Day 2: Rule of 3 (priorities)

Feeling overwhelmed?

Who doesn’t.

Unable to manage all the workload that’s hitting you?

We’ve all been there.

Thinking you’re on the verge of burnout and can’t sustain your output?

Also very damn common.

Constantly stressed out and feeling like your mental bandwidth is about to make your brain implode?

There’s nobody in the world who doesn’t experience this.

Including me.

Sometimes you’re so overwhelmed with things circling in your mind that you can’t even concentrate on the tasks that would relieve the pressure in the first place.

And on top of not getting stuff done?

News Flash:

Overwhelm just feels shit.

But why does it happen?

Me, at the time of writing this, is the perfect example.

I’m having problems with handling all the workload I put on myself:

• emails

• the gym

• client work

• growing on X

• studying for exams

• learning copywriting

• finding time for family

• long term business work

• calls, friends, and relationships

If you break these things down into smaller tasks, you’ll quickly run into a huge pile of things to do (especially on a daily basis)

Simply said, I’m doing much.

And it was completely my fault:

I didn’t follow one of my own most important rules.

The Rule Of 3

This is single-handedly the most important principle to deal with stress, overwhelm, and most importantly:

To make progress.

Actual progress towards your goals.

The rule of 3 is (in theory) the ultimate solution to stress and overwhelm-

but only if you manage to follow it.

The rule of 3 determines YOUR priorities.

And as you might be guessing by now- following it means selecting and focusing only on your 3 most important priority areas.

The ridiculous thing is:

Most people don’t even understand what priorities actually are (so let’s get some definition out of the way, or you’ll end up confused as hell)

1. Priority tasks = specific tasks you need to prioritize (to get to your short-term goals)
   → write and edit this email
   

2. Priority areas = specific areas of life you need to prioritize (to get to your long-term goals)
   → building your physique or growing on social media

When I talk about “priorities”, I mean definition number 2.

The areas of life you have to focus on to get to your long-term goals.

Got that?

Great, one more thing.

Focusing on priorities doesn’t mean sacrificing every other area of life completely.

Priorities = The areas of life you want to !PROGRESS! in

Making progress is A LOT harder than maintaining.

A jacked dude can hit the gym casually 3x a week to maintain his physique.

A skinny dweeb has to put in a lot more effort to build the muscle in the first place.

Because of the required effort to make progress, it’s impossible to have a lot of priorities.

This answers the golden question:

Why 3?

We know that our brains don’t like being overloaded with information, stress, tasks and responsibilities.

They love clear and simple to execute efficiently.

The simplest you can get?

You’d put all focus, concentration, effort and energy only into one life area at a time (the one you desperately want to make progress in)

Pure focus on your business.

Pure focus on building muscle.

You don’t need me to tell you that this is unrealistic (and quite unhealthy).

But the good news?

We still do great focusing on 3 areas of life at once.

It’s the magic number.

Anything above 3 priorities?

You’ll make significantly less progress in all of your priorities.

It’s like multitasking, just on a bigger scale.

I call it macrotasking.

And just like multitasking?

It’s completely useless.

Last time I sent you an email to figure out your long-term goals.

Today?

You need to set the priorities YOU want to make progress toward right now (with the rule of 3 in mind)

I’m not joking:

Following the rule of 3 might be the most important productivity principle of all-

tons of people overestimate their own capabilities, thinking they can handle unlimited pressure and deal with everything at once.

But after weeks of constantly facing burnout?

They realize they made no progress in any area.

Here are mine (now that I finished my exams and editing this :)):

• business

• physique

• mental health

In that order.

(my mental health went down the drain during my exam period lol)

Time to pick it back up.

This is a general life principle:

At any given moment in time, focus only on 3 priorities.

If you want to go extreme?

Even less.

Here are your Action Steps:

1. look at your goals

2. determine the 3 areas in life you want to make progress in right now

3. write down your 3 priorities, hang them onto your wall (optional, but useful) and stick to them

3 priorities are all you need.

And all you can handle.

The logical next question is simple:

Once I follow the rule of 3, how do I actually progress in my priorities?

No worries.

I got the answer covered as well.

You’ll find it in my next email.

Thank you for reading!

See you soon,

Henri