The Today System
A simple, scalable personal productivity system, built around a single 3 x 5″ index card.
One of my favorite quotes about building systems comes from Albert Einstein:
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
Nowhere is that more true than in personal productivity. Your productivity system is the hub where all your undone work goes, and where all the work you’re going to do comes from. So the more complicated and cumbersome it is, the less likely you are to engage with it. The less you engage with it, the less you trust it. And the less you trust it, the less it works.
Over the years I adopted plenty of systems — apps, planners, paper-based schemes. They were exhilarating at first. I was excited to put all my stuff into them and to tinker with everything. But as the parade of work and life marched on, that enthusiasm gave way to feeling overwhelmed. The systems became too much to keep up with. The already difficult work of keeping track of my work became even more work.
Then one Monday morning, in a fit of frustration, I found myself in the office supply aisle at the grocery store with an entire week of ill-defined work bearing down on me. And I saw it: a 3 x 5″ index card. As nondescript as it seemed, sitting on the shelf with ninety-nine of its identical twins, it held the key to a system I’ve now used every day for years.
All you really have is today. Make it count.
The Today System operates on the belief that while you can plan days, weeks, and months out, you can only get things done today. Its whole focus is on building your best day, every day.
There’s nothing special about the index card as such. But as with any tool, it’s in how you use it. The card represents the simplest and most effective unit of personal productivity as I see it: today.
It provides four things I found lacking in most productivity systems:
- Prioritization
- Focus
- Motivation
- Feedback
It takes about five minutes to start using the system today at Level 1. As you like, you can incorporate higher levels, all the way up to Level 4. It’s up to you.