profile

Peter Akkies

Productivity Teacher

Hi, I’m Peter from Amsterdam. I’ll help you get organized and be more productive. Every Sunday, I send a productivity-themed newsletter to 9,000 people. Join us!

PostsLinks
Featured Post

Eliminating distractions, apps to check out, new OmniFocus features, and more…

Hello friend. In lieu of writing a mind-bending article that will instantly transform your life, today I’ll point you to a few existing resources and new videos. I’ll be back next Sunday with earth-shattering words. — Peter Which course should you take next? If you could use a little help with your organization and productivity, I offer a range of courses to help you out. If you’d like to get on top of your to-dos, start with taking one of my task management courses. You can read my guide to...

4 days ago • 1 min read

It’s become fashionable, in recent years, to build a personal knowledge management (or PKM) system. The most famous PKM method is Tiago Forte’s “building a second brain”, which—odds are—you’ll have heard of. Personal knowledge management promises to help you capture, organize, and engage with all the information that comes at you in such a way that you can resurface it exactly when you need it. Great promise. Flawed premise. Yes, the architect who reads a paper about a promising new...

11 days ago • 3 min read

I’m in Bali at the moment, on a working-remotely trip, and I’m spending a lot of my time at a coworking space. What do I mean by a coworking space? It’s a building with a public café as well as members-only spaces. The members-only spaces come in a variety of flavors, from “you can talk as much as you want here” to “be really quiet please”. There are focus rooms for taking calls, some meetings rooms, and even a video recording studio. It’s a great space! The main area looks like this:...

18 days ago • 2 min read
An older couple, viewed from the back, are holding hands while looking at a bridge over a river.

I don’t know how old you are, but you’re probably old enough to have noticed by now that time moves pretty quickly. Days can feel long, but years tend to feel short. At least, that’s my experience. Today is March 31, 2024. It’s the final day of Q1. Zooming out a bit, we’re also roughly a quarter of the way through the century, which is nuts for those of us who remember the year 2000. But the numbers don’t lie. Because I like to use my time well and live in accordance with my values,...

25 days ago • 1 min read

Using the right app to manage your to-dos and projects can be life-changing. But what’s the best to-do list app? Here’s my list, depending on your needs: Best for Managing Personal and Team Tasks Together: Todoist Pros: Lightweight Syncs with Google Calendar and integrates with other calendar apps like Fantastical View your lists in whatever way you like: list, (kanban) board, calendar Slice and dice your to-dos with customizable filters Attach files and comment to tasks Use it for your...

about 1 month ago • 4 min read

It’s the easiest thing to forget yet perhaps the most important thing to remember: Life is happening right here, right now! I’ve always been very good at looking to the future. I save for retirement, I floss twice daily, I maintain my friendships, and so on. I’m very aware that I might live to be 80 or even older and some of my choices now will affect my happiness later in life. This is probably also why I am into “productivity” and “goal-setting”, those nebulous yet important concepts. Maybe...

about 1 month ago • 2 min read

This morning I was having brunch with a friend and our conversation turned to the topic of phones. In particular, smartphones. We asked each other: when did you first start using a phone? What about a smartphone? We both just about remembered the time when we did not have personal phones at all, as young teenagers. It’s hard to imagine now, but somehow I managed to make and keep appointments with people without being able to text or call them anytime. Eventually I did get a phone—a Motorola...

about 2 months ago • 2 min read

I like to keep myself sharp. Just because I’ve done something a certain way for a long time, that doesn’t mean it’s the best way of doing it. Since as early as 2011, but consistently since 2016, I’ve been using heavy-duty task managers like OmniFocus and Things 3. These apps are designed for tracking your to-dos and projects in great detail. To use these tools as they were designed means planning projects down to the smallest sub-step and writing down everything you need to do, from big...

about 2 months ago • 3 min read

Quick note: last Friday I launched Organize Your Life with OmniFocus 4. OmniFocus is the first task manager I ever used and it has a special place in my heart. OmniFocus 4 recently came out after years of development. Is it perfect? No. But after test-driving it, did I end up really liking it? Yes! So if you’ve been curious about OmniFocus 4, check out the course. Should you plan your week ahead of time? If you’ve been reading my newsletter for a while, or if you’ve taken one of my courses,...

about 2 months ago • 2 min read

Productivity tools are always getting better. I struggle to keep up with all the new features—and I do this for a living. So this Sunday, I wanted to share with you one feature I love for many of my favorite apps. Take a look at the apps you use. Did you know about these features? In Things 3, you can access built-in hidden views. For example, there is a “Deadlines” view that allows you to see, at a glance, all of the hard deadlines you have coming up in the coming months. There’s five of...

2 months ago • 1 min read
Share this page