Utilizing "Capture" to Clear the Deck for Deep Work
Hi, it's Andy! 👋 For years, I’ve been a fan of blocking out “deep work” time. When I’m at my best I have ~3 hours in the morning of uninterrupted time. I try very hard to put the big rocks in before I pour the sand around them each day, typically saving things like email checks for 30 minutes after lunch and 30 minutes at the end of the day. However, when I’m not at my best, I often will get into that “tiger time” as Amy Porterfield calls it, and distraction sets in. I begin thinking about ALL the details in life that aren’t tied down, which can make it really difficult to focus. Anyone who has ever spent any time around me knows that my oldest, most trusted tool is OmniFocus. But it wasn’t until recently that I was able to clarify for myself just why I’ve depended on this single application for almost 15 years running... Let’s Move the Needle. BACKGROUNDLate last Fall, I was dripping in sweat after an evening game of pickleball at my local club. 🏓 It’s some of my favorite time of the week because I’m able to get lost in the game, my phone is away in my bag, and I’m completely detached. #AnalogMode I remember as I walked to my car in the twilight I opened my phone — and like most of us — my thumb muscle twitched and I opened Mail. However, this time, I actually got one of those 1:10,000 messages that we are subconsciously hoping to find. [Cue dopamine hit and another 6-month contract with Mail...] The email was from Andrew Mason, host of The Omni Show podcast, and he wanted to know if I wanted to be a guest on an upcoming episode. I was flattered. 😊 I’ve been a fairly silent productivity geek since my undergrad years, but only recently started letting some of those interests ooze into my professional materials. Frankly, I’m still really floored that he found me. Fast forward a few weeks. Throughout our interview, we unpacked all the ways I’ve used OmniFocus over the years. And in all honesty, I had just recently stopped using it, instead trying to build a Task Management system in Notion. After 15 years, it was a scary departure, and I felt some of my system starting to crumble at times. Perhaps the most common pitfall re: OmniFocus (or most digital task management) is that it can hold everything. It’s very easy to begin loading it up with tasks, until it is bursting at the seams — and impractical to achieve for any single person. Though I’m very aware of this stumbling block, it was something I still struggled with. After years of fighting that issue, I decided maybe it was time to finally try something different. It dawned on me through our discussion that perhaps my best use case for OmniFocus was indeed its Capture® function (see GTD by David Allen (affiliate)). The iPhone app is especially powerful with its Quick Capture feature and I’ve been dropping low end tasks into my OF Inbox on the go for as long as I’ve had a smart phone. Where I struggled, was I was trying to use OF to track the multi-faceted projects, templates, and other large projects in my life. These often involved many tasks, nested projects, and could get thorny quickly. Through trial and error I've found that deep work is best handled just through daily review, and I already had a great system for things like practicing and writing (using Notion: more on that soon!). To do that deep work though, the counter tops need to stay clean and we need to have a handle on all of the inboxes in daily life. OmniFocus’ ability to quick capture the little things has always been my favorite part of the app. Not exclusively, these are often many of the parts of life that are important (debatably) and not urgent — i.e. stuff I often don’t want to do and would fall somewhere in the bottom of the Eisenhower matrix. Faculty training deadlines. Non-regular insurance payments. Annual filing of non-profit materials. All the small stuff that keeps us distracted at those key moments of getting to creative deep work. Since our chat, I've been gaining a lot of momentum using OmniFocus to track the little details, then simply blocking out large times each week for my deep work priorities. I think of it like my personal ticketing system and it's been significantly benefiting my focus. MOTION = MOMENTUM (YOUR CTA)Think about what is weighing on your mind right now. I’ve always believed the mind is not a place to store information, but to process critical thoughts. Could you benefit from implementing a productivity workflow that includes a singular place where you capture your to-do items, so that you can be more present in your creative endeavours? When I’m practicing I almost always have a pad of paper and a pen on the stand next to me. As my mind begins to drift, I dump the ideas onto the paper — regaining the CPU space for maximum creative energy and focus. Thanks so much for reading. With gratitude, Andy 🆎 RECENT FAVORITE THINGS
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