If your productivity system isn't working, let's diagnose why that is. Because everyone needs a personal productivity system. Without a personal productivity system that works, you might have trouble staying on top of things. Things might be slipping through the cracks. You might be missing deadlines. You might be trying to keep everything in your head. and you're going to be very reactive rather than proactive, rather than strategic, and we don't want that. So today I would like to talk with you about why productivity systems break down and to diagnose why your productivity system might be breaking down. Now my name is Peter, and I've been helping people for over seven years now build personal productivity systems to stay organized to be more productive. And there's usually one of three areas where a personal productivity system goes wrong. So I'll be sharing with you today what those three areas are, and why things sometimes go wrong in which of these three areas. And I can tell you right now that the third area that we're going to cover today, the third and final one, that's where things go wrong for most people. So definitely make sure you listen to the end or watch to the end if you're watching this on YouTube, because that might be where things are going wrong for you. So how do I help people with this real quick? I offer a variety of video courses to help you build your productivity system. But I also do one on one work. If you run a business or own a business or are an executive, we can work together to build your productivity system. It's the fastest and easiest way to get up and running. And the links to all of these resources are in the show notes in the description if you're watching on YouTube. So let's talk productivity systems. And we'll ask first, what do I mean by productivity system? And what is it for? I say that everyone needs a personal productivity system. Your system is there to help you manage your time better. So we could also call this a time management system, if you like. And then we can rephrase the question and ask, where is your time management going wrong, right? So the reason that we have a personal productivity system, which is going to consist of some components, okay, some apps, some workflows, and some other things. The reason we have that is ultimately to use our time better. We all have limited time. We all have 24 hours a day, right? We all have limited time on this planet. We don't know how much time we have left on this planet, but it's a limited amount of time. And as a result, we cannot ever do everything. Okay, so the purpose of a productivity system is to help us choose how to spend our limited time in the best possible way. What's the best possible way depends on your values and your goals, right? What matters to you. But on a day-to-day basis, on a week-to-week basis, on a month-to-month basis, we have a limited amount of time. How are we going to spend it? That's what the productivity system is for. So I make a lot of YouTube videos, for example, about how to use certain to-do apps, how to organize your to-dos, how to organize your projects, how to track your deadlines, right, and so on. Why do we do that? It is because it has many benefits, of course. Offloading all the things that you need to do from your mind into a system is relaxing. It lowers your stress, right? But really what it does is it has those positive effects because it helps you manage your time better. By having lists that you can look at, right, a map of your priorities as it were, okay, it just helps you say, what are the most important things that I should be working on today? And what are urgent things? What are the deadlines that are coming up? So you can make sure that you take care of the urgent things as well as the important things. So the purpose of your system is to manage your time better. So when a system breaks down, it's not helping you manage your time better. You're trying to do everything yourself again. There's usually one of three areas, like I said earlier, why this goes wrong. And let's jump in to the first area. And that is your productivity system consists of three components that maps onto these three areas. And so the first thing that you need in a functioning productivity system is tools. Often these are in the form of apps, but it could be tools like pen and paper or something like a bullet journal. In my experience working with people though, for most people, those are not the right tools. For most people, the tools you want to be using is some kind of combination of apps. And that's often a to-do app, a calendar app, and a note-taking app, and then maybe some apps around it. Of course, you're using an app to manage your email and maybe something like Slack or Microsoft Teams for work communication. But the basic apps that pretty much everybody needs are the to-do app, the calendar app, and the note-taking app, okay? And those could be together in one app or they might be separate. For most people, I recommend using separate apps. Maybe that's a conversation for another day. But this is the first area, apps or tools, okay? Things can go wrong on the app front. Why is that? maybe you are using a to-do app that isn't right for you. Maybe you don't like its setup, or there's just some way that it asks you to work that isn't working for you. Or maybe there is an app that could work very well for you, but you just haven't learned how to set it up yet. And so if that's the case, by the way, you'll want to check out some of my video courses, because I offer three video courses and what I think are the three best to do apps. And I'll tell you right now what those are. Those are called Things, OmniFocus, and Todoist. Each of those three, or all three have been around for many years now. And they are my go to recommendations for anybody. If you are in the Apple ecosystem, you can choose all three of these. If you have a Windows PC that you work on sometimes if you're using an Android phone, you're going to have to go with Todoist because things in OmniFocus are only available in the Apple ecosystem. But if you're in the Apple ecosystem, you can choose between all three of these. I won't delve into the comparisons between them today, but those are by far the best to-do apps. I highly recommend that you get set up with one of these three. And so things sometimes go wrong in your productivity system because you're not using the right app, or it just doesn't, you know, suit your workflow, or it doesn't it doesn't suit your way of thinking, rather, I should say, okay, or maybe it's just that you haven't mastered the app yet, you don't know how to use it, right? This is a place where many people think the real problem lies in their productivity system. Although what I see is that actually more often, problems lie in a different area that we'll talk about later today. But it is possible that you haven't set up your app correctly or that it just doesn't work. And so it's worth spending some time taking a look at a few different apps. And again, I recommend just comparing these three things, OmniFocus and Todoist, and seeing which one suits you the best. Okay, it's possible to spend a lot of time on this. It's possible to succumb to shiny object syndrome. and you see a post on social media or someone tells you about a new app that was just released or just got a big update and you check it out and you think this is going to solve all of your productivity problems, okay? That's unlikely, especially if you've tried many apps in the past many times. So what I would recommend is that you pick one of these three apps, you know, take one of my courses on these apps, learn how to set it up properly and run with it, okay? It's going to help you organize all of your projects, keep track of all of your to-dos, keep track of your deadlines and so on. And if you do that consistently, this tool, this app, which is a tool, will help you manage your time better. Okay, it will help you make better decisions about what deserves your attention today. So you can start your day with an intentional to-do list rather than maybe first thing you do when you sit down to work, or maybe you're already doing it over breakfast, or maybe you're even already doing it when you're still lying in bed, checking your email, checking your messages on Slack or Microsoft Teams, okay? This is something I just heard the other day, by the way, from someone I'm working with one-on-one, a business owner. He said, yeah, I'm so reactive. I wake up in the morning, sometimes as early as 5 a.m. before his family wakes up, And he's out there like already looking at his email. Okay. And so if you do that, what you're doing is you're really starting your day in a reactive way and letting other people's priorities dictate how you spend your time today. Right. That's not what we want to do. What we actually want to do is we want you to be in control of how you're spending your time. We want your day to be allocated according to your priorities. And this is why it's important to have a to-do app that you really like. And your system also needs a calendar app. But for most people, you know, the calendar app that you're using already is probably totally fine. And you also need a note-taking app. And there's some, you know, some are better than others. If you're in the Apple ecosystem, Apple Notes is really good. Okay, lately I've been using an app called Granola. By the way, Granola is an AI-powered note-taking app. that I use for taking notes during meetings. And it will also transcribe your meeting and enhance your own notes, which is a fantastic feature. Highly recommend checking out Granola. If you haven't already, it's a bit different than some of the other AI note-taking apps because it actually records locally on your device. So locally on your computer, for example. So you don't get when you're in a Zoom meeting or a Teams meeting or in a Google Meet with someone else, you don't see, hey, Peter's note-taker wants to join the meeting. You don't see that because it all runs locally on your device. But I digress. The to-do app is the most interesting choice of app for your productivity system where it can go wrong. But it's possible to get that set up right, to pick one that suits your needs, to learn how to use it, to really master it, and to make it work for you. That's a place where things go wrong. But when that goes wrong, it's often because of other reasons. Maybe it could be shiny object syndrome or some of the other reasons. But that's the first of the three areas where your productivity system might be breaking down. It might be like you don't have an app you like. You don't have a to-do app that you like working with. But let's say you do have that. Now we get into the second of the three components of your productivity system, the second of the three areas where things break down. I say the second of the three components because your productivity system isn't just some apps. It's your apps plus some other things. And so it is your apps plus some workflows. That's the second component. There's going to be a third component, but the second component is workflows. What do I mean by that? It isn't just enough to install an app. Just installing an app or even theoretically knowing how it works doesn't help. You have to insert your tools, your productivity apps into your daily workflow. So one thing that I like to do, for example, I've got my phone right here. One thing I like to do is right on the home page or the lock screen of my phone, I've got a plus button. If you're watching this on YouTube, you can see I've got a plus button right here. And so for me, this is a key productivity workflow, whether I'm sitting at my desk or if I'm out on a walk or even if I'm sort of having coffee with someone and I have an idea about something I need to do or follow up on, or someone asked me to do something and I say, yeah, I'll do that for you, I will pull out my phone and quickly just press that plus button on the screen, home screen of my phone, the lock screen, I should say. And immediately you can see I can start capturing a to-do. Okay. And so I'm demonstrating this right now in an app called Things, by the way, that's one of the three to-do apps that I was mentioning. But any good to-do app will let you do this. Why do I mention this? This is an example of a workflow that you need to have as part of your productivity system. It's not enough to just have the apps installed, but you need to be able to, with very low friction, capture tasks that you need to do, things that you need to follow up on, and so on. So there needs to be really low friction workflows. And this is one example of a workflow. Another one has nothing to do with your to do app, I'll give you another example is in your email app. Okay, if you're anything like the business owners, the executives I work with, one on one, you get a lot of email, I routinely hear from people that are like, I get 100, 200, 300, 400 emails a day. Okay, wow, that's a lot. Even if you don't get that many, even if you only get 10 emails a day, some of them are going to need you to follow up. Okay, you need to do something with that email. It may be just a quick reply, or maybe a quick task that you need to do, or maybe there's a big project that comes out of an email. Okay, and so one question is, do you have the right workflow set up to keep track of which emails you have followed up with or followed up on and which ones you haven't. Okay, and if it's something larger, is there a to-do in your to-do app? So for example, what I often recommend to people is a very simple email workflow. If there is an email that you need to follow up on, but you're not gonna do it right now, just flag that email or star that email if you're using Gmail, okay? And then later you can come back and batch process, filter your inbox by all the emails that are unread or have a flag or a star, okay? And those are the ones that you need to follow up on, and you can just do that. Now, in addition to that workflow that I'll recommend is if an email takes more than a few minutes to follow up on, you'll flag or star it so you can easily get back to it later, but then you also create a task for it in your to-do app, okay? The task might have a deadline, a hard deadline associated with it, or it might not, okay? But you go ahead and do that as well. And so that is an example, a second example of a workflow that needs to be part of your productivity system. So we've got apps and workflows. And workflows can also mean how does one app integrate with another app. So you can share information. But so it's not just a matter of choosing the right apps. It's also knowing how to use them the best in a way that works for you. I say sometimes apps integrate with each other. And for example, my favorite calendar app is an app called Fantastical. I love Fantastical. I've been using it for quite a while now. And it has a really nice integration with the to-do app Todoist. Okay, so you can link those up. And then if I schedule a task in Todoist for today, I can also see that in my calendar app. So now my calendar app is showing me both to-dos and meetings and appointments. So that's very handy. You've got sort of a singular view of everything you need to do, and it works the other way around as well. In Todoist, you can see all your projects and your to-dos, but it also can pull in your calendar events. So you've got an integrated view. This is another example of a workflow, and this could be somewhere where your system is breaking down. Your system might be breaking down, and therefore, it might not be actually helping you spend your time any better so that you continue to be overwhelmed or feel disorganized or feel too reactive rather than strategic, right? You feel like you're keeping everything in your head, right? A second reason might be is because you don't have the right workflows for the apps. You might have the right apps, but not the right workflows, okay? And so then it's a matter of how can we lower the friction of using your tools, using your apps, okay? And that comes with experience. I do this for a living. I spent pretty much all of my professional, my work time, you know, thinking about these problems, solving these problems for people. Okay. And so it makes sense. You know, you can't be expected to learn about productivity tools full time. You've got your own job or business that you're working. So this is why I offer my video courses and I work one-on-one with people. Okay. Because it's something that it doesn't necessarily come naturally. You've got to learn about which tools are available, which apps are available, what are the right ways to set them up and stuff. And it can be very hard, I know. It can be very difficult to take time out of your very busy day, out of your very busy week to invest in your productivity system. I know that's really hard, but this is one of the highest ROI tasks that you can do is investing in getting organized, in getting things under control. Like I said before, you're never going to be able to do everything, right? I would never promise that to anyone. It doesn't work that way. But you can absolutely use your time better by having a productivity system that actually works. And so your productivity system might be breaking down because you don't have the right apps or you don't have the right workflows for using those apps in a way that suits your day to day, your week to week. OK, so those are the first two areas where things often go wrong. and the first two components of your productivity system. But there's a third place. That's a third component of your productivity system and a third area where things go wrong. And this is actually where if we dig deep for most people, the real problem lies. Okay, so I want to share with you now what that third area is, that third component of your productivity system. Think about it this way. Your productivity system or time management system has really three main components. It is the apps, okay, the tools, the apps, number one. Number two, it is the workflows to use those apps, okay? How are you using them day to day? But then number three is the habits. Your productivity system consists of apps, workflows, and habits. Habits are absolutely crucial. And this is where for most people that I work with, things go wrong the most. So you can have the best apps, know exactly how to use them, be very comfortable using them, have set them up in a way that works for you. For example, your to-do list app shows you all of your areas of responsibility, all of your current projects. Maybe you've prioritized things a little bit, scheduled, tracked your deadlines, but still your system might still be breaking down. And why is that? It's because you don't have the right habits in place to actually use your apps and to actually execute these workflows. This is the case for so many people. And it's such a shame because it is very often the missing link. So what are some of these habits? At a very basic level, there's two or three habits that I would recommend that everyone develop, everyone engage with. Okay. I always say the number one most important productivity habit is doing your weekly reviews. If that's a new phrase to you, I'll briefly describe what this is. Your weekly reviews is when you take time once a week and you just take a look of what's on your plate and you process all of your incoming and organize it neatly and take a little look at what's coming up. So for me, I take a look at any notes that I took in the past week. Hey, are there any like follow-up action items that I hadn't already transferred to my to-do app? I already, I take a look at actually all the things I completed last week. I take a look at my to-do app's logbook, sort of my done list, celebrate what I actually accomplished. Sometimes we're so focused on our to-do list. We never think about our done list, okay? I like to look at what I did last week, and I like to look at my calendar as well. Wow, usually I did a lot last week, even though it still feels like there's so many to-dos, okay? But then I look at the inbox of my to-do app. Is there something I quickly captured during the week that I didn't have time to assign to the right area of responsibility? I didn't schedule it. Maybe I didn't. Maybe there's a deadline, but I didn't tag it with the correct deadline, you know? And I'll just go tidy my lists up. I'll go through each one of my lists, each one of my to-do lists and projects, and just ask, hmm, is everything on this list up to date? Are the dates correct? Are any tasks missing? Is there anything? Oh, right. This is a thing that I need to do. Okay, I just make sure all my lists are up to date. And then I take a look at which deadlines are coming up and which events on my calendar, meetings, or whatever, appointments are coming up. That's it. this usually takes me about half an hour once a week. Now, if you haven't done a weekly review in a while, it might take you more like a couple of hours. The first time you do it, and the second time and the third time, you get better and better at it and we'll go faster and faster. This is the number one most important productivity habit. Okay? I've worked with a lot of people now, okay? To get organized, manage their time better, be more productive, okay? And whether people are doing their weekly reviews or not, is the number one biggest determinant of success in the productivity system. So the third area where productivity systems often break down, is that the third component is the habits. And the number one most important productivity habit is doing your weekly reviews. If you're not consistently doing your weekly reviews, it's very hard to have a functioning productivity system. Why is that? It's because a system, your productivity system, like any system, needs maintenance. Okay, just like your car needs maintenance, right? Your productivity system needs maintenance. Okay, and weekly is a very good frequency for just making sure all your lists are up to date. Why is that? If you don't do your weekly reviews, then you can write down one time all of your to-dos and your projects and so on and prioritize. But if you just do that one time and you don't maintain it, you don't update your lists, what's going to happen is your system, the apps, okay, that have all these lists are just going to diverge from re-eventing. reality. So there's going to be some kind of gap between what's actually going on and what your lists say is going on. And that gap will get bigger and bigger if you don't do your weekly reviews. And at some point, pretty quickly, usually within a week or two, or maybe, maybe even faster, your list will be so out of date that you will not trust them anymore. And when you no longer trust your to-do list to be an accurate representation of what you need to do, you will stop using it. And you'll go back to using pen and paper. And you're going to be writing down or on a sticky note what you want to do today. And now you're not really getting any of the benefits of having a proper productivity system. Okay, so the habits is where it often goes wrong for people. There's other habits too. There's not just the weekly review. For example, another habit that is crucial is spending a little bit of time at the start of your workday. Could also be the end of the previous day or workday. Okay, but often at the start of the workday, just to take five minutes, maybe 10 minutes, and ask yourself, right, what am I going to work on today? What is urgent? What is important? So what deserves my time today? What goes on my to-do list for today, right? And maybe in your to-do app, making a little list for today. Okay, you can do it the night before or at the end of the previous workday. That also works. Why is this so important? It's a habit that you want to get into because it will mean you will be intentionally using your time today as opposed to the example that I gave earlier of the business owner that I work with who is often, when he's still in bed in the morning, checking his email. Okay, is there anything urgent? Well, now you're letting other people decide what is urgent just because they happen to email you about it, maybe in very strong language, right? You're not in the driver's seat if you're doing it that way. So a very crucial habit to develop is to make an intentional to-do list for yourself every day so that you are in the driver's seat. Okay? Three components to your productivity system, the right apps, the right workflows, and the right habits. Okay? What are the right apps for you? What are the right workflows for you? What are the right habits for you? Okay? This does vary from person to person, but usually the problem lies in one of these three areas, and very often the problem is the habits. You're able to set up a two app once. You're able to do a weekly review once in a blue moon, but you're not consistently engaging with your to-do list, making an intentional to-do list every day. You're not doing your weekly reviews weekly, right? And then your system breaks down and you stop using it. And what's going to happen is some months later or some years later, you'll start over again. But without developing those habits, it's not going to stick. And I use the word habit, by the way. a habit is something you do automatically, right? Without thinking about it, right? So you want to be building these habits so that it becomes second nature, that on a certain day of the week, you just tidy your lists up a bit, weekly review, see what you've been up to, see what's coming up, update your lists, right? Process your inboxes. And so that in the morning or the night before, you make an intentional to-do list for the day, okay? And just make sure that that reflects reality. It's not complicated. They're not complicated habits, but it can be difficult to build them with everything else you've got going on. And so I want you to ask yourself in which of these three areas do you have a problem? Okay, because then you know how to fix it, right? Without knowing this, you can't really know how to fix it, right? But for many people, the habits are going to be the problem. And it does, of course, it's much easier to develop the habit when you are using the right apps, and you have learned how to set them up in the right way. And you do have the low friction workflows for using these apps, then it's much easier to develop the habits. That's why it all works together to build your productivity system that's going to help you manage your time better. So you might want to check out my video courses on how to set up some of the best to do apps, okay, how to get the apps and the workflows going. And in those courses, I'll also help you build these habits. Okay. And if you are an executive or if you own a business or run a business, we can also work together one-on-one. Okay. I've limited availability, but I do have some availability at the time that I'm recording this video. Okay. I'll put the link to the page with some information about what that looks like to work together one-on-one. I'll put that in the show notes in the description on YouTube. And I'd love for you to check that out because if you are an executive, if you own a business, if you run a business, it is the fastest way for you to get your complete productivity system up and running with the right apps, the right workflows, and the right habits. So you get a system that works for you and that sticks. A system that makes you go from reactive to proactive that will have you stop trying to hold everything in your head so you can see a nice map of your priorities, okay? And focus on your highest impact work. So those are the three components of a productivity system, the three areas where your productivity system might be breaking down. Hope you found this useful. And I just want to wish you a fantastic day. And I'll see you in the next episode. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Ciao.