The Most Effective Productivity Tool That You’ve Never Heard Of
This technique centers on a small, innocuous text file sitting on my computer desktop — a file named plan.txt…
Once a week, usually on Mondays, I open a small text file named plan.txt and jot down my action plan for the week.
There are no hard rules for this plan.
Some weeks it’s a few sentences.
Usually, it’s a few paragraphs
Sometimes it spans multiple pages.
Here’s a screenshot of my plan.txt file as of this morning:
Here’s the important point: last week’s plan.txt looked much different.
Next week’s will probably look much different as well.
My plan.txt strategy is an instantiation of a larger philosophy I call Freestyle Productivity. This philosophy is inspired by the following law:
The Law of Action Planning: No rigid rules or systems for figuring out “what to do when” can work effectively for more than a few weeks before becoming obsolete.
We can come up with task capture systems that work fine for years and years without a major change.
But when it comes to planning out what we do each day, my experience is that there’s no magic system that applies to every situation
The realities of our daily lives change too much to be handled by any set rule.
Here’s my theory:
Our brains are terrible at remembering everything we have to do, which is why good capture and organizations systems are necessary
Our brains are wonderful, by contrast, at coming up with short-term plans that balance the subtle demands we face in the near future. Trying to force a one-size-fits-all action plan to our lives constrains this natural ability
My plan.txt file takes advantage of this reality.
It allows my brain, each week, to do what it does best: figure out a very workable short-term plan for making progress on what’s important.
This is freestyle productivity in action.
My tasks are captured.
My goals clear and steadfast.
But my short-term work habits are incredibly pliable as I mold and re-mold them to the new challenges I face.