The three most important things you do today are the three things you decided to do today. Because if you only react to the tasks that come flying at you on any given day, all you are doing is responding to the things that someone else had to do that day.
This reactive workflow keeps us feeling swamped, and yet at the end of the day, we can’t remember getting anything done nor do we feel like we accomplished anything of substance.
It’s the paradox of being busy.
But you can’t be mad that you didn’t get anything done today if you never had a plan for what you wanted to do in the first place.
Wanting to get something done is not the same as deciding to get something done. Wanting leaves room for persuasion and drifting. Deciding is final. The reason we hate deciding is that, by wanting, we can continue to blame something else for not allowing us to do the things we thought we’d to do.
If you had three things that had to get done each day that you decided to do before the day even started, you’d be able to better manage the barrage of requests that you will undoubtedly receive to do other work. You will still feel in control about something, and that is what we want, to some extent, some control over our day’s destiny.
Three things a day is twenty-one things a week, eighty-four things a month that got done because you decided to get them done. That’s progress, no matter how you slice it.
There is no better personal feeling than fulfilled intentions.
What are my three things today?
- Post this blog
- Conduct my General Assembly Livestream Class
- Go running at 4:00 p.m.
Everything else I get done today on my list is playing with the house’s money.
What three things are you getting done today, by hook or crook?
Bassam Tarazi is the creator of a motivational framework, Colipera, which utilizes the notion: collective inspiration + personal accountability—together, be better. Bassam is also the author of The Accountability Effect, and has just launched an online course called: Ready. Set. Finish. Bassam conducts goal setting classes, corporate and group Colipera sessions, and one-on-one coaching for those with 9-to-5’s through his “Maximize Your 5-to-9” program. Bassam can also be followed on Twitter.
*Photo by country_boy_shane.
