My Evening Ritual

For two months at the end of 2020, inspired by author Jim Collins, I recorded a few key pieces of information using a spreadsheet each night before I go to bed. I’m back at it again and these are the 3 things I record.

1.“Creative Hours” 

 How much of my time did I spend creatively? How many hours did I write, paint, carve, cut blanks, or  buy supplies? I use a free stopwatch app called Timular to keep track of creative hours. How do I know if something qualifies as “creative”? I use Collins’s metric and ask myself this question:

“ Does this activity produce something new, durable, or reproducible? 

2. “What Happened?” 

What did I do? In two sentences or less I journal about the highlights and activities of the day. These are very brief, here’s what a day’s journal entry might look like for me: “Slept for 7 hours, carved a cane, took a walk with a Marco, carved more, went to gym, and phone call with dad”. I don’t record unnecessary details like laundry or trips to the post office.

3. “Day’s Quality”

Right before I hit the hay, I rate the day on a scale of -2 to +2. Sound strange? It might be, but days that feel really great are “+2 days”. Days that feel wasteful or just plain bad are rated “-2 days “. This does not mean a really challenging day cannot be a “+2 day”, in fact, many of my “+2 days” involve tough carving projects, or difficult conflict ridden conversations. The -2, +2 rating system should represents how I feel about that day and has nothing to do with how difficult or easy it was.

Thats it…

This practice usually takes me about 10 minutes or less. 

But the key, Collins suggests, is to review.

In 5 years from now, I can look back over my “daily inputs” and ask myself “what was I doing on these amazing “+2 days” and “what was I doing on -2 days”, then do more of whatever happened on those +2 days. 

Collins says that his “+2 days” are usually his simplest and look like staying home, spending quality time with his wife and getting multiple long writing sessions done.. 

My personal “+2 days” usually involve long conversations with great friends, productive carving sessions, exercise, and quality time with my girlfriend. 

This exercise takes little work, but even in the short term it seems to help me to focus on activities that are most rewarding.

Alec