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Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Structure and routine
So the first job is not a better app. It is one place where everything goes, without exception, including the small things you are certain you will remember. Two systems running side by side count as none, since neither can be trusted for the whole picture. If you are rebuilding, spend a week putting absolutely everything in, and only then start believing what it tells you.
God has set a due measure for everything (Quran 65:3). Everything is given its own portion there, which is the standard a diary is trying to keep.
الطلاق
وَيَرۡزُقۡهُ مِنۡ حَيۡثُ لَا يَحۡتَسِبُۚ وَمَن يَتَوَكَّلۡ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ فَهُوَ حَسۡبُهُۥٓۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بَٰلِغُ أَمۡرِهِۦۚ قَدۡ جَعَلَ ٱللَّهُ لِكُلِّ شَيۡءࣲ قَدۡرࣰ ا
and will provide for them from an unexpected source; God will be enough for those who put their trust in Him. God achieves His purpose; God has set a due measure for everything
Qur’an 65:3read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Validation work on a brief habit measure supports the view that what makes a habit predict behaviour is automatic activation rather than sheer repetition. The same logic applies to a diary: what matters is that it fires reliably, not that you have owned it for years. That is measurement research on habits, so read it as a principle rather than as a study of calendars.
Gardner B, Abraham C, Lally P, de Bruijn GJ. (2012). Towards parsimony in habit measurement: testing the convergent and predictive validity of an automaticity subscale of the Self-Report Habit Index.. The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
A record you can trust is what lets you say yes or no without guessing.
Once tasks sit in the week rather than on a list, you can see that Thursday has no room left. Saying no gets much easier when the crowding is in front of your eyes instead of somewhere in your head.
A child who cannot yet catch their own drifting needs somebody close enough to catch it for them. Where they sit does a lot of that work quietly.
Do the task at the same time and place each day, so the setting starts to do the reminding.