Choose Places & environments
that make things go easy
πΆAttach work to existing life habits
e.g. every morning I start at the cafΓ© and do some work / calls / reading.
Key idea is that life environments work like anchors.
By planning to do some work in the existing "anchor" environment that you visit by habit, you can get unstuck or motivate yourself to start doing something.
An anchor already got starting point covered, no need to emphasize it with additionall (and expensive) cues.
βοΈ Reduce Friction at all cost β can be applied to any work that is stuck
When a specific thing is hard to start, lower the energy it takes to start. e.g. take the hard task to the library because going to library is novel and fun and distraction free.
(!) Not the same as anchors; this works to "get hard things going" when no anchor is available. Just come up with some (any!) motivating action which gets me unstuck.
π Pomodoro can be used as a friction reduction tool
The timer lowers activation energy for one hard thing. Its whole magic is the permission to stop: "just 25 minutes, then you're free" shrinks a scary, unbounded task into something bounded and survivable.
β If does not work, there are more friction reduction strategies provided at the end of this page
Pick Value-aligned Objective
Objective serves as a direction, not a task. It brings motivation for everything else I am doing.
β· "Deliver the best Renewals solution this company ever saw."
Objective must be motivating and interesting to me. Must stay broad enough that it never collapses into a "task."
If tasks I've planned for the day feel pointless, this is what they're missing.
Write down your shit. Really.
Sit down, open Notes app, and list just 3 tasks for the day.
Or write down literally all tasks in my head and split them into A Β· B Β· C piles where only A needs to be done today. (!) Leave room for doing fuck-all and random things - put these on the list as tasks as well.
Varying what I choose is what keeps planning itself from going stale.
For boring stuff switch into the Builder's mode π
Builder's mode is the regular, not fun work that keeps everything else supported. Like eating vitamins and doing meal preps.
Pick a regular fixed time slot, fill it with boring tasks.
π οΈ Show up to the time slot you've planned
The target is "I showed up," binary, done. No accumulating debt, no tracking of carry-over tasks from one slot to another, no falling behind a "plan".
Plan some no-expectations time
Wandering, doing whatever interests me; unaccountable time. (!) This is a protected and important time, not some leftover.
πΏ Keep things obligation-free
Open up Notes app, write down and formally park anything hanging first.
No-expectation time loves friction-less environment β e.g. don't leave a pile of draft papers or to-do stickers on the desk when trying to spend obligation-free time at home. Don't try to relax in a room with dirty dishes you need to clean.
Choose environment wisely so that my me-time is protected from distraction and todo lists.