Inspired by David Pierce’s 3 part productivity podcast series for the Vergecast here is my current productivity system.
| Category | Tool | Use | Status | Remarks |
| Home | Obsidian | Notes | Adopted | In 2024, after being an Evernote user since the beginning and a long-term markdown user, I finally switched to Obsidian using Yarle. I use FolderSync to allow sync between Android and Google drive and consequently Windows. |
| Google Calendar | Calendar, Reminders | Adopted | Multiple calendars for personal, events, and hustles. Calendars for every family member are colour-coded. |
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| Google Docs | Family documents, Manuals, Spreadsheet trackers | Adopted | Occasional use. | |
| Microsoft ToDo | ToDo braindump | Adopted | The old Wunderlist! I have it open on a Firefox tab and a widget on my phone. I have a Samsung Galaxy phone and I have it set up so that I can say “Hey Bixby, save a reminder to book the dentist” and an item is added to this ToDo list instantly. |
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| Trello | ToDo master | Adopted | I used to use Any.do but I moved to Trello in 2017 My main lists are ToDo, Entertainment, and Goals, within each list I have multiple columns including a Done column. I have my Trello ToDo List column “This Week” showing as a widget on my phone. |
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| KeePassXC | Sensitive | Adopted | Life admin details like bank, insurance, and other vitals as well as website logins. You can use plugins to autofill in the browser on your laptop and mobile. | |
| Asana | Backburner projects | Adopted | Projects that get occasional attention. | |
| Scrap paper, back of envelopes, old printouts, etc | Daily ToDo | Adopted | ToDos gets braindumped here also if I’m at the desk, otherwise, they go into Microsoft ToDo. Anything that’s not ticked off on paper gets moved to Trello by the end of the week. | |
| Strava | Exercise | Adopted | I miss the superior Endomondo which Under Armour sunset on 31 Dec 2020. Swim and runs are auto-populated from my Garmin Instinct 2 watch. Core workouts are manually entered. | |
| Google Sheets | Daily journaling | Adopted | Three grateful things. I have a direct link on my phone to this sheet. | |
| Ruff | Braindump | Trial | Android App, single sheet widget. For longer than ToDos brain dump notes. | |
| Google Docs | Conversation topics | Trial | Idea from VergeCast to trial. | |
| Google Tasks | Reminders | Trial | Idea from VergeCast to trial. I am currently adding reminders, which are not hard deadlines but which I wish to do this week via calendar events, e.g. to call someone. It might work better in Google tasks as it also shows with the calendar. | |
| Work | Jira | Tasks | Adopted | In long use in the company. |
| Spiral bound notebook | Tasks and notes | Adopted | In the past, I have scanned pages that seemed important before throwing out the notebook when full, but the scans were never looked at again. | |
| Manifest | Daily task list | Access / Trial | Explore how it may help me. |