When the Plan Changes

Two things will happen, often. Work you put on the monthly page won't ship that week. And work you didn't plan will appear and ask for a slot. The system handles both honestly.

1. 01What slides

   A monthly goal you allocated to this week but didn't pull down isn't a failure. It's information. Either it wasn't actually critical, or you misjudged the time, or something genuinely more important took its place. Don't tick it. Don't pretend it shipped. Move it on the monthly page to a later week.

2. 02What keeps sliding

   If the same M-code slides week after week, that's a signal. By the third slip, ask: am I actually going to do this? Or has it become the diary's version of an open browser tab — kept open, never read? Cut it. The page is the only honest record.

3. 03What gets added

   New work will appear mid-month. The boss asks for a thing. A customer escalates. The funnel doesn't reject these — but it asks for honesty about where they fit. If it's week-only, give it a W-code on the weekly page: [W1], [W2]. If it's bigger, go back to the monthly page and add it as M11, M12, or wherever it fits. If your four critical slots are full and this new thing is genuinely more important, replace one — don't expand. Critical is critical.

4. 04What stays off the page

   If something doesn't fit this month at all but might matter later, the diary isn't where it goes. Put it in a notes app, a paper backlog, anywhere else. The diary holds what you've decided to spend this month, this week, this day on. Not the inventory of everything that exists.

Move what slid. Code what's new.
Let the rest stay off the page.