Before I tell you all about time tracking, my main focus, we have to take a step back and talk about capturing systems.
Note, this post will evolve as the system evolves.
Mind like water
I told Kyle, it’s about having a mind like water.
I used to have a complicated relationship with sleep because of running thoughts.
That was before capturing systems.
Who is this for?
There’s an argument I initially thought I might make here that would have gone something like this: if you don’t produce things with your notes, you’re wasting your time by taking notes.
But then I thought more about it. I spent more time with my notecards. I paid closer attention when I was taking the pains to write things down. And now, I will make a different argument.
When you put stuff from a smart person’s brain into your brain, right then and there, you are changed.
Billy Oppenheimer, Ryan Holiday's researcher, is a professional note-taker and has done the heavy lift for us.
Check his answer for "Who Needs The NoteCard System," then come back here.
I couldn't have said better.
The cog and the brain, system overview
Whenever I give this analogy to people, it seems to resonate well.
The cog keeps the entire engine running, but it needs weekly maintenance.
The brain is where linked ideas triangulate to become insights.
Over time, as you stumble upon old thoughts, they reshape as coherent narratives.
⚙️ ClickUp is where the GTD lives. It acts as my centralized control panel for everything I capture, "stuff" pending to be processed, tasks I need to deliver, and projects aligned to my priorities — because it's all about priorities.
🧠 Notion gave space to Obsidian as the external brain that holds reference material for projects and acts as a knowledge base that grows over time.
📅 Outlook calendar is a sacred place that tracks the "hard landscape" of time-specific actions, day-specific actions, and day-specific information.
☀️ Sunsama is the tactical week view.
The capturing habit
The greatest genius will never be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources.
— Goethe
It's a myth that great storytellers only think of great stories or that insightful people only have brilliant ideas.
But they do have a habit of capturing their experiences and insights, and the patience to filter the majority until the best remain.
Lorenzo, how does your capturing habit help you?
Your capturing system supports a healthy habit of triangulating ideas.
Have a dysfunctional capturing habit? Maybe asking yourself how to start?
Here's a six years shortcut for your delight.
Capturing use cases
For every good idea that comes out of you, you need ten good ideas coming into you. And that’s up to you to ensure that you continuously fill yourself up with fresh knowledge and information and impressions so that one thing can come out.
— René Redzepi
References
Annotate the internet
Annotate podcasts
Annotate books
Wild ideas
Capture thoughts
Manage tasks
Time.
Track time
References in the realm of Readwise
What are references?
The work of someone else that generates a connection with how I you the world.
Note that Readwise plays a vital role in this workflow.
Annotate the internet
Matter > Readwise > Obsidian
Matter has been recommended by three people from the Experimentation and Analytics chapter. It became part of my routine.
Memex > Readwise > Obsidian
For other things like LinkedIn posts, Memex works pretty well.
Annotate podcasts
Snipd > Readwise
Another great recommendation from Peter Lloyd!
Snipd increased the time I spend with podcasts for the better. Here’s an example (coming soon).
Annotate books
Kindle > Readwise
Simple and the most efficient. If you want to be serious about book notes, get a Kindle.
Wild ideas in the Inbox
What are wild ideas?
Thoughts you want outside of your mind now but remember for later.
Capture thoughts
Clickup Inbox
I spend much of my time in front of the screen, if not the desktop, the 6.7” phone.
There’s no excuse not to add a short input directly in the inbox.
ClickUp client app and the web extension work nicely.
Alexa and Siri
GTD alert for virtual assistants 🚨
Avoid creating additional inboxes, David Allen will tell you that’s a big no-no.
Strive to get virtual assistant entries directly on your main Inbox.
These are the right commands I use in my system.
“Alexa Open ClickUp” > “Alexa, the task is ‘check Positive Experiment’s about page’”
“Hey Siri, Add ‘book PJ @ Growth Mentor’ to my {{Inbox List}} in ClickUp”
Otter.ai
I find it very convenient while going for walks to record out loud thoughts. With earpods, it looks like you’re on a call.
In Wroclaw, a little weird, London just another day.
Manage tasks
Clickup Inbox
I manage tasks using a folder system that has much to do with GTD on ClickUp.
If this is important for you as it is for me, there’s a whole GTD philosophy post for you to dive into (coming soon).
Sunsama
I’ve been back to Sunsama for four months now, and that’s my third attempt to make this tool work as my main “week view” for the system.
After the ClickUp and Outlook integrations, the tool became a much more powerful aggregator.
Track time
Timeular
That’s my jam. I’ve been playing with time tracking for four years now.
It started with a simple question “How much can I do with the time that I have?”
The journey led me to answer a much more meaningful question “What does a life worth living look like based on how I spend my time?”
Capturing systems at work
In experimentation land, our unified test repository is a major capturing system.
The single source of truth for experimentation data. Where ideas grow and get promoted to testing hypotheses to analysis complete.
Feedback systems are also a capturing system we talked about here.
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In your world, what is the capturing system you use?
How could you use it better?