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Back to EpisodesDon't Copy. Find Your Own Style.
Description
This week, why you should not be copying other people’s systems.
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Script | 347
Hello, and welcome to episode 347 of the Your Time, Your Way Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host of this show.
There is a lot of advice on managing your to-dos, organising your notes and controlling your calendar. And it can be tempting to copy whatever you have seen, believing if it worked for someone else, it must work for you.
Well, not so fast.
One thing I’ve learned from coaching hundreds of people is that no individual is the same. We think differently, have different jobs, and have different family lives and interests.
One example is Tiago Forte’s PARA method. It’s a great way to organise your notes, and many people swear by it. However, it never worked for me. I’m a goal-orientated person. Goals motivate me. I also define Areas of Focus differently from how Tiago defines an area.
This is why I settled on GAPRA (Goals, Areas of Focus, Projects, Resources and Archive.)
This does not mean that PARA does not work. It works, for some people. Similarly, I have coaching clients who find GAPRA works better. It all depends on how you think, like to organise things and do your work.
So, what can you do with so much conflicting advice? How can you find the methods for you? Well, before I get to that, let me hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week’s question.
This week’s question comes from Frank. Frank asks, hi Carl. I’ve been a life-long follower of productivity systems and have struggled to find a system that works for me. How would you advise someone to find a way that works for them?
Hi Frank, thank you for your question.
Around 20 years ago, I began my career as an English teacher in Korea.
I had come from working a typical 9 til 5 office job and suddenly I was on the other side of the world, working from 6:30 am to 12:00 pm and 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm. It was tough.
I’m not a natural morning person—never have been—so waking up at 5:00 am was a shock to my system.
It wasn’t long before I began taking naps. I would get home at 12:30, and go straight back to bed for two hours.
For the next ten years, that’s what I continued to do.
I had l