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Contemporary · Essay

Interstitial Journaling

Anne-Laure Le Cunff · 2020

"Logging a few sentences at the exact transition point between tasks — what you just did, how you feel, what's next — reduces cognitive load and counters procrastination more effectively than either rigid daily planning or end-of-day review, because it intervenes precisely at the moment attention is most likely to drift."

The idea

Interstitial journaling, a technique Le Cunff adapted from Tony Stubblebine, replaces both the rigid forward-looking to-do list and the exhausting end-of-day review with something simpler: writing a timestamped note, a sentence or two, every time you finish one task and move to the next, capturing what you just did, any lingering thought or anxiety, and what you're about to start.

Why it works
The takeaway — recall it first
Further reading

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