Maybe you’re collapsed by hundreds of tasks.
Maybe you need to put order in the chaos.
These 4 levels will help you move towards your goals every day.
What’s Your Action System in Your PKM?
It’s the one that leads your actions.
It moves you from esoteric goals to pragmatic daily action items.
It answers the simple and, at the same time, complicated question: What do I have to do now?
Level 1: Saving
It’s the first step.
You need to quickly capture any item you need to do.
You want to feel safe and sound, knowing you don’t miss anything.
A place to quickly drop all the small to-dos (a pain in the ass) that hit your brain until you write them down.
Level 2: Structure
Level 1 gives you a sensation of relief, but it also leaves you with a chaotic situation, surrounded by hundreds of tasks.
You get lost in the forest. In fact, you just see an infinite amount of trees.
You need a bird eye’s view. You need structure.
This is the structure I recommend:
- Goals.
- Projects.
- Tasks.
- To-dos.
Goals tell you a direction, a sense to what you’ll do.
Projects allow you to define priorities better.
Tasks let you group similar to-dos to schedule your actions easier.
Level 3: Duration
You’re managing time, not projects, tasks, or even goals.
Your life is just a certain amount of time.
You have to decide what you’ll do with it.
Specify a duration for each task.
Time blocking is the best technique I’ve found.
I recommend fighting for 1-hour blocks as a minimum. If they’re 2–3 hours blocks, even better.
Time blocking drives your dreams to reality, slapping your face to tell you time is what it is.
Welcome to the real world!
Level 4: Prioritization
Don’t stop in level 3. It’s a mistake.
Level 3 is a real and good initial map but naive.
Life’s fast today.
Unexpected events appear at any moment.
You need a level where you can handle them.
It has to be fast because your time is for doing, not organizing.
This level just shows you this week’s and today’s tasks.
You need to quickly move things up and down, looking for sequentiality as soon as possible because you’re a sequential creature.
This level tells you what to do right now, perfectly combining your initial planning with your real circumstances at any moment.
It’s your killing machine of doing.
Takeaways
- These 4 levels are the foundational core of your Action System.
- They move you from dreaming to achieving.
- They bring all you’re looking for in life: security, organization, execution, clarity, and fulfillment.
What are you waiting for?
Photo by Amanda Schmidt on Unsplash.