The short answer: A good answer to "What will make today matter?" is one specific thing you can do or finish by tonight, that's mostly in your control, and that you'd be glad you did even if the rest of the day goes sideways. "Call Mom back before 6." "Send the invoice." "Walk the dog with no phone." Small and checkable beats big and vague, whatever season of life you're in.
It's 6:45 in the morning. The coffee's still dripping and you've got maybe four minutes before somebody needs something from you. You ask yourself what will make today matter and the first thing that comes out is "be productive."
Which sounds fine. It's also impossible to check. At 9 p.m. you can't look back and say yes or no to "be productive," so the day gets graded by how tired you feel, and tired always feels like you didn't do enough.
So here are 50 real answers, sorted by the season you might be in right now: rebuilding, building or maintaining. Steal one, change a word, and use it tomorrow.
What's a good answer to "What will make today matter?"
A good answer is small enough to finish today and specific enough that you'll know at night whether it happened. That's pretty much the whole trick. Most answers that don't work are either too big ("fix my career") or too foggy ("be present").
Before you lock one in, run it through three quick checks:
Can I do it or finish it by tonight? If the honest answer is "I'll make progress on it," name the piece you'll finish.
Is it mostly in my control? "Get the job offer" isn't. "Send the follow-up email to the recruiter" is.
Would I be glad I did it even if everything else today goes wrong? This is the one that separates a priority from a chore.
Specific beats general for a reason. A meta-analysis of 94 tests by Gollwitzer and Sheeran found that specific if-then plans about when and where you'll act had a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals (d = .65). And Masicampo and Baumeister found that making a concrete plan for an unfinished goal cut down the intrusive thoughts about it, even before the goal was done. If you want the deeper version, there's a whole piece on how if-then plans work.
What should I answer when I'm rebuilding?
When you're rebuilding, the answer should be smaller than you think and kinder than you'd be to yourself on a normal day. A layoff, a loss, a diagnosis, a divorce, a disaster. In that season, getting through one real thing counts.
Eat a real breakfast, sitting down.
Call the insurance company and get a claim number.
Unpack one box. Just one.
Tell one person the truth when they ask how I'm doing.
Apply to two jobs I actually want, not twenty I don't.
Shower and get dressed by 10, even if I'm not going anywhere.
Take the kids to the park after school and leave my phone in the car.
Text my sister back.
Be in bed by 10:30.
Write down the three questions I have for the lawyer and send the email.
Walk around the block once at lunch.
Make the doctor's appointment I've been putting off.
Cook one meal in the new kitchen.
Sit with the photos for ten minutes and let it be hard.
Say no to one thing I don't have the energy for.
Ask a neighbor to cover pickup on Thursday.
Update my resume's top section and stop there.
Notice how many of these are about the body or one other person. That's on purpose. When everything's in pieces, the day doesn't have to fix the big thing. It just has to hold one good thing. If grief, stress or low mood has been heavy for weeks, please talk to a doctor or a mental health professional too. A daily question can help you get through a day, but it isn't treatment. There are more answers for rough stretches in daily intention examples for a hard week.
What should I answer when I'm building something new?
When you're building, the answer should be the thing that moves the new thing forward, not the thing that's loudest. A new company, a new job, a new baby, a new city. Building seasons are noisy because everything is new, and new stuff all feels urgent.
Ship the landing page. Ugly is fine.
Have the roles conversation with my cofounder.
Learn the name of everyone on my new team.
Call three customers and mostly listen.
Write 500 words of the book before I open email.
Nap when the baby naps instead of folding laundry.
Find a grocery store, a pharmacy and a coffee spot in the new neighborhood.
Ask my manager what "doing well" looks like at 90 days.
Block two hours for the proposal and protect them.
Send the deck to the one investor I keep putting off.
Finish the first draft of the onboarding doc.
Say yes to coffee with the neighbor who keeps waving.
Close the laptop at 6 and be home for dinner.
Fix the one bug customers keep emailing about.
Run a one-on-one where I talk less than half the time.
Pick the launch date and tell one person, out loud.
Study for 45 minutes before work, phone in the other room.
A lot of building-season answers are about protecting time from the building itself. The work will happily eat every hour you give it. If your days are mostly work, there are 30 more in daily goals for work you can finish today.
What should I answer when life is fine but the days blur together?
When you're maintaining, the answer should add one thing that's different from yesterday. Nothing's on fire. Bills get paid. And still, Tuesday looks a whole lot like last Tuesday. That's autopilot, and the fix is usually one small change you'll actually remember.
Take a different route home and actually look around.
Call the friend I haven't talked to since summer.
Read 20 pages of an actual book.
Cook something I've never made.
Read two bedtime stories with no phone in the room.
Ask my partner one question at dinner that isn't about logistics.
Go to the 6 p.m. class instead of thinking about going.
Write a thank-you note to someone who helped me this year.
Clean out the drawer that annoys me every single morning.
Sit outside for ten minutes with nothing in my hands.
Pick the weekend for the trip we keep talking about.
No work email after 7.
Tell my kid one specific thing I'm proud of.
Finish the bookshelf I started in September.
Say the idea I've been sitting on in the meeting.
Plant the bulbs before the first frost.
None of these will change your life by themselves. But a day with one of them in it doesn't blur into the one before it, and that's kind of the point.
How do I turn a vague answer into a good one?
Swap the feeling for an action you can see. Most vague answers are a real priority hiding behind a mood word. Ask, "What would that look like by tonight?" and write down whatever you'd be able to point at.
Vague answer | What it might really mean | Answer you can check tonight |
|---|---|---|
Be productive | The one task I keep dodging | Finish the expense report before lunch |
Be present | My kids are getting the leftover version of me | Phone in the drawer from 6 to 8 |
Take care of myself | I'm running on empty | Walk 20 minutes and be in bed by 10:30 |
Make progress on the business | I'm scared of the sales part | Send three follow-up emails to warm leads |
Get my life together | Everything feels behind | Pay the one bill that's late |
Be a better friend | I've gone quiet on people | Call Sam on the drive home |
The middle column is the part people skip. It's usually the honest part, and it tells you what the answer actually needs to be. You don't have to write it anywhere. Just ask it in your head.
Is there an app that asks what will make today matter?
Yes. The Question is a free iPhone app that asks one question every morning: What will make today matter? You type your answer in under a minute, before the inbox gets a vote. Around midday it reminds you what you said, and in the evening it checks in on whether it happened.
That loop matters for answers like the ones above. "Text my sister back" is easy to mean at 7 a.m. and easy to forget by noon. Here's how three different mornings might look in the app:
Rebuilding: "Call the insurance company and get a claim number."
Building: "Ship the landing page. Ugly is fine."
Maintaining: "Ask my partner one question at dinner that isn't about logistics."
It's free, it's on iPhone, and there's no list to manage. The thinking behind the question lives in What Will Make Today Matter? Or download The Question and pick one of these 50 for tomorrow morning.
Frequently asked questions
How many things should I answer each morning?
One. The whole idea is picking the thing that matters most, and a list of five brings back the same overload you're trying to get out of. Everything else can still happen. It just isn't the answer.
What if I don't finish my answer?
Nothing breaks. Ask the question again tomorrow, and maybe shrink the answer. In Lally and colleagues' habit study, missing one opportunity "did not materially affect the habit formation process."
Can my answer be about rest?
Yes. "Take a real lunch break" or "be in bed by 10:30" are good answers, especially in a rebuilding season. If rest is what will make today matter, it counts as much as any work task.
Should I answer the night before or in the morning?
Morning usually works better, because you know what the day actually looks like when you wake up. Answer it before you check your phone. If you like planning at night, jot a draft answer before bed and confirm or change it in the morning.
One question. Every morning.
Whatever season you're in, pick one answer before the day picks it for you, and see it again at midday.