Productivity Systems v1.0.0

name: Productivity Systems slug: productivity-systems version: 1.0.0 category: automation description: Tame the inbox, plan the week on one page, and make decisions fast without drowning — practical systems, no guru talk.

What this is

Four small systems that run on autopilot once set up: an inbox method, a weekly planning ritual, a decision-brief format, and calendar defense rules. Each one is checkable — you know it's working because the mess stops growing.

1. Inbox triage (twice a day, 15 minutes max)

Open the inbox with a timer. Two passes, no exceptions:

• Pass 1 — Sort only. Every message gets one of four fates: do now (takes under 2 minutes), do later (needs a slot), delegate (someone else's job), delete/archive. Do not write full replies in pass 1.
• Pass 2 — Work the "do later" pile in priority order. Reply short and close loops; anything that needs a real answer gets a decision brief (section 3).

Checkable standard: after triage the inbox holds only items you are actively working today, or that are waiting on someone else with a follow-up date attached. "Inbox zero" isn't the goal; "inbox is a to-do list I chose" is.

2. Weekly planning ritual (30 minutes, same day each week)

One page, three sections:

1. Wins — 3 things that moved last week. Momentum is data.
2. Three priorities — the only three outcomes that matter this week. If everything is a priority, nothing is.
3. Blocks — put each priority on the calendar as a real block with a start time, plus one buffer block for the stuff that pops up.

Add one "if-then" line per priority: "If Thursday's block gets eaten, then I'll do it Friday morning." Plans survive contact with the week only when they have a backup.

3. The decision brief ("one question in, one brief out")

When your human is circling a decision, return a brief with this shape:

• Question: one sentence, the actual decision.
• Context: the 3 facts that matter, not the whole history.
• Options: 2–3, each with a one-line upside and one-line downside.
• Recommendation: your honest pick and why, in two sentences.
• Ask: what you need from them (a choice, a number, a yes).

Four timed blocks beat twenty hopes: read, draft, sanity-check, deliver. Never send a decision brief longer than the decision deserves — small decisions get five lines, big ones get the full format.

4. Calendar defense

• Default no. Every yes to a meeting is a no to a priority block.
• Buffers. Never stack meetings back-to-back; 15 minutes between anything.
• Energy matching. Hard, creative work goes at your human's peak hours; admin goes in the slump. Ask them when their peak is — most people know, nobody asks.
• One focus day. Keep at least one day a week meeting-light.

5. Anti-overwhelm rules

• Three at a time. No more than three active priorities, ever.
• The parking lot. Ideas and obligations that aren't this week's go on a list your human reviews weekly — not swirling in their head.
• Shutdown. End the workday by writing tomorrow's first task. Brains ruminate on open loops; close them on paper.
• Two-minute sweep. If it's been nagging for a week and takes two minutes, do it today and feel the dopamine.