Remarkable, really. I thought it was just me, until client after client reported the same thing: a simple daily habit of writing down three things that went well made a real difference. Five to ten minutes a day. An outsized effect for something so small.
It started with a New York Times piece by Julie Scelfo, based on Martin Seligman's Flourish. Find the Good is the practice that landed for me.
I began this practice after I left my last full-time job — the kind where you get up in the morning, rush around, brave a soul-crushing commute only to turn around and repeat it in the other direction at the end of the day. I didn’t mind it, I thought. I felt really connected to the work and especially to the product. And, I could listen to NPR and podcasts while captive in the car.
It was a surprise, then, when after a month of writing my “three things” each day, the number one reason for these things happening was captured in three powerful words: I had time.
I had time to meet a friend spur of the moment. Do better work. Read that book that was collecting dust on the nightstand.
This led me to craft a future of work for myself that fiercely protected my time.
Three threes
I’m a morning person, so I do this after coffee and meditation. It takes no more than 5 to 10 minutes even when my cat is batting at the pencil or plopping herself on the journal as I write.
TGTs: Three good things: three things that went well yesterday, and what made those good things happen. I dropped the “really” from Scelfo’s Find the Good. After a not-so-good day, I sometimes have to stretch to find three things that went well.
TATs: Three appreciated things: Sometimes it’s just the ice cream shop around the corner from my office, or that the sun (finally!) beat the fog back and showed up.
MITs: The three most important things for me to focus on that day. Could just be a quick reach out to someone.
If I’m coming off a tough day, exhausted, or in a funk, this reframes.
Ten minutes max. Free of charge. Remarkable, really.