The Identity of a Productive Magpie
Lessons from James Clear on why my previous blogs failed and how I’m rebuilding for 2026.
I am still in the early stages of the Productive Magpie concept. I have learned not to hoard tools but to build systems that reinforce who I am and how I work. After finishing Atomic Habits by James Clear, this concept was further fleshed out as I looked to build in those systems into my magpie approach.
Identity Over Goals
One of the ways that has helped me is to think that “I am a writer” instead of “I want to write blog posts.” I could create a goal to write this blog post, but once I have finished it, I would have to set a new goal of another blog post. Constantly moving the goal posts is not beneficial. So, I think of my system. I write my ideas in Ulysses and then start writing what is on my mind. I might not finish the post, but I have the idea out of my mind and into something functional. You need to move away from goal setting and work toward identity building.
Downloading TickTick doesn’t make me organized,
but using it every day does.
A magpie doesn’t collect things because it wants the most things, it collects things to build a stronger nest. In my previous blogs, I would focus on one blog post and set that as a goal to write one blog post at a time. I thought that was being productive. I now realize that I was not being a writer, I was just writing. That may be why all those other posts failed and why I quit writing there. Writing was a chore, it wasn’t just what I do.
Clear famously says, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
The Magpie Workflow
You have to create a system to get to where you want to be. I have an input system of RSS feeds that bring in articles of interest for me to read. I weed out what I want to read by sending the articles to TickTick so that I can make any notes in the description as well as setting a due date if it is something that I want to focus on. This also allows for articles to sit until I have time (like on a weekend morning) to get to them. Sometimes these gems of articles and ideas pop up then that didn’t resonate when I skimmed them throughout the week. Once I have an idea, I can send that topic over to Ulysses and start typing away.
The Power of 1%
James Clear also emphasizes that if you improve by just 1% every day, you will be exponentially better within a year’s time. That is my hope for the Magpie method. I want it to improve and for others to discover the benefits of stealing from different areas and actions that they come across. So, if I learn one keyboard shortcut today, that will help me work faster the rest of the year possibly saving me hours throughout the year. I could take the time to better my system by creating a template so that later on when I need to work on a similar project, I can implement that template and cut out some of the duplicate work that I would have to do if I built it from scratch. Those 1% improvements add up. That is the essence of being a productive magpie, gathering small wins that add up to a massive advantage.
What is one 1% improvement you’re making to your system this week?