We continue with the practical part. We slightly increase the difficulty and move to the next level.
Duration: 3 months.
Goal: refine the habit of planning and scale it to a week.
You may have already noticed that I decided to place this relatively short text of just a couple of pages in a separate section. This is no accident, because this material is extremely important. You may not absorb or agree with me on some theoretical points, but it is extremely important to follow my practical recommendations.
So, once you have been diligently drawing up tasks for yourself each day for a month, it is time to make the task harder. Generally speaking, guessing what tasks need to be done "tomorrow" is a very absurd idea that lacks much meaning. There are only two benefits from all of this. First: you did not forget (I hope you did not forget, if you diligently and willingly checked against the list throughout the day) what you needed to do. The second benefit, which is three heads above the first, is that you developed the habit of drawing up tasks and checking against them (I hope you actually did develop it, and if not fully, that is not scary, because we will continue this topic further). Why am I so categorical and wary about the first item and do not see much benefit from it? Because conceptually this item is detached from context — it is simply randomly compiled items of tasks you needed to accomplish here and now. They did not bring you one second closer to your goals or to your dream (however much I dislike that word).
In fact, what we will be doing in this item also will not bring us any closer to achieving any global goals. This item is still aimed at working with habits. Namely, reinforcing the two most important habits for you today:
1) drawing up a task list,
2) checking against it throughout the day.
And of course completing these tasks, because we do not draw them up for nothing. The only thing we will do now is scale these tasks to a week.
So, the good news is that you are relieved of the routine task of drawing up tasks for "tomorrow" every evening; the bad news is that another job is added instead: adjusting tasks. However, adjusting is usually always faster than drawing up new tasks and plans for the day. From now on you no longer need to draw up tasks every day before bed; set aside a little time on Sunday evening, and if evening does not work, then during the day or in the morning. If you cannot even do it on Sunday, nothing stops you from doing it on Saturday or even Friday. So set aside a little time at the end of the week and lay out by day everything you want to do during the coming week. Then adjust your task list for the day (or days) as needed. Adjusting may include adding new unplanned tasks, removing outdated tasks from the list, as well as shifting tasks and moving them a day or several days forward, or backward, if, for example, you are ready to take on a task scheduled for Thursday as early as Wednesday.
As a fictional example, I will describe one approach to planning tasks for a week.
WEEK:
gym visit (Mon)
studying English (Tue)
family dinner (Tue)
studying English (Wed)
pay utility bills (Thu)
read 20 pages of a book (Thu)
dentist visit (Fri)
read 20 pages of a book (Fri)
read 20 pages of a book (Sat)
studying English (Sat)
apartment cleaning (Sun)
This is the simplest form of recording, but you are free to use a calendar or any other note-taking programs.
As in the previous section, I will explain its title in a bit more detail. I think you have already understood the logic. A beginner is someone who by their skills already surpasses an intern. And "weekly" means that every week the goals and tasks of this beginner are still reset. They remain detached from your global goals.
