In my last post, I mentioned a little something I call my “Today Card”. Here is a bit more about how that works.

I keep an index card with three simple things I would like to accomplish for the day written on it. I keep this on my desk next to my laptop. Why? Well, when you have a time sucking, life consuming, attention draining source enter your life (referred to by some as a “baby“), allowing a low expectation bar for yourself can go a long way towards sanity. Being able to pick some low hanging fruit off of a otherwise full and getting more so action tree is a Good Thing™. Of course, I am lucky if I am able to accomplish any one of those three things but if I am able to get at least two done, I feel like I have done something to move life a little bit forward.

The other advantage is that it gives me a ready scratch pad as I use the rest of the whitespace on the card to capture notes, phone numbers, and other like incoming items. At the end of the day, I move any undone items from the original three to the card for the next day, add more to equal three on that card, and then toss the old card into my Inbox or Circa for processing the random notes, incoming actions, phone numbers, and such if there are any.

Having this simple list at the ready helps to draw quick focus for the few minutes I may be able to steal here and there.