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Feb 22 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Productivity is communication

Organizations that don't communicate effectively won't be productive. That's not a hot take.

Here's a hotter take: PERSONAL productivity is communication, too. 🔥

Between Today You and Future You.

Same rules apply:
1. Be clear. Write for Future You as though writing for a different person.

2. Be specific. If Future You doesn't know exactly what to do, it probably won't get done.

3. Be reasonable. Your instructions aren't a blood oath. Future You may find a better way! No biggie!

...
If you don't have anything clear or specific for Future You, at least decide what's NEXT.

What's next can even be a clear, specific instruction to figure OUT what the bigger, longer-term picture is.

...
My next Weekend Upgrade newsletter (Fri, Feb 25) will go deeper into this.

Plus we'll explore how to do this in Tools for Thought like @RoamResearch (my TfT of choice), @amplenote, @obsdmd, @logseq, etc.

Sign up if you want to get it!

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More from @rjnestor

R.J. Nestor Profile picture
Feb 19
If you're following my journey writing a novel in @obsdmd, I just posted Chapter Four via Obsidian Publish.

In the long run, I'm going to document my process more fully. But I thought I'd share a few things I've encountered so far. 👇
First, here's the link to Chapter Four if you want to read it: publish.obsidian.md/timeworn/Time+…. You can navigate to the Preface if you'd prefer to start from the beginning.

☮️ I'm a @RoamResearch user. That isn't changing.

I'm writing the novel in @obsdmd to learn the tool...
...and because Obsidian Publish is a great feature!

First impressions:

1. @obsdmd is great for drafting. It's in paragraph form by default, and writing is smooth and intuitive.

2. Obsidian Sync is excellent. I've written quite a bit on my phone & iPad, and it syncs seamlessly.
Read 6 tweets
R.J. Nestor Profile picture
Feb 13
There’s a strong resonance here between @RoamResearch and #GTD.

One of the challenges people report with both is this:

👉 It’s easy to get stuff IN, but not as easy to get stuff OUT.

The missing piece is a more intentional process—so you know where to look and when.
If you find yourself saying “I don’t seem to review my notes enough,” that’s a point of friction in your system.

But friction is opportunity!

Explore WHY you’re not reviewing them. Is it the tool? Is it @RoamResearch’s fault?

Or do you need a workflow to prompt your reviews?
It is always possible that your answer is “it’s the tool.” And if that’s the case, definitely change tools.

But that’s not MY experience with @RoamResearch (or #GTD, for that matter).

I built a #Productivity “front end”—my Daily Cycle—and it ushers me through my day.
Read 8 tweets
R.J. Nestor Profile picture
Feb 12
I’m writing a novel in @obsdmd! (If you want to read chapters as I publish them, the link is further down the thread)

I use @RoamResearch, but as a productivity coach I have clients who use MANY tools. It’s important for me to understand those tools too!

I’m the kind of person who needs a REASON to use a tool. Tools facilitate things—they aren’t an end in themselves.

I took inspiration from @markmcelroy when he began writing his novel in public, and I became interested in @obsdmd ’s Publish feature.
I’ve had this novel on my mind for several years, so when these two interests aligned—learning Obsidian and writing in public—I knew it was time to dive in.

Down the road I expect to offer an @obsdmd version of my AP Productivity course, but for now I’ll be learning as I write.
Read 4 tweets
R.J. Nestor Profile picture
Feb 10
There are many ways to measure success, but we all understand money (though it feels weird talking about it!).

I launched my first paid course—about setting up GTD in @RoamResearch—in Sep 2020. In 17 months, with 3 paid courses, my total sales were $56,627. Image
Adding in coaching clients that came in through my courses, that number is really $75,000+.

That’s not “quit the rest of my coaching practice” money, but it has allowed me to make much better choices with my time.

Why am I bringing this up?
Here’s why:

As of today, I’m just shy of 1,500 Twitter followers, around 1,240 YouTube followers, and my newsletter email list (which I only just started growing) has about 240 subscribers.

In short, if you have a product that helps people, you don’t NEED a huge following.
Read 6 tweets
R.J. Nestor Profile picture
Feb 8
Reinventing wheels is #Productivity friction.

Don’t get me wrong: there’s value in experimentation!

But re-discovering our best practices every time we tackle similar projects drains our time and energy.

I’ll discuss this in my newsletter this Friday, but “sneak preview”:
There are 3 types of recurring tasks:

1. Routines - Daily/weekly/monthly/etc. They keep your work/life/systems well-oiled.

2. Project-specific - Tasks that recur, but are tied to a project (and go away when the project is done).
3. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

These are COLLECTIONS of tasks that recur together. They may be as simple as “project start-up” tasks that you use for all projects, or as robust as a complete template for a specific type of project.
Read 6 tweets
R.J. Nestor Profile picture
Feb 1
I tweet a lot about productivity, but I’m also a church musician (among other things). Yesterday the 2nd reading at church was Paul’s famous discourse on love.

It’s often used for weddings—which is lovely—but I fear that pigeonholes a profound and far-reaching text.
We definitely SHOULD be patient and kind with our nearest and dearest.

We should also be patient and kind with everyone ELSE—including those who make it super difficult to be patient and kind.
Love, by Paul’s definition, is all-encompassing—and not just in the sense that it should be practiced with everyone.

“It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
Read 8 tweets

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