The daily highlight and MITs: pick the one thing that makes today good
The "Make Time" highlight asks one question each morning: what would make today feel worth it? How it compares with most important tasks (MITs), and how to try both in Noodle.
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The daily highlight is one thing you choose each morning that would make the day feel worth it. Think back to a good day last month. You probably don't remember the twenty small things you did, only one: the afternoon you fixed the bike, the chapter you wrote, the long walk with a friend. The highlight picks that one thing on purpose, before the day fills itself.
Where it comes from
The highlight is the first step in Make Time (2018) by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, who both worked as designers at Google and also wrote Sprint. The book has four daily steps: pick a Highlight, focus on it (they call this Laser), keep your energy up and reflect in the evening. The highlight is the part most readers keep.
A close cousin is MITs, your "most important tasks". Leo Babauta made them popular on his blog Zen Habits in the late 2000s: each morning, choose your three most important tasks and do them before anything else. Both ideas assume that a long list hides what matters and a very short one shows it.
How the highlight works
- Each day, pick one highlight: something you'd like to look back on tonight and say "I did that".
- Size it right. Knapp and Zeratsky suggest about 60 to 90 minutes of work. Big enough to matter, small enough to fit.
- Choose it with one of three questions. Is it the most urgent thing? Will it be the most satisfying? Will it bring the most joy? Any of the three is a fine reason.
- Protect time for it, when interruptions are fewest, and treat that time as booked.
"Joy" is on the list for a reason. Teaching your kid to ride a bike counts.
How MITs differ
| Daily highlight | MITs | |
|---|---|---|
| How many | One | Usually three |
| Chosen for | Urgency, satisfaction or joy | Importance |
| When | Any time you protect | First thing, before email |
| Rest of the list | Still allowed | Still allowed, but after |
They mix well. Make your highlight MIT number one, then add the other two.
Why it works
- You won't forget one thing halfway through the morning, the way you forget item seven on a long list.
- It changes the question. "What do I have to do?" leads to a heavy list. "What would make today good?" leads to a choice.
- If the highlight is done, the day was a good one, even if the rest went sideways.
- The evening look back teaches you. After a week you know which highlights you finish and which are always too big.
Where it falls short
- If your job really is twelve small tasks, one highlight won't cover it. Keep the list and let the highlight sit on top.
- At first you'll pick something too large. "Finish the website" won't fit in 90 minutes. "Write the About page" will.
- Protecting the time is the hard part. A highlight with no time set aside quietly becomes tomorrow's highlight.
- Write the About page for the bakery siteHighlight
- Send the quote to the Harrisons
- Book the dentist for Leo
- Return the library booksCarried 1 day
- Look at the sourdough video againLinked to Sourdough for a cold kitchen
When the highlight doesn't happen
Some days explode, and at 6 pm the highlight is still open. In Noodle it moves to the next day by itself, below that day's own tasks, with "Carried 1 day". Don't leave it at the bottom. In the morning, decide whether it's still your highlight. If it is, drag it back to the top. If not, let something else have the spot.
If the same highlight keeps moving, Noodle offers Reschedule or drop after three days. That usually means it was too big. Split it, and make the first piece tomorrow's highlight.
Make it a habit
- Write the highlight as something you'll do. "Draft the speech" beats "Speech done".
- Rotate the three questions. A week of only urgent highlights means your days are running you.
- If your highlight is also the task you dread, you're doing eat the frog as well.
- Look back on Friday. Five finished highlights is a very good week.
For a stricter version with six ranked tasks, see the Ivy Lee method, or the Plan guide for every button.
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