You’re right, that really is the “big question.” It came up from several people during the first webinar. I think that’s the main point that separates what David is doing from any other productivity courses. David said he’s considering adding another video to the course to clarify this concept of how you discover your Why.
My approach at this time is understanding that collecting my “water carrying” list of activities, and identifying my roles arising from that list, helps me identify what’s important to me. My “why” is to become a better person at fulfilling and living out my roles in the best manner possible. The “what does that look like?” question is answered in writing out my arete “best version of myself” statements for each role.
I’m feeling a bit clueless but I can’t figure out how to download the PDF guide to my computer. I can easily download the ePub version but the PDF just opens on the web with no way that I’ve figured out to download it to my computer. If someone can tell me how to do this, I would appreciate it!
You’re right, it does initially open on the web, and there seems to be no download button on the interface.
However, if you scroll down below the document (the safari scroll bar, not the pdf) you’ll see a “Download. Productivity Field Guide.pdf” with a link. Click on it and you can download the PDF to your computer.
I’m all in on the PFG. @MacSparky has been such a positive influence on my computing life, and life in general, that I want to support his work. Live long and prosper. And, may the force be with you!
I’ve been using the basics of this system for about three years now. David released a short video and PDF planning guide in October 2020 and re-released it in a more accessible format in January 2022 as the Personal Retreat Video and Planning PDF. The PFG consolidates material he’s been talking about for several years in bits and pieces into one comprehensive system.
Since I started this years ago, I can’t give you the perspective of someone who’s only had a month in. But I can tell you that since implementing a roles-based system, I’ve seen, and continue to see, many “positive effects or changes in (my) system.” See my blog post, How a Roles-Based Productivity System Brought Clarity and Purpose to my Life in Retirement.
I’ll give you one very positive change: Under my Husband role, I have an Arete statement regarding my wife that reads, “I look her in the eye and listen intently to her when she speaks to me.” A few days ago my wife confirmed, quite enthusiastically, that I had made vast improvements in this regard since writing and reviewing that Arete statement! Last week we went on an overnight trip to Deadwood SD, and I told her, “You need to thank David for this trip.” It was planned as a result of a project that arose out of reviewing my roles and Arete statements.
For those interested, I’m writing a series of about 10-12 blog posts about “Working Through the Productivity Field Guide.” In this series I plan to discuss in detail each of the major concepts/practices that David writes and speaks about in the PFG, and how I’m implementing them in my redo of my roles-based system.
It took me years in my journey to acquire what Sparks has compiled here. I’ve already had a lot of the shorter horizon stuff (daily, weekly, monthly planning). I was trying to figure out some of the longer term stuff (quarterly, annual, visions vs goals vs roles).
I think I can safely put on hold or eliminate some books to work on my higher horizon stuff. I had Michael Hyatt’s “The Best Year Ever” and “The 12 Week Year” in an attempt to figure out my quarterly and annual reviews. I’m gonna try the field guide first.
I wished I had this field guide way back in the early 2000’s. It would’ve saved me years of scrounging for books, blog posts, YouTube videos, and podcasts to come up with a lot of the daily, weekly, monthly workflows that I had acquired. Now most of it is in here.
I will probably end up agreeing with you, but perhaps the journey was important for its own sake, not just because of the destination reached. (Trying to put a positive gloss on my own time spent on reading productivity stuff )
I liked the 12 week year book in principle, but in reality unless you actually consider a year a unit of working time it won’t really teach you anything radical. By which I mean: if you work in academia you might already think of your working time in units of semesters or terms. Many in the business world may already report by quarters, and work might be planned by quarter too. I work in earth sciences and my working time units are often divided by the four meteorological seasons (I’m in UK) or by the two field seasons (growing season, winter). The calendar year has never been a unit of work time for me. So I agree with the 12 week year book, but a lot of us already work like that anyway.
In my personal life the last couple of years I’ve found the month a better “work unit” than a quarter, and this year I’ve decided to follow this more rigorously with clearly defined outputs per month. Which I suppose is a 4/5 week year!
I think many of us would feel the same way you do. David himself says he wishes he had this all figured out 20 years ago!
I agree that there often is “value in the journey,” but sometimes the journey takes an inordinate amount of time, and the sense of “wasted years” exceeds the value of the journey.
I found great value in the concepts of the Twelve Week Year. Most of the productivity advice we read is about yearly planning and selling yearly planners. For those of us who don’t have work that automatically puts us in planning for quarters (which I think is the vast majority), it’s a great concept and way to approach work.
For me, the real value in David’s role-based system was finding my “Why?” in an ongoing mission to become a better person, which for me is striving to live up to my Arete statements in each of my roles. That’s what gives me meaning and purpose. The quarterly, monthly and weekly reviews are all about helping me to stay on track with that purpose.
I just watched the 30 min video (after thinking I was going to listen to the podcast ep which I’ll prob do soon).
I can’t help but think that I’ve spent a lot of time reading and watching and listening to productivity content and without a doubt, it has helped me. However, I think I am at the right point in time where I need to look at things that’s not the same stuff said differently. This definitely appears to be different and may be hitting at the right time.
I almost feel that it will shift many (all?) of my typical hours spent on productivity content and focus it in one place for a few months or more which is not a bad thing.
It’s good to hear people’s comments on the Plus version. I don’t have the luxury of just plunking down an extra $50 on top of the base version. I paid for something recently and have some regrets. But I’m leaning towards it.
That was my response when I first encountered this system three years ago. It just made sense to me and felt right in my gut.
I find the Plus webinars to be very helpful. People ask questions and David talks about things I haven’t thought about before. If you can, I’d encourage you to upgrade to Plus. If you have to wait, the webinar recordings will be there when you do upgrade in the future.
Here’s the second post in my series on working through the Productivity Field Guide. In this part, I talk about how to use projects and habits to make progress in your roles.
Last week we went on an overnight trip to Deadwood SD, and I told her, “You need to thank David for this trip.” It was planned as a result of a project that arose out of reviewing my roles and Arete statements.
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