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6 quick steps, about 10 minutes total. Do one, tick it, move on. No need to do them all today.

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• [ ] 1. Duplicate the template — click Duplicate (top right of the page you opened from the link). Notion copies everything into your own workspace. Work in your copy, not the link.
• [ ] 2. Take the 2-minute tour
  • 🧠 Dashboard — the only page you need most days.
  • ⏱ Focus This Week — how many focus minutes you've logged vs your weekly goal.
  • 🎯 Today's Top 3 — the only 3 tasks that matter today.
  • ⚡ Match Your Energy — your week's tasks sorted into 🔋 Low, ⚡ Medium and 🚀 High energy.
  • 🧠 Brain Dump — a place to park every random thought so it stops looping in your head.
  • 📅 Deadlines & Progress — every project, its days left, and a progress bar.
• [ ] 3. Clear the sample data — every row that starts with "SAMPLE —" is fake. Follow the 🗑 Clear sample data steps on the Dashboard (about 1 minute). Keep the 🧠 My Focus row in Settings — it powers your focus total.
• [ ] 4. Brain dump everything — open 🧠 Brain Dump and type every task, idea and worry, one per row. Don't sort yet. Just empty your head.
• [ ] 5. Turn thoughts into tasks — for anything that's actually a task, add it to ✅ Tasks, give it an Energy level and a Time estimate, then tick Moved to Tasks? on the Brain Dump row.
• [ ] 6. Pick today's Top 3 — check your energy right now. Pick up to 3 tasks from the matching column and tick Today. Start the first one.

⚡ Why energy, not just priority

Some days you can do deep, hard work. Some days you can only answer emails. Tagging tasks by energy means there's always something useful you can do, even on a low day.

• 🔋 Low — quick, easy, almost no thinking (emails, invoices, file exports).
• ⚡ Medium — needs some focus but not your best brain (edits, small designs).
• 🚀 High — deep work that needs your sharpest hours (writing, building, problem-solving).

⏱ How focus minutes work

• Log each focus block in ⏱ Focus Sessions on the Dashboard: date, minutes, and which task.
• Rows you add from the Dashboard link to 🧠 My Focus automatically, so your weekly total updates right away.
• Change your goal in 📂 Databases → ⚙️ Settings → Weekly Focus Goal (min) (starts at 600 = 10 hours).
• The total resets on its own each new week.

📅 About the sample dates

The sample rows are dated October 2026. If you open the template later, some sample tasks may show ⚠️ Overdue and the focus total may show 0 — that's expected. Clear them and add your own.