Productivity Systems — Notes

Goal Setting

• Divide goals into specific areas of life (school, finances, career, health, hobbies, personal development)
• Write goals as specifically as possible with numerical values and timelines
• Create a general action plan; write out the habits you need to practice every day/week

To-Do List Planning:

• Spend an hour on the weekend to list all important tasks for the week. Fill calendar with non-negotiables first, then map “free time” to specific tasks.
• Before bed, finalize the next day — determine the 1–3 big tasks and when you’ll do them. Pre-assigned schedule eliminates decision fatigue.

Keep environment clean: Phone out of sight. Focus playlist (EDM instrumental / ADHD playlists). Water, coffee, lip balm in arm’s reach.

Tackle tasks in bite-sized amounts: Two-minute rule — if you can do it in 2 minutes, do it immediately. Force yourself to do a task for 10 minutes only; usually you’ll keep going.

Pomodoro: 25-minute blocks with 5-minute breaks for repetitive/administrative tasks.

The Goal Stack: Strategic Map

• Level 1: Long-Term Vision (3–5 Years) — clear, compelling statement
• Level 2: High-Level Objectives (1 Year) — major milestones
• Level 3: Quarterly Goals — what to accomplish in 90 days
• Level 4: Weekly Goals — concrete outcomes this week
• Level 5: Daily Goal-Directed Actions — the 1–3 critical tasks today

At any moment, you can trace your immediate task to your ultimate vision.

The Goal Flywheel (Weekly Momentum Engine)

90-minute Sunday appointment:

1. Review your Goal Stack (top-down)
2. Assess Quarterly and Weekly Goals; review last week’s progress
3. Identify Goal-Directed Actions; find the critical “dominoes”
4. Schedule priorities FIRST, before reactive tasks fill the week

The Power Down Ritual: Daily Shutdown (30 min)

1. Clear open loops — emails, messages, to-do lists. Respond to anything urgent (<2 min). Schedule everything else.
2. Review Goal Flywheel/Stack briefly
3. Line up tomorrow’s dominoes — 1–3 most critical goal-directed actions
4. Organize workspace
5. Verbally shut down: say a specific phrase out loud (“Work is done”)

Litmus Test Framework

Set Clear Goals → Identify High-Impact Actions → Prioritize Ruthlessly → Practice Strategic Neglect

Constantly ask: “What is the single most goal-directed action I could be doing right now?”

Distinguish Task Types:

• Optimization Tasks: Continuous improvement yields significant results (e.g., sales pitch)
• “Good Enough” Tasks: Perfection isn’t necessary, 80% effort is sufficient (e.g., admin work)

Trade-Offs Principle: There is always a task chosen and another not chosen. You cannot have it all. Ask: What do I want to go big on? What do I want to give up?

Energy Management (ADHD-Specific)

The ADHD tax is:

• Remembering to do the thing
• Deciding when to do the thing
• Starting the thing
• Switching between things

Batch Similar Cognitive Loads: All job apps together. All networking follow-ups together. All research/reading together. Don’t interleave different types of thinking.

Protect Your Best Hours: Peak brain time → high-stakes work. Everything else gets remaining capacity.

Automate Decisions: Set default times for recurring activities. Create if-then rules. Pre-decide what to wear, eat, do in downtime.

Lower the Bar for Maintenance Tasks: “Good enough” versions of everything non-critical. Template responses for networking. Minimum viable routines when energy is low.

The Trap: Building elaborate systems to optimize energy… which themselves require energy to maintain.

Dopamine Detox & Focus System

Addictions & Stimulation Audit: Fantasies, Netflix, scrolling, dating apps, romance, orgasms. Do they actually make you happy? No.

Detox Strategy:

• If you stopped only one thing, what would improve focus most?
• Add friction: airplane mode
• Schedule one major task each morning
• Start first thing

Focus System:

1. Be at the same place, at the same time every day
2. Choose a trigger
3. Get started
4. Eliminate distractions
5. Work without interruptions

BEGIN YOUR DAY WITH A CLOSED SYSTEM — little or no room for distractions (vs. open system: continuous stream of email, social media, YouTube).

Email Management System

When you receive an email, decide immediately:

1. Reply now
2. Reply later
3. No reply needed

Rules:

• If it takes less than 2 minutes, reply now
• Use snooze feature, label/tag, or keep unread to reply later
• When an email is sent, mark it as unread in the sent folder if expecting a reply

Additional Frameworks

SLIDE for Discipline:

• S — Set visual prompts
• L — Limit Decisions
• I — Increase frictions
• D — Decreased fruition (remove rewards from bad behaviors)
• E — Environment design

While Switching Tasks:

1. Clear the space
2. Prime the next — set 3 bullets
3. Protect the hard

Three Tiers System: Bare minimum / Normal days / Good days

Before Adding to To-Do List: Is it important enough? Is it clear enough?

Time Blocking Categories: Management / Content / Consumption / Thinking / Play

Entering Flow State:

1. Really specific goals
2. Challenge-skill balance
3. Have a trigger which acts as on switch
4. Send email to yourself

Ambition is really just another way of saying that one has “an aspiration to be excellent.” Excellent at anything. It can be creative excellence. It can be excellence at being kind, generous, loving. Ambition just means that you want more from yourself than what you are now.

Networking at Events

Before any social event, write down:

1. Exactly who the target market (attendees) is
2. A few talking points — market updates for work events; pop culture/travel/politics/music for social events
3. A goal — usually: talk to at least 3 people enough to get their contact numbers

Then:

1. Associate — connect what they do to what you know, ask about their work
2. Snowball the conversation — understand WHO this person is; be able to pitch them to someone else
3. Exchange numbers, not social media
4. When leaving, find the person and say goodbye; exchange contacts then
5. Scratch each other’s backs — provide value, not just extract it
6. Maintain — reach out to mentors and new connections once a month

See also: gtd-notes | deep-work-notes | intentional-living