Notes VTH

Once a week, usually on Thursdays, I block out a 2-hour period of my day just to think.

In the evening, I remove all possible distractions, especially electronics like my phone and my laptop, and I basically lock myself in a room to question my work and my lifestyle with a pen and a notebook.

Here are a few questions I reflect on:

• Am I excited to be doing what I’m doing or am I in aimless motion?
• Are the trade-offs between work and my relationships well-balanced?
• How can I speed up the process from where I am to where I want to go?
• What big opportunities am I not pursuing that I potentially could?
• What’s a small thing that will produce a disproportionate impact?
• What could probabilistically go wrong in the next 6 months of my life?

préface de L’histoire sans fin

1 – Pick an area of my life I want to work on

2 – Select a goal to help me improve in that area

3 – List any tools or resources to help me achieve that goal

4 – List the steps I need to take to achieve that goal

5 – List daily habits to work towards that goal

6 – Write out a 12-month plan for accomplishing that goal

« Goals without plans are just dreams. »

Einstein was once asked what the difference was between him and the average person. He said that if you asked the average person to find a needle in the haystack, the person would stop when he or she found a needle. He, on the other hand, would tear through the entire haystack looking for all the possible needles.

Email apps implement “Inbox Zero” with the concept of the 4 D’s of time management: Do, Done, Delay and Delegate. The idea here is that with every email that arrives in your inbox, you open it immediately and do one of four things:

• Do: The email requires an action be performed (normally outside of the inbox), so you action it immediately.
• Done: The email is deemed “done” (a reply has been sent or there is no action required) so the most appropriate method is to Delete or Archive it.
• Delay: The email requires resources or attention not available to you right now, so your email app should remind you of this email at a later date.
• Delegate: The email requires the resources or attention of someone else, so forward the email to them immediately with the necessary context.