Systems of Productivity

Experimentation has always been my passion. I love to test things, test limits, bend rules, see what truly works, what doesn’t, and push buttons most wouldn’t dare. Some of my “projects” that I experiment with come and go and only go as far as my fickle interests, but one that persistently undergoes different variations are my “Systems of Productivity”.

All this is is any system designed and set in place to make my days more productive. When I was in Afghanistan, I set up a system called “The Silver Hour” where out of the 24 hours in a day, I would assign a ‘Golden hour’ for working out, a ‘Silver Hour’ for writing (anything), and a ‘Bronze Hour’ for reading. For a good while I stayed consistent with the system until one day I woke up and just forgot to do it. Somehow it fell off. I would just workout whenever, read whenever, and some days would go by where I would not write at all.

Testing complete. Results: System ineffective. It lacked a lot of good points to a well set system — for example, there was no way to keep myself accountable, there was no way to truly measure any of the productive actions, and there was no way to ensure I was set up for success the next day.

These days, I am experimenting with a new system that I’ll now call (for the purposes of explaining it) “Building Blocks”. I was inspired by an article I read the other day, and decided to create a system that would allow me to keep record of specific parameters so my productivity is not only measurable, but I can somehow hold myself accountable to what I do in a day. The parameters, or building blocks, are FUEL, GRATITUDE, WORKOUT, READING, THOUGHTS/IDEAS.

FUEL is simply what I eat (or drink if it’s anything other than water).
GRATITUDE is what I am thankful for that day.
READING is what I have read, be it a few pages or chapter in a book, or article online.
THOUGHTS/IDEAS is self explanatory.

Easy. What I did in addition to this is incorporate this effective note taking system and made it my journal. The way I will try to hold myself accountable is simple, transfer over what is on my notebook here into my blog. It won’t have to be as detailed but at least it’s there. And because some items might not be available until the very last hour of the day, I’ll be posting the previous day’s parameters. Hopefully that will also keep me WRITING. I at least have default content for a daily blog to keep friends and family updated. The intent is that these building blocks will become the foundation to productive days and therefore a productive life.

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05OCT2013

FUEL: Honey Sweetened Chocolate Macadamian Nut French Press Coffee; Meal1: Baked Chicken, Grilled Steak, Mushrooms and Onions, Broccoli; Meal2: Steak, 2 Boiled Eggs, Mushrooms and Onions; Snacks: Jerky, Propel Flavored H20, Pistachios, Mixed Berries, 3 funsized KitKats

WORKOUT: A. 3RDS(Front Squats x 5) Rest  3Mins B. 30 Pullups, 20 BoxJumps, 10 Snatches, 20 BoxJumps, 30 Pullups; Ping Pong

READING: Article, Book – Dance of Dragons (First half of The Wayward Bride)

GRATITUDE: Steaks every Saturday!

THOUGHT: Watched Season5 Episode9 of Breaking Bad. I forgot that they ended it last year mid-season, and it has been so long that I barely remember what happened up until the current events in the series. Is this some ploy to have viewers like me rewatch older episodes? It makes me want to just wait until a series finishes and just watch all the seasons in one big marathon from now on.