Simple Strategies For An Effective Life.

by Steven on July 24, 2010 · No Comments

I haven’t written here – in a long time!

Why not? Well, that’s easy.

Somewhere between launching Endgame with Leigh, making headway at my new dayjob..

..and starting a new project with Leigh which will empower youth to get off the streets, plus spending a few quality hours here and there with my beautiful girl over a bottle of wino..

..there’s been little time for anything else except sleep.

I usually write here when I have a breakthrough to share. And after such a long absence I feel the pressure to reveal something HUGE, but you know what?

Today I have something very simple to offer.

Underneath all this ruckus has been an uber-powerful tool I acquired: a diary. I have always scoffed at the idea, priding myself on the idea that I can “fly by the pants”, and remember appointments, but you know what?

It never really worked.

Not as well as it does now, anyway. Credit card due dates, pay days, phone calls to be made, people to be met, forms to be sent – all of it goes into the diary.

And here’s the key: my diary is used NOT in a descriptive way, but rather in a prescriptive one – i.e., my diary is the source from which my day is lived from.

Whether I feel like doing something or not, I do it.

And if I don’t have the time for it, I make it.

I found that as soon as I started using a diary, I could take more things on. I was so much more effective, because I was no longer limited by constraints of that shitty thing we call human memory.

At the moment, I reckon I’m reaching my current limit of taking new things on. Most days are long, manic, with every minute allocated to creating something..

.. and I often spend my days that I don’t want to be doing, or am afraid of doing.

Hell? Hell no – I’m loving it.

At the end of the day I feel used up, having engaged everything I’ve committed to myself in that day fully.

I share the day over a glass of wino with the said magnificent girlfriend. And then, off we go to bed to get replenished for the next day ahead, feeling complete and used up.

By the way, these changes were inspired by the book I read a few months ago, and can’t recommend enough:

http://www.threelawsofperformance.com

Steven