Something you don't need: a perfect system

I've seen countless people not start working because their "system" isn't quite what they want. They don't want to write on paper because then how do you search for something in the future. They want to get their tags right in Evernote. They want to get some additional background knowledge before they start.

This is all BS. Working imperfectly is better than doing nothing perfectly. You can always redo, edit, and fix something done wrong. You can always go back and retag your six dozen Evernote notes once you've become enlightened about the right way to do it. You can even throw away the six dozen notes if the tagging is beyond repair. That's still a lot better than doing nothing. You might not have everything backed up 100% reliably, but if you haven't written anything, you don't need a system for backing up your work. You shouldn't be optimizing to prevent data loss, you should be optimizing to minimize wasted working hours.

You don't need good tools and systems to make progress. You can make progress with a text editor, paper notebook, and pen. You use tools and systems to make more progress than with a text editor, paper notebook, and pen. You're better off without them if they're not making you more productive.