Skip to: categories | main content

Dec 7 2006: Simpleology review (unaffiliated)

I have been an avid user of Getting Things Done but decided to give Simpleology a try despite the fact that all reviews I found about it were glowing reviews by affiliated people.

Simpleology 101 is a free course that promises increased productivity.

When I wrote the first version of this review I had just finished day 18 for the first time. Yes, in Simpleology 101 they want you to go over all 18 lessons a second time right away, with slightly different exercises. I must admit Iam not enjoying taking 18 days to repeat it, despite thinking that Simpleology 101 was rather nice free offering.

There were things I liked and things I did not like about Simpleology 101, and the main thing I was looking for is just not there.

Likes
+ Writing down goals
Simpleology is very focused on the importance of knowing what you want and tells you to write down one long term, one medium term and one short term goal. Simpleology calls those targets. Doing this can be very helpful for a Getting Things Done person who feels that they are getting much done but not getting anywhere in their life.

+ Energetic Daily Target Praxis
Every morning of a Simpleology person starts with Daily Target Praxis. In course of the Praxis you are supposed to imagine reaching your targets and how that feels. This can be a very positive way to start a day and reminds you what you really want in life.
During the Praxes you are also supposed to pay attention to things that waste your time or energy and think about ways to remove those things from you life. You are also told to look for things that increase your time efficiency or your energy and find ways to have those more in your life. I noticed that I was drinking too little water and that gathering errands to be done in one go makes my day more efficient.

+ Productivity
By starting my day with focused action I do get more done than before.

Dislikes
- Often feels very focused on selling Simpleology 102
Unlike Simpleology 101, Simpleology 102 is not free. They try to sell you Simpleology 102 before you have even seen Simpleology 101. And when it comes to writing down your targets, they tell you your medium term goal is finishing Simpleology 102.

- Paperheavy
Targets, daily targets and observations are all kept on paper and doing the Daily Target Praxis requires copying your notes from one paper to another. This felt annoying to a Palm using, treehugging GTDer like me. Simpleology would benefit much from a piece of software for that task. The copying also makes the system vulnerable to copying errors. More than once I have noticed something is missing from my daily targets because I have accidentally skipped over a line.

-Requires remembering
The system seems to assume you will remember everything you have to do the morning you start doing the Daily Target Praxis. There is no gathering of inputs into your system. If you do not remember what you need to do when you are already done with your Daily Target Praxis, according to the system that can always wait until all your daily targets are done.

- Assumes you do not have a job which can have emergencies
Simpleology tells you to wait till answering your phone and reading your emails until your daily targets are done. Most of us do not have jobs or lives that make that possible.

Missing
Daily target praxis reminds you of the targets, but does not much help you to fill your daily targets with things that support your long term targets.


At the moment I feel hesitant about buying Simpleology 102 for two reason. One, I am reading a very promising book on personal finances already, and two, I have seen so may affiliate things for Simpleology and I have a nagging feeling that Simpleology 102 will tell me to participate in that.
Posted by Lynoure Comments: (21) Trackbacks: (0)
Defined tags for this entry: , ,
Related entries by tags:

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

kolik said,

Friday, December 29. 2006 at 08:31 (Link) (Reply)

I am certain that non of existing productivity increasing or life managing systems are perfect nor that they can be applied in all circumstances by any person. There is a need for this kind of systems and they will continue to evolve and become more versatile and holistic.

In the mean time we find the one we like and use it to the best of our ability.

I came across Simpleology, and really enjoy working with it. I was enthusiastic enough to buy 102 coarse before trying 101, and do not regret it. Mark Joyner gives a lot of information about money making and management in 102. If you know who he is, you have an idea what kind of info you will receive. And to make this complete he designed 103, which suppose to help us with "energy" issues, like lack of enthusiasm, physical or emotional exhaustion, etc. So, that we can go towards reaching our goals faster.

So, for me Simpleology gives an opportunity to see my life from the bigger prospective, rather then just tasks and their fulfillment.

This might be one of the reasons why they mention 102 so much. You can't make serious changes in your life by only changing one thing, like only focusing on completing the tasks.

And to conclude. You are not asked to do any affiliate work neither in 101 nor 102. Mark knows that too much affiliate promotion is not good. And he does not imposes it on people that come to Simpleology.

Anyway, if you liked 101 you may give 102 a try. But remember, it is more of a life managing, then just productivity improvement system.

And by the way, can you share what book are you reading that is so exciting?

Best,
kolik
Lynoure said,

Friday, December 29. 2006 at 10:19 (Link) (Reply)

The book mentioned above is Nice Girls Don't Get Rich by Lois P. Frankel. Regardless of the title, the advice in it is applicable to both sexes. (I usually stay away from stuff that is very gender-focused as they tend to irritate me.)
Ben Ahlquist said,

Saturday, December 30. 2006 at 11:30 (Link) (Reply)

Excellent review and good to see one that is unaffiliated. I too have used both Simpleology and GTD and am not affiliated with either.

My search for a organizational and life management system ramped up when I launched an IT consultant firm a couple of years ago. The list of things to learn, initiatives to implement, projects to complete, ideas to research, etc, was/is endless. Then there's my personal life with my pursuits, relationships, and interests. I needed a system that could help me prioritize what I needed to do today out of the 50,000 items that could be done.

PROs of Simpleology (in my experience)
- I found it helped me cut through the "sea" of possible actions to find that list of most important things for today. I had never before experienced such a rush of excitement and powerful focus at the start of the day after finishing the daily target praxis, feeling that I knew exactly what I had to accomplish.

- Being reminded every day of my goals and dreams was a very positive reinforcement.

- The Observation Log was useful, as I believe that reflection in life is important. This was where you reviewed your actions that added or stole from your time, energy, and money – the 3 sources of power according to Simpleology.

- The "Major Targets" or goals served as daily reminders of what I wanted and why. This definitely had a focusing effect.

CONs
- While I enjoyed the feeling of power and focus after using the daily target praxis, I also experienced significantly amplified pressure and stress to make sure I got it all done. I found myself really worked up in the middle of the day, extremely annoyed with the inevitable circumstances and people that alter the planned course (even though many of these things were the very clients and projects that make up my business). By the end of too many days I was disappointed if/when I didn't finish the list.

- The daily target praxis did not have any other input source for important actions other than yesterday's lists, what you happened to remember that morning, and your major targets (goals). Once the daily target praxis is completed, your daily list was supposedly ready and there was no phone-answering or email-checking until that list is completed (according to Simpleology methodology). Too many of us have jobs and lives where it is imperative to stay connected while working towards accomplishing our goals. Also, many people have additional work projects that will dictate how the day goes, not just by a list with only the inputs included above. For instance, in order for me to be responsible with my day, I have to include reviewing the current client project files and next actions on many work-related items, but the daily target praxis does not allow inclusion for those types of things.

- The Mental Lockbox is a good idea (things that need to get done, just not today), but is not included anywhere for review later on. So that list keeps growing and growing, with no scheduled review. As GTD teaches, your mind will not be able to view the Simpleology implementation as your trusted system when it leaves such important things out, as your subconscious mind will not let them go.

- Too much paper and writing, as the author states in the review. I was constantly printing out multiple pages every day and re-writing items and lists way too often. The redundancy got old fast.

- The Simpleology course kept stating that the daily target praxis should be completed in 15 minutes. My experience was that it usually took between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours, which is very long for a daily routine. The daily target praxis is 18 steps – that’s less than 60 seconds per step. Reviewing Major Targets, (I had well over 20), taking time to "see" them complete, remembering the "why," and determining next actions for each - simply cannot be done in 50 seconds. Many times neither can a morning mind sweep, re-writing the list for today, doing the Power Praxis, etc.


I am currently using GTD, with Outlook at the center, Pocket PC PDA for portable access, and paper and electronic in-baskets and project and reference file systems. It has not been easy for me to reprogram the way I process and organize, but as they say, anything worth doing isn't free and usually takes longer than you think.

Ideally I would like to see a mash-up of the two methodologies, as I think both have their benefits. So if anyone has done this or has ideas, fill the rest of us in.
Example: Maybe Simpleology's Major Target form and the supplementary Backward Planner template could be used as "project support material" for GTD projects. It would help give structure during the weekly review and also determining next actions and such. Also the Power Praxis could be included in the Weekly review.
quike said,

Sunday, February 25. 2007 at 22:52 (Link) (Reply)

Simpleology sounds to me like Scientology :-[

101, 102, 103, 104... I'd like to get rich selling methods.

I have a nice firefox extension on Gmail based on GTD, but I don't use it yet, first I have to learn how to implement it.

I´m also a palm user, I got llamagraphics "lifebalance" helps me a bit with a different approach. What program do you use under palm os?

Interesting blog.

Thanks
Lynoure said,

Sunday, February 25. 2007 at 23:11 (Link) (Reply)

I agree, the name is a bit creepy. :-) But it is not really bad system for productivity, though I prefer GTD.

I stay away from web GTD things as I want as much as possible to be there with me, on my Palm. And I find it icky to share my detailed plans on a random website.

On my Palm I use Progect for my projects and next actions, the build-in Tasks next actions and Waiting-for and DateBk6 for both actions and calendar stuff. In addition to those, I use Memos for Agendas and lists of all kinds.

I remember trying LifeBalance some years back and I liked the idea but the implementation was not quite for me.
Gina Blackhawk said,

Thursday, September 13. 2007 at 09:50 (Reply)

I don't see anything wrong with Simpleology sounding like Scientology. I have experience with both and they are both INCREDIBLE tools!
Lynoure said,

Thursday, September 13. 2007 at 12:34 (Reply)

I'm happy they have worked for you.

Me it freaks out a bit, given that Simpleology is supposed to be a productivity method and Scientology is a religion.

(However, further discussion on Scientology is best done outside this blog.)
quike said,

Monday, February 26. 2007 at 16:13 (Link) (Reply)

I have some books about GTD, but that's the next thing to do.

I also use progect, that's a nice program with to-do links, a bit old but never needed an upgrade. Action names for calendar, tasks and agenda. Will check Waiting-for.

Lifebalance has some GTD templates that works nice depending the place you are, the time of the day and priorities, but first I have to learn GTD.

nice web, what a pity I don't read suomi

Have a nice and warm day :-)
Lynoure said,

Monday, February 26. 2007 at 17:59 (Link) (Reply)

Thanks :-) Feel free to read and comment more.

Worry not, the stuff in Finnish is even more obscure than the rest of the stuff on this blog.

The only thing bothering me about Progect at the moment is that it is a bit slow to open, but as it is open source, perhaps some day I will get around to see if I can speed it up somehow.

Maybe I should give LifeBalance another try. :-)
quike said,

Monday, February 26. 2007 at 16:27 (Link) (Reply)

I forgot to comment about GTD firefox extension at www.gtdgmail.com
I don't consider Gmail a random website, and if you think of it, you could carrie with you, in a memory key, a portable firefox configured with a google account with all your tasks. Of course is duplicating in the palm and the web, but has it advantages for tasks mail related, and you can access it anywhere there is a PC, keeping the information in your hand.
Just some thought maybe someone is interested.

quike
Eric Gooch said,

Wednesday, February 28. 2007 at 18:56 (Link) (Reply)

Hey, thanks for the review. I heard about simpleology and found your blog through a google search for simpleology review.

Don't know if it sounds like something I'd want to pursue...I don't like how paper-heavy it sounds, and the cons that people have listed seem substantial.

For what it's worth, I use Microsoft OneNote to store all my long-term info, My Life Organized for tracking multi-step projects, and TimeTo for my daily schedule. I'm not affiliated with any of them.

I also checked out Life Balance a while back...think I'll take another look too!
Lynoure said,

Wednesday, February 28. 2007 at 22:06 (Link) (Reply)

Simpleology site can now used for the Daily Target Praxes instead of paper. However the DTP there is very linear, so that you do not see what you did not finish yesterday before writing down what you need to do today. I tried it couple of times and I do not have good enough memory to be comfortable with how the site does it. I guess I'm quite iterative person at heart.
Mark Joyner said,

Friday, February 1. 2008 at 03:37 (Link) (Reply)

Hey Lynoure, thanks for the honest write up. We are currently in the process of revamping Simpleology completely and would love your feedback on how to improve it.

Interested in sending us a list of requests or perhaps adding that to this post here? Maybe we can get your readers involved as well. We will definitely take all feedback seriously. If you want the perfect tool, this is your chance to have some input on getting it created.
Lynoure Braakman said,

Friday, February 1. 2008 at 09:23 (Link) (Reply)

Some things you have already improved. The Simpleology cockpit does make the system pretty much paperless, which is nice.

I'm not sure how I would improve the Daily Target Praxis. I'm pretty sure that DTP works well for many people because of the linear nature and not in spite of it and any changes that make it less linear are likely to turn off some fans.

I did end up buying access to Simpleology 102 too, by the way. Maybe I'll write another entry on that someday.
Daniel Caron said,

Sunday, February 3. 2008 at 08:25 (Reply)

To improve Simpleology..

I want a tips section for choosing my targets..

I chose a target for my body/ 50 pushups for Short term .. but
I do need a job too.. that's my mid range target.
My 3rd target is to finish registering for school.
Amin said,

Wednesday, May 28. 2008 at 06:34 (Reply)

I would like to see firefox support for the browserguard. also a screenlet for linux would be nice. I actually prefer the ubuntu linux OS.
The Business Cultivator said,

Wednesday, October 1. 2008 at 00:46 (Link) (Reply)

Simpleology contacted me recently, wanting to do some kind of integrated marketing with me as I work with small business owners. Your comments clarified why I would not want to use it or promote it. I don't like the paper heavy approach and honestly, from what you wrote, it sounds more cumbersome than it sounds simple! Also, I have not been impressed with their sales approach in emails and on their site.

I have my own methods I teach to small business owners for getting to the heart of things and spending less time working and more time enjoying life and I am not really seeing how Simpleology would add to that at this point. You saved me a lot of time by offering such a thorough and unbiased review. Thanks!
Lynoure said,

Sunday, October 5. 2008 at 18:05 (Reply)

I hope you did try it briefly yourself before deciding against it. There are some parts I do like, like the Power Praxes. They kind of make incremental improvement natural.
Bruno said,

Wednesday, October 29. 2008 at 16:44 (Link) (Reply)

Thanks for the honest review, I had to look for a decent one like you before deciding to not buy this after all. I've spent enough money on information already.
rgds
Lynoure said,

Thursday, October 30. 2008 at 10:13 (Reply)

Note that my review was about the FREE (at least it was free at the time of my trying it) Simpleology 101. So you don't need to buy it, you can just try it. That is, you might be able to get second opinion: your own opinion, after trying.

I'd done the first round of Simpleology 102 too, but haven't yet gotten around to write a review on it.
CC said,

Wednesday, January 14. 2009 at 17:44 (Reply)

With 2.5 months later I am really curious about your experience with the 102 version.
Lynoure, when will we hear from you again?

Add Comment

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications