Hello Shai,

Thanks for sharing this!

We’re all trying to evolve towards a better version of ourselves. Sometimes we realize that we’ve just been on autopilot for too long and didn’t take the time and energy necessary to re-evaluate our priorities, goals, etc.

I’m currently going through a similar “exercise”. I’ve read a few great books recently that have helped me figure out what really matters for me now and to decide where/how I want to focus my energy.

Those books are:

• Find your why
• Make Time
• Eat that frog!

You should check them out, especially Make Time which has really resonated with me. (BTW regarding letting go of perfectionism, the book “Sprint” is also interesting!).

I’ve read Getting Things Done by David Allen 10–12 years ago and at that time I remember having laid down my goals and priorities and putting a productivity system in place (e.g., zero inbox, 2-minutes rule, etc).

While GTD has been great for my productivity (personal & at work), it didn’t help to really put focus on what matters most each day. Doing more doesn’t always mean doing meaningful things. The authors of “Make Time” came to the same conclusions and tried other things.

I’m currently applying the approach that they propose in order to choose a “highlight” each day and focus my energy on that one goal, whether it is a great ongoing project, a boring chore at home or anything else. I found this to be great to help me focus and be happy about what I achieve each day.

In addition to this I’ve just finished an exercise where I’ve put down in an Excel sheet all my current projects/work/priorities and tried to allocate “budgets” for each, including stuff like eating, taking care of the dogs (they gotta live, right? :p), exercising, meditating, etc.

To define my “time” budget, I’ve also decided to try and become a morning person and be more reasonable about sleep, focusing on having a more stable rhythm (no more coding sessions until 4am :p).

I took inspiration from a financial management system that I really like, described by the team behind YNAB (You Need A Budget).

With my time budget in place, now I’m going to try and imagine an “ideal” week, distributing my priorities over the week.

I hope that thanks to that imaginary plan, I’ll be able to decide more clearly where I need/want to focus my energy each day.

Next to that, I plan to to track where I “spend” my time, which will allow me to look back and compare theory with reality. By doing that I should then be able to see whether I need to adapt or change my plans.

I have an idea for an app to make that system easy to put in place and track, but that’ll be for later, it’s now on my priority list :D

I’ll be happy to read more about your own journey later on! :)