I have morning routines, and I have night routines. In between, there are about 12 hours that is my “Day.”
I run my life the same way I would run a business. Everything I do during the Day should fall into one of my projects. The Day is the time to get stuff done. A project is a goal or result that I work towards.
Take stock of how you are spending your Day. If something you’re doing is not part of some project, either make it a part of a larger project or stop doing it. You should even think of things like eating, sleeping, toilet breaks, showering, and time with your family as part of a larger project. For example, eating might fall into a “nutrition” project with an end result of being 145 pounds. Everything you do should be deliberate and mindful. If there is no reason to do something, and no positive result, then there is no point in doing it at all.
Write down everything you do during the day, and assign each thing to a project. Once you have a list of projects, write down a measurable result or goal next to each one.
Then set a deadline for each one. Reaching a deadline does not necessarily mean that the project is over (i.e. you can’t just stop eating). Rather, the deadline is where you stop, assess your progress, and decide if you should halt the project, extend the deadline, or start a new and improved project. I like to set yearly deadlines for the end of the year and monthly deadlines for the end of the month.
After you set deadlines, come up with milestones so you can pace yourself. Each day, you should work a little bit towards each ongoing project. For example, if one of your projects is to read a book this month, you could set the milestones to 10 pages per day. That number would be your minimum pace to move at to ensure adequate progress towards your goals each day.
Set aside time each day to work on each project. Work on a limited number of projects at a time—everything else has to go on the back-burner until time frees up. Choose your projects wisely. Work only on the projects that you are obligated to or most passionate about and can’t wait to work on each day.
Here are some sample projects as an example:
Generate income
Goal/Result: generate X dollars to support my family
Deadline: December 31, 2018
Milestones: Submit one case per day for my job
Blogging
Goal/Result: at least 100 published blog posts in 2018
Deadline: December 31, 2017
Milestones: Publish two blog posts per week
Write Book
Goal/Result: Complete the first draft of my first book
Deadline: September 30, 2018
Milestones: Finish rough draft of a chapter each week
Complete Todo List Items
Goal/Result: Bring my todo list down to zero items
Deadline: September 30, 2018
Milestones: Reduce the number of items on todo list by one each day
Health
Goal/Result: Be a healthy 143 pounds
Deadline: December 31, 2018
Milestones: Lose two pounds a week, exercise each day, get enough sleep, restrict pre-dinner calories to 1,000.
Reading
Goal/Result: Read 24 life-changing books
Deadline: December 31, 2018
Milestones: Read a book every two weeks.
Tim Ferriss Trilogy
Goal/Result: Re-read and implement as much as possible from Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour series of books
Deadline: July 31, 2018
Milestones: Read 86 locations on Kindle per day
Decluttering
Goal/Result: Reduce physical possessions by 80%
Deadline: July 31, 2018
Milestones: Go through a room or two each day and get rid of 15-25% of the items in that room.
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