In college, one of my professors joked about his productivity method:

“At the end of the day, I just take everything on my desk and throw it away. If it’s important, I’ll see it again.”

It’s such a shocking idea that I still chuckle when I tell the story. But now that I’m older (in fact, I’m probably around the age he was when he was saying this), I’m starting to wonder if this really was his approach. Once the laughter dies down, I think the wisdom of this statement becomes clear.

What especially catches my attention is the notion that “if it’s important, I’ll see it again.” It’s certainly been true in my own experience! Think about it: are you more likely to stay up late because you just remembered you need to buy paper clips, or because you just had an idea for that presentation you’re scheduled to give next week? Important things have ways of coming up again…and again…and again.

Therefore, I’ve started planning my days with a fresh list. I don’t look at my previous day’s list, I just review my description of the best possible version of me (now modeled after the septessence), and then start making plans, thinking what would the best possible version of me do today?

I’ve found this approach to be very helpful for 2 reasons:

1. It leaves the least valuable parts of yesterday behind.

   Because of everything that happened yesterday, you’re a different person now than you were yesterday, and have different priorities. Why should you stay chained to yesterday’s plans? By cutting ties with yesterday, you ensure that the plans you make for today are the most current, most relevant plans for who you are and who you are becoming. You’re choosing today’s actions because they are in line with your hopes and dreams as of today, not because they were in line with your hopes and dreams yesterday. This ensures that you stay flexible and continue to grow. You don’t leave everything behind, of course. That’s where the second benefit of this approach comes in!

2. It brings the most valuable parts of yesterday forward.

   The key here is “valuable.” You did some things yesterday that set some very important wheels in motion, things that need to continue today to keep the momentum going. But because those actions were so significant, and continuing them today is so vital, they automatically come to mind when you’re preparing today’s plans. So there’s no reason to fear leaving yesterday’s plan behind, because the most important aspects of it will return to you like a value-adding boomerang!

So, I think my professor was really on to something. Don’t worry about ignoring yesterday’s to-do list. For the best results, just start fresh today, secure in the knowledge that what was important will come back to you.

An Incomplete Vision

As I’ve been looking at my defininition of the Best Possible Version of Me, it increasingly seemed incomplete to me. I had essentially put together a series of statements that made perfect sense all by themselves, but didn’t seem to fit together well when put together. They were all a proper vision of what the Best Possible Version of Me is, but didn’t give the complete story when combined.

At the same time, I had been considering breaking my definition of the Best Possible Version of Me into 7 parts, so that I could have “theme” days, where I would spend the day focused more intently on a particluar aspect of the Best Possible Version of Me. This cyclical, focused effort would serve as a tool to improve my growth in each area over time faster than if I were to try to apply every aspect in the same measure each day.

So then the problem became, how do I divide my life into seven balanced pieces?

The Septessence

I think I’ve figured it out, in what I’m calling the “Septessence” — the 7 parts that compose the very essence of the Best Possible Version of Me. They are:

1. Mind
2. Body
3. Spirit
4. Relationships
5. Wealth
6. Impact
7. Recreation

Now, this idea isn’t 100% original. It’s heavily influenced by Dan Miller’s Wheel of Life idea, which he uses as a way to prepare a balanced list of goals. Here, I’m using the idea for the longest-term goals possible: lifetime. I’ve taken some liberties with the categories to better encapsulate what my own balanced life looks like.

Here is how I’m approaching them:

Mind

Here, I define how the Best Possible Version of Me’s mind works. What kinds of things does he think about? What tools does he use to think about them? How does he share those thoughts with others? How does he assess what others say?

Body

Here, I define how I look, how I present myself, and what my body is capable of. Grooming and hygeine, fashion, strength, speed, stamina, anything related to how I look, function and feel is summarized in this category.

Spirit

This defines my moral life. How do I know right from wrong? What lines will I not cross? How do I build a strong character and live a life in line with my ethical standards, and how do I get back on track when I fail? Anything regarding the care and feeding of my soul goes here.

Relationships

This category describes my social life. What relationships matter most to me? What do my friendships look like? How many friendships do I maintain? What do I do to build stronger relationships? The relationships category defines everything the Best Possible Version of Me does to interact with others.

Wealth

This category is not about earning money, but about using it. How do I invest? What kinds of things do I buy, and how many? What are my attitudes about money? I also define my intentions for sharing my wealth. If it has to do with building up savings, taking care of what I have, and charitable giving, this is the place for it.

Impact

This could also be called “vocation”, but I really want to focus one step beyond that: when the Best Possible Version of Me does whatever it is he does, how does that impact the lives of others? What difference can I make in the world? But it doesn’t have to be that grand a scale. What I’m trying to define here is, how is the world (or country, or community, or my family) better because I lived? What things do I do on a regular basis to have that kind of impact? Superficially, this is also where income comes from — what does the Best Possible Version of Me do that’s so valuable that people will even offer to pay me money for it because they see the value?

Recreation

Even the Best Possible Version of Me needs to relax and unwind. But I believe there are valuable ways to relax and unwind, and there are wasteful, useless ways to relax and unwind. This category helps me outline how the Best Possible Version of Me takes a break. What ways can I take a step back and get recharged, but still use the time to make myself better? That’s what I capture here.

Septessence in Practice

When I first set out to put this model into action, I was going to have 1 day each week dedicated to one of these seven categories, and continue to cycle those over and over again.

One problem with that approach, though, is that I would only focus on “Mind” on Mondays, “Body” on Tuesdays, “Spirit” on Wednesdays, and so on. But the goal is to help me eventually make all of these factors a part of my life every day. So, I now run these on an 8-day cycle. The first 7 days are each dedicated to a particular facet of the septessential me, and on the 8th day I take a shot at being the full package. This keeps things in rotation so that I learn how to work each aspect of the best possible version of me into every day of the week.

A key feature of the Calibration Method is building a to-do list for today only. This is important for several reasons:

1. Focusing solely on today stops procrastination.

   When you have a long list of things you want to get done today, tomorrow, and long into the future, it becomes really easy to let items slide because there’s always the possibility that you’ll get to it tomorrow. By setting out to build a list that contains only the items you plan to get done today, and then committing to completing them to the best of your ability, you effectively put an end to procrastination…for today, if nothing else.

2. Having a limited list motivates you to complete it all.

   When you have a list of everything you want to accomplish in a day, and are pre-committed to not filling it up with more stuff once those are done, you have a concrete finish line that you can push yourself to reach — and celebrate when you get there!

   I’ll be honest, I’ll still trying to figure out what I’m capable of in a day, so I still don’t often finish my list. But when I do, it feels great!

3. Exercising control over your day’s list in the short-term keeps you in control of your lists, not the other way around

   By limiting yourself to only doing the tasks you’ve set out to do, you make an advance decision to not worry about any other tasks that might be “out there.” After all, you’ll already prioritized your tasks and decided those other tasks weren’t necessary to do today. They may be necessary tomorrow, but not today. Sticking with that decision puts you in charge, and helps you feel a greater sense of control. Too often, the longer your list gets, the more overwhelmed you get and the less control you feel. Committing to a limited list keeps that overwhelmed feeling in check.

Even if you never implement the Calibration Method in its entirety, one of the most important things you can do for yourself is to write out a list of only things you actually believe you can finish today — and make sure they’re worthy of your limited time that day!