Keeping a simple daily notebook

This piece for Ridents collects the advice that holds up in practice.

A plain notebook beats most productivity apps for one reason: it does not want anything from you. Each morning write the date, three things that must happen today and anything on your mind. In the evening draw a line under it. The pages become a record of what you actually did, which is surprisingly motivating to look back on.

A plain notebook beats most productivity apps for one reason: it does not want anything from you.

Keep the system small enough to survive bad days. One page a day, no colour coding, no rules about neatness. Carry it everywhere so ideas and phone numbers land in one place. After a few months the notebook also becomes an honest memory of how you spent your time, something that no calendar app quite manages to capture.