A weekly grade has so far been a small change that rippled out into a number of larger improvements. Knowing that any choice I make has a chance to impact what score I give myself across a number of categories, has led to an increased adherence to quite a few habits.
Measured is Managed
I’ve mentioned this adage by Peter Drucker in the past and this may be the best implementation of this principle. Taking the time to reflect on the week allows me to recognize what decisions were positive to some areas, but may have had a negative impact elsewhere.
When I sat down on Sunday, I started by simply writing out all of my thoughts on the prior week. I sought to drain every detail from my mind, then gave my grade. This allowed me to see the whole picture, even if I had some expectations for each area before writing, as I’ll touch on a bit below.
This may become a cornerstone habit I can use to develop many more habits beyond this. I’ve already taken better steps to improve a few areas in my life with a single assessment.
Personal Progress
Last week turned out better than I expected overall. There were a few moments that led to more average scores than poor ones.
Relationships is where I felt I really excelled, though this was largely impacted by starting a new job. Meeting a lot of new people increased my assessment pretty well. I also fostered a number of existing relationships spending some quality time with friends.
Health was the category I saw the lowest performance in. Diet and sleep were the major factors there, even though exercise and mental health were better than I initially though. A few poor decisions in what I ate and my sleep habits offset any good decisions otherwise. I’ve definitely worked to set up better habits for both of those areas since.
With deeper reflection, finances turned out to look better on paper than I initially thought. I felt I didn’t do a very good job of where I was spending my money and decisions made financially, but sometimes it’s the things we don’t do that really improve our lives. A few bad decisions avoided gave me a bump up.
Projects and learning were areas that I felt were just about average. Nothing in particular stood out for these. Decisions made didn’t lead to overall gains or losses in these areas of my life.
Are these areas you can measure in your own life? What do you think of your last week? Let me know in the comments below!
Trying Out Before Buying In 