Plan to be forgetful
I don’t plan on remembering. In fact, I actively plan on forgetting.
One of the hardest things to do is to accurately predict how your future self will be.
I, for example, am wildly optimistic about my future self. I assume that my future self has unlimited energy, incredible focus, doesn’t need sleep, and perhaps most often, has a perfect memory. I can’t count how many times I’ve thought “I should make a note of that… nah I’ll remember it.” Only to forget it 10 minutes later.
I first started doing this with memory. Whenever I had a task to do or something I needed to remember for later, I would act as if I was about to completely forget it. It changed the way I planned and made me more thorough. I also found that allowing/planning on forgetting opened up more headspace for me. I now had a system that could hold my reminders, tasks, and ideas, instead of constantly thinking that I was forgetting something (which I was).
“Pay Adam”
became
“Pay Adam (last name) for the gravel before the weekend (meet in town with check).”
After a week or so I began doing this with other aspects of my future self. When I was planning my day, for example, I started leaving a bit more margin for the off chance (more like “sure reality”) that I wouldn’t be a blur of disciplined productivity. The same applied to accepting requests and engagements. When you think of yourself a month from now it’s so easy to assume you will have free time, minimal stress, and lots of energy. Reality is often a bit different.
When scheduling something for yourself (unless you’ve done the exact thing before) add an extra 50% to the total time you think it will take. 2 hours then becomes 3 hours.
When going off someone else’s schedule that they made for you, add at least 50%.
The same applies to all aspects of our future self. When you are planning something and imagining how you will be in the future, take a second to curb your expectations to something a bit more realistic. By learning to do this you will create accurate expectations and realistic timelines for yourself. It’s worth learning how to do it. Not to mention you’ll gain a reputation for being someone who gets their tasks done on time. “Done on Tuesday” means… “Done on Tuesday.” We all know people who say “It’ll be done Tuesday” which we all know means “Maybe done by Saturday if you're lucky.” That’s just inconsiderate.
Some of you probably need to go the other way and plan on your future self being a bit more productive. Some of you need to put the pressure on, some need to take the pressure off. Only you know what you need.
Action step. Next time you plan out your day, plan it twice. The first time plan it for your optimal self. Peak performance. The second time plan it for your less ideal self. The one that doesn’t sleep enough and gets distracted. This creates a high bar and a low bar. The low bar (less ideal self) is the minimum requirement for the day. You should have no excuse for not completing that (assuming something drastic doesn’t happen). The high bar (ideal self) is the goal. It’s what you shoot for even if you don’t hit it. It gives you a target to aim at.
You’ll find you probably fall somewhere between the two bars, which is normal. This is a great exercise to train accurate expectations for yourself.