Whenever I pack my bag in the morning, even if I have 4-5 hours before I leave, I forget something. The phone, the wallet, the cash I plan to carry in the wallet, the keys, the pencil case, the books. I just have to make it the night before. And generalising this and what you say, simply preparing for the day ahead is a very very useful thing. Maybe for a certain type of people though, because I've known some of those people which just remember the things when they need to, without any effort nor any notes. A while back I set a goal to have a happy, fulfilling life, and then asked what five elements were individually necessary and collectively sufficient to produce that. Then I went one level deeper, taking care to be strict with the boolean logic.

I bought a CO2 monitor. They are a bit expensive but very worth it ($100 DIY or more for a ready product). Even if you have ventilation, it might not be good enough. Grundig satellit radio. My office often goes up to 1000 ppm and I start to feel a bit drowsy. But there's a simple solution, just open a window.

I eventually got to actionable items. The surprising part was the amount of priorities I had in my life that weren't in that life graph. Stuff that was urgent but not important, and counterintuitively unnecessary when subjected to first-principle analysis. As I started letting those things go, I started to feel more productive since I had more confidence that my actions were aligned with my purpose. It was tedious and time-consuming, and the closer you get to the leaves, the easier it is for the graph to feel 'out of date' as your priorities and circumstances change.

But the root of the graph (or the top. For me the actionable stuff was at the bottom) has hardly changed at all since those were my core principles. So I'm still not sure it is worth the time to keep it 'accurate', but it was a good exercise to do at least once.

Any time you break something down into a collection of 'mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive' elements, there's going to be a bunch of different ways you can slice and dice that. What worked for me was something that was kind of like maslow's hierarchy. I think mine broke down into physical environment, financial security, being socially well-rooted, being healthy, and working on 'meeting my greatness' (kind of like actualization).

If I were to redo it now, I'd probably collapse being socially well-rooted into being a subcomponent of something else that would include service, giving back, etc. But at the time I created it I was very much invested in developing friendships after moving to a new place for a new romantic relationship. Friction delays taking an action. This is true for both things we want to do and things we need to do. So you want to reduce the friction involved in your actual goals (learning a subject, deploying a system, updating code), and increase the friction involved for things you want to avoid.

I want to avoid snacks and sodas. I've gotten good at restaurants (order a coke once a month, a dessert about as often). But the office snack bar. So I stopped carrying cash. When I do collect change, I occasionally treat myself to a candy bar or something from that snack bar but since I'm not spending as much cash, this is once every 2-3 months. At the same time I keep my desk stocked with pistachios (in shells) or similar things that take too long to eat to just eat all at once, but are tasty enough that when I get peckish they still satisfy. I want to learn more advanced math subjects.

So I always keep a notebook on me and either the book I'm working through, or a printout of the chapter (if it's a PDF or something). So when I have downtime I don't have to seek it out, it's already here. Adding friction doesn't work for me.

But I can just say, 'I don't facebook anymore. It's not a thing I do.' Fine, but there's still an itch that needs scratching. I bounce to instagram, reddit, imgur, news sites, then my favorite bloggers, in that order. There's always something. And as for facebook - I can't quit altogether. I manage a page for a small business, I have to test things for work, I want to promote my blog.