My productivity stack. How I get more done with a clean mind.

At the end of the day, little matter our skills and knowledge if we can’t properly organize our tasks. That’s why I put a lot of my focus on keeping my productivity as high as posible.

With the word productivity I mean nothing more than efficiency and effectiveness when completing the tasks I give myself, while maintaining a minimum level of stress (let’s be honest, there’s always some of it).

For some people, this can be achieved with nothing more than a to do list and some reminders, others need (or at least they think they need) a whole set of Notion pages with custom formulas and Airtable integration. There are a lot of systems and aplicable tips.

I go for the route of having several apps, each dedicated to a specific purpose. Each one excellent in it’s own field. So, I’m gonna show you the apps that form my personal and professional productivity universe, and also parts of the process, of the typical workflow I use. I hope you get good ideas 🤓.

Main tools

The base for everything. Joplin.

Purpose: Note taking, project planing, writing.

No, it’s not Notion or anything fancy like that that my system revolves and connects around, it’s Joplin. Eventually almost everything gets out of there, but it is the cradle of anything I do.

Joplin is a note taking app with Markdown support. It’s free, open-source, multiplatform and extremely customizable. What more can you ask?

Some examples of what you can do. The simple stuff: Note taking (with folders and tags) and synchronizing them across devices. The beautiful stuff: Install community created plugins, modify the very app’s looks with CSS, choose fonts, add custom icons to the folders, etc.

Notion. The ultimate repository.

Purpose: Project planning, project management.

I’m sure we all know Notion. The way I use it overlaps a lot with Joplin. Main difference is that a project only gets to Notion when it’s ready for execution. There, I finish the planning and organizing, and structure the project management.

On Joplin I jot down the primitive ideas, and organize them minimally, but when they have a full form, they go to Notion and finish cooking there.

That way I can organize much better, with the many functionalities Notion has, and the beautiful UI. Oh, and I can also generate and share a link that anyone can use to see my Notion project page. Neat.

Notion lets you do almost everything you need. I’m sure the day it implements native mind mapping it’ll take over the world, game over.

Gmail. No introduction needed.

Purpose: Email client (duh!).

I’ve been using Gmail for years, and I don’t see myself switching. The integration with other Google apps (which we’ll se later) and it’s good functioning and UI keep me comfortable.

Google tasks. For ALL my to do’s.

Purpose: To do’s, week planning, quick reminders.

I can’t picture a functional productivity system without a way to handle pending chores and create quick reminders on the fly. For that I use Google Tasks. It’s simple enough, and at the same time flexible enough for me to plan the whole week ahead there.

Though I sometimes use a dedicated tool, a lot of times I’m on the move, so I need the multiplatform side of it.

You might wonder why don’t I plan my weekly tasks on my calendar. Short answer is, I do. Google Tasks integrates with my calendar, so any task I add with a specific date and/or time gets added to it. It appears on both places with just one input by my part, cool!

Google Calendar. Secondary task manager.

Purpose: Visualize and manage tasks.

I guess the way I use the calendar is not standard. Rarely do I input something on it. Most times I open it (or glaze at it’s widget) is to see what is already added. If I ever add something is just, ironically, to have it saved on Google Tasks.

Toggle Track. Control my time and schedule.

Purpose: Time tracking, analyze how I managed my day.

This I’ve been using for a short time, but I’m already reaping the benefits. If I look at my Toggle stats for the day, and see that I have worked/studied for less than an hour, something goes off in my head and I, without hesitation, put to work on something relevant, just to not let myself down.

Like David Allen says in ‘Getting things done’, our tasks are commitments with ourselves.

Plus, it’s useful what I’m putting time into, and if it is adequate.

Secondary tools.

A brief mention for tools that i use frequently, but are not paramount for my productivity.

First, Raindrop, an app to save bookmarks, files, webs, anything. It’s like Pocket, but way better.

Second, Weje, for mind mapping. I know Mindomo and Miro, but Weje’s free plan is very generous, and mind mapping it’s not something I use often enought to feel like paying.

And third, Ora, a project management tool I use solely for job, not personal use.

Now that I sit down and write them all out, it sounds like a lot of tools. Perhaps I could achieve the same with less of them, taking advantage of the versatility. But I have a system that makes me comfortable and has so far given me good results, one that I have steadily improved over months of trial and error.

Personal productivity is a broad subject, and those of us who enter to know it’s guts often get hooked. A lot of times this tools and methods become a subject of study in themselves, a hobby, and one needs to be strong to avoid being distracted by using unnecessary stuff.

I’d love to read how you organize your own system. Perhaps you think you don’t have one, but you do, everyone does, despite it being more or less developed or efficient. Share it in the comments, or hit me at Telegram or Twitter, so I can get more ideas and tools to try 😎.