Cheat Sheet – Monday Vision, Daily Outcomes, and Friday Reflection Pattern

One of the most important patterns in Getting Results is the Monday Vision, Daily Outcomes, and Friday Reflection pattern.   It’s a simple way to get meaningful results each day and each week.  It’s how I avoid getting overwhelmed and how I drive results for myself, the teams I lead, and the people I mentor.

What makes the results meaningful is that each week, on Mondays, you’re stepping back and looking across what matters in your life.  This means taking a look at your life hot spots (mind, body, emotions, career, financial, relationships, and fun.)  It also means taking a look at the activities and projects you are juggling at work and in your personal life.  It’s a quick way to see the forest from the trees.  This is how you carve out meaningful results for the week.  You can see the end in mind, and when you know the goals, you can pace yourself better, prioritize easier, and focus more effectively.

Each day, you can create stories for your results.  Using The Rule of 3, you limit yourself to 3 stories (you can always bite off more, but use 3 to focus and concentrate your time and energy.)  To guide yourself, you simply ask, “What are my 3 best results for today?”  The Rule of 3 has been around for a long time.  Marketing uses it.  The military uses it.  You can use it in your everyday life to avoid overwhelm, organize your time and energy, and simplify your life, while improving your results.

On Friday’s, this is your time to reflect and check the score.  Simply ask yourself what are 3 things going well and what are 3 things to improve.  This is a chance to celebrate your victories and to learn your personal success patterns and personal anti-patterns.  It’s also a great way to improve your rhythm of results.  If things aren’t getting done, you need to ask yourself, why?  Are you biting off too much, or are you getting distracted.  If you’re getting things done, but not getting the results you want, you have to ask yourself, are you working on the right things?  Are you spending the right time and the right energy, or does it feel more like you’re just going through the motions.  Use your own reflection and insights as a way to learn and improve.  The beauty is, you get a new chance at results, each day and each week.  You can test what you learn, apply your learning, and improve as you go. 

This is the path of continuous growth.  It’s this path that will help you improve in any dimension of your work or life.

To compact this concept and make it easy to visualize and remember, I created a new cheat sheet:

Enjoy!