Finally, Full Circle Habit #4 is something I call Friday is the New Monday.

This is a silly little nonsense phrase, but once you get it, it changes the way you think about the end and beginning of your week.

A few years ago, I realized one of the most painful parts of my week was Monday morning. I'd show up for the work day feeling hurried and frazzled, overwhelmed by the amount of things on my plate. But it didn't just affect Monday. It was almost impossible to relax on Sunday. By about midday Sunday my mind was racing with all the things I had to do that week.

Does that resonate with you? I think all of us can relate to the ways our work bleeds into our time off. Especially if you're in knowledge work of any kind.

Eventually, I decided I had to change something. I wanted to be able to relax on the weekends and not waste my whole day on Monday just trying to wrap my mind around all the tasks and meetings I had scheduled that week.

So I came up with a little habit called "Friday is the New Monday."

I asked myself, "what if I treated Friday like Monday?"

Every Friday, I spend about 30 minutes (it doesn’t take long) outlining what’s most important for the next week. This allows me to commit time to my most important goals, come into meetings prepared, communicate with my team before they’re even thinking about the week, and rest easy on the weekend.

Here's a quick example checklist of the things I would do on Friday.

• Build agendas for all my direct report 1-on-1 meetings.
• Build agendas for all my team meetings.
• Identify the deep work priorities for the next week. What are the top 1-2 goals I need to accomplish each day?
• Send or prepare essential messages and emails that will spark decisions, meetings, or conversations
• Schedule time blocks for deep work before the chaos of life plans my week for me.

If I don’t do this it’s much harder to check out check out for the weekend. When I commit to the habit, I end my week with confidence that I’ve already pre-decided what my goals are for the next week and how much time I’m going to commit to them.

The other added benefit is that it makes scheduling easier. When someone wants some of my time I’m not guessing at whether or not I’ll really have time because I’ve already set aside my best hours for the most important things.

That's it! It's really that simple. And yet, it can transform the way you start your week.

Give it a try and see how it helps you start and end your week differently.

MANAGE YOUR WORLD WELL

All of us have responsibilities and weight we carry. If you aspire to leadership of any kind, desire to have a family, or want to make an impact in the world you’ll have to learn to manage yourself well. These four habits don’t have to be your habits – find what works for you. They’ve worked for me and they’re based on the best advice I’ve learned from people who have written entire books to breakdown their self-leadership system. In general though, you have to find a way to align your values, priorities, habits, and time so they all work together in the direction of what is most important for you and the people who depend on you.

The key is to have a system. You’ll never get there by accident. The world is too distracting to accidentally arrive at the future you most deeply want for yourself.

If you find yourself a little overwhelmed, burnt our or anxious try implementing some of these habits. They aren’t silver bullets, but they are helpful.

If you want to do some of the learning on your own, here's a list of books that have helped me build this framework.

Books You Might Find Helpful:

• Essentialism, Greg McKeown
• At Your Best, Carey Nieuwhof
• Slow Productivity, Cal Newport
• Redeeming Your Time, Jordan Raynor
• Getting Things Done, David Allen

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Till next Friday,

Craig
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