Was Today A Success?

“I would know that today was a great success if at the end of the day I did, said, or felt this:”

This is one of the best questions in the Brendon Burchard “High Performance Planner” is that sentence above. The secret of a successful life, after all, is to have lots of successful days. And if you don’t know what makes a successful day, you don’t know how to spend your time, energy and attention. Where attention flows, energy goes, and results show.

For me, my most consistent answer is: “I feel, tired, happy, completed the most important 20% of my daily tasks.”

I don’t try to do “everything.” Just the 20% that gets 80% of the most important results. That means FIRST I do things that are imperative and important, then the things that are important. Then if I still have time things that are “merely” imperative and urgent. Urgent but trivial is a pretty miserable combination to spend your time on. Great way to stress out.

So the day STARTS by remembering my four major goals:

1. Family. Generally to do with Jason and his morning ritual. I’ve noticed that if this goes well, my wife T and I have a great, great day together. All is well.
2. Art. This is connected to my writing. Whether “Hollywood” (where I have unfinished business) or book writing. Well…that’s not entirely true. I am probably transitioning from writing novels, although I have a few more in the hopper. After almost 35 books, I’m not as thrilled any more by just seeing a new Steven Barnes…