Daily things

Many of us feel like we don’t have enough time to get all the things we need to do in the day. What you do every day determines what your future is going to look like.

It’s habits that shape a lot of our lives. Habits are not the enemy, the outcome of habits is the real problem. Getting a handle on the habits, the things that you do every day makes a huge difference in the future.

I used to try and do a lot of to-do lists. What did I find? I would be writing the same things over and over. I would put things on the list that I must be doing every day. Check it off and I would feel better. The result is that I filled the list with everyday things. Not things that would move me forward and get real shit done.

So I decided to pull a different tack. I have been working a lot over the last year with defining my rules and standards. What I came up with are the daily things I must do. These became what I call Daily Things.

Daily Things are what I don’t include on a to-do list. It has done two things. First, it takes the mundane off the to-do list. Now that list can be things that move you forward not just survive. Second, it makes those tasks habits. Must-dos that cause a lasting change going forward.

After I started the Daily Things, I noticed a few improvements. Now I have a better way to schedule parts of my day. I also found that the stuff on my to-do list actually mattered.

Speaking of scheduling. Most people really are not good at making strict schedules for their lives. I’m one of them. There are things I know I do better in the morning and things that I would prefer to do in the evening. The beauty of the Daily Things, is that you don’t have to put them on a schedule. You just have to do them sometime in the day!

So some people might think and say, “if I don’t schedule it I won’t get to it.” That’s fine. The important part is that you know you have to make the time. Even still, I get to the end of a day look at the list and am like “Damn, I missed a few things.”

Sometimes I’ll just do them right then. But the important point is that I tell myself that I HAVE to find the time for this.

If you have something on the list and you repeatably don’t get to it, you need to question why you are not getting to it. Is it hard, are you avoiding it, or maybe it’s not important enough to give you any motivation?

You have to evaluate that list at a regular interval. Mine changes. There are things that I need to do in a certain timeframe. After it’s done, doesn’t need to be on the list.

After a time, some of those things on the list become such habits, you couldn’t think of a day without doing that task.

I use the Daily Things to keep those habits. To make that little bit of work every day that has better outcomes over months and years.

But remember that the list is not set in stone. It changes. You also need to check yourself. Now for some people, this might not be easy. Maybe you need another person to check up on you. Have them keep you honest. We all need that person. Even folks that really have their shit together.

For me, at the end of the day, I do a little written check. I call it the Daily Reflection. The Reflection is just bullet points: what went well, what didn’t go so well, what could I improve on, and just a brief segment about the day and how I felt.

It takes at most 10 minutes if you’re really digging deep. Usually, it only takes me like five. But it’s a good tactic at the end of the day, to wind down, and figure out how to do it better.

More often than not, I end up with more positives than negatives. But that’s sort of the way that I look at the world.

A long journey is just a series of a lot of days. Doing my Daily Things keeps me heading in the right direction.