My Productivity System
The workflow that actually works for me (most of the time)
I've tried every productivity system. GTD, bullet journaling, time blocking, the Pomodoro Technique. Some worked for a while, then stopped. Some never worked at all.
The problem was that I was trying to fit myself into systems instead of building a system that fit me. So I stopped following other people's methods and started paying attention to what actually worked.
I'm a morning person. My best work happens before noon. So I protect those hours. No meetings, no email, no distractions. Just focused work on the most important things. I also learned that I can't context switch constantly. If I'm coding, I need to stay in coding mode. If I'm writing, I need to stay in writing mode. Switching between tasks kills my momentum.
It's simple, really. I have three lists: today, this week, and someday. Today is what I'm actually going to do. This week is what I'd like to do. Someday is everything else. Every morning, I look at the lists and decide what goes in today. Usually three to five things. Not more. If I finish early, great. If not, the rest moves to tomorrow. I don't use fancy apps. Just a simple text file. I've tried apps, but they add friction. A text file is always there, always fast, always simple.
I don't track time. I don't use complex tagging systems. I don't have elaborate workflows. Those things don't help me—they just add overhead. I also don't beat myself up when the system breaks down. Life happens. Some weeks are chaotic. The system is a tool, not a master. When it stops helping, I adjust it.
My system isn't perfect. Some days I don't follow it. Some weeks I fall behind. But it works well enough, most of the time. And that's good enough. The best productivity system is the one you'll actually use. For me, that's something simple and flexible. For you, it might be different. The key is finding what works for you, not copying what works for someone else.
Note: This is a mock-up post created as part of the Feather blog template demonstration. The content is provided as an example to showcase the blog's features including markdown rendering, search functionality, tags, and more.
Feather is a blog template built for Next.js. You can use these example posts as a reference when creating your own content.