My Little Experiment with Mike Lockley’s Idea
So, I stumbled across this name, Mike Lockley, the other day. Can’t even remember where exactly, maybe some online forum or a newsletter I skim through. Anyway, someone mentioned a really basic idea he had, something about getting stuff done without all the usual fuss.
Honestly, at first, I thought, “Okay, here we go again, another productivity trick.” Most of them sound good but fall apart when you actually try them in the real world, right? But this one seemed almost ridiculously simple. Like, suspiciously simple.
The core thing, as I understood it, was just about zeroing in. Forget the massive to-do lists for a second. Just pinpoint the absolute key things for the day. So, I figured, what the heck, let’s give this Mike Lockley thing a whirl. Couldn’t hurt.
Here’s what I actually did:
- Woke up Monday morning. Instead of jumping straight into emails or checking notifications, I grabbed a plain old notebook and a pen.
- Sat there for maybe five minutes. Just thought about the day ahead. What really needed my attention? Not the fifty small things, but the big rocks.
- I forced myself to pick just three. Three main tasks. Wrote ’em down, nice and clear.
- Then, I basically tried to structure my day around those three things. Didn’t ignore everything else, obviously, but kept telling myself, “Get these three sorted first.”
Gotta say, the first day felt… different. Less frantic. I actually focused on Task 1 until it was done. Then moved to Task 2. It wasn’t perfect – got pulled into a meeting I forgot about, typical stuff. But by the end of the day, those three main items? They were checked off. That felt pretty good, better than having 10 half-finished things nagging at me.
I kept this up for the rest of the week. Some days it worked better than others. On Wednesday, something urgent came up and completely derailed my “Top 3,” which happens. But even on that chaotic day, having initially identified those three priorities helped me re-focus later on what was important once the fire was out.
Wrapping Up My Thoughts
So, this whole Mike Lockley-inspired routine? It’s not rocket science, clearly. And it won’t magically solve all your problems or organize your entire life overnight. But for me, this simple practice of identifying and writing down just three key things each morning really did help cut through the noise a bit.
It forced me to be honest about priorities. It gave me clear targets. It’s super low-tech, just pen and paper, which I kinda liked. No fancy app, no complicated system to learn. Just a straightforward way to start the day with some intention. I think I’ll keep doing it, see how it goes long-term. It’s simple enough that it doesn’t feel like a chore, and it actually seemed to make a bit of a difference. Worth a shot if you feel overwhelmed sometimes.