The most popular productivity tool is pen and paper. It’s very common for people to try out task manager apps, but then eventually revert to a paper approach. Why is this? The biggest reason is that pen and paper works!
A simple list of actions is exactly what you need to run your day… when you finish something, you know what to work on next because you made a plan beforehand.
STUFF HAPPENS
During the day, new things pop up and some tasks turn out to be bigger or smaller than expected. Some tasks get hung up waiting on others, etc. So, your paper list starts to get a bit messy with notes, arrows, and new tasks inserted.
That’s fine, but the problem with a paper list comes tomorrow. The temptation is to save some effort and continue with yesterday’s list. The things you didn’t get done yesterday are likely the top priorities for today, so why not keep going?
DON’T SKIP THE PLANNING STEP
Continuing with your running list saves you some effort in not rewriting things out, but that is missing out on the biggest benefit of paper. When you make a to-do list, you are intentionally making a plan for the day. When paper lists get really messy, you need to start over — and this forces you to re-plan. This is the real reason that so many people use a paper based system to manage their “stuff”.
DAILY PLANNING AS A HABIT
This is the process of daily planning and it’s the primary driver behind DailyBalance. DailyBalance is centered on the idea of making it easy to make a plan for your day, every day.
When making your list for today, you consider your available time and you weigh your possible efforts against each other to determine what is most important. You make these decisions up front so that the rest of the day can be spent focused on getting things done.
Making a plan for the day before you engage in any tasks will help you stay on track and focused. Without a plan, it’s common to have nagging worries that you are forgetting something important or that aren’t working on the most important thing. Instead, if you have considered all the things you could spend time on and decide up front what is most important, now you can fully engage in getting things done. This habit leads to more peace of mind and less scattered and overwhelmed feelings.
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