Have you ever had that thing where you do something, it works brilliantly… and then, over time, you forget to do it and it gradully slips out of your week?
Like going to the gym, journaling, flossing, setting aside proper time to think, or a host of other things?
It wasn’t an active decision to stop. It was as simple as life getting busy. Other things crowd in. And the habit that actually worked pretty well quietly disappears.
I had a reminder this week that at some point I mislaid along the way one of the most powerful routines I ever had:
I was reminded of it reading The Trillion Dollar Coach, where Eric Schmidt talks about carving out two hours each week. One to reflect on the week gone, and one to look ahead. He treats it like an important meeting with his future self.
And I realised: I used to do this.
Every day, in fact. I had a practice I called the 80/20 Review. It was built on the Pareto principle where you get 80% of your results from 20% of your actions. Or perhaps more accurately each week you might find that 10 minutes of what you did was incredibly high value, a bunch of so-so value, and then a pile of “not very useful of valuable stuff.
. I’d reflect:
What actually created impact today?
What was a waste of time or energy?
What small act of courage, kindness, or clarity made a difference?
It was simple. Effective. Transformational. It made me focus on what made a difference, it whittled away wasted time, and made me much more conscious of how I was using my time.
And then… it slipped.
So this is your nudge. And mine. To reflect and to bring back one habit that worked really well for you.
Just one.
Not everything that works has to be new.
Sometimes the upgrade is going back to something simple, tried and tested that you already know makes A difference.
Here’s 3 experiments to bring this to life.
🎯 Three Experiments
⏱ 2-minute experiment:
Right now, stop and think. Reflect on one thing today that you used to do that made a real difference, but that you’ve fallen out of the habit of doing it. Write it down and commit to doing it again for the next 14 days.
⏱ 10-minute experiment:
Each evening this week, ask:
What was my highest-value moment?
What drained me for little return?
Track the patterns. Adjust accordingly.
⏱ 2-hour experiment:
Straight out of the Trillion Dollar Coach Playbook. Block two one-hour sessions this week:
One to reflect on the week just gone
One to plan the week ahead
Protect them like a meeting with your future self. Because that’s exactly what they are.
What music to pair with this idea? Let’s go with beauttiful sounds of Talking Heads and The Road to Nowhere.
https://open.spotify.com/track/6JTCH5tFwpTXIyPeWRaUK7?si=a46d0974546a4b56