[3-1-3] Time to reset and refocus

Hey 🙂 

It’s that time again — the 3-1-3. 

If you’re new to this or it’s been a minute since you’ve done one, here’s a quick reminder of why this matters: this is potentially the most important 10-15 minutes you’ll spend all week.

Every single week, it’s so easy to drift slightly off track. Distractions creep in, “urgent” stuff crowds out important stuff, and before you know it, weeks have gone by without you making real progress on what actually matters. Taking a few minutes on a Friday to look back and plan ahead is how you stay aligned with your priorities, your goals, your vision — instead of just reacting to whatever shows up in your inbox.

The whole point of this exercise is to protect your 20% time — the work that only you can do, the work that if you do it, makes everything else easier or unnecessary. The other 80% of your week will fill up with meetings and lower-value tasks regardless. What we’re doing here is making sure that 20% doesn’t get swallowed up.

So here’s your 3-1-3. Send it back to me — I’m happy to hold you accountable, but really, this is for you.

3 things that felt like progress this week?

Look back over the week. What are the three things that genuinely felt like a win? Like you moved something forward?

We do this because most people finish the week focused on everything still left on the to-do list — “I never get it all done,” “there’s still so much to do.”

Instead, we want to finish the week clear-eyed about what you did achieve. And here’s the thing: when you actually stop and look, you’ll almost always find more progress than you gave yourself credit for.

1 single most important priority for next week

Out of everything on your plate, what’s the one thing that deserves your full focus? What’s the priority that should dictate how you protect your calendar — your 20% time? This is the thing you time-block for first, before anything else fills the space.

3 tasks that will move the needle

Now get specific. What are the three actual tasks or actions that will move that priority forward next week? This is what turns your 20% time from a vague “busy” block into something concrete — you know exactly what you’re doing with that protected time.

Here’s the deal: if you nail your most important work and everything else in your week goes sideways, you’ll still end the week satisfied — because the thing that mattered most got done. That’s why it has to go into the calendar first.

Take the 10 minutes. Reply [chris@chrismarr.co.uk] with your 3-1-3.

🗣️ 👀

Chris.