My Simple Productivity System

- So, you know, over the last decade, I've become kind of a

productivity

guru. And in that time I realized that the true power of

productivity

comes from tricks. For example, drink all of your water for the week in a two-minute period on Monday. (soft music) (water whisper) And consolidate all my phone calls into a 15 minute window. Hey mom, I'm really sorry about grandpa, but I have to go. And slowly reduce my caffeine intake throughout the day, using coffee enemas. And in this video, I want to walk you through my never-before-seen 18-step productivity

system

, designed for maximum efficiency.

So you can make the most of your day. It only takes three hours each morning. Then let's get started. (laughs) Damn. (upbeat music) Okay. Alright guys, really, today I want to talk about productivity, specifically the productivity

system

I use to keep my life organized, both personal and work. It's what I've been using since I started my YouTube channel and realized that with so many projects going on, I needed a way to stay organized, prioritize, order and track tasks, capture, track and write down my ideas. Schedule events and meetings, stay on top of project deadlines, as well as store and organize my digital files. (transition whistles) So to do all this and set up a productivity system for yourself, you need four main tools, a notebook, a calendar, a to-do list, and a way to store and organize all your files.

This is something I discovered through trial and error, but it's also something Thomas Frank has been teaching for a long time. And it wasn't until I took your course and learned a little bit about how you integrate everything into a cohesive system that I started thinking in terms of a system. And I want to give a shout out to Thomas Frank for all the fantastic advice and tips he has given me over the years when it comes to productivity. If you haven't seen his channel, I'll leave a link in the description below. You know, there are a lot of people who swear and die by specific tools and applications.

And I've found some that work for me, that are really

simple

, that aren't too bulky, that give me everything I need and nothing I don't need. So, I'll share the things that work for me, but to be honest, it doesn't really matter. If you use Notion, if you use Evernote or Apple Notes, it doesn't matter as much as you find a system, a way to organize all of this to get all those benefits that I just described to figure out what works. you, to discover a system that doesn't slow you down, that allows you to get to work.

And that's the main thing I want you to take away from this. Yes, these tools may work for you, but if not, I'm sure you can find others that work just as well. Let's get into it. Alright, let's start taking notes. I use Apple Notes to write and organize all my business ideas, YouTube videos, course content, newsletters, and social media captions. So, I don't remember ever choosing (laughs) Apple Notes. In a way, Apple Notes chose me, simply because of how

simple

and easy it was. I used to use TextEdit. I tried Evernote. For one reason or another, these just weren't working for me.

And so, Apple Notes became my go-to place for doing all those things I just mentioned. So I'm going to dive in right now and show you my notes, how they're organized and structured here. So, let's get in. As you can see, I have it organized into a few different folders and numbered them so they are in the order I use them most often. And then in notes, up, at the top, this is just the main notes folder that you can't get rid of, so I use this just as my capture or as a bunch of quick notes, things that you might I need it on the spur of the moment, if, for example, I'm on a phone call or if it just doesn't fit well into any of these other folders I've created.

And then, you know, I have notes like here, this is a birthday cake that I ordered for Nat's birthday. It just gives me all the information that I needed. Quick notes on maybe hiring people (laughs), just figuring out what the hell is going on in our lives with our visas and all that shit. (laughs) So, that's fun. And that's why I use this folder. The videos folder is my most used folder. This is what I use for every YouTube video I make. So what I usually do is name and these are literally ideas that I have here about possible videos that I could do in the future.

But I usually title it with the title of what I think the video might be. As you can see with this video here, which I recently released on the YouTube channel. I ended up calling it "The Real Truth About Chasing Your Dreams." And at some point in the process, I come up with alternative titles and that's a little glimpse into my process there. I'm kind of a perfectionist, in case you don't already know. So I'm just going to go through and write down as many title options as possible, that best suit this video, that aren't click bait, that are accurate to the video I'm trying to describe but also interesting enough that someone Maybe you want to click on it.

And that requires a lot of work. And then the rest of the video, I develop it below. And this is where all my videos are stored, where ideas are first captured on my phone and then developed on the computer. I have a specific folder for my newsletters. So, I have a newsletter that I publish every week. If you want to subscribe and this is where I would go, I believe this is the newsletter that will be published this week. We'll know once it hits my calendar (laughs), we can check it out. Slow growth. It's a business I started last year.

These are all business ideas, maybe notes for meetings I have coming up. In fact, I'm going to delete some of these here because now I realize that they are actually business ideas and, you know, I could show you some of the video ideas that I have coming up, because Don't think they're a top secret, but you know, when it comes to business ideas, I'll keep it a secret. But that's where you could write down any of those ideas. Social, this is social content. I also have checklists. So checklists aren't a to-do list, they're something I'll use more than once.

And, you know, at the top here, there's a pre-interview checklist, before COVID, when I was doing real interviews. I would have this checklist on hand. That way, every time I interview someone, I can copy and paste this at the top of my questions. But this is a checklist to make sure I'm not a fool. And I remember all the things I have to do, from checking the shutter or the ISO. These are just the camera settings because sometimes you can forget to say, match the color on both cameras and then the color temperature is a little bit off and it ends up becoming a headache when you're editing it. path.

And then also tips for guests, it's okay to curse, the interview will be conversational, it's okay if you need to stop and start again, and so on. I find that by having something like this, accessible in my notes, easy to use, I can just copy, paste it and use it many, many times in the future. Finally, we have my personal information, which is important personal information that I need to remember. Travel information, all that. And then I also have a file folder. And then when I know I no longer need something, a specific note, but there may be a time when I want to look it up or access that information again in the future, let's say, it's a video that's been posted.

I'm like, "Okay, I don't want that to clutter up my video folder." Even though I have 282 (laughs) video ideas in here, clearly I don't always file them, but just by putting them in that file folder, that helps me stay organized and helps me make sure that some of these folders don't work out. I don't get cluttered and can find exactly what I need. And so, as you can see here, simplicity is absolutely key, but the simplicity comes from the fact that I set up that folder structure to begin with, that I created that file folder, that I can throw things away when I don't need them anymore. them.

And also using an app that can sync on my phone and on my desktop. Most of my ideas come to me when I'm on the road, when I'm traveling, right before I go to sleep. And so I can write them down without taking out a notebook or without having to go to my desk and open it. You want to make it as easy as possible because whether you're a business owner or have a full-time job, ideas often drive our progress and what we create. That's why we need those ideas before we can bring them to life and having a system to delete them at any time is really important.

Again, very simple but works for me. Let's move on to the next one. So, I use Google Calendar to schedule events and meetings to keep track of project deadlines, plan my content, and schedule all the things in my personal life. Alright, let's dive in here and I'll show you my Google Calendar, specifically what the next 30 days of my life are going to look like and how I'm organizing everything. You'll probably notice two things right off the bat. First, there's not a lot going on. I try to keep my calendar as empty and clean as possible and two, it's color-coded and there are multiple sub-calendars to help me organize everything in the right place.

And really look at this and get a bird's eye view of what my month looks like. So, let's delve deeper. Alright, first I'll explain the different calendars I use. So, this is my main calendar and it's the one I use for my personal and work tasks. These are specific things that are happening in my life. This All Hands meeting is a meeting I have every week with my company. It's a really big undertaking, guys. We are expanding rapidly. They are only two people. (laughs) I only have one employee, (laughs) that's all. We hire freelancers, but this is just a way for my brother, who is my employee, and I to be on the same page every week with everything we are doing.

And that is recurring. We just changed it now to start on Wednesday. Going forward, other meetings will appear directly on the calendar. As you know, my only habit this year is reading. And then I have these little reminders, Start Book 7, Start Book 8, Start Book 9, that's it, so I have an extra reminder in my environment to keep me committed to my goal of reading two books every month for the entire year. And if you're wondering, it's actually going pretty well. I'm about to finish book number six. And so, I'm almost on the right track. I was a little behind, but you know, I just read this new book that I've been reading quickly.

And so, yeah, just another useful tiperoo. (laughs) Tiperoo, what is my life? Integrations here, I mean, whenever I work with a brand for a YouTube video, it's important for me to make sure I don't forget it or lose track of it. And so, as you can see, this video was brought to you by Squarespace. I'll talk about them in a minute. My newsletters, again, I mentioned this is a content here. And that's why, for every newsletter I make, I plan out exactly what I'm going to create. Slow Growth, these are mainly my deadlines for courses and other things I'm doing for Slow Growth, digital products and all that.

And then I have a deadline for the scope of the animation. That's a deadline to gather all the animations and illustrations I need for our next course. The yellow here is just the YouTube videos, My Simple Productivity System. (laughs) That's literally what we're doing from time to time videos down here. Now, I mentioned this in my last video, when I talked about anxiety, that I've been slowing down quite a bit and what often happens is I'll have a video like this, which says, "How to become a minimalist" and I'm like, "Mm, I'm busy and I'll move it." These are not like, and then obviously I would throw it somewhere and then I would just like, “oh, no, oh, I can't do that, I can't do that.” And then I would just put them aside and usually have a big collection of things that I didn't do (laughs) because maybe I'm too ambitious with the things that I think I'm going to do. able to make.

Know what a hard deadline is and what a soft deadline is and when you can move something and when you probably shouldn't. I think it's really difficult to find that balance. And it's something I'm still working on and I'm not perfect at. So know that if you find that you're not getting as much done as you thought, it's totally normal. Now I'm forgetting where all this was going. I think that goes here, okay. And again, you can see that there aren't many things scheduled and that's because I like to spend most of my time filming and making videos.

And now, it could be YouTube videos, social content, or course content, but that's what I like to do the most. And so, if you see days that you don't have anything here, that's what I'm doing, I'm working on videos. And so I don't have to schedule that into my day. I'll show you my to-do listpending and how to follow them. But the fact that I have these big pillars, in terms of my simple productivity system, I know that those are my deadlines for my videos. That's when I have to finish them. And that helps me keep track, know what I'm working on.

And then my to-do list is where I'll break them down into smaller, more manageable chunks. If you remember, I made a video about tracking every minute of my day for three months. And then I really got into my calendar and literally scheduled everything from morning to night. And that was a fun experiment. And it's also great if you try (laughs) to create an alibi. If you need one, that's a great way to do it: just keep a very full calendar. But I found that it simply distracted me from my work. At this point, I think it's not that useful anymore.

It doesn't make me happier. It doesn't make me more productive. (whistling) I have to work on my sound effects. So before we continue, before we move on to my to-do list, big surprise, my friends at Squarespace bring you this video. I've been partnering with Squarespace all year because I use them for almost every website I've created over the last few years. It's very easy to get started. It's really helpful in building an audience and brand for yourself. And if you're trying to build a website from scratch, I 100% recommend Squarespace. So there are three main reasons why I use Squarespace.

First of all, their website builder is super intuitive and easy to use. He can select a variety of beautiful templates, enter his information, and publish his site in no time. I can easily add all my calls to action, my social media accounts, and my email log. And I can purchase domains and set up my G Suite email accounts directly with Squarespace. Perhaps the best thing about using Squarespace is that I don't have to worry about setting things up, the technology aspects, or syncing my email accounts. And as a creative, that's very important because all you want to do is get to work, do the work you love, and share it with the world.

And Squarespace helps you do just that. Go to squarespace.com for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, visit squarespace.com/mattdavella to save 10% on your first website or domain purchase. Alright, let's go back and I'll show you my to-do list. You've seen this before in previous videos I've made, but I want to show you a little bit more, some of the additional features and also some of the mindsets that I use to make sure I get things done. So, let's get in. Alright, the good thing about to-dos, yes, it's simple and it also allows me to see the days ahead.

I mean, I really don't want to see more than that when it comes to the specific tasks I'm doing. So being able to see what I did yesterday and then have a plan for the next four days has been a huge help in keeping my focus. One thing I do, I've been doing it for so long but maybe I didn't even realize it, is that I put everything into action form. I think I got this from David Allen's "Getting Things Done" system. Create an action item for everything. So, shoot productivity videos, be specific about what that action is, shoot thumbnails for productivity videos, check credit card charges.

I don't know if that's the best action item, double check, but it helps motivate me to take that action. And I try to limit my tasks to three to five items, no more. When you start hitting 10 or 15 items in a day, you're really losing track of what's really important. That's not to say I don't have those days, I certainly do. And a lot of times, it's just a day filled with all those 10 to 15 tasks I've been putting off forever. How things can tend to pile up with a to-do list. You know, another tip, again, it could have been David Allen, it could have been someone else, who I got this from, but making sure to break things down into as many possible parts as possible.

You know, and it really depends on how many times you've done a specific task before. So for me, when making a YouTube video, I can break it down into writing, filming, editing, uploading and that's all I really need to do. But if you've never made a YouTube video before, you may have to break it down into 10 or 15 different tasks because it's very complicated and it's very easy to overlook the important steps required to make a YouTube video. And so, brainstorm, write a video, create a shot list, and break down each scene you need to shoot in your video.

I think those are some useful things, especially if a task where a project is particularly complicated, you'll need to break it down even further. Now, if I can't do something, I move it to the next day. If I can do something, I'll mark it. Now, an additional aspect of this to-do list, which I have never shown before. Below are additional lists. So I could have a list of my purchases here and this is where they will add up over the course of a week, although we just went shopping so I don't need it. A reading list, someone I respect recommends a book or if an author I love writes a new book, I put it here and put it on my list and that helps make sure I always have something to turn to. .

Especially in a year like this, when I really want to develop that reading habit, I always want to have something in my back pocket that I can read. Future Stuff, these are all the things that were normally up here and then I think, I just don't have time for this right now, so I'd throw it down here. He writes “4 Founder Traits” which is just a social post for slow growth, 401k setup, just some notes and reminders for myself. And here, Things, are like digital tools and physical products that have been recommended to me. I think this is maybe just my minimalist practice at work here.

If I hear about something great, I don't immediately run out and buy it. I'll add it to my to-do list. And then I'll see if I need it in the future, you know. This one here, the Timemore Slim Grinder, is a grinder that someone recommended to me and was in my email newsletter. He messaged me and said, “Hey Matt, you're using a shitty grinder (laughs), use a better grinder.” I looked at it and said, "Oh yeah, but I have this grinder and it works fine. I don't think I want it." But I don't want to forget it, because in the future, if I need a grinder or if I change my mind and decide I'm going to buy one, then I know exactly where to find it.

Right down here on my list of things. That's pretty much my to-do list and that's how I keep all my tasks for the week organized. Moving on and last but not least we have my file management system. So how do I organize all my documents, files, photos, media and all that fun stuff. So let's dive in here. I use Google Drive and I use something called backup and sync, and that's how I have a Google Drive folder here with all my subfolders, which helps me store everything right there on my desktop, but it's also available and backed up security immediately. towards the cloud.

So here I have organized them into business documents and then just documents. So these are my personal apartment lease documents for literally every apartment I've ever lived in. I have stored all the leases right here in case you ever need them. And sometimes, surprisingly, you end up needing them in the future. Back up all my Apple Notes, let's look at the Green Card documents, health insurance, all that paperwork, house hunting, parking tickets, oh my goodness. Yes, every year since 2015, everything has its place. Finances are more like personal finances, from the annual donations we make each year to 401k investments, medical taxes, utilities, and vehicles.

Basically, when I buy a car or make any major purchase, a camera usually comes with some type of documentation. I'm not referring to the user manual, but to the registration, all that, the proof of purchase. I'll take pictures of that and save everything digitally because I don't want all that paperwork lying around. And that's where I keep all that. Media, I don't actually use this much. If there's any folder in here that I don't really use, it's this one because I tend to store everything on my hard drives, because my video files are insanely large. But from time to time I come in here to save things.

And this folder here is probably the most useful and something that you might be able to implement on your own, apart from all these other folders that you might want to create to organize all your files. I like to have a folder for this week. So, these are all the things that I might share in a particular week, usually on social media, but sometimes, you know, if I just share it with family and friends. And this is from a video I made about anxiety. And so I have a few different options. This is my Instagram story.

This is an Instagram story with text. Look, I didn't know if I wanted it with or without text, so I included both. This is the actual post. These are a bunch of photos Nat and I took in the Blue Mountains during a recent trip. And then, I shared them, when I felt like it, just for fun. And so, there are still many that I haven't shared there. So I'll save it in this week's folder. This is... (laughs) This is embarrassing. I don't know if it's embarrassing. It's actually something amazing. These three sneeze files. This isn't something I've shared on social media yet, although I probably will.

I found this old video of my dad sneezing and simply put, my dad is the loudest sneezer in the world. Maybe you have a sneeze like this in your family. And then he sneezed, let me see. - Here we go. - This is the sneeze. (Matt's father sneezes) - He does it on purpose. (Matt's father sneezes) (group laughing) - Thank you. - So, that was the sneeze that I found simply unpleasant, right? No one needs to sneeze that hard. He's doing it on purpose, like you heard my brothers say in that video. So I decided to turn this into a beat.

And that's what I did last weekend. This is the rhythm, I will play it for you, because it is a work of art. (laughs) In fact, I'm very proud of it. (soft music) ♪ Here we go ♪ (hip hop music) (Man vocalizing) (Man vocalizing) (Man laughing) ♪ Thank you ♪ Yes, then, that's the rhythm. (laughs) That's pretty good. I had a productive weekend. I just have to ask Gambino to send me his bars. He made some, you know, little numbers and put them in there. Share with you later. Anyway, here are some other photos shared, but you get the idea.

Basically, when I have this folder, I can find these files and share them on social media or send them to my family in our group chat. And that's how I, you know, have this rolling folder. And then when I'm done, I just delete everything. Boom, but I'm not done yet. And this is how I organize my digital files. And there is my productivity system. This is how I organize my life. I hope this helps you a little. If I have any advice for you, it would be to start small, set up those systems ahead of time, make sure you create those folders and that structure, adapt and change as your life changes.

I think that's the big problem most of us get into: we think that our lives will always be the same or that we will always name the same type of folders and the same tools that we used five years ago. keep working today. And sometimes that changes, you know, when it comes to my digital storage, using Google Drive, that was something I started using a year or two ago. So don't worry if these things change, but if something works, if it doesn't get in your way, then I don't see any reason for you to change it.

And so begin. Good luck with your productivity goals and we'll see you next time. (soft guitar music) (water rustling) (Matt coughing) (Matt coughing) Damn. Oh. (soft music) (Matt clears his throat)