Introduction

Hello there!
At the moment I'm reading a book about stress-free productivity and I want to share one or two tips that are mentioned in this book. These tips are really simple but I was surprised how effective they are if you follow them.

Capture

The first thing that you have to know is this: Your brain is not a storage. This simply means you have to stop using your brain to remember everything. And this is simple as you just have to write everything down that pops into your mind. And I really mean everything. You don't have to be very specific and also you don't need to write them down as a TODO. Just write them down as generic as you want them to be. You will clarify them later.

This will clear your mind and your brain can do the things it's supposed to do: Thinking and solving problems and have new ideas.

You can do it in whatever way you like it. For example, I like to sort them into simple blocks like Personal, Flutter, Side project ABC, etc., and under these headlines, I write all things that are in my mind.

Clarify

The next step is also pretty easy. Take your captured notes and clarify what actions need to be done. This is the step where you will take the notes and form a TODO list.

This means that one point of your capture list can be one or more items on your TODO list based on how big or complicated it is. You have to consider things like if this item has to be done within a specific time range or even on a specific day. Then you can use a Calendar. Otherwise, a simple TODO list is all you need but the most important thing is:

Regardless of what Calendar you use or where you write down your captured items and TODOs: Your brain has to trust this system.

Otherwise, the whole thing is not very effective because the reason for this system is to take those things off your brain. If you trust your system your brain will have the capacity for the really important stuff in your life and your stress level will shrink enormously because if you have clarified all the things that were in your mind and know what to do with them you don't have to worry about anything.

Simple ToDo List

As I said keep it simple. Choose whatever system you are most comfortable with and trust the most. For example for time-specific things, I use the normal Calendar App from Apple as it's synchronized between all my devices.

And for all other stuff, I use Notion. Notion is really great because you can customize it to your needs and it's very user-friendly. You can take a text passage and transform it into a whole new page in two clicks. It's available on the web and on all devices and synchronizes between them. I highly recommend you test it if you don't know it yet.

Of course, you also can do take notes on paper if you like it or use any other note-taking app. As I said the important thing is your brain trust it. Everything else is up to you.

Conclusion

It's impressive how simple it can be to be more productive and simultaneously reduce your stress level dramatically because everything is captured and clarified. I hope you can take these tips and improve your life.

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Stay safe and healthy guys!

And as always: develop yourself!