Last month, when Tiago Forte finally published 'Building a Second Brain', I felt a twinge of anxiety. I followed him on Twitter and knew it was coming out. I didn't want to try to implement his methods again.
Stephen Covey tells us that we need to 'sharpen the saw' to be a highly effective person. Next thing, I found myself watching an Ali Abdaal breakdown of CODE and PARA. Ironically, toying with one's productivity system is a much lower leverage activity rather simply using your current system to do your best work. If you already have a system which you trust, then chances are that you are being manipulated by a type of productivity FOMO.
For anyone who feels like they were late to Bitcoin (everyone), there is a pervasive sense of FOMO: I won't miss the next event of its kind. Tiago Forte paints the tragedy of the intellectual who reads 72 books a year, listens to 6 podcasts a week and retains nothing. This is something we all fear. And when he uses investment parlance to tell us that our ideas can compound with the right system, our heart swoons. Who wouldn't want 7% ROI on some wry observation dictated onto Drafts?
The learning curve required to learn a new system or software (Obsidian, Roam, anyone?) is often much greater than the time which the system is designed to save.
So, if you find yourself struggling with productivity FOMO like I was, just remember:
Life is short. Don't spend your best years sat in front of a productivity tutorial with a furrowed brow. Take it easy, trust your system and do cool stuff.
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