Productivity pr0n

Like many people I have a mild productivity prOn addiction. I'm always hoping that some new system or leather bound notebook, or way of arranging my 3x5 cards will vastly increase my effectiveness. I recently stumbled on to Marc Andresson's confession of his own addiction to PP, along with all of his accumulated list of techniques he uses. A lot of it is stuff that I'm already familiar with, but some of it is new.

I decided to try out his 3x5 card technique, essentially he says that at the end of every day you should write down three things that you want to accomplish the next day. And then of course when the next day rolls around do everything in your power to get those three things done. He further recommends that during the day, on the other side of the card, you write down everything you've done. Today was my first day trying it, and I realize that it's way too early to make any kind of definitive judgment on the utility of this technique, but at least for today I'm really feeling the love.

Often times I get despondent, because at the end of the day I feel like I've been really busy, but I haven't really accomplished that much. I was getting that feeling today, but then I looked at the card, all three of my "Do Today" items were done and and the other side was full of other stuff I had done. He says:

People who have tried lots of productivity porn techniques will tell you that this is one of the most successful techniques they have ever tried.

And I'm cautiously optimistic.

Oh and Buy.com has shipped all the 4E books early... *sound of grinding teeth*