Routines

This Digital World, while being so much interesting, should not become an abuser. It should serve you and not vice versa.

Unfortunately, a lot of people are to a different extent failing to do exactly that. In the best case, they are not using digital tools to their full potential. In the worst case, they are becoming slaves and are just losing their life energy on dealing with mess and stress.

For some reason, we think that the overall accessibility of technology means we don’t need to learn it or learn how to deal with it.

But the reality is quite the opposite.

Here’s the thing. If we want to have a healthy body, we cannot reach this goal by sitting on a couch and just having a great desire to have it. Moreover, we cannot reach this goal just by going to the gym once. Or even twice.

We can get there only if we are consistent in doing specific exercises regularly.

Also, by consistently eating healthy food.

Also, by consistently keeping away from unhealthy habits.

See — there’s a whole system of consistent measures that will eventually work 100%. I mean 100% — if we follow these steps, the result will happen. You can be sure.

A Story About Lumberjack Named Jack

There was a lumberjack named Jack who had heard about the legendary tree that was said to be the biggest in the world. He knew that previous lumberjacks had tried to chop it down, but none had succeeded. They had all worked tirelessly day and night, but eventually, they died of exhaustion before they could even make a dent in the tree’s thick trunk.

Despite the warnings, Jack was determined to take on the challenge. He knew that he couldn’t work as hard as the others had, but he had a plan. He would only take five swings at the tree each day, and then he would go home to rest.

So Jack set to work. He took five swings at the tree with his trusty axe each day, making sure to strike the exact same spot every time. He would then pack up his tools and head back to his cabin to rest.

The other lumberjacks laughed at him, thinking that his plan was ridiculous. But Jack didn’t let their taunts discourage him. He kept at it, day after day, until slowly but surely, the tree began to show signs of wear and tear.

Months went by, and Jack kept up his routine. He never missed a day, and he never took more than five swings. And then, one day, it happened. With a loud crack, the massive tree fell to the ground, split in two by Jack’s patient and persistent efforts.

The other lumberjacks were amazed, and they asked Jack how he had managed to do it. He simply smiled and said that it was all about pacing himself and not giving up.

From that day forward, Jack was known as the lumberjack who had conquered the biggest tree in the world. And he continued to work, never forgetting the lesson he had learned about the power of persistence and patience.

Routines

This story, that may or may not have happened, I think is relevant to a lot of different things, but especially to productivity.

To Chop the Tree of Productivity and Finally Reach the Incomparable Joy of Digital Well-Being, you gotta have some consistent micro-steps made every single day. The whole purpose of being productive is to get our life goals accomplished, isn’t it? But it does not mean we have to absolutely “chop the biggest tree” every single day.

Routines are very relevant from this perspective and are basically those “5 hits with an axe done every day”. Take a look at how that works for me.

What I do in the Morning

1. Open up my Calendar, get an overview of the busy areas and free spots.
2. Create a blank Daily Note to make it a canvas for the upcoming day’s thoughts and notes. Normally I delegate this to a preconfigured Shortcut that does the job with 1 click.
3. Sometimes I list several things I’d like to accomplish today, without looking back at my actual existing Todo list in the app.
4. Then I open up my ToDo app to get an overview of what’s going on, list tasks I’d like to focus on specifically.

Weather and Calendar parts are automatically filled using Shortcuts

What I do in the Daytime

My daytime routine is mostly about working with one single Daily Note. That’s the whole purpose of creating it — to have a single entry point for most of the information coming by:

1. If there is a project meeting, I put raw meeting notes in the Daily Note first. I do not waste time sorting them out, outlining actions, identifying areas or tags, or whatnot. If a note-taking application has built-in functionality to link such notes to events directly — that is always helpful (examples: Craft, Agenda, NotePlan).
2. If I take a screenshot, I put it in the Daily Note. I don’t decide whether I need it or not right away — I defer it to later.
3. If there is a big chunk of copy-paste text, I paste it to the Daily Note. Sort of a clipboard extension — sometimes useful.
4. If there is an interesting weblink, I put it in the Daily Note. I don’t put it in the reading list or special bucket or whatnot right away. I defer the decision to later.
5. If I have a thought or an idea, I put it in the Daily Note, I don’t waste time deciding whether it is useful or not or where it relates to.
6. If there’s a file sent by someone or downloaded from the internet — it goes to my Files Inbox (see more about that here). I clean it up later in the evening or on Sunday.
7. If there is an email to follow up — I don’t “flag” it. I create a Todo right away. Things 3 with their special Helper installed make it a one-click action while keeping the link to the original message right in the task description.

What I do in the Evening

By the end of the day I have quite a messy Daily Note — so I sort out everything that I’ve put in it during the day + check again the incoming mail and downloaded files:

1. First of all if it is something I will never need, I remove it instantly.
2. If I have an idea that is worth continuation, I put it in the Ideas folder in my notes. This place is something I then review from time to time.
3. If the information is actionable (like some items from the meeting notes), I create a Task in the Todo application. If the source can be somehow attached or linked to a task, that is always handy. E.g. you can do that in an Apple Note linked to a Reminder, or a Reminder linked to a note in the Agenda application. Things 3 again can partially address this with their Helper.
4. If there are completed Projects, I move them to Archive.
5. For completed Projects I make sure their outcomes become reusable as Resources — it means there should be a Note that wraps this outcome into a context and makes it searchable. Are there any files associated with them in the Inbox? I put them together.
6. Looking back and reflecting is an important part of being Productive (check this out to find out why), that’s why I also complete a short list of Achievements and Challenges for the day. I’ll use it later at the end of the week.

What I do every Sunday

Sunday is bit more busy day from this perspective. There are 2 parts involved, as this session is not only about the Past, but also about the Future.

Get Denis Volkov’s stories in your inbox

Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.

Remember me for faster sign in

Part 1: Retrospective

Since my Daily Notes usually contain all my calendar events, tasks, and thoughts during the day, it takes just 7 Daily Notes to review to almost completely refresh the picture of my past week. So I do exactly that:

1. I review all the Daily Notes for the past week
2. I notice all the accomplishments and create a separate Weekly Report with them. Literally, all the achievements of the week. The same goes to challenges or problems.
3. I also check for any action items that might have been missed to take care of during the upcoming week

I also review my Todo application for:

1. Completed tasks. Some of them contribute to the Weekly Achievements Report
2. Leftovers for the next week. Some of them require reprioritization due to the changed context.

Finally, I check all my mailboxes for the messages left to read or actions to be taken.

Part 2: Planning

This part I check for the following questions:

• Are there any new goals specific for the next week?
• Are there any actions with no Due Dates that have to happen during the next week? If yes, I plan them accordingly.
• Are there any actions that require focused time of hands-on work (e.g. research, writing, coding, etc)? If yes, I book a specific time for that right in the Calendar application to ensure there are no distractors.
• Are there incomplete Todos? Should they be rescheduled for the next week? Are they still actual at all?

If I notice that some to-dos are dragging for quite some time, it means it’s time to ask questions:

1. Do I really need this action item at all? Like really?
2. If yes, can I go more granular and split this one action item into several more simple steps?

Usually, it is just one of these two things.

Summary

So, as you can see, it’s not rocket science. It’s just 5 hits in the right spot. Just keep the places to look at and the entry points to their absolute minimum.

It takes about 30–40 minutes a day combined, to set up my day and then clean up the outcomes. Maaaaybe, if the day was truly intense, it would take the whole hour in the evening to sort everything out, but normally that would also include some urgent follow-ups and actions to be taken right away.

Sunday review may take another hour or so, but honestly, I am still on my way to being 100% consistent on weekends 😜 Sometimes the Sunday part can drag over to Monday when my brain is a bit more in the productive mood, but, hey, we’re getting there…