Productivity.
Your Productivity Operating System.

In software, the Operating System (OS) runs on top of hardware and provides a foundation on which your apps can run, access hardware resources and do magical things (or, waste your time). Following this analogy, your Productivity OS is the same thing - running on hardware (you), in order to execute tasks, with the greater goal of keeping them organized and giving them fair access to resources without having one task hog all the resources to starve others.

Does that last part sound familiar? I think we all can remember a time when we were overwhelmed, spending hours and hours on 'busy tasks'. In no time the day is over. And then you realize you spent all your time (i.e., resources) on something that isn't a priority. Worse still, that means you didn't get to spend that time on something that actually is a priority.

If a computer worked that way - we’d throw it out. In computing, we've developed algorithms like round robin in order to avoid those specific situations. So why shouldn't we expect the same from our Productivity OS?

Keep iterating.

My new approach is a slight iteration on my current. I'm not saying it will work for you, I'm not David Allen and claim to be a productivity guru, I'm just documenting what works for me right now. And that is the key to keep in mind. If your Productivity OS is not working for you, fix it yourself. Don't let some self proclaimed expert tell you how do get shit done. Work it out yourself and keep iterating.

My shiny new Productivity OS.

I follow virtually the same flow as agile software development. It is a paradigm I know that works for me.

I use Trello boards to store everything. My lists in order are:

The Done lists are up front so I can see what has already been accomplished. I break work in sprints, with about 4 key tasks per sprint. I used to create one card tagged "Sprint" with a cool name for that iteration (like "Noodle Wraith") that contained goals and a retro at the end. After a couple weeks, I found that it didn’t add enough value to keep.

New tasks come in as cards into Inbox (usually thanks to Trello's awesome email-to-card interface), and from there are prioritized into the P1..P4 backlog.

They work like this:

This scheme (originally popularized by President Eisenhower), helps me bucket items with an emphasis of importance over busy urgent work.

I used to also keep a separate Icebox list as a backlog, but found out I could simplify by just moving tasks directly back to the the P1-4 lists.

The sprint process on-top of this backlog helps me better stay focused, feel accomplishment, and not feel like every day is it same deal - just grinding on stuff in lists. I've found that the sprint system really helps manage my anxiety/stress and stay focused.

© 2023, Adam Muhlbauer.