The 5 Step Guide to Building a Productivity System that Works [For FREE]

Have you ever had the feeling of being completely disorganized and unproductive? Of not being able to check things off your to do list, being stuck in the same place for weeks on end and not getting things done? If so, you’re in the right place.

This article is about achieving maximum productivity by breaking down your goals into to dos and getting them done, one day at a time.

We All Strive to be Productive

All of us have goals; at work and home. Achievement of these goals takes us to our ultimate goals in each area. So we try to break them down into smaller to dos and keep track and follow them on a daily basis. The most prominent of these systems is GTD (Getting Things Done) by David Allen. Its helps you organize your goals and execute on them.

This system gives a structure to put your goals down in one central place, organize them by project and break them down into bits to execute monthly, weekly and daily.

Here’s the concept, directly from the founder, David Allen:

If you’re not already, its highly recommended that you start following this system to maximize your productivity; or at least take what you like and implement that.

GTD in theory is sound because it helps us work the way our brain like to – by treating it like a whiteboard while filing everything else into neatly sorted external archives to do later.

But many of us face problems while trying to implement this system into our lives. We try to use a concoction of apps like Trello, Asana, OneNote, Evernote, Google Keep, Wunderlist and Google Calendar to achieve this.

But this poses problems because no one app caters to all the different elements of a productivity system, as we’ll see in the next section. 

But We Face Problems When Trying to Implement the Systems

A functioning productivity system that gets you in a state of flow has a lot of moving parts. Namely, it has to be capable of the following

• Deep AND Speedy Notes

The ability of the app to take in depth notes, while at the same time noting down important ideas as they come to you on the go in an always available, fast checklist format.

• Short AND Long Term Tracker

This is the ability of the app to break down large projects by month, week and day.

• Time AND Task Based To Dos

The ability of the app to break down to dos according to tasks (have to be done by the end of the day) and time (meeting with John has to be held at 5 pm sharp). 

So let’s see how our top apps fare in these 3 criteria (we'll be using only free ones).

As you see, no one app fully caters to all three criteria for an effective productivity system. Some apps offer depth like OneNote and Evernote, while others offer only speed like Google Keep and Wunderlist. So, what is required is a system that brings together the best aspects of these apps and helps us achieve maximum impact. 

The Solution: The COD System

The system proposed is a 3 stage method for Collecting, Organizing and Doing (COD). It uses four free tools in combination to build a fast and thorough system.

  

Here’s How the COD System Works

In this system, you will start by listing down goals in Google Keep (make a separate card called goals), transferring them to a Google Sheet project tracker and breaking them into smaller pieces by month, week and day, using OneNote for detailed notes on the Google Sheet tasks where needed.

Then, fill up Google Keep every week for the next week’s tasks from Google Sheets in your weekly review (ideally on Friday on a separate Google Keep card called weekly) and use it for task based to dos (while using Google Calendar for time based ones). Coming back full circle, you’ll also use Google Keep to store any ideas that come up regarding any of your goals and offload them into google sheets at your weekly review.

These steps are detailed below

[Collection]

Step 1: List Down Goals and Capture Thoughts in Google Keep

Write down your goals in a “Goals” card in Google Keep to start off like below.

And as ideas come up regarding each goal, note them down in an "Ideas" card like below. Then offload these into your Google Sheet project tracker during your weekly review (more below).

[Organization]

Step 2: Transfer to Google Sheets

Transfer the goals from Google Keep to Google Sheet and name the file “Project Tracker”. Then create separate sheets for each of your projects like below (here’s a template to help you start off).

Step 3: Use OneNote for In Depth Notes

While Google Sheets is really good at organizing to dos, both big and small, it can’t handle images or large text bodies. So whenever you need to go deep, use OneNote (I don’t recommend Evernote because its freemium with a lot of restrictions on the free version).

[Doing]

Step 4: Get Weekly Plan into Google Keep

During your weekly review, take your to dos from Google Sheet and sort them by day into your Google Keep "Weekly" card as below.

Use this to execute on your tasks daily and adjust when needed (you can move the items up and down very easily, even on your phone). Also, use Google Calendar for time based tasks like meetings that are sensitive to when they have to be done. Otherwise you may forget.

Step 5: DO

Now that you have all your weekly tasks lined up, all you have to do is EXECUTE. Some days you won’t feel like doing it, but you have to push through and do them anyway, as former Navy Seal Jocko Willink puts it succinctly, Rome wasn’t built in a day. EVERY SECOND COUNTS.

Take a look for yourself. Intense stuff!!

Also, when you actually get to doing your tasks, if they require concentration, then apply the techniques of Deep Work pioneered by Cal Newport. Choose a quiet place and attack your problem with all you’ve got. It WILL give in to your campaign of torture and your brain will develop something called Myelin in the process that will help you master the thing you’re doing faster.

Here’s Newport on the TED stage

So now that you have the Collect, Organize and Do framework with you, you are able to boil down your long term goals into steps you can take right at this moment.

Getting COD Done!!

Execution Steps

The Collect, Organize, Do (COD) steps are summarized below:

Where You Can Go Next

Templates

• Google Sheet Project Tracker

Tools

• Google Keep
• Google Sheets OneNote Google Calendar

Books

• Getting Things Done Deep Work Discipline Equals Freedom book

Podcasts

• Jocko Podcast

Articles

• How Myelin Leads to Expert Performance
• Deliberate Practice 

Now off you go into the blessed arms of productivity :)

This article was originally published in Techonomics. A blog on strategies in career and business. For more strategic goodness, subscribe to our soon-to-be released newsletter, The Strategy Pill.