Recently, I was listening to an episode of Mac Power Users where my friend Chris Bailey (who had stepped in for a sick Stephen) said something that really stuck with me:
Intuition is underrated in the pursuit of greater productivity .
At first glance, that may seem contradictory. After all, many productivity systems are engineered so you don’t have to worry about what to do next.
In this post, I’ll unpack why intuition matters and how I intentionally bake it into my daily task selection.
The Task Manager Trap
Productivity systems like Getting Things Done (GTD) are brilliant at helping you capture and organize everything that has your attention. The flowchart is simple: capture it, process it, and put it where it belongs.
On the paper, off the mind.
But here’s the problem: if all you do is follow the flow, you can find yourself working the system without really considering whether the tasks you’re working on should ever be done in the first place.
Sure, a weekly review helps. But even with regular reviews, it’s easy to end up with too much to do and not enough time to do it in.
When that happens, your task manager becomes a taskmaster. And each day you don’t do everything it demands, you feel a little more behind (and a little more overwhelmed).
At some point, you need to decide for yourself what’s really worth doing.
And that’s where intuition comes in.
The Brain vs. The List
When I was working with Shawn Blanc, he shared with me a simple framework he used for deciding what to work on each day.
He called it The Brain vs. The List.
The Brain is your task manager doing what it does best: using metadata to show you everything that could be worked on. Shawn used Things for this, and it would surface all his available tasks.
Every day, he’d consult The Brain for what he could do. But then he picked 3 things he was actually going to work on and added those to his daily plan in his analog notebook.
This is what he called The List.
I think this approach is brilliant, so I’ve stolen it and adapted it for myself:
- I keep all my tasks in Obsidian
- I use Obsidian Tasks queries to filter those tasks into my essential lists (The Brain)
- I consult those essential lists when making my daily plan and pick 3 things to focus on (The List)
- I time block my entire day in my Personal Retreat Planner to make sure those things actually happen
At first, it felt weird seeing more tasks available than I had time to work on. But over time, this approach has helped me be more productive and get more done by deciding for myself what’s most important and blocking the time to actually do it.
Picking Your Three MITs
MITs is short for most important tasks. The key here is that you only pick a few things and that you focus on those above everything else. By choosing what to ignore, you are deciding for yourself what’s truly important.
Over time, the intentionality from that forced focus will compound. But you need to decide what those MITs are.
Here’s how to do it:
- Scan your task manager for things that can be worked on, but don’t use due dates to determine if something must be done.
- Select three tasks that you’re going to focus on today. Ask yourself, “If I just did these three things, would I be proud of what I accomplished today?”
- Write those 3 tasks on a separate list, preferably in an analog tool (notebook, index card, etc.)
- Block time for those three tasks on your calendar, making sure you have time set aside to take action on them.
- Focus on those three tasks. Don’t get distracted by other things that may pop up. Do whatever you can to follow through on those three commitments you made.
- Repeat every day.
If you get those three things done, you can always pick a few more. But don’t try to bite off more than you can chew.
Watch Out For These Traps
When picking your three MITs, you need to be aware of two sneaky biases:
Recency bias (the new shiny). That email that just came in or that idea you just had will feel more urgent than it actually is. Don’t let novelty hijack your priorities.
Mood-based avoidance (low-energy drift). Just because you don’t feel like doing something doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done. In fact, if something is truly important, there will likely be some resistance baked in. That resistance is often a sign you’re doing something that matters.
The antidote? Connect your daily actions to your larger vision. I use a method called multi-scale planning, where I align my daily tasks with my weekly and quarterly intentions. This creates a through-line from “what should I do today?” all the way up to “what am I trying to accomplish this quarter?” It also creates alignment with my LifeTheme and personal core values, which creates motivation to show up every day and take action on the things that are important, as well as clarity to cut the things that aren’t (I break down exactly how this all works in this YouTube video if you want to go deeper.)
When you can see how today’s three MITs connect to your larger goals, it’s easier to pick the right things and push through the resistance.
The Bottom Line: Trust Your Gut When Deciding What’s Most Important
By forcing yourself to pick three tasks each day to focus on, you have to decide what’s actually important on any given day. You can’t trust the task manager to make that call for you, and that’s kinda the point.
Another quote Chris shared in that MPU episode sums this up nicely:
If you never let your intuition speak, you’re doing productivity wrong.
Productivity isn’t about cranking more widgets. It’s about following through on your intentions and doing more of what really matters. And only you can make that call.
So go ahead and work the system. Plan your work and then work the plan.
But when you really need to decide what’s most important, trust your gut.
