A weekly planning system: one overview, fewer competing lists

## Day 1: Set the Entry Rules Your first job is not to make a beautiful dashboard. It is to decide what deserves to appear on it. Today, you will sort a small sample of your live commitments, separate obligations from possibilities, and choose a starting limit for active projects. You will not choose a layout, reorganize old files, or move your entire life into a new tool. ### Why This Matters Every item you bring into a working system creates something to read, interpret, update, or dismiss. If you import every abandoned list and saved idea, you also import the decisions you avoided making. A shorter list is not automatically better, but a list with clear entry rules is easier to trust. Your aim is to keep real commitments visible without giving every interesting possibility the same claim on your attention. Important records can remain safely stored elsewhere. Useful ideas can wait without pretending to be current work. By the end of this chapter, you will have a Keep, Park, or Remove Kit: a sorting worksheet, a decision tree, and a provisional project limit. These are decisions about membership, not dashboard design. ## 1. Gather a Small, Current Inventory Set an eight-minute timer. Use a loose sheet, a blank note, or the sorting worksheet below. Choose whatever lets you start immediately. Do not spend your collection time comparing tools. List up to 15 inputs already competing for your attention. Begin with what you remember, then consult a current task list or a few recent messages if needed. Look for things you have promised, scheduled, started, or repeatedly reminded yourself about. Stop when the timer ends, even if you could think of more. Write each item plainly enough to recognize it. “Kitchen shelf,” “send availability,” and “laundry” are adequate starting labels. You will clarify their meaning during sorting. Do not break every item into its component actions yet. ### Look for Live Obligations, Not a Complete History Use three prompts to get unstuck: What have you agreed to do? What would cause a practical problem if you forgot it this week? What unfinished work are you genuinely trying to move forward? These prompts give you a useful sample without requiring an exhaustive life inventory. Check for obligations that carry consequences or involve other people. A promised reply may deserve attention even when it feels less interesting than a personal project. An appointment already agreed with someone is different from a general intention to arrange one. You can include one or two uncertain items. A saved article, a possible holiday, or an old goal gives you something useful to test against your entry rules. You do not need to search for more uncertainty just to make the exercise comprehensive. Leave old folders alone. If your shelf instructions are already stored somewhere sensible, record that location rather than opening a filing project. If you remember a genuine forgotten commitment tomorrow, you can add it then. Today's stopping point limits the exercise, not your responsibility to notice new information. Do not mistake this inventory for a complete record of everything you owe. Continue using your existing calendar and other dependable reminders while you work through the book. Your worksheet is a decision aid, not yet a replacement system. ## 2. Decide What Kind of Claim Each Item Makes Read one item at a time and ask: Is this something you must do, something you have chosen to do, information you expect to use, or merely an option? Write a short answer in the Reason column. This is where an unclear label becomes a decision. “Must do” means there is a real obligation or consequence, not merely a guilty feeling. You may have accepted a responsibility, made a promise, or need to handle an essential practical matter. Name the reason specifically enough that you can distinguish it from habit or pressure. “Chosen to do” means you are making an actual commitment. Personal work does not need an external deadline to count. Repairing a shelf or preparing a family gathering can deserve a place because you have deliberately decided to act. ### Interest Does Not Equal Commitment An option becomes a commitment when you decide to give it attention and make room for it. “You could learn pottery” is an option. “You have enrolled and need to obtain the required materials” contains a commitment. The appealing subject is not what changes; your decision does. Information earns a place through a plausible use. Washing machine instructions support equipment you own. A venue address supports an appointment. You do not have to consult a reference every week for it to be worth keeping, but you should understand what it supports. Treat “you might need this someday” as a question, not an automatic yes. Can you name a situation in which you would look for it? Would it be difficult to find again? Does it relate to a responsibility or project you still have? A vague possibility alone does not require daily visibility. When an item contains several claims, separate them only if they need different treatment. “Holiday” could mean a confirmed booking, a task to check dates, or a collection of possible destinations. Classify the reality you have, rather than letting one broad word hide the difference. Be especially careful with obligations you no longer want. You cannot resolve a promise to another person merely by removing it from your worksheet. First decide whether to fulfil it, renegotiate it, or tell the person you cannot continue. Until that is settled, the obligation remains live. ## 3. Give Each Kept Item One of Six Types Use six types: appointment, project, single action, routine, reference, and Later. Do not add categories such as “urgent miscellaneous” or “important someday.” Those labels blend different questions and make sorting harder. Your Type column describes what the item is; your decision column describes how you will treat it now. An appointment is a commitment attached to a particular time. Keep its dependable record on your existing calendar. Your worksheet can point there without creating a second schedule that you must maintain separately. A project is an outcome that needs more than one action. “Replace the broken kitchen shelf” qualifies because you may need to measure, obtain a suitable replacement, and arrange installation. You only need enough understanding today to recognize it as a project. Detailed project review comes later. A single action is one discrete thing you can do without treating it as a separate multi-action outcome. “Send your available meeting times to Jo” can be a single action if you already know those times. If you must first coordinate several people, the work may be larger than the original label suggests. ### Separate Repeat Work From Finishable Work A routine repeats to maintain something. Running laundry on Sunday is a routine. Getting a broken washing machine repaired is a project. Both belong to looking after your home, but “look after your home” is an ongoing responsibility rather than a project you will finish. Reference is information you keep for use rather than execution. Instructions, a useful measurement, or a confirmed address may qualify. Reference does not become a task simply because it is stored beside tasks. Reading or applying it is a separate action only if you decide that action is needed. Later holds possibilities you are not committing to now. In this worksheet, label an optional idea “Later” rather than inventing a seventh type called “optional idea.” You can explain that it is optional in the Reason column. An already defined project can still retain its Project type when you park it. David Allen's Getting Things Done informs the distinction here between outcomes requiring several actions, individual actions, and non-actionable information. You are using those distinctions to make entry decisions, not adopting every part of his system. The six-type worksheet and the small starting inventory are this chapter's practical teaching structure. Do not spend five minutes debating a label that changes nothing important. Choose the best fit and continue. However, pause when the label changes what you owe: a booked appointment is not merely reference, and a promise is not merely an idea. ## 4. Use the Keep, Park, or Remove Decision Tree You now have two different decisions to make: whether an item belongs in your system at all, and whether it needs current attention. Keep, Park, and Remove help you separate those questions. None of these decisions requires you to build a dashboard today. Keep now means the item supports live work or an ongoing responsibility. An active project belongs here. So does a genuine single action or recurring routine. Appointments remain on your calendar. These items need dependable visibility, although they will not all appear in the same place. For useful reference, write “Keep” rather than “Keep now.” This small distinction prevents stored information from pretending to demand action. You are keeping the washing machine instructions available, not deciding to read them today. Park means you are deliberately withholding active attention. You may park a defined project or an optional idea. Record why it is waiting and what would make it worth reconsidering. Parking is not a way to hide a deadline or avoid discussing a changed promise. ### Follow the Questions in Order First ask: Is there a live obligation? If yes, keep it visible unless you have deliberately resolved or renegotiated it. If not, ask: Have you actually chosen to work on this now? A clear yes makes it a candidate for current work, subject to your capacity check. Next ask: Is this information useful for a responsibility, project, or plausible future question? If yes, keep it as reference outside your action lists. If not, ask whether it is an option with a meaningful reason to revisit. If it is, park it. Otherwise, remove it from the working set. Remove means the item does not deserve a place in your working system. That can mean crossing out a duplicate reminder, dropping an abandoned optional idea, or declining to import a saved article. It does not automatically mean deleting the original file, message, or record. Before deleting anything, distinguish clutter from records you may need to retain. This chapter is organizational guidance, not legal advice about record retention. Preserve records where appropriate, and check applicable requirements or seek qualified advice when you are unsure. A quiet storage location can be the correct destination even when something has no place in your daily view. ## Make Parking a Decision, Not a Disguise Give each parked item a reason and a reconsideration point. That point can be an event rather than a date: “after you confirm your leave,” “when the shelf repair is finished,” or “if your current arrangement stops working.” Choose something you can recognize without repeatedly checking for an undefined change. For a date-based revisit, use an existing dependable reminder if needed. Do not create a new reminder system today. The important decision is that you know what will bring the item back to your attention, rather than expecting yourself to remember every parked possibility. If you cannot name a reason to reconsider an optional idea, consider leaving it out. You do not need to preserve every former interest as a future obligation. Removing a possibility does not forbid you from choosing it again later. Use your boundary script: “You are keeping this because it supports ______. It belongs in ______. You will revisit it when ______.” For reference, the final blank can describe a need: “when you need to troubleshoot the washing machine.” For an appointment, it can point to your normal calendar check. Do not force every blank to contain a date. Dates are useful when time matters; invented deadlines only add noise. Your explanation should clarify the item's role, not create extra administrative work around it. Keep the destination simple. Write “existing calendar,” “project list,” “single action list,” “routine list,” “reference home,” or “Later.” These are destination labels, not instructions to create pages now. If useful reference already has a safe, findable home, record that location and leave it there. Watch for disguised duplication. A note titled “things you must remember” may repeat three items already recorded elsewhere. You can retain the dependable originals and remove the duplicate reminder from your working set. You do not gain reliability by maintaining several competing copies of the same commitment. ## 5. Choose a Provisional Active Project Limit Your active project limit is a starting ceiling on how many multi-action outcomes you are deliberately advancing. It is not a target you must fill, and it does not include every appointment, routine, or reference item. Its purpose is to make competition for attention visible. Estimate only enough capacity to set a sensible starting rule. Think about the openings you expect during the coming week after existing responsibilities. You are not conducting the full weekly planning session yet. Avoid treating every empty calendar space as available project time. Example: suppose you expect three 45-minute openings, giving you 135 minutes. You are considering a shelf replacement, a birthday gathering, and a wardrobe clear-out. An initial shelf task might take 45 minutes, and gathering arrangements might take 30 minutes. Together, those estimated first moves use 75 minutes and leave 60 minutes for uncertainty or further work. A provisional limit of two active projects could fit that situation. You would keep the shelf and gathering active and park the optional wardrobe clear-out. These estimates do not mean the two projects will finish in 135 minutes. They only help you judge whether you can give each meaningful attention. ### A Ceiling Is Not a Universal Formula Your circumstances may support one active project or several. Frequent interruptions, demanding routines, or a project requiring sustained concentration can justify a lower limit. Small independent projects may be easier to advance together. Choose based on your situation rather than copying the example's number. If mandatory projects already exceed your preferred limit, do not relabel them as optional. Mark the conflict honestly. You may need to defer something with agreement, reduce its scope, seek help, or clarify which obligation takes precedence. A project limit reveals overload; it does not cancel responsibility. Write one sentence: “For this coming week, you will keep no more than ___ projects active because ___.” Add a reconsideration point, such as your first weekly reset. You can revise the limit when actual experience shows that your estimate was too high or unnecessarily low. ## Finish With a Small, Defensible Working Set Read your worksheet once without adding anything. Each retained item should have a recognizable type, a reason, and a destination. Each parked project should have a reconsideration point. Each removed item should be free of unresolved obligations, or clearly marked as needing a conversation before removal. Check that reference has not slipped into your action load. Check that a broad responsibility has not become an impossible project. “Maintain your home” cannot be completed once and crossed off; “replace the broken shelf” can. This distinction keeps your project count meaningful. You do not need an impressive-looking result. A useful first pass might contain two active projects, several routine or single-action items, a calendar pointer, some reference, and a few parked ideas. The value lies in knowing why each item is there, not in reaching a particular distribution. Start with present responsibilities and the coming week. Bring older material into the system only when a current need gives you a reason. This works best when your inventory stays small enough to judge item by item rather than becoming a bulk import exercise. Watch out for using neat sorting as a substitute for an uncomfortable decision. A promise you cannot meet still needs a response. A project you cannot accommodate still needs an explicit status. Your worksheet should expose those issues rather than conceal them behind tidy labels. You are finished for today when you can explain what is current, what is waiting, and what is simply stored. Leave the worksheet available for the next chapter, but do not start constructing the dashboard. First decide what belongs. Then give it a home.