This document provides tips for developing a trusted system to maximize productivity. It recommends capturing all potential tasks, clarifying whether each item requires action and prioritizing actions based on location, energy level, and timeline. It then suggests techniques for maintaining focus, and reviewing processes like emptying your head, reviewing calendars and action lists, and maintaining a reference store. The document concludes by providing resources to learn more about productivity tools and strategies.

1. Maximising Your Productivity
Pete Jakob
pete@purplesalix.com
+44 (0)7710 820512

2. Sound like you?
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“My Time Sheets/Expense
Claims are always late”
“I was so busy I forgot to…”
“I’m running late
because my meeting
overran…”
“I haven’t had the time to….”

3. Developing a Trusted System for work puts YOU
back in control
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Capture
Clarify
Do
Review Trusted
System

4. Capture – Empty Your Head
 Identify your potential
sources of actions
 Consider a capture
mechanism for each (eg
notepad by bed)
Digital
Verbal
Physical
Cerebral

5. Clarify – Is it an action? What’s the next step?

6. Clarify – What Is the right thing to do Now!
 LOCATION
– HOME
– WORK
– ERRANDS
– COMPUTER
– PHONE
 ENERGY
– FULL FOCUS
– QUICK TASKS
– BRAIN DEAD
 WHEN
– THIS WEEK
– NEXT WEEK
– LATER
– SOMEDAY

7. Do – Techniques for Maintaining Focus

8. Review- The Glue that holds it all together
1. Process papers and notes
(business cards, receipts,
meeting notes, etc)
2. Review previous calendar for
action items etc
3. Review Upcoming calendar
4. Empty Your Head
5. Review Projects
6. Review Action Lists & Contexts
7. Review “Waiting For” list
8. Review “Someday” list

9. Email Tips - Get to “Inbox Zero” most days
 Turn off Alerts
 Process email to clarify actions – at
set points during the day
 Minimise your incoming
– Unsubscribe from Newsletters or group
all into a single email (eg Unroll.me)
– Automate repetitive tasks via Rules (or
tools like IFTTT) and Templates/Snippets
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10. Calendar Tips – It’s not just for others’ priorities
 Use your calendar for scheduling time for your
Priorities (including weekly review)
 Include Objective, Agenda, Attachments in
meeting invite
 Avoid overlap between meetings – they don’t
have to start at the top of the hour
 Default to 30 minutes rather than 1 hour
 Use colours for different projects,
responsibilities, types of meeting, etc
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11. Task List Tips – Define your priorities, or you’ll work
on someone else’s
 Make it clear what the task is to minimise brain-
processing required
– Add verb
– Add telephone number to “Call Fred”
 Write tomorrow’s todo list before you leave
tonight
 Identify the 3 things that require significant focus
today, and start there
 Keep your list in front of you
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12. Reference Store – not everything is an action
 Create a repository for all the non-action items
that you want to keep that you may want to refer
to at some point in the future
– Documents, Checklists, Scanned images, Quotes, Web
clippings, journals etc (great list of ideas here)
 Evernote and Microsoft OneNote are the most
popular applications
 Security: Be cautious with putting personal
confidential information on any cloud-based
system
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13. Learn More?
 Purple Patch – Weekly curated newsletter of Productivity (and Marketing) content
– purplesalix.com/the-purple-patch/
 Purple Salix Guide to Productivity Tools – A review of over 50 tools including task
managers, time tracking utilities, note taking apps and much more
– http://productivityguideform.purplesalix.com/productivityguide
 Purple Salix Blog – a collection of posts spanning several years of my productivity
journey
– purplesalix.com/category/personal_productivity/
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14. Thank
You!Pete Jakob
pete@purplesalix.com
+44 (0)7710 820512