Running My Day, Part 3: Write It So Future-Me Can Act
Two lines from my list, each opened to what's nested under it.
This is part three of a series about how I actually use the Lists tool in BartBot. In each post I ask and answer one question.
The question: When I reach a day, how do I make sure I can act on what's written without having to hunt for additional details?
My answer is that I write every line in Dailys for the person who will read it: me, on that day, after I've forgotten the context I had when I wrote it. The line says what to do. Whatever I'll need in order to do it is nested under the line or linked inside it: the recipe, the workout, the page where the real thing lives. So when I reach the day, I read the line and start. I don't open anything else to work out what I meant, and I can trust a line I wrote months ago as much as one I wrote last night.
The action is in the line
Here is a line from my Dailys list as it stood on Tuesday, September 8:
"Thanksgiving Sweet Potatoes and Green Bean Casserole (start 3 hours before departing house)"
It sits under November 7, nineteen days before Thanksgiving. Part 2 explains why: that's the day I want to start working out where we'll be, who's coming, and whether my family still wants these two dishes. From there the line moves forward with me until Thanksgiving morning.
The part in parentheses is the instruction for Thanksgiving morning. What I need to know that morning is when to start my kitchen prep, and I know I won't remember it. The line tells me: I count back three hours from when we leave, and I start. I won't remember the recipes either. I make these once a year, and I've never learned either one by heart. I don't need to, because nested under the line are two links, one for each recipe.
The Thanksgiving line, opened. Two recipes nested under it.
What I need to know is in the line too
Some lines carry their own state. "Library Books (next Due on Sept 9)" tells me the date without a visit to the library's site. "10:30am Charge Di2 (1st Sat of Month)" is for the battery in my bike's shifting, which I never want to die mid-ride, and the line holds the schedule that keeps that from happening. Under September 25, "Wash Sleeping Bag Last did on 04/22/2026" tells me how long it has been, which is the only thing I need to know to decide whether it's time.
The line under August 1, 2027 reads "Cancel or keep LI Premium for another year? Expires Sept 2, 2027". It tells me the decision I need to make and the deadline for making it.
Written in the form I'll need it
Under today, "12pm drive to gym" has three lines nested under it: "Row The Metronome 15 Min", "Simple Strength", and "Swim 500 IM, 500 Kick/Pull, 500+ Free, 500 random". That's the whole workout, in order, written the way I'll need it when I get to the gym. The rowing line has a link in it to the workout itself. "Simple Strength" is only two words. I've memorized that workout, and I write the line the day before I go to the gym, so I know I'll still remember it. A line written months ahead, like the Thanksgiving one, couldn't get away with that.
"12pm drive to gym", opened. The day's workout, in order.
The link is inside the line
When the real thing lives somewhere else, the line holds a link to it. "Stripe Payout" links to the balance page in Stripe. The LI Premium line links to the email about the renewal. "Workout Plan" links to a sheet, and "Rounds" links to another BartBot tool. I paste each link in by hand when I write the line. On the day, I click the link and I'm where I need to be. I don't have to hunt for anything.
Where it started
I learned this about twenty-five years ago, on the paper Franklin Planner I described in Part 2. The constraint was space. Each line was short, so I had to get very concise about representing complex things. I wrote in thin mechanical pencil, so I could erase, but it was tedious and risked messing up the lines above and below. So before I wrote anything down I had to ask: what do I need to call this so that when I come back to it in two weeks, I'll know what to do? That question is the whole discipline. Dailys gives me all the room I want, and I still ask it.
What that buys me
When I reach a day, I start. The thinking happened when I wrote the line, which is when I had the context. The day I act is usually the day I have the least time to reconstruct it. I read, I click if there's something to click, and I do the thing.
My question for you
Think of the last time you came back to something you'd written down for later. Could you act on what you'd written, or did you have to go hunting for the rest? Drop your answer in a comment. I'd love to learn what was missing.
The complete list is public, frozen at the state this post describes. It's a simplified copy of my real Dailys list with private details removed. That includes the links to email, sheets, and Stripe: on the public copy they carry made-up IDs, so they won't open anything. The recipe links and the rowing workout are real.
Next: What do I do with everything on today's list when today is over?