My Productivity System

First things first... Purpose.

For me, this is answering the question... why the heck am I here on this planet, at this time, in this place, with these people?

This is a tough one to reckon with... for me everything I do has to align with my purpose or it's not worth doing.

Next is... Hierarchy of values.

(This is a bit personal but, I think it's worth sharing for the sake of example)

1. God
2. Marriage
3. Family
4. Relationships
5. Health
6. Business

Prioritization of projects, tasks, and time is difficult. Each of the values has a personal definition for me but essentially when I get to the end of the road I want to look back and know that this is what I prioritized and I feel good about how I spent my time... and more importantly my energy.

After I have clarity on my purpose and a hierarchy of values, I can more easily figure out my next steps:

Mission, vision, goals.

These are pretty straightforward, but for someone like me I need to be on a mission, I need a vision of the future to keep me moving forward and to set specific goals or targets so I can assess my progress and chart the best possible path forward.

Everything to this point is foundational... I do believe it's the heart of doing great things and working on worthwhile projects.

Now onto more tactile parts of the system.

Planning & Review Meetings: Bi-weekly, Monthly, Quarterly and Annually.

No matter the project, proper planning is crucial. There are countless frameworks available but the key is to work backward from whatever target and get it down on paper... or in my case, I love using Notion.

Just as crucial is reviewing. Because 95% of the time things don't go as planned. But review meetings allow us a chance to self-reflect and reflect as teams to see what we did well, where we can improve, and keep us on track.

I like to break my planning / review into 2-week "sprints". I always felt like 1 week would come and go so fast, but 2-weeks seems like a reasonable amount of time to really move a project forward, and if there is proper planning it allows for less meeting time.

I split my 2-weeks into "A Week" and "B Week".

Because of the nature of my business, I have a lot of meetings. As a result, it can be difficult to get into “the zone” to work on projects or tasks that require a lot of uninterrupted focus.

So, A Week is my more meeting-heavy week. I schedule all my planning/review meetings on A Weeks. These are busier weeks and generally take more energy.

Then B Week is lighter on meetings, largely internal meetings and important or time-sensitive.

For both A Weeks and B Weeks I stack as many meetings as possible on Tuesdays & Thursdays. These are my “Push Days”. Meaning I’m usually starting earlier and ending later.

On Mondays, I will have some meetings but only in the afternoons. Same with Wednesday and Friday.

I try to keep my calendar clear on Wednesday to work on my list of tasks.

This is not only helpful for burnout… But it’s also predictable for my family. They know I will be starting earlier and probably working later on certain days.

Now, Task Management.

Again I’m using Notion for this but the key is the organizational structure.

For each task, I apply these labels:

• Project (client, internal, personal etc.)
• Priority (urgent - 24hrs, high 48hrs, normal 72+hrs)
• Size (xs, small, medium, large, XL - this has to do with time and complexity of the task)
• Time (Estimated in minutes)
• Status (Planning, To Do, Today, In-Progress, Waiting, Done)

At the end of each day, I take 10 minutes or so to review my tasks, make notes, prioritize them, and time-block my calendar for the next day.

This way when I show up to my family after work I can easily focus on those precious few hours before bedtime and be present.

This is a lot… And am I by no means perfect here… the goal is to have a framework and do my best to stick to it. If I don’t that’s okay. It happens quite often.

But I can’t tell you how much this system has changed my life for the better.

As a recap here are the key elements that make this work for ME:

1. Purpose - know why I am here.
2. Hierarchy of values - keeping me aligned and making decisions easier
3. Mission, vision, goals - Keeps me directed and excited
4. Consistent Planning & Review
5. 2-Week Sprints, with designated weeks and days of the week
6. Task organization
7. End-of-day recap & planning for the next day

Cheers to your fulfillment and productivity!

Dallas