I've been pretty obsessed with this topic for quite some time, I implemented my own todolist, kanban, and other productivity tools and my conclusion is that in the end what gets you far is routine/habits. In other words, doing it every day. If in your case the goal is to explore 3 cities this year, then have a list of small things you can do in that direction and do at least one every day. And don't add dumb things to the list to have a false sense of productivity, it's better to have days off than to fool yourself.

Coincidentally, I just made my own habit tracker this week to help me in this direction too, http://everydaycheck.com in case you want to check it out...