The 1-2-3 Method
One essential task, two urgent ones, three maintenance items, then stop
Six items, handwritten, and no seventh. Number one is the single most essential thing of the day, framed as the most important person and the action to take for that person. Two more cover what is essential and urgent: deadlines, paperwork, the reply someone is waiting on. Three maintenance jobs close the list, the small ones that make life harder later if they slide. Unpacking the suitcase. Answering the contract email. Finish the six and the day is done, which most task systems never allow.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Greg McKeownDoes it
Author · Essentialism
Writes six items and no more. Number one is the most essential thing of the day, which he frames as the most important person and the action for that person, then two that are essential and urgent, then three maintenance jobs. Pen and paper, not an app. He does not manage it every day, he says, but more often than not.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #719 transcript
Aimed at the same thing
Other entries filed under productivity or focus.
- ProtocolFREE, no cost
Environment design
Change the room instead of relying on willpower
On record from 7 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it, 5 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Time blocking
Give every hour of the workday a job before the day starts
On record from 7 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 2 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Deep work blocks
Long, scheduled, distraction-free sessions on one cognitively hard task
On record from 6 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 1 recommends it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Deliberate wandering
Unplanned, inefficient exploration kept on purpose as the counterweight to efficiency
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Digital declutter
A 30-day break from optional tech, then reintroduce deliberately
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Hard thinking before lunch
Book the mentally demanding work for the morning and stop making big calls late in the day
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it
Protocol entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.