Comments on: Plan.txt : The Most Effective Productivity Tool That You’ve Never Heard Of

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 04 May 2012 01:51:36 +0000

This is a great and insightful post, Cal. Your law stating that systematic methods to determine what we need to is doomed to fail is quite true for me. I’ve found that a desire to make everything routine cannot apply to this aspect of daily (or weekly) life. It is as you said, that our brains already have the ability to adjust to the subtle demands of the day to work out a plan that is most suitable. We can’t have a routine in every single aspect of our lives.

By: Ond?ej Ture?ek

Ond?ej Ture?ek — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:24:20 +0000

I’m now implementing the following system using my Windows phone device: 1) Calendar with fixed basics like studying time, exercise, sleep…I am trying to have less and less of basics, just those that help me to be healthy, fresh, in shape, ready to study. At the “live tile” I see 4 upcoming events. Then every evening and every morning i briefly (5-10 min?) check the Flowdly app. (Simple ZTD/GTD app.) During the day, I write every minor task to it, don’t set a date. In the evening I clear the inbox and in the morning I choose from 1 to 3 tasks to do today. It’s kinda “minimal ZTD” by Babauta. I hope it’s a good combination of dealing with accute minor things and sticking to long-term plan.

By: Antoine

Antoine — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 06:54:56 +0000

Thanks Cal. I think the key here is “plan a week out on a weekly basis” as opposed to “do it freestyle”. For some, freestyle helps as it makes it less boring. For others, freestyle doesn’t help as they need structure for efficiency. But for everyone, thinking about one’s priorities for the week and doing “some” planning is useful

By: How much can I expect to accomplish in a week? | jbdeaton.com

How much can I expect to accomplish in a week? | jbdeaton.com — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 14:39:57 +0000

[...] all the loose ends from the past week and line up everything for the next. I recently read about Cal Newport’s plan.txt file, which inspired me to add a new twist. Here is the exercise, which will take place during the [...]

By: Study Hacks

Study Hacks — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:35:33 +0000

overwrite your plan.txt from the previous week, or
create a new plan.txt for each week, or
have one long plan.txt which you update every week?

These days I’ve switched to keeping a separate document for each month. And in each monthly document I have a space for each week. So everything gets saved.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 21:37:23 +0000

Do you
overwrite your plan.txt from the previous week, or
create a new plan.txt for each week, or
have one long plan.txt which you update every week?

By: Panda

Panda — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 08:18:05 +0000

Your ideas remind me of the “The Planning Fallacy” by Eliezer Yudkowsky

By: links for 2010-08-28 | links.kburke.org

links for 2010-08-28 | links.kburke.org — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 01:03:12 +0000

[...] Study Hacks » Blog Archive » Plan.txt : The Most Effective Productivity Tool That You’ve Never H… The Law of Action Planning: No rigid rules or systems for figuring out “what to do when” can work effectively for more than a few weeks before becoming obsolete. [...]

By: links for 2010-08-28 – Kevin Burke

links for 2010-08-28 – Kevin Burke — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:33:33 +0000

By: Bookmarks for August 28th from 20:29 to 20:29 | links.kburke.org

Bookmarks for August 28th from 20:29 to 20:29 | links.kburke.org — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:12:32 +0000

[...] Study Hacks » Blog Archive » Plan.txt : The Most Effective Productivity Tool That You&rs… – The Law of Action Planning: No rigid rules or systems for figuring out “what to do when” can work effectively for more than a few weeks before becoming obsolete.

this has been my experience, yet I’m trying again… we’ll see how it holds up. This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. ← Bookmarks for August 28th from 17:42 to 18:17 [...]