Tame the Day.
Anchored attention on what matters and what helps
Turn progress into a habit with the unique one-page planning system that helps you focus on what matters and turn it into effective action.
Get straight to work with 1-2-3 Action Blocks or spend a few minutes making the page yours and plug into the wider 5 Minute Planner system.
Start each day with a clean sheet supported by reminders that help you actually apply some of the most research backed and powerful productivity and development techniques.
A 5 Minute Daily Habit For the Real World Work Day
Within minutes, the typical work day can feel like ... a lot.
Messages, meetings, half-finished tasks, colleagues, commitments, opportunities. External and internal factors, pushing and pulling at us.
The temptation is to dive into whatever grabs our attention first, or to hide from it all and reach for a distraction.
We need a way to clarify what matters and keep it top of mind for longer than the next few moments.
And that’s part of what the 5 Minute Planner does.
It turns our environment into an ally, a clear prompt for what matters today and only those things, keeping us organised, but not overwhelmed.
“By default, I’m disorganised, easily distracted and overwhelmed and my best intentions seldom survived the first hour of any workday.
This single page changed that, and it could do the same for you.”
Matt Willcocks
Creator of The 5 Minute Planner
Anchored Attention
Put what matters where you can see it.
The Best of Digital and Paper Planning
The 5 Minute Planning process starts with a simple PDF page. Customize it with the reminders that help you make progress and then print it out to start each morning with a fresh, distraction free paper planner that you fill in by hand.
Where you place your attention changes your day
All the things we notice across a day aren't just passing scenery. They impact.
They are closer to forks in the road, redirecting what we think, feel and do. And therefore, our results and our experience.
A completed planner turns that impact to our advantage.
The 5 Minute Planner System
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Consider and Capture What Matters and What Helps.
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Anchor your Attention and take Action.
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Reflect, Refine & Repeat.
At its simplest, the 5 Minute Planner is:
A PDF Page
We fill with useful reminders of what matters and what helps
A Paper Planner
We print and fill out by hand, our reminders ready as we plan.
A Process
We follow during a day and across them, as we are guided step by step.
Build your system, one prompt at a time.
Fill your page with the reminders that help you most. Not just to get more of the right things done, but to have better work days: ones you start with optimism and agency, move through with energy and flexibility, and look back on with satisfaction and pride.
What you Need: A printer and the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Creating your unique planner. Here's how it works:
Set up the Reminders that Help You Have Better Days
There are no generic reminders in the 5 Minute Planner. The underlying Daily Flow is there to guide your day, and the Member's Library has a huge array of suggestions and experiments to try, but all the prompts and reminders are yours to customise.
A fast track to placing research-backed practices into your day. Spend just 10 minutes considering and capturing:
What matters
Projects
What you're working towards. Connect your actions to your long term goals.
e.g. #System Upgrade #Year end #Sales lift
People
Who matters to you.
e.g. Kate, Dean, Gabe, Hazel
Priorities
What matters this week. Have those in sight as you plan your 1-2-3 Action Blocks.
e.g. Budget agreed by Friday
What helps
A PB Protocol
The daily actions that help you most.
e.g. @Lunch: leave desk, 5 min sun
Priming
Boost your motivation and mindset.
e.g. At my best, I solve problems. I create opportunities. I do hard things with a grin.
Progress Prompts
Questions that help you celebrate and improve.
e.g. What went well today? How could I improve? Who could I celebrate?
Setting up your Planner creates:
- ✓A focused burst of attention on the factors research shows can boost our results and experience.
Then
- →Anchored Attention on your answers so they actually get the chance to help, there on the desk across the whole day and week.
- →The opportunity to upgrade your reminders as circumstances change and you learn what works and what needs work.
The 5 Minute Planner helps on day one, but it becomes more powerful as you refine your personal system, anchoring your attention to ever better prompts.
Then turn it into action.
Getting lost in planning achieves nothing. Taking action is at the heart of the 5 Minute Planner, and it happens right there on the page via 1-2-3 Action Blocks. They can be run without changing a thing on the sheet. Here's how they work.
Make a list.
Make a choice.
Make a start.
- Get the possibilities out of your head and onto paper.
- Ask what matters most.
- Turn it into three clear actions, then make THE next step clear.
- Anchor your attention on those decisions, set a timer and ...
- Get started.
It's a simple technique that can really help and you can use it straight away and every time.
It can feel tremendously grounding to pause and simplify it all down to those few steps. Whilst that timer is running, all we have to focus on are these few things. No matter how much else there might be to do, we are taking the best action we could identify and the day quietens.
Potential steps forward
- Reply to Sam about budget
- Outline Thursday’s presentation
- Book the dentist
- Review the draft contract
- Call the venue
What matters most?
Outline Thursday’s presentation
1–2–3 Action Block
1. List the three points
2. Draft the slides
3. Run through once
THE next task?
List the three points →
Here it is on the 5 Minute Planner. A list, a choice, a start.
The same flow, except running the technique on the 5 Minute Planner means we are always reminded of the sequence. The steps become near automatic as we flow through the guided sections and the unique ability to fold away the rest of the day and display our decisions clearly on our desk helps us channel and then anchor our focus.
Close off the block and repeat
The process can be run multiple times a day. Working in action blocks creates natural moments of pause and plan in our day, where we slow for a beat, ask what's important now (#WIN) and actively choose what to work on.
Connect your 1-2-3 Action Blocks to the goals that matter and the practices that help
3 Minute Challenge
Spend just three minutes adding #key projects and some priorities for the week to your 5 Minute Planner. It is the easiest and quickest way to bring the important, not just the urgent, to mind as you plan.
“When it comes to creating change, environment beats effort”
Matt Willcocks, creator of the 5 Minute Planner
No advice to remember. No system to learn. Rather a tool to use.
It's free, and there's no account to create.
1
Tell us where to send it
Your name and email. We'll send the Planner and the guide straight away.
2
Type in some prompts if you want
Open the PDF and add what matters and what helps. No rush, build it as you go
3
Print, fold and start
Follow the 5 Minute Planner's Daily Flow, laid out clearly in the guide and on the page.
What you get: the 5 Minute Planner Lite and the Getting Started Guide. Lite is the complete Planner, with one part of the ACED Journal, the daily reflection space, reserved for members.
What you need: a printer and the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Want the full unlocked template, best practice guides & more? Membership is £25 a year.
You get the full ACED Journal with every prompt yours to personalise, every version of the Planner, the Step-by-Step guide, and the Members' Library of templates, guides and Deeper Dives.
Membership renews automatically each year. You can cancel anytime.
Why I made this
I designed the 5 Minute Planner because I was immersed in productivity and development advice, but I wasn’t applying it. At least, not even close to consistently.
This single page changed that and it can do the same for you.
Our attention is constantly dragged in different directions as external distractions and internal drives push and pull at us, with their competing demands and inputs.
Meanwhile, we often bring only willpower and early optimism on behalf of our intended actions.
That’s not a fair fight.
It’s also not a fight we need to pick. When it comes to creating change, environment beats effort.
We can spare ourselves the exhausting grind of focus and willpower and just throw down an anchor.
An anchor doesn’t calm the world around it, but it doesn’t pretend to, that’s not its role. Its job is to keep us grounded and connected to our focal point, whatever is going on around, and without having to expend further effort.
And that’s what the 5 Minute Planner’s paper page does. It turns our environment into an ally, a clear prompt for what matters and helps most today, and only those things.
The 5 Minute Planner is designed as a tool, not a set of theories to learn or master. It brings together some of the most powerful practices identified by researchers, tested for real world impact and compatibility. You can benefit in minutes.
Thank you for being willing to try something new and I hope the Planner helps you as much as it does me.
Matt Willcocks, creator of The 5 Minute Planner
Questions
Do I need to create an account?
Not for the free planner. Enter your name and email and you'll get the 5 Minute Planner Lite and the Getting Started Guide straight away, with the links emailed to you as well. Membership does need an account, so you can log in to the Members' Library.
What do I need to use it?
A printer and the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. The Planner is designed to be printed and used on paper at your desk.
Do I have to learn a whole system first?
No. Start with a 1–2–3 Action Block; it works on day one. The Getting Started Guide opens with a Quick Start, so you can plan today straight away. The deeper parts are there when you want them.
What's in the free version?
The 5 Minute Planner Lite and the Getting Started Guide. Lite is the complete Planner: 1–2–3 Action Blocks, and the space to personalise what matters and what helps. One part of the ACED Journal, the daily reflection space, is reserved for members.
What does Membership add?
Membership is for going further. You can personalise the full ACED Journal, use every version of the Planner, follow the Step-by-Step guide, and explore the Members' Library of templates, guides and Deeper Dives.
How does Membership billing work?
Membership is £25 a year. It renews automatically each year, and you can cancel anytime.
Can I start free and join later?
Yes. The free Planner is useful in its own right. Join if and when you want to go further.
Start with today.
Print one page. Find the thing that matters. Take the first step.
No account needed. Free to use.