Rant 8: “The Rule of Three” (Transcript)
Rant 8// Designed Today
February 2019
Subscribe to Designed Today podcast for new UX content, weekly!
Dillon shares how he’s employed The Rule of Three as a strategy to be more productive. The Rule of Three is a simplified process to help you prioritize where you’re spending time and energy. It’s not about checking everything off your list, it’s about being able to reap the rewards that come from focusing on the right (three) things.
Happy Tuesday, everyone! Can I tell you something that’s got me really pumped up right now? Designed Today was launched in February of last year. Can you believe that? Pretty sweet! Designed Today is officially one years old. Happy anniversary, Designed Today! Boom. We did it!
Seriously, when I started I had no idea how long I was going to run with this, but thanks to some amazing guests and some awesome support, here we are today.
I wanted to share something that I’ve discovered a couple months ago, that’s helped me keep my priorities in line and still allow me to hustle on all my side projects: it’s called The Rule of Three. (No, not how many points you should score in a Super Bowl. Seriously? I was rooting for you, Rams.)
There is no substitute for doing the right things.
The Rule of Three is simple. Each day, you plan out the three most important outcomes that you want to achieve in a given day. Then, you, also, plan out the three most important outcomes that you want for the week, and you plan out the three most important outcomes that you want for the year. Hopefully, you see that those weekly goals should be supported by your daily goals and your yearly goal should be supported by all of those weekly goals.
That’s it, three things. It’s that simple, only three things.
Could you make it four things? Sure, just don’t call it The Rule of Three.
The point is there are only so many hours of the day and priorities are hard to keep in line.
Sometimes the list of things that I want to accomplish can get to like six or seven items and even if I only accomplish three or four of them, at the end of the day, I’m feeling unaccomplished- like I didn’t get the job done. I feel like I didn’t achieve what I set out to achieve.
With real effort, your daily goals will help you achieve your weekly goals, and those weekly goals will help you achieve your yearly goals. It seems basic. I know, it’s not a revolutionary idea, but if you’re a task-oriented person like myself and you like the “To Do” list, you like to be able to check off things off your plate, I know you’ll benefit from this.
Keep it simple. Just three things: The Rule of Three.
Thank you for reading!
Dillon Winspear | Designed Today
You can find me through all the expected social profiles — Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram — as well as, of course, through my company website.
