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My Single Best Tip for Productivity

By , on Monday, May 14th, 2007

Moleskine

My good friend GTD Wannabe over at her blog of the same name did one of these meme taggy thingamajigs. Against my better judgment, I’ve decided to participate.

Looking back on the different habits that have made me the productivity guru I am today (lol), this was a fairly easy decision. Of all the little tricks and whatnot I’ve picked up during my GTD travels, I can sum up what I consider to be the simplest (yet most useful) in three little words…

Write. It. Down.

Seriously. If you do nothing else on your journey toward the “mind like water”, getting into the habit of reflexively reaching for a pen and paper when you get an idea or come across of a piece of information that might be useful in the future will quite literally change your life.

The greatest part – it barely requires any investment. Grab a pen (surely, you have a few of those lying around) and any sort of paper – index cards, empty envelopes or even a folded up piece of blank printer paper – and shove the whole mess into your pocket. Now, next time Aunt Betsy reminds you that Cousin Timmy’s baseball game is next Saturday, grab your tools and scrawl that crap down. Just make sure you look at it later :)

Being the good little blogger that I am, I hereby tag the following folks to respond in kind forthwith: Glen, Frank, Scott, Andrew and Matt. Get to work, fellas…

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  • silvercrone

    Surely one can progress a step up from just ‘write it down’ to perhaps, I don’t know…..
    Write it Down ORDERLY???

    I swear by the format of Moleskin Weekly Notebook (available in size of your choice}
    Each page has the whole week on one side for the appointment things and the right
    side is lined in diaryy format so you can write those brillant ideas down!

    awesome!

  • brett

    I don’t think that one’s notes have to be neat and tidy, necessarily. As long as you can decipher it later, I think the manner in which you write things down is largely unimportant.

    IMO, of course. :)

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  • http://www.allbusiness.com/blog/CustomerServiceExperience/10783/ Glenn (Customer Service Experience) Ross

    I believe the difference between “not writing it down” and “writing it down is as big as the difference between “not being a parent” and “being a parent.” In other words, it’s a whole new life. Just as there are steps to take after becoming a parent, so there are steps to be taken after writing it down.

    And now, time for me to go do my weekly review, sadly a week late.

    Regards,

    Glenn

  • http://www.legalandrew.com Andrew Flusche

    Hi Brett,

    Thanks for tagging me. I’m going to cop out and say that I already did this meme: Ultimate Tip to Reach GTD Nirvana. :)

    If I think of another great single tip, I’ll jump back in.

  • http://shannonprincipal.edublogs.org/ Greg Farr

    Brett:

    I have three words to share with you…

    Post It Notes.

    My nomination for Invention of the Century when it comes to Tools for Administrators.

    I carry the pads everywhere. I have the little ones for the books I’m reading (“use this quote in next meeting”). I have the PC Post-Its lined up in priority order on my computer screens.

    I have the ones with lines for those who can’t write straight, the pop-up kind (only because the dispenser looked like it would be fun to play with…it is), and I have a collection of Post-It Notes that glow in the dark (hmmmm, not sure why on those).

    They are all over my fridge, my desk, the back door to the garage (reminding me it’s my turn to take a can of coffee to work tomorrow)…and of course they cover the Central Communication Hub of my life: the bathroom mirror. Birthdays, work notes, reminders, love notes to or from my wife and kids…my whole life is written down and posted there.

    You and Scott hit it on the head in this latest Meme Tagging: Write It Down. I just wanted to add the postscript of Post-Its.

    Other than my Pocket PC with Word Mobile, is there a better way to write things down for future review and manipulation? Want to prioritize things?…unstick, move the note down or up in the pile, restick it, and voila…my life is re-prioritized. And Scott…ya say something you just reviewed is no longer actionable? Unstick it and trash it.

    I think I’ll write myself a Post-It Note to write a post about Post-It Notes someday. Naw…something tells me I just did.

  • http://www.mallosworld.co.uk/organize-it/ SpiKe

    This is so true. I’ve sorta stopped doing it recently, but I used to always try and carry a pen and index card around with me, so as soon as an interesting thought occured to me, I could jot it down.

    Organize IT

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  • http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/how-to-take-notes-like-thomas-edison.html Omar

    Worked great for Thomas Edison.

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  • http://www.ventureline.com ratio analysis

    t barely requires any investment. Grab a pen (surely, you have a few of those lying around) and any sort of paper – index cards, empty envelopes or even a folded up piece of blank printer paper

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