Taking time to plan daily is essential to a functional workflow. It needs to be the first thing you do when you sit down to your workflow. It often feels like an imposition. Shouldn't we be "Getting work done" rather than planning? The truth is, we will get much more work done during the day and make sure the most mission-critical things are done first if we sit down and get it all in order. It really does not take that long if we have our workflow set up correctly. Don't skip it, or organizational chaos will increase during your work time as things are done in the wrong order or you get stuck in rabbit holes.

Don't get stuck in a Rabbit hole...

Tools used to implement this principle

• Linked Inboxes are how tasks get into the workflow.
• The Master Planner controls the workflow.
• Recipies control the order of processing our inputs into the Master Planner.

Anxious People: So I can see you're not buying it. You've got this sneaky feeling that if you don't immediately jump into "doing stuff," then everything is going to blow up in your face. OK, let's own that anxiety. Instead of fighting it, let's mitigate it - have an appetizer. Choose one thing off your Master Planner left over from yesterday and do it first. That should let off a lot of steam so you can practice mindfulness during your planning. Be flexible and bend with your anxiety, rather than break.

Next principle - One calendar to rule them all