I have a lot of stupid tasks in my daily plan. Let me list them for you:
- Take vitamins
- Breakfast
- Shower
- Brush teeth
- Floss
- Drink Coffee
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Kids down
- To bed
Those are all from my actual plan for an actual day: September 24th, 2018, to be specific.
They don’t constitute the entire plan for the day, of course. Just the stupid things. The brainless things. The things nobody else puts on their todo lists because, well, why would you?
Why add stupid tasks?
I’m going to do those things anyway.
I’m not going to forget to eat my meals, cause I’ll be hungry. I won’t forget to shower, especially since it’s listed after my workout.
I certainly won’t forget to put our four kids to bed. Doing that finally leaves the house quiet, giving me some alone time with my wife.
So why list them in the plan at all?
Remember, the daily plan is not the end goal, the end goal is an ordered mind.
All of those stupid tasks help me to visualize and order my day, and therefore to order your mind.
A plan is not just tasks that need doing.
Stupid tasks provide one very specific thing that helps me (and can help you) to order my mind.
Context
Context is essential to how our brains work. Take away context and we quickly become disoriented, or even go crazy. The context of background noise makes us more productive, grounds us in a place. Take that away completely, and it’s a little disorienting.
As we age our peripheral vision often gets worse. The context it provides, however, is important. Losing it is one reason that the elderly are less safe as drivers, and tend to move slower.
When planning, adding the stupid tasks creates context. This makes it much easier to order your mind.
And to retain that order throughout the day. If we plan in the dumb things, those dumb things become anchors that help us do the important work.
Have a meeting right after lunch? If that’s made clear by the daily plan, by the order we create in our minds, then we’ll naturally flow towards that meeting. And prepare for it before going to lunch.
Context matters.
Context is Information
And our brains love information. The more the better.
Therefore, stupid tasks in a daily plan are information. Information that helps us get through the day better.
Sometimes, that context will help us when planning. By adding our stupid tasks it becomes apparent we don’t really have time for all the stuff we wanted to do before lunch.
And that means we can make an informed decisions: skip lunch? Space things out? Defer something less important? Or get an earlier start?
Once the problem is clear, our brains will go to work to solve it.
Planning in the stupid tasks gives us a better shot at seeing the problem in the first place.
Context Generates Habits
In some sense, habits are just Pavlovian responses to context.
The more context you have, the easier it is to build a habit.
Some recommend putting out your workout clothes by your bed the night before, so you can get up, get dressed, and get out the door.
That’s the power of context.
So go add stupid tasks to your daily plan.
They’re not as stupid as you might think.