Revisiting "Predicting Your Day"
Tuesday, May 11, 2021 at 10:36 I’ve been distracted from my revisit of Autofocus after one very productive day working it. The reason for my distraction is that my attention got drawn back to a post I made in 2008 about Predicting Your Day, which I’d entirely forgotten about. There were two follow-up posts to it, in which I described how using the method I had not missed a single task for a period of eight days.
And then the follow-ups stopped.
So did they stop because Predicting Your Day had spectacularly crashed, or because I’d got distracted onto something else? Trying to remember back thirteen years is difficult, but knowing myself as I do I think that getting distracted is the more likely. Besides I usually own up to spectacular crashes!
What this means is that Predicting Your Day is a system which has never been tested to the full. And wouldn’t it be great if it did work consistently in the long term? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a system in which you just write down a list of what you think you’ll actually do that day, put it in a drawer, and at the end of the day find that you have magically done everything on the list?
Yes, it would.
So would you like me to tell you how it’s done? I already have. It’s as easy as what I’ve just written. But notice the wording. You write down a list of “what you think you will actually do that day”. Not “what you want to do that day” or “what you ought to do that day”, but what you predict you will actually do that day.
Anyway, read the article and the comments from readers who tried it, and if you are as intrigued as I am have a go at it.
That’s it. I’ve just completed the “Write Blog Post” task I predicted I would do!
12.30pm Update. Work on my list for today started at 10,36 with the writing of this blog post. The list contained 37 tasks and I’ve completed 17 of them - nearly half - in a couple of hours. So very successful so far.
4 pm Update. Only 12 tasks to go. The eight I’ve done this afternoon were bigger tasks than the ones this morning. The remaining ones are smaller again, so I will have no excuse for not finishing.
Reader Comments (12)
I used the Predictive-To-List for a few months (several years ago). I enjoyed the system; I would look forward to starting the day by making my list. That said, at that time, I had few tasks to do per day. I'm not sure how I would feel about writing 37 tasks (as you did). That isn't necessarily a lot of tasks to do, but it might be a lot to write out in one go first thing in the morning.
I only used the method for a short time, but I didn't find writing 37 tasks a problem. That's probably because I'm used to writing most of them over and over again while testing other systems.
The instructions allow you to revisit the list at intervals during the day to remind yourself what's on it. And, although I never tried it myself, I don't think there's any reason why you shouldn't add more tasks when you do this.
And you might experiment too with just writing down what's different about today. That is to say what you think you'll actually do which you don't normally do as a matter of course. Again, I haven't tried that myself.
During my weekly review, I update my predictions - checkmark = accurate, cross = fans - and add a footnote for lessons learned.
This might be a nice add-on. Though... I'm still using your Scatter Map idea - almost every day - with good results.
P.S. Are your updates not cheating? Your instructions are to put the list in a drawer, not to reference the list for what's left to do.
<< For the past year or so, I have been making predictions - about all sorts of things - and then updating the prediction with what actually happened. >>
I must try this. But I have often remarked that nothing in my life today could I have possibly predicted when I was 20. Though most of the people I knew then and still know seem to have followed paths which are exactly how I would have expected them to turn out.
You're dealing with a much shorter time span than that I think. I must try it and see how good I am - though there are always things like Covid to throw spanners in the works!
<< Are your updates not cheating? Your instructions are to put the list in a drawer, not to reference the list for what's left to do. >>
Yes, they are. It's important to keep to the rules at the beginning as written. Then you can make adjustments to suit yourself.
Much of my analysis of decisions, especially of teams and boards I am a part of is in understanding that each decision is actually a prediction..."We will hire this person to fill this role" is actually a prediction that hiring that particular person will successfully fulfill the requirements of the decision. But follow up analysis is absolutely required if we want to grow in our understanding of wise decision making.
This is applying a similar concept to my analysis of my systems and planning...entering an intuitive state to predict the outcome of the day in light of the current topography of my life and systems, then VOD reviewing the day. I just added "Predectionlog" to my daily routine to test this concept out.
Dave
Would you also use this method to "predict" a week or month or is that too long a time period. I started using it today and have have been very happy with the results and saying that I am quite ill with a severe chest infection and did not actually plan on doing much of anything today, luckily I am retired but I still have a number of people relying on me for written advice.
I have been reading the site for years and what I like and enjoy most about it is your Edward de Bono style lateral thinking related to productivity. It should be taught in schools!
Cheers
Ian
<< Would you also use this method to "predict" a week or month or is that too long a time period >>
I don't know. I haven't tried it for any period longer than a day. If you'd like to try it out to see what happens, that would be great. I'll look forward to seeing your conclusions.
"Predictionlog
what do I think is going to happen today? (review during VOD review time)
I think I will spend a long time working on installing the DIT system, and get started on updating business accounting, but I will be surprised if it actually gets done. I think I will probably have a longer than helpful nap in the afternoon because I will be sitting at my computer all day, and wake up groggy (make coffee then, David! Get it together!) and I just realized I didn't put tennis on my closed list, damn it!...hmmm...well, I guess I won't be playing tennis today then) And I think that I will be pretty enchanted by how my systems develop today with the new integration. I think I will probably share some of this with Gracie, and she won't be too excited, but will generously attempt to be interested. Haha...maybe you should keep it to yourself and let her see the results instead of the theory, Dave."
Ian, this is quite a thought. I have build a calendar-centric system that incorporates GTD, Scrum and a weekly "template" for my week that captures all the things I typically do in a week, then fills in the margin with the work I want to get done that week.
I have found that since I made a career shift away from project management last year, my weeks are MUCH more predictable. I think of them kind of like the movie "Groundhog Day"...where Bill Murray relives the same day over and over again, and eventually gets better and better at living that day...I try to get better and better at living my weeks because my weeks are typically quite similar, with variables primarily found in the margin (then non-templatized parts of the week)...so each week, I try to learn from the days of that week, and do a VOD review daily and weekly.
To include a prediction into my weekly flywheel might be a helpful component to learn from.
Dave