Productivity Systems Series: Systems & Execution [Part 1/3]

We’ve introduced the Productivity Tripod and uncovered the first leg of the tripod – Clarify & Align.

Now it’s time to delve into my favourite part of the equation – the systems and execution. It’s where we’ll tap into the power of tools and workflows to make our work more effective and enjoyable.

Notice there’s no mention of systems and tools being a substitute for the work. Once we start having that thought process, it’s a good indicator we should go back to the top level – an assessment of our clarity and alignment. We need to go back and build excitement at that level. Then action will follow.

1. Clarity & Alignment (excitement & drive towards action) —> 2. Systems and Execution —>

3. Reflection and Course-correction. That’s the equation.

Defining Systems

Without going all Cambridge dictionary on you, I think of systems as any set of repeated tasks or workflows to make work smoother.

We use systems all the time, even if we’re not aware of them. Unintentionally, most systems are unconscious and therefore ineffective. Or they’re defaults that haven’t been tailored to a specific need.

The best systems are deceptively simple, and that’s the point – they’re within easy reach and easy to use. Because the more obvious a path is, the more likely it is we’ll follow it.

Start & Refine Later

The tools I’m sharing are the ones that have worked for me. They’re tools I use every day. The ones that stop being helpful get abandoned. The idea is to start testing these for yourself. Use what works for you and ignore the rest.

This week we’ll get started with Part 1. In Week 4 and Week 5 we’ll cover Parts 2 and 3.

Part 1 - Keystone Systems [Week 3/6]

• Clarity and alignment – within a team 

• Clarity and alignment – personal

• Full capture

Part 2 - Internally Focussed Systems [Week 4/6]

• Time-blocking

• Energy

• Focus

Part 3 - Externally Focussed Systems [Week 5/6]

• Environment

• Alignment & Making Work Visible

Part 1 - Keystone Systems

We’ve heard of keystone habits – they’re habits that have a positive ripple effect on every aspect of our lives. The same applies for systems, only in terms of our work.

These are the two that have taken my productivity to its highest level and my stress to its lowest level.

A.    Team Alignment - Clarify and align your tasks with the group you work within

The right thing done at the wrong time is as bad doing the wrong thing - anonymous

In the world of work, there are fewer things more frustrating than finishing a task only to find it’s not what was needed. 

Setting clearly defined targets with your team every week is the single best way to ensure your energy is focussed on the right things at the right time.

The best tools I’ve found for doing this are Kanban Boards in Trello or Notion, or even a simple excel tracker with names and dates. The key is for the next actions, owners and expected completion dates to be clear. Having this in one visible trusted place means you kill ambiguity and see overload quickly, making the likelihood of success easier to predict. 

B.     Personal Alignment - Clarify and align your tasks to the measurable duration targets you’ve set

In week 2 we defined alignment as the practice of focussing our energy where it’s needed to get us to our vision. 

But often it’s not as simple as writing down a goal and getting to work. We need more nuance to navigate incoming tasks and make the right decisions about what needs focus at what time. 

Here are the tools that have worked for me:

The Weekly Preview

The Weekly Preview has 2 purposes. It highlights our measurable targets and how they’ll be funnelled into the week’s tasks. It evaluates the importance of incoming tasks (captured in the full-capture system) and whether to schedule, defer, delete or delegate them. It’s the compass in our productivity system.

It’s the tool that gives us confidence in what we’re doing on any given Monday morning at 9am.

The summary of these steps are:

Step 1 – Reflect & Course Correct

• Reflect – on progress against the previous week

• Reflect – on the biggest wins

• Reflect – on the course correction needed. I use simple prompts to see what’s worked, needs improving and what’s getting in my way.

 Step 2 - Review everything in my full-capture system and specify mandatory tasks

• Review – quarterly goals to specify priorities for the week. I typically split these into the top 3 items for each project I’m working on and then select the one highlight. Next I throw blocks of time into my calendar to do them.

• Review – new tasks that have come in over the last week and how these sit next to the current priorities. These are stored in a full-capture system so I’m not relying on my brain to remember them.

• Review – incoming requests and other tasks that might sit on the periphery of my explicit goals. In an ideal world, we’d simply work on our desired goals and nothing else. But we don’t live in an ideal world. We work and live with other people where compromise is necessary. The key is to make time for the most important stuff while maintaining harmony with others and keeping the lights on.

The tools: 

• Physical: Planners like the Bullet Journal, Full Focus Journal, or any notebook.

• Digital: Kanban boards, Trello, Notion, excel sheets.

• Scheduling: Any digital calendar. Planners work too but they’re trickier to adjust.

C.    Full Capture

Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them - David Allen

This is an idea David Allen describes in his book Getting Things Done.

Most of our stress comes from trying to remember everything that needs to be done or might need to be done, in our heads. There’s a constant internal battle between what we’re doing now and all the other stuff, all while navigating incoming tasks.

Without a system for dealing with this everyday challenge, stress in inevitable.

Full capture is the process of having every single one of those to-do’s in a single and trusted location -outside of our heads - that we’ll refer to easily regularly. I like to take this a step further by planning what I’ll be doing when. That means my full capture system extends to my calendar.

This is the result:

• All goal focussed tasks are stored outside of your head

• All new tasks are stored outside of your head ready for scheduling, deleting, delegating, meaning they won’t get missed

• Key tasks are scheduled

A good full-capture system should cover the following as a minimum:

• Everything to be done divided into immediate and backburner tasks

• Incoming requests and everything that might have to be done, that you’ll assess during your Weekly Preview.

These two steps alone transformed me from the preverbal stressed-out knowledge worker to a calmer considered version of myself. I became less of a curmudgeon because I wasn’t as stressed out. 

If you’re finding yourself constantly overwhelmed, this is the single one thing I’d recommend.

In Week 4 we’ll go deep into the three key internally focussed productivity systems with some boosters thrown in for good measure.