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Do you know why you are drawn to productivity information and apps, and the technology that drives much of it?
Imagine for a moment that you’re as productive as it’s humanly possible to be.
Your day is effortlessly time-blocked, and all your tasks are done in the right order, ahead of time. You never miss a deadline or let anyone down.
In this ideal situation, you’ve arrived; you’re at the height of productivity! Congratulations. As you stand there with the world at your feet, what can you see from the peak? Why did you climb the productivity mountain in the first place?
Above are excerpts from a piece I wrote back in 2022, called How to Stop Obsessing Over Apps and Embrace the Right Kind of Productivity. It explores why we want what we want and do what we do, and whether or not it’s possible to indulge in a little new-app-wonder from time to time without losing focus on what’s most important.
If your Why is feeling a little shaky, I highly recommend doing the deep work to discover what it is (like, what it really is, not what you think it is). Dr. Kara Monroe is someone to watch in this space (website).
It delights me to report that thought capturing, note making, and idea exploration is as strong in my plain text environment of choice (Markdown; mostly Obsidian) as it ever was. Yay! I was starting to wonder if I would end up pulling away from the digital completely, now that paper is featuring more prominently in my life management system.
I love the idea of plain text so much, it’s a real relief that this is not the case!
Instead, now that I’m clearing my brain and capturing thoughts as they occur on paper rather than digitally, my date-based text files are a quiet, dependable resource rather than a constantly referred to core of everything.
They are now a source of truth in my personal knowledge management system, not the source of truth. And this feels right.
What Ryder Carroll (Mr Bullet Journal himself) says about notebooks, can apply in equal measure to whatever system you have chosen; digital or analog or both —
Our notebook serves as a mental sanctuary where we are free to think, reflect, process, and focus.
Finally feeling that my system is a “safe playground” for my mind, where I’m “completely free to express [my]self without judgment or expectation” is how I know I’m doing it right, and how you can, too. (Quotes are from The Bullet Journal Method book, which is currently free to read for Amazon Prime subscribers)
As an aside, grammar geeks might be interested in this explanation why the unusual structure of the the heading “Perfect Productivity Doth Not a Happy Person Make” is acceptable English.
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