TTK: the Personal Productivity Framework
A quick to learn framework to build your own personal productivity system without falling into the "productivity porn" trap.
There's so much out there written about personal productivity that it can be difficult to know where to start. Most set out highly sophisticated systems developed obsessively by their authors over several years, and based around a particular combination of productivity tools.
Which is a problem, because:
- each system has been painstakingly honed by the author for the author...
- ... but you're not the author, and - unfortunately - what works for them won't necessarily work for you
- moreover, trying to reverse engineer someone else's finely tuned system risks breaking it apart.
You're better off developing your own.
Your own productivity system
The TTK Framework helps you do just that, dividing personal productivity into three pillars (see main image, above):
- Time management: an “ideal day” ensures you work in synch with your brain’s ability to focus and ringfence your day’s Most Important Task, and carves out time for daily and weekly routines to support ..
- Task management, which borrows liberally from Getting Things Done (GTD) and integrates it with …
- Knowledge management: a content pipeline for managing everything from random thoughts to published content, and ensuring you get the most out of what you read.
Crucially, each pillar supports the other two, as introduced in Video 1 and partially captured by the handout introduced in Video 5 (Recap and Synthesis):
There's a lot more in the course - this handout serves as a reminder of some of the key points to help you get started
Finally, the TTK Framework is tool-agnostic - use whatever tool(s) you want.
What you get
The core course:
- Video 1: Introducing the Framework (3m40)
- Video 2: Time management (3m40): organise your day to maximise productivity
- Video 3: Task management (17m14): how not to drown
- Video 4: Personal knowledge management (13m30): how not to drown (again)
- Video 5: Recap and Synthesis of the course, showing how the pieces fit together, and providing a walkthrough the above image, provided as a download (.png) to help you get started (11m13)
Two postscripts, added after I'd finished the main recording:
- Video 6: PS: the single thing I love most about Obsidian (5m38): I mention in "Recap and Synthesis" that the software I use for personal knowledge management also helps manage most of my tasks. This video extract from another course provides a brief preview.
- Video 7: PPS: Productivity & Creativity in a world of AI (4m35): some unscripted final thoughts on the importance of personal productivity in a world of AI.
Finally, you can ask me questions via dedicated social posts (Medium, Threads, Bluesky, LinkedIn or X), and apart from responding there I'll add supplemental materials to the most relevant part of the course so others can benefit.