To be productive, you need to set up systems for holding ideas, and those systems need to be optimized for retrieval of information. After all, if you have a bunch of systems for holding ideas but it takes you hours to comb through them and find the one you’re looking for, what’s the point?

Inspired in part by this article, I’ve become convinced in recent years that pull workflows are a powerful tool to avoid overload in the knowledge work setting. If you’re in a position to change the way your company or team organizes its work, moving to a pull strategy, similar to that deployed by the technology development group at the Broad

How can I get my business to work, but without me? • How can I get my people to work, but without my constant interference? • How can I systematize my business in such a way that it could be replicated 5,000 times, so the 5,000th unit would run as smoothly as the first? • How can I own my business, and still be free of it? • How can I spend my time