[3-1-3] Do it before you need it

Hey 🙂

Something funny happened to me while I was doing my 3-1-3 this week.

The first thing that showed up was a bit of resistance. A little voice going: do I really need to do this? I feel on top of things. Everything feels clear.

And that’s exactly the trap. That’s the insidious thing about any discipline — you don’t wait until you need it before you do it. You do it before you need it. It’s a bit of a paradox: the whole point is that you shouldn’t feel like you need it. There’s no fire to put out, no problem on the horizon. And that’s precisely the moment to do it anyway. That’s what keeps you ahead of things, and it’s what keeps your relationship with your work healthy.

The second thing that showed up was this — and I feel strongly about it, so bear with me.

It’s just too easy, in our culture, to make everything feel difficult, stressful and busy. It doesn’t have to be that way, and I refuse to be part of it. I refuse to finish a day giving myself a hard time about what didn’t get done. I refuse to close out a week with that low hum of “not enough was done.” I’m not going to live like that, and I don’t think you should either — it’s a fast route to feeling resentful, tired, and like you hate your own work.

The version I want instead: feel proud of what you did do, and make a plan to be a little bit better next week. That’s it. That’s the whole game.

We’re here for a short time. We spend a huge amount of our life at work — so let’s do what we can to actually be happy while we’re doing it.

With that in mind, here’s your 3-1-3 for the week.

Your 3-1-3

[3] Three wins. Look back across the week — what three things look and feel like progress to you? What’s a win, an achievement, something you’re proud of? What does progress look like for you this week?

[1] One objective. Looking ahead to next week, what’s your single most important objective? Is there one thing that, if you focused on it, would make everything else easier or unnecessary?

Focus time. Once you’ve named that objective, go into your calendar and block the focus time for it — your 20% time for the week ahead.

[3] Three tasks. Finally, the detail: what are the three tasks or steps you need to take next week to move the needle on that objective? Add these into your calendar as the actual jobs to be done.

Now go do it

The most important part of all this is that you actually do it. Grab a coffee, take fifteen minutes, and work through it.

If you want some accountability, jump into the comments with your 3-1-3, or email me at chris@chrismarr.co.uk — I’d love to read it.

Hope you’ve had a great week. Enjoy the weekend, and go into Monday with a plan.

🗣️ 👀

Chris.