How I improved my Productivity
In this article I want to share with you some useful tips, in my opinion, to improve personal productivity. Before that, I would like to give you some context, spending a few words about my journey in “this world” and about the tools I met and used.
My Journey into Productivity (so far)
Since I was 8, I’ve been used to organize my work according to a method. Obviously, at this age “the work” is translated as “some homework”, but you know, every age has its own challenges.
Since my mother couldn’t follow me and help me with my homework, on Fridays she used to prepare checklists for me, for Saturday and Sunday. This way, since I was a child, I learned about the concept of deadlines and organization.
Naturally, years later the priorities and the needs changed, so the tasks and the tools I decided to use for my productivity. For example, when I was in high-school I used a simple application called “School-Diary” that allows to me to categorize and divide homeworks, tests and marks by subject. This way, all of this allowed me to be punctual with deadlines, plan my workload effectively, and see my performance.
After this period, when I started managing my Airsoft Team’s social networks, I came in touch with and I started using Asana. With this tool I learned the concept of dividing the work in multiple subtasks to make it easier (to create a post you need to follow various steps) and I consolidate as well, the skills to plan, set and respect a weekly schedule.
If I have to be honest, I found these tools fantastic! both for what they allows you to achieve, both for what I’ve learned using them. However, if I have to choose the one that truly captivated me among all of them, the one that fuels my passion for productivity and drives me to delve deeper into productivity concepts, it is Notion (which I came to know slightly after Asana).
What is Notion?
If I had to describe it in a few words, I would say that Notion si an application that allows to you to manage your personal Wiki, the Documentation and most of all, the management of your personal or work’s tasks.
In my opinion, its true power lies in the fact that you can build your page from scratch using MarkDown commands but completely no-code, or start from templates.
There is also to say that it’s not all “sunshine and rainbows”, and that usually the first approach is not one of the best. Why? Because despite his power, this application is not very user-friendly, until you don’t get the logic that lies behind. I would like to talk about this aspect, also beacuse there would be a lot to say. But not in this article. If you’re interested in learning more about Notion, please let me know by leaving a comment, and I’ll prepare an article on the topic.
Some Tips for your Productivity
If you’re considering creating a page on Notion or simply finding a way to manage your productivity, you might have some doubts about which elements to consider and include. Even if it’s challenging, I’ll try not to take too many aspects for granted, by attaching an image, explaining the purpose of each element and briefly how they can be created using Notion. So, in my opinion, for an effective organization, it’s essential to have:
- A Task List: A section dedicated to all your tasks/commitments, labeled by Topic and with a Priority level. This way, you will not only understand which task takes precedence but also to which category it belongs. If we want to stick with Notion, I recommend creating this element as a Table (using the /Table View command). After creating a new database, you can unleash your creativity and add the properties. Respectively: ‘Date’ (of type Date), ‘Priority’, ‘Status’, and ‘Topic’ (of type Select).
- A “Notebook” section: This one will be dedicated to all your notes, divided by Topic too. This way, when you’re going to search it, you will find them more quickly!
In this case, I recommend creating a List (using the /List View command) and at least one property dedicated to the topic of the page (of type “Select”). To avoid pages getting mixed up, you can choose the grouping type of pages (“Group” option) by clicking the “Three Dots” near the “New” button. This determines how they are divided. To achieve the result shown below (which I just mentioned), simply select the property that specifies the topic of the page.
- A “Daily To-Do” section: Being well-organized has its advantages, but having a table that shows only today’s tasks will provide even more benefits. Imagine having a busy week with a lot of tasks. Looking at the list, stress would skyrocket. However, thanks to this filter, you can live day by day, focusing only and exclusively on today’s tasks. About it, Sir William Osler said:
The day of man’s salvation is now. Waste of energy, mental distress, nervous worries dog the steps of a man who is anxious about the future. … Shut close, then the great fore and aft bulkheads, and prepare to cultivate the habit of life of “day-tight compartments”
In the end, this is a table that shows only the tasks with date “Today”. So, to create it, you just need to insert a new table with the “Task List” as the data source and a Filter on the Date (option available from the usual “three dots” next to the “New” button).
- A Calendar and/or a Timeline: Probably you you took it for granted, but these two elements play a key role in the representation of the workload. These don’t show only “how much” we have to do, but also “when”. Differently by the “Task List” before mentioned, these are not lists, so they allows to us to have a better view (graphically) in the time frame.
- An “Archive” section: I really like this section, and personally, I find it useful because it allows us to save only the tasks that we consider to be the most important and that may need to be referenced later. This to avoid them getting lost in the chaos of the general Task List or Calendar. In short, it’s a section for “Privileged Tasks” 😂.
Guess what? Exactly! In this case as well, the data are taken from the “Task List” but with a particularity: only the pages with the “Status” set to “Archived” should be displayed.
I realize that if you’re not familiar with Notion, these explanations may appear incomplete or superficial. For this reason, if it can be helpful, I will be writing an article soon on how to build a simple page step by step (so make sure to follow me to not miss it 👀).
That said, back to the main topic, it’s obvious and I think that everyone can agree, that the organization is personal and varies from person to person, depending on their needs. These elements I just listed, are the ones that I personally consider essential for a well-organized system.
How do I organize myself?
Essentially, I limit myself to using two pages:
1) For Personal Productivity. Here, beyond the elements before mentioned, there are other pages as the Habit Tracker to consolidate new and good habits, the Financial Tracker to track economic incomes/expenses, the Wish List to write down desired objects and many other pages. If you’re still interested, I want to let you know that the template is publicly available on Gumroad under the name “Productivity Assistant”.
2) For Work Productivity. In a more “professional” format, with additional elements focused on time management concepts such as the Pomodoro Timer (which I will discuss further in a themed article) and workload management, like a Timeline and a Weekly Check-list.
In this case as well, the template (“Work Board”) is available for free on Gumroad.
Conclusions
That’s all for this article. I hope you found these tips helpful. Let’s remember that organization is personal, so if you adopt a different method or have other advice to share, I would be glad to read them. Stay tuned for upcoming articles on productivity, so if you don’t want to miss anything and you’re passionate about the topic, like me, follow me here on Medium and on Gumroad for the upcoming Templates.
APPRECIATION SECTION
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