EPISODE 020 - Organisation: What is my "Single Source of Sh*t"?

Michael Seidl: Welcome to the Get Shit done in IT podcast. My name is Michael Seidl and today the question is, what is my single source of shit or how does it look like? So in the previous episodes, often mentioned the single source of shit related to the podcast title. So it's just a single source of all my to -dos. And so I received the questions. How does that look like? How does it work? And so on. So I will mention the technical aspect in this episode, but I want to mention as well that it's definitely not important what the technical stuff looks like. It's more how the idea behind that works. And it's nothing new. So I haven't invented that method. It's just copied from other suggestions, other productivity. hints and so on. that's nothing what I invented. But at least I tried to master that thing since 15 years. So I just want to share my experiences about this. the idea is to have a single source of all your to do's or all your things coming in, you have to do, to solve, to finish, to whatever. And so what we do technically or virtually as a software, we are using Notion for this, or I'm using Notion for this. have long used, so Notion, if you don't know it, is like OneNote from Microsoft on steroids. So it has much, much more things to do. I think it was... what Microsoft Loops wants to be in 10 years is Notion right now. So you can do nodes, can do tables, you can do relationships, whatever. it's really, really a cool tool. And before I learned about Notion, I was a huge fan of Microsoft OneNote. And my to -dos has been stored in Microsoft To -Do in some Apple.

Michael Seidl: apps in other different programs. But the problem always was that I had my to -dos in any separate system and my notes or maybe also my timelines and bigger projects in OneNote. And whoever tried OneNote or is using OneNote, you cannot really use it as a project planning or at least a timeline. So you cannot assign anything to anyone. It's good for keeping notes, but it's not good for... keeping tasks and managing tasks. So two years ago, I learned about Notion and I constantly migrated everything into Notion and also my tasks, to -do and my plannings. So the idea behind the single source of shit and as I said, Notion, yes, we use Notion, but don't focus on the technical aspect, focus more on the idea behind the single source of shit. So you have a single source of all your to -dos, tasks coming in. And by the way, no, your mail inbox is not your single source of thing. It is a part of it because all your emails will come into your mail inbox. That's the same for me. So everyone has to use your mail inbox. That's OK. But it's not your single source of to -dos, of things to do. So the idea is to have a single source of everything you have to do, you have to achieve, have to accomplish, you have to make or to do, yeah? And to have a good overview so you can plan it and you see on one side what you have to do. In real life, it's not so easy because have three inboxes to be honest. I have my mail inbox. I have my physical inbox, so for letters and everything that's coming in. And this is a real inbox. It's a small area in my office, but it's locked so I cannot see it every day when I walk into my office. I don't want to see it.

Michael Seidl: And I have my virtual inbox. Everything is in my mind, what I see during the day, what I think about during the day, what comes up in my mind during the day will be stored in that virtual inbox. And that's a Notion table, what is easily accessible on my phone, where I can share any things when I see it in LinkedIn or news or whatever I can share to that inbox. And the idea is to... to go through your inbox on a different schedule, so once a day, maybe once a day at least for the emails, and at least once a week for everything else. So mainly I check my email inbox one, two, three times a day and plan all those stuff or answer the emails. My virtual inbox or my virtual to do and my physical inbox will be done mostly on Friday, so once a week. So once a week, I sit on my desk and go through all the three inboxes and just decide if I can finish the task in about one to up to five minutes. Depends how important it is and how many time I reserve to go through my list. But when I can finish the task, I will do it immediately. So when I can do it in one up to max five minutes, I will directly do it, directly solve it. So I don't have to plan it. I can remove it from my inbox and it's done. Everything else would take more than five minutes. Needs to be decided. Should I do it? So I need to plan it. I need to think about the next step. So I have to plan it. Can I delegate it to anyone else? Can I ask someone any questions and do I have to wait for the response? And that's the important stuff. up to five minutes, immediately do it and throw it in the bin or mark it as checked so fix, finish what you to do. Everything else. If someone else needs some input, you ask them and...

Michael Seidl: put it on weight and if you need to do it, you have to decide what is the next step and then you can decide how long does it take and then you can decide when you should plan it in your calendar. So don't keep that to do for, I don't know, next Monday, eight o 'clock in your to do list. You should plan that as an appointment in your calendar. So I use my calendar as single source of of what should I do right now. So I want to see everything I have to do that day, that hour, that week. I want to see that in my calendar on one side. I don't want to see my task list and this list and that. So everything needs to be stored in my calendar. So when I go through my to -do list and I see something I have to plan for any time, I am doing it. I it, I decide the next steps. So I decide how long does it take, then I can plan it on a specific day and time. And there might be also some things that are not urgent, maybe just a note for later. So those are stored as some day, so anytime. And every one or two months I go through that list and maybe some things are needed anymore. So I kick it out. But there's also a list for later or for some day. don't do the mistake and do everything later, later, later. It's really just maybe in one year I want to have a barbecue house in my garden and I saw a nice video, a nice solution to do this. So this is stored in the some day. But everything what you really have to do and an action to do, define the action and plan it and store it in your calendar. So that's my secret, if you want to call it, of single source of shit. As I said, we use Notion, but it's not the solution. So it's more the mindset of the single source of inbox. And then you can find a technical tool that can help you, assist you in that way. But don't go the way around. First choose the tool and then do the workflow or the thing we talked about. the first thing is

Michael Seidl: build your mindset or build your workflow to have a single source of inbox, single source of shit, and then choose the tool what is right for you. So with that said, we finished this week's episode. Thanks for listening. Wish you a nice week. Stay productive. Stay productive. And if you have any questions for the podcast or one of the next episodes, please write me a text message on LinkedIn or send me a voice message on LinkedIn. be happy to answer your questions in one of the next episodes. So enjoy your week, stay productive and bye bye!