Untouchable

Jul 3, 2020

You get your daily to-do lists completed regularly. You pay attention to your family and important relationships. You respond diligently to emails, calls etc.

All great stuff.

There’s one slight problem…..

Attention without intention is aimless!

Without reflection how can you possibly know you are on the right path?

You may have goals, however thinking about them once a year isn’t enough.  Daily goals are so micro they rarely have a strategy tied to them.

When you look at your to-do list, are they your things or someone else’s things?

Most of the time our days are set by what is in our inbox so OUR things take a back seat to what we need to to for others.

What if you had a day to shift your focus?

A day to think about where you’ve been over the last several months and then begin to map out what you want to do from that day forward.  

A day where your to do list is all about ONLY you!

What I am suggesting is an untouchable day.

A day scheduled well in advance (during the week - not a weekend day) for you to think strategically about your goals.  

A day to think about questions like:  What will I regret not doing more on my deathbed?

These are the kind of days that many successful people have stated become their most creative, contemplative and productive time.

I suggest 2 untouchable days a year.  Some suggest their birthdays as an untouchable day.  

Just like making a meal requires planning, you have to plan this out.

Here are the steps I recommend to plan this properly:

  1. Put it in your calendar weeks in advance (“UNTOUCHABLE DAY” or “No Tech” Day or “Disconnected Day”.  Block off all outside appointments.
  2. Pick a day of the week that is typically low for outside interruptions.
  3. Be 100% unreachable.  No internet, no cell phone.  You are off the grid!

Think of this day as a time chunk for you to plan and be able to make decisions about your life, your career your family completely uninterrupted.

I plan to take my first one in late August.  

Have a great weekend, Karl

I look forward to them ("clarity days") because the gift they give me is so rare to come by in this day and age. Being able to take a day just to reflect, recharge, and then restart by deciding what things I need, ought, and want to do and then deciding when to do them (or not to do them) is not only worth taking time to do, it’s worth setting aside time in advance to do.  It’s not even that those “things” are worth it. It’s that I’m worth it.  Mike Vardy

Karl Choltus

Deep thinking Canadian sharing thoughts created in the shower.