Posts by Mike Sturm

As simple as it may seem to fill out your Today Card every day, it can also be very difficult. We often find ourselves with so many things to do each day it can be difficult to decide which things are the most important for us to tackle. Yes, the top items on your card should be the most important.…

For all of the definitions of "productivity" I've come across, none is as complete is a single word. productivity = intentionality It's as simple as it gets. Being productive means being intentional. It means being intentional with your use of your 2 most valuable resources: your time and energy. It means that you deploy those things in service of the…

Easily one of my favorite books is the Tao Te Ching. It’s an ancient Chinese text that’s either the collected wisdom of many ancient sages, or the reflections of a single accomplished and revered old man as he left his village to live as a hermit in his old age. No one knows for sure. But either way, it’s filled…

The human mind craves certainty. It is our surest bet for dealing with the uncertainty around us that makes up the world in general, and our lives each day. That’s why core values are so important. Values are constant. Their constance gives us certainty. And our commitment to our values serves as the anchor of certainty which allows us to…

"Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in." Andrew Jackson There is an important line that separates when to think and when to act. But it's not easy to see--especially in the practice of daily life. On one hand, you don’t want to spring too quickly into action. Acting too quickly, without…

We often associate being productive with doing things—with hard work, or "doing the doing". And so we push ourselves to get to work on tasks quickly. Hence the ubiquity of the to-do list. But because of that, we miss a key distinction—one that's important to understand if we want to become more productive, instead of just better at doing. I’m…

There’s an old Zen parable that highlights the importance of spending your time wisely. A man goes to a Zen master and says “I need help. I’m stressed, I’m overwhelmed, my mind races all the time, and it all feels like it’s all too much. What can I do?” The Zen master tells the man "you should meditate for 20…

My absolute favorite book on personal productivity is David Allen's Getting Things Done. The system it lays out is excellent for getting organized and more productive. It was my productivity bible for several years, as I began my career. But there's something at the core of the GTD system that a lot of people don't quite grasp the first time…

Why a new index card every day? Tools are supposed to make things easier. A hammer makes it easier to drive a nail into something. A riding lawnmower makes it easier to mow large spaces. An app makes it easier to organize and act on information. But sometimes, the tool that's supposed to make things easier can end up doing…

If you acknowledge and embrace your limits, you can become limitless. There's a popular quote attributed to Bill Gates that lays out an unofficial law of productivity: Most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in ten years.Bill Gates Quite simply, we seem to be bad at understanding our abilities related to either really…

It can often seem like there's too much work to do; too many tasks, and too little time. And the tasks can often seem so complex that it's difficult to even get started, let alone make decisions about which tasks are more important than others. But if there's one thing I learned during my tenure in academic philosophy, it's that…

I don't have a long and detailed story of how I came to start using the Today System. I was in the office supply aisle at the grocery store on a day where I was just trying to motivate myself to get important things done. I saw the index cards, and bought them. Then I listed out the items I…