ZTD Habit 3: Plan
Recently I posted my new twist on the excellent GTD system, Zen To Done (ZTD): The Ultimate Simple Productivity System. This is the third in a series of posts exploring each of the 10 Habits.
3 plan
Habit: set MITs for week, day.
Each week, list the Big Rocks that you want to accomplish, and schedule them first. Each day, create a list of 1-3 MITs (basically your Big Rocks for the day) and be sure to accomplish them. Do your MITs early in the day to get them out of the way and to ensure that they get done.
This is one of the simplest of the ZTD habits, but also one of the most important. Why? Because it gives purpose to your day and week. Instead of just trying to crank out a bunch of tasks on your to-do list, you are trying to do the most important ones. Sure, you’ll also do other tasks on your list, but you’re identifying the ones that you really want to accomplish — the ones where you can look back on your day and feel proud of accomplishing something. Often we work hard and do a lot, but when we look back on our day, we haven’t really accomplished anything.
So how do you do this habit? Here are some tips:
- Big Rocks. At the beginning of each week (either Sunday or Monday, you choose), sit down and look at your to-do list. What do you want to accomplish this week? Try to keep it to just 4-6 things at first — later, as you get a feel for what you can accomplish, you might be able to add more. Try to be sure to include at least a couple of tasks to further along your yearly goals.
- Schedule. Now take these “Big Rocks” and place them in your weekly schedule. Place only one or two per day, so you aren’t overwhelmed. Place them in 1-2 hour blocks, early in the day if possible. Now that these important tasks are blocked out, you can schedule other stuff around them whenever necessary — but these are already there.
- MITs. Each morning, decide what your Most Important Tasks are for that day. These will probably be the same as your Big Rocks for the day, although as things change you might have different MITs. Choose 1-3 MITs for the day — this could include a Big Rock and a couple other important tasks. Block out time for them early in the day if possible — if you put them later in the day, other things pop up that will get in the way.
- Complete them. Now here’s the most important part: get them done. First thing in the morning, before you even check email, get that first MIT done. Clear away all distractions, and be sure to focus on only that task until it’s done. When you’re done, reward yourself … but be sure to move on to your next MIT shortly!
- Look back and say ahh. If you complete your MITs, you will feel great. Be sure to look back on what you’ve accomplished and pat yourself on the back — or even reward yourself.
See also:
- Zen To Done (ZTD): The Ultimate Simple Productivity System
- ZTD Habit 1: Collect
- ZTD Habit 2: Process
- Forming the 10 ZTD Habits
- ZTD Minimalist System
Comments (10)
Mifeng Says:
April 18th, 2007, 3:11 am
I am a reader of your blog and i found it is very interesting to GTD. I bought the book GTD recently after read ur blog. Now, I want to translate some of ur GTD tips and ZTD habits into chinese and share with my friends, can i do so? i will mark the original URL and ur name on the posts. thx.
Leo Says:
April 18th, 2007, 3:20 am
Hi Mifeng … sure, feel free to translate Zen Habits articles into Chinese and post them (with a link back to the originals) … of course, the GTD book is copyrighted, so you won’t be able to translate and publish the book itself … although I think short excerpts are fine (a sentence or two).
Let me know when you publish the articles! I’d be interested in seeing Zen Habits in Chinese, even if I can’t read it — although I do have some friends who can. Good luck!
rob Says:
April 18th, 2007, 16:41 pm
Leo, a big thank you. The idea of 3 MITs each day has had a profound impact on the way I get things done. Your previous posts on this subject has taken my productivity to another level. In the ZTD system this is the killer app.
Leo Says:
April 18th, 2007, 17:11 pm
Thanks, Rob! I’m glad if it’s working for you. I can’t claim that these are original ideas … I’ve read a million books and websites about productivity, and have given many different ideas a try … but the ones I share here are the ones that have helped me. ZTD is a combination of different ideas that have worked for me (including a lot of them from GTD of course).
Mifeng Says:
April 19th, 2007, 7:37 am
Thx, Leo. I’ll email u when i have translated your articles. Thx very much.
stayfly Says:
April 22nd, 2007, 11:24 am
great stuff. I’m going to focus on planning (and doing) M.I.T.s a lot more from now on
keep up the great work!
Aaron Griffin Says:
April 23rd, 2007, 5:01 am
Well it seems I’m on a comment frenzy on your blog 8)
Regarding scheduling, I’d be interested in hearing how you handle your scheduling (hard landscape). As with my last comment (filing methodology), I don’t really have a clean and portable way to handle hard-landscape tasks. I’ve been trying to use RememberTheMilk for that, and Google Calendar, off and on, but perhaps a analog format would be more ideal for me.
What do you use?
Leo Says:
April 23rd, 2007, 5:45 am
Hi Aaron … don’t worry, lots of comments are appreciated! I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to respond to all of them, but I’ll do my best.
As for scheduling, I use Gcal for hard landscape. It’s just super simple and works great for me. I don’t really like RTM that much, although I’ve given it a try a couple of times. An analog calendar would be great too, though, especially if it were combined with an analog notebook. Good luck!
Snowbird Says:
January 20th, 2008, 13:12 pm
I have Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I feel as though I can only do ONE thing a day and this one thing seems to zap my energy. I know others suffering these ailments would benefit from any advice you could give. What would you suggest for this situation?
