Analog Productivity: How I Stay Focused in a Distracted World

This is my productivity system. It's simple, analog and quiet. No fancy apps, no time tracking, just a space where I can think, create and reflect. It took me years to realize that productivity isn't about doing more, it's about feeling that what you do actually matters. Hello, I'm Simon and in this video I'll show you the system that helps me to stay focused as a creative professional while being kind to myself. I structured this video into three levels, so feel free to jump to the part that interests you the most. Let's start at level one, decluttering your system and your mind. In a world where our attention and our time are our most valuable resources, the way we work has never been more important. It is the paradox of the digital age that we have more storage and information than ever, but less clarity. When ideas pile up on screens, they blur together into noise. We are surrounded by productivity advice, but is just doing more really the point? A little over a year ago I took a big leap. I started my own creative business as a director and photographer. As a full-time solopreneur I had to build a system fast that would help me to stay organized. The pressure was high. If I couldn't manage myself effectively, I wouldn't earn an income and my small runway would disappear quickly. But finding the tools and systems that would work for me was hard. At some point the frustration and overwhelm grew so strong that I decided to start over. I threw everything out and built a new system from the ground up. The simplest one I could imagine. A system that would help me to achieve more by working less. What I came up with consists of just three things. A to-do list, a calendar and a note-taking system. Of course, you can use whatever tools work best for you. I use analog ones for three reasons. First, they help me to think more clearly. Second, they are super easy to use. And third, they help me to focus. Well, and reason four, I'm German, we don't like digital things. We've been taught to believe that digital tools are automatically more efficient and therefore better for learning and working. In some ways, that's true. I use digital tools myself every day. But efficiency doesn't always equal depth. Research shows that handwriting activates more brain regions than digital work and leads to deeper understanding and better recall. My general principle is simple. Reduce friction for the things that help me work and increase friction for the things that distract me. For me, pen and paper make it easier to start and harder to drift away. For taking notes, I just use a notebook. Well, three actually. But you could easily do it in one. The first notebook is for sketches, keeping ideas and developing projects. The second is my journal. I journal a lot. It helps me to sort my thoughts and feelings, reflect on what's happening around me and to calm down. When I journal, I notice how writing with my hand forces me to condense my thoughts and focus on what truly matters. I don't have a system to it. I simply write down the day and the date and start writing. The third one is a small notebook I always carry with me. It also serves as a logbook for my analog films, so I remember how to develop them later. I use Leuchtturm notebooks and my favorite pen. That's all I need. I make sure there's always a pen or pencil attached to each notebook. My to-do list? Also just pen and paper. I keep a notepad on my desk at all times, with a pencil right next to it, so I can jot down tasks the moment they come to mind. I could use my notebook too, but somehow this setup stuck and it works. For my calendar, I use Google Calendar, the only digital tool in my system. It helps me with time blocking and tracking all my appointments. Color coding gives me a clear picture of what's coming next, day, week and month. But when I started using this new system, people's reactions were mixed. Good luck keeping that up, you will forget half of your tasks. And honestly, I thought they had a point. As a child, I was a dreamer, always forgetting things. The danger of something slipping through the cracks felt real. I began to doubt my own system again. How could I be sure nothing important would get lost? So I sat down again and thought it through. I decided I would give this system a fair try and evaluate it constantly. I thought, what's the worst that could happen? Maybe I would forget a task or a client deadline. That's not great, of course. It could hurt my reputation or even cost me money. But would it really be the end of the world? Probably not. I could apologize, learn from it, make up for it and improve. And it was this thought that totally set myself free. For the first time in years, I allowed myself to make mistakes again. Instead of being fueled by anxiety and fear, I learned to trust myself and my mind again. I felt relieved. After all, our mind is the most powerful tool we have and it's surprisingly simple to use. We just have to know what it's good at and at what it isn't. Our mind is great at having ideas, but not at keeping them. It's good at understanding the bigger picture, but not at remembering details. And most importantly, a calm, focused mind will always outperform a stressed, distracted one. Which brings us to level 2. Focus. For my day-to-day work, I use the deep work technique by Cal Newport. I block out chunks of time in my calendar for focused work. No distractions, no notifications, no multitasking. These blocks of deep work are very well protected in my daily life. I remove every possible distraction. My phone and iPad go into another room, usually into a drawer under my bed. I'm unavailable for meetings and I turn on Do Not Disturb on my laptop. To learn more about my natural rhythm, I tracked my ability to focus for two weeks. Matthew and Sina made a great video about this, which I will link in the description. I thought that I would be able to focus for 6 to 8 hours a day. Well, it was 3. 3 hours in the morning with some energy left here and there in the afternoon. Later, I found out why. Science shows that even the best of us can only do 3 to 4 hours of truly focused, mentally demanding work a day. Around those 3 to 4 hours of deep work, I schedule smaller blocks of shallow work. Emails, meetings, admin tasks or lighter creative work. My afternoons are usually reserved for creative exploration or learning a new skill. I also use time blocking to plan my client projects and filming schedules, so I can see every phase and deadline at a glance. Because I know the steps and phases of each project very well, I can plan ahead freely, reserving time for every step that's needed. This allows me to set boundaries between client work and my own, as well as work and personal life. If a time-blocked day didn't go as planned or I didn't feel well, I usually ask myself, why? What can I do differently next time to protect both my work and myself? At this point, I realized that I learned how to focus my time efficiently. But how should I focus my tasks? Again, I wanted to keep it simple. Once every month or two, I sit down with my notebook and evaluate my business. I ask myself, how is it going? What is the current landscape like right now? What is working well? What did I achieve the past months? And what could be improved? Next, I write down up to 15 action items I believe will move my business forward in the next 3 months. Not more, sometimes less. Each one is phrased as a task to myself. Then I ask, what is most important right now? What has the biggest impact? I spread these action items across the next 3 months, about 5 per month. This gives me a clear bird's eye view of what's ahead. I also note vacations, holidays or planned shoots, anything that affects my available time. The key is not to plan too much, because when we overplan and underdeliver, we start beating ourselves up. And that spiral of frustration quickly turns into self-criticism and even self-hate. So instead, I focus on when, what's important now. At the beginning of every month, I write down my 5 main goals on a sticky note and pin it to the bottom of my screen. It is essential that those action items or goals are smart, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. And it works. Research shows that writing down your goals and seeing them daily significantly increases your chances of achieving them. Another big realization early on was that almost all of my work is project-based. Projects can be broken down into tasks that I can achieve on a daily or weekly level. And if something isn't a project, it's simply a single task, like replying to an email. This gives me structure, not only for my daily work, but even for how I organize my digital files. I write my to-do list every morning. By now, I know my processes so well that I usually don't even have to think about what's next. And for more complex projects, I map everything out in my notebook, from tasks to deadlines. Those deadlines go into my calendar and my daily to-do simply pulls from that list. In 15 months of using this system, I've only forgotten an important task twice. And never for a client. That's why a focused, undistracted mind is essential. But there is still one thing missing. It is the one thing that I realized just recently. Not long ago, out of the blue, I stumbled across an interview again. Stripe's Talk with Sir Johnny Ive, the former lead designer at Apple and now founder of LoveFrom. Something he said, although I'd seen the interview before, really stayed with me this time. I believe that when somebody unwrapped that box and took out that cable and they thought somebody gave a ---- about me, I think that's a spiritual thing. It really did come genuinely from a place of love and of care. And the way Steve expressed it, I thought was so beautiful. He said, it's a way of expressing our gratitude to the species. Now, I know Johnny Ive was talking about technology products. But I realized that this was exactly what all of those productivity systems and tools I tried in the past were missing Love. A deep respect for myself, not just as a creative mind, but as a human being. One who isn't perfect, who makes mistakes and has feelings. And although I didn't notice it back then, this was what I was trying to find when I threw my old organization system overboard a year ago. I wanted to create something that felt as if someone had truly cared about me and my needs. Because I believe our value as human beings should never be measured by how productive we are, but by whether the work we did today felt meaningful, intentional and respectful of the most precious non-renewable resource we have. Our time. But how do you actually work with love implemented? Let's go to level 3. Love yourself. While making my system easy to use is already an expression of self-love, here are three little ways to get you started. First, set boundaries. During focus sessions, I take short breaks as soon as I feel my energy fading. In those moments, I avoid getting back to any distraction. Instead, I let my mind wander, make a cup of tea or simply lie down with my eyes closed for five minutes. I usually take a two-hour lunch break in the middle of the day and stop working around 6 pm. During lunch, I cook something nice and take time to rest. I plan for around 40 hours of work a week, but my long-term goal is to do less to achieve more. My evenings and weekends are reserved for friends and loved ones, for climbing, being outdoors, making music, going to the cinema or just laying on the couch and watching a series. Second, go for walks. Lately, I've started going for 30-minute walks leaving my phone at home. It's one of the best decisions I've made. It helps me clear my thoughts and find inspiration in my surroundings. Sometimes, I take my iPod Classic to listen to music that inspires me or my camera to capture moments that spark joy. Third, protect your sleep. I try to get about eight hours of sleep each night and I keep all digital devices outside my bedroom. I have no problem being boring and going to bed at 11 pm because I know it protects my mental health and my ability to focus the next day. So, this is the system I use as a creative professional. Three tools, a framework for deep work and focus and most importantly, a lot of love. I built this system not to do more, but to feel more alive while doing it. Of course, I still use digital tools for emails, editing and project management, but I keep them simple so they support, not replace, my analog thinking. Maybe I'll talk about that in another video. Ultimately, I believe everyone should find a system that truly works for them. Just remember that maybe it should be simple, help you focus on what really matters and most importantly, include love for yourself. With that said, go and create something great. See you next time!