The Coram Deo — achieving laser focus with a simple daily checklist

Coram Deo is a latin phrase. I picked it up from Tim Challies’ book, Do More Better. This is a really helpful little book on productivity that begins with some of the bigger principles and then moves on to go through practicalities. Some of this gets quite specific in terms of using and how to use Evernote & ToDoist but even in these bits, the principles can be applied to any kind of note taking system or tasks management system.

Coram Deo “literally refers to something that takes place in the presence of, or before the face of, God. To live coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.” see ‘What Does “Coram Deo” Mean?’ by R.C. Sproul.

Here is the point. I am to start my day with intentionality and with focus. I want to begin the day by ensuring that my plan for the day is good and feasible. Ideally, I will have done my main planning for ‘today’ yesterday afternoon or evening. This time the day before is where I look at my calendar and choose my priority tasks and focus for the day. Whilst this is a really good practice, it still pays to reflect on this plan the next day.

I have set up a checklist that I have called Coram Deo. Again, an idea taken from Challies’ book. At its core, the idea of this is to have a…