Sometimes, despite our best efforts to plan the day, things just pop up. Sometimes those things are urgent and important. You do need to take care of them today, and not doing so has dire consequences for you and your goals. So how do you handle that, when you’ve already filled out your card for today?
There are 2 strategies for handling this: open spaces, and extra credit.
Open Spaces
From time to time, you may have an important project on your plate where you get a sense that there could be things related to it that will pop up. In fact, many important projects tend to be like this–especially when they involve others.
For this reason, it pays to be flexible. And the best way to be flexible is to allow yourself some wiggle room in your plan for the day. On the Today Card, you can do that by leaving an open space for yourself.
For example, if you have a project to come to an agreement on a contract with a client, you can put an item on your card with that project’s name on it. It’s a placeholder for whatever related to that project pops up, and you know it’s important to take care of it. And when that happens, you can feel less stressed as you take care of it, because you’ll be getting points for it.
I’ve done this a few times, and it’s super helpful. But you don’t want to abuse it. Many times, if we would have planned out a project better, we could have avoided things popping up by being more proactive–by acting sooner. Make sure you’re devoting time to plan projects, and act to prevent last-minute things that can pop up. It’s a delicate balance, for sure. But the better you can get at it, the more productive you will be.
Extra Credit
Another strategy to handle items that pop up during the day is extra credit. It comes, as many great ideas do, from the community of Today System users.
The Today System Community has become a really valuable place to find out just what you can do with the system–even at Level 1. Folks there have recommended tweaks to it, or reported how they use it in a slightly different way. I highly recommend you check it out.
One suggestion in particular has made its way into my own practice. I think it’s a great idea, and may be really helpful to folks who find themselves dealing with constant “drop-in” items. You know, items that you didn’t put on the card because you either didn’t foresee them at all, or you didn’t think they’d pop up today and become critical to tackle right now.
When I first thought about these things, I chose not to allow drop-in items as part of the daily score. I made that choice because I really wanted the card to force me to think ahead, and anticipate what could derail me today. I was very strict with myself about that.
But two people on the forum changed my view. Mark, who has ADHD, and has been at this productivity game a long time, says:
“I’ve been trying hard to make the Today Card system work for me, but here’s what I find hard or difficult to do.
Having ADHD and not a list person, making a list is hard. I find it hard to follow since things pop up that are more important, and I have to rearrange the card—drop—ins…
…I leave a few blank spaces for the day. I allow myself that measure of known interruption or ideas that will happen.
So if that’s something that is happening to you, just possibly try the blank space idea. It’s working so far.
As part of a related solution, Tom came up with what I think is a brilliant idea to help–both with situations like Mark’s, but also with drop-ins for folks of all types.
“…experimenting with a slight variation. This was to capture those items that came in after I wrote the card in the morning, but still accomplished and felt they were at least as significant as the last item on the list.
Basically, extra items count as much as the last item on the list if it was 6 items or longer, or a flat 5% if the list was shorter. I calculate my daily batting average using the initial items, but add the Greek items to the batting average if there are any.
Seems like a bit of a compensation when circumstances trash initial plans.”
The equation goes like this:
- If you have 5 items or fewer: ( Points earned / Possible points ) + .05 (or 5%) per extra item
- If you have 6 items or more: ( Points earned + 1 point per extra item ) / Possible Points
After mulling it over for a few days, but one day, I tried it out–and I liked it.
I had 5 items on my list for that day. One item dropped in, but wasn’t on the list. I added it as item α. When I added up my score for the day, the numbered items on the card got me 13.5 of 15 possible points, for a .900 score. For the drop-in item, I simply added .05 to my total score. So I got an adjusted score of .950.
It’s not enough to make a huge difference, but enough to help you get some well-deserved credit for taking care of the things that just fall into your lap throughout the day.
Long live the Today System Hackers!
