The following came from an email I got from a company whose pen case I love. (I have collected three of them over the years: get them here). I thought their message was on point so will share it with you:

“Grab a notebook. Four questions, honest answers only.

1.) What drained me this week?

Cal Newport, in Deep Work, makes the case that attention is your most valuable resource. Not time. Attention.

What quietly drained yours this week? Name it before it takes next week too.

2.) What did I keep putting off, and why?

Steven Pressfield (in The War of Art) calls it Resistance. The thing that moved to tomorrow, every day, for five days straight.

The why matters more than the task. That is where the real answer lives.

3.) What actually surprised me?

Good or bad. Oliver Burkeman writes in Four Thousand Weeks that most of life happens in the gaps between our plans.

Surprises are usually where your real week was.

4.) What do I actually want from next week?

Not what needs to happen. What do you want. Viktor Frankl spent a lifetime writing about the difference.

One honest answer here is worth ten to-do lists.

Four questions. One page. Fifteen minutes. You will start Monday knowing something most people spend the whole week avoiding.”

Let’s give this a try and see what happens.