The setup incorporates all of my daily Habits & Routines in bundled clusters, so doing one makes it easier to do the rest together along with it. I am of course tracking these in my
daily tracking system in the Notion PPV platform.
Email is batched at scheduled times, turn off your notifications and go to email when you’re ready for it. If I’m waiting on something important, I’ll do extra email checks during short breaks in the Deep Work periods, but email is not driving my schedule as it does for many people.
Then the longer uninterrupted Deep Work time blocks are for implementing the listed priorities in my Notion Action Zone task database. These daily tasks are prioritized and thoughtfully lined up the evening before each day. The lineup is achievable though a reach. Anything beyond what is realistically viable is moved to another day (dragging in the Notion calendar view makes this quick and easy).
As I line up my big priorities for the day, I determine which will go into which Deep Work time zones. The “Content Creation” zone on my schedule is a Deep Work zone as well, but to push me to create content daily I label it specifically for that type of deep work. For you, that block might be a third flexible Deep Work zone.
Real World Challenges
But be aware at the outset that the best laid plans can go off track. And as the day goes on, the likelihood of things getting derailed increases. So set your highest priorities early in the day — both in terms of habits & routines, and in terms of prioritized tasks. Do the most important first.
As the day goes on, you’re also increasingly susceptible to incoming requests from others taking over your beautifully prepared schedule. But with an Ideal Day game plan merged with your evening-before-planned-schedule, you have specific action items to compare against the unexpected incoming requests. You can now clearly evaluate which is more important. Without a clear plan in place, we’re inclined to react to whatever comes at us, responding mindlessly instead of making informed decisions.
Choosing between two specific options will lead to better decisions than comparing the incoming request to a vague, ambiguous “something else”. You’ll make smarter choices on how to spend your time, better allocating your most scarce and precious resource.