There was a podcast listened to at least a year ago where I captured a note on my phone.
This was the note:
- Tasks Done
- People Met
- Ideas Generated and Acted On
I think this might have been an interview with Dorie Clark discussing her book The Long Game. However, a Google search isn’t associating these three ideas with anyone.
Today, I listened to the Before Breakfast podcast titled Stay in Touch.
This triggered thoughts about the People Met attribute and brought me back to this framework.
My Perspective
What if we considered a day successful if we had done these things?
Tasks Done – Likely at the end of every day we can say we got tasks done. I think the bigger question would be if we got the “right” tasks done. The ones that will move our project or company forward.
People Met – This idea is to reach out to new people or connections you may not engage with on a regular, everyday basis. This could be easy if you are traveling or attending a conference but would need to be more intentional on a month without travel.
Ideas Generated – I like the idea of separating the last topic on the list into two actions. The first is to generate ideas every day. The ideas could be for anything – a new project, an existing project, a process, or leveraging a trend.
Ideas Acted On – From the list of ideas generated, each day take an action on an idea to move it forward. Part of this process will be to prioritize the ideas and then break them down to make them manageable. The ideas generated list will always be much longer than the ones you act on.
My Story
This framework could be used as it relates to writing this blog. Here is what I see:
- Tasks Done – I have tasks to do like writing, taking photos, and uploading content to WordPress.
- People Met – This is the one that needs work. I do connect with people regularly, but not daily. I would like to think about how to make this a more intentional part of my day.
- Ideas Generated – Throughout my day, when something sparks an idea, I take a note. Those notes are then collected in a document on my computer.
- Ideas Acted On – Each day, I scan the list of ideas, pick one to write about, and write a blog post. The note is a sentence at most, but that is all I need to begin to write.
Your Turn
Do you incorporate each of these in your day?
Which of the four is the weakest?
What could you do to strengthen that dimension?