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DAILY SIX
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Where am I?
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Daily Six is a weekly and daily planner that gives you six simple boxes for each workday to track the habits and actions that matter most in your life. It was originally created by László Békéssy and is part of the YearCompass Community Content collection. It’s licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, which means it stays free to use, adapt, and share under the same terms to keep the movement open and collaborative.
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THE STORYTHE HOWTO
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Why six? And what does Henry the VIII. and the musical have to do with it?How can I use this?
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It all started when my wife and I got completely hooked on the musical Six. The first song opens with the famous line: Divorced–beheaded–died, divorced–beheaded–survived. A little morbid, sure, but the rhythm stuck with me and sparked the idea of looking at my days in two triplets (sixes). At the time, I was obsessed with maximizing impact and making my environment work for me, so I began with the triplets “impact–declutter–fun” and “impact–declutter–learn.”Look through the tabs and start with a version that resonates with you. It really doesn’t matter which one — the point is simply to begin. Print the sheet at the start of the week, and each day mark the boxes that feel true for you. It’s a surprisingly enjoyable little ritual, especially if you use it to look back on the previous day before diving into the new one.
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So what’s with all this impact and decluttering?And the rest of the page?
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I decided I wanted days where I made a real impact at least twice and did something small to make my environment more supportive — that’s the declutter part. Impact could mean anything: helping family, moving a project forward at work, saying a kind word to someone, planting a tree… anything that leaves the world a little better than you found it. Once I started, my days finally made sense, and the first few months felt like someone pressed the fast-forward button on my life.The rest of the page is intentionally flexible. You can use it for to-dos, notes, sketches, ideas, or anything else you need to hold onto during the week. One way I often used it was to split the sheet into two “worlds.” On one side I tracked work-related tasks — I even wrote my company name in the gray header for clarity. On the other side, I kept everything else: family plans, personal commitments, side projects, whatever needed attention. I usually folded the paper in half so it became a little booklet that I could keep on my desk and fit into my laptop when it's closed.
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Did you stick with it? What happened next?Keeping ToDos on paper? Sounds very old-school...
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Yes and no. To be frank, I got really tired in the third month. I slowly realized that life isn’t only about being effective or making an impact. Love, rest, movement, health — all kinds of other things make up my wellbeing. I used the original I(mpact)–D(eclutter)–F(un)–I(mpact)–D(eclutter)–L(earn) structure for about three months, but after that I kept rearranging the columns.

I adapted it to my actual life and whatever I needed most at the time. “Do something with family,” “Treat myself,” “Explore,” “Meet people” — and aspects like these became my companions. The only thing that stayed constant was the six boxes for every workday. I tried weekends too, but I quickly realized my mind and schedule were not compatible with planning 24/7.		Maybe I’m old-school, but one reason I kept everything on paper is simple: crossing something out by hand is satisfying for me. It feels more real, more final, and somehow more rewarding than dragging a digital to-do item from one column to another.

Also as a manager, I often had full “meeting days” — days where I moved from call to call and felt like I got absolutely nothing done, because there was nothing to check off in any digital system. Once I started writing down my meetings on paper and crossing them out as they happened, I suddenly felt a sense of progress again. It gave me that small but important feeling of “work done,” even on days when all I did was talk to people.
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Pics or it didn’t happen!What about the other parts below the boxes like “sports” and “win”?
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I printed the layout on A4 paper, cut out the little daily boxes, and kept them as memories. Over time they piled up—tiny snapshots of what my days actually looked like. Each one carries its own marks: crossed-out lines, patterns, the rhythm of the week, and all the little notes or tweaks I made along the way.Those are things I wanted to happen at least once or twice a week. They worked as compasses: I didn’t have full control over all of them (like magically getting a win or doing sports when I was sick), but I always had influence over them by moving things forward. Every Monday I reflected on the past week and often updated these categories every couple of months to match where I was in life and what I needed.
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When to do the planning?
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I always did my planning on Monday morning. I’m not the kind of person who has much time — definitely not on Sundays — so planning simply began when the week began. I carved out one hour (8–9 AM) before my first meeting and made sure I understood what happened the week before and how I could support my mood and performance in the week ahead.
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Anything else worth sharing?
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Yes. Performance isn’t everything. Sure, it felt great to check a lot of boxes, but I also had weeks where nothing clicked and several boxes stayed empty. And I’m still here, so it clearly wasn’t the end of the world. But having a habit that is constant in my life helped me tremendously — especially when the pandemic hit and everything else changed from one day to another. Or when my daughter was born and the definition of our family became something completely different. Daily Six in a way kept me sane.

I hope you'll find value in it too. Let me know if you do!
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