My last blog concerned the $400,000 secret my father left in the family garage when he died. I wrote of how he disciplined himself to write out the six most important things he had to do every day, in order of their importance. If any item remained undone at the end of the day, it went back to the top of the next day’s list. He expected all of us (I had eight siblings) to follow his method and he printed out boxes of notepads, beautifully bound and ready to use. They gathered dust in his garage for the next forty years until I found them.
Since finding those notepads, I have reproduced them for myself and family and friends. They have been a useful antidote to the splintering of attention that keeps us from accomplishing what we set out to achieve each day. As multitasking has become de rigueur, as my attention has been constantly interrupted by my phone, my watch, my computer, and as my own memory of what was happening even a few minutes ago becomes vaguer with each passing day, I find myself staring blankly sometimes and just wondering, “What am I supposed to be doing right now?” Usually, I can’t even remember where I started before someone interrupted my previous interruption. My notepad, which cannot be electronically monitored or overridden, shows me where I started out that day, and where I need to go next. It’s on paper, so it can’t be altered by anyone but me. My focus returns. Have I even done the first thing on it, the thing I thought was the most important thing to do today? If not, I get back to it.
As I noted in the previous blog, the “Six Things” were originally the creation of efficiency expert Ivy Lee, who provided the method to Charles Schwab of Bethlehem Steel in 1918. Schwab was so impressed he paid Lee $400,000 in today’s dollars. Today’s efficiency experts still tout this method, and it seems even more important today despite all the dueling computers telling us the next thing we’re supposed to do. The problem with all of those computers and phones is that we are not alone when we look at them. Nearly everyone else in the world is using the internet to distract us by gaining some sort of access to your consciousness as you use them.
Because I’ve been taking my father’s old notepads to a printer, it has been a fairly expensive exercise. They were, however, a unique treasure, as they reminded me of my father, one of the most productive human beings I’ve ever known. The pad sits there each night and each morning, ready to be filled in during a few moments of focus before the day begins in earnest. The origin story, as told by my father, is printed on the back of each page to remind me how important and effective the exercise can be. (See my last blog for a pdf of the form.)
Inevitably, however, I began to think of ways to improve my father’s sheet. After a couple of attempts, this is the form I came up with in consultation with my son, who had been using the sheets every day for a year. [New Five Things]
The first page is as follows:
The Most Important Thing to do Today is:
Five More Things That Must be Done:
- ________________________________
- ________________________________
- ________________________________
- ________________________________
- ________________________________
___Exercise
___Prayer, Meditation
The method still begins by identifying six things to do each day, but it forces you to identify and focus on the most important thing most of all. Let’s face it, there are days when you will only get one thing done. It might as well be the most important thing.
This sheet also adds little tick lines to be checked off when you exercise and engage in prayer or meditation at the beginning of the day. As I near the end of my working life, I recognize these requirements daily. I won’t claim that I exercise and pray at the beginning of every day, but I do most days, and I think it is the right way to begin every day, even before you identify or tackle the six most important things you have to do each day. If you have to miss a day of exercise, prayer and meditation, the tick lines will be there the next day to remind you to return to these habits.
I also decided to make additional use of the back of the notepads, where my father would repeat the origin story of the six-things method. Here is what the back page now looks like:
Tonight, I am Grateful to God for:
- _____________________________
- _____________________________
- _____________________________
Tonight, I am Grateful to Family and Friends for:
- _____________________________
- _____________________________
- _____________________________
I Look Forward to Tomorrow Because:
__________________________________
I won’t say that I find six things to be grateful for each night, but the exercise of looking for at least one thing is important. If you can’t find even one thing, you aren’t looking hard enough.
It’s also hard sometimes to find a way to look forward to tomorrow. Some of us have things happening tomorrow that we’d rather avoid. Perhaps we can only look forward to getting something one day closer to being over with, the way some people count the days to their retirement. Also, whatever our challenges, we need to recognize how blessed we are even in our troubles. In the midst of the depression that led me to write my book, there was always my daughter’s smile when she saw me. That was always something to look forward to, even on my worst day.
I’ve claimed a copyright in the “New Six Things,” and maybe someday I’ll try to publish them. But for now, please feel free to print out the pdf above for your personal use (only). And let me know if it helps you.
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