task batching. For example, you have to do a task immediately when your boss or client calls.

In that case, you can plan time blocks in the mornings or evenings when your boss or client is not working. As someone with a partially reactive job, I can say time blocking always makes sense even when you have a reactive job. Just give it a try.

[Read: Simple Productivity Ideas – Discover the 5 Best Productivity Tips]

If you want deeper insights check out Todoist.

Eisenhower Matrix

The Eisenhower Matrix as a part of the productivity system helps you prioritize your tasks.

According to James Clear the Eisenhower Matrix, or Eisenhower box is “a simple decision-making tool that you can use right now. “

The tool helps you organize which tasks to do immediately, which to schedule, and which to delegate or remove from your list when scheduling your blocks.

With the Eisenhower Matrix you :

Do urgent and important tasks immediately.
Delegate urgent and non-important tasks where possible.
You Schedule Important but non-urgent tasks.
And non-urgent and non-important tasks get removed from your to-do list.

As a note to self and for all the procrastinators out there Tim Ferris said:

“Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.”

[Read: How to prioritize with the 80/20 rule]

The 72 Hour Rule

Did you know that if you don’t start a task within the first 72 hours you are very unlikely to do it at all? Therefore, we should follow the 72-hour rule. Regardless of how difficult, time-intensive, or complex a task is we need to get started within 72 hours.

This doesn’t mean to finish within 72 hours just that we start. Keep that in mind when scheduling and planning.

Also, according to Cal Newport: Productivity is

“minimizing the shallow and amplifying the meaningful”.

Therefore, focus on the important tasks with a major impact when you use the 72-hour rule.

Those have been the tools I’ve been using so far. For 2021 I am planning to include the following.

Read: How our Motivation is based on our needs – Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid ]

Yearly goals in the 8 areas of my life

For 2021 I’ll set 3 to 5 major goals. The goals are complementary to the major areas of my life and complementary to each other.

For example, my personal growth goal is to learn about investing, therefore my finances should also get impacted, and my career might also profit from that.

As for recreation, I can learn sewing with my sister this way I also spend more time with my family.

Or I can learn to do the splits with my friends.

Which complementary goals can you set for 2021?

Don’t set unrealistic expectations and don’s set too many goals.

I can tell you that that’s a sure way to fail. In the beginning it’s all about small victories or you will get discouraged.

I often set very high goals for myself in the past, overloading myself with tasks. In the past, I got overwhelmed and stressed. And even when I achieved my goals for a few months I put so much pressure on myself that I started to hate the process.

Goal 1	Goal 2	Goal 3
Learn 3 new skills with sb. else	Learn a new way to invest 1000€	Learn the Splits to be more flexible

Monthly Milestone

The next step in the productivity system is to break down the yearly goals into smaller monthly milestones. Which tasks do you have to do to achieve the monthly milestone? Write them down on your Master To-Do List and schedule them in your calendar.

At the end of each month, I want to do a monthly reflection answering questions such as:

What went well?
What didn’t go well?
Can I learn from that?
Which strategies worked and which didn’t? Why?
Am I still on track?
Am I achieving my goals with these milestones?
Are there any obstacles? How can I overcome them?
What issues might come up later on? How can I handle them?

Weekly Checkpoints

In order to get the checkpoints, the Monthly Milestones need to get broken down into even smaller weekly checkpoints and weekly/ daily tasks for the Master To-Do List.

Again, I want to track the progress at the end of each week.

If I don’t hit the weekly checkpoints it is unlikely that I will hit the monthly checkpoints.

For repetitive tasks (especially daily ones) you can use a habit tracker app or an excel sheet.

When tracking your habits never skip a habit twice in a row. The more often you skip the harder it gets to start again.

Habit Tracker:

Midweek Reviews

Michelle from TheBalancedCeo wrote a great article on productivity. One point that really inspired me was Midweek Reviews. She recommends booking a time slot on Wednesday and to review your accomplishments so far to hold yourself accountable.

You can ask yourself the following questions:

Am I on track?
Will I be able to achieve my weekly goals? If not what can I do about it?
What have I done well? What didn’t work according to plan?

Routines

Getting up, putting on clothes, and brushing your teeth is a routine. You do it with almost no conscious effort. It costs very little energy.

What do you think is easier: To integrate your repetitive tasks into routines or to each day remind yourself at different points of time that a task still needs to get done?

The easiest way for you to finish repetitive tasks is to integrate them into an already well-established routine. That’s why morning routines and evening routines are so important.

Let’s say each day you have 4 habits or repetitive tasks that have to be completed at the end of each day:

Work out 30 Minutes
Write 1000 words
Drink at least 2 liters
Meal prep

Here are some ideas for possible routines:

You wake up, prepare a thermos bottle of tea, while the water is boiling you can brush your teeth and put on some workout clothes, you work out for 30 minutes drink your tea, dress, …
After turning on your laptop in the morning, before checking the E-mails you write 1000 words. You have a high amount of energy and focus in the morning so you should do more difficult tasks in the morning.
Usually you watch TV after work, while watching TV you cook the food for the next day. Before you start cooking you drink a cup of water.

To sum the productivity system up:

Use a Master To-Do List where you write down everything that needs to get done
Schedule your tasks through time blocking and task batching
To prioritize tasks you can use the Eisenhower Matrix
Keep in mind the 72-hour rule, which says that tasks that don’t get started within 72 hours are unlikely to get done at all.
Make yearly goals, monthly milestones and weekly checkpoints to stay on track
Do yearly, monthly and weekly progress reflections
To stick to repetitive tasks use habit trackers and integrate your habits into your routines