The Fu Master Productivity Checklist Using Things3 - Productive With a Purpose-readwise

Metadata

• Author: VColey12
• Full Title: The Fu Master Productivity Checklist Using Things3 - Productive With a Purpose
• Category: #articles
• URL: The Fu Master Productivity Checklist Using Things3 - Productive With a Purpose

5 key takeaways

1. Live in a laser-focused Today list. Populate it only with true “must-dos” so you can work from a single, distraction-free queue all day.

2. Trust the Anytime list as your safe backlog. Treat it as the holding area for “nice-to-do/bonus” tasks; knowing they’re parked there lets you ignore them until bandwidth opens up.

3. Invest 10 minutes in a Daily Review. A brief morning sweep of calendar, email, and inboxes clarifies your #1 goal and tightens the Today list—yielding the best ROI of the day.

4. Follow a consistent triage script. For every new item ask: What is it? Effort? Deadline? Where does it belong? What extra context will help later?—then file it in the right bucket.

5. Use a Weekly Review to keep Someday alive. Each week promote a few Someday ideas into Anytime (or Today) and demote stale Anytime items back to Someday, ensuring nothing important slips through the cracks.

Highlights

• Keep your TODAY List tight & stocked w/ only “Must Dos” & constantly use your ANYTIME List for “Bonus Todos”. Trusting your Anytime List is the key to trusting your productivity system! (View Highlight)
• I take ~10 minutes to do my Daily Things Review and plan my day (what’s my #1 goal for today!?). This is the best 10 minute investment I can make because now my day is planned out and I can live in my Today List. (More on my Daily Review in a bit. (View Highlight)
• The goal of the Daily Review is to get you to a point where you have a clear, concise list of “Must Dos” (i.e. today’s top, I HAVE to do them today priorities) in your Today List. If you do a thorough Daily Review, you should be able to LIVE in your Today list (and not ping pong around in Things3, hunting and pecking for todos) … all day long! (View Highlight)
• • Check your Calendar – What’s already scheduled for today (and over the next couple of days)? What actions are required today for these future events to be successful?
  • Clear your Email Inbox – Review any unread emails and use Mail to Things to forward anything to your Things3’s Inbox that requires later review or follow up.
  • Clear your Things3 Inbox – For each item, ask: What is this? How Much Effort? When do I NEED to do this? Where should I put this? What Else will help me find and / or take action on this later?
  • Review your Today List – You may have previously scheduled todos for today … is everything still relevant? Review and tighten your Today List so it just has the items you Must Do today.
  • Now Visit your Anytime List – Peruse your Anytime list for other todos that you need to tackle today. Always take a minute to review your ME specific todos (non work related) so you always have a healthy dose of purpose in your Today List (View Highlight)
• The Someday List & THIS WEEK – I swear, the Someday List isn’t a place where ideas go to die 💀! In simple terms, the Weekly Review helps you identify what you want to focus on THIS WEEK. Anything you don’t plan to focus on THIS WEEK should go in your Someday List. Conversely, during your Weekly Review, you’ll also scour Someday to see what Projects or Todos you do want to work on this week and pull them into Anytime. If you do a thorough and consistent Weekly Review every week, you can trust that your Someday List items won’t fall through the cracks! (View Highlight)