Personal essays
My third word for 2025 is about living through the present day
Nothing
It was well after eleven this morning when a friend of mine texted, “Another day, more time staring out of the window.”
I wish I didn’t know what he was talking about but, as pretty much always, we were on the same page.
Usually, I get up fairly early and have my computer in my lap before eight.
That doesn’t mean I’m accomplishing anything.
On Tuesdays I try to have the newsletter done and ready to be sent by ten - certainly by eleven.
Today, not doing one thing led to not doing another and it was almost noon when I started writing.
This behavior was particularly ironic given that my third and final word for 2025 is “Today.”
For those of a certain age, I mean actually ironic - not like rain on your wedding day.
Doing Fine
I love TODO lists and Calendars. Paper versions, iPhone apps, I don’t care.
And here’s the thing.
When I’m overwhelmed, I’ll reach for one of them and write down everything I have to do. It doesn’t matter which. Sometimes I’ll just use a plain old blank piece of paper.
Suddenly, my day is more productive. I’m checking off things I’ve finished left and right. Heck, if I finish something not on my list, I add it to my list and check it off.
And then.
And then, I stop. Everything is under control. It doesn’t seem to occur to me that it’s under control because I was organized and disciplined. I go back to the way things were.
Unsurprisingly, things go back to the way they were and I’m overwhelmed again.
My TODO app
A couple of years ago I talked about a music app I’d really like to see. The app would rotate music lists in the style of Top 40 radio.
“But Daniel,” you said, “people will steal your idea.”
Good. Then I’ll have the app I want and I won’t have to build it.
No one stole my idea so I built it.
Here’s an idea for another app I wish someone would steal so I don’t have to build it.
I want an app that schedules my day the way we used to schedule commercials for radio stations.
Step One - Avails. Before I start filling a day with meetings or items to be done, I want to decide how much time I have available on a given day. That way I don’t overschedule a day with no hope of completing all I need to accomplish.
Step Two - Selling time. Given the avails, as something new comes in I can see if I have time for it. If I do and it’s important I can either schedule it or mark it down as something that is unscheduled but needs to be done.
Step Three - The running log. The night before or the morning of, I look at everything I need to do that day and I actually schedule it into a time. The items that are flexible are marked ROS (run of schedule) so that I know I can move them as I live through the day.
Now it’s time to live through the day.
Facing Reality
Step Four - Today. Now I have my structure for the day. As I live through it, things are going to come up.
There will be things that need to be done and there will be things that I do that don’t need to be done.
Adjust the record to reflect the reality. Go ahead and make that entry “8am - 11am more time staring out of the window.” Move what you can and note the things you didn’t do because they couldn’t be moved.
In an advanced version, different items are billed against different categories - but for now we’re just creating a log of the day.
Step Five - Reconcile. At the end of the day, before you create the log for the next day, look back at the day you’ve just lived through. See what you did and didn’t do. Check out your pending TODO items. Is there a reason you keep skipping that one? Is this other one no longer timely? Delete the ones you can and should delete and forward those that still need to be done.
I keep track of an item’s urgency and importance. These can be fluid measurements. At some point an urgent one passes the date by which it needed to be accomplished. In the time before that expiration date note whether that makes it more important or not. If it doesn’t become more important, perhaps we can delete it before its due date.
This doesn’t need to be an app. It can be a simple piece of paper.
My third word is “today” but it involves a clear look back at how I lived yesterday and a realistic look forward at what I can really do tomorrow.
Essay from Dim Sum Thinking Newsletter 252. Read the rest of the Newsletter or subscribe