Daily Highlight Productivity Technique
My favorite productivity technique, the "Daily Highlight"
The most powerful productivity technique I’ve discovered is also the simplest: the “Daily Highlight”.
What is a Daily Highlight?
In the morning, choose one activity that would make you feel accomplished at the end of the day. If someone were to ask you “What was the highlight of your day?”, this would be the answer.
This technique is effective because it forces you to focus on your true priorities instead of constantly reacting and getting distracted.
Doing more tasks isn’t the answer, it’s focusing on accomplishing what matters.
How to Choose a Daily Highlight
Choosing one singular thing to focus on can be daunting, so here are some tips:
Medium Term Tasks
The timeline of your Daily Highlight should be between your short term tasks and long term goals.
I ask myself, what’s the one thing that would move my life forward the most? Is there a milestone for a long term goal I can make progress toward?
A rule of thumb is your daily highlight should take 60-90 minutes to complete.
This is long enough to meaningfully affect your life and get into a flow state, yet short enough that you can fit it into your schedule.
Urgency
Is there anything with an approaching deadline coming up?
If your driver’s license is about to expire, you should make a trip to the DMV to renew it soon.
Satisfaction
Satisfaction means doing something productive that you want to do.
This is often a project you’ve been meaning to get around to, like taking that online class or drafting another chapter of your novel.
If you don’t make an active effort to prioritize your personal projects, you’ll never make consistent progress.
Fun
Not everything needs to be productive and efficient. You should also plan for fun.
Some examples of fun Daily Highlights are going to lunch with a coworker or learning a new song on guitar
Conclusion
Creating time in my routine, ideally early in the day, and planning ahead when I’ll accomplish my Daily Highlight has helped keep me consistent.
Even if you don’t fully complete your Daily Highlight, I think identifying your Daily Highlight and making some progress on a goal is so much better than not having a plan at all.
How much more could you do with 365 planned, focused sessions per year?