Still my favorite productivity tool

So far this week, I’ve talked about my little black notebook and the focus maps. And yesterday, Google Calendar.

But, these aren’t my favorites.

Now, I’ve mentioned my favorite tool to you before here on the Daily. But, I think it bears repeating. Plus, I’ll share some of what I’ve been using it for lately…

That tool is Dynalist. It is a list-making app. I used to use Workflowy, but I abandoned it when I found Dynalist.

So, here’s how I use Dynalist to complete this little tool trifecta I’ve been talking about here.

See, the calendar helps me drop things onto my schedule. The little black notebook helps me stay on focus (with those focus maps) and provides that daily list that sits there on my desk all day. But, Dynalist is where I drive the ship from.

All the strategic and tactical planning takes place in Dynalist. Project planning takes place in Dynalist. I plan courses in Dynalist. I keep track of all kinds of things in there, actually. But, I copy the relevant parts out of Dynalist into the other tools in order to bring it into execution.

In other words, Dynalist is the what, the why, and the order. When it comes down to when, I bring it over to the calendar and the notebook.

It is really easy to spend your whole day in “busy work”. Be real busy, spinning those wheels. But, in the end, what did you actually get done that really moved the needle?

When you spend the time to PLAN in advance, it gives guidance to your overall direction. And I do that in Dynalist.

Inside Dyanlist, I have folders set up for Personal, Family and Business. Since you can also have sub-folders, I have a Projects folder inside the business. In there I have documents for various project currently in the works. Such as…

• The full outline for the Email Marketing Engine course, currently in progress.

• The planning and research notes for my Office Remodel project (now almost completed)

• The full outline for THE ROADMAP

• An outline of stuff for my custom Lab member management system I’m devising

… you get the point.

I also keep a global planning document where I do the process I lay out in the Business Growth Formula training (members only). I also keep the constraint log and successful actions log I discussed in earlier editions of The Daily.

For Family, I keep a project outline for our home remodel, a punch list of to-do items for our RV, the maintenance log for the RV, etc. I also keep a plan for the family, modeled after that same Business Growth Formula. Because that formula isn’t just for business, you know.

So, I freakin’ LOVE Dynalist.

At pretty much any time, at least one of my browser tabs is open to Dynalist.

I also use it from my iPhone fairly regularly. It is all in the cloud, so always available anywhere.

Perhaps you’ll like it, too. It is free for all but a few pro features, so you can give it a try if you want. I use the Pro version, but you may not need to.

– David