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Here are a few of my favorite reflections to end your week with!
- Did you try to focus too much this week?
As I write in Intentional: “While your daily capacity for accomplishment can be frustratingly difficult to estimate, keep in mind that you have about four focused hours in you each workday. Your capacity to focus each day is limited— and focusing on complex things all day long can be a recipe for exhaustion after a while.”
For this reason, I'll typically limit my daily “deep work” time to around four or four and a half hours—typically through “time blocking,” another tactic in the book.
If you consistently try to focus intensely for more than four hours a day, you're probably pretty wiped. For more sustainable long-term productivity, be sure to respect the limits of your mind.
- What are the main things you accomplished?
I also talk about why we should keep an “accomplishments list” in Intentional. Productivity advice can often make us feel like we're not doing enough—and can lead us to focus on our deficiencies, what we need to improve. An accomplishments list, on the other hand, lets us pat ourselves on our backs as we pursue greater productivity.
But you don't even have to make a list. Just reflect: what are the big things you accomplished this week? Look through your completed to-do lists and calendar events for inspiration.
You've probably accomplished more than you'd expect.
- What are three things you're grateful for from this week?
The final reflection: what are three things from this week—whether from your work or your personal life—that you feel grateful for? Gratitude is a shortcut to feeling a sense of abundance with our lives and what we have.
And it's a great feeling to end the week with!
