Daily routines, GTD and 5-minute journal

As mentioned in my introduction I’m a big evangelist of the Getting things done (GTD) methodology from David Allen. 11 years ago, I was so busy at work and at home that I felt lost. I have been working with to-do lists and time management but didn’t got a feeling that I was in control. I searched on the Internet and got interested in GTD and bought the book from David Allen. I first read it in English and later also in my own Dutch languish. Since I work in the digital industry, I don’t want to use an offline tool for this so I searched for an online tool and tried out a couple of tools like Springpad, but in the end I really started to love Evernote and since the last 10 years I’m using Evernote every single day.

I will not going to explain how GTD works, I think there are a lot of other great blogs, articles, books and video’s about how GTD can be helpful to have a stress less and controlled life.

During my burn out I realised that for whatever reason I was too busy to update my daily GTD and I stopped working in a structured way. Later I found out that this was the beginning of my burnout – I’m always in control and I felt it slipping out of my hands. During my “recovery time” at home I started to read again about GTD and decided to make it my daily routine again. I wrote down a new daily routine, a morning, afternoon and evening routine. I promised myself that I would try this for at least 60 days to see how this works. During the same time, I also started to visit a psychologist and she told me that she was impressed about the discipline I had when I told her about this new routine. Her comment gave me more motivation to continue with these routines.

I also started to read about the 5 min journal and how this can give a positive start and end of your day. I decided to create my own version in Evernote and add into my daily routine.

Morning routine

• First thing when I wake up is to be thankful and say my mantra or some affirmations
• Then I go to the bathroom to drink a glass of water
• During showering I count my blessings and be thankful of what I have
• During breakfast I write down:
  • At least 1 daily fun activity I want to do today
  • One activity that inspire me
  • 3 things I’m grateful of
  • Daily affirmation
  • Write down the three (3) most important goals to make my day great
  • Define my daily GTD – actions for today
• After breakfast I do a 10min mediation
• I start the day with “eat the live frog first” so first do the hardest thing on my GTD action list

Afternoon routine

• Go out during lunch and walk for at least 20 min and don’t eat behind my laptop
• At least 15 – 30 min concentrated readings
• Take regular breaks during the day

Evening routines

• Reflection of the day
  • Write down three amazing things that happened today
  • Write down at least one thing how I could have made my day better
• Prepare the next day, and already add actions in one of my GTD notebooks in Evernote
• Glass of water before going to bed
• Read in a book for at least 30 minutes
• Visualisation – visualise a positive life and what I want to achieve for at least 7 min

Weekly routines

• Do regular drum rudiments – as drummer you need to keep your technique on a good level. I rehears at least once a week with my band
• Running – started to run at least 5 km during the weekend and I’m now on 15 km each weekend

In the first couple of weeks, I only did this during working days (Mon-Fri) but moved is slowly to each day of the week, so also Saturdays and Sundays. In order to keep track and keep the discipline I have created a “Daily GTD & 5 min journal” notebook in Evernote and update this everyday. At the end of the day I copy and past this into my Google calendar so I have all the history available when I want to look it up. For me this is like dopamine and it really supports me in a positive, controlled and satisfied lifestyle.

An example of the “Daily GTD & 5 min journal” template looks like this:

Daily fun activity: Watch last episodes of Stranger Things on Netflix

(There are thousand of things that you can do that are fun. Since we are all very busy, always pick at least 1 daily fun activity and make sure you do it. Like watching an episode (or 5 🙂 ) on Netflix, read a book, take a bath, etc. just do something that is fun and makes you happy – get your dopamine.)

I’m grateful for:

1. That we have clean water at home
2. That all family members are healthy
3. That my kids can go to school and learn

(Due to our busy life we sometimes forget how grateful we should be with all the things we take for grated but a lot people don’t even have; savings on our bank account, clean water, a car, a house, electricity, healthcare, a television, a phone etc. Just count all your blessings each day and you will be surprised how many you have.)

Daily affirmation: Today I will feel relax and don’t get stressed when somebody will piss me off

(Just pick one daily affirmation that you will do and keep yourself reminding about it during that day – it should start with “Today I……”. Example are; Today I forgive others, Today I will say no to things I don’t want, Today I start with a healthy life, Today I make it a great day etc. This really helps to start your day with a positive and actionable kick-start)

Most important daily goals to make my day great:

1. Really call that friend I haven’t spoken for weeks
2. Start to write a new blog
3. Bring the kids to bed and talk or read a bedtime story for them

(There are a lot of task want to do during a day, but just pick only three that you really want to do to make your day great, so if you do these three that makes your day feel fulfilled and satisfied)

Daily GTD:

• Meditation
• Action 1
• Action 2
• Etc.

(Write down all your actions for today and use a tick box so that you can tick them off when they are ready and done, include your three important daily goals in here as well. Tasks that are not finished you move them to another day based on the GTD methodology)

Three amazing things that happened today:

1. I called my friend and we spend 1h on the phone and we had a good laugh
2. I finished a new blog post
3. My son played a great match today and his team won and all the smiles on their faces are priceless

(Add at least three amazing things that happened today, it could be things from your action list but also spontaneous things that felt great during today)

How could I have made today better: Since I was writing a blog post I didn’t spend the time with my kids bringing them to bed, as I wanted. I need to reprioritise the wring of a blog post.

(At the end of the day always reflect on how you could have made the day better, only one thing and don’t be to harsh on yourself, it should be something you can improve easily. You can always improve things)

I hope this will help you to think about and deploy your own daily routines towards a positive life.

Since a couple of weeks, I’m implementing the Miracle Morning in my live – more about this in a later post

Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash