Choose your daily Highlight

Choose a single activity to prioritize

You can decide based on

• Urgency
• Satisfaction
• Joy

Ideally something that takes about 90 minutes

How to choose your highlight

• Write it down: pushes us to do it
• If still relevant, repeat the previous day
• Undecided? Make a list of things that matter to you
  • Choose the 5 most meaningful ones
  • Avoid everything else
• Batch the little stuff
• To-do list/Burner list
• Personal sprint

Make Time for Your Highlight

• Schedule Your Highlight
• Block Your Calendar
• Shorten scheduled events
• Cancel some events
• Just Say No
• Design Your Day
• Become a Morning/Night Person
• Quit When You’re Done

Be the Boss of Your Phone

• Try a Distraction-Free Phone
• Log Out
• Turn off Notifications
• Clear Your Home screen
• Wear a Wristwatch
• Leave Devices Behind

Stay Out of Infinity Pools

• Skip the morning check-in
• Block Distractions
• Ignore the News
• Put your toys away
• Fly Without Wi-Fi
• Put a Timer on the Internet
• Cancel the Internet
• Watch Out for Time Craters
• Trade Fake Wins for Real Wins
• Turn Distractions into Tools
• Become a Fair-Weather Fan

Slow Your Inbox

• Deal with Email at the End of the Day
• Schedule Email Time
• Empty Your Inbox Once a Week
• Pretend Messages Are Letters
• Be Slow to Respond
• Reset Expectations
• Set Up Send-Only Email
• Vacation Off the Grid
• Lock Yourself Out

Make TV a “Sometimes Treat”

• Don’t Watch the News
• Put Your TV in the Corner
• Ditch Your TV for a Projector
• Go à la Carte Instead of All-You-Can-Eat
• If You Love Something, Set It Free

Find Flow

• Shut the Door
• Invent a Deadline
• Explode Your Highlight
• Play a Laser Sound Track
• Set a Visible Timer
• Avoid the Lure of Fancy Tools
• Start on Paper

Stay in the Zone

• Make a “Random Question” List
• Notice One Breath
• Be Bored
• Be Stuck
• Take a Day Off
• Go All In

Focus music

For many years I used Focus@Will

+ Music for focus - not entertainment
+ Based on 7 years of data, research, and science
+ Created by Scientists, Musicologists, and Producers

• No voice, no jazz, no middle frequencies
• No catchy music, just background
• Alternatives for different brains

It was too expensive

Today I replaced it with YouTube Music

(I pay for YouTube without ads)

Recommended style: Japanese Lo-Fi Hip-hop

Sometimes I start with one favorite song:
it creates a conditional reflex to “start focusing”

Keep It Moving

• Exercise Every Day (but Don’t Be a Hero)
• Pound the Pavement
• Inconvenience Yourself
• Squeeze in a Super Short Workout

Eat Real Food

• Eat Like a Hunter-Gatherer
• Central Park Your Plate
• Stay Hungry
• Snack Like a Toddler
• Go on the Dark Chocolate Plan

Optimize Caffeine

• Wake Up Before You Caffeinate
• Caffeinate Before You Crash
• Take a Caffeine Nap
• Maintain Altitude with Green Tea
• Turbo Your Highlight
• Learn Your Last Call
• Disconnect Sugar

Go Off the Grid

• Get Woodsy
• Trick Yourself into Meditating
• Leave Your Headphones at Home
• Take Real Breaks

Make It Personal

• Spend Time with Your Tribe
• Eat Without Screens

Sleep in a Cave

• Make Your Bedroom a Bed Room
• Fake the Sunset
• Sneak a Nap
• Don’t Jet-Lag Yourself
• Put On Your Own Oxygen Mask First

Fine-Tune Your Days with the Scientific Method

1. OBSERVE what’s going on.
2. GUESS why things are happening the way they are.
3. EXPERIMENT to test your hypothesis.
4. MEASURE the results and decide whether you were right.

Take Notes to Track Your Results (and Keep You Honest)

Small Shifts Create Big Results