Momentum is a great thing to have in any situation. If we have positive momentum, same problems can appear easier than when we are starting with no momentum. I am using the word momentum to loosely refer to some tiny progress in the positive direction. All video games are designed to give us quick instant feedback and easy starts to give us a sense of momentum (and gratification). It is this momentum (and of course other stuff like shots of dopamine) that has us spending hours tackling tough problems while actually “playing”. In this post I expand how I try to leverage momentum in my daily planning.
Tiny progress >> starting from scratch
Making tiny progress in the right direction to give ourselves some momentum has incredible effects on our productivity. I’ve come to realise that setting fitness goals like 10k steps a day become doable if I get up on time and do 2k steps by 7am. Doing 2k steps is easy and a much smaller goal in the larger scheme of things and once done, there’s a positive feeling that the goal is not that daunting anymore. I don’t necessarily understand the psychology of this but I suppose it is the opposite of the “what the heck” effect which we feel when what lies ahead of us seems insurmountable.
Similarly, writing is hard, especially a long blog post, so instead, I try to create a skeleton comprising some bullet points to give myself a positive momentum for when I eventually get around to working on it. The same is true for daily planning. If you’ve got a todo list, you know what you are going to do first and it is likely you’ll have a productive day. This point of “making time for traction”, was discussed at length in the book Indistractable but I think we can take it a step further.
Todo list ++
Don’t just make a todo list, expand the first few items of your list to make some progress on them so you start your day with positive momentum. To clarify, this isn’t faking progress, but rather getting yourself some scaffolding to have a good start to whatever you’re trying to do.
In the image below, I show a daily note. My daily todo list is basically a set of notes in Obsidian and each daily note is linked to specific notes (so the “Purpose Hunt” and “Range” are notes linked to this daily note). If you use Obsidian, the calendar extension works well for daily planning.
When I plan my todo list, I try to make some progress on some of the items. This could be putting together a rough skeleton of what I want done, collating links (videos, articles) I can use as a starting point, putting down questions I have so I can start by trying to answer them or simply inserting a reusable template (think skeleton) for the specific task.
templates
The image below shows my template for an app idea. I use this to put some structure to an idea I have. Template notes are a great way to get some quick momentum as they are reusable and give you a starting direction.
To summarise, don’t just make a todo list, expand your items to give yourself some momentum. It is imperative to spending time to make early progress on items you will pick up later. The right time to do this is perhaps the planning stage itself or may be scheduling time for “adding momentum” to your long term goals, as separate todo items during the week.
I run a startup called Harmonize. We are hiring and if you’re looking for an exciting startup journey, please write to jobs@harmonizehq.com. Apart from this blog, I tweet about startup life and practical wisdom in books.