What is a Productivity Method?

A productivity method is one of the building blocks of a productivity system. We can define productivity method in the same way we did productivity system by looking at the definition of each of the individual words.

According to dictionary.com, productivity is:

And a method is:

Combining these two definitions results in:

A simpler definition could be:

In other words, a productivity method is a way in which you do certain things inside of your productivity system. They are the steps you follow to carry out different types of activities within your system. They are independent from any particular productivity app, which are a separate type of component within your overall productivity system. Productivity methods are used within apps, but a particular app shouldn’t be necessary to use a productivity method.

Examples

Some examples of productivity methods are:

PARA

Creator: Tiago Forte

Purpose: Organization of project information inside a simple system of folders (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives)

Getting Things Done (GTD)

Creator: David Allen

Purpose: Capturing and processing information and tasks using inboxes and categorized lists

Bullet Journal

Creator: Ryder Carroll

Purpose: Capturing and organizing tasks and notes inside of a physical notebook