hello cities potatoes after
experimenting with endless productivity
systems tips and apps throughout the
past decade I'm here to share my
Ultimate Guide to plan and organize our
lives and to keep them organized you
constantly feel like your life is in
shambles or if you're simply tired of
being busy for the sake of being busy
this guide is for you oh first talk
through setting up your systems and then
take you guys through a week of my life
using the system including a weekend
reset daily planning and daily shutdown
thank you so much to sunsama for
sponsoring this video you guys know this
is my favorite productivity app of all
time can't wait to share more in a
little
all right let's set up our system the
reason why this is so important is
because one of the primary reasons why
we're procrastinate as humans is that we
don't have a clear idea of what we're
doing and so instead of facing the
unknown and to figure out what we need
to do we just run away from our pain and
we go on Instagram we watch YouTube
videos even if it's on productivity now
that we know this is why we
procrastinate let's play offense instead
of Defense the first thing you do is you
write down everything you need to do on
a given week as it pertains to work as
it pertains to study as it pertains to
school whatever it is that you think is
worth the next list is going to be
non-negotiables these are the things I
need to do every week to make sure I
stay sane the last section is play write
down everything you would like to do in
a week whether it is Hobbies whether it
is wanting to spend at least half a day
for yourself every single weekend once
you have your three lists of work of
non-negotiables of rest slash play it's
time to start adding these into your
calendar I made a whole video dedicated
to calendar blocking so if you guys want
a more in-depth overview on all things
calendar blocking related please refer
to this video the tldr is you want to
First add your non-negotiables into your
calendar so that it can help you create
breaks within your calendar what I would
add into the calendar next would either
be plain rest or work if you've been
playing and resting more I would
probably prioritize work if you've been
working a lot I probably prioritize plan
rest or you start adding tasks into work
I would First Take 5-10 minutes to go
through the list of tasks that you're
working on and try to categorize or try
to batch them together so that instead
of I need to do this thing at this time
is I need to do creative work during
this block of time or I need to do admin
work during this time batching together
similar tasks can help prevent contact
switch so for any of us who feels like
we're being pulled in all directions
every single day and it feels like
you're doing so much but at the end of
the day also feels like you're not
getting anything done a lot of it can be
due to this why this is important is
because Studies have found that actually
takes about 20 minutes for you to shift
from one context to another especially
if you're doing something very different
which can make you feel you're doing all
of these things but not any of them well
once you've finished putting everything
into your calendar what you see in front
of you should be a calendar that serves
more of a guide than it is a to-do list
and once this is created all you need to
do is check in with yourself probably
once a week to be like hey is my
calendar working for me is there
anything that I need to tweet is it
overwhelming is it reasonable these
systems again are here to help us we can
mold them over time and change them over
time to adapt to where we are and to
meet us where we are so once this is all
set it's time to use our systems I was
in Vermont this past weekend so I did my
weekend reset on Sunday after getting
back at 10 pm I generally do this in the
afternoon if I'm not traveling so for
the weekend reset the very first thing I
do is to update my calendar with any
meetings meals or events James is
visiting this week I usually only have
the mental capacity to do one social
dinner per week so this is an anomaly
next I'll see if I need to move around
any meetings and start planning out the
week I'm using sensama here and
throughout the video but the principle
behind the way the app is designed can
be applied on any sort of medium that
you're using whether it's paper whether
it's snow basically anywhere you usually
do your planning now starting from
Monday I'm adding any new tasks and I
tag them by channels using the hashtag
sign and assigning how much time I think
I'll spend on each task with the
squiggly sign I never really know what
to call it channels work like tabs to
help keep everything organized and I'll
talk about time tracking a little bit
later it's one of my favorite features
with instant Sama it's very easy to also
pull up my calendar on the sidebar to
see if there are any to-do's that I need
to add to tasks you can just click that
button it's like super super easy and on
Monday there happens to be a weekly
meeting and also adding an additional to
do to prep for the meeting so this is
actually something that really helps me
when I see upcoming meetings it helps me
remember oh yes to be prepared for this
meeting here are the tasks I need to do
this is why I love going through the
calendar per day as I'm planning each
day and another cool feature is within
any task you can create subtasks so if
it's a bigger project and there's a
couple things you need to check off you
can very easily break down or visualize
all the different tasks that you need to
complete within this one task and as you
guys can see at the top the time there's
a orange circle around the time which
basically means you should be cautious
of how much time you're spent working
today if every task you add in the plan
time is over eight hours it'll be read
it'll be bright red to let you know bruh
are you sure you want to work this much
and when it is under six hours it is a
gray color which is just like yes you're
doing a good job and this is why I
really appreciate the app so many little
things are built in to remind you to
work smarter and not harder and to
really create that work-life balance and
set those work boundaries for yourself
and the very last thing I want to show
you guys is how easily you can drag and
drop your tasks into your calendar and
how easily that will automatically
populate into the Google Calendar
do you guys see that brilliant so
brilliant so all of this this is what I
usually spend at least 10-15 minutes on
every weekend to prepare for the week so
that by the time Monday rolls around I'm
not in panic mode I've already thought
through the week and I already have a
general idea of how Monday's gonna go
and I'll see you guys tomorrow morning
to walk you through my daily planning
ritual
good morning
okay so I want to walk you guys through
how I plan my days at the top
every morning we already took the time
over the weekend to plan for the week
your daily planning ritual should
actually take no more than five to ten
minutes max right when it opens in Sama
the first thing that I see on the far
left I love this little prompt what do
you want to get done today very first
thing I do is I look over what is
already here I'll also simultaneously
pull up my Google Calendar once again to
really study my week so once you put
everything in the next step is to
prioritize everything and as you guys
can see on the right here these are your
weekly objective this helps remind you
what you need to prioritize so I
actually finished this yesterday I'm
gonna check that off and then next we
have this video that is upcoming so I
will actually move up outline filming
and rough cut will be in the afternoon
as you guys see on the next page when I
click next it asks you what can wait bum
back tasks that aren't essential for you
to get to today today yeah really help
much today tomorrow
Yeah tomorrow's tomorrow I'll get to it
tomorrow so once you click next finalize
your plan for today arrange your task in
the order that you want to work on them
what I would do here is if let's say
just one of those days where I had
significantly more tasks I would either
star the most important things to let me
know of its priority or drag it into my
calendar to be like this is the time you
need to work on this thing the way that
I actually prioritize my task I know
that from nine to around 11. here are
the things that I can get to and then
this is my lunch and spiritual
connecting with self work life balancing
block and then afterwards I have calls I
have meetings and then here's another
block of time that I can be worked so
this is how I'll go about my day what
time would you like to wrap up work by
today I think today I'm going to wrap up
work honestly at eight maybe even later
and then you'll see why this will pop up
tonight when we check back in So this
looks good daily planning obstacles in
the way myself XOXO how I go about my
day so let's say we're getting started
with this task if it is time to start
all I have to do is click this play
button
and this whole page will just turn into
this one pass this One Singular task
that I need to work on this is kind of
like a built-in Pomodoro where you can
focus and if you need you take a break
it gives you a short break you go about
your day you do your thing and then when
you're done you just go straight back in
and the reason why I absolutely love
this Focus mode and why I intentionally
spent time in the morning to get
everything in order is so that once you
click in and you complete a task the
next tasks immediately following from
your to-do list will pop up and then
when you click the next thing will pop
up this is brilliant this really helps
eliminate distraction there's only one
thing to do and you just have to do it
once you have everything set there's not
much else you need to do here other than
to have it serve as a guide for you
you're ever feeling lost throughout the
day if you found yourself wandering off
on a bird walk it's here so so that you
can come back and be like oh yes this is
my game plan for the day I may have
slightly departed for an hour but let me
get back on track it is not here to
judge you it is not here to stress you
out it is not here to distract you it is
here to help you again do whatever you
need to make this work for you
I will see you guys tonight for the
daily shutdown off to the office I go
ah all right it's time to shut down for
the day
my camera decided to shut down too
okay so the daily shutdown is just as
important as the daily planning because
just like how you spend five minutes in
the beginning of your day to map out
what you want to do if you're able to
spend the five minutes at the end of
your day to review everything that you
did like this like show be able to see
oh wow today was a very productive day I
did seven full hours of work and it was
divided between my YouTube beauty within
as well as personal growth and
development after the daily shutdown
you're supposed to leave the screen on
done for the day while I know you're
supposed to end your day here and not
touch anything I actually like going
into the next day to mentally plan out
like okay here are all the things that I
need to do is there anything that I need
to add is there anything that I need to
move around and by the time we get to
the Daily planning tomorrow I already
have a very good idea of where I need to
go and that's it this truly has been
tried and true over like a decade of
finessing with my personal productivity
routines and systems so I hope it was
helpful and I'll see you guys in next
week's video it'll be a very very juicy
q a I'm so excited about that okay
[Music]
hug
bye