> 2. Only do one thing at a time, and log what I’m doing as I go.
Time tracking accomplishes something very similar. Its main benefit isn't necessarily the log that you're creating to review later but the fact that when you have a running timer labelled "doing x", it's much easier to focus just on x and nothing else.
Yeah, I've used time tracking software before and it was pretty effective, but I think something about having the log on paper, separate from the rest of my work, makes it feel somehow more intentional psychologically. It's also a little bit lower pressure since the idea is for me to accomplish the amount of work I want to accomplish rather than to fill up a certain amount of time, so with the new system the success metric is a bit more pared down. But I agree that "one goal a day + time tracking" doing essentially the same thing I have written in the post.
Time tracking accomplishes something very similar. Its main benefit isn't necessarily the log that you're creating to review later but the fact that when you have a running timer labelled "doing x", it's much easier to focus just on x and nothing else.