Productivity Post Archive

You’ve probably heard this stat: it takes 25 minutes to recover from a single interruption at work. That’s what a 2008 study by Gloria Mark and her team at UC Irvine found. It’s a stat you’ve probably heard before—often quoted as a rallying cry to defend your focus...

Jerry Seinfeld once shared a simple piece of advice for building momentum: mark an X on your calendar every day you write. The idea is to "not break the chain." But what happens when the chain does break? Not if. When. It happens. We miss days. We get sick. We lose...

For years, I never wrote anything on the first line of my daily planner. Not once.And for years, I never asked why. (After all, it’s hard to introspect a habit you’re not aware of.) I’d flip to a new page each morning, jot down my tasks for the day, and skip right...

Our brains excel at coming up with shortcuts. They have to. We’re exposed to too much information and too many choices to process everything. Habits are one shortcut we take. We train—intentionally or not—our basal ganglia that when a certain condition is met, we take...

When you catch yourself keeping a second, mental list of what you “really” need to do, that’s a sign you don’t trust your plan for the day. Red alert!

Are you stuck putting off an important project because a horde of urgent tasks keep jumping the queue? You really want to work on that project—it would make such a difference—but when you sit down to work on it, there’s other stuff you need to do first. Other stuff...

An erasable pen is flexible and professional. If you accidentally erase your entire planner, here’s how you can get it back.

A mind map helps you organize your thoughts and find gaps in your understanding.

We can’t remember everything we need to do, nor do we need to. Your trusted system has dedicated space for everything you need.

Some of the most successful people don’t use a task list. Instead, they schedule everything on the calendar.