Every now and again I like to take stock of my processes for being productive. The goal, of course, to identify new areas of unproductivity or inefficiency and then remind myself of the tools I've learned and why I use them. The hope being to get myself "back on track."
Overarching principle would be established in "Getting Things Done"
- Write it down / get it out of your head
I tend to context switch a lot. So, using a tool like Things 3 is super helpful.
How I use Things 3
I try to use Things as my second brain so that I can context switch as needed between sales, support, marketing and development. Because of this approach what ends up being an important part of my routine is getting into focus. I'm a big believer in sound as an aide in that regard and use "music" from https://hemi-sync.com/ (this one mostly https://hemi-sync.com/product/concentration-album/). No idea if its real or placebo but it works.
Another key habit is to scrub my todo list. I try and use Things to schedule things roughly in order or by due dates, and will use the first part of the day to do a light scrub of the list and I'll use Sunday to do a deep scrub.
As you all know by now I'm a big fan of using Slack's reminders to communicate with you when you are awake - should I have an idea outside of office hours.
I also capture input in a variety of mediums, slack (stars for follow ups, rather than unread), twist (I use the star for follow up), post-it notes, a spiral bound notebook you'll see me with, and that all gets processed on Sunday/Monday into Things.
I have no problems with my robot reminders for all manner of reoccuring tasks that I might otherwise forget. ;p
I also try to get between 8 and 9 hours of sleep each night