I’m fascinated by self-assessment: how we view ourselves versus how we really are.

For example, after I ran the primary session of my Foundations course, we began with health. I used to be impressed by how many individuals claimed to have already got a strong train behavior.

Now, that might be as a result of sampling bias given the kind of readers I appeal to (are you all actually so match?). But it surely may be as a result of individuals, generally, overestimate how a lot train they really do. In surveys most individuals say they meet really useful train pointers, however the actuality is that fewer than ten p.c really do.

Health appears to be an space the place we have now an overly-rosy self-assessment.

Now evaluate that to the second month within the course, productiveness. As a substitute of optimism, right here the median response was about how dismal their productiveness was. And, since this can be a paid course, most of the college students are high-earning information employees who, not less than in line with the financial definition of productiveness, are among the best individuals on Earth.

Why the disconnect? Why are we so cheerful in our estimation of our train, but so arduous on ourselves relating to the work we’re doing?

Productiveness: Duties and Priorities

I feel a part of it has to do with how the whole style of productiveness recommendation has been offered within the first place: most recommendation focuses on getting a deal with on duties, whereas most individuals wrestle extra with priorities.

Activity-focused recommendation is about tips on how to get all of it carried out: planners, calendars, to-do lists, batching, Kanban, Pomodoro. There are numerous strategies designed to make you extra environment friendly and efficient at tackling the infinite checklist of aspirations and obligations all of us have.

However we are able to’t get all of it carried out. An infinite to-do checklist will nonetheless have an infinite variety of issues on it, regardless of what number of duties you test off. The high-performing productiveness pessimists I encountered within the course have been judging themselves by a regular that’s unattainable to succeed in.

This puzzle, that essentially the most objectively productive individuals really feel the least productive, was on my thoughts after I lately reread Stephen Covey’s guide, First Issues First. I vaguely recalled this guide being about weekly opinions and his productiveness system. In my reminiscence, it was principally about scheduling actions on a weekly foundation and prioritizing actions that have been essential however not pressing.

Upon re-reading, I spotted that my recollection was mistaken. Many of the guide really argues towards the task-focused productiveness strategy within the first place. The weekly assessment isn’t principally about scheduling all of your duties for the week, quite it’s about asking your self: What kind of life ought to I be attempting to dwell?

The Compass and the Clock

Of all of the late-80s self-help gurus, I like Stephen Covey one of the best. The folksy tales and aphorisms appear a little bit hokey as we speak (he doesn’t even use the F-word!). However, in comparison with a number of his contemporaries, Covey is sensible and considerate.

One metaphor Covey depends on is contrasting a clock with a compass. A clock turns time right into a measurable amount that you may slice up, allocate and plan with—one thing you possibly can handle. In distinction, a compass doesn’t provide you with a plan; all it may do is present you whether or not or not you’re headed in the fitting route.

The issue of productiveness, in the end, isn’t that we’re not doing all the pieces we want to (we by no means are), or that we couldn’t probably use our time and vitality higher (we at all times might). As a substitute, it’s eager to really feel happy with how we use what restricted time we have now obtainable.

The purpose of productiveness shouldn’t be to fret obsessively about how a lot we get carried out. As a substitute, it ought to be to really feel, on the finish of the day, that our time wouldn’t have been higher spent doing anything.

In the end, we have to create a imaginative and prescient for our lives and recurrently ask ourselves whether or not we’re really residing as much as it. Duties, initiatives and functions will take so long as they should attain fruition. Our solely job is to ask ourselves what actually issues and have the conviction to stay with that.

The Weekly Overview


I’ve carried out weekly opinions for a lot of my life, however they’ve been largely job oriented: What’s on my schedule? What would I prefer to get carried out? What goes on the to-do checklist for this week? What will get delayed to the long run?

That half is useful. Life not often goes in line with plan, however the plans themselves are nonetheless invaluable. 

Nevertheless, I now see that that is actually solely half of the tactic, and the less-important half at that.


The purpose of the weekly assessment is just not logistics. It’s objective is to not schedule each second of your week upfront or decide precisely which to-do checklist gadgets you should accomplish. As a substitute, it’s a possibility to take a couple of minutes to look at what really issues to you in life, after which be sure that the week that follows is your finest effort to dwell in line with the way you reply.

I’ll give an instance: If I replicate deeply, my youngsters and household matter extra to me than my work. My youngsters are at an age when childcare may be tough. This usually leads to my taking time without work or getting much less carried out. Within the second, my first response is usually to chastise myself for not being extra productive—taking a look at my to-do checklist, I undoubtedly get much less carried out than I did after I was single and child-free.

But when I step again, I understand that this isn’t a failure of productiveness, as a substitute it’s me being my best self. At this stage of my life, I’d quite get much less carried out and have work subordinated to household. A weekly assessment that reaffirms this for me transforms the frustration of being interrupted with recognition that these very interruptions are my true precedence in life.

Right here’s one other instance: I usually do a number of studying and analysis. Prepping my final guide was a multiyear analysis odyssey. If I evaluate myself with different authors, it’s clear my want to drill down into tutorial analysis is a little bit of a handicap. I might in all probability promote extra books (and write them quicker) if I targeted on catchy tales and soundbites quite than sophisticated science.

However, stepping again once more, I understand that understanding the world is one in every of my driving values. Spending “an excessive amount of time researching” isn’t a mistake provided that attempting to grapple with the complexity of life is extra essential to me than producing soothing simplifications.

Constructing Your Compass

This all sounds good, however what when you aren’t certain what your values are? How do you really make these tough choices to trade-off varied elements of your life—and be happy with no matter penalties these selections naturally result in?

Right here I half methods a bit with Stephen Covey. He places a number of emphasis on having a private mission assertion, however I’ve at all times discovered these have a tendency towards both being so generic as to be a platitude (e.g., “I’ll serve mankind.”) or so particular that they overly constrain your future life (e.g., “I’ll serve mankind by way of delivering distinctive high quality assurance within the fridge restore business.”).

As a substitute, I feel the reality about values is that you have already got them. Even when you can’t put it into phrases, you have already got a deep sense of what’s really essential to you in life in comparison with what you merely really feel pressured to attain.

What’s wanted isn’t to provide you with a mission assertion you’ve by no means articulated earlier than, however merely to maintain asking your self why you’re doing issues till you will have solutions that really feel self-evident.


Get a bit of paper and undergo your to-do checklist. Begin asking “why” of every of the gadgets in your agenda. Preserve asking till you both get to a motivating purpose that’s intrinsically compelling to you otherwise you understand that there isn’t a great purpose so that you can be doing it. (By which case, strike it off your to-do checklist or discover a method to get out of doing it on the earliest alternative.)

This doesn’t should be restricted to inspiring stuff. “Get the leak mounted in my home” could not spark pleasure in your life, however it’s fairly straightforward to attach this job to deeper motivations concerning the materials well-being of your own home and household. Equally, a tedious obligation you’re sticking to since you agreed to do it’s straightforward to justify on the premise of being the form of one that retains their guarantees (and maybe you’ll suppose twice earlier than promising one thing like that sooner or later).

What this questioning does is establish the stuff you’re being motivated to do by extra superficial causes and people who really resonate with you (e.g., “I desire a six-pack so individuals will suppose I’m scorching.” versus “I need to be wholesome so I can proceed to dwell nicely into previous age.”). Much more, it additionally helps you acknowledge the issues that really matter to you that aren’t “productive” and so don’t usually match right into a task-oriented to-do checklist, akin to constructing relationships, deep considering and kindness.

When you’ve carried out that, the weekly assessment is an opportunity to test in with that imaginative and prescient each week. Not simply to plan out if you’ll get all of it carried out (trace: you gained’t), however so that you be sure you spend your time doing the fitting issues.

If you are able to do that, you possibly can finish the week happy along with your productiveness, regardless of how a lot of your to-do checklist obtained checked off.