mokumas

My Productivity System (2025)

Background

I've been obsessed with productivity for almost a decade now. When I was younger, I would watch countless aesthetic "study with me" vlogs, try to create an effective note-taking system, and experiment with various productivity applications. I was even convinced that buying certain brands of stationery would guarantee my success.

Looking back, my methods were not at all effective and barely benefitted me in the long run. I was basing my systems entirely off of other people's, many of whom weren't neurodivergent. These systems lacked the consideration for my fluctuating motivation and simplicity necessary to prevent further intimidation. What 13-year-old with executive dysfunction issues is going to keep an in-depth journal of their daily activities and habits alongside aesthetic, yet effective class notes when they're already balancing middle school, new friend groups, and puberty?

As I got older, began to accept my neurodivergence, and take school more seriously, I stopped surrounding myself with that side of the productivity community. I simply didn't have the energy to commit that much time to systems that didn't make sense to me nor benefit me. Thus, I did a complete reset and started simple...

Getting Through High School with One App

During my last two years of high school, I relied on one app to help me stay productive: Minimalist (Android). Minimalist is an app solely for your to do list and nearly perfectly replicates the analog feel of traditional to do lists with the added benefits of setting digital reminders for due dates and being able to easily reorganize tasks with its priority system.

Every day, I would write down my homework assignments/other small reminders into the app (e.g. "read ch. 4-5", "answer chem questions", "sign paper"). Then, I would reorganize them based on their urgency with the app's star system and set a due date.

It's the most minimal app I've ever used (hence the name), and if I didn't need the more complicated organizational systems that I need now, I would still be using this app.

PROS

CONS

The Search for New Tools

Upon entering college, I knew that I needed something that would be able to provide me with more information, organization, and overall control at the cost of a less minimalistic UI. After a bit of digging, I came across Todoist, initially in its browser extension form, which I used for a good few months before discovering the application. I won't even lie: this app actually saved me and is probably the sole reason why I was always on top of things during college.

Near the end of college, I rediscovered Obsidian, which my friend had introduced to me back in high school. During this time, I had come to realize that Todoist wasn't going to be able to uphold my entire system following life outside of college, and I knew that I didn't want to rely on some ugly text editor just so I didn't have to use Google Docs or my phone's notes for more complicated tasks/ideas. Thus, I decided to take the plunge and try out Obsidian, despite how intimidating it looked. After using it for over six months, I genuinely don't think I would be able to survive without it.

Additionally, during my final semester of college, I began to carry around a small pocket notebook. This was to encourage myself to write down more of my thoughts/ideas and distance myself from my phone's notes (which I rarely go back to read). It has been an incredibly useful tool and I still find myself going back to notes from months prior to rework ideas.

My Current Productivity System

Now that I've given a brief summary of my productivity journey, I'd like to bring you through my current system in its entirety!

1. Obsidian

Obsidian has been a game-changer for me since I rediscovered it earlier this year. Initially, I used it as I would Google Docs: writing random personal essays and doing research. Alongside this casual usage, I started to do more in-depth research on how people use the application and I discovered a world of insanely efficient and effective systems that were shockingly pleasing to look at!

My files have been organized based on topic, such as language, technology, blog, and even my own brand. Inside each folder contains all the various notes related to the main topic, with every note containing a set of tags that briefly explain and specifically categorize them, such as # blog, # resources, # personal, # art, etc. I recently discovered that you can create sub-folders to better organize your files, thus resulting in me going through each category and reorganizing them.

I absolutely love the fact that everything can be written with markdown, either manually with a keyboard or by highlighting and right-clicking something! This style of writing has helped me better organize my thoughts and concepts into bigger and smaller ideas. Headers, in particular, are my favorite as they show up on a sidebar as an outline/"chapter" list where you can easily jump to another section of your document. This is especially important in my longer documents that house pages of notes that I often reference (such as my Python document).

Being able to link back to other documents within a document is extremely useful when creating databases and hubs. I adopted a hub-based system early on, and though it hasn't been used as much as I thought, I can see myself regularly using it as my collection of notes grows.

Overall, Obsidian has really helped me to get on top of things, further explore concepts, and be more creative overall. It pushes me to think more and to continuously implement new, yet effective ways of organizing my information.

PROS

CONS

2. Todoist

As aforementioned, I've been using Todoist since the beginning of college. While I don't use it as much due to a lack of urgent tasks, it's still a fantastic tool that I frequently come back to when I have multiple lists of tasks/ideas to get out. Todoist is extremely easy to get the hang of and is pretty minimalistic overall, but doesn't sacrifice any of the necessary organizational systems.

I currently have 4 "projects" (think of them like separate to do lists) that divide my personal life and my business. I have my tasks displayed as kanban boards, but I used to have it set to list view while I was in school, as that easily helped me separate my work based on the week of the semester. Each board houses tasks based on a general category (e.g. "portfolio", "ideas", "art"). Within these tasks, I have sub-tasks, descriptions, priority markers, due dates, and labels based on the type of task, like what programs to use, where something will be posted, what type of project it is, what stage the task is at, etc.

Overall, Todoist has been a great application to help me digitally organize a bunch of tasks in one easy-to-use place. Moreover, its effective priority systems and custom labels have made my life significantly easier when it comes to trying to define what a task is and how to do it (both program and timeline-wise).

PROS

CONS

3. Pocket Notebook

Getting a pocket notebook has helped me get out way more ideas and stay creative. I use it as a brain dump where I write down anything that interests me, something I should come back to later, or just a random thought that came to mind and is worth exploring further. It's been significantly more effective than my phone's notes (I never checked them anyway) and helps to decentralize my phone. Yay, less distractions! A majority of this notebook has been the starting point of many of my projects this year (including this blog)! I genuinely don't see any cons when it comes to having a pocket notebook, so I encourage you to start carrying one around and see what your brain comes up with!

4. Miscellaneous

In order to effectively maximize the productivity of my system, I have used a handful of extra extensions and made a few tweaks to my work environment. These are small changes that you can do at any time and will make a huge impact!

1. News Feed Eradicator

This is a browser extension that completely eliminates the feed of a website of your choosing (I use it for Reddit, Instagram, and Twitter). You can set it to block a site for a specific amount of time, or just completely block it all the time (I do this). This extension has increased my productivity SIGNIFICANTLY as it discourages me from mindlessly opening a new, endlessly scrolling website during moments of boredom. I also added a custom quote to show up whenever I try to open these websites: "you look like a fool." Very humbling!

2. UnTrap for YouTube

This browser extension completely reworks YouTube's functions based on your preferences. You can get rid of as little or as much as you want. I use this extension to get rid of Shorts and endless scrolling on the homepage, eliminate suggested videos on the video I'm currently watching, and hide any other personally useless features. This has been great at helping me to mindfully consume content and be able to effectively choose from a small list of videos.

3. No music/videos

Some of you might be screaming right now. Yes, I work in complete silence. I genuinely cannot focus with most types of noise (white noise is fine). I've found that while I work, I get so deep into it that I don't even hear what I'm listening to anymore. I'd rather not mindlessly consume something meaningful, like music or a video/show. The only exception to this is when I'm severely distracted/overwhelmed, I will use brown noise (the superior version to white noise).

Plans for 2026

Now that it's the end of the year, I've begun to reflect on my productivity system, specifically starting with this blog post. This has been one of my most productive years by far and I intend on sticking with the applications, extensions, and items that I have been using.

However, there is still room for improvement and I think I may have found the solution to many of my issues: a weekly planner!

I've been eyeing the Hobonichi Weeks for years, but could never justify purchasing such a nice planner when I wasn't even sure if I would actually use it. I recently discovered that there are many dupes of this planner and decided to purchase one for $11. It lacks many of the Hobonichi's features, but I'm actually okay with that! I'd rather start with less to do to feel less overwhelmed, then slowly discover if I need more features. My goal with this planner is to more effectively break down my day and get more done, while also attempting to use a good habit tracking system again (I tried using one system from August to November, but felt like it was meaningless if I was only seeking validation in checkmarks). I look forward to using it and decorating my weekly pages!

To any of my friends reading: let me know about your productivity systems! I'd love to discover new and effective systems while also learning more about you :D