Get Everything Done

For years, my challenge was always being able to stick with a system long term. It had to work, but it also had to be something that I would work consistently day after day. And this is it:

Every Day, around 6pm, I reflect on my day, and how I want the next day to go.

Obviously this isn’t complete, but in the fashion of Tiny Habits it’s a foundation. I’ve been able to keep this up relatively consistently for some years. I set an alarm to remind me, but even if that time slips past me, the habit is ingrained enough that every day I remember and find time to do this. By making this task my one absolute, and because it is that easy, I have been able to make sure it happens every single day.

On this foundation, I established a second layer: The Daily Will-Do List. Mark Forster posted this idea here some time ago, and it works great. After my brief reflection and look ahead, I put together a list of everything I WILL DO in the next day or so. Since I do this around 6pm I find looking ahead 30 hours most apt.

It’s important to be very very particular to only things you actually WILL DO in the next day or so. Victory is if you do what you said you would. And so I don’t try to write everything I might do, and sometimes I might only put very few items on there that are important, even if that won’t fill my day.

What I find is it’s a confidence booster. If I’m feeling feeble I can put few things and achieve those, my confidence and will to do things grows. If I get overeager (or overconfident) I can overwhelm myself with too many things, and then it’s best I pare down to essentials. But even if I totally fall apart systematically, it’s a no-list and I can always pick up from scratch again. And if circumstances ever disrupt me for any period, I always have the daily reflection that will cue me back into making the daily will-do, and I am very quickly back in process.

That’s a lot of words but in the end it works because it’s this simple:

Think about today and tomorrow. Decide and make a list of what I will do soon.

P.S. This process stands alone. But it also stands as the foundation of my Life Area Planning System, which I may describe over time. LAPS is a greatly streamlined version of the process I described in “How to achieve all your goals”. It provides tools for deciding what goes on the above list. But whenever I get lost in the bigger picture, the above foundation let’s me reboot without failing out.

A few notes for clarity: I wanted to link to an article Mark wrote on the Will-Do list, but somehow this particular name is very difficult to search for I was pretty sure Mark wrote about this in relatively recent times but I cant find it. I gather it’s a feature of Do It Tomorrow.

A key feature that called me when it was posted is you try to commit your tasks to memory, and work from memory rather than work through the list during the day. You may consult the list if you need a reminder, but generally I only do this at 6pm.

So at that time I look at the list, see whether I have completed all the things planned, and plan additional things for the next day. But also there is time yet today to complete any things not yet done.

I didn’t explain the daily reflection. It is not just a moment of musing; it is extremely valuable in making me aware of where I went wrong and thinking better ways to do it. It’s making sure I’m aligned with my values, my God, and in my activities.

The 6pm session is just one of 3 times in the day I take time to think, but it is the one I insist on absolutely so plans for the next day get made.
In addition I have a short morning walk to get myself energized and in tune with how I ought to be and my objectives for the day. The third is at night where I review and rate the day and prepare mentally for the next. If I miss the morning walk, my day often isn’t nearly as productive. If I miss the evening cooldown, I’m more likely to miss the morning.

So altogether these three keep me on track for the day, and help me monitor and improve my process day by day. They might take only a few minutes each, but they are valuable.

Except for the date which I was expecting much more recently, that reads right. It’s a big piece of a winning formula.

Boom! http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2021/10/5/predicting-your-day.html. This was last year.

I think what makes it work is that it forces you to actually think about doing the work and how that would go, and that thinking embeds the tasks in your mind, and a plan for going through those tasks emerges. Just noting “should do” doesn’t have any of this happening.

Mark’s Review/Assessment: http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2011/1/26/review-of-the-systems-predictive-to-do-list.html

I think he’s right that it can’t work as a want-to or ought-to do list. Although it’s fine to consider adding all the oughts and wants, if you don’t pass them through the filter of “will this actually happen” you end up with a wish list, a hope list, a bunch of things that may or may not occur. Such a list might work if you operate via a system like autofocus, but it’s useless as a no-looking system.