After decades of studying productivity systems and working with thousands of busy professionals throughout my career, I joined the Paperless Movement® as a co-founder in July 2022.
Together with Tom Solid (Paperless Movement®’s founder), we designed and developed ICOR® – a comprehensive methodology meticulously crafted from real-world experience and extensive testing.
ICOR® isn’t just another theoretical framework. It’s a tool-agnostic methodology built from countless hours observing how busy professionals actually work, identifying their real challenges, and developing practical solutions that deliver results.
While ICOR® can be implemented with any tools that match your specific needs, finding the right tool combination is crucial for peak performance.
Inside our Paperless Movement® Membership, busy professionals frequently ask us how we manage to run such a dynamic team while consistently delivering a huge volume of high-quality content, courses, and coaching.
For the Paperless Movement®’s specific needs, we’ve found our perfect match: ClickUp integrated with ICOR®.
“The right tools applied in the right way can multiply your efforts a thousandfold.” — James Clear
I’ve personally tested dozens of Project Management tools over the past decades, and for our particular use case – managing content creation, member engagement, and team coordination – ClickUp has proven to be the ideal choice.
This isn’t just a preference – it’s a conclusion backed by years of hands-on experience with our unique business requirements.
While ClickUp’s aggressive feature development initially meant dealing with some growing pains during its startup days, Tom and I stayed committed because we saw something special from the first moment – how perfectly ClickUp’s vision aligned with our methodology, vision, and mission at the Paperless Movement®.
Our business requires a Project Management tool that can handle complex content creation, member engagement, course development, and team coordination – all while maintaining the precise structure that ICOR® demands to be productive and perform at a peak level with consistency.
For these specific requirements, ClickUp has proven to be the perfect match, outperforming every other solution we’ve tested for our particular use case (and we’ve tested a lot!).
In this article, I share the most crucial features that set ClickUp apart from the rest.
While I could list many more reasons why it’s the best Project Management tool for our use case, I’ve focused on the aspects that I believe will resonate most with businesses facing similar challenges.
If you’re managing a dynamic team that needs to consistently deliver high-quality work while maintaining perfect organization, I encourage you to spend a few minutes exploring how these insights could transform your team’s productivity.
Let’s dive in!
Project Management: Your Team’s Symphony of Success
Project Management in ICOR® is about orchestrating your team’s efforts with precision and clarity.
It’s like conducting an orchestra – ensuring every member plays their part perfectly while maintaining harmony across the entire performance.
At its core, Project Management encompasses five key elements:
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Planning and organizing tasks strategically to keep projects on track.
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Setting clear priorities to ensure the most important work gets done first.
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Aligning individual tasks with team goals for maximum impact.
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Converting creative ideas into actionable, concrete steps.
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Establishing effective communication channels between team members.
When implemented correctly, Project Management becomes your command center – the place where your team stays synchronized, tasks get completed efficiently, and goals transform from vision to reality.
It’s not just about managing tasks; it’s about creating a productivity system where your team can perform at their peak while maintaining clarity and focus.
For busy professionals, having a robust Project Management system means the difference between feeling overwhelmed by complexity and maintaining control over your team’s workflow.
This is exactly where ClickUp shines for our needs at the Paperless Movement®.
1. Born for Project Management: Why Native Design Matters
The first thing that caught our attention about ClickUp was its clear identity – it was built as a Project Management tool from day one. This might seem obvious, but it’s actually quite rare in today’s software landscape.
Take Notion, for example. While it’s an excellent tool for many purposes, it wasn’t originally designed for Project Management.
It started as a note-taking and knowledge management tool that later added Project Management features. This retrofit approach often leads to compromises in core functionality.
ClickUp, on the other hand, was built from the ground up with Project Management in mind.
Every feature, every workflow, every interface element was designed specifically for managing projects and teams effectively.
You can feel this focused approach in how naturally tasks flow, how intuitive team collaboration is, and how seamlessly different Project Management features work together.
This native Project Management approach is why we at the Paperless Movement® chose ClickUp over alternatives like Notion.
When your tool is purpose-built for Project Management, you spend less time creating workarounds and more time actually managing your projects.
2. Built for Action: Turn Thoughts into Tasks Instantly
At the Paperless Movement®, we believe that success comes from taking action, not just planning or discussing.
This philosophy perfectly aligns with ClickUp’s action-oriented approach, which we experience every day in our operations.
From the moment you start interacting with ClickUp, you feel this emphasis on action.
Every feature is designed to move projects forward, not just organize information.
“Ideas are easy. It’s the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats.” — Sue Grafton
Take their comment-to-action feature, for example – a game-changer in our daily operations.
Here’s how it works: Imagine you’re reviewing a task and a team member makes an insightful comment that requires action.
Instead of creating a separate task or risking the suggestion getting lost in a discussion thread, they can instantly convert their comment into an actionable task.
With just one click, they can assign it to the right person, set a due date, and track its completion.
This seamless transition from discussion to action ensures no good comment gets stuck in the planning phase.
This approach has transformed how our team operates.
We spend less time in meetings discussing what needs to be done and more time actually doing it.
The result?
Faster project completion and more tangible results.
3. Unmatched Flexibility: Your Workflows, Your Way
One of ClickUp’s most powerful features is its incredible flexibility – but this is a double-edged sword that requires the right approach to master.
While some tools force you into rigid workflows, ClickUp lets you shape the platform around how your team actually works.
This is where having a solid methodology becomes crucial.
At the Paperless Movement®, we’ve seen countless professionals struggle with flexible tools because they lack a clear methodology to guide their implementation.
ICOR® provides that essential foundation – a comprehensive methodology that helps you make intentional choices about how to set up any tool, not just ClickUp.
In our case, we’ve been able to create exactly the structure we needed for our Business area, letting ClickUp’s flexibility serve our methodology rather than being overwhelmed by it.
Two critical ICOR® workflows perfectly showcase this flexibility:
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The Agenda Meeting: This is our weekly synchronization point where we review Weekly Goals, plan the upcoming week, and ensure team alignment. In ClickUp, we’ve created a specialized structure that automatically collects discussion topics throughout the week, tracks meeting outcomes, and converts decisions into actionable tasks. This systematic approach has reduced our meeting time by 90% while improving team coordination.
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The Idea Incubator: This ICOR® workflow is designed to evaluate and develop new ideas systematically. We’ve set up ClickUp to support the entire process – from initial idea capture through evaluation stages to final implementation decisions. Using custom statuses, fields, and views, we can track each idea’s progress, gather team input, and ensure no valuable concept gets lost or forgotten.
This is why we always emphasize that success with any tool starts with having the right methodology.
ICOR® provides the strategic foundation that turns overwhelming flexibility into a powerful advantage.
Whether you’re using ClickUp or any other tool, understanding the fundamental principles and workflows you need to implement is what makes the difference between struggling with features and leveraging them effectively.
In our case, ICOR® has transformed ClickUp’s flexibility from a potential challenge into our greatest asset for building a Project Management system that truly works.
4. ClickUp’s Secret Weapon: Infinitely Flexible Objects
Most Project Management tools are built around a single concept: tasks.
ClickUp takes a fundamentally different approach that perfectly aligns with how modern teams actually work – everything can be an object with its own unique properties and behaviors.
This flexible object approach has been crucial for implementing ICOR®’s concepts at the Paperless Movement®.
Take our Weekly Goals, for example.
In ICOR®, Weekly Goals are more than just tasks – they’re commitments that drive progress toward larger goals.
We implement these Weekly Goals as Milestones in ClickUp, taking advantage of this specialized object type to give them the prominence and tracking capabilities they deserve.
By using ClickUp’s Milestones for our Weekly Goals, we can:
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Visually distinguish them from regular tasks in our workflow.
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Track their completion rate with dedicated milestone reporting.
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Link them directly to larger quarterly goals.
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Monitor their impact on project progress.
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Maintain clear visibility of these key commitments across the team.
This object-based flexibility means we’re never forced to squeeze our methodology into rigid task-only structures. Instead, we can shape ClickUp to match exactly how we need to work.
5. Seamless Connections: From Big Picture to Daily Actions
In ICOR®, we’ve defined Output Elements as the building blocks of effective Project Management.
These elements create a clear hierarchy: Goals at the top, Projects/Workstreams/Operations in the middle, and Tasks at the foundation.
Thanks to ClickUp’s flexible object approach we discussed earlier, we’ve been able to create a perfect parallel structure:
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Goals in ICOR® are implemented as Goals in ClickUp.
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Projects, Workstreams, and Operations from ICOR® become Lists in ClickUp.
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Tasks in ICOR® map directly to Tasks in ClickUp.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” — Yogi Berra
What makes this implementation particularly powerful is ClickUp’s unlimited hierarchy levels. This means we can fully implement ICOR®’s Task-Subtask approach whenever needed, breaking down complex tasks into manageable pieces without losing their connections.
This parallel structure enables both top-down and bottom-up views of our work.
From the top, we can start with our goals and see how they break down into specific projects and tasks.
From the bottom, team members working on individual tasks can instantly understand how their work contributes to larger goals.
The result is what we call the “zoom effect” – the ability to seamlessly move between the highest-level view of our goals and the smallest task details, never losing sight of the connections between them.
This clarity ensures every team member understands not just WHAT they’re doing, but WHY they’re doing it.
6. Powerful Knowledge Hub: Where BKM Meets Action
In ICOR®, Business Knowledge Management (BKM) is crucial for team success.
ClickUp has transformed how we handle BKM at the Paperless Movement® through three game-changing features:
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ClickUp Docs.
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Brain AI.
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Unified Search.
First, there’s ClickUp Docs – a robust documentation system that’s deeply integrated with all our Output Elements.
Unlike standalone documentation tools, ClickUp Docs maintains living connections between our knowledge base and everything we do – from high-level goals to individual tasks.
This means team members can access relevant documentation wherever they are in the hierarchy, whether they’re reviewing goals, planning projects, or executing specific tasks.
Second, the introduction of Brain AI has revolutionized how we interact with our knowledge base.
It doesn’t just search – it understands context and relationships between different pieces of information, making our entire knowledge base more accessible and actionable.
But what truly sets ClickUp apart is its unified search capability.
When you search in ClickUp, you’re not just searching within ClickUp – the system also checks any linked external content, whether it’s in Google Docs, Dropbox, or other integrated platforms.
This means our team can find what they need without jumping between different tools or wondering where information might be stored.
This comprehensive approach to BKM ensures that our team’s knowledge isn’t just stored – it’s actively working for us, accessible exactly WHEN and WHERE we need it.
7. Communication Powerhouse: Beyond Just Chat
At the Paperless Movement®, we’ve always emphasized the importance of effective Team Communication.
After years of using Slack as our primary communication tool, we made a surprising discovery: ClickUp’s communication features were so powerful that they completely replaced our need for a separate chat platform.
This wasn’t a decision we made lightly.
Slack had been our trusted communication tool for years.
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” — George Bernard Shaw
But ClickUp’s integrated communication system (ClickUp chat) offers something more valuable: context-rich conversations that live exactly where the work happens.
Here’s what makes ClickUp’s chat so special and unique:
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Comments and discussions are tied directly to relevant Output Elements.
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Team chat maintains the context of projects and tasks.
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@mentions create instant actionable items.
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Threaded conversations keep discussions organized.
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Real-time updates keep everyone in sync.
The result?
We’ve eliminated the common problem of information getting lost between different tools.
Whether discussing a goal, planning a project, or collaborating on a task, all communication stays connected to its context, making it easier to track decisions and progress.
This integrated approach has not only streamlined our workflow but also improved our team’s productivity by keeping all work-related communication in one place.
8. Inbox Mastery: Your Command Center for Action
In ICOR®, inboxes are fundamental to any individual’s productivity system.
They serve as temporary Single Sources of Truth (SSOT) when you can’t immediately determine where information or actions should ultimately live.
This personal inbox concept is crucial because it allows you to capture everything that needs your attention without breaking your focus or flow.
ClickUp takes this individual inbox concept and expands it brilliantly to the team level.
Each team member gets their own ClickUp inbox that not only serves their personal productivity needs but also seamlessly handles team interactions.
Instead of forcing immediate responses to notifications, comments, or task assignments, ClickUp provides each person a powerful command center where both individual and team items wait for attention until you’re ready to process them.
Think of ClickUp’s inbox as your personal mission control. It collects and organizes all items requiring your attention:
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Comments that need your response.
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Tasks you’ve been assigned.
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@mentions that need your input.
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Updates on projects you’re following.
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Changes to documents you’re collaborating on.
The real power comes from how ICOR®’s individual inbox processing concept scales to the team level in ClickUp.
Through carefully designed routines – scheduled times during the day when each team member processes their inbox – we transform ClickUp from a simple notification center into a productivity powerhouse.
These personal routines, when practiced by every team member, create a synchronized system where individual productivity drives team success.
At the Paperless Movement®, asynchronous work has always been a cornerstone of our methodology – it’s built into ICOR®’s DNA.
ClickUp’s inbox feature provides the perfect tool to implement this crucial concept.
Through our structured productivity system that runs on autopilot, every team member processes their inbox during designated routine times, maintaining our commitment to asynchronous work while ensuring nothing gets missed.
When you combine ClickUp’s robust inbox features with ICOR®’s routine-based processing, you create something powerful: a self-sustaining productivity engine that keeps your team synchronized without constant interruptions.
9. Home: Your Personal Command Center
One of the most anxiety-inducing challenges for busy professionals is the fear of missing something important.
ClickUp’s Home feature eliminates this concern by creating a centralized command center that puts everything you need at your fingertips.
Think of Home as your personal mission control room. At a glance, you can see:
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Tasks requiring your attention.
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Comments needing your response.
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Documents you’ve recently worked on.
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Reminders coming due.
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Updates from your team.
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Progress on your goals.
But what makes Home truly powerful is its flexibility.
You can customize this command center to match exactly how you think and work.
It’s not just a static dashboard – it’s a highly configurable hub that you can set up to show exactly what matters most to you, in the way you want to see it.
This means you’re always looking at the information that’s most relevant to your workflow, organized in a way that makes sense to you.
This centralization creates something invaluable: peace of mind.
You know that nothing can slip through the cracks because everything important surfaces in your Home view.
Whether it’s an assigned comment, an upcoming task, or a document that needs review, Home ensures you stay on top of it all without the constant worry of missing something crucial.
10. Automation: The Ultimate Productivity Multiplier
ClickUp’s automation capabilities operate on two powerful levels, making it a true productivity multiplier for our team at the Paperless Movement®.
First, there’s ClickUp’s native automation system.
Built directly into the platform, it offers an impressive array of triggers and actions that can automate countless workflows.
For example, when we change a task’s status, it can automatically:
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Notify specific team members.
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Update related tasks.
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Trigger new task creation.
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Adjust due dates.
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Reassign responsibilities.
“Automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency.” — Bill Gates
But where ClickUp truly shines is in its extensive integration capabilities with third-party tools, taking automation to another level entirely.
Through integrations with Zapier and many other external tools, we’ve implemented sophisticated automations at the Paperless Movement® that trigger based on task statuses to:
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Automatically publish content on our website.
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Fill in specific fields with the right content automatically.
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Trigger actions across multiple tools within our productivity system.
These automations aren’t just about saving time – they ensure consistency in our workflows and eliminate the possibility of steps being forgotten.
By combining ClickUp’s native automations with its powerful third-party integration capabilities, we’ve created a productivity system that runs smoothly with minimal manual intervention.
The Perfect Symphony: When Methodology Meets Power
After implementing countless Project Management tools throughout my career, I’ve learned that a tool’s true power emerges when it’s guided by clear principles and methodology.
ClickUp’s extensive capabilities shine brightest when you approach them with purpose and structure.
At the Paperless Movement®, we’ve experienced this firsthand.
By applying ICOR®’s methodical approach to ClickUp’s features, we’ve created a Project Management system that:
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Transforms meetings into action-driven sessions.
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Converts discussions and ideas into concrete progress.
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Turns team communication into seamless collaboration.
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Makes complex project management feel effortless.
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Ensures we achieve every goal we set, consistently and predictably.
The results speak for themselves: our team operates with clarity and purpose, projects move forward consistently, and we maintain peak productivity without burning out.
This isn’t just about using ClickUp’s features effectively – it’s about approaching Project Management with a clear vision of how information flows into action.
What I’ve shared here is just the beginning of what’s possible when you combine powerful tools with solid methodology.
The key is understanding that true productivity isn’t about working harder or using more features – it’s about having the right approach that lets you leverage these tools to their full potential.
