**Worksheet and Post inspired and adapted from the principles behind Randi Zuckerberg's book "Pick Three: You Can Have It All (Just Not Every Day)"**
How do you bring a more proactive intention to your day? How do you engage deeply in different areas of life without being overwhelmed? You set daily focuses to bring alignment and clarity.
With the average adult making 35,000 decisions a day (Sahakian & Labuzetta, 2013), it is important to not get bogged down by the weight of these decisions which over time can sap away your motivation from pursuing the things that matter most to you in your life. You can have a goal of getting fit; but it is hard if you wait until closing time at 5 pm after work to decide if you are going to workout that day. Any hesitation is going to carry you away from your goal and erode your motivation.
By planning your day with the Daily Focus method, you will find the truth behind how one decision can make a thousand decisions for your day.
What seemed like an easy decision to go play soccer became complicated as I realized that for my weekend I had not done any chores, I had not spent quality time with my wife, and I had been busy working all week and had not spent a huge amount of time with my newborn daughter. With the majority of the weekend in front of me I started to become anxious over my weekend already disappearing and me not getting to enjoy it on the things that mattered most.
In that moment I filled out my daily focuses for that day and the next. As I filled it out I realized I had already caught up on sleep, and soccer could be my chance to workout and hang with friends. That then meant I could focus Sunday on my wife and family and the chores. I could invest deeply in multiple areas; just not all at once.
This two minutes of making high level decisions then freed me up to enjoy my time at soccer. And after going over the trade offs with my wife, it gave me the confidence not to second guess decisions that came my way as I had more clarity. This did not mean I did not still change a couple diapers before going to play soccer. It just meant when a friend was calling on Sunday and I knew it would be a long conversation, it was easy to set the phone aside. I was able to focus on spending time with my family knowing there would be space later that week to call them back as my main focus.
Check out the WORKSHEET to try it for yourself.
References
Sahakian, B. J. & Labuzetta, J. N. (2013). Bad moves: how decision making goes wrong, and the ethics of smart drugs. London: Oxford University Press.
How do you bring a more proactive intention to your day? How do you engage deeply in different areas of life without being overwhelmed? You set daily focuses to bring alignment and clarity.
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| Diagram Excerpt from Worksheet |
Reality
While we do not like facing trade offs, they are a constant we cannot ignore. When you get off work, you cannot simultaneously eat a home cooked meal with family, go to the bar with friends, and go to the gym for a workout all at the same time. You must face the trade offs and choose.With the average adult making 35,000 decisions a day (Sahakian & Labuzetta, 2013), it is important to not get bogged down by the weight of these decisions which over time can sap away your motivation from pursuing the things that matter most to you in your life. You can have a goal of getting fit; but it is hard if you wait until closing time at 5 pm after work to decide if you are going to workout that day. Any hesitation is going to carry you away from your goal and erode your motivation.
You Can Have It All - Just Not Everyday
By limiting yourself each day with only a set number of main focuses; you actually will find that your week expands. While you cannot do it all in one day; you can find space in one week to hit all of the most important things in your life. A week filled with scattered attention to everything pales in comparison to a week filled with diverse days filled with deep focus.By planning your day with the Daily Focus method, you will find the truth behind how one decision can make a thousand decisions for your day.
Real Life Example
Last Saturday I found myself stuck with a dilemma. After sleeping in I forgot to decide on my daily focuses. Before I knew it, it was 3 pm and I received a text inviting me to play soccer that night at 8 pm. As the clock ticked closer to 8 pm I realized I had not worked out all week.What seemed like an easy decision to go play soccer became complicated as I realized that for my weekend I had not done any chores, I had not spent quality time with my wife, and I had been busy working all week and had not spent a huge amount of time with my newborn daughter. With the majority of the weekend in front of me I started to become anxious over my weekend already disappearing and me not getting to enjoy it on the things that mattered most.
In that moment I filled out my daily focuses for that day and the next. As I filled it out I realized I had already caught up on sleep, and soccer could be my chance to workout and hang with friends. That then meant I could focus Sunday on my wife and family and the chores. I could invest deeply in multiple areas; just not all at once.
This two minutes of making high level decisions then freed me up to enjoy my time at soccer. And after going over the trade offs with my wife, it gave me the confidence not to second guess decisions that came my way as I had more clarity. This did not mean I did not still change a couple diapers before going to play soccer. It just meant when a friend was calling on Sunday and I knew it would be a long conversation, it was easy to set the phone aside. I was able to focus on spending time with my family knowing there would be space later that week to call them back as my main focus.
Conclusion
The beautiful reality is that selecting daily focuses (and therefore not selecting other potential focuses) liberates instead of restricts.Check out the WORKSHEET to try it for yourself.
Closing Remarks
Sign up below for exclusive access to resources such as these. I will be posting new worksheets monthly created from books and principles I find most helpful. If there is a book you think I should make a worksheet for, shoot me an email at kurt@leverlo.com.References
Sahakian, B. J. & Labuzetta, J. N. (2013). Bad moves: how decision making goes wrong, and the ethics of smart drugs. London: Oxford University Press.