Jumpstart January Pt.3: Simple But Effective Strategy For Creating Masterpiece Days, Every Day

Hint: pre-commit, commit, re-commit

Photo by Tom Podmore on Unsplash

Hello friends! 👋

We’re in the home stretch folks!

Welcome to to the third part of the Jumpstart January where we focus on strategy.

If you apply what we talked in Part 1 and Part 2 then I guarantee you this strategy will help you achieve your most demanding dreams. As I previously shared, most people start here in strategy - and that’s guaranteed to fail at some point. For a strategy to be effective it has to be rooted in deep foundations, which is why I started with the other two parts first.

If you’re willing to put in the effort, you might get to have fun along the way as well.

Before we start; have you joined my 30-day writing journey? I am writing a daily atomic essay on similar topics we discuss here as well as trying to write about new ideas too. You can check it out by following me on Twitter or LinkedIn

Let’s now shift gears back to our newsletter, what is the strategy?

📝 FAIL TO PLAN AND YOU’D BE PLANNING TO FAIL

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

A plan backed up by action becomes a reality.

We can make our lives much easier and simpler by taking them one day at a time. Ask yourself: “How can I make today a masterpiece day?” Not tomorrow, not yesterday, not all my days in the future, just this day, just today. There’s a power in focusing our attention to a smaller timeframe, just like when you use a magnifying glass to create fire from sunlight.

Every morning has to start with a personal meeting, a personal check-in.

As I covered in the last post, if we do not control our AM bookend and jump straight in the auto-cycles of the day, we would see very quickly how very little control we have over the events of the day. The AM bookend is most critical for setting intentions for the day, and for “making time” for things that matter to you especially when your schedule is packed; can you make your workout only 5 mins instead of 45 mins today? Can you make you meditation only 3 minutes instead of 30 mins?

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🔍 HYPER-FOCUS ON YOUR TASKS DURING THE DAY

Once you’ve set out the plan for the day (should take you 3 mins in total, check out this LinkedIn post I shared on this), you’re now off to create magic.

I hate to break the news to you, but there is no such thing as multi-tasking. Our minds can focus on only one task at a time. While we can switch really fast between tasks it seems that we are multi-tasking, we end up allocating sub-optimal attention to both of them.

When we switch tasks we need 23-mins to regain focus at optimal levels.

That’s too much time spent in mediocre engagement and output for my liking. Which is why I guard my “deep work” time-blocks with vigilance. Airplane mode, no notifications, no background conversations, no distractions. These time-blocks are pre-booked in my calendar for 30, 60, or 90 min blocks depending on what time allows.

As you go on with this deep work session, make sure to oscillate and take a 5-15 min break based on the deep work session.

This oscillation is as critical as the deep work itself in maintaining high quality output throughout the day.

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📐 WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS IMPROVED

Pearson’s law tells us that performance gets better when it is tracked.

So, before you close your day, track your performance vs. the plan you set in the morning. Did you do what you said you will do? Awesome! Give yourself an imaginary high-five and celebrate that win - you are subconsciously conditioning your mind to keeping commitments. This celebration is the reward that nourishes and builds self-confidence, don’t let it slip through.

Did you fail and not deliver vs. your commitment?

Super!

That means you have something to work on, a little project to understand what happened and what you will do next so it doesn’t happen again. Once you’ve identified what needs to be done, make sure it is a top priority for tomorrow. Thinking of it like a game of a chess and God/ The Universe/ The Gods are giving you challenges to upskill you and increase your competence - don’t miss this chance for an upgrade!

One promise I made myself that changed everything for me is: To never miss two days in a row.

And don’t forget to bring self-compassion (quiz time: do you remember the three pillars we talked? Active recall helps with better learning) to the situation so you can continue showing up to build resilience and motivation.

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So, back to you;

• Have you thought what your ideal day look like?

• What will you do so you can set plan for the day? (maybe a physical notebook, a digital note, an excel file, etc.)

• What is the NUMBER ONE thing you will do tomorrow to bring your best in your self, your passion, and your relationships.

With that I want to wish you an awesome week and a Super Sunday! 🙌

With much joy,

Hashim