Tiago’s a huge believer in never starting anything until the time is right. He calls this just-in-time project management. Before starting, he collects information about that project, into a folder that is growing bigger and bigger. Then, when he sits down to work on it, it’s easy because the hard thinking has been done. All he has to do is see the information and connect the dots.

There are two crucial habits to this:

  1. Capture anything that resonates with you. Anytime you come across something that makes you feel something, write it down or save it somewhere you can find it later.
  2. Processing these items into your system. Now we want to put these in a place that your future self discovers them and finds them useful. How could this help your future self? For example, maybe I read a quote on productivity that changes the way I think about it. I might save that in a note, and link it to a blog post. Maybe even I put a few bullet points down, the idea for a blog entry. Then at some future date, when I need a blog to write, I can open that post, and the note already has done a lot of the thinking for me.

If you can master these two habits, your future is bright.