How to create more achievable daily plans with the AI Planner

While time blocking can be a powerful approach to daily planning, the greatest hurdle to sticking with it is the achievability and sustainability of those daily plans.

Most of us are our most ambitious selves when we plan: we overestimate our capacity and underestimate how long a task will take. As a result, all too often those daily plans packed to the minute, quickly fall apart as we fall more behind as the day goes.

Tampering our ambitions and instead building realistic daily plans is hard. That’s where Morgen’s AI Planner can help.

Here are our tips for generating realistic daily plans using the Morgen AI Planner. (If you haven't tried the AI Planner yet, here's our starter guide.)

1. Round up time estimates

‍Knowing that most of us underestimate the time a task will take, we recommend having the AI Planner increase time estimates for each task by 20%.

In doing so, you’re more likely to have the time you need to complete a task and not fall behind in your daily plan. In some instances, you might not need that extra 20%. Go celebrate with a walk outside or a coffee, or get a headstart on the next task.

To have the AI Planner increase your estimates by 20% when scheduling tasks, adjust your AI Planner preferences. While in AI Planner mode, select Open Preferences… from the menu > toggle on Increase time estimates by 20% when scheduling a task.

2. Take the break

All too often we minimize the importance of taking breaks, especially when tackling big to-do lists. When we skip the breaks, we fail to recognize the importance of breaks throughout our day to keep us energized and focused. Particularly breaks when we step away from the computer. (Need more convincing? Read this blog.)

In your AI Planner preferences, we recommend using Balance mode as the default, at least when using the AI Planner for the first time. In this mode, 10-minute breaks are scheduled after 1 hour of work planned by the AI Planner.

You can then always adjust the number of breaks in a session while in AI Planner mode by using the Breaks and Buffers slider in the menu on the left to increase or decrease the frequency of breaks.

3. Split long tasks

‍If you have tasks that will take a long time to complete (ex. over 90-120 minutes), we recommend allowing the AI Planner to split those into multiple work sessions across multiple Frames. Holding attention on one task for 3 or 4 hours is hard, especially if the task is cognitively challenging. By splitting the task, you can approach each work session with renewed energy and focus.

By splitting the task, you also make it easier to tackle a big task across multiple days rather than trying to protect one long uninterrupted block of time, which can be hard and unpredictable.

In the AI Planner preferences, you can choose the minimum time estimate that is split and the minimum length of each work session.

4. Apply filters to your Frames that reflect how you work

Some of us are night owls who are hyper-focused long after 9-5 hours. Others are at their best first thing. Perhaps you like to ease into the day with a quick win to get momentum going or you prefer to eat the frog and get the hardest task out of the way.

Regardless, you know how you work best. We recommend adding filters to your Frames that reflect your energy and focus levels. Additionally, when setting those Frames, consider the times of day you are least and most likely to be interrupted or have last-minute meetings pop up.

Some ideas for filters you may want to consider:

• Quick wins for tasks under 30 minutes
• Deep work for large or high-energy tasks
• Project-based tasks to group like work into single sessions, reducing the need for context-switching

Your filters inform the AI Planner which tasks are best scheduled at your optimal times. The filters you create depend on the metadata included in your tasks and task lists, such as energy levels, time estimates, project tags, or thematically grouped lists.  

5. Schedule 1-2 days at a time

‍Especially if you are new to time blocking, we recommend scheduling just 1-2 days at a time. While the AI Planner can recommend plans for up to 8 days at a time, shorter plans are more flexible.

If you plan a full week and fall behind on day 1 or 2, the rest of the plan may feel unachievable and overwhelming. Rather than trying to claw your way back to getting on track or simply regenerating the rest of the week, we recommend starting with one day. Once you get a feel for your plans, you can start adding more days at a time.

Want more tips on using Morgen’s AI Planner? Watch our latest video.