Every now and again, it's very useful to revisit the tools and systems that you use for your everyday activity. You gain experience with knowledge, and intentionally putting that experience to work in 'sharpening the saw' regularly pays off quite handsomely. Also, there are very interesting tradeoffs to consider.
The first system to develop is one that lets you regularly re-evaluate the systems you use regularly. This can apply to personal things like how you're managing your health, social things like how you're showing up to friends and family, or any sort of work or other aspects of your life that you'd like to get better at.
It's generally known that creativity can flourish in the face of constraints. Having limited tools may lead you to using them in interesting, creative ways.
At the same time, creativity in overcoming the deficiencies of your tools isn't necessarily a good idea. That's different from creativity in actually achieving your end results, where new insights can be quite useful.
For example, if I have a scheduling tool that doesn't work well, getting creative in working around the limitations can be useful, but that may not be the best use of brainpower. Reconsidering my plans so they are less sophisticated and easier to understand, perhaps, is a better use of time.
At some point, just picking a tool and getting good at it and putting the decision to rest can be freeing. Tinkering with tools is fun, but if you're doing it for its own sake, it's good to at least be open and conscious about it.
My general approach is to use my tools for their intent, and bend them to new uses or with customizations, but not if it hurts too much. If it's really painful, I'll change things, but I don't want to wear myself down with friction.
Happy tooling!
Tags: management