The Docket Method is how I run my days. It's a simple system for picking what matters most to work on, and logging what actually happened. That's really all there is to it.
Been refining this since 2005 — Franklin Covey class, then the planner, Evernote, endless paper notebooks, text editors, Obsidian, finally plain text files anyone can open forever. The core never changed: 1–3 MITs at the top, timestamped log of reality below it.
The core idea is simple: pick the things that actually matter today, write down what happens, don't lose ideas to the void. I've tried plenty of other systems. They were either too rigid, too fussy, or required you to read a 300-page book before you could use them.
This one fits on a notebook page. Always has.
I'm not anti-productivity. I'm just realistic about what a human can get done in a day. The Docket Method isn't about tracking all the minutiae. It asks you to pick three things, write them down, and log what happens. That's it.
Everything else is optional (and likely a distraction).
"The goal isn't to do more. It's to do the right things — and actually remember that you did them."
Your Most Important Tasks are the things that, if done, make the day a success. One to three. If you finish them and still have time, great — there's a TODO list for that.
The Time Log is a timestamped running record of your day. You can capture what you ate, who you talked to, what you figured out. It's not a task list. You'll be surprised at how useful it is.
The Inbox is for thoughts that aren't tasks yet. Toss them in now, decide later. "Explore that TallyThings integration" isn't a task — it's a maybe. Treat it like one.
Each part of the Docket has a color and a job. After a while you don't think about it — you just look at the page and know what's what.
MIT stands for Most Important Tasks. You pick them in the morning — one to three things that, if done, make the day worth it. Below that is a general TODO, for everything else. The separation matters more than you'd think.
Every entry gets a timestamp. You write what happened — not what you planned, what actually happened. Meals, calls, breakthroughs, the thing you finally figured out at 3pm. It sounds like overkill until you go back and read it.
Calendar events show up in your Today view alongside your tasks. This sounds obvious, but most systems keep them separate. When you can see a 2-hour meeting next to your MIT list, you plan more honestly.
The Inbox is a zero-friction capture bucket. Not a todo, not a project — just a place to park a thought so it doesn't disappear. "I should look into that TallyThings integration" is not a task. It's a maybe. Put it in the Inbox and deal with it Friday.
The app is a local-first FastAPI + Vue web app that runs on your machine. No accounts, no subscription, no cloud. Your Time Log doesn't leave your laptop. That part was non-negotiable.
I'm always running it. If I wanted to share it with other people, I probably should have made it easier to install — I'm working on that.
Runs on your machine. No cloud, no latency, no one else's uptime problem.
Markdown and simple formats. You can read them without the app. I think that matters.
PRs, issues, releases, milestones — all in the Today view. I work on software. It made sense.
I log what I eat and what I think about. That doesn't go to a server somewhere.
Now I feed those files to an AI agent. It knows my day — MITs, log, calendar, inbox. Becomes my assistant without me typing the same thing five times.
"Log that I walked 30 min."
"What were yesterday's MITs?"
"Move this to tomorrow."
It asks before touching files. You stay in control. Telegram works too.
Right now it's a local setup — not super friendly yet. I'm smoothing that out. DM me on X if you want a single "it's ready" note when it's easier for normal humans. No newsletter, no spam, promise.
I'll let you know when it's ready.
Grab a notebook. Write today's date. Write MIT at the top and pick three things. Draw a line down the middle — tasks on the left, Time Log on the right. Start writing.
That's it. The app is just 15+ years of making that page less annoying to maintain.