Every productivity tool promises focus, but few deliver clarity.
In a world of AI-accelerated work, our calendars fill faster than our minds. We check boxes, hit deadlines, and still end the week wondering what actually mattered.
That’s entropy in action—activity without coherence.
I built a new system to fight it: a simple spreadsheet that turns your OKRs, to-dos, and signal tracking into one syntropic engine for meaning.
It’s not another project-management template. It’s a lens.
Most systems measure output—how much you shipped, how many hours you worked, how many things you crossed off. None of that tells you if your work created value.
In a Syntropy economy, output is cheap. Signal is scarce.
Your to-do list shouldn’t just answer What did I do? It should answer:
Who was it for?
What was it for?
Did it create syntropy or entropy?
The template I’m sharing does exactly that. It links every task to an OKR, every OKR to a clear purpose, and every purpose to a syntropy score—a measure of how much clarity, coherence, or compounding value that work produced.
1. Objectives and Key Results (OKRs): The Why
The lookup connects every task to a specific Objective and Key Result. It’s the anchor. Without a clear “why,” even the most productive week can become busy noise.
2. The To-Do Layer: The What and When
This is where work happens—but with intention. Instead of a rolling list of tasks, each entry defines the owner (“Who”), the timeline (“When”), and the syntropy rating (“How much value will this create?”).
3. The Signal Layer: The So What
This final column forces reflection. Did the task create syntropy (clarity, order, momentum) or entropy (confusion, rework, delay)? The weekly review makes this visible in one glance. Over time, patterns emerge: which projects amplify clarity, and which drain it.
Together, these layers transform your to-do list into a living feedback loop—one that measures not just progress, but purpose.
Start with Intent. Write your OKRs at the top: three objectives maximum, each with measurable key results.
Log every task. Assign it to the OKR it supports using the lookup field.
Score the signal. After completing the task, rate the syntropy it created on a scale of 1–5.
Review weekly. Highlight the top three syntropic actions that created lasting value. Eliminate recurring entropic ones.
Ship faster. Apply the 72-hour rule: if you generate syntropy, act on it before it decays.
The moment you start measuring syntropy, your relationship with time changes. Hours become investments, not expenses. You stop optimizing for motion and start optimizing for meaning.
AI can already out-write, out-analyze, and out-plan most humans. But it still can’t decide what matters.
That’s our job.
This framework gives every knowledge worker a way to stay irreplaceably human—to use technology as an amplifier, not a substitute. It teaches teams to see work as signal creation, not task completion.
When you connect your to-do list to your OKRs, and your OKRs to your sense of purpose, you start compounding clarity. You can literally see your syntropy grow.
After a few weeks, something subtle but powerful happens:
You stop starting things that don’t support your OKRs.
You see which types of work consistently generate the highest syntropy scores.
You build momentum rooted in meaning—shipping faster, but with direction.
That’s the real productivity revolution: coherence over chaos.
You can duplicate or download the Syntropic OKRs, To-Do, and Signal Creation template here.
It’s intentionally simple. Complexity is entropy’s favorite disguise.
In the age of AI, productivity is infinite—but purpose is finite.
Your job isn’t to do more. It’s to create more syntropy per hour worked.
Start with one spreadsheet.
Track not what you did, but what mattered.
And watch your week turn from noise into signal.