Allow me to jump right in. To best understand my productivity method, it is perhaps most helpful to imagine an unending sheet of paper, on which are listed the basic building blocks of a curated life:

1) Habits: These are the mechanical actions you perform throughout the day without thinking.

2) Routines: Routines are non-habitual, necessary actions you must perform everyday to keep your life on track and moving forward.  It may be most helpful to conceptualize Routines as the administrative tasks of a fulfilling life.

3) Tasks: These items are the classical to do list items.  Tasks have a simple priority system attached to them: critical, normal, and unimportant.  Further, tasks may be single or multi-step actions.  This distinction and its correct implementation are critical to actually doing those many items on your to do list.

4) Follow Up: This list contains all the items for which you are waiting.  Although it may seem counter-intuitive at this point, most "real work" is performed here, versus the Tasks list.  This is because almost every Task completed generates its own Follow Up item, and managing those pieces of digital stuff is vital to keeping everything under control.

5) Deferred Tasks: Tasks that are important to you, but are not immediately pressing are placed here.  This list facilitates peace of mind as you can be sure those itchy thoughts that sneak into your mind late at night are safe (and will actually lead to action).

6) Goals: Goals may be either informal or formal, short- or long-term, but must always be quantifiable, an appropriate level of difficulty, and congruent with your personal dreams.  The limits set here (discussed below) are as important as your Goals themselves, and may even be more so.  Limiting what you hope to accomplish on a large-scale focuses your efforts and leads to better decision-making.

7) Reference Items: Any item that is not trash (but non-actionable) belongs to the Reference list.  Reference lists may take the form of a simple sheet on which you have written a couple of important items to recall, or a complex database with thousands of tags.  This work will introduce both styles of capture and offer guidelines in choosing between the two.

DIGITAL VERSUS ANALOG TASK MANAGEMENT:

Each List's location is up to you.  You may find it helpful to have your Routines list written on a Post-It Note and placed on your mirror for easy review.  You may have a thick binder marked Reference holding 1,500 unique pieces of data.  Either are acceptable.  The distinction between a digital list versus an analog list, however, requires more exploration.

The principles espoused in this book apply equally to both digital and analog systems.  A tabbed Moleskine notebook, depending on your personality, may be the most appropriate choice for managing your responsibilities.  Or perhaps a complex program only available online is a better fit.  There are several distinct advantages to a purely (or mostly) digital system, however.

First, digital tools are future-proof.  The world is inter-connected, internet access is practically a commodity, and smart devices capable of easily tracking millions of items are available for no cost.  There is no tactile dopamine hit for marking an item off a digital list, however, but the benefits typically outweigh the disadvantages.  Second, capture on a smart device is often quick, easy, and accurate.  Carrying a pen and paper to constantly record your thoughts, ideas, and stessors is a hassle; personal automated assistants like Apple's Siri further make capture easier on a digital device.  Finally, digital tools are ever-expandable and connected to the cloud.  There is often no limit at all to a task management program, and the relief at never worrying about a missed appointment due to an instant back-up may prove well worth the effort to implement.

LIMITS:

Each List is either limited or unlimited.  The totals are not set in stone, however.  You may find that having fewer Routines, but more Habits, is a better fit for you.  This experimentation is welcomed; nonetheless, understand that the limits to each List are suggested for a reason.

HABITS: Limited to 3.  Habits are limited by mental energy and time.  The specific number 3 has two main rationales.  First, focusing on only new habits to build every day is much less mentally-stressful than attempting to shoe-horn items that belong on the Routines or Tasks list.  Second, those habits will rotate over time, ensuring that everything you believe should be a habit will be - eventually.

ROUTINES: Limited to 5.  Routines are limited by time.  Each set of Routines is for the morning only - do not create a list of Routines that cannot be done until 7 p.m.  The common result is that by the time 7 p.m. rolls around, you will have already done those Routines you deem most necessary, and ignored everything else.  But the entire purpose of the Routines list is to establish up front what is most valuable to you, and then remove those judgment calls precisely because everything on the Routines list should already be most important to you.

TASKS: Unlimited.  Tasks are always unlimited.  The Tasks list, however, will not grow too large.  First, priorities allow you to keep perspective on each task.  Second, the Follow Up list carries much of the weight of the traditional task or to do list.  This is because the concept of "work" can be understood as primarily collaborative.  This represents a broad shift in thinking from prior productivity methods: no longer is the paradigm that you retire to your closed office to work in silent, confident that you are on top of everything.

FOLLOW UP: Unlimited.  Although Follow Up items are always unlimited, this refers to the total number of items.  Sub-categories are appropriate here.  A professional versus personal list may be appropriate, or you may have 15 different projects that each require multiple items to be tracked separately.  This is completely acceptable.  The Follow Up list can also be thought of as the sum total of the energy you project into the world.  This claim is not metaphysical; the tactile burst of pleasure you receive from physically marking items off a To Do list can be replaced by having a large and constantly evolving Follow Up list.

DEFERRED TASKS: Unlimited.  Again, sub-categories are not only appropriate, but required here.  A common mistake is to fail to place deferred tasks into short-term and long-term.  Short-term items function as inactive tasks and are a convenient place to create an "on-deck" list.  Longer-term items, by contrast, may be only brief thoughts or practically undecipherable.  This is okay; the purpose of the Deferred (and Reference) lists are to be there when you need it, and fade into the background when you do not.

GOALS: Limited to 3.  Goals must be limited.  There are three reasons why your Goals list should never exceed three items: first, what you choose to list as your Goals will subconsciously dictate what you choose to dwell on, even when you are not aware you are doing it.  Second, the Goals you list function far more than as a simple guide to what you want out of life - they are who you want to be.  Finally, Goals allow for mental clarity as they give context to moments of unhappiness and doubt.  But this key benefit disappears when you have too many goals as the mental clarity afforded you for having three single targets fades or diffuses.

REFERENCE ITEMS: Unlimited.  Reference items are unlimited, though as the volume grows, more higher-level ordering may need to take place.  Sub-categories and a well-defined tagging system may be most helpful here.  Although discussed in more detail below, this reference system can be conceived of as "deep reference," so-called because the data exists much like a root structure for a tree - ever-expanding, interconnected, and vital to the survival of all above.

DOMAINS:

The final introductory concept is that of domains.  Domains are the type of task or item entering your system.  Consider a mailbox: the postman delivers any number of items every day.  Some of these items are valuable, such as letters from family or a check.  Some are annoying but necessary, such as bills or notices.  But a lot of these items - credit card offers, coupons, political advertisements - are just junk.  These letters may never even get opened before they are thrown into the trash.

Then consider an email inbox - the same situation emerges.  In essence, the task of sorting the mail or clearing your email inbox is, in fact, a two-step process.  First, you collect the materials.  Second, you process the items, ending with a smaller blob of items when you are done.  This smaller group of items then becomes part of your Task list, or To Do list, or whatever.  You attempt to keep up, but you just become another corporate tool, sorting, prioritizing, and starring your email, while the real work sits on your desk, untouched.

This is inefficient.  The first solution is to classify every Inbox in your life as either specified or unspecified.  Specified domains are when a list contains only and all of the necessary content.  An unspecified domain, however, is when a list must first be organized or pruned before the data can be extracted and used. An email inbox, a metal inbox on a desk for mail, and the Inbox you use for this Method are all unspecified.  Your Tasks, Routines, and Goals lists, however, are specified.  It is vital that you never attempt to work with an unspecified domain list, but only work on it.

This is not a minor point.  How often have you arrived at work, opened up Outlook and loaded all the new emails, only to find yourself reacting, rather than creating?  How often do you let files build up on your desk, until the mere thought of tackling that mountain fills you with terror?  The solution is simple: organize, then work.  This is not to suggest you follow the recent trend of never checking your email before noon or whatever.  Although a nice idea, the always-on world requires that you always be aware of what is in your email Inbox at all times.  The key, however, is to correctly organize each email into its Domain, and then begin working only after.

CHAPTER II: WHAT'S HOLDING YOU BACK?

MOTIVATION AND THE FOUR TYPES OF PEOPLE:

In general, there are four types of people.  Identifying which personality type you are is critical to ensuring you find fulfillment, because the forces of friction attach and attack the four types of people differently.

TYPE 1 - Only Intrinsically Motivated: This group of people are never capable of not getting things done.  They are always anxious, high-strung, tense, but hyper-productive.  They typically make the best natural decisions, e.g. cutting off alcohol after a couple of drinks or staying up late to finish their work.  Though it seems like this group has it made, the reality is that they fail to find the why behind their actions, such that it can often feel as though peers or society has made all the difficult decisions for them.  Though they may be great at checking off boxes, the focus in this work for these people is simple: make sure this group is on the right path in the first place.

TYPE 2 - Only Extrinsically Motivated: This group is always content to live and let live.  They are not concerned with constantly checking off items and may even forget the due dates to bills.  They tend to not be materialistic and instead value experiences.  This group is unique in the sense that they could truly take or leave a complex productivity suite - a lot of times, things are just good enough.  The challenge here is to impose greater order, while always checking to make sure the system does not become unwieldy.

TYPE 3 - Neither Intrinsically nor Extrinsically Motivated: This group is a tough one.  Society, culture, and media did not imprint on this group the necessity of either working for some deep inner belief or to meet an external standard.  This group typically "sets their own rules," or measures their success or failure by a personal yardstick.  This can be a group of prisoners, who are just surviving day-to-day, to a corporate lawyer who passes the days hiding in his office and trying to avoid work.  The goal in this work is not to fire up deep-seated goals and beliefs, but rather enable the user to more efficiently get the necessary things done, even if it means pushing past initial discomfort.

TYPE 4 - Both Intrinsically and Extrinsically Motivated:  This group is similar to Type 1, and often can only be distinguished based on their laurels from extrinsic sources.  This is that group of people that want to become cops so they can both protect the public and bring bad guys to justice.  These people are typically happy, because they have aligned their own internal desires and needs with the rewards society deems acceptable to grant.  This group may not need this work; if only we were all part of these rarified few!

Few people are always one or the other.  Instead, different activities may bring out different types of personalities.  A common example is the last year of law school.  Most law students are hard working and industrious and excited to be lawyers.  They work 18-hour days the first year to secure the highest accolades.  But those same students, by the third year, often sleep in and miss class.  The students did not change, but the extrinsic motivations (grades, getting a job), did, and thus only Type 1 and 4 truly excel during this time.   

It is not necessary to construct a complex spreadsheet detailing which type of personality you believe yourself to be for every aspect of your life.  It is enough that you understand your approach to your Goals, as that will set the techniques and methods mentioned later.

FRICTION:

It may seem unfair that even though you possess the most noble intentions, your productivity method of choice may actually be preventing you from accomplishing all you want to.  This is because every productivity method has points of friction, or areas where there is tension between the result you intend, the tools you need to use to achieve that result, and the framework you have created to manage those intentions.

As a simplistic example, consider a system that uses Gmail as an email client and a handwritten list of Tasks.  If you have the list of Tasks and are at a computer with internet access, you are able to accomplish the majority of those tasks.  Now imagine that you are at work, and left the handwritten list at home.  More difficult to accomplish the same amount of work, right?  The problem is compounded if the facility in which you sit has lost internet access.  Now you have no guide to what to do, and no way to do it.

Friction tends to take the following forms:

PHYSICAL: Physical friction may be requiring more energy to accomplish a task or needing to be somewhere specific.

CONCEPTUAL: Conceptual friction may take the form of being unable to figure out the process or steps required to accomplish what you desire.

STRUCTURAL: This friction may be lacking a degree necessary to get you your ideal job, or working too many hours at one position to truly work on other goals.

SOCIAL: This friction may be not knowing whom to contact to ask for advice or to help propel you forward.  It may be lacking the necessary contacts for the most exciting opportunities, or even not knowing whom to call for a Friday night happy hour.

MENTAL FRICTION: This friction is allowing insecurities, fears, doubts, or the lack of focus to dissuade you from moving forward.

This is a bold claim: mental friction is the only true friction on the list.  By overcoming mental friction, the rest of the forms are not friction at all: they are simply Habits, Routines, and Tasks building to your Goals.  Without Goals to guide your effort, however, the strength of the friction grows, until something such as the lack of a degree is nothing more than quicksand, pulling you down.

The first way to combat friction is to identify it by quantifying your success or failure on what you intend to accomplish.  This is discussed in greater detail below, but you must be aware of where you are struggling, and treat each failure as an opportunity to improve.  The second way to combat friction is to fully calm your mind.  This is because mental energy doesn't just track mental promises to yourself - that may be the most irritating and easiest to capture - but it also chews on something else: our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, hopes, fears, lusts, loves, and anxieties.

It is thus perfectly acceptable to write something as nebulous as "do laundry" in your Inbox.  Capturing that single thought preserves it for the future, allowing you to use that information when you need it, but not before.  Remember, however, that the Inbox is deliberately left unspecified, so it is quite all right to have a litany of tasks that make little sense to anyone but you.  Perhaps you will immediately delete "Check to make sure oven is turned off" once you remember, but the benefit that instantly accrues to your mental state is peace.

This quick overview is intended to allow you to begin understanding the conceptual pieces of productivity, to allow the tactile portion to be easier to implement.

CHAPTER 3: THE FAILED TO DO LIST WORLD

TOO MANY SYSTEMS, NOT ENOUGH TIME:

There are three principle task management systems in common use today.  The first is the Calendar/Email approach.  The second is the Cluttered To Do List, and the third is the Productivity Nut.  Each system offers advantages and disadvantages, but the secret is to find the system that most closely resembles what you currently use.    

Calendar/Email: The person that uses the Calendar/Email approach tends to stick with whatever works.  This group prefers function over form, and will typically stick to whatever is most comfortable.  They are the Wall Street guys still using Blackberries, the soccer moms bought into Apple's ecosystem, and middle-aged doctors using Android.  For this group, the productivity method is simple: capture only the external, enter it into the system, and then accomplish it when enough time has passed.  This group would benefit most from a minimal implementation of this Method, as they are unlikely to be the type of people who ever truly enjoy clearing out a cluttered email inbox.

Cluttered To Do List: This group uses a single To Do list, often cluttered with too many items and very little thought put into what each item specifically signifies; this group is far better at actually accomplishing the items on the list, rather then managing them.  This is a noble trait, but the danger here is the lack of priority leading the user to the wrong Goal and an inability to feel that everything is under control.

COMBATING FRICTION:

Tasks, emotions, and even dreams will all be captured, which reduces the friction of 1) struggling to focus through the noise and 2) attempting to suppress those things with which you do not feel fully equipped to handle right now.  The technique I call Flow will, as you'll see, hopefully reduce as much mental friction as possible.  For now, understand that friction is the great enemy, and everything you implement will remove as much friction as possible, so you can, you know, live.

TASK RECURSION:

One interesting facet of using productivity systems is "task recursion."  By this, I mean that in order to solve a problem of your current system (e.g. find way to set up better folders for email, add X to calendar, schedule that task later), you must first enter the task into the broken system.  This starts a chain reaction: you know you have to fix this piece, or that piece, so you enter it in to finish it later.  But the system in which you're storing it has several points of failure and creates friction, making it unlikely you will actually fix that piece, or, even worse, you will fix it, but break something else.  Then you start to chase piece after piece, until it all collapses, you burn it to the ground, and pledge to do better.  I did this for years, until I realized that what was happening was simple: our brains are not cars.  It isn't the case that when one pieces breaks (that email label is missing), we can patch it and move on.  That small item has been separated, isolated, and forever removed from the rest of the system.  It is a cub touched by humans.  The mother will not take it back.

This doesn't mean that when one thing breaks you have to immediately turn on the gas and light a candle, but just that each point of failure is so ensconced within a larger framework that a better metaphor is akin to a gun: it may just be the barrel or slide that need cleaning, but in the process of cleaning those areas, you strip every part and piece down to the smallest screw, then carefully arrange it back together.  It will be the same for your system.  When you start to feel something is not working, do not merely slap that piece of duct tape on it and walk away.  Wait for the Weekly Flow and analyze every piece.

PREWORK:

Not quite as pernicious as Task Recursion, failing to recognize PreWork is still a significant cause of friction.  PreWork can be defined as "tasks which are structurally built into other tasks."  A classic example of this is simple: imagine you have "Do laundry" as a Task.  This feels doable, easy, and something you can knock out quite easily during a Burst (discussed below).  But, the life of a law student requires that I use quarters to do my laundry.  So the task becomes, "Get quarters."  But I can't just get quarters, I have to have cash to exchange for the quarters.  So the task is "Get $20 cash."  This is closer, but location-sensitive, discussed below.

Because I need to get cash to get quarters to do laundry, the Task "Do laundry" is a Multi-Step Task involving two-three locations and can only be accomplished during certain time frames.  The PreWork at issue here is simple: I am powerless to truly do laundry, unless I handle a complex interplay of planning and achieving.

Consider also that you want to purchase a song on iTunes.  This is also location-sensitive, and doesn't feel like it involves PreWork.  After all, you sit at your computer, pop open iTunes, find the song, and click download.  But a box pops up asking for your password.  And you enter it from memory.  Or, you need to find the password, creating a Task.  But even more importantly, the PreWork here is hidden.  This task actually looks like this:

1. Sign up for iTunes account.

2. Store iTunes password somewhere safe.

3. Attach debit card to iTunes Store to make purchases.

(Has the debit card expired? Have you moved?)

4. Pay electric bill.

5. Pay internet bill.

6. Charge laptop.

7. Log in to computer.

(Have you forgotten your password?)

8. Buy the song.

Okay, you might be saying.  This is crazy.  If my internet isn't working, I'm going to be on the phone trying to get it back, not helplessly clicking "Buy" on a song on a page that won't load.  Fair enough.  But hear me out.

Just because you may not conceive of these as Tasks for this particular Task, they are.  They are necessary conditions for this to work.  And, to thrust a little Hume at you, just because things that have occurred in the past (the internet = on), is no guarantee they will be the same in the future.

Now, I am not suggesting that you must map out these 8 steps or something similar for every little Task you attempt to accomplish.  That is absurd.  What I do believe, however, is that you must be aware that the PreWork for this task is historical: it is getting all this going.  And understanding that it is key for two reasons.

First, it allows you to mentally calculate points of possible failure.  That possible failure is easy to prevent: by other Tasks.  So, in this example, the Routine of "Pay internet bill" is enough to disallow friction in this particular case.  Likewise, the Ingrained Habit of "Remember computer password" is also enough to disallow friction.  Nor do I think it is even necessary to conceive of the other predicates, such as "have the money for the song" and "make sure like song" and "make sure have enough storage space to house song," etc.

In the prior example, it is of vital importance that I get cash to get quarters to do my laundry.  But, as I'm sure is intuitive to you, it is not so vital that I write down log in to computer.

The way to separate the two is simple:

1. Necessary PreWork (a literal before step of the task. This must be tracked and given exactly as much attention as anything else, and for achieving true mastery, the focus will be to remove any PreWork).

2. Historical PreWork (Accepting this as PreWork helps to 1) identify points of possible failure and 2) establish the point at which the Task and PreWork separate)

Surprisingly, the best way to combat PreWork is to allow it to appear, and then trace the discontent.  The laundry example is actually trite; it is far harder to imagine the vital PreWork involved in planning, hosting, and enjoying a cocktail party.  The PreWork there is legion, such as "get and keep friends," and this PreWork pops up in the decision-making process of whom to invite.

The rule of thumb is: Necessary PreWork gets tracked and Historical PreWork gets remembered.

DOMAINS:

An insight I had in my own attempts to implement various systems is that there are several inherent problems with the To Do List.

First, to do's tend to not be very focused.  They are more aimed at triggering the real work of what you are about to do, so a list like:

1. Email Fred

2. Buy two cans of soup

3. Lose weight

4. Prep house for winter

5. Call Tina about party Thursday

is clearly a mess.  Among the many sources of friction are:

1. Failing to account for the PreWork of "having Fred's email address"

2. Being at the grocery store

3. This is unquantified

4. This is a hidden Multi-Step Task

5. PreWork

Now, in an attempt to illustrate my insights, here is a list using David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology:

1. @Computer Email Fred at freddie @ aol.com re: whether I  should attend funeral

2. @Store Buy two cans of chunky noodle soup

3. #LoseWeight @Computer Research 5 possible diets

4. #WinterPrep @Home Empty sprinklers

5. @Phone Call Tina at 555-555-5555 re: whether I should bring chips or dip to party

Here is Personal Kanban:

BACKLOG DOING DONE

Email Fred Call Tina Research 5 diets

Buy cans of soup Empty sprinkler

The first to do list is a mess.  The Getting Things Done setup is clearly delineated by Context and the tasks have been modified to make them more easily accessible.  They are more delegable and clear.  The same is true of Personal Kanban: I will not worry about buying cans of soup until I have called Tina, and thus I feel little to no mental stress.

But there is still friction.  The lists fail to tell me anything about priority, the time necessary to complete the tasks, the energy level required, why I need a "Phone" and "Computer" context when my phone is a computer, where I put items that aren't due immediately, etc.  But the biggest problem is simple: these are different types of tasks, intending to accomplish different things, and are plagued by different frictions.  Grouping them together is no more helpful than attempting to remember it in your head.

One key thing to notice about the list is that "Lose weight" would be treated as a project in other systems.  You imagine the end result, map out the steps, and slowly complete them until voila, you have lost weight.  But that isn't correct.  Losing weight is a function of multiple things:

1. Habits (Eat more vegetables)

2. Routines (weekly weigh ins)

3. Tasks, (Google research diets)

4. Goals (Lose 15 pounds in 3 months)

HABITS - Limited

Habits are almost mechanical processes that become so ingrained that over time they are part of you. Putting on a seatbelt when getting in the car, brushing your teeth, shaving, etc.

ROUTINES - Limited

Routines are recurring tasks that are necessary to be a functioning member of society.  This includes things like checking email, your calendar, taking your dog on a walk, cutting your nails, etc.

TASKS - Unlimited

These are tasks that are "one and one."  This includes drafting that email to that new client, putting together the report, calibrating an HDTV, buying a can of beans, etc.

GOALS - Limited

These are the ambitious, private desires you have always had.  This includes things like becoming a bestselling author with $10 million in the bank, becoming CEO of a Fortune 500 company, becoming an astronaut and colonizing the moon, or writing a computer code that proves the existence of God.  They are outlandish, foolish, absolutely silly, and you will get one, maybe two of them.

THE DOMAINS CONNECT:

HABITS > > > GOALS

Habits directly reinforce Goals.  As an example, consider the "Lose 15 pounds in 3 months."  There are many habitual things that would enable one to better become a marathoner.  Perhaps the most obvious is exercise.  I've heard it said that it takes 66 days to ingrain exercise as a habit.  So, decide on what date you will begin, and put the end date 66 dates out in your calendar.  By that point, exercise will be a Habit, and push you closer to your Goals.

ROUTINES > > > GOALS

Routines support Goals, though not in as directly a sense as the Habits > > > Goals paradigm.  Instead, tailor your Routines slightly to each Goal.  As an example, your Goal is "Lose 15 pounds in 3 months."  As a Routine, you may choose "Track calories at breakfast," or "Weigh in every week."  The point is that the actions you take daily will not launch you towards your Goals, but allow you to steadily move yourself closer to the target.

TASKS

Tasks, to some extent, are the linchpin of the entire system.  They function as the glue which holds everything together.  First, Tasks are the building blocks of Routines and Goals.  Routines and Goals can be conceptualized as shorter and longer tasks, respectively, but the best way to handle tasks is to work through them, rather than engaging them in an extended period of time.  That is because action is the proper antecedent here: everything in this system is designed to reduce friction precisely so you don't have to think about your tasks; you just get them done.

THE DOMAINS ARE LIMITED OR UNLIMITED

There is always a tension between limiting the work necessary to achieve a goal and thereby increasing the odds of that work getting done, versus having no limits on the work and making management more difficult, but the ultimate solution more cohesive.  This problem has been eliminated by allocating harsh restraints for certain Domains, and no restraints for others.

HABITS = 3

Each Habit must connect to a Goal.  No Habit is so vital that it is worth becoming mechanically ingrained in your body and yet does not help you, in some fashion, reach your Goals.

SAMPLE HABITS:

1. Save 10% of income in cash every month

2. Jog for 30 minutes every morning

3. Brush teeth and shave every night

4. Take dog on daily walk

5. Say "I love you" to spouse daily

6. Read 15 minutes of financial/entertainment/etc. news

7. Quit smoking

8. Moderate drinking

9. Lead team in 15-minute stand up

ROUTINES = 5 (Daily), Unlimited (Weekly/Monthly)

Routines are limited solely because there is limited time in the day.  It makes little sense to spend 90 minutes every morning working through 30 different things, when the real action needs to be allocated to your Tasks.  These items are not mechanical - feel free to engage them, enjoy them, or dread them.

SAMPLE ROUTINES:

1. Pick up house

2. Cut nails

3. Take pills/medication

4. Feed kids/pack kids' lunches

5. Take trash cans to curb (weekly routine)

6. Pay car insurance (monthly)

7. Register car (yearly)

8. Meet with Jack and Amy for drinks (weekly)

9. Make menu (daily/weekly/monthly)

TASKS = Unlimited

Unlike Habits and Routines, there is no telling what you are going to have on your plate when it comes to Tasks.  This is just fine: the busy CEO may have 500 things on his Tasks list, whereas the college student may have 5.  Or it could be reversed.  The result is the same: do NOT worry about how many tasks you have.  That is handled in the Daily and Weekly Flow.

Tasks can also be scheduled, wherein they exist on a separate list from your active Tasks and only pop up in the Daily Flow.  This is perfectly acceptable.

SAMPLE TASKS:

1. Email Thomas re: meeting next Saturday

2. Draft the Stern Report

3. Call Becky re: brewery tour

4. Google "best windshield wiper" for CRX

5. Vacuum closet

6. Buy three rolls of toilet paper (to confuse spouse)

7. Refill the soda machine with Dr. Pepper

8. Choose movie to watch tonight

GOALS = LIMITED

As discussed below, outrageous benefits accrue when you limit your Goals to 3.  It's perfectly fine to have less, but only add more if you are sure you are capable of allocating the proper care and attention to each.

SAMPLE GOALS:

1. Weigh X weight

2. Have $10,000 in emergency checking account

3. Go to Paris for anniversary

CHAPTER 4: RETHINKING YOUR EMAIL AND CALENDAR

EMAIL:

The common metaphor for email is that of a mailbox, in which everything from vital notifications and glossy junk mail enter indiscriminately.  There is no filter.  Email begins to resemble a countertop, piled high with bills.  The intuition that the most common system for managing email - attempting to clear your inbox, flagging or starring a few emails, then giving up - is commonly met by several techniques that attempt to solve this friction.

First, productivity gurus tell you to never check your email in the morning.  The concern is that you will replace real work with "busyness."  Forcing yourself to wait until the afternoon may indeed allow you to get more done in the morning, but at great mental cost.  The reality is that even if you shut off all notifications, never open your email app or program, and solemnly swear you will not check it, you will still want to.  That desire has to be controlled.  That exertion of self-control burns you out and does absolutely nothing to reaching your Goals.  Because the ultimate goal is fulfillment, and reaching your personal fulfillment will require a near-constant use of self-control to accomplish your Habits, Routines, Tasks, and Goals, the friction in forcing yourself to keep away from email is not worth the mental effort.

Swinging to the other side, however, is advice to slice and dice your email into smaller, more manageable pieces, e.g. creating a folder or 20 for every conceivable topic or date or person.  The process then becomes, check email in the morning, process the emails into the various folders (feeling fantastic about deleting that spam), then respond and store the rest, perhaps using a flag or starring system to mark tasks that are especially important.  Then Outlook or Apple Mail or Gmail sits open, with desktop notifications interrupting your work and requiring you to sort, identify, and think about all the data being flung at you.  Email management experts are quite right in suggesting that taking this control over email is a way for you to reclaim your own workflow, but there are three problems with this system.

First, email is a non-controllable flow.  Emails stream in separate from your control, and should thus be considered a source of mental friction and treated quite harshly.  Second, email sits in the Unspecified Domain.  As a result, it requires that first step to specify a Domain for each item.  This, too, requires mental effort, depleting self-control and creating friction (that one email that you don't know what to do with).  Finally, email is an non-ideal tool.  You are limited to substantial amounts of PreWork in order to use a complex email system well, such as making sure your Contacts are sorted and identified correctly, everything is configured properly, and your signature has that perfect blend of professionalism and rakishiness.

Also, haven't you spent hours writing emails, refreshing, sorting, working, and then realized when it was all over that all you did was have 300 snail-mail like conversations with 300 people, and have nothing to show for your effort? 

SOLUTION:

To fix the common problems with email, you must first fix the metaphor.  Email is not a digital replica of your snail mail box.  Instead, imagine email as walking down a busy street, with various people shouting things at you.  From this metaphor, you can begin to realize where your attention should lie.

First, you wouldn't stop walking down the street unless a family member came up to you with startling news or your boss ran you down and shouted an urgent request he needs right away.  You don't think about the buskers throwing pamphlets at you, or the guy holding the newspaper you never read.  You ignore - mentally disallow friction - from almost everyone on the street.

Email is the same.  You must accept that the evil of PreWork make email not worth your time or attention. But, in reality you must use email, though the workflow for email is quite simple:

Step 1: Receive notifications for every email.

It is true that notifications being shut off will allow you to focus more on uninterrupted work, and after a couple of weeks, you may be able to ignore the mental stress caused by having to manually refresh your inbox.  But I use the "email as street" metaphor deliberately.  You cannot determine who decides to flag you down.  That is not something you can or should control.  But you can utilize your limited pool of self-control to:

Step 2: Get rid of the email immediately

By "get rid of," I mean deleting or archiving.  I would recommend archiving everything instead of deleting it, including junk mail, because although it's unlikely your life will depend on a pizza offer you received four years ago, do you really want to take that chance?

There are only a few actions you can do with an email:

1. Archive (junk mail, notifications that are of little importance)

2. Reply (tell John that yes, Friday night works.  NB: this includes Forward)

3. Store (I'll need that list in two weeks, but not now)

4. Generate (this email sparks another Task or Objective I need to put together)

Mapping this out, it becomes clear that the majority of the time you will be archiving mail.  For Generative or Reply/Forward emails, you have two choices: 1) enter the generated Domain into your system or 2) enter that you need to generate that Domain into the system.  However, do not use option 1).  Entering the Domain, whether a Task or Objective, into the system at this point is a mistake.

First, you may be in a place to better understand the ramifications and angles of the particular Domain in your Flow.  Second, the goal is to only use your self-control for one thing during your work time capturing.  Depleting any of that self-control on identifying the Domain of the email is wasted energy.  Finally, you will slowly erode your Habit of correctly creating items in the Domains, and that will ultimately produce mental friction down the line.  It will be tempting, particularly early in this Habit, to reply "because it just takes a second."  Fight this impulse.  Your recipients would rather you actually wrote that report while focused, then spending 10 minutes working through all the details of that email, than dashing off a haphazard response.  Plus, you will struggle with Follow Up as well, as you then end up entering Follow Up data into your Inbox anyway.

For emails that you need to Store, rather than Domain generating, star or flag the email and move it immediately out of the iInbox.  It is safe in there.  It is easily searchable.  It is still present, just creating no friction until you need to use it.

That's it.  It is a simple process giving you a constant Inbox Zero without any marathon deleting sessions.  The benefits to this system are huge, as you greatly reduce friction in your workflow.

One last piece of advice: keep your email app minimized and out of the way, but with desktop or phone or tablet notifications enabled.  Again, you should envision yourself walking down an empty street, calm, until someone whispers in your ear.  After you have entered the information into your Inbox, you return to your calming Inbox Zero and practically forget you possess such a noisy machine.

CALENDAR:

At first glance, your calendar seems a vital, but practically uninspiring tool.  You need to do things on a certain day or certain time, you enter them into your calendar, and then your calendar app tells you what to do, when.  And there is actually very little to say about this process, except to make sure you are correctly utilizing the calendar.  To do that, you must understand why the calendar helps reduce friction, how it can cause friction, and how to structure your calendar use correctly.

Calendars reduce friction, obviously, by reminding you of certain responsibilities that you should selectively forget until such a point that the information is useful.  They also allow you to remind yourself of Tasks far down the line, but they also possess another, little used function: they quantify time.

It wasn't always this way.  Most consumer calendars were structured in 12-month increments, with small dates for a couple years thereafter.  But digital calendars do more: they allow you to travel practically centuries, with the same format and mental awareness granted to today.  Although a morbid thought, the calendar you use right now has a day and time - a moment - set aside for your death.

Using this technology to expand your view months and years and even decades is a worthwhile use of the calendar.  There is no friction, as you set the time in which to engage your future.  But this is, in fact, a fantastic way to conceive of your life.  In the section below (fair warning), you will enter your birthdays, your anniversaries, your dog's birthdays, whatever you want to celebrate year after year, for as long as you think appropriate into the calendar.  It is my hope that during that process you will feel that time is not unlimited.

But, in a happier spirit, here are the do's and don'ts of proper calendar usage:

DO:

1. Enter the time, exactly, for each appointment at which you must be present.

2. Use only one color.  This is perhaps controversial (how stunning is it when Apple shows their iCal app in glorious brown, red, and green!).  But managing colors, choosing colors, and setting events in the correct colors causes - you guessed it - friction.

3. Quickly assess commute times and put that, as a separate event, bookending your events.  Failing to adequately prepare for your commute causes friction, and your commute is an appointment, just as much as any other.

4. Schedule your Daily and Weekly Flow.

5. Schedule time for your Habits and Routines.

6. Schedule "free time" or relax time or entertainment time.  This is not to say that every minute of your day should be completed booked.  Instead, there should be events in the morning, open space in which you can place Bursts (discussed below) or Work, and then scheduled relax time in the evenings.  It may be the case that you have little or a lot of this free time, but don't worry if you under or over-utilize.  That isn't the point.  The point is to remind yourself every morning that there are defined moments in your day, and one of them is having a damn beer and watching TV.  You are human, and optimal effectiveness requires that you relax.

7. Cheat.  Remember that thrill you felt as a child when school was canceled?  It wasn't only that you didn't have to go to school, but the sense that what was planned, is now unplanned.  That small freedom meant the world.  Feel free to throw up your hands every now and then and ignore something.  Probably best not to do it with court dates, though.

DO NOT:

1. Enter speculative events or tasks.  It feels great in theory - oh look, I am putting this Task in two weeks, and I will get it done at that point - but you won't, or if you do, the friction cost is too high for the calm it provides.

2. Underestimate time.  It may be tempting to create a locked down schedule, to give yourself the illusion that you are busy and really working, but that is not necessary.  You will only be checking your calendar once a day, so don't worry.

3. Allow others to fill up your precious time with requests.  It is inevitable that you don't possess full control of your time (if you do, go sail around the world and put this book down), but your goal is to align those requests into as few moments a week.

4. Cheat too much.  The system works, but requires daily upkeep.  Feel free to let your hair down, so long as you don't lose your scrunchie.

For optional advice, try this: set a notification 15 minutes before an event.  This may, depending on the person, create friction, but I've found that being aware of what's next actually reduces friction because I'm free to fully devote myself to my Bursts or Work.  Also, if you use shared calendars with family, friends, or work, convince them to set up a single calendar for yourself and one for them.  There should be no commingling of events, because there is no commingling of bodies or minds.  If there is an event at which you and your spouse must both be present, go ahead and enter it into both calendars.  The result is the same, and outside of a few awkward moments when you click to show their calendar, it won't be an issue.  As Flow allows friction, don't worry about needing to sort out what events belong to whom or whether you should be there.

Finally, consider turning optional tasks gray.  There are events at which you must be present, or face dire consequences, events at which you want to be present, but are not required to be, and events that you might be expected to be at, but you really just don't want to go.  One possible way to handle this is to put everything into your calendar, and then determine what needs to stay during your Weekly Flow.  For events that seem interesting during the Weekly Flow, but for which you change your mind during the week, go ahead and remove them during the Daily Flow.  Although this is a workable system, I prefer turning all the optional events light grey (or a light color, so as to make them fade into the background), and then assessing them on a day-by-day basis.  That way, there is little friction (your calendar still feels solidly tied to true appointments), and you possess the freedom to either accept or reject the opportunity depending on that particular day.

The last way to handle optional events is to schedule them into your Scheduled Tasks.  This isn't a bad idea, as it disallows friction related to the calendar, but I worry that PreWork slips into the the management of the event because you first must decide whether to go to the event, and then schedule it, and then review it. The Flow stage allows for friction, so experiment (or seek to find the answer).

EMAIL AND CALENDAR:

As may be obvious, you will be spending little time in your email and calendar.  This varies by profession (an executive responsible for the management and delegation of multiple Goals may find himself or herself spending hours coordinating), but so long as the time spent in email is spent after the Daily Flow and Domains have been assigned, this is completely fine.  Likewise, pulling out the calendar in the middle of the day to gauge a particularly packed night is not friction-creating.  It is, in point of fact, the opposite, as it allows for less friction in handling those events at their scheduled time.

Do not create multiple calendars or folders for your email.  The point is not to get better at organizing Unspecified Domains by throwing every email into a million folders.  The point is to actually work on what matters to you.                                                                                 

THE FOLLOW UP:

Every time you complete an action, you create an immediate task.  That task is to ensure that you follow up on the prior task, but it is not something you can do immediately.  But placing a trigger task on a Follow Up list ensures that when it is time to remind someone about that task, the reminder bubbles to the surface.  As a result, the process of drafting an email becomes drafting an email, adding an entry to the Follow Up list, assigning the Follow Up task to active when it appears, and beginning the process over again.

There are two types of Follow Up tasks.  The first is exactly that: an item on which you must follow up.  This presumes you have power to effect change, e.g. your email two weeks later must actually have the potential to spur action on behalf of the recipient.  These items are the typical workflow kinds of tasks, such as:

1. Drafting a memo which needs revisions

2. Asking for professional or personal help

3. Setting plans for events to occur at a later date

The time frame to assign to these reminders varies, but should be shorter rather than longer.  For example, for a legal memo, reaching out after 48 hours may ultimately prove more helpful than waiting a week, and suffering the consequences.

CONCLUSION:

This brief overview is designed to introduce you to the key concepts and techniques that will be put into action in the next section.  You may be confused, overwhelmed, or bored.  That's okay - the point is not to do anything at this point, but mentally prepare for the next section.