The “productivitist” Mike Vardy said that “being productive is about doing the right things more often. One of the simplest ways you can accomplish this is by creating a framework that only puts in front of you what you must work on in a desired timeframe.”

What he means is that each one of us ought to have ought o have a personal workflow to increase our productivity. Indeed, with a backdrop that is more distracting than ever we have to be intentional about how we achieve our work.

The best way to start and create a personal workflow is to think about the context of what you want to achieve. For example, if you’re a writer working on a book, your contexts could shift across seeking inspiration, writing, writing solo or with a team, writing for the short term or the long term.

Here is how Johnny T. Nguyen illustrates the possible workflows of each of those contexts –

Inspiration or Production

If you’re looking for inspiration, then maybe you want to be in an environment with lots of stimuli or opportunities for chance encounters, like a park or bookstore. But if you’re in production mode, then you want no distractions, no interruptions, and everything exactly in its place. That’s your workflow.

Solo or Team

If your project is solo, then you can pick a workflow that works exactly for you, without much consideration for shared work assignments or handoffs. On the other hand, if it’s a team project, then pick a workflow that can easily foster collaboration and communicate deadlines. For me, I have tools that serve both purposes: I use Evernote to handle my personal idea curation and to-do list, but Google Drive for shared collaborations.

Short term or Long term

How much time will your project take? If it’s a short-burst assignment, then it’s important to have an agile and adaptable workflow, in which case having your data accessible anywhere is very useful. Whereas, if it’s a long-term project, then having a more structured and rigid workflow is important to guard against scope creep.

When it comes to daily productivity, you might not even realize how much easier your life would be if you had a step-by-step workflow. And the way to get that started is to understand what kind of workflow works for you, for your specific need. This is the first step. Tune in for the next steps in succeeding issues of the newsletter. In the meantime, get going!