Clarity is action. Just knowing this truth is not enough. After all, many people know it, but very few people can really do it. It's like waking up the next morning ready to exercise, read a book, or do an important job, but then you pick up your phone -- group news, moments, official accounts, Douyin, Toutiao... Blink, half an hour passes, and you're still in bed. There's nothing new, so you have to click on the App again to see if there are any surprises. When the stimulation is exhausted and boredom permeates your whole body, you get up mindlessly.

At this time, your spirit is low and you just want to fill the void with more stimulation. There's a huge difference between knowing and doing. What's the difference? The answer is the aforementioned ambiguity. If you guess correctly, the "important thing" in your mind may be a general idea about exercising, reading, or doing some important work. You haven't figured out whether you're going to run or read when you wake up tomorrow. Even if you do figure out what you're going to do, you're not sure where you're going to run, how many kilometers you're going to run, how long you're going to run, which outfit you're going to wear, or what you're going to do in case of bad weather. Not knowing exactly which book to read, where to start, and how long to read; You don't know exactly what part of the important work to do, what tools to prepare, what materials to use, and so on. It's all about the rough edges, and that's deadly to the ascension of action. Therefore, it is not enough to just know the important things first, we also need to have another ability: clarity, that is, the ability to refine, concrete goals - action can only be rebuilt with the support of clarity. Knowing the above, our minds seem to be a lot clearer, but we still don't seem to know where to start. But don't worry, clarity is not complicated to build, it can be achieved by three words: Write it down. Step 1: Find an ordinary A5 card and fold the page in half. Step 2: Write down all the things you need to do that day at the top. Then clear your mind and number the items in order of weight so that your goals become clear.

Step 3: Collect all available information, write down what to do in a certain period of time on the left side of the page, and then count the "planned study time" and "available study time" at the bottom, so that the time becomes clear; Step 4: Record the implementation of the day on the right side of the page. After one day, make statistics on the learning time and learning results, and the time utilization efficiency will be clear at a glance. The whole page is divided into the following 4 parts, rendering "gong" glyph. (1) To-do list (2) Planned completion (3) Actual completion (4) Remarks This method almost includes the main high-frequency functions of time management ledger, and this kind of ledger can be written and drawn at will, for example, the note area can record inspiration or information at any time, which can be discarded immediately after use. There is no need to spend energy on the form of the ledger, and the time and economic cost are very low. As shown in Figure 6-4, I almost ran out of nine books from February 2017 to the deadline. Through constant planning and tracking, my control over my free time has grown stronger and stronger. I always know what to do next and what is the most important. Even if I am accidentally caught up in all kinds of news, I can jump out quickly with self-reminding. All this is thanks to clarity. I've told this to a lot of people, but most people don't want to actually do it because they think it's old-fashioned, and they think it's unnecessary to just think about it. But the reality is often: without action, you can't realize the benefits of this method, and if you can't realize the benefits, you will feel that this method is useless. Therefore, only those who have really done it can realize that writing is completely different from not writing. In many cases, the real difference between people may be reflected in the last little action. On May 6, 2019, reader "Amy Cao" sent feedback, saying, "I carefully write down the things I have to accomplish every day, and the results are really good. Although I knew this method before, I didn't pay attention to it and didn't write a plan carefully. However, after May 1, 2019, I began to take it seriously and found that it was very controlled in this way, and I didn't have to worry, fear and worry about not finishing it all the time. Even though I adjusted the plan midway, I was always in control of the general direction." That's the magic of writing it down, because writing it down clears our working memory. When we pour out all the thoughts and ideas in our mind, the mind becomes clear in an instant. At the same time, all the thoughts become clear and definite. In this way, we enter a state of "no choice", which requires no mental effort to think or make choices. Action is afraid of ambiguity, and if we have a lot of vague options in our heads all the time, we need to put in the effort to keep making choices, and making choices is very mental. It's possible that our brain, in order to save energy, may unconsciously choose the most familiar and certain option -- the easy, enjoyable but unimportant task. On top of that, the usual question is: By making your plans so rigid, are you making yourself rigid? Not really, because the purpose of planning is not to keep yourself on a strict schedule, but to keep yourself in the loop. It doesn't matter if your plans change for the day. With this plan, you'll be able to get back on track quickly after dealing with temporary tasks, but without it, you'll be more likely to choose entertainment when your goals and time are unclear. Therefore, planning is very effective, as long as you meet the interference in time to adjust the plan. This style is especially good for people who have a lot of free time, but also for those who work indoors. If you need to run around a lot, you can learn from it and find other ways to clarify your goals. I like to set aside 10 minutes before I go to bed the night before to do this, and a few minutes in the morning to review it, checking and tweaking it as I go along. Take the extra time at the beginning of your day, 24 hours a day, to figure out what your most important task is, and remind yourself to devote yourself to it. You can be incredibly productive.