Talk:Timeline of personal productivity

Review by Vipul on 2026-02-04

Conversation with Claude exploring review themes

See here; this covers all the points below, but not necessarily in the same order. At the end, I also asked Claude to rewrite the big picture to incorporate these points.

Standalone evaluation

The following things may be worth adding or integrating (feel free to push back!); I also cover these in my conversation with Claude linked above, so you can get a starting point for the sort of things I have in mind by reading that:

• Various religious and philosophical views that informed the antecedents of productivity, including Buddhism, Confucianism, Aristotelianism, and Protestantism (Claude listed these and more stuff when I prompted it to opine on how religions and philosophies spoke to productivity)
• Light bulb and what it did in terms of unlocking productivity in the dark (I prompted Claude about this and it gave a decent but verbose explanation)
• Tim Ferriss 4-hour workweek and related stuff (Claude gave a bunch of other related things)

External evaluation

Claude also responded to my question with a bunch of productivity-related things from outside the United States in the recent past, including Europe and Japan, with a focus in the case of Europe on the 4-day workweek. I didn't feel totally convinced that this deserves inclusion in the timeline, but wanted to flag it as a possibility for you to consider. This isn't an idea that I would have had independently (whereas the rest of the ideas listed above are ones that I independently had and only asked Claude to elaborate on) so I am including it in the external evaluation section.

Excluded events from the timeline

Year	Event type	Details	Location
1968	Research	3M chemist Spencer Silver develops a low-tack, reusable pressure-sensitive adhesive (microsphere acrylate), later enabling Post-it Notes.	United States
1980	Artifact/Tool	National U.S. launch of Post-it Notes, popularizing quick, low-friction capture for reminders, task triage, and lightweight workflows.	United States
1995 (August 24)	Software	Release of Windows 95, introducing the Start menu, taskbar, and Plug and Play—mainstreaming GUI computing and home/office productivity.	United States
1996 (March)	Artifact/Tool	Launch of PalmPilot 1000/5000; Graffiti handwriting and HotSync make PDAs a portable hub for contacts, calendars, tasks, and notes.	United States
1999	Corporate productivity trend	“Lean management” spreads from manufacturing into knowledge work, with emphasis on workflow mapping and waste reduction.	Japan
2004 (April 1)	Software/Service	Launch of Gmail, offering large storage, search, labels, and threaded conversations; email becomes faster to triage and retrieve.	United States
2006 (April)	Software/Service	Google Calendar debuts with sharable calendars, invites, and reminders, easing coordination and time-blocking across teams.	United States
2006 (October)	Software/Service	Early Google Docs & Spreadsheets enable real-time, web-based co-editing, reducing version chaos and email attachments.	United States
2007	Method/Framework	“Inbox Zero” (Merlin Mann) popularizes aggressive email triage to minimize inbox cognitive load via processing, not perpetual checking.	United States
2008	Software/Service	Evernote launches cross-platform notes with sync and image OCR, centralizing capture across devices.	United States
2011 (September)	Software	Trello introduces visual Kanban boards, cards, and lists for lightweight project tracking and WIP visibility.	United States
2013 (August)	Software/Service	Slack launches team channels with search and integrations, shifting knowledge work from email threads to persistent, searchable chat.	United States
2013	Method/Framework	Bullet Journal (Ryder Carroll) popularizes an analog system for tasks, notes, and reflection using rapid logging and modular collections.	United States
2016	Software	Notion 1.x emerges as an all-in-one workspace (notes, databases, wikis), later expanding via templates and APIs.	United States
2018	Software	Notion 2.0 broadens databases/relations and team workflows, accelerating adoption as a flexible productivity platform.	United States
2020	Software	Roam Research popularizes networked note-taking with bidirectional links and daily notes, influencing tools-for-thought workflows.	United States
2020	Software	Obsidian introduces local-first markdown with backlink graphs and plugins, enabling extensible personal knowledge systems.	United States
2007 (November 20)		Ali Abdaal opens his Youtube channel.	United Kingdom
2020	Literature	Cal Newport publishes "The Rise and Fall of Getting Things Done" in The New Yorker, discussing the challenges and limitations of personal productivity in the knowledge work era.
2021 (March 2)	Literature	Cal Newport publishes A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload, which challenges the prevailing email-centric approach to work and advocates for a more productive and fulfilling work environment. Newport argues that constant digital communication has created a counterproductive "hyperactive hive mind" workflow, leading to reduced profitability and overall dissatisfaction. Drawing on investigative reporting, he proposes clear processes, reduced administrative tasks, and streamlined communication to redefine how tasks are managed. Newport envisions a future where the knowledge sector evolves beyond email dependence.	United States