Rule 3 - Dailies, Weeklies & Monthlies

These are the tasks you complete, you guessed it, daily, weekly and monthly that could spark something new or significant in other areas of your life.

Dailies

So, lets start with Dailies which I mentioned in Rule 2. These are tasks you complete everyday (or most days) that, even if you did nothing else, you’d still feel like you accomplished something for today. They should be small enough to be fairly easy to accomplish but not too small that they become meaningless. I write these down in a small box on my Daily To Do List as mentioned in Rule 2. Below is an example with my Dailies:

Most of these are self explanatory but I’ll explain each one to provide a deeper understanding with recommendations for each, in case you want to use any yourself.

Meditate

I meditate for around 10 minutes everyday, usually in the morning. I use neuroscientist Sam Harris’ meditation app; Waking Up. I began mediatating using the popular mindfulness app Headspace which provides, for me, a beginners guide to mindfulness, however, to gain a deeper understanding of the theory behind mindfulness, the reasons why we should meditate and to gain a more philisophical understanding of mindfulness, I recommend Waking Up. The benefits of mindfulness cannot be overstated.

Music

This one’s pretty simple, I make sure I listen to that month’s playlist. Studies show listening to music can reduce pain, stress or even depression. Each month I add new music that I’ve been wanting to listen to or that I have noted down to listen to previosuly. This makes it easier to stay up to date with new music and make small dents in my ‘Music to Listen to’ list. Yes, I have A LOT of lists. At the end of the week, I sort the music into playlists like ‘Favourites’ or ‘Motivation’ and then, at the end of the month I start a new playlist with new music and any music I didn’t listen to from the previous playlist. Make sense?

Read

This is pretty self-explanatory, but I make sure I read something like a magazine, book or blog everyday. It doesn’t matter how much, I generally read more on a day off but on busy days, I might only manage 5 pages but at least I’ve made some progress on whatever I’m reading.

Write

This is also very self-explanatory and is also a task specific to my career goals so if this isn’t something that will help you make progress, don’t bother. However, for those who perhaps want to start writing or just be more creative, I ensure that I write something everyday. This could be just thoughts that I’m having that day or, like right now, it could be writing this article. Sometimes, I don’t feel like I have much to say but once I start typing some non-sensical drivvle, it turns into something I can use later. Other times, I just write out why I hate the rain. Some days bring more promise and that’s ok. As long as I continue this habit, I’ll eventually write something relatively useful.

Duolingo

Duolingo is a language learning app that teaches a language in a fun and more realistic manner than the ways in which schools teach languages (it’s not learning through a textbook). A daily lesson takes less than 5 minutes and helps you learn the basics for beginners, helps you stay on top of vocabularly for intermediate learners and helps you perfect fluency for more experienced learners.

Quotes & Read Quote

This may be something more specific to me but I find myself, when reading, connecting to certain quotes so I fold down the page or screenshot on my phone, then later I’ll come back to it and note it down on the Evernote app (I also use this for writing down my daily musings). I then categorize the quotes (life, career, motivation, failure etc.) to make it easier to find when I need specific inspiration.

I also read a random quote at the start of each day to motivate me throughout the day.

News

Lastly, this is also specific to my career goals however, if you want to stay up to date with the news but not feel overwhelmed by it, I recommend suscribing to a news company’s daily news briefing. These are sent to your email everyday and give you a brief overview of the news for the day. For those who want more depth, I suscribe to three different news company’s briefings from different political perscpectives as I think it’s important to see how each side of the spectrum reports on different stories, which stories each side priorotizes and gives you more perspective about the other side of thinking making you more empathetic and understanding when debating someone.

Weeklies

I try to complete these tasks every Sunday and most weeks fail, so these are just tasks to complete each week to stay organized. I’ll write these down on my Weekly To Do List as seen below:

Room/House

I denote time every week to tidy up and generally make sure everything is fairly organized for the week ahead. This shouldn’t be a deep clean, it should just provide more inspiration than a messy room or house. So empty the trash and recycling, do some dishes, perhaps a quick dust, organize that giant pile of clothes accumulated on your chair and just make sure you’re all straightened out for the week ahead.

Car

If you’re lucky enough to own a car, treat it with respect and gratitude and keep it tidy. Each week I’ll make sure there’s no rubbish in my car and give it a quick spray of air freshener. If you have a dog that sheds, I would maybe give it a quick hoover but this, again shouldn’t be a deep clean.

Appearance

Now this will obviously vary according to who is reading this but this involves doing everything you’ve done to your room and car but to yourself. Make yourself presentable. Cut your nails, trim those big bushy eyebrows, trim and tidy your beard, condition your hair, moisturize your skin (I have dry skin ok!?). Whatever you like to do to make you you is what this is all about.

Music

Now I’ve mentioned my precious playlists before but just to refresh your memory. I have a playlist for each month with music from my ‘Music to Listen to’ list, I add a new album each week and I’ll organize a few albums or songs into my playlists like ‘Favourites’ or ‘Motivation.’ If music isn’t as significant a part in your life, ignore this, but this is my routine to stay a little bit up to date with all those recommendations from strangers, new music and just music I’ve been meaning to listen to but struggle to get around to it.

TV

And finally, I stay up to date with my TV watchlists each week. This involves going through all the newly released or added TV to the various subscription services I use. This doesn’t take long as it’s just looking at all the new stuff and adding anything that interests me.

That is Weeklies…almost there.

Monthlies

Monthlies are pretty much the same as Weeklies but remember when I said the Weeklies shouldn’t be a deep clean? Well enter the dreaded deep clean.

Room/House

This is where you bring the hoover and cleaning sprays out and give your room/hosue a deeper clean that the Weekly one. You can decide how long you spend on this but it should be longer than the Weekly clean.

Car

This is simialar to the previous section. Get the hoover out, clean the windows, and get scrubbin the outside. This is to make your car gleam and the inside smell fresh, making you feel a little better when driving about town or picking someone up.

Appearance

This, again, is spending more time compared to a Weekly. So I trim my beard with clippers rather than scissors and pluck my eyebrows rather than trim with scissors…and that’s pretty much all I do here but feel free to add your own appearance related routine here. It could be having a long bath, putting a face or body scrub on or waxing instead of a using a razor. Whatever keeps you confident.

Music

Here, I just create a new playlist for a new month with any music I haven’t gotten around to listening to the previous month and new music from my list.

So there’s Rule 3, if you manage to get all this stuff done each day, week and month, I guarantee you’ll feel more organzied and motivated to work on those larger, more significant tasks on your list. It might feel like a waste to tidy up your house instead of tackling these tricky career or education-related tasks but this will make you more productive conducting these. For starters, it will make documents, scraps of paper or notes easier to locate when you need them, saving you time. It will make it easier to sit down and start these tasks with a tidy and inspiring looking desk. Lastly, it makes it easier to pick up where you left off after a Rest and a Play (remember to use Rule 1).

Next week is Diet. Yum.

References

Harris, S., 2014. Waking Up: A Guide To Spirituality Without Religion.

McRaven, W., 2017. Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe The World.