Do you plan your day in advance?

[Chesnokov]

David Allen and his staff recommend to make a choice of what to do in the moment. No planning of the day in advance. I think it is also important to plan the day before it starts. You need to choose the most important projects before other people start choosing that for you. Should you have discrete time only then you should check your action lists.

do you plan your day in advance?

 

[leadgy]

Yes, I use Tracks to keep my todos and projects. It offers a starred view where you have the tasks by context. It is very likely to know which contexts you'll be during the next day and which actions you could do or not.

For example, if the bank is closed, even if a task is in the "bank" context, it is not doable the next day. Or if I don't feel like shopping the next day, I won't include any items in the "shopping" context.

I use a mindmap and I print these likely to be done next day tasks on paper - i.e. when I make errands, it is harder for me to open the phone, connect to my Tracks installation and see the tasks. I prefer to get the paper out and just do the tasks.

Having a daily plan helps me reduce the noise produced by actions which are not doable or which I wouldn't really feel I want to do that day.

I found your question really interesting! Thanks!

 

[TesTeq]

Day and time specific actions!

David Allen and his staff recommend to make a choice of what to do in the moment. No planning of the day in advance.

There's no such planning for Next Actions but in GTD you also have day and time specific actions.

 

[Chesnokov]

TesTeq, imagine your day. In the morning you jump in the car. Open your list and apply 4-criteria model for choosing what to do. By the first criteria you limit your choice to making calls. You choose the most important one of that: make a customer meeting. So you make a call and go to your customer place, work there, then back home. And the same repeats for three days in a row. Through the day you didn't find yourself in the @Computer context. Imagine how would you feel when you open your list on the forth day when you got at your office at last to find out that it kept more important stuff to do for you - discuss something important with your boss. And you spent three days in a row on something less important. Ups. Doesn't it wise to plan your day in advance?

 

[mcogilvie]

TesTeq, imagine your day. In the morning you jump in the car. Open your list and apply 4-criteria model for choosing what to do. By the first criteria you limit your choice to making calls. You choose the most important one of that: make a customer meeting. So you make a call and go to your customer place, work there, then back home. And the same repeats for three days in a row. Through the day you didn't find yourself in the @Computer context. Imagine how would you feel when you open your list on the forth day when you got at your office at last to find out that it kept more important stuff to do for you - discuss something important with your boss. And you spent three days in a row on something less important. Ups. Doesn't it wise to plan your day in advance?

Just because you make a call from your car first thing in the morning doesn't mean your call has to set up an immediate appointment. In fact, before you make the call, you need to know your time frame for when the appointment should be. Intuition and time spent every day defining your work are key. If you want to call defining your work planning your day, go for it. I think "defining my work" is a better description. I don't necessarily do it first thing in the morning, and it's not limited to just today.

 

[HappyDude]

If I do plan my day in advance then it would be done in the nightly review, the night before...however, I've found this to mess up my workflow for the following day.

See, I used to actually attempt to plan out my next day; planning what project or action i'd like to tackle after lunch, before the drive to work, during the lunch break and whatever else. This does work, but up to a certain degree.

..The only planning i'll do is, I'll take a look at all my available projects and actions...and flag 3 items. These 3 items that i'll flag will automatically rise to the top of their available context, so as to more easily identify them during the middle of a busy day.....but most important, I've set an internal agreement with myself that if I tackle the 3 flagged items for the day and nothing else, i'll still consider it a productive and accomplished day.....rather than simply working out of context view.

It certainly helps in grasping a bit more productive and creative control over my day(s).

 

[Chesnokov]

I'm now 100% sure everyone must read through all the actions in all the contexts before choosing anything to do. But I didn't understand your point: are you agree or not?

 

[TesTeq]

Planning a day in advance.

TesTeq, imagine your day. In the morning you jump in the car. Open your list and apply 4-criteria model for choosing what to do. By the first criteria you limit your choice to making calls. You choose the most important one of that: make a customer meeting. So you make a call and go to your customer place, work there, then back home. And the same repeats for three days in a row. Through the day you didn't find yourself in the @Computer context. Imagine how would you feel when you open your list on the forth day when you got at your office at last to find out that it kept more important stuff to do for you - discuss something important with your boss. And you spent three days in a row on something less important. Ups. Doesn't it wise to plan your day in advance?

It is not my day. I do a short review of my calendar and lists the night before - to make sure that I do not overlook something important. You can call it "planning a day in advance" if you wish.

 

[Golfnut]

I don't plan my day in advance, but I do review my list(s) either at the start of the day or the night before and pick out a few items that I would like to or must be completed that day. Toodledo allows you to 'star' items and this is what I´ll do as I scan my list(s).
Another thing I like to do with Toodledo is to place end dates of projects/actions. I don´t put a start date and I don´t put it on my calendar and the date isn´t necessarily a hard date - I guess one could say this takes the place of a tickler file for me since I don´t use/have one of those. The purpose the date serves is to bring it up on my radar screen a few days in advance so I know it´s approaching - the date can then be re-negotiated, moved as needed and/or ultimately placed on the calendar for a 'hard' completion date.

The lists can then be sorted by 'star', due date, context, priority etc to keep the most current/pressing/urgent/timely stuff near the top.

My job for the day is to knock out all the stars - once those "must complete" items are out of the way I´m free to choose among the rest of my next actions to fill up the rest of the day - and then knock out as many other next actions as I can.

 

[bishblaize]

David does recommend daily planning, if it helps. In one of the audio seminars on this website he talks about highlighting the next actions in the morning that would have the highest impact through the day.

I dont think theres anything wrong with scanning through your lists and deciding which handful will make the biggest impact. The alternative is scanning through your lists ahead of every NA you take, which seems like more effort.

 

[Chesnokov]

Just because you make a call from your car first thing in the morning doesn't mean your call has to set up an immediate appointment. In fact, before you make the call, you need to know your time frame for when the appointment should be. Intuition and time spent every day defining your work are key. If you want to call defining your work planning your day, go for it. I think "defining my work" is a better description. I don't necessarily do it first thing in the morning, and it's not limited to just today.

Mcogilvie, you're right that when I make a call first thing in the morning it doesn't mean this call would setup an immediate appointment. It could be an appointment for tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or even later. When I make ten calls in a row it would mean that I scheduled approx 2x10=20 hours of my time. My example was to show that while in a car I was limited to @Calls context and was working out of it whereas more important action was in @Home list. There was no need to leave home for office then - and short review of ALL the contexts would have shown that.

So my conclusion is there're 2 ways out:

1. Setup time for each context in a day to make sure you are at least once in each of your @contexts daily not to miss an important thing; or

2. Review all @context list daily in the morning or the day before to check what context contains the most important action and to plan the start of the day with that context. For example, if I review the list and find out that the most important action is in the @Office context then I would plan in my calendar to go to the office the next day.

 

[Chesnokov]

It is not my day. I do a short review of my calendar and lists the night before - to make sure that I do not overlook something important. You can call it "planning a day in advance" if you wish.

TesTeq, I assume we talk about the same thing here. Do you somehow mark these actions or plan to start with them the next day?

 

[Chesnokov]

David does recommend daily planning, if it helps. In one of the audio seminars on this website he talks about highlighting the next actions in the morning that would have the highest impact through the day.

I dont think theres anything wrong with scanning through your lists and deciding which handful will make the biggest impact. The alternative is scanning through your lists ahead of every NA you take, which seems like more effort.

Bishblaze, why not to mention that not in a webinar but in one of the models for choosing what to do. There's a 4-criteria model, then 3-fold nature of work and horizons of focus. None of them says to look through all the contexts (or actions if you don't have contexts) you have and choose the most important one based on energy, time available and pay-off.

Context criteria wrongly limits available choices because your most important action can (and usually will) be out of the context you are in any particular moment.

 

[TesTeq]

Date, time, context,time, energy, priority.

TesTeq, I assume we talk about the same thing here. Do you somehow mark these actions or plan to start with them the next day?

Actions in my calendar should be done on a given day and at the specified time (if it is specified). Next Actions should be done as soon as possible in current context taking into account time, energy and priority

 

[SGTM]

I have been experimenting with the concept of planning my day and have found picking three important things to commit to doing a day has been great. I use a hardbound book and date the page. The first three lines are the three things I am going to get done that day with a colorful line below them. I "try" to avoid doing anything else until these three things are done. The trick is of course to write the tasks in a way you can be sure to complete them.

 

[Myriam]

if you can choose your context, it's different...

Context criteria wrongly limits available choices because your most important action can (and usually will) be out of the context you are in any particular moment.

That is only true if you get to choose the context you're in... in that case you might have a look first at what the most important things are, troughout the different contexts.

But if you're in a context that you don't have a choice for (let's say you're in a plane on a business trip), then you are limited to the actions you can do in that context. And it will be of no help if you review your @home context and discover that you needed to water the plants and that it's urgent. You're on a plane...

So, if in the morning you can choose whether to go to the office or to stay at home, sure, have a look at both contexts and decide then. But if you must go to the office, it's not helping you sitting there reviewing your home list.

Myriam

 

[HappyDude]

I have been experimenting with the concept of planning my day and have found picking three important things to commit to doing a day has been great. I use a hardbound book and date the page. The first three lines are the three things I am going to get done that day with a colorful line below them. I "try" to avoid doing anything else until these three things are done. The trick is of course to write the tasks in a way you can be sure to complete them.

Thats great that you're highlighting the 3 most important projects/actions for the day. This provides a great feeling at the end of the day, knowing you indeed tackled the important items of the day...

however, I wouldnt say its completed about ignoring the rest of your available actions and projects. It's always been about being the most productive, whilst utilizing your energy, available contexts and level of importance, for maximum productivity.

The reason i'll flag the 3 most important items is cause i've found out after numerous crash and burn sessions that tackling the easy projects at the beginning of the day is torture. See, I used to think that so long as I tackled the easy projects/actions, that that would get the ball rolling in terms of me moving towards my bigger, more important projects. Rather, tackling the most important stuff will make way for the easier stuff, of which will easily fall into place. Similar to that big rocks, little rocks ideaology of putting in the bigger rocks in the bucket so the sand (smaller projects) will fall right in...and not vice versa.

Aside, when push comes to shove...i'll make an instinctive decision, every hour of every day, to determine which of my available actions can be done at this very moment...so at the end of the day I'll know things got done.

I think this thread is evolving and moving towards from planning the day, to wanting to get the most done; whether that be important things in your life or simply wanting to check off as many bullet points on your to-do list.

 

[SGTM]

however, I wouldnt say its completed about ignoring the rest of your available actions and projects. It's always been about being the most productive, whilst utilizing your energy, available contexts and level of importance, for maximum productivity.

The reason I think this works is that it allows one to get into production mode and out of thinking about what is important and selecting the next action mode. For me this is a freeing feeling. When the three most important things are done, I can then work through the lists on other items knowing important stuff is done and it feels less pressure filled.

 

[Suelin23]

I check my calendar

When I get up, my morning routine/checklist I have - check my calendar.
I don't check the NA lists until I'm ready to work on them, and would check by context.

I do put tasks on my calendar, for example I checked my calendar this morning, there is one meeting (context-WTP), an appointment with myself to write a document (context computer), a few actions (context computer) and an action 'pay waterbill' (context home).
So before leaving home I paid the water bill via the home computer.
Normally bills wouldn't go on the calendar, I'd usually process them on the weekends at home, but due to a few busy weekends in a row this bill is now overdue and I think that warrants putting it on your calendar.
To me, anything that can wait till I'm in that context is on the next action lists.
If it can't wait, and must be done by a particular day, I put it on the calendar, which I check every morning before leaving home.
During the weekly review you should look at the week ahead and think - have I got enough time for each context? Is there anything that isn't on my calendar that should be?

 

[Chesnokov]

That is only true if you get to choose the context you're in... in that case you might have a look first at what the most important things are, troughout the different contexts.

But if you're in a context that you don't have a choice for (let's say you're in a plane on a business trip), then you are limited to the actions you can do in that context. And it will be of no help if you review your @home context and discover that you needed to water the plants and that it's urgent. You're on a plane...

So, if in the morning you can choose whether to go to the office or to stay at home, sure, have a look at both contexts and decide then. But if you must go to the office, it's not helping you sitting there reviewing your home list.

Myriam

I have an option how to spend my day. I can go to the office or stay at home. So for me the 4-criteria model for choosing what to do in the moment was not clear. I think it is wise to start the day (or better finish the day) with defining 1 to 3 most important tasks. When doing that tasks and there' free slots of time only then can I apply 4-criteria model.