A quick recap of everything we’ve covered in this book
Note: this chapter is part of a book on how to live your best life. You can view the whole series here.
| “It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” ―Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland |
In this section, we’ll review everything you’ve learned and tie it into an easy-to-follow format.
Remember: action = results.
I promise you’ll get great results if you follow the steps outlined below. Each step has been designed to take you less than five minutes, so you will see results immediately.
Before we get to the “do this, now do that” bit, I want you to know how happy I am that you read this book.
You learned how to find your purpose, prioritize your goals, optimize your workflow, and maximize your willpower. You also learned how to build rock-solid routines, block distractions, and use 11 different techniques to follow through.
And once you implement what you’ve learned, you’ll enjoy more clarity and less stress. You’ll be happier, healthier, and wealthier—or whatever else you desire. Just work the system and you’ll be good to go.
Chapter summaries
Chapter 1: Find your purpose
This is the foundation upon which the rest of this book is laid upon—so don’t skip this step.
To define your purpose, answer the following 10 questions as honestly as you can:
- What are my natural gifts?
- What do I love to do?
- When do I feel the most alive?
- What am I passionate about?
- Who inspires me? What do I admire most about them?
- What have others always said that I am really good at?
- What would I change in the world if I could?
- If I could write my own life story at the end of my life, what would I want to put in that story?
- What would I attempt if I was guaranteed success?
- How would my life change if I never had to work another day? What would I do more of? What would I do less of? What would I start doing? What would I stop?”
Chapter 2: Pinpoint and Prioritize Your Goals
Answer the following 10 questions to reveal exactly what you want in life:
- What do I want to do?
- What do I want to be?
- What do I want to see?
- Where do I want to go?
- What do I want to have?
- Who do I want to spend more time with?
- What would be the most fun thing to do?
- What activity do I want to stop doing?
- What is missing in my life?
- What’s stopping me from achieving everything in this list?
Then,
- Create a Trello account (or use a pen and paper).
- Use the Trello template created here.
- Answer the questions as honestly as you can.
- Add pictures to each card.
- In each column, list each card by priority, starting from the top down.
- Move the top two cards from each column into the first column.
- Prioritize the cards in the first column, with the highest priority card at the top.
- Create a reminder in your calendar to review your Board Game in six months to ensure your goals are still relevant.
Chapter 3: Optimize Your Workflow
- Create a new board and call it “Kanban.”
- Open your Board Game of Life in Trello.
- Copy the cards in the first column of your Board Game of Life and move them into your “Kanban” board. Put these cards in “To-Do” column.
- Ensure each card is a SMART goal; that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.
- To make the card timely, use Trello’s “Due Date” feature to add a specific date.
- Empty your mind by putting EVERYTHING in your head into the backlog column of your kanban. (Go crazy here; the backlog will only get longer with time, and that’s a good thing—if you weren’t writing it down, all that stuff would still be in your head.)
- Move cards that are important and necessary into your “To-Do” column.
- Optional: If you have daily tasks and don’t feel like adding them to your kanban every day, create automatic recurring cards using Zapier. This article explains how.
Chapter 4: Maximize Your Willpower
- Identify when you feel drained—and solve it. Is it because your glucose is low? Are you in a bad mood? Or does your work feel meaningless? Once you’ve identified the cause, take steps to fix it. The solution may be as simple as drinking a glass of lemonade, watching a kitten video, or explaining why your work is important.
- Make fewer decisions. Each decision drains your willpower; save your willpower for important decisions, and use routines for the rest. Eat the same meals. Wear the same clothes. Embrace routines—most of the time.
Chapter 5: Build Rock-solid Routines
- Set up—and stick to—a daily routine.
- Use emotional (positive and negative) triggers. Example: use the same place to work, listen to the same music, etc.
- Use ultradian rhythms; work no more than 90 minutes at a time.
- Show up to work—even if you don’t feel like it.
- Do what matters most, first. Your willpower decreases throughout the day.
- Establish hard edges to your day—and ruthlessly adhere to them.
- Do your most rewarding and challenging work first.
- Plan tomorrow, today.
- Use the “habit hitchhiking” technique to combine multiple habits.
Chapter 6: Block Distractions
- Start every day with your kanban. Empty your mind into the backlog column so you start with a clear head.
- Select your most important thing to do today. Move this item into your “doing” column in your kanban (if it’s not already there).
- Break larger tasks into smaller, separate tasks—and place them in your kanban. Doing so will make your work seem more manageable, and you won’t procrastinate.
- Forgive yourself for procrastinating. But if your partner is procrastinating, don’t do the work for them. Wait them out; otherwise, you’re just enabling them!
- Optional: try StayFocusd to help you block distractions.
Chapter 7: Follow Through
- Use the 11 techniques to improve your follow-through.
- Those 11 techniques are:
- Visualize your success
- The Napoleon (burn bridges)
- Win the war, skip the battles
- Raise the stakes
- The “Pull the trigger” technique
- The Woody Allen technique
- Stack your benefits
- The 5x method
- The progress bar
- The “Before That” technique
- If-then planning
- Congratulate yourself when you follow through—and enjoy the dopamine rush!
Well, truth-seeker, I hope you enjoyed the course as much as I enjoyed writing it. It’s been a hell of a ride, and I look forward to seeing your comments throughout the book.
Note: this chapter is part of a book on how to live your best life. You can view the whole series here.