Everybody is searching for ways to be as productive as possible, including me. Being productive will help you reach your goals, deliver projects on time, and reduce stress. That's why it is worth discovering what techniques or systems are helping you and your team become more productive.
In my search for optimizing my productivity, I came across a YouTube video by Jeff Su. In the video he talked about a system he taught at Google, called the Core productivity system. This system stood out to me because it is easy to understand and implement, while other productivity systems tend to add more complexity to the process. It also isn't dependent on specific tools, so you can implement this system with the tools you and your team are already using.
After working with this system, I became convinced this is an excellent system. In this post, I will provide information to help you get started with the Core productivity system.
Requirements for a productivity system#
Before looking at the Core productivity system, it's a good idea to figure out what I need from a good productivity system. A good productivity system should help with:
- Quickly capturing ideas/tasks/etc. from multiple sources with minimal friction.
- Organizing the captured items in a way that makes it easy to find and understand.
- Prioritizing the work based on deadlines and its importance.
- Encouraging focus on the work that is most important and urgent.
Challenges when implementing a productivity system#
When implementing a productivity system, there are some common mistakes that can be made. Here are a few things to avoid:
- Introducing too many tools at once or taking away tools that people depend on in their everyday work.
- Creating (overly) complicated workflows. Keep it simple and easy to understand to increase adoption.
- Changing processes every few weeks. Give it some time to get adjusted to the new system.
- Failing to document how the system works. Without documentation, it will be hard for new team members to understand the system and for existing team members to remember how it works.
Remember that consistency is often more valuable than perfection! So don't worry about getting everything right from the start. Start with a simple system and improve it over time.
The Core productivity system#
The Core productivity system is a set of instructions for being productive. So instead of every team working differently, everyone follows the same fundamental principles.
It's all about capturing work, prioritizing it, executing it, and reviewing the results. It also doesn’t replace your project management software or communication tools. Instead, it just defines how those tools should be used.
The Core productivity system consists of four steps: Capture, Organize, Review, and Engage. Let's take a look at each individual step:
Capture#
The idea behind the first part of the system, is that our brains are not good at remembering everything. That's why we need to capture everything we want to remember as quickly as possible. Capturing should become a routine, as soon as you hear about something you need to do, want to remember or need to share.. write it down!
It doesn't matter where, choose the method that works best for you, even if that's a notebook in your pocket, an app on your phone, or anything else. Just write it down! Some tools that might work for you are Notion, Obsidian, Todoist, Apple Reminders, or even a simple text file. The important thing is that you have a single place where you capture everything.
Organize#
When capturing the idea or task, it's important to organize it. I decided to differentiate the entries between articles, ideas, notes, tasks, and projects as those each have a different approach. You might use tags, folders, or any other method that works for you in your favorite tool. The important thing is that you can easily find what you are looking for.
Review#
During review, things that I've written down could become a bookmark, an entry to my knowledge base, a task in my project management tool, or anything else. The important thing is that everything is organized and nothing gets lost.
At first the review and organize step felt the same to me, but after working with the system for a while, I realized that the review step is more about cleaning up, prioritizing, reviewing and/or planning the work.
During the review, I look at what I've written down and first check if they are still relevant. Next, I'll check if there are any related deadlines to it, which will help me to prioritize it. For prioritizing, I'm using the Eisenhower Matrix with a small addition: when I'm able to finish the work in five minutes, I'm going to do it right after finishing the review as planning the work takes almost the same time and I already finished one task for the day.
Based on the priorities, I will plan when I will work on it.
Engage#
The engage step is about actually executing the work. This is where the work gets done. When the work is planned, that's when I will work on it and I try to focus on that work only.
Final Thoughts#
The Core productivity system isn’t about working harder, it’s about creating clarity and having a fixed process. The best productivity systems are simple enough that everyone follows them and flexible enough to evolve and match the needs of your team.
The Core productivity system solves both of those for me. You can start today with a simple system and improve it over time.