I stole the card idea from this Marc Andreessen post about productivity.

The basics:

Every night before bed take a 3x5 index card and write three to five highly important things you plan to accomplish the next day. Then the next day do those things. Throughout the day, write down everything you do that does not pertain to those 3-5 things on the back of the index card. Before bed look at your card and marvel at everything you did that day. Then tear up the card and prepare the next day's card.

I’ve been doing it for about a week now and I would say it’s far and away the best productivity tool I have ever found. It strikes that perfect balance between ambition and letting go.

Here is why the card is magical:

Focus. Filling a day isn’t hard, but accomplishing things that really matter every day seems to be nearly impossible for most people. The things you write down don’t have to take a long time. They just have to be really important. Scheduling that informational interview takes no time at all, but it might be the thing that gets you that next job which makes your life significantly better. So promote that task in your mental hierarchy and appreciate it for what it is.

By keeping the list of really important things short, I find it promotes flow. I can say no to just about anything else and justify closing my email and getting deeply engaged in the projects on the front of the card.

First things. One evening I thought about how I hadn’t been making my girlfriend feel special enough. So I wrote on the card: "Make her feel special". The next day I scheduled a dinner reservation, bought flowers and wrote an email full of inside jokes inviting her out on a date. It didn’t take much time. But it was important. Relationships are a huge part of our long term happiness and life satisfaction. So spending time investing in that was more important than any other task I did that day in the long term. So make your wife feel special. The card lets you put that front and center.

Mindfulness. By writing down everything I do throughout the day I find that I’m far more aware of what I’m doing. I am able to appreciate each moment. Even if someone interrupts me with a question I write it down on the card and it allows me to pause and smile that I was able to a. answer their question and b. deepen my relationship with another human being.

Strategy. Another benefit to this is that you don't need to spend time on a given day deciding what to do. You've already decided what is absolutely important the night before. So you can focus all of your energy on executing. Don’t get paralyzed by options. Just execute on what you’ve decide is important for that day and worry about the rest later.

Peace. The best financial advice I ever got: invest 30% of every paycheck right away and enjoy the rest stress free. Here it’s the same: do these 5 things and enjoy the rest of the day! Take a walk, watch a show, have a long coffee break with a coworker. If you've gotten those 3-5 important things done you've done infinitely better than most do!

Productive procrastination. When you have a list of 5 important things to do during a day you can always procrastinate from doing one with another. Don't feel like working on one important work project at the moment? Write the email or sonnet to your girlfriend. Not in the sonnet-writing mood? Jump to that other project.

Old school. I love that the system is so analog. I love putting pen to paper. It's fun to carry the card around in my pocket and pull it out and watch it get crumpled and wrinkled and worn and used throughout the day. If I can be so ridiculous I'll call it wabi-sabi - beauty through imperfection, deterioration and impermanence.

There is no back up for the card. If you lose it it’s gone. My to do list isn't all that important it turns out. There are so many things that simply don't or won't get done because that's just the way the world works. There will always be a load of laundry that ultimately doesn't get done. Most people die with their novel still inside them.

Spirtiual. I love tearing up the card at the end of the day. Somedays I do great. Others I don't get to any of the important things fully done. But I'm not keeping score long term. I'm just trying to live each day as fully as I can. Each day is a blessing. The card helps me do important things every single day without worrying too much about a future which isn’t guaranteed.

The real reason I love the card though? When I use it I feel present, mindful, productive and happy.