Note Details
- Stage: seed 🌱
- Type: method
- Topics: planning, productivity
A weekly planning method that offers a menu of activity options rather than rigid goals, reducing analysis paralysis while maintaining strategic awareness.
Weekly Menu
In an attempt to get some of the analysis-paralysis-reducing benefits of goal-setting but without the outcome orientation, I devise a “weekly menu” with a few good options to choose as activities for my day.
I’ll plan that weekly and then mostly try to avoid litigating it from there. I’ll leave open a “soup du jour” option to fall into any rabbit holes which seem appealing… but that’ll just be one option among many. I’ll use the weekly planning process to keep my eyes on the “big picture” of the projects, then mostly try to forget that day-to-day.
As part of my weekly planning, I reflect on and identify a high order bit for my work as part of menu planning. This is intended to help me keep my sense of what’s most important/strategic while retaining some optionality and expansiveness.
Example Menu
- Project: task
- Reading: focus
- Writing: focus
- Email / administrivia (no more than 30m/day)
- Soup du jour: whatever rabbit hole appeals
Inspired by: https://notes.andymatuschak.org/z6LFyaPYCnxzhH8LVqErT7iXud6Lv5x9jtgRP