Almost one year ago, I started using this productivity app called Sunsama. What initially drew me in were features like the weekly task view and the ability to drag tasks to the calendar to time-block them, but what really made me stick is what they call rituals.
I am switching back to Things and bringing these rituals back over, and I thought I would write them down here for everyone to benefit, since they have been immensely beneficial to my and my team’s productivity.
1. Daily Planning
Deliberately decide what you are going to tackle today and what your main goal is. Postpone everything else to tomorrow (no, really, move it out of your Today view). Order your tasks in the sequence you want to tackle them and respect that order while executing during the day.
Do this as the first thing every day, ideally after processing your various inboxes so you have full context on incoming obligations.
2. Daily Shutdown
At the end of the day, before logging off, reflect on your day by writing a summary of what you worked on and posting it in your team chat. We have a dedicated #progress channel on Slack populated by just these messages, and it really helps us stay in sync and motivated as a remote team.
3. Weekly Goals
Another feature that I loved about Sunsama, which I need to figure out how to fully replicate in Things, is Weekly Goals. At the start of each week, you explicitly write out your goals for the week in a very actionable and binary way (it must be easy to say if achieved or not achieved). During the week, you keep staring at this list at least once every day to prioritize things and inform your actions.
Some further readings to go deeper on this topic: