There's a new productivity framework in town: The KEE system explained. → Free Notion template included

Our brain is for having ideas, not for storing them. David Allen cleared that up in Getting Things Done. However, our computers are also not for storing ideas, they’re for acting on them.

I believe that other productivity systems aren’t centered around optimal principles. Instead of areas, domains, or any form of strict categorization being at the system’s heart, I am convinced that processes and their outcomes should be.

Don’t get me wrong. GTD, PARA (Second Brain), and Bullet Journalling are amazing frameworks that help us compartmentalize and gain control of our busy lives. It’s certainly an improvement over disorder and chasing urgency. However, I'm making the case for an alternate approach that, first and foremost, is about effective action. It’s called the KEE system:

• Knowledge: persisting useful information that gets updated when new insights are encountered.
• Energy: the potential for action.
• Engines: constructions that channel energy into outcomes. Engines can take the form of workflows, processes, habits, and routines.

Benefits of the KEE system:

• It’s simple and lightweight. There are not many moving parts and no rigid rules to follow.
• It’s truly flexible and modular. Expandable and customizable by design.
• It’s not just about guiding your action, it’s about actively questioning and sharpening your intentions. The mantra is:

“Systems over goals is half gold half bs. Yes, systems are the thing that get you to goals repeatably. But, without a clear direction, a system is worse than useless. It will efficiently and sustainably lead you into no man’s land. Specifying intentions and desired outcomes is key.”

• Everything is organized by actions and their outcomes. Not, by categories and labels.
• The removal of redundant information is strongly encouraged. If you don’t have a use for the information, get rid of it instead of storing it in some never-to-be-seen-again black box.
• You save mental energy by creating an engine that defines your next steps instead of having to consider it individually.

How it works:

Break-down of Knowledge, Energy, and Engines:

Energy

When I say Energy, I don’t mean a metaphysical feeling you channel from within, I mean it scientifically. In physics, energy is the potential for actions and the fuel for your engine.

To ensure you truely have an overview and feel like you’re in control, it’s essential that everything you capture lands in one inbox. That means centralizing all sources, including your phone, computer, apps, websites, and notes.

It’s important not to be selective when capturing. An effortless flow of information minimizes friction and is far more efficient than constantly judging priorities. Acting on inputs as soon as they pop up is reactive, leaving you at the mercy of urgency. It robs you of the chance to consider whether this potential action aligns with your intentions.

Engines

We want energy to produce the results we want. To do that, energy follows a construction that transforms that energy into motion: an engine. An engine can be workflows, processes, habits, and routines.

An engine requires:

• A specific desired outcome
• A definition of the steps in the process (so you don’t have to spend mental energy thinking about what’s next each time)
• A scheduled cadence for when you’re going to run the engine

For each of your purposes, you create an engine. There are essential engines that we all use, and add-ons can be incorporated based on one's personal situation. It's even beneficial to explicitly specify your routines and habits outside of your system.

Here are some examples of all types of engines:

You create engines that produce results in alignment with your intentions. That also means that if the energy doesn’t have a clear engine to be assigned to, you simply discard it. Don’t be afraid to toss out information that isn’t useful. If something truely is important, it will pop back up. By keeping it lean, the system will run smoother and require less maintenance.

Extending the sentiment of minimalism, we also don’t just store information for the sake of neatly organizing it “in case we might need it later”. Information should only be stored if it’s already clear that you’ll have a concrete need for it later. For example, you can keep a library of marketing tools you find online because you know you’ll want to work on that next quarter. If energy isn’t conducive to our present goals and engines, we don’t store it in a backlog of endless “maybe-later-tasks”. That’s just another form of hoarding and unnecessarily weighing down the system. If you think an insight might be worth pursuing later, you can add it to the “planning” engine so it can be incorporated into your future goals.

That being said, an engine doesn’t have to be restrictive. It can be as simple as planning 8 hours a week to watch movies because that makes you happy and relaxed. The benefit of thinking in engines with specified purposes is that we also clarify what activities are not meaningful to us.

When working with the KEE system, Gall’s Law of System Design applies: each complex system has to grow out of a smaller system that works. Try out your engines for a while before adding new engines.

Knowledge

Energy doesn’t just get used in engines. It can also be absorbed into knowledge. Knowledge is straightforwardly defined as continued useful information. We use our knowledge to choose what to do. There are two main categories of knowledge:

• Self-knowledge about yourself (for example, your values, principles, beliefs, personality, and tendencies).
• Topical knowledge about reality (for example, investing, psychology, physics, and computer programming)

Our knowledge is persistent, but it certainly isn’t static. It updates when we encounter new information.

Sadly we don’t have the time and mental energy to update our knowledge for every bit of information that comes our way. That’s why we naturally filter a lot of things out. But, our computers can certainly empower us to harness more learning opportunities.

Capture insights, evaluate their relevance, and then link them to one of your existing knowledge items. Once you’ve linked knowledge items, you don’t need to absorb them immediately. That would be too restrictive and resource-intensive. Instead, you can create a task when you want to absorb the knowledge, or, even better, have an engine in place that systematically guides that process!

An example of knowledge absorption in action:

I had about 20 energy items linked to my “writing” knowledge item. Since I had to write a lot this quarter, I made it a weekly target of mine to create a summary of all these 20 energy items. After I had created this summary inside of the “writing” knowledge item, I marked all of the items as absorbed.

A practical KEE implementation to start from:

I created a basic implementation of the system inside of a Notion template. That includes a quick-start guide and several preset Engines (workflows). Get it for free here. I'd love to hear how you like it.

→ https://edwindoit.gumroad.com/l/kee