ProductivityEntrepreneurship | 3 Min Read
#23 - Making Successful Systems
In the conclusion of my mini-series on improving my productivity, this week I discuss the new system I completed and the benefits it's offered me.
Hey Friends 👋
I hope you had a good week?
This week I wanted to finish off the mini-series I've been doing the last few weeks on my pursuit of productivity gains and the new productivity system in GitHub I've been working on.
In the last edition, I laid out the gauntlet for finishing the system this week and indeed, it is now finished and has been in use for a few days.
Even though I've only been using the system for just a few days, it has had an impact on me and my work. Most importantly, my organisation has improved drastically (at least subjectively anyway), I'm not sure if you can objectively measure one's organisation. 😅
But, outside of the organisation, the system has also provided clarity; clarity in thought and, clarity in work.
This clarity has proven to be invaluable to me, not having to worry about remembering every last detail, every last task, every last point to cover off. But, instead just being able to sit down, check the task list and then crack on working without needing to worry about missing something.
The key thing I've taken away from this new system and my many attempts at building ones in the past is that you need to build the system around you and not try to mould yourself around the system.
In the past, I've tried systems in Todoist, Notion, Bullet Journaling, Trello and more but all the systems had one significant downfall, I was trying to make myself work around the system and not make the system part of my work based on what I was already doing.
And, this is what is so different about using GitHub for the platform of my current system. All my work exists on GitHub, I write content using MDX which is hosted on GitHub along with my website and the rest of my projects.
So, by building my productivity system in GitHub, a lot of the friction is removed from the process. This motivates me to use the system and keep the system alive unlike my many attempts in the past.
In conclusion, if I was going to pass on one piece of advice from this process it would be to evaluate how you work, the tools you use and the processes you follow and then look to make your system around that.
At all costs avoid trying to change your ways of working to work around the system you want to use. From my experience, this doesn't last long and ultimately we end up relapsing back into our previous pre-system ways of working.
I hope you have a good week next week and thank you for reading as always.
Coner x
Thought, Question, Challenge 🤔
- Thought: To make lasting change, start internally and work outwards to external factors.
- Question: How can you change your external systems to reflect your ways of working?
- Challenge: This coming week, review how you manage your current tasks and work and see if there's a way you can streamline them to fit with your work.
Enjoyed This Newsletter?
If you have enjoyed this edition and want to see more of my content please consider checking out my various socials below:
Questions
If you have a question you'd like me to ask me then I'd ask you to consider publically tweeting me it so others may be able to learn from it. However, I understand not all questions are suitable for the public domain in which case you can email me at hey@conermurphy.com
