Disclaimer: This might come off as a complete infomercial for the Action Method line of products, software, etc. But the truth is (unfortunately) I am not financially benefiting from this rave review in the slightest. That’s right. I didn’t even drop a single affiliate link in this post. I’m just an awesome guy, trying to make your life a little more awesome with my awesome advice.
I waste a lot of time trying to be more productive.
What I mean is I’m always trying to find new ways to increase my productivity—at work, at home, even in my social life. The goal is to get more accomplished in a shorter amount of time. But often what happens is the exact opposite. You introduce new tools, methods or behaviors to increase productivity and you end up spending more time trying to stick to your new processes than you do getting things done.
I’m 95% confident that The Action Method is the cure.
The Action Method is a self-described radical approach to productivity and project management. Really it’s just a system for getting things done with a strong bias towards taking action. It assumes everything in your life can be sorted into “projects.” These projects can be divided into three parts:
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1.) action steps
2.) references
3.) backburner items.
It’s ridiculously simple, but for me at least, has been incredibly effective. If you’re interested, I highly recommend reading the founder, Scott Belsky’s book, “Making Ideas Happen.” It helps lay the groundwork for how you approach the “projects” in your life and gives you extremely actionable advice—something not very common in most productivity books. Trust me, I’ve read most of them.
Then if you’re a pen and paper kind of person, look into the action method paper products. But if you spend a good chunk of your time on a computer, go sign up for the Action Method Online. In my case, I dropped the roughly $90 (with discount coupon) for a year’s subscription and haven’t regretted it a bit. And once the next generation iPhone makes its way into my hands, I’ll be adding the Action Method app to my productivity weapon set as well.
This ends my gross public display of affection for the Action Method line of products (for now).
