[3-1-3] Design your days, or let them design you

Hey 🙂

I took a week off work this week to spend some time with the family. I think it’s probably quite easy to assume that the 3-1-3 doesn’t really have a place on a holiday week, but what’s interesting is that I’ve been journaling in the mornings about:

• What I’m looking forward to today?
• What kind of mood I want to be in?
• What kind of challenges may I have?
• What will my main focus be for the day?

At the end of the day, I’m looking back and seeing:

• What’s been the highlight today?
• What did I learn?
• What did I get from today?

One of the best journals that facilitates this is the Five-Minute Journal, and if you haven’t tried it, I absolutely suggest that you do. I’ve done this journal for many, many years — for a long stretch of years I did it every single day, and then I’ve taken breaks here and there. I picked it up again this week because I felt like it would be good to help me with a little bit of direction during the holiday week, and make sure I’m prepared for the day ahead.

Ultimately, shifting gears from work to a holiday week can be frustrating and filled with tension and friction, but with a few deliberate questions and focus, it is possible to get your head in the right space – to feel good about the day ahead, feel in control, and feel like you’re deliberately designing your days and your week.

The alternative is that the days and weeks happen to you, and that never works for me – I really hate being dragged around by someone else’s plan (or my own accidental mood), and so it’s important for me to be deliberate about how I want to turn up.

And so, the questions we ask ourselves at the end of the week for our 3-1-3 might be slightly different than what I’ve been using during this holiday week, but the purpose it still the same: to feel happy about what we’re spending our time doing, to approach our life in a deliberate way, and to know that it’s really up to us if we want to look at the day or the week in a positive or negative way.

Now let’s move into your 3-1-3…

1. Three things — reflect on the week gone by

I’d love to encourage you to take 10 or 15 minutes today to do your 3-1-3. What that looks like this week is to reflect on the week gone by and write down at least three things you’ve done this week: achievements, wins. What does progress look and feel like for you this week? You can finish the week in a positive place, knowing that progress is taking place, even though we all know that not everything was done. Let’s focus on what progress looks like.

2. One thing — look ahead to next week

Look ahead to next week: what’s your single most important objective for next week? I love the One Thing question here: what’s the one thing that, if you did that one thing, would make everything else easier or unnecessary? Hopefully that’ll help you figure out what your priority is.

3. Three tasks — get it into the detail

Getting into the detail, getting onto your calendar, and starting to block out that 20% time — detail out the three steps, the three tasks, the three actions you want to take to make progress on that single most important objective next week.

As always, you can jump into the comments section and share your 3-1-3 with me, or you can email me at chris@chrismarr.co.uk.

Hope you’ve had a great week and you’re looking forward to the weekend.

🗣️ 👀

Chris.