Back in December, I recommitted myself to conducting a weekly review every Monday morning.

I felt like I needed these weekly check-ins to stay on track with my goals, learn from my experiences, and avoid common pitfalls like too spending too much time on my phone.

After 6 months of showing up every week I've noticed a few things that I think are worth sharing because they highlight both the benefits and trappings of attempting to spend our time wisely.

#1) Focus on the Gain, not the Gap.

In the past I'd put all of my focus on what went wrong during the week.

I thought if I could fix my problem areas then I'd finally have the perfect week.

Turns out that was a terrible idea. When you focus on the Gap between where you are and where you want to be, your morale gets crushed. Every review becomes a reminder of how far you are and how often you fail to finish seemingly simple tasks.

I'd find myself avoiding the weekly review over time because it led me down a negative spiral of self-flagellation and rumination.

That's bad news for motivation.

In contrast, what's been proven to work is to focus on the progress made–the Gains highlighting how far you've come.

That's why when I recommitted myself to a weekly review schedule, I made a rule that I do not list out failures or shortcoming.

Instead I write down a list of wins no matter how minor they may seem.

Because let's be honest, nobody needs a reminder of their failings. You're already acutely aware of them.

But your wins do need highlighting because they are the first thing you'll brush off as "no big deal."

They are a big deal and should be celebrated.

My weekly review became a welcome appointment once I started focusing on wins because they were opportunities to appreciate Gains made, not ruminate on Gaps to be filled.

(There's a whole book about this called The Gap and The Gain written by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy but I've never read it so I can't recommend it. Let me know if it's worth reading.)

#2) It's impossible to do every thing.

There hasn't been a single perfect week where I finished every task I set out to.

In fact, I doubt there's been more than one or two weeks where I got 50% of my tasks completed.

Like most people, I thought the problem was a lack of effort, willpower, or inefficiency. But I've since realized none of those are the real problem.

The real culprit is the inability to accept the finitude of time and energy along with the reality that we can't predict the future.

For instance, I always imagine writing this newsletter will take me somewhere between 30-90 minutes depending on the topic.

The real number is double that. I know this because I track every minute I spend writing. You would think that I would have a better gauge on the time it takes to write by now after all of that tracking, but instead I still falsely believe "I can knock it out real quick."

This belief is in fact a delusion.

People are really bad at predicting how long things take and even worse at predicting what state they'll be in when it's time to do something.

You don't know if you're going to be sick, dealing with an emergency, tired from a busy workweek, frustrated at your friend who keeps blowing you off, or distracted by some piece of breaking news.

Where I've found peace is accepting this reality and leaning into letting shit go.

People forget that's an option.

You can just say, "You know what, I'm good. It's not that important" and be free of the unrealistic expectation you put on yourself.

There is real freedom in saying no.

#3 What goes up comes down and the bottom is a trampoline.

The thing that stands out to me the most over the last 6 months is that great weeks are almost always followed by lazy weeks and vice versa.

I'll be fired up and proud of my accomplishments one week only to sit down the next Monday session to realize I didn't do much of anything.

But the same is true of my bad weeks where I'll be feeling dejected about slow progress and then the next week I'm on fire.

I don't really know what to attribute this to other than the homeostatic nature of being human.

Our biology is always try to stay in balance and so it's constantly correcting itself to maintain that balance.

That's why the most fun and exciting nights of your life are often followed by a low-grade depression the next morning or why you feel like you can conquer the world when you finally stave off a bad fever.

But what the reviews have taught me is that I don't need to get too hung up on a bad day or a bad week.

My track record consistently shows there's almost always a rebound effect as if my energy levels are launching off of a trampoline.

And then, I come back down.

The ups and the downs are completely normal and nothing to get worked up over.

What matters is showing up consistently, checking in with yourself regularly, and stacking wins–even if they're small at first.

Prompt:

What were three wins from last week that you're happy about?

Don't worry if they're minor. It all adds up.