The life mapping system is a tool that I use daily, like a compass guiding me to my goals, and it allows me to track my progress along the way.
I have this spreadsheet in my google drive, it’s always pulled up in my chrome tab for easy reference, and I close my days out using this sheet which takes about 15 minutes to do – I view it as an investment into our future so we can see what’s working or not and increase productivity for the next day.
The sheet allows me to track:
- Goals
- Powerlist
- Sharpening the saw
- Reflections
- Weekly goals
- Plan for tomorrow
Each of these categories are in different tabs within the same google sheet (if you don’t use google drive, you’re missing out – let me know and I can help ya get it going.)
Goals
This is where I have my top 5 current goals and any progress made. It’s a proven fact that if we write down our goals and read them daily, we’re 1000x more likely to achieve the goal. The more I can get my goal in front of me, the better – so in addition to journaling and writing my goals down, they take the first page of this google sheet.
Powerlist
5 critical tasks that must get done that day, aka a tool to win the day. If we win the day enough times we win the week. If we win enough weeks we win the month, if we win enough months we win the year, if we win enough years we win in life.
And this tool is a reminder that this tool starts with the small daily actions we can do today.
Andy Frisella talks about this in MFCEO 107, which is the podcast before his newest podcast known as real af.
I’ve been using this tool for 3 years now and it’s changed my life.
Sharpening the saw
Stephen Covey said, ““We must never become too busy with sawing that we forget to take time to sharpen the saw.” This is seeking continuous and never ending improvement, professionally and personally, by preserving and enhancing our greatest asset – ourselves.
For my SAW I track a few things, if you want more details we can get into it, but for the sake of this short article I’ll keep it to overall categories: checkin, mental, physical, spiritual, and communications.
Reflections
This is where I touch base on what I did for the day, any issues, and any reflections I have for myself.
Weekly goals
We gotta take action to bring our goals to a reality, right? This is the tool to get that done. Any action items that need to get done for the week get on this sheet, recurring and new events. These then get shifted onto my calendar to ensure they get done. I check off each one when I complete it and come up with a weekly percentage of tasks completed at the end of the week. I usually average about 80% of tasks on this sheet so I can keep pushing the envelope on what I can get done during the week that takes me towards my goal.
Plan for tomorrow
Plan tomorrow’s work today, it’s as simple as that.
And that’s it, I run through this spreadsheet in about 15 minutes towards the end of everyday. Sometimes 4 oclock, sometimes 11.
Do you do anything similar? Let me know!
Joe DiAndrea 