#27: Hailley — Productivity, Zettelkasten, Goal-Setting

Meet the most efficient person I know.

Welcome to Mia’s Queue, a newsletter spotlighting the secret agents of taste among us. In each edition, I chat with an undercover tastemaker infusing creativity and wonder into their (and our!) everyday life. Learn what lights them up, where they find inspiration, and what they think we should all be enjoying right now. Meet Agent 027: Hailley Griffis, the Head of Communications and Content at Buffer, and co-host of the MakeWorkWork podcast.

I’ve been in awe of Hailley Griffis ever since she came onto my radar at my day job at Flipboard, where she is a member of our Creator Collective. A writer, marketer, and communications pro, Hailley is so organized and productive that her systems are fodder for the rest of us. The ideas and workflows she shares in her newsletter come from navigating a more-than-full work, family, and inner life. By knowing herself through constant reflection and optimization, Hailley is ambition realized, checking off goals like items on a grocery list. Take (smart) notes. 

Have you always been this focused on productivity?

Yes. I grew up in a very small town in Canada. My bus ride to school was an hour and a half each way. I would get home and immediately do all of my homework because I wanted to have the rest of the night to myself. That kept going. I don't like wasting time. 

How do you organize your goals?

One thing that’s been very successful for me is reflecting on the past year and using that to inform what I want. In an ideal world, if I could do it all, I might have a list of 1,015 things, which is too many. So I'll go through and categorize them, like this one is a financial, personal or relationship goal.

Then I take the approach that Warren Buffett gave to a pilot of his: put everything else on a do-not-do list and only do the first thing on your to-do list. I'm not gonna have five separate career goals at once because they might be competing for time and energy. Only one goal per area. 

I'm also trying to do identity-based goals. James Clear talks about identity-based habits. The idea is that instead of setting a goal like writing a book, my goal would be: I’m a writer this year. How would a writer spend her time? It helps to reframe things.

What are some of your practices around reading, saving ideas, and remembering to use them in your work later?

That's a good question because it's difficult to do. I read a lot and get a ton of emails. I set up a system in Notion where I keep all of these things. If I'm reading an article related to my work in marketing that I might want to reference one day, I'll put it in bookmarks. 

I also have a robust system of notes called Zettelkasten. You put what you read on a little note card and then categorize it in this box sorted by category. Ryan Holiday, who wrote “The Daily Stoic” and other fantastic books, uses a similar system. One of the books on it is called Digital Zettelkasten. The other one was How to Take Smart Notes. 

What are some of the biggest takeaways from your six years of doing your podcast, MakeWorkWork?

We read “The Artist’s Way” together in episode 19. 

That book is such a game-changer for anyone doing creative work. I would not have picked it up if the podcast didn’t keep me accountable for reading it. There's some stuff in the early chapters related to God and spirituality that was hard to read at that time. I was able to move past the resistance and get to the message. It has been so valuable. I've read the book twice. 

We've done several personality tests or quizzes: Enneagram, Hogwarts Houses, Gretchen Rubin’s The Four Tendencies…There's a lot of learning about myself that has happened. 

I'm a verbal processor, so it's helpful to talk things out with someone else who is also a verbal processor. Having the podcast and someone else to talk to about these things, and then reflect on it later with our listeners has been super valuable in helping me move forward.

What does Hailley do when she's feeling rebellious against the productivity monster? 

I curl up and reread my favorite novels (a lot of fantasy books). If I'm not feeling good, I’ll spend the whole day reading and eating. I do a lot of baking. I might curl up in bed and scroll through Instagram Reels or TikTok. Sometimes I start doing things that I don't have time for, like cleaning the pantry. 

You've mentioned so many great things to check out. What else do you recommend people read, watch, eat, play, do, etc?

🧐 Figure out your Enneagram type

It’s not just a for-fun personality test; it’s a test of what motivates you as a person. It’s given me insight into why I am the way that I am, and why something might make me uncomfortable or energized. Now I have the language to have that conversation. It's wild how much of a step that was. I always recommend that people get to know themselves as much as they can. 

📙 “The Daily Stoic” by Ryan Holiday

I am a huge Ryan Holiday fan. I have two copies of “The Daily Stoic” in my closet. I hand them out to friends. The concept is tiny stoicism lessons, one lesson per day for a year. I truly believe that small daily actions lead to better long-term results. “The Daily Stoic” is such a good example of a small action you can take, to think about philosophy in a way most of us don't in our day-to-day lives. It's only one page a day, anyone can do it. 

📓 Journaling

In “The Artist’s Way,” Julia Cameron recommends starting the day with morning pages, three pages’ stream of consciousness. Whenever I do that, I feel phenomenal. In an ideal world, I'd do morning pages every day, but I keep a small daily journal, a Notion, that I can do while I'm brushing my teeth: What are my intentions for today? How do I want the day to go? At the end of the day, I’ll reflect on my celebrations and challenges. I have a free template on the Make Work Work website. That act of pressing pause and setting intentions for the day, and reflecting on the day through journaling, is super powerful and really unblocked me over the last couple of years.

📖 “Atomic Habits” by James Clear 

A phenomenal book. Absolutely. Everyone should read this book.

📖 “The Art of Life Admin” by Elizabeth Emens

It doesn't sound like a fun topic, talking about life admin like health insurance or finances, but it gave me language and a better recognition of when is admin coming to me vs. what can I do to get it off my plate. 

📖 “Do Nothing” by Celeste Headlee

About how to not be burnt out or overworked all the time and move towards things that matter in your life.

🐉 Fantasy books

I love Brandon Sanderson. Anything he writes is fantastic, but I'm a particular fan of the Way of Kings series. I really like Sarah J. Maas as well. She wrote “Throne of Glass” series. I mean, all of her books are phenomenal, but that series is one that I've reread many times. 

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