This article is going to be a little bit different in that I want to share with you something that I have come up with that has really helped me out in all aspects of life. This is not unique by any means but it is something that I have developed over several months of trial and error that uniquely fits me and my goals. I call it the Checklist Method. In this article I want to tell you how to use it and how to tailor it to help you reach your goals.
I developed this method out of necessity. First, indulge me this short description of how I got here. Over the past few years I have listened to countless podcasts, read countless blogs and articles, watched countless videos, and read a lot of books. All of this to say that I have spent much of my work and spare time trying to accumulate knowledge. Accumulating knowledge is a great thing but it can almost be detrimental if you do not know what to do with it. It is very easy to get information overload and shut down, never using any of this knowledge to actually help your life. Over the last few years I have had heard tons of information that I knew could help my life but I was struggling to implement it. I would try 5 things at once, and after a few months only one might still be sticking. I also had written tons of things down in my notebook that I wanted to do. I finally realized that I need a way to measure and track what I was doing. I needed to figure out the most important things that I should be doing and find a way to make sure I did them as often as possible. I have always loved lists and checklists so I decided to create my own personalized checklist for each week, month, and year.
This is the checklist that I came up with. First I divided my life into four categories (personal, business, financial, and fitness). I then created goals for each of those categories (1 year, 5 year, and 10 year). After this I reverse engineered to see what I needed to do daily, monthly, and yearly to get there. What daily habits did I need to implement? Where did I need to be in each category monthly and yearly to make sure I was on the right track to my goals? Once I had a list of these things written down I created three separate scorecards (weekly, monthly, and yearly). Each scorecard is different but is equally important. For the weekly scorecard I listed every daily habit that I needed to do. I ended up with 20 total habits, for a weekly total of 100 habits (I don't score Saturday and Sunday). At the end of each day I check every box that I completed, then at the end of the week I tally up my weekly score. If I completed 75 habits then my score is 75/100, or 75%. For the monthly scorecard I listed the things that I needed to make sure I did every month as well as a monthly score for my weekly habits (the average of my weekly scores). For the yearly scorecard I listed the checkpoints that I needed to achieve in a year, as well as a yearly score for my 12 monthly scorecards. This way I can go back and see how consistent I was in doing what I needed to do. If I score 75% on my yearly scorecard then I can expect to be 75% of the way to where I wanted to be. I can go back and see where I have dropped the ball and try to improve.
I know what you are thinking. This all seems very complicated and boring and I don't know how this applies to me. Well lets spell out an easy way to apply this to your life. Start by writing down 1 goal. Just 1. Now write down 5 things that you can do every day that will help you get there. For example, lets say you want to lose 50 pounds. What can you do every day to lose 50 pounds? I would say you can 1- track your food 2- hit your calories and macros within 5% 3-drink 100 ounces of water 4-do something active 5-eat 5 servings of vegetables. Now would you agree that if you did these 5 thing every day you would most likely lose 50 pounds? I would say that you eventually would! Now all you need to do is take out a sheet of paper, write those things 5 things down in one column, write the days of the week in the other column, and now you have your scorecard! Put a check in the box of each one that you completed at the end of each day and at the end of each week tally up how many you did. Divide this number by the total number of boxes to find your score and write that at the top of the page. Now create another scorecard for the next week and do it all over again. I promise you that after a few weeks of this you will actually enjoy it and you will have a very good idea of what areas you are doing well in and what areas you need improvement. If you get get closer to 100% over time you will be amazed at the progress you make. If you get the hang of this then you can add more goals and more habits to make the checklist bigger. Every person is unique and has different goals which means that every persons checklist is going to be highly personalized. However, I think that the same basic principles can apply to everyone.
I hope that this scorecard system can help you as much as it as helped me. It sounds complicated but it is actually quite simple once you sit down and do it and I know that it is well worth the work if it helps you get closer to your goals. If you have any questions or need help setting your own personal scorecard up please reach out to me. I would love to help you. I am also going to attach the sample scorecard that I developed with a sample week filled out below so you can visually see it. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
