Newsletter

📖 Create Your Own Productivity Playbook

January 24, 2025

Today at a Glance:

Why reflection is the key to knowing yourself
Create your own "Personal Operating System" that outlines how you work best
Use my Personal SOP template to begin today (10 minutes)

The Personal SOP

I recently bought a smoothie maker that came with 50 pages of instructions - for something with just four buttons.

Yet, we’re never given an instruction manual for how we work best.

In business, you’ve likely encountered standard operating procedures (SOPs) designed to scale a company’s internal processes.

A personal operating system works much the same way - it’s essentially a manual for who you are and how you work.

Creating my personal SOP has been incredibly useful. It’s something rarely talked about, so I wanted to share mine with you to help you to create your own.

Here I've listed the different scenarios of when I'm:

Struggling to focus
Failing to prioritise
Feeling tired
Stressed
Overwhelmed
Anything else I've learned about myself

When I'm feeling a certain way, I navigate to the solutions that work for me

Tip: Use ChatGPT to get specific with definitions for feelings

Here's some observations I've learned about myself:

If I'm struggling to focus it's best to use pen and paper than to have multiple tabs open on my laptop
If I'm struggling to focus I can play lofi beats or brown noise
If I need accountability, it's best I grab a team member to co-work virtually or in-person (the ADHD community call this "body doubling")
If I'm feeling tired but still need to work, I can change my state immediately with exercise, music, or take a short nap
When I'm feeling overwhelmed it's best I stop work and go for a walk. In my Personal SOP I remind myself that there's never been a consequence for taking a short break

Ready to create your own? Here's a Notion template to get started: