ΔS
Have you encountered the concept of entropy before? If not, know that as part of the second law of thermodynamics, essentially, entropy is the measurement of a system's tendency to move towards disorder, randomness, and chaos over time unless energy or attention is actively applied.
Let’s look at this idea in the world of productivity. If left unattended, your tasks will naturally move, span out, and arrange themselves in random, chaotic ways. Unmanaged, your system won’t improve. Instead, it will evolve toward greater entropy – meaning more disorder and confusion.
Managing this, then, requires some sort of dedicated, organized effort. And tools, of course, greatly help. With that in mind, here are the top eight I use.
1 - Calendar
This is probably the most overlooked and underrated organizational tool at your disposal. For a lot of people, their calendar is just for knowing when their next meeting is, but they could be using it for so much more.
When you have a lot going on, it’s important to know how much time you have to do all your other tasks besides the scheduled meetings.
The added benefit is that it doesn’t really matter which one you choose as long as it syncs across your devices.
Planning horizon
If you have items planned for a given week, that’s one thing. But if you have two, three, or six months planned, it gives you a completely different planning horizon.
You can use your calendar for whatever length of planning horizon you want, balancing short- and long-term requirements. It gives you much more:
- Structure
- Visibility
- And focus
It also helps with decision-making, resource allocation, and ensures important items aren’t overlooked.
Timeboxing
This is a great technique for making the most of your time. Basically, you block specific periods of time on your calendar for certain activities, such as:
- Journaling
- Planning
- Security reviews
- Infrastructure
- Weekly reviews
- Research
- And so on
This allows you to batch similar items on your to-do list and allocate dedicated time to complete them. It creates a regular cadence for focus on key tasks.
Highlighting available time and conflicts
Your calendar will highlight any scheduling conflicts. But, possibly more importantly, it highlights what you don’t have time for. This prevents you from over-scheduling, which only leads to:
- Overwhelm
- Performance problems
- And worse
2 - Things
This is my main tool for task management. Everything goes into this! I use it for my Getting Things Done (GTD) process (more on this later), which is a way of thinking and approaching productivity.
In Things, I jot everything down. Not just to-do items but also notes and information. Then, I begin each day by reviewing all the items I have recorded. At first, they’re disorganized, but I take this time in the morning to:
- Review
- Categorize
- Organize
- And prioritize
From this, I am able to create a manageable and realistic to-do list for my day. This daily review also keeps me on track for the week as I know what else needs to be completed, looked into, or to keep an eye on. It allows me to focus on the most important tasks.
Reminders
Not only can you write notes and to-do items, but you can also set reminders that are linked to certain items. This is a lifesaver for preventing you from overlooking anything or being unprepared.
For example, let’s say I have several meetings scheduled for Friday. In the morning, I will receive all these reminders, telling me what I need to talk to someone about or if I need to do anything prior to the meeting, such as gathering information.
3 - Notion
Notion is a productivity app you can use for:
- Personal organization
- To-do lists
- Task tracking
- And note-taking
You can also create spaces to share with teams, allowing you to all work on one platform. I use it as a broader part of my organization, and it is the main place to store my information, notes, and ideas.
Notebook
Notion acts as my huge digital notebook.
For me, writing is part of my thinking process. Just doing it helps me clarify my thoughts. Notion helps me capture and store all of them. Even if I don’t always go back to them, the fact of having them stored gives me clarity.
Annual organization
Every year, I create a note called “Archive.” This holds everything I have captured for that year. Then, if I ever need something from before, I can go back to find it. It’s important to me to not delete items but to keep a record of them instead.
Doing this sets up an ongoing organizational structure for me. It also provides a clean working space for the new year.
Reducing cognitive load
It’s not possible (well not for me!) to keep all these thoughts in my head at the same time. Writing them down lightens the burden and clears that mental clutter. This allows me to focus on the tasks at hand.
4 - Grain
I use a lot of AI tools, and Grain is my choice for note-taking in meetings.
For each meeting, it provides you with:
- A complete transcript
- A recording
- Chapters
- Summary
- Action items
- And the length of time and percentage of each participant
These details are then easily shared with your participants. For a lot of my meetings, a recorder is essential. Without it, so much would be lost. Having a tool to take care of the meeting notes takes the burden off everyone so we can focus on the meeting itself.
5 - Otter
You can use Otter as a meeting note taker, but I use it to take voice notes and turn them into transcriptions.
For example, my drive to the office is 40 minutes. This gives me 40 minutes of uninterrupted time, but obviously, I can’t write while driving. So, I utilize this time with Otter. It gives me the voice recording and a full transcript. When I get to the office, I can download the transcript and use the Otter AI Chat to:
- Add information
- Edit
- Reformat
- Generate summaries
- And pull information from other recordings
One of my favorite features of Otter is the action items. When you’re talking, you can either highlight them directly by saying, “Action Item 1” or “Action Item 2,” etc. or it extracts them itself. It then captures these items with checkboxes, giving you a list of actionable items.
This is a great tool for ensuring you don’t forget anything and can easily keep track of what you have to do.
6 - Superhuman
I love Superhuman. It’s an email client with a lot of shortcuts and embedded AI.
As an EM, managing emails can be an enormous daily time drain. For me, when you have a lot of emails, Superhuman is a game changer. With it, you can:
- Quickly process hundreds of emails with simple keyboard shortcuts
- Categorize your emails
- Generate replies using AI
- And set reminders
It significantly speeds up email workflow, which is very important when you’re dealing with hundreds of emails and managing multiple tasks and communications.
7 - ChatGPT
I use ChatGPT for a ton of things. It’s great for brainstorming, ideation, and problem-solving. I also use it in conjunction with the other tools. For example, after using Grain or Otter, I use ChatGPT to:
- Process transcripts
- Pull out key information
- Ask questions
- Refine the information
- And structure and polish it
It saves me time as compared to having to manually review, format, or structure the transcripts.
8 - Perplexity
Perplexity is my go-to tool for research. I use it for
- Market research
- Engineering tasks
- Researching problems
- And brainstorming
Basically, for anything that involves searching online, Perplexity is amazing. You can even set the focus of your search. For example, if you use social search, it will draw the information from community discussions like Reddit.
Another reason I use Perplexity is because it provides real-time research, giving you up-to-date information. Other tools, like ChatGPT, have an older cut-off date.
Remember to review
Whatever tools you use, reviewing your system is crucial to your success.
I’m a strong advocate of the Getting Things Done (GTD) method. In GTD, the Daily Review process is essential for closing loops and preventing tasks from slipping through the cracks.
David Allen, the creator of GTD, stresses that any system, no matter how well-organized initially, quickly becomes ineffective if not maintained through consistent reviews. This is why I start every morning with one.
It’s easy to get carried away with tools. Especially when new, exciting ones come out. I remember in school the systems some students would have of:
- Different colored pens for different notes
- Different highlighters
- Bullet points
- Spider diagrams
- And so on
They’d spend more time on making sure the system of recording notes was right than remembering the information!
So, if you find yourself spending more time going through all these different tools, then you might want to review your process. Remember, these tools are supposed to help us be more productive and efficient, not take up more of our time.
The short version: from chaos to control
The right tools can be assets in streamlining your workload, reducing chaos, and allowing you to focus. Some of my favorite tools that I use are:
- Calendar
- Things
- Notion
- Grain
- Otter
- Superhuman
- ChatGPT
- And Perplexity
By using these tools and conducting regular reviews, I maintain structure and focus. Make sure these tools work for you and not the other way around. Aim for balance, use tools to fit your needs, and not overcomplicate the situation – that way, you’ll keep entropy in check and boost productivity levels.
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Originally published on Medium.com
Content in this blog post by Alex Ponomarev is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
