My latest productivity boon: The Big Three

15 February 2026

These days my team members work with clients while I run the business (and do YNAB coaching). That means I have a lot of time at my desk and a very long to-do list. Over the last (gulp) 30 years of self employment I have gotten better at being self motivated and productive. (When I was a writer from 1995 to 2005 I turned procrastination into an art form.)

A few months back (on September 9, 2025, to be precise), I started coming up with three tasks that I wanted to accomplish before lunch. The header for that list of tasks is Big Three. I make them the first entry for the day in my Bullet Journal. I try to come up with the three items before I go to bed at night. Then, once I’m at my desk in the morning I have a clear roadmap for what I need to do.

It’s been a game changer for my productivity and for making sure the urgent items are accomplished. I try to include at least one non-urgent but important item in there as well.

More than that, my Big Three practice frees my mind of the pesky, “What should I work on?” question. And it helps me get right to work after I get back from walking Bix rather than, say, checking out Facebook.

I leafed through two Bullet Journals to figure out what day I started doing this and noticed that, in the first month or so, there were quite a few days where I didn’t list a Big Three. It clearly took me awhile to get into the habit and remember to come up with it. Now it’s ingrained (though I give myself the weekend off).

The Big Three practice coupled with the habit of clearing off my desk at the end of the work day (something that’s so easy to do if I do it every day) make my work day so much more pleasant. If you’d like to improve your productivity, you might give it a try!

Tagged with: bullet journal, productivity, task list, task management