Ready-to-Use Productivity Templates for Engineers
Theory is useful, but a template makes the system real.
This post collects the most practical parts of my workflow in a form you can copy and adapt immediately. The templates are minimal by design -- easy to read, easy to modify, and not tied to any specific tool.
How to adapt them
A few suggestions:
- Start small -- remove any section you consistently ignore.
- Keep the reflection loop even if you shrink everything else.
- Add tooling (Obsidian Templater, Notion formulas, etc.) gradually, not all at once.
The template itself is not the magic. The real value comes from four habits:
- choosing clear MITs
- protecting deep work blocks
- noticing interruption cost
- extracting one lesson that survives the day
If a simpler template helps you keep those habits, simpler is better.
Daily Log Template
## 1. Start of Day
- **Energy now:** Low / Medium / High
- **Sleep last night:** <6h / 6-7h / 7-8h / 8h+
- **Context (1 line):**
- **Deep work cutoff time:**
### Focus Principle of the Day
Pick one:
- Architecture First -> Code Second
- One Pass Complete Understanding
- Stop -> Check -> Reproduce -> Fix
- Estimate x5 Rule
- Avoid Guessing Loops
- Write System Boundaries
**How I'll apply it today (1 line):**
---
## 2. MITs (Most Important Tasks)
- **MIT 1 -- Hard / Important (Deep):**
- **MIT 2 -- Shipping / tests / review:**
- **MIT 3 -- Optional / Maintenance:**
### Secondary Tasks
-
-
- ***
## 3. Deep Work Blocks
### Block 1
- **Time:**
- **Task:**
**Plan (before starting)**
- Read context fully
- List cases / states affected
- Decide approach or layer
- Identify tests / logging / evidence needed
**Raw notes**
**Hypothesis (1-2 lines):**
**Result:** Done / Partial / Blocked
- Result note:
- Next step:
- Decision from this block (if any):
---
### Block 2
- **Time:**
- **Task:**
**Plan (before starting)**
- Read context fully
- List cases / states affected
- Decide approach or layer
- Identify tests / logging / evidence needed
**Raw notes**
**Hypothesis (1-2 lines):**
**Result:** Done / Partial / Blocked
- Result note:
- Next step:
- Decision from this block (if any):
---
## 4. Interrupt Log
Format: `HH:MM-HH:MM | type | short note | from MIT?`
- ***
## 5. Decision Snapshots
- **Topic:** | **Decision:** | **Next Action:**
- **Topic:** | **Decision:** | **Next Action:**
---
## 6. End of Day
- **Energy now:** Low / Medium / High
### MIT Review
- MIT 1 -- Result:
- MIT 2 -- Result:
- MIT 3 -- Result:
### EOD Checklist
- I finished at least one hard thing
- I avoided long guessing loops
- Deep work happened before my cutoff
**What worked today?**
**What didn't / felt off?**
**One small change for tomorrow:**
### Tomorrow - Top 2
1.
2.
### Lesson for future me (1 line):Weekly Plan Template
## 1. Week Intent
**Theme (1 line):**
**Anchor (must ship):**
**Definition of done for anchor:**
**Carryover (max 2):**
-
- **Outcomes (2 committed + 1 stretch):**
1.
2.
3.
**Guardrails:**
- Cutoff: ** : ** / Sleep: \_\_h
- WIP limit: max 2 deep threads per day
---
## 2. Weekly Plan
- Mon -- anchor block:
- Tue -- anchor block:
- Wed -- ship / checkpoint:
- Thu -- buffer / fixes:
- Fri -- close + carryover prep:
---
## 3. End-of-Week Review
**Anchor status:** Done / In Progress / Not started
## **What shipped (max 3 bullets):**
## **What slipped + why (max 2 bullets):**
## **Next week carryover (max 2):**
- **One process tweak for next week:**
**Weekly score (0-2 each):**
- Focus: \_\_ / 2
- Shipping: \_\_ / 2
- Health: \_\_ / 2
**Reality metrics:**
- Nights >2h after midnight: \_\_
- Days MITs changed midday: \_\_ / 5
**If any score is 0, add one corrective rule:**