Cal Newport:
Someone who plans every minute of their day, and every day of their week, is going to accomplish an order of magnitude more high-value work than someone who identifies only a single daily objective. […]
In other words, don’t settle for a workday in which only an hour or two is in your control. Fight for every last minute. Even if you don’t always win, you’ll end up better off.
I couldn’t agree more. Since I began scheduling every minute of my day I get far more of the important work done each day. And, I rarely end the day with that feeling in the back of my mind where I’m wondering “what did I actually do today?” and it feels like no matter how many hours I work, I still haven’t gotten it all done.
But!…
Though the Most Important Thing is not enough, it is still very important.
I always take a few minutes at the end of my day to write down what tomorrow’s most important task is going to be. Having that ever-so-basic starting plan for tomorrow helps tremendously (James Clear has written about it, calling it The Ivy Lee Method).
P.S. Speaking of Cal, I had the opportunity to talk with him on my podcast earlier this year, and a lot of what we hit on is along these lines.