Choose Your Big 3 For Tomorrow
I have a tagline when I talk about technology - it goes like this: 90% mindset, 10% technical.
Hopefully you have experienced that approach in the last few days of emails from me. It should be super evident in today’s and tomorrow’s email. I’m sharing two practices that are absolutely essential to my being able to shut down my computer at night, and my first and favorite technology that I use for them: pen & paper.
Shutting down your computer gets really hard when you have, dun dun duuuuun, unfinished business. You just need to send that last email, or finish up that big presentation, or get a start on something. If you just don’t shut down your computer, you won’t have to make any decisions about prioritization - you have everything open that you need to work on, and going to sleep is just a minor pause, because as soon as you wake up you are going to jump right back into all those things and finish them up without delay!
Many people go to sleep with unfinished business, and it haunts them like a classic psychological horror story. It is absolutely because we all have more that we must and want to do than the right number of hours to do it all in. So unless you want to be stuck in a Jordan Peele movie or an Edgar Allen Poe poem, you have to find a way to feel satisfied at the end of the night with the work that you did accomplish, and know that tomorrow is another day to keep at it.
That is where your “big rocks” or your “top targets” come in. Choose 3 things to accomplish in a day that will make the day a “win” for you. Make them achievable - you don’t want to set yourself up to fail. Be flexible with yourself - need to do just one big thing today to make it a win? Need to do 4 things? Test out different approaches. See what feels right for you. This is much more about your mindset than your technical skills. But, since we are talking about technology, here are some options for tech that can help you get into the mindset of choosing and accomplishing your “big rocks”:
BestSelf Journal. Yes, I started with a traditional technology of paper and pen. I just really really like this product and have been using it for a few years. It has strengthened my muscles in choosing my top 3 priorities for my day, for finding the time on my calendar for accomplishing these “big rocks,” and also for becoming more comfortable in recognizing when I need to break a big priority down into smaller, more achievable daily chunks.
Good old Trello and Asana. These are good programs to know how to use for anything, so they have to make the list. Although these are powerful project management tools, you don’t have to use them that way. Just play around and come up with a nice process that you like to follow, and repeat it every day. For example, let’s imagine a Trello board with 3 cards - Big Rock for Another Day, Big Rock for Today, and Big Rocks Completed. You can dump everything you have to do in cards in the first one, each day choose what will move over to the second one, and when you finish a task move it to the third one. Super simple, but you can learn more about these systems as you go.
Prioritab. I love a good Chrome extension that changes the default page you see when you open a new tab in Chrome. This one asks you to set those big rocks for the day (and week and month) and shows them to you every time you open a new tab. Full disclosure, I haven’t tried it yet (I’ve been digging New Tab Studio for my browser recently) but it looks cool and I hope someone will try it out and let us know how it goes!
This practice did NOT come to me overnight, and like I said I’m still on a journey working to set the right targets and stick to them for the day. Having the process and going through the journey is what allows me to feel good about shutting my computer down, because basically I’ve forced myself to carefully consider what is important for me to do, and when to do it, and to make my days more realistic. I don’t need to leave anything open on my computer as a reminder to keep working on it - if I need to open something to work on a top target, I’ll be able to do that easily.
Another mindset-heavy email to help you shut down your computer coming your way tomorrow!
