How would your day go if you claimed your wins?

Ever had a day go sideways?  You know the days that you are well intentioned with what you plan to get done and then at the end of the day you know you were busy, but the important stuff remains on your list.

Am I the only one?  

When this happens do you try to justify what you “did” do or make excuses why you got derailed?

Sometimes it’s unavoidable and hopefully true emergencies are not a daily occurrence.  If they are, you may want to look at your definition of an emergency. 

It can be a challenge with anyone with a mind that tends to jump ahead or experience the “squirrel” attention disruption.  

I’m happy to say this happens less than it used to. 

How you might ask?  Well, I’ve gotten a bit more intentional with framing my days.  Besides making appointments with myself to get things accomplished, like writing this email, I’ve taken a lesson from Dan Sullivan and Dr Benjamin Hardy in The Gap and the Gain.  Great book BTW if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it.

I call it bookending my day.  It’s fairly simple.  At the end of your workday or before you get in bed, whichever works best for you, write down 3 “wins” for your day. All of us can find 3 wins for the day.  

Admittedly, sometimes my win is getting out of bed. HA!  Other days I am able to embrace the wins I planned to achieve that day. 

The next step is to write down 3 anticipated wins for the next day.  I love this because it’s almost like I can feel my brain going to work to solve those anticipated wins. From a neuroscience perspective that is what happens.  Please note, this is not writing your to do list 6 pages long.  Just set 3 anticipated wins for tomorrow. 

Try it…. Take a few seconds and jot down 3 wins from yesterday. Now, claim 3 anticipated wins for today or if you are doing this later in the day or at night write your anticipated wins for tomorrow.  

This seems simple…and it is.   I challenge you to try it.  Try it for a week and let me know if it changes your behavior.  I’m curious if this simple exercise will support you in taking back your day so it doesn’t get away from you.