My journey towards simplicity
For years, I have been practicing planning. There are books, articles about planning. One asks Google, and it gives you millions of resources. I have tried some of them. None of them works on me.
- I could not complete what I had planned. I stacked up the debts quickly. Soon, the original planning goals were gone and replaced by "making the plan look good."
- I overused planning tools. There are many out there. None of them made me feel good, probably because I planned poorly.
I felt it was too complicated, overwhelming. I needed a more straightforward approach.
Basic question
I realized that I jumped into learning "how to plan" without asking a fundamental question:
What do I want to accomplish from planning?
It turned out that my needs were simple.
- I want to feel good that I have accomplished a few things at the end of the day.
- I want to know what I have to do the following day.
- It is ok not to accomplish them all. I do not want to carry the guilty to the next day.
- I want to plan a few things for the weekend.
There are a few keywords: TODAY, TOMORROW, WEEKEND, and A FEW THINGS.
A few things
It is essential. I limit five items. The rule forces me to decide what matters most to me. Once I get them done, I call it a day.
Tomorrow
It is what I plan TODAY. Before going to bed, I plan for tomorrow. It is a list of a few things I want to do. I started by writing them down on papers. Later, I use MS ToDo app. Both works fine.
Today
When today comes, I move the "tomorrow" list into the "today" list. When I start to work on an item, I mark it done.
Weekend
During the week, I have things to handle on the weekend. They are on the list. When the weekend is over, they are gone regardless of results.
