The document discusses the need to balance masculine and feminine approaches to productivity. It argues that most productivity advice focuses only on logical, technical approaches (masculine energy) and ignores intuitive, emotional perspectives (feminine energy). To be truly productive, one needs both perspectives. It advocates designing a personalized system that brings pleasure and allows one to focus on their priorities and vision, rather than becoming rigid or oppressive. Feminine approaches like journaling and ritual can help with clarity, awareness and creativity to complement masculine task-tracking and optimization.

1. Lauren Valdez
Link: https://fortelabs.co/blog/feminine-energy-what-
productivity-is-missing/

2. The Missing Perspective
• You need to rely on your intuition
– There is no perfect algorithm that will tell you how to
maximize your time for the things you most care about.
• You need self-awareness
– To know what is truly important and
– To understand what is actually stopping you from getting
something done
• But THIS perspective is often missing
– Productivity thought leaders focus on the technical
– Ignore the intangible underlying feelings, fears & desires

3. We aren’t machines. We are humans.
Productivity is not about…
• Optimizing every aspect
of your life
• Being well-versed on
the latest and most
flashy new app.
Productivity is…
• To do what brings you
pleasure, and
• To have more freedom.

4. Striking the Balance
• Logical, technical side
• Masculine energy
• Logic, order, and the
technical
• Left-side of the brain
• Emotional, intuitive side
• Feminine energy
• Intuition, self-
awareness & creativity
• Right-side of the brain
• Most productivity advice lies on the masculine side
• But you need the yin and yang balance both these energies
• We all can tap into our masculine and feminine energies

5. Gender Spectrum & Urban Theory
The City
• Attempt to instill order &
control the chaos of nature.
• Man’s attempt to control
and build utopias
• Rigid routinised order
Nature
• Nature is seen as female
(“mother nature”)
• City destroys nature’s
randomness, the ambiguity
the serendipity
• Pleasurable anarchy

6. Our productivity systems have the
same struggle
• This is what happens when we try to over-
architect our productivity systems.
– We lose the magical and mystical
– We crowd out the very space that allows for flow,
magic, and creativity to arise
• Rather than fighting for the masculine order
and logical side to win, we need to appreciate
and find the balance with feminine-based
productivity

7. Why masculine-based productivity is
the dominant framework?
• Most productivity thought leaders are men
• Tech community is at the centre of developing and
promoting productivity approaches
• Logical/ technical approaches are easier to define
• Easier to sell a course on “How to develop your task
management system” v/s “How to tap into your
intuition”
• There are plenty of women productivity thought
leaders and feminine-centred approaches, but often
they aren’t categorized under “productivity” but fall
instead under “organizing” or “self-care”.

8. Tiago & Lauren – Yin & Yang
• Tiago helped Lauren become more organized and get
more done
• She helped him to get more in tune with his emotions
and body
• Evidence: Tiago’s progression through his blog posts…
– Starting with technical how-to’s,
– And over time leading to subjects like healing from trauma
• The feminine-centred approaches are foundational to
productivity because they help you figure out:
– where you want to go, and
– what is stopping you

9. Masculine-centred
approaches
• Task manager
• Databases
• Time-tracking
• Tagging
• Sprints
• OKRs
• Self-control
Feminine-centred
approaches
• Journaling
• Morning pages
• Meditation
• Drawing
• Rituals
• Visioning
• Body awareness

10. Maximise for pleasure, not time
• If your productivity system feels oppressive and you can’t keep up
with maintaining it, it’s too rigid.
• If you aren’t clear on what truly matters to you, then it doesn’t
matter how productive you are.
• If you don’t allow for some chaotic randomness to arise in your life,
you might miss out on some genius insights.
• If you can’t determine your priorities without someone else telling
you, then you need to learn how to trust your intuition.
• If you are too hard on yourself for not getting as much done as you
would like, you need to work on letting go and having more
playfulness.
• Balancing your female and male energies will liberate you and your
time to focus on the things that truly matter for a joyous life.

11. The Transition
From ‘Productivity for Nonprofits’
series
Link: shorturl.at/doCG0

12. Productivity For Nonprofits
• Lauren’s mission: ‘Supporting nonprofits and young
people in improving their effectiveness with their
limited time and resources’
• The transition wasn't easy for me.
– My hippie, inner-bruja, spirit was resistant to becoming
more organized.
– My woke-self was resisting the capitalist extractive system
where our personal value is equated with what we
produce.
• Here are few shortcuts, so as to
– Spend more time achieving your goals, and
– Serving others.

13. Principles & Philosophy of GTD
• Mind like water - a mental state where your
mind is clear so you are able to focus.
• My mind was like a cluttered antique store,
making it hard to find the treasures under all
the junk. I wanted that mental clarity.

14. What I’ve Learned in my Journey
• Being organized allows me freedom to play, create, and
envision the future.
• I trust that everything critical will be handled.
• I have an overview of everything in my life that is
important.
• Know fully what is on my plate at any given moment
• Gives me power to say yes or no to requests without
guilt
• No more a victim of my work and other people’s
priorities
• I am in control of my work, life, and destiny

15. Leverage Your Productivity System
• Making a concrete plan is a radical act of
shaping the future through the actions we
take daily.
• It may seem like just checkboxes and folders
• But you have the power…
– To define what the steps are
– To adapt in real time to what is not working,
– And, to continue towards your vision

16. Design Your Own System
• Nobody can give you a system. You have to design
it for yourself.
• To process the waterfalls of information falling
onto you into tangible actions.
• A system that is pleasurable, life-balancing and
sustainable for you
• Borrow the latest technology and tools
• Also feed your inner-bruja spirit with
• a new moon goal/intention setting ritual, and
• a full moon reflection and feedback ritual

17. Ask Yourself
• What would make organizing yourself not feel
like a chore but pleasurable?
• What would bring aliveness to your
organizational system?
• What would feel so easy, that it’s sustainable?

18. Topics covered: Control your present
and shape your future
• Using a digital task manager as your operating control centre.
• How to create a project list and prioritize it regularly
• How to organize your tasks and files by actionability using the PARA
method
• How to develop a digital knowledge management system so you
have a personal archive of everything you have ever learned or
worked on.
• How to get comfortable with and leverage the power of digital
tools.
• How to take mental and emotional breaks and take care of yourself
• How to set boundaries and clearly communicate what you need

19. Further reading
• Feminine Energy: What Productivity is Missing (original article)
https://fortelabs.co/blog/feminine-energy-what-productivity-is-missing/
• Productivity for Nonprofits series:
https://laurenvaldez.com/blog/series-how-to-make-your-nonprofit-
more-productive-and-effective
• Notion as a Second Brain Meetup at Los Angeles [Lauren starts
speaking, after Tiago at around 29.30 mins]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=3s&v=uK8KvSRetpU
• How to Become a Digital Nomad (podcast interview with Lauren):
https://latinoswhotech.com/26-how-to-become-a-digital-nomad/
• Tiago’s blog on My Journey in Healing Trauma:
https://fortelabs.co/blog/groundbreakers/
• Tiago’s blog on Pleasure as Organizing Principle:
https://fortelabs.co/blog/pleasure-as-an-organizing-principle/
• Tiago’s blog on Mood-first approach to Knowledge work:
https://fortelabs.co/blog/productivity-for-precious-snowflakes/

20. Brought to you by
Sathyanand.S
Twitter: @sathyanand1985
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