https://cueplan.com/ Essays and notes on daily planning from Cue. en-us https://cueplan.com/blog/collapsing-conceptual-complexity https://cueplan.com/blog/collapsing-conceptual-complexity Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT A couple months back, I filed a bug against Cue (with misspellings and all): "Figure out a new 'selected todo' affordance, so that editing text can just put a box aroudn the entire todo, not just hte editing field". https://cueplan.com/blog/hello-world https://cueplan.com/blog/hello-world Wed, 12 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Building a simple product can be a surprisingly good way to practice complex skills. https://cueplan.com/blog/the-little-disciplines-of-daily-planning https://cueplan.com/blog/the-little-disciplines-of-daily-planning Tue, 21 May 2019 00:00:00 GMT Once you’ve built up a habit of daily planning, you’ll start to see areas where your execution is off. The times where you miss an appointment, or drop a project for a week or a month or a quarter because you just forgot to write something down. We’ve all done it. We all will do https://cueplan.com/blog/refactoring https://cueplan.com/blog/refactoring Sat, 16 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT Factorio I recently picked up Factorio for a third go around. Unless you’re a weird combination of gamer and engineer, you probably haven’t heard of it, so here’s the brief rundown: Factorio is a game where you build a factory. The challenge is that, to do so, you need to use raw resources to create https://cueplan.com/blog/cue-news-1 https://cueplan.com/blog/cue-news-1 Tue, 12 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT New Weekly Email This is the very first Cue News. Obviously, I’ve sent out news about Cue in the past, but I’m going to make it a regular thing, along with the other emails about planning and habits. New Hosting In the beginning, Cue was a Blockstack project. While we may go back to supporting https://cueplan.com/blog/what-you-do-is-who-you-are https://cueplan.com/blog/what-you-do-is-who-you-are Sun, 24 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT What you do is who you are. Not immediately, but eventually. Your actions change and shape your identity. If you consistently go for a run, you become a runner. If you regularly attend church and follow what is taught there, you become a Baptist or Methodist. If you spend a lot of time playing video https://cueplan.com/blog/a-healthy-holistic-hierarchical-identity https://cueplan.com/blog/a-healthy-holistic-hierarchical-identity Fri, 22 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT Everyone has an identity. And it’s more than just a name. When someone asks who you are, you may start with your name. But if they keep asking, then you have to dig a little deeper. A father. A mother. A child. A Democrat. A Republican. A cross-fitter. A vegan. An American. A Brasilian. A https://cueplan.com/blog/habit-tracking-uses-pain https://cueplan.com/blog/habit-tracking-uses-pain Wed, 20 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT So I’m thinking about habit tracking lately. Trying to figure out why it works. The idea is simple: keep track of how many days in a row you’ve gone without missing your habit. Watch the number build up. And, magically, once it passes 10 or so, that number becomes a watchful judge. It sits there, https://cueplan.com/blog/cue-up-a-new-landing-page https://cueplan.com/blog/cue-up-a-new-landing-page Sat, 16 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT Cue has a new landing page. Check it out at https://cueplan.com. Is it done? Not even close. But it’s way better than the old one. Habit Tracking? One thing that is called out on the new page, but isn’t yet available in the app, is Habit Tracking. There are lots of habit tracking apps out https://cueplan.com/blog/cue-tip-pinning-tasks https://cueplan.com/blog/cue-tip-pinning-tasks Wed, 30 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT For today’s Cue tip, I present “pinning tasks”. Pinned tasks are tasks that are pinned to a list. A pinned task won’t be removed from a list if it’s dragged to another one. Instead, it will be copied. In Cue there are lists that are dated, which are your daily plans. And lists that are https://cueplan.com/blog/how-to-play-video-games-and-get-even-more-done https://cueplan.com/blog/how-to-play-video-games-and-get-even-more-done Tue, 29 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT Sometimes, you’re super productive. Work is cranking, life is good, you’re tackling your todo list, and you’re super annoying to everyone else. And sometimes you aren’t. You just can’t get in the groove, the end of the day comes with nothing accomplished, but hey, at least you know the storylines of all the latest Netflix https://cueplan.com/blog/back-to-the-drawing-board https://cueplan.com/blog/back-to-the-drawing-board Thu, 17 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT I started adding weekly ticklers to Cue this week, and immediately ran into some complicated design problems. And I’m not going to tell you what they are. Well, maybe a hint: weekly planning is very different from daily planning. And ticklers don’t make much sense without a planning session, even a short one. But I https://cueplan.com/blog/quit-ahead-of-time https://cueplan.com/blog/quit-ahead-of-time Tue, 15 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT Don’t quit while you’re ahead, that’s the worst time to quit. Instead, quit ahead of time. Meaning, decide you’re going to stop before you actually stop. It’s easy to quit in the moment, to drop a habit because it’s just too hard to do it one day. Taking the easy way out will only weaken https://cueplan.com/blog/listen https://cueplan.com/blog/listen Thu, 10 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT Listen to your body. This week I realized I need to go a little easier on lifting. My right shoulder is acting up, just like my left one did about a year ago. My progression has stalled out on quite a few lifts, and I realized today that it’s time to back off. For a https://cueplan.com/blog/the-little-death https://cueplan.com/blog/the-little-death Tue, 08 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT The French use the term “little death” to mean “the brief loss or weakening of consciousness” and in modern usage refers specifically to “the sensation of orgasm as likened to death.” It’s as evocative as it is provocative. The little death not only alludes to the loss of consciousness that can happen in sex, or https://cueplan.com/blog/cue-drag-and-drop https://cueplan.com/blog/cue-drag-and-drop Mon, 07 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT Cue has had drag and drop between lists for a while now. It only worked when planning, and you could only drag items from or to the current day’s plan. Not ideal. But with yesterday’s release, drag and drop is more fleshed out. You can now drag items to the sidebar and drop them on https://cueplan.com/blog/character-competence-confidence https://cueplan.com/blog/character-competence-confidence Sun, 06 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT Confidence comes from character and competence. If you lack character you’ll be worried about being found out. If you lack competence, the same is true. And if you’re worried about being found out, you won’t have confidence. Competence itself comes primarily from good character: hard work, honesty (about where you’re at and what you need https://cueplan.com/blog/writing-gives-you-power-ups https://cueplan.com/blog/writing-gives-you-power-ups Sat, 05 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT One reason I have a journal writing habit is because writing can be magical. Well, it can unlock the magic you already have in your brain. It’s like a power-up in Super Mario Brothers. You start writing, and all of a sudden things just work out. I know that sounds crazy. And I’m not saying https://cueplan.com/blog/resetting https://cueplan.com/blog/resetting Fri, 04 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT On Christmas day, I reset. I reset my streak of planning daily. I hadn’t missed a day in over two years. And on Christmas day, 2018, I forgot to plan the day. I could make excuses, fudge a little, act like it didn’t happen. But it did. And that’s ok. My streak has been reset. https://cueplan.com/blog/the-excitement-of-finishing https://cueplan.com/blog/the-excitement-of-finishing Thu, 06 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT I posted the following to my Minecraft blog today. While I wouldn’t typically share something about Minecraft with you all, this post had some important points about starting projects, finishing them, and sticking with habits. I’ve been working on Navarre for about eight months now, maybe nine. It’s a big project, by my standards: a https://cueplan.com/blog/putting-up-the-christmas-lights-is-not-a-habit https://cueplan.com/blog/putting-up-the-christmas-lights-is-not-a-habit Thu, 29 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT Yesterday, my son and I put the Christmas lights up on the house. The weather was great, and it went pretty quick. I also cleaned out the gutters while I was up on the roof. I do it every year. But it’s not a habit. Maybe a tradition. Habits are things you do habitually. So https://cueplan.com/blog/discipline-equals-freedom https://cueplan.com/blog/discipline-equals-freedom Fri, 23 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT Jocko Willink likes to say that “Discipline Equals Freedom“. From twitter, I stumbled on the following quote that puts that three word phrase in some perspective: Conservative discipline – aka the idea that one must never drink, never do drugs, never have a one night stand – that discipline- is self righteous indignation. It’s artificial https://cueplan.com/blog/discipline-in-the-smallest-acts https://cueplan.com/blog/discipline-in-the-smallest-acts Thu, 22 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT Discipline in the smallest acts has the largest consequences. Taking your vitamins each day can do more good in your life than a mighty effort to finish a work project. Going to bed on time will improve tomorrow more than spending hours cleaning the house. And spending a minute or two after a meal to https://cueplan.com/blog/start-fresh-everyday https://cueplan.com/blog/start-fresh-everyday Sat, 27 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT One of the biggest problems I see with todo apps is that they automatically carry tasks from day to day. If you don’t finish something on Tuesday, the app will move it to Wednesday. It might still show as due on Tuesday, therefore overdue. But it shows on Wednesdays list of tasks. This is bad. https://cueplan.com/blog/journaling-is-a-form-of-prayer https://cueplan.com/blog/journaling-is-a-form-of-prayer Thu, 25 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT Journaling has you verbalizing honestly gratitude hopes what has happened to you your weaknesses and strengths your relationships Done right, it can put you in touch with the divine. https://cueplan.com/blog/judging-sorted https://cueplan.com/blog/judging-sorted Mon, 22 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT I recently heard about Sorted³, a pretty nifty little iOS app for scheduling your day. Go check it out. What I Liked Browsing through their website, I found some things I really liked. First, the focus on scheduling. I’ve been calling it planning, or ordering. Sorted is a little more focused on choosing times to https://cueplan.com/blog/pay-attention-in-the-present https://cueplan.com/blog/pay-attention-in-the-present Fri, 19 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT A planning system should help you pay attention in the present. To be fully present means your attention is not in the past or the future. It’s in the now. But it also means that it’s focused on what you want to be focused on. And it’s really easy to get distracted by things that https://cueplan.com/blog/plan-by-the-period https://cueplan.com/blog/plan-by-the-period Thu, 18 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT A planning system should help you plan the future by the period. To be fully present means your attention is not in the past or the future. It’s in the now. But the future can distract you from the now. Unless you plan for it in a healthy way. Until you do that, the future https://cueplan.com/blog/process-the-past https://cueplan.com/blog/process-the-past Tue, 16 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT A planning system should help you process the past. To be fully present means your attention is not in the past or the future. It’s in the now. But the past can distract you from the now. Unless you process it in a healthy way. Until you do that, the past will rear it’s ugly https://cueplan.com/blog/the-surprising-similarities-between-coffee-and-social-media https://cueplan.com/blog/the-surprising-similarities-between-coffee-and-social-media Tue, 16 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT I recently shared my thoughts about a social media fast that I tried out. I cut out Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit for two weeks (and a few other sites that were distracting). Overall, my feeling at the end of the two weeks was that it didn’t radically change my life. Sure, I came away knowing https://cueplan.com/blog/the-context-of-stupid-tasks https://cueplan.com/blog/the-context-of-stupid-tasks Mon, 15 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT 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 https://cueplan.com/blog/when-things-go-wrong https://cueplan.com/blog/when-things-go-wrong Sun, 07 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT Bugs in Software I’m using Cue every day to plan now. Which is great, until things go wrong. And they did, yesterday. I went from having a couple hundred plans in my archive to having none. Fortunately, the data hasn’t been lost, just hidden. And it will take a bit of work to get it https://cueplan.com/blog/why-im-ending-my-social-media-fast https://cueplan.com/blog/why-im-ending-my-social-media-fast Thu, 27 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT For the last two weeks I cut out all of the social media I use: twitter, facebook, and reddit, as well as a few other distracting websites. The results have been interesting. First up, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Leading up to the cutoff date, I found myself getting more https://cueplan.com/blog/entry-number-2531-in-the-list-of-all-the-ways-we-get-stuck https://cueplan.com/blog/entry-number-2531-in-the-list-of-all-the-ways-we-get-stuck Thu, 30 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT Entry Number 2531 in the list of all the ways we get stuck: not knowing how to move forward. To unlock the next step, spend some time learning. Be focused about it, and purposeful. I was stuck with Cue, as I’m reworking the backend to use Firebase, rather than Blockstack. It’s an important step towards https://cueplan.com/blog/why-you-need-two-projects https://cueplan.com/blog/why-you-need-two-projects Tue, 21 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT Focus Some will tell you that you must be singularly focused on one thing. I disagree. Kind of. Focus is awesome, and when you get really deep in a project it’s hard to imagine working on anything else. You’re in a state of flow. But (There’s always a but) Why Not One? When you’re not https://cueplan.com/blog/x-rules-for-life https://cueplan.com/blog/x-rules-for-life Fri, 17 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT Whatever you think of Jordan Peterson, his 12 Rules For Life is a good example of someone taking the time to lay out the principles by which they believe a good life is lived. And so, I’ve started doing the same, with plans to share my X rules for life with my kids, as they https://cueplan.com/blog/the-contrarian-trick-to-overcoming-overwhelm https://cueplan.com/blog/the-contrarian-trick-to-overcoming-overwhelm Thu, 16 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT School season is almost upon us. That means summer vacations are wrapping up, fall sports are kicking off, school clothes shopping is happening, and school schedules are making their way into kids hands. All of that can get a little overwhelming. And not just for the kids. Us parents get to manage it all. While, https://cueplan.com/blog/im-wasting-my-time-planning-part-two https://cueplan.com/blog/im-wasting-my-time-planning-part-two Wed, 15 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT Part two is here. Yesterday, I shared a challenge my friend has with planning. She spends hours trying to make sure her plans are perfect in order to optimize her time. Which of course, means she’s not optimizing her time. But on to another challenge she has. Part of her attempts to optimize her time https://cueplan.com/blog/im-wasting-my-time-planning https://cueplan.com/blog/im-wasting-my-time-planning Tue, 14 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT That’s what a friend told me recently. And it was true. She had just spent hours trying to plan out the coming week. You see, school is almost upon us, and she was trying to get all her kids ready: clothes, school supplies, freshman orientation, fall sports kicking off, etc. The list of things to https://cueplan.com/blog/daily-planning-workflow-in-cue https://cueplan.com/blog/daily-planning-workflow-in-cue Mon, 13 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT This email is not about you. It is about Cue’s daily planning feature. Not about your daily planning workflow. With that out of the way, let’s dive in. The core of the feature is the distinction between planning mode and doing mode. In planning mode you’re looking at two lists: the one you’re planning for https://cueplan.com/blog/minimalist-weekly-planning https://cueplan.com/blog/minimalist-weekly-planning Sun, 12 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT It’s Sunday. That means it’s time to plan the week. If you’re doing your daily planning each day, and using a tickler, you’ve already got a week’s worth of stuff laid out in front of you. Well, you did the first time through anyway. But after a week of daily planning, you’ve moved most of https://cueplan.com/blog/work-in-public https://cueplan.com/blog/work-in-public Sat, 11 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT Nathan Barry, a fellow Boise resident and founder of ConvertKit, has a few mantras that really resonate with me. Most have become values that are listed on ConvertKit’s mission page. Though it’s been a slow journey, I’ve gradually learned to “Create Every Day”. I’m also trying to get better at teaching what I know. But https://cueplan.com/blog/the-chaos-of-summer https://cueplan.com/blog/the-chaos-of-summer Fri, 03 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT As you know, I’m gone camping. So I wrote this before leaving. The camping trip will be good, because life has been crazy busy. But the camping trip is also part of the problem. Summer has been crazy because it’s less structured than during the school year. Vacations, summer jobs for the older kids, swimming https://cueplan.com/blog/going-camping https://cueplan.com/blog/going-camping Thu, 02 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT I’m going camping. So what? That’s all. Remember, it’s ok to take breaks every once in a while. And eat s’mores. https://cueplan.com/blog/what-is-cues-mvp https://cueplan.com/blog/what-is-cues-mvp Wed, 01 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT A Minimum Viable Product, or MVP, is the idea that for any product there is a minimal version of it that is viable, or sellable, as a product. I’ve explored the idea before when it comes to Cue, and my focus was on figuring out what needs to be in the product in order to https://cueplan.com/blog/the-state-of-cue-july-2018 https://cueplan.com/blog/the-state-of-cue-july-2018 Tue, 31 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT The Past Before talking about where Cue is, let’s do a quick review of where Cue came from. About a year ago, I started looking into a really interesting company called Blockstack. They’re looking to provide decentralized, private, secure identification and storage using blockchains. I was fascinated by the idea, as it seems a much https://cueplan.com/blog/surprise-yourself-slowly https://cueplan.com/blog/surprise-yourself-slowly Mon, 30 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT The Long Haul If you’re not in it for the long haul, you’re not in it. Anything worth doing takes time. A long time. Building a habit. Building a body. Building a business. Building a relationship. Even if you stand on the backs of giants, there are no shortcuts. There is no secret trick. And https://cueplan.com/blog/most-wont https://cueplan.com/blog/most-wont Sun, 29 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT If you build a daily habit of exercise, you’ll be able to look in the mirror in a few years and smile. Most Won’t. If you build a daily habit of writing, you’ll be able to share your words in a few years and have others recognize an authentic voice. Most Won’t. If you build https://cueplan.com/blog/the-marvelous-mrs-maisel-can-you-be-marvelous https://cueplan.com/blog/the-marvelous-mrs-maisel-can-you-be-marvelous Sat, 28 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is actually quite marvelous. If you use Amazon at all, you’ve probably seen that it was nominated for a slew of Emmy’s, and so Amazon is throwing that in your face to try to get you to watch it, so you’ll be addicted, and renew your prime membership, and keep sending https://cueplan.com/blog/is-cue-right-for-you https://cueplan.com/blog/is-cue-right-for-you Fri, 27 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT Is Cue Right For You? The best way to answer that is to try it out, see if it helps. Check out the system behind Cue, and start using it now. If it makes a difference, a good one, you’ll know it’s right for you. Oh, you don’t want to go to all that work? https://cueplan.com/blog/five-minutes https://cueplan.com/blog/five-minutes Thu, 26 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT It’s time for bed. I’m tired. I’ve had a long day, and I’m ready to be done. Yesterday, my wife got home with the kids, and we had some serious catching up to do. So once work was done, and we had dinner, we sent the kids away. And we talked. For hours. It was https://cueplan.com/blog/6-reasons-prayer-works https://cueplan.com/blog/6-reasons-prayer-works Wed, 25 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT Yesterday I shared a few ways to improve your thinking. Here’s another one: prayer. Let’s talk definitions, because prayer, being a religious concept, could be viewed very differently by different people. So when I say prayer, I’m thinking about a conversation that someone has with a higher being, or the universe. That conversation may occur https://cueplan.com/blog/dont-break-the-chain https://cueplan.com/blog/dont-break-the-chain Mon, 23 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT Why does the “don’t break the chain” method work when you’re building habits? There are a few reasons. First, you get attached to your progress, and don’t want to see it reset. Even after just a week, the thought of starting over can be agonizing. After one hundred or three hundred days, you know that https://cueplan.com/blog/how-to-think-like-a-pro https://cueplan.com/blog/how-to-think-like-a-pro Mon, 23 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT We all want to think better. But what does that mean, exactly? We want to have more ideas. We want to have better ideas. We want to make better decisions. We want to make better plans. It’s possible to get better at this. And not just by making a bunch of mistakes and learning from https://cueplan.com/blog/a-system-for-side-projects https://cueplan.com/blog/a-system-for-side-projects Sun, 22 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT Side projects are where the passion is. A few years ago, I learned how to make side projects a reality, by following my passion. It was Minecraft. Up to that point, I would sometimes get excited about building something on the side, but I never had it stick. I set up landing pages, I started https://cueplan.com/blog/daily-planning-is-a-system https://cueplan.com/blog/daily-planning-is-a-system Sat, 21 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT Not a goal. A system. Goals are great. In fact, goals often are the impetus for creating systems. I have a goal to put on 10-15 more pounds of muscle. And I have a system for doing that: regular lifting, eating enough protein, and balancing bulking periods with cutting periods. The system is the way https://cueplan.com/blog/checklists-rule-the-world https://cueplan.com/blog/checklists-rule-the-world Fri, 20 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT Checklists are amazing. They are one of those simple innovations that can make a huge difference in life, like the wheel, or sliced bread. In The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande outlines the power of checklists to help us navigate the increasingly complex modern world. Where AI tries to make computers think more like people, so https://cueplan.com/blog/four-ways-i-use-my-tickler-file-that-just-dont-work https://cueplan.com/blog/four-ways-i-use-my-tickler-file-that-just-dont-work Thu, 19 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT Yep, confession time. I use a tickler, habitually. That’s a good thing. But I have some bad habits. Frequent Forwarding One of my bigger issues is regularly forwarding items from one day to the next, or just to a later day. This usually means I’m avoiding something. Either I’m avoiding the work of scheduling, or https://cueplan.com/blog/planning-on-vacation-vacation-planning https://cueplan.com/blog/planning-on-vacation-vacation-planning Wed, 18 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT Our family is in Utah today and we’re going to Lagoon, a big amusement park that is here. We’ve been debating for three or four days which rides everyone will go on. My second son and I are going to try to hit the most extreme, scary, thrill-seeking rides. My wife and daughter will generally https://cueplan.com/blog/seconds-minutes-hours https://cueplan.com/blog/seconds-minutes-hours Tue, 17 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT Seconds, minutes, hours. These are the abstraction levels at which you plan your day. Seconds There won’t be many entries in your daily plan that only take a few seconds, but some can be valuable: taking your vitamins comes to mind. Because they take so little time, they’ll be included only if they’re important to https://cueplan.com/blog/did-you-plan-today-quick-read https://cueplan.com/blog/did-you-plan-today-quick-read Mon, 16 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT Did you plan today? If not, here’s your reminder: plan your day! Your day will go better, whether it goes according to plan or not. You’ll get more done than if you don’t. You’ll feel better at the end of the day. You’ll be able to adapt more easily. You’ll have a better intuition about https://cueplan.com/blog/how-to-not-take-your-habits-for-granted-in-five-parts https://cueplan.com/blog/how-to-not-take-your-habits-for-granted-in-five-parts Sun, 15 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT When I plan my day, I write down my habits as part of my plan. “But they are habits”, you might say, “Why write them down, if you’ll be doing them anyway?” I get the question. It makes some sense. Here’s my answer, in five parts. Writing them down makes them into habits To create https://cueplan.com/blog/planning-the-past https://cueplan.com/blog/planning-the-past Sat, 14 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT It’s rare, but sometimes half of the day will go by before I get around to planning. But I still do it. I still take the time, possibly in the late afternoon, to plan the day. And when I do, I plan the whole day. All of it. Including the stuff that has always happened. https://cueplan.com/blog/a-commitment-a-covenant-a-contract-a-promise-not https://cueplan.com/blog/a-commitment-a-covenant-a-contract-a-promise-not Fri, 13 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT A plan is what you want to do and the order you want to do it in. Guess what? Neither one will happen. First, you won’t do things in the order you had planned. That’s ok. Second, you won’t do the things you planned to do. That’s ok. Remember, it’s a plan. Not a contract, https://cueplan.com/blog/planning-a-la-mode https://cueplan.com/blog/planning-a-la-mode Thu, 12 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT Cue now has planning mode. Although it’s quite simple, it’s the first feature that distinguishes Cue from a typical todo app. But first, lets go back in time. In the ancient past – say, the mid ’90’s – people would plan their day using a day planner: a paper planner with a single page (or https://cueplan.com/blog/theres-so-much-to-do-i-dont-even-know-what-to-start-on https://cueplan.com/blog/theres-so-much-to-do-i-dont-even-know-what-to-start-on Wed, 11 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT I’m on a getaway with my wife, Kami, at a beautiful ski resort. We left our kids with her sister, and headed out, happy to have a few days to just be adults, without also being parents. I’m looking forward to relaxing, taking naps, enjoying the outdoors, and just enjoying the break. “There’s so much https://cueplan.com/blog/first-time-cue-user https://cueplan.com/blog/first-time-cue-user Tue, 10 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT Here are the instructions that will eventually be part of the first-time user experience. Welcome to Cue! Each line is one entry in a daily plan Each entry can be checked off, moved, or deleted Leave a blank line, like the one above (or below), to naturally group things together Right now you’re in planning https://cueplan.com/blog/a-game-of-games https://cueplan.com/blog/a-game-of-games Mon, 09 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT Life is a game of games. Let me tell you about one called Polytopia. My boys are really into it at the moment, and convinced me to play with them. It’s actually pretty fun. To understand the concepts I’m going to lay out, you’ll need to understand some basics about the game. Polytopia is a https://cueplan.com/blog/what-you-think-you-need-to-plan-your-day-hint-you-dont-really https://cueplan.com/blog/what-you-think-you-need-to-plan-your-day-hint-you-dont-really Sun, 08 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT You haven’t started planning your day. Maybe you’re waiting for the right tool, or the right system. Nah, most are probably just being lazy. I know I have been. But I’ve also learned that you don’t need much to go through the process and reap the benefits. You don’t need a fancy planner I don’t https://cueplan.com/blog/the-5-other-foundational-habits-you-wish-you-had https://cueplan.com/blog/the-5-other-foundational-habits-you-wish-you-had Sat, 07 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT Daily planning is the foundation habit that lets you stack more habits. It also lets you accelerate adoption of new habits. Which is all great, but what habits will give you the most bang for your buck? 1. Exercise Your physicality is your mentality. The healthier you are in body, the healthier your mind. The https://cueplan.com/blog/a-plan-vs-a-task-list https://cueplan.com/blog/a-plan-vs-a-task-list Fri, 06 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT A task list: Is open ended Has no limits Is unordered or prioritized Grows without limits Never ends Has many levels of abstraction Just has tasks Doesn’t model anything Encourages overcommitment Leads to self-deception A plan: Is specific Is bounded Is ordered Shrinks over time Ends Has two levels of abstraction Has tasks, appointments, dead https://cueplan.com/blog/it-gets-worse https://cueplan.com/blog/it-gets-worse Thu, 05 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT … before it gets better. Have you ever been in a dip? You know, where everything just seems a little harder, your energy is low, work takes longer, and you feel overwhelmed by things that used to get you energized? Yeah, me too. And there are ways of dealing with it: shorter time horizons, cutting https://cueplan.com/blog/how-to-not-get-things-done https://cueplan.com/blog/how-to-not-get-things-done Wed, 04 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT A simple list: Spend no time planning If you forget to plan, you are planning to forget. Spend too much time planning Masturbatory planning can be fun, but it accomplishes nothing. Let the planning tool do the work Even if we had artificially intelligent planning tools, they still wouldn’t want the same things for our https://cueplan.com/blog/in-the-beginning-there-was-super-self https://cueplan.com/blog/in-the-beginning-there-was-super-self Tue, 03 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT I am a planner nerd. It all started in high school. I remember browsing the stacks at the library and coming across a new book that sounded interesting to my 16-year-old brain: Super Self: Doubling Your Personal Effectiveness It was the first book I remember reading about increasing your productivity. And I ate it up. https://cueplan.com/blog/good https://cueplan.com/blog/good Mon, 02 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT If you haven’t heard Jocko Willink’s near legendary “GOOD” video, go do that now. It’s at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTMDpizis8. Seriously, it’s only two minutes long. And you need to know the message to understand what I’m going to say about it. Done? No?! Try again. Ok, that’s better. Now we can move on… Have you ever done https://cueplan.com/blog/how-abstract-thinking-can-change-your-life https://cueplan.com/blog/how-abstract-thinking-can-change-your-life Sun, 01 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT I am a software developer. I write code. Therefore, I deal in abstractions. Abstractions are just models of something more complex, that we can use to hide all of the complexity in it. So, a map is an abstraction of the real world. By hiding unimportant details of the landscape, it helps you navigate in https://cueplan.com/blog/the-encyclopedic-treatise-on-balance https://cueplan.com/blog/the-encyclopedic-treatise-on-balance Sat, 30 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT Are you out of balance? You can have balance in your life. But you have to understand what it is. You have to set your expectations correctly. And then you have to act accordingly. What Balance Is First, let’s look at what balance is. Balance is dynamic A person who has physical balance is constantly https://cueplan.com/blog/a-real-life-daily-plan https://cueplan.com/blog/a-real-life-daily-plan Fri, 29 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT What does a real life daily plan look like? Well, here’s mine, from a couple months ago, chosen at random: Why do I share this? Well, I think there are a variety of little lessons that can come from picking it over closely. Plan the stupid stuff If you read through, you’ll see that breakfast https://cueplan.com/blog/four-giant-problem-with-todo-lists https://cueplan.com/blog/four-giant-problem-with-todo-lists Thu, 28 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT “People who are successful keep track of their work with todo lists.” I doubt anyone has said those exact words. But lots of people believe them, and so they use todo lists. They have a todo list for their side project. One for errands they have to run. Another for their volunteer work with a https://cueplan.com/blog/moving-the-mean https://cueplan.com/blog/moving-the-mean Wed, 27 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT The other day I wrote about my own strategies for getting through the waves, dips, troughs, and crests of life. Life has its ups and downs. Those natural ups and down, whether they be physical, psychological, individual, or for a group, make it harder to understand the effects of intervention. One result of this is https://cueplan.com/blog/a-little-girl-plans-her-day https://cueplan.com/blog/a-little-girl-plans-her-day Tue, 26 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT On Sunday during church, my seven year old daughter decided to make a plan for the rest of the day. It is awesome. And, it has some flaws. But first, here’s a picture: Let’s get the flaws out of the way, so we can focus on the best stuff. First, it’s pretty clear that she https://cueplan.com/blog/the-time-i-almost-banned-my-wife-from-this-list https://cueplan.com/blog/the-time-i-almost-banned-my-wife-from-this-list Mon, 25 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT One of my email subscribers (my wife, actually) admitted to not reading every email I send out. I immediately kicked her off the list and banned her from ever signing up again. Just kidding. But I was tempted. Clutter First, some background. We were having a good discussion about Cue, and these emails came up. https://cueplan.com/blog/four-uncanny-tricks-for-beating-low-motivation https://cueplan.com/blog/four-uncanny-tricks-for-beating-low-motivation Sun, 24 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT Let’s get real. I’ve written before about my weaknesses. They can kill stuff I’m really excited about, if I’m not careful. New habits? Down the drain. Big, exciting project? Fizzles out. Simple home repair project? Never happens. I’m sure you can think of things in your own life that fizzle out, are regularly procrastinated, or https://cueplan.com/blog/imagine-your-perfect-today https://cueplan.com/blog/imagine-your-perfect-today Sat, 23 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT “Imagine your perfect day” Eight-year-old me had fun doing that. When I was eight I watched the Disney move “The Sword in the Stone”, about King Arthur’s childhood and training from the wizard Merlin before pulling the titular sword from the stone and becoming king. Despite being Disney-fied, it’s a decent retelling of the first https://cueplan.com/blog/13-reasons-why-your-plans-suck https://cueplan.com/blog/13-reasons-why-your-plans-suck Fri, 22 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT No need for an introduction, here they are. 1. You don’t make plans This is a no brainer. If you forget to plan, you plan to forget. Without planning, your mind, and therefore your life, is unordered and chaotic. 2. Your plans are not yours Your plans will suck if they are just the lists https://cueplan.com/blog/task-inbox-tomorrows-tickler-file https://cueplan.com/blog/task-inbox-tomorrows-tickler-file Thu, 21 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT What if there were no task inbox? We will already have a tickler file, and it works great for reminding us of things we need to deal with. That would include tasks, appointments, reminders, or whatever that comes up during the day. So, instead of a task inbox, Cue could place all newly added items https://cueplan.com/blog/vision-7-maximum-viable-product https://cueplan.com/blog/vision-7-maximum-viable-product Wed, 20 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT Maximum Viable Products are those that have grown and accreted so many features and so much functionality that they collapse under their own weight. Or really, just before that. When they’re at the largest that is actually viable as a product. When products get that “large” or try to do that much, they are ripe https://cueplan.com/blog/vision-6-minimum-viable-product https://cueplan.com/blog/vision-6-minimum-viable-product Tue, 19 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT Up to now, I’ve been outlining a product vision for Cue that is fairly complete. But, as I pointed out at the beginning, Cue is far from that vision now. There is a long way to go. So let’s explore what a minimum viable product would be. The question really is: “what is required to https://cueplan.com/blog/vision-5-cycles-within-cycles https://cueplan.com/blog/vision-5-cycles-within-cycles Mon, 18 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT Humans operate in cycles: the day, the week, the month, the year, the generation or life. In each one there are stages: planning, planting, laboring, and harvest. Alternately, reflection, inception, exertion, reception. Reflection Reflection is when you plan. You plan your day, or the next week, or the year. You look at the last cycle, https://cueplan.com/blog/vision-3-a-task-inbox-with-bling https://cueplan.com/blog/vision-3-a-task-inbox-with-bling Sun, 17 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT The idea of a task inbox is nothing new. Other todo and task apps have it. Some people just keep track of their plans in their email inbox, so they have it too. What it does is separate a couple decisions. The first is: do I care enough about this to remember it later? If https://cueplan.com/blog/vision-3-getting-s-done https://cueplan.com/blog/vision-3-getting-s-done Sat, 16 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT Doing mode is now engaged! You’ve ordered your mind in planning mode. For much of life, that’s all you’ll need. With an ordered mind, you go forth, doing the things you’ve already thought through while planning. The human brain can keep you on track for a while. But it will vary. If you plan the https://cueplan.com/blog/vision-2-to-plan-a-plan https://cueplan.com/blog/vision-2-to-plan-a-plan Fri, 15 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT Planning mode is where the heavy lifting happens. Doing mode is in and out, maybe moving things around to adjust, but mostly about remembering what you needed to do. Adding mode is also in and out, add something to your inbox, make it as quick as possible. But planning mode is where you’ll spend a https://cueplan.com/blog/vision-1-modes-and-friction https://cueplan.com/blog/vision-1-modes-and-friction Thu, 14 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT Let’s work through the principles outlined in … for the next few days. This is a dump of thoughts I had while brainstorming and is definitely not complete or finished. You get a little peak into the process of working out an app design. First up: Your planning app is used in three key modes: https://cueplan.com/blog/cue-up-a-vision https://cueplan.com/blog/cue-up-a-vision Wed, 13 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT Right now, Cue is just a simple list app. You get as many lists as you want. Each one has tasks in it. You can check them off, rearrange them, or delete them. You can also rearrange the lists, or archive them. That’s it. Nothing special. Without a lot more little features or a few https://cueplan.com/blog/take-care-of-yourself-like-you-deserve-it https://cueplan.com/blog/take-care-of-yourself-like-you-deserve-it Tue, 12 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT I just dropped my son off at scout camp, but he’s not there as an attending boy scout. He’s there as a camp counselor. It’s his job for the summer. This first week is “staff week” – he and the other counselors will be getting trained and getting the camp ready for the first week https://cueplan.com/blog/my-weaknesses-laid-bare https://cueplan.com/blog/my-weaknesses-laid-bare Mon, 11 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT I’ve got a lot of weaknesses. I don’t finish things. I don’t start things, if they seem difficult. I assume things will be more difficult than they usually are. I avoid taking on responsibilities. I procrastinate stuff I know is important. Sometimes, I don’t get enough sleep. You can probably relate to some of these. https://cueplan.com/blog/planning-too-much https://cueplan.com/blog/planning-too-much Sun, 10 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT I did that today. I tried to fit in too much. It happens. It’s ok. It’s life. You try something. You see the result. You learn from it. Then you try again. Use what you learned to do better. And, down the road, what I tried to do today may no longer be “too much”. https://cueplan.com/blog/your-tools-are-tyrants https://cueplan.com/blog/your-tools-are-tyrants Sat, 09 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT Ok, maybe not tyrants, but the alliteration was too good to pass up. Your tools are dictators. They dictate. Every tool you use imposes certain processes for the work you do. Say you wanted to cut a board in half. You could use a regular handsaw. That means you need to move it back and https://cueplan.com/blog/habit-stacking-no-habit-acceleration https://cueplan.com/blog/habit-stacking-no-habit-acceleration Fri, 08 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT I’m planning every day, and I’m using a tickler. Why hasn’t my life changed? Pedantic me wants to say, “It has! You didn’t plan every day and now you are. You didn’t use a tickler and now you do.” But that’s ridiculous. What you’re really asking is, “Why haven’t I seen an improvement in my https://cueplan.com/blog/not-frequently-asked-questions https://cueplan.com/blog/not-frequently-asked-questions Thu, 07 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT What planning tool should I use? What habit should I develop first? How can I get more done, even though I’m crazy busy? These are all questions I’ve NEVER been asked. Ever. These are not the questions people ask when they are overwhelmed, frustrated, or unmotivated. Mostly, they don’t ask question at all. They just https://cueplan.com/blog/body-mind-and-spirit-the-brothers-karamazov https://cueplan.com/blog/body-mind-and-spirit-the-brothers-karamazov Wed, 06 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT I just finished reading The Brothers Karamazov yesterday, for the second time. It has nothing to do with planning. But I’m going to give a very un-literary summary for you. In it there are depicted four brothers, sons of Fyodor Karamazov, three of whom are legitimate. Each of these three represents, in archetype, one of https://cueplan.com/blog/why-i-dont-use-a-calendar-and-why-you-should https://cueplan.com/blog/why-i-dont-use-a-calendar-and-why-you-should Tue, 05 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT I have a busy life. First there is my day job as a software developer and team lead. Then there is my family: one beautiful wife, four crazy kids, plenty of extended family in town and beyond. Besides hanging out with them, there are also sports, piano lessons, ballet, choir concerts, recitals, boy scouts and https://cueplan.com/blog/not-the-life-i-dreamed https://cueplan.com/blog/not-the-life-i-dreamed Mon, 04 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT Hindsight is 20/20. As I’ve gotten older I can look back on the younger me. When I do so, I feel a range of emotions: excitement, regret, hope, fear, pain, sorrow, joy. One that has become more prominent, as I’ve worked to be more honest with myself, is the recognition that his hopes and dreams https://cueplan.com/blog/joke-of-the-day-why-did-the-calendar-give-up-on-life https://cueplan.com/blog/joke-of-the-day-why-did-the-calendar-give-up-on-life Sun, 03 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT Why did the calendar give up on life? . . . He knew his days were numbered. You may have noticed, I don’t talk about calendars much as a planning tool. The fact is, I think they’re overrated. Having a calendar is good for one thing: making sure you don’t double book yourself. Other than https://cueplan.com/blog/healthy-friction-wait-what https://cueplan.com/blog/healthy-friction-wait-what Sat, 02 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT (Get your mind out of the gutter, I’m not talking about that kind of friction.) Friction is the concept in physics that describes the force that resists motion when two surfaces are in contact. Just from that description, and also from colloquial uses of the term, most people have the understanding that friction prevents or https://cueplan.com/blog/i-just-did-it https://cueplan.com/blog/i-just-did-it Fri, 01 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT I’m writing this at night, and I just planned tomorrow. Over the last few weeks, I’ve gone back and forth on planning my day either the night before, or the morning of. You should do it the night before. You’ve just gone through the day, and you might be tired. But you’re also intimately connected https://cueplan.com/blog/pain-is-a-cue https://cueplan.com/blog/pain-is-a-cue Thu, 31 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Pain is the most ancient cue. Ever since organisms evolved nerves that could pass messages, they’ve used those nerves to respond to the environment. Over time, brains developed, and some of those messages were interpreted as pain. Pain is how our bodies and brains interpret certain messages from the environment. Specifically, those messages that require https://cueplan.com/blog/win-win-win https://cueplan.com/blog/win-win-win Wed, 30 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People was huge in the late 80’s and through the 90’s. While it’s a treasure trove of tried and true principles, there is also value in revisiting them to see if they hold up. I’ve written before about the value of beginning without the end in mind. https://cueplan.com/blog/why-is-it-called-cue https://cueplan.com/blog/why-is-it-called-cue Tue, 29 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT If it’s a planning workshop, why call it Cue? Cue has many meanings and connotations. All of them relate to the problems Cue is solving. Cue is the metaphor for much of the work you will do while creating the life you want. Cue, n. Anything said or done, on or off stage, that is https://cueplan.com/blog/a-workshop-for-your-life https://cueplan.com/blog/a-workshop-for-your-life Mon, 28 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT In yesterday’s email I discovered that Cue is going to be a planning workshop. (Just as an aside, I really did discover this while writing the email, in case it wasn’t obvious. Writing is an amazing activity, and often leads to insights that just cannot be found by merely thinking, even thinking hard, about a https://cueplan.com/blog/241 https://cueplan.com/blog/241 Sun, 27 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Cue is not a daily planner. I’ve already written about how it’s not a todo list. But it’s also not a planner. Let’s step back. I’m a software developer by training and profession. That means I use computers all the time. But guess what? In its original usage, the term “computer” referred to a human https://cueplan.com/blog/a-stupid-simple-flowchart https://cueplan.com/blog/a-stupid-simple-flowchart Sat, 26 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT When Getting Things Done made its debut in 2001 one of the most popular aspects of the program was a flowchart. This chart walked people through “processing” stuff that comes into their lives. The idea behind the chart was to help you organize all the stuff in your life and put it into systems where https://cueplan.com/blog/simplicity https://cueplan.com/blog/simplicity Fri, 25 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Daily planning must be simple. If it isn’t, it will not be sustainable. Complexity is priorities. Due dates. Recurring reminders. Labels. Tags. Flags. Simplicity is a list. That’s it. Because it’s simple. You don’t need fancy tools. You don’t need complicated reminders. You don’t need hierarchical tasks. You just need a habit. Plan your day. https://cueplan.com/blog/why-you-must-build-trust-with-yourself https://cueplan.com/blog/why-you-must-build-trust-with-yourself Thu, 24 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT When we don’t trust ourselves, our lives become more crowded, chaotic, and complicated. When we don’t trust ourselves we say yes to things we should say no to. We think, “I should do that, I think.” By not saying no, we take on too much, and those things crowd out the core aspects of our https://cueplan.com/blog/do-you-trust-yourself https://cueplan.com/blog/do-you-trust-yourself Wed, 23 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Beginning with the long term end in mind just doesn’t work. Not until you have momentum. And “long term” is relative. Some people have so little momentum that thinking or planning something more than a week away is just wasted effort. I have some family members that make it hard to plan get togethers because https://cueplan.com/blog/build-momentum-first https://cueplan.com/blog/build-momentum-first Tue, 22 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Let’s dig a little deeper into yesterday’s thoughts. I outlined why you should first focus on building momentum, before worrying about your direction. This is actually what you’ve been doing most of your life. Barring major disabilities, all people learn to walk and talk, eat food and throw balls, just in the first few years https://cueplan.com/blog/begin-without-the-end-in-mind https://cueplan.com/blog/begin-without-the-end-in-mind Mon, 21 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT “I cannot plan my day, because I don’t know what I want to do with my life.” Yeah, I’m embarrassed to admit that I once believed that. Maybe you do too. For me, I think I picked it up after reading 7 Habits. It’s a great book, with some deeply true principles. The second habit https://cueplan.com/blog/the-turtle-and-the-hare-me-and-my-wife https://cueplan.com/blog/the-turtle-and-the-hare-me-and-my-wife Sun, 20 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT I’m the turtle, my wife is the hare. Spoiler alert: sometimes the hare wins. You see, the story of the turtle and the hare is great at emphasizing the importance of consistent, steady progress. It’s the way I like to work. Set up some simple habits, preferably daily, and then make sure to do them. https://cueplan.com/blog/cue-cards-4-life https://cueplan.com/blog/cue-cards-4-life Sat, 19 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Literally, Cue is “Cue Cards 4 Life!” It’s an app that gets you writing cue cards for your life. It’s an app that gives you those same cue cards to help you remember what’s most important. Sounds pretty simple, and it is. But it works. First, it works because you have to write the cue https://cueplan.com/blog/the-best-day-of-my-childhood https://cueplan.com/blog/the-best-day-of-my-childhood Fri, 18 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Have you planned today? If you did, how do you feel? Are you calm and energized? If you did not, how do you feel? Harried, distracted, or lethargic? Obviously, you can have a good day without planning the day. Story time. I remember one of my favorite days in elementary school was field day. We https://cueplan.com/blog/harmonic-cycles https://cueplan.com/blog/harmonic-cycles Thu, 17 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT A life that follows the natural cycles is one that is in harmony. The first natural cycle our bodies figure out is the feeding cycle. We eat, we sleep, we poop, we eat again. Over time, that cycle grows to include some wake time. And, after a year or so, most of us have a https://cueplan.com/blog/ticklers-and-cue-cards https://cueplan.com/blog/ticklers-and-cue-cards Wed, 16 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Tickler files have a horrible name. I get the association between tickling and remembering: “I had an idea tickling my brain”. And I get that physical file folders were once a thing. But neither of those concepts really works well. Like the idea of saving documents. It had to be done at one point. And https://cueplan.com/blog/the-first-tool-you-need https://cueplan.com/blog/the-first-tool-you-need Tue, 15 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Yesterday, I wrote about how simple daily planning can be. Have you read it? If not, go read it. I can wait. Ok, you’re back. Quick quiz: what is the one tool you need in place to do daily planning? You might have said a daily planner. That’s wrong. Remember, the primary product of daily https://cueplan.com/blog/dead-simple-daily-planning https://cueplan.com/blog/dead-simple-daily-planning Mon, 14 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT I’ve said before that planning your day is simple, that it shouldn’t take very long (5-10 minutes), and that the primary product is not a plan, but an ordered mind. But what does this process look like? If a plan is a by product, does it matter how you create it? Or what the byproduct https://cueplan.com/blog/disrupt-your-life https://cueplan.com/blog/disrupt-your-life Sun, 13 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Disrupting your life is often necessary. At first, your routines and patterns bring order to the chaos of your life. Because they are new, you do them very consciously. And that consciousness of what you are doing makes it awkward, then competent, then skilled, then automatic. And over time, your automatic routines and patterns, your https://cueplan.com/blog/the-product-of-planning https://cueplan.com/blog/the-product-of-planning Sat, 12 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT What is the product of planning? What are you trying to produce? You probably haven’t thought about it. But if you did, you would likely say it is a plan. You plan something to make a plan. But the primary product, the most important artifact, of planning is not the plan. You could burn the https://cueplan.com/blog/order-your-life https://cueplan.com/blog/order-your-life Fri, 11 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Daily planning is ordering your life, in the spiritual realm. It is looking at the potential that exists and choosing a path. You can order your life in other areas as well – the physical, the mental, the social. But the act of setting things in order is always a spiritual act, and will always https://cueplan.com/blog/when-you-should-do-your-daily-planning https://cueplan.com/blog/when-you-should-do-your-daily-planning Thu, 10 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT At first, it doesn’t matter. Later, it does. When I say that it doesn’t matter at first, I mean it. It really doesn’t. You could do it at night, before you go to bed. You could do it in the morning, right after you wake up. You could do it at lunch, or when you https://cueplan.com/blog/how-to-really-get-things-done https://cueplan.com/blog/how-to-really-get-things-done Wed, 09 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT In the mid 2000’s, Getting Things Done was the latest fad when it came to finding ways to organize your life and, well, get things done. In many ways, it was a welcome change from the 90’s fad created by 7 Habits. Now, don’t get me wrong. These fads existed because both books were grounded https://cueplan.com/blog/dead-wrong https://cueplan.com/blog/dead-wrong Tue, 08 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT “Stop thinking about your todos, and let the app remember for you” – WRONG! That’s one of the marketing lines for a fairly popular todo app that you could go use. It’s dead wrong. You should be thinking about your todos. You should be considering them, pondering them, diving deeper into them. You should think https://cueplan.com/blog/masturbatory-planning https://cueplan.com/blog/masturbatory-planning Mon, 07 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT You probably hear the words “plan my day” and think it’s something involved, detailed, structured, explicit. You likely think of prioritizing tasks. You know, where you go through and figure out which tasks are most important, which are less important, and which are unimportant. Maybe you use a color system, or high/normal/low, or something else. https://cueplan.com/blog/lies-damned-lies-and-daily-plans https://cueplan.com/blog/lies-damned-lies-and-daily-plans Sun, 06 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Planning your day, your week, or your life will fail if it’s just a list of lies you’re telling yourself. And there’s a good chance it is. If you haven’t sorted yourself out, and really taken a good, long look at your life, then you are probably lying to yourself about quite a few things. https://cueplan.com/blog/the-one-thing-that-will-change-your-life-forever https://cueplan.com/blog/the-one-thing-that-will-change-your-life-forever Sat, 05 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Guess what, I don’t know what it is. I don’t even care what it is. But you know, when you look within and humbly ask yourself. And answer honestly. You know what one thing will change your life. And I don’t. But I do know some things about it. I know that it scares you. https://cueplan.com/blog/fragile-planning-and-antifragile-planning https://cueplan.com/blog/fragile-planning-and-antifragile-planning Fri, 04 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Nassim Taleb’s book Antifragile explores the idea that some things become stronger and more resilient with disorder and stress. Fragile things, in contrast, break when put under pressure. So, what is antifragile planning? I’d argue there is no such thing. What can be fragile or antifragile is instead your attitude towards your plans. Some people https://cueplan.com/blog/a-man-with-a-plan https://cueplan.com/blog/a-man-with-a-plan Thu, 03 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT A man with a plan is dangerous. A man with a plan is powerful. A man with a plan is a force to be reckoned with. A man with a plan can change the world. A man with a plan can change his world. A man with a plan will get things done. A man https://cueplan.com/blog/just-keep-swimming https://cueplan.com/blog/just-keep-swimming Wed, 02 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Last night my son quit on his homework assignment. I wasn’t sure at first, but it seemed like he hadn’t worked on it long enough to finish. So I asked if he was done. His response: “I can’t concentrate right now, so I stopped trying.” Oh boy. Time to be a parent. Time to be https://cueplan.com/blog/eating-the-dogfood https://cueplan.com/blog/eating-the-dogfood Tue, 01 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT So, today I used Cue to plan my day, and I’m also using it to check off my todos. It’s rough. Really rough. I have a long ways to go. That said, it’s usable in the sense that I am able to use it. I can add todos, edit them, check them off, and rearrange https://cueplan.com/blog/plan-plant-sacrifice-harvest https://cueplan.com/blog/plan-plant-sacrifice-harvest Mon, 30 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT Tanei the Science Guy had a great thread the other day about how to align with the natural cycle of a year. Go check it out here. In it, he shows how our bodies and minds are meant to do certain types of work in each season. First, we plan in the winter. It is https://cueplan.com/blog/the-deliberate-day https://cueplan.com/blog/the-deliberate-day Sun, 29 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT Each day of your life can be deliberate. It can be a day where you are fully conscious of what you are doing, and aware of the nature and effects of your actions. It can be a day where you are unhurried, even if you are moving quickly. It can be a day where you https://cueplan.com/blog/cue-is-missing-the-boring-stuff https://cueplan.com/blog/cue-is-missing-the-boring-stuff Sat, 28 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT Cue is the tool I’m developing to make planning your day and your life easier. It’s based on the idea of a tickler file, your list of habits, and the concept of daily planning. But right now it’s missing the boring stuff. The stuff you just have to get right to even be a product. https://cueplan.com/blog/i-have-too-much-to-do https://cueplan.com/blog/i-have-too-much-to-do Fri, 27 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT First, be grateful. Your life is full. It’s virtually impossible to have too much to do in the modern world without having meaningful relationships. Oftentimes, I have too much to do because I have a wife, and four kids. And I want to spend time with a close friend. And I have a team at https://cueplan.com/blog/now-what https://cueplan.com/blog/now-what Thu, 26 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT You made your plan. Now what? Well, if you feel like I do today, you mostly ignore it and just try to stay awake through the important parts. Yep, you don’t have to follow the plan. You don’t have to feel guilty about it. You don’t even have to look at it. You scored a https://cueplan.com/blog/routines https://cueplan.com/blog/routines Wed, 25 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT Do you have a morning routine? I do. Do you need to have a morning routine? Absolutely not. In all likelihood, whether you plan your day or not, you have some routines. A routine is just a series of steps you take, usually in the same order, and usually at the same time. It’s not https://cueplan.com/blog/what-if-i-dont-feel-like-planning https://cueplan.com/blog/what-if-i-dont-feel-like-planning Tue, 24 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT Screw your feelings. That’s pretty much it. Ok, so that’s not really the whole story. Your feelings are passing, sometimes they are attached to long term goals, sometimes they aren’t. Sometimes your feelings are just manifestations of basic desires for food, sex, sleep, etc. When that’s true, planning will be harder. Sometimes they are attached https://cueplan.com/blog/why-you-should-plan-each-day https://cueplan.com/blog/why-you-should-plan-each-day Mon, 23 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT Planning your day is the foundation habit. Not because it’s the most important thing you do. It’s not. In fact, it’s probably less important than most of the things you will do in the day. And if you did them whether you planned the day or not, that would be great. It is the foundation https://cueplan.com/blog/what-is-cue https://cueplan.com/blog/what-is-cue Sun, 22 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT Cue is a simple tool I’m building to help you plan your day (week, month, year) and then execute your plan. That’s pretty much it. I’m big on planning each day. I’m not big on having it be complicated, burdensome, or difficult. Planning should require a little thought, so you’re not just going through the https://cueplan.com/blog/according-to-plan https://cueplan.com/blog/according-to-plan Sat, 21 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT Your day is not going to go as planned. Ever. And that’s ok. Really, it’s ok. In fact, it would probably be bad if it did go as planned. You don’t make a plan for the day with the expectation that you will follow it by rote and then go to bed. Your plan is https://cueplan.com/blog/having-a-plan https://cueplan.com/blog/having-a-plan Fri, 20 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT Having a plan means I know what I want to do, in the order I want to do it. That’s all. It’s not required that I follow it. It’s not a contract, or a commitment. It’s not a set of shackles. It’s not stepping stone, or panacea, a building block or a weight around your https://cueplan.com/blog/five-hundred-days https://cueplan.com/blog/five-hundred-days Thu, 19 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT I have planned my day, every day, for 500 days. Without. Missing. A. Single. Day. It’s not hard to do. Sometimes I plan the night before. Sometimes I plan in the morning after a walk or going to the gym. Sometimes the morning is busy and I don’t plan the day until lunchtime. Once, when https://cueplan.com/blog/i-plan-every-day https://cueplan.com/blog/i-plan-every-day Wed, 18 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT It’s simple, really. I spend between five and ten minutes writing down how I expect the day to play out. I just list out all of the things that I am going to make happen, in the order they should happen. Some of them are trivial, like brushing my teeth. Or taking vitamins. Others are