The Best Productivity System (IMHO).
As we seek to fight the destructive forces of busyness at work in our lives, we have discussed the need to find our identity in Christ, instead of what we do. We have also looked at how to follow the Holy Spirit as He guides our calendar and daily activities. Now, if you can find a good productivity system to pull it all together, and stay organized, you will be able to have victory over “busy.”
I want to share with you the general productivity system that I currently use. Since I have put it into use, it has been a game-changer for me and my ministry! I continually recommend it to my leadership team and to others I coach and mentor. Now, I am happy to recommend it to you.
Let me preface by saying that other than a small kick back from Amazon, I do not get any financial or other benefit from recommending these products to you. I am sincerely recommending this system to those who struggle to maintain their course, accomplish their goals, and organize their day-to-day life. My ability to get things done has been revolutionized by this sytem. I am not an affiliate; I am just a fan.
The system I have been using for the last few years comes from Michael Hyatt. He is a former C.E.O. of Thomas Nelson publishers turned blogger and productivity guru. I discovered his blog many years ago, and I was always encouraged by his practical advice. However, I never went much deeper into his products, except for the occasional free webinar.
Over the last two years, however, I have engaged with some of his tools, and my life has been completely transformed by what I have learned. I am happy to share it with you.
Step 1: Creating a Life Plan
Though I casually followed Hyatt’s blog and leadership podcast from time to time, it all changed when I found one of his books on a clearance rack in my local bookstore. This book, “Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get The Life You Want” (with co-writer Daniel Harkavy), walks through all of the practical steps necessary to create a “life plan.” Like a GPS, a life plan is a personal guide to help you determine who you want to be in life, and how to get there day after day.
This book came into my life at the perfect time. I was already being impacted by a teaching from Andy Stanley, called “A New You Resolution.” The main point Andy made was, “it is always a mistake to determine what you will do, before you decide who you will be.” I had also recently been thinking through the life planning idea after walking through “Storyline: Finding Your Subplot in God’s Story” by Donald Miller.
It all came together for me as I worked through the steps in Living Forward. I wrote my own eulogy. I determined what mattered to me in life, and thought through the purpose of each area. This tool helped me to reverse engineer my life, in order to stay on course to get to where I want to be. This is the best $3 purchase I have made in the last decade!
Step 2: Setting and Achieving Annual Goals
As I began to spend more time on Hyatt’s various free resources, it wasn’t long before I began hearing about certain strategic seminars that he offered. One had to do with setting goals and achieving them in a practical, methodical system, and the other dealt with finding freedom in your busy schedule to do what matters most in your life. Unfortunately, at the time, I couldn’t afford the costs of those seminars.
To my delight, however, it wasn’t long until Hyatt released the first of those seminars in book form, titled “Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals.”
I had always been one who sits down at the beginning of the year and set goals for myself. Someone gave me a Franklin Covey planning system in college. I have tried various productivity systems, since then, to keep focus and get things done. However, my failure rate was always much higher than my success rates. Over the course of time, distractions would come in, priorities would shift, and I’d end the year saying, “I’ll do better next time.”
Please note that I am not pointing blame at the various productivity systems I tried. It was my own inability to make them work for me. But they say the best productivity system is the one you will actually use.
Upon reading Your Best Year Ever, I found the best system for me! My thinking on fulfilling goals radically shifted. The way Hyatt differentiated between goals and projects already made sense to me. It was the practical side of breaking down your annual goals into smaller timeframes and achievable actions that pushed me forward.
Throughout the course of the year, you may have 8-10 goals you want to achieve. However, Hyatt urges you to divide them down into quarterly goals. You break these 2-3 goals each quarter down into actionable tasks. You then follow through on them by choosing a weekly “Big 3,” which are the tasks you must do that week to complete the goals on time. Then again, you divided those out into your daily “Big 3.”
As you keep your goals in front of you, take actionable steps, do weekly reviews, and intentionally move forward, it builds a momentum that keeps you going until you achieve success.
Personally, I have accomplished more of my goals in the last couple of years, after reading and applying the principles in Best Year Ever, than ever before.
Step 3: Managing Your Time
At the same time I read Best Year Ever, I was introduced to Michael Hyatt’s physical, daily planner, which is designed around his teachings. This planner helps you manage your goals, your weekly and daily “Big 3’s” and complete the weekly review.
It is called, “The Full Focus Planner,” and even in my work in Africa (where it is difficult to get them delivered), the FFP has become my daily companion for tracking my goals, my to-do’s and managing my time.
On the one hand, having a paper planner might seem like a hassle. However, what I have found is that it sets me free from my digital addictions, it keeps all my planning and note-taking needs in one place, and it has actually helped me to focus more on a moment-to-moment basis, because I can simply write down the mental distractions that come up, and delegate them to a future slot in my calendar for review.
For some, the cost of the Full Focus Planner might seem a bit prohibitive, at first. I understand the feeling. I can honestly say, however, as someone who runs an international ministry on a shoestring budget, that this planner is one of those rare things which are worth every dollar you spend, because of the return on investment it offers.
Step 4: Focusing on What Matters Most
Even putting the Full Focus Planner system into use, and using it daily for almost two years, now, I was still struggling to minimize my distractions, and clear unnecessary, burdensome tasks from my schedule.
Once again, in perfect timing to help me on this journey to productivity, Hyatt has released the second seminar as an easy to follow book called, “Free to Focus: A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less.”
After reading this book a couple of months ago, I am loving the process of eliminating, automating, and delegating tasks that hinder me from doing the work that matters most. I can already say with confidence that what I have learned from this book has filled in the gaps for me, and the areas I was struggling in are now coming under control.
I have put together daily rituals and designed my ideal week, and have been able to get more accomplished (that matters) in the last month, than any other in recent history. It has helped me find clarity on the work that requires my personal touch, and what can be given away. It has also helped me become a better leader and mentor to my ministry team.
Just last week, while my team handled some legal issues and oversaw a lot of day-to-day items that used to bother me, I was able to finish writing and editing an 80 page training manual, and then lead over 100 pastors in our area in the training the book provides.
Why I Recommend This Productivity System
Once again, I do not have an affiliation with Michael Hyatt, and do not benefit from recommending these resources to you. However, after writing on overcoming busyness in our lives for the past couple of weeks, I have been asked multiple times how I personally have been able to achieve this.
I can honestly tell you, that without the Full Focus Planner and the affiliated books which teach the system, I would be completely overwhelmed and burned out. As our family transitioned to Africa full-time last year, and with all of the demands on my time and resources, this system has been a great source of sanity.
I am so thankful to Michael Hyatt and his team. I am also happy to see a Christian business flourish, with integrity and true care for their customer. So it is simply out of that gratitude and a changed life that I can point you in their direction for the absolute best productivity system I have found.
Even if you are not interested in Michael Hyatt’s system, you can download my own goal planning worksheet for free. I use this worksheet every December to think through my goals, before writing them in the Full Focus Planner.
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© Anthony Scott Ingram 2020. All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
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