A Day Is a Day

Published on Oct 11, 2020 (updated Feb 5, 2024), filed under misc. (Share this post, e.g., on Mastodon.)

Almost without exception, I conclude every day with Inbox 0 as well as Slack 0.

Why? I just like ending each day with this fleeting sense of accomplishment, and starting the next one with a clean slate (of fresh new mail and messages).

How? I work with a customized system that I acquired many years ago from Getting Things Done. The main axes for dealing with the action items of each message are either to:

Do it.
Delegate it (and label it ”waiting” in email or make sure to have it in some other system like Jira).
Defer it (and set reminders).

(There’s more but I sometimes bloat my writings by trying to be “complete.”)

The three points together allow me to reliably get work done, and finish each day with this—fleeting sense of accomplishment.

That’s it! That’s all I wanted to share—is it useful, or obvious? What does your own system hinge on? Let me know in the comments—if I can keep them open long enough (I have a terrible spam problem contributing to rarely enabling them anymore). Cheers!

There, amid the scowls and jeers of the Islamites, he consecrates a newly purchased pagan sword to Christian service. — Work organization and prioritization in very past times. (You are right: If Val was to post this on his Insta today, contemporary Holy People would have a field day.) (Copyright King Features Syndicate, Inc., distr. Bulls.)

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager at various companies (e.g., Google); I’m an active web and tool developer (code optimization, digital defense), a contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and a book author (O’Reilly, Frontend Dogma).

I love trying things—in web development and engineering management, but also in politics and philosophy, where I hold to one idea in particular: that we can only be well if we take good care of everyone. Here on meiert.com I talk about some of my perspectives and experiences. (Please share feedback: Interpret charitably, keep it friendly, but do be critical.)