These is the main document how Cal organizes his life:
Core systems
Core documents
Values
My roles and the values by which I try to live each of them
Carrer and personal strategic plans
I have one plan for each of these two parts of life that lays out my current thoughts, experimental systems, and plans for living them true to my values. Sometimes these will also link to an extended plan when I have a big enough, long enough pursuit that it might need its own space.
Maintenance
- I review my values once a week and create a value plan for that week with
notes about what to emphasize and perhaps experimental habits/rules to try out that week to help keep me closer to my values. Include best practices for mental health in the value plan.
- I review my strategic plans and extended plans once a week, preferably when
doing my weekly plan). I can tweak them at any time, but I try to give them major overhauls roughly once a semester (fall, winter/spring, summer)
- I sometimes maintain an idea notebook and/or digital idea storage system
keeping thoughts on values and strategic plans. I should review this in detail, at the very least, when I do my strategic plan updates.
Productivity
I deploy weekly and daily planning.
- Each week: build a weekly plan based on a review of my strategic plans, my
calendar, my task lists, and my value plan.
- Each day: Review my weekly and value plans, as well as my calendar. If it’s a
weekday, build a time block plan. If not, sketch a looser plan.
I have clear work shutdowns with a shutdown complete ritual. Make a rough but intentional plan for the time that follows the shutdown. I practice full capture of tasks. This includes processing captured tasks during shutdowns.
Discipline
I maintain in my strategic plan(s) an evolving list of core disciplines (behaviors, habits, activities) that I follow as strictly as possible to lay a foundation for a deep life. Sometimes I track my execution of these disciplines with metrics. Sometimes I take a break from this tracking.