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The Vergecast

What’s in a productivity system?

The Vergecast

Vox Media Podcast Network

News, Tech News, Technology

4.44.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2024

⏱️ 80 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You can learn a lot about somebody just by learning about how they get things done. Are they the sort of person who might have a perfectly color-coded email inbox, a flawlessly organized to-do list, and what’s that, they just sent you a calendar invite for happy hour next week? Or are they more likely to have a giant pile of sticky notes they never look at, a computer desktop with so many files you can’t even see the wallpaper, and today’s main tasks written on their arm? Neither is wrong, but they’re very different. On this episode of The Vergecast, the second in our three-part miniseries about work and productivity and how to get more done in a digital world, we decide to get to know our colleagues in a new way: by asking them to share their own productivity systems. We didn’t give them much specific instruction or homework, other than to come ready to answer a question: how do you get stuff done? Eight Verge staffers showed up, with eight very different ideas about what being productive means and how best to pull it off. Along the way, we found some ideas to steal, a few new apps and tools to try, and a lot of new thoughts about our co-workers. If you want to know more about the things we discuss in this episode, here are a few links to get you started: A Googler’s guide to getting things done TickTick Upnote Notion Google Keep Google Calendar The Rhodia #16 spiral notepad Papier’s productivity planners Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the Virge Cast, the flagship podcast of Never-ending to-do lists.

0:07.0

I'm a friend David Pierce, and this is the second episode in our three-part mini-series

0:12.0

all about productivity, defined as loosely as possible.

0:16.6

If you missed last week's episode, I talked to Laura May Martin, who is like Google's internal

0:20.9

productivity guru.

0:22.7

We talked all about tools and hustle bros and process

0:26.6

and what it means to be productive

0:29.0

without totally losing your mind.

0:31.5

This week I want to do something completely different. I have this theory that you can tell a lot about a person just by understanding how they manage their life.

0:39.6

Are they super duper organized with a beautiful, perfect foolproof system for making sure everything gets done?

0:47.0

Do they just totally fly by the seat of their pants, trust their memory, and hope for the best?

0:52.0

Do they like digital tools or pen and paper? AI, no AI. It's all very revealing, honestly, and it's really fun to talk to people about.

1:00.5

So today, we're going to use this episode as an excuse to get to

1:04.5

know a few of my coworkers. We reached out to a bunch of folks on the

1:08.0

Virges staff and asked them to come on the show and tell us about their

1:11.3

productivity systems.

1:13.0

However they want to define that phrase was fine by me.

1:16.1

My goal is to learn a bunch of new ideas, steal a few for myself, and also maybe psychoanalyze

1:22.0

my coworkers at the end of it.

1:23.7

I'll share mine too but I'm gonna go last.

1:26.6

So we're gonna get into all of it but before we do I have to go find my notes on who

1:31.0

exactly were talking to and spoiler alert for my system that's not that

...

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