Day one, week one mentality
Show up every day as prepared as you were on the first day of the job
Treating every day as if it were the first day of the first week of a new job or course: clothes laid out, food ready, early, prepared, no assumption that you have arrived. Used as a check against the slow slide into comfort that follows getting the job, the promotion or the result.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- David GogginsDoes it
Retired Navy SEAL · Can't Hurt Me
For 21 years in the military, he says, he lived every day as if it were day one, week one of SEAL training. Twice, he was rolled back to that phase.
Source: DVIDS: The Toughest Man Alive: An Interview with retired Navy SEAL David Goggins
Aimed at the same thing
Other entries filed under productivity or focus.
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Environment design
Change the room instead of relying on willpower
On record from 7 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it, 5 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Time blocking
Give every hour of the workday a job before the day starts
On record from 7 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 2 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Deep work blocks
Long, scheduled, distraction-free sessions on one cognitively hard task
On record from 6 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 1 recommends it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Deliberate wandering
Unplanned, inefficient exploration kept on purpose as the counterweight to efficiency
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Digital declutter
A 30-day break from optional tech, then reintroduce deliberately
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Hard thinking before lunch
Book the mentally demanding work for the morning and stop making big calls late in the day
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it
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