For the most part, I’ve got by so far is having systems. Systems for everything. It can get annoying for the people around me – not everyone thinks in systems. I like systems – we had a lot of them in school and I’ve tried to keep them around as I’ve grown older. They really helped me stay functional before I was diagnosed with ADHD. So let’s talk about some of them.

Since I wrote about hoarding information, that sounds like a good place to start.

Information Management

In my previous post, I mentioned that I didn’t really have a working system for separating the information snacks, productivity porn, and anything useful that was input in my information diet. I’m trying to figure that one out, but right now, I don’t have much of one. Which isn’t to say that I’ve given up on it. On the contrary, I have a focus on what needs to be processed, and what’s junk.

For collection, I’m using:

• The Old Reader, and Reeder on iOS for RSS,
• Raindrop.io for saving bookmarks,
• Saved threads on Twitter, downloaded videos and playlists on YouTube, and a small list of podcasts that I’m subscribed to, and
• Drafts for collecting random thoughts.

I’m not doing much processing, but when I do:

• Drafts and Zotero for longer thoughts, and notes

And finally, for output, I use:

• iA Writer for writing posts like this and anything longer,
• Notion for working with Vaidehi on UAKC, and
• Google Docs and Office 365 when we’re collaborating remotely with other people.

I’m not building a Zettelkasten or anything like that. The thought of it appeals to me, but I have to get over the mental hurdle that everything in my backlog needs to be processed before I can produce anything¹. I might get around to creating one, but it will be something I build as I work on things, not before.

There are days when I feel like I’m like a dragon that hoards information candy².

Productivity

I’ve fallen off the GTD wagon more times than I can think of. I’ve tried text files, email reminders, scheduled Telegram messages, spreadsheets, bullet journals, web based apps, and premium apps like OmniFocus. What can I say? I love making lists.

What I struggle with is crossing things off lists.

There’s an idea in my head that if I can just get everything into a perfect list, it will all be better, and I will be more productive and prolific. It’s bullshit, of course. By the time I’m done brain dumping and sorting things out, I’m too tired to do any of the things on my list. And if I rush in to just do it³? I’m simultaneously paralysed by all the options and terrified that I’m forgetting more important things.

We’ve (Vaidehi and I) tried using a LOT of apps, especially since we work across Windows, iOS, Android, and the Internet. We’ve currently settled on a bulleted list inside a Google Doc. It’s not very high tech⁴, but it’s been the best fit for us.

Time Management

I’m time-blind. I rarely register time passing, and I certainly can’t estimate how long has passed while I’m working on something, or how long something should take. I occasionally brush my teeth while heating my coffee because I know that I’ve set that timer for 2 minutes. I’ve also taken hours to write and send an email because I didn’t think I spent a long time figuring out where the comma should be placed.⁵

For a long time, I relied on my calendar – all appointments went on it. If something wasn’t on my calendar, I wouldn’t do it. But over the last year, we’ve been time-blocking a lot more. It’s a lot of work up front. We had to take a hard look at what was on our plates, and the kind of life that we wanted. Then we budgeted the time we had against everything that we wanted and needed to spend time on.

It’s certainly not a system for everyone. Friends who’ve asked about it are speechless when they see our calendar and spreadsheets. But it works for us.⁶ And that’s all that matters.

Finances

YNAB has, without a doubt, been one of the biggest changes in my life. I tried to budget in the past. It never went anywhere. I had “new YNAB” for almost 2 years before it finally clicked.

As soon as we got married, we created a joint budget. Then, we figured out what was important to both of us. We caught that I was engaging in collecting tendencies outside the internet as well. It’s helped to curtail some of that, and I can engage with my hobbies more proactively.

We paid off my credit card. I carried debt for a while because I earned enough to pay it off. But I wasn’t disciplined with my card usage.

Vaidehi even worked there for a season. It really helped us to get a lot more comfortable with using the service, and budgeting in general.

We’re using it for company finances as well, but haven’t quite dialled that in. I’ll write more on that when we do. In the meantime, I’m going to be listening to Beginning Balance, the YNAB podcast about using YNAB to run your business.

The secret ingredient

Some of these things work for me now when they didn’t before for a simple reason – my wife is involved in them too. Things we struggled at doing individually became significantly easier when we were doing it together. We do what’s hard for the other person but easier for us. We keep each other accountable, so it’s not easy to say, “I’ll do that later” or stop doing things because it’s hard.⁷

I mentioned at the start that this setup isn’t for everyone. I know this because that’s the answer we get after we show people our systems. These aren’t the only ones either – we have them for our home, health, and pretty much everything you can think of. It keeps us functional.