How You Can Supercharge Your Daily Performance By Installing a Simple End-Of-Day Routine (A Lesson From An Olympic Skier)

What are the 3 most critical turns on a ski run?

Despite the title, many people get this wrong. The answer is the last 3 turns when the slope is flat and easy. A former Olympic downhill skier, Billy Kidd, shares this lesson in Tim Ferris’s book Tools of Titans.

Here is why:

When you end a ski run with bad form, your brain internalizes poor mechanics the entire ride back up the ski lift.

Poor mechanics = poor quality = poor growth.

You must internalize high quality into your last three turns to be extraordinary.

This includes your daily business activities.

So I installed a 14-minute end-of-day routine to internalize quality overnight and supercharge my daily performance.

Here is the process I use:

• Reflect on today’s work for 4 minutes

• Plan tomorrow’s work for 7 minutes

• Close down the office for 3 minutes

In the past, I would abruptly quit, not realizing I was signaling to my brain poor quality.

That will never happen again.

Reflect on today’s work for 4 minutes.

Even the smallest (atomic) habits can have remarkable effects.

I ask myself 4 questions:

1. Did I follow my daily plan? (if not, why?)

2. What is one high-level lesson I learned today?

3. What is one thing that worked well I must carry forward to tomorrow?

4. What is one thing I can do tomorrow to continue my growth?

Plan tomorrow’s work for 7 minutes.

Thinking requires a lot of energy.

If you have to guess what you will do throughout the day, you will experience decision fatigue.

Fatigue leads to poor decisions.

To plan my day, I use a timebox calendar by writing down these 5 elements:

• My year-long theme (at the top of the paper each day)

• 3 goals to achieve in 90 days

• 3 milestones to complete in 30 days (related to those 90-day goals)

• 3 micro tasks to do today (to hit those 30-day milestones)

• The calendar of activities by the hour (6 am to 6 pm)

Close down the office for 3 minutes.

Cal Newport, author of Deep Work, says you’ll ruminate over ideas at night if you don’t signal your brain that your work is complete.

I have trouble shutting down my brain completely, but taking 3 minutes to prepare the office for tomorrow quiets my analytical, problem-solving, and client-focused brain and lets me keep the creative side running.

It helps me prepare for the next day’s writing.

14 minutes to supercharge daily performance is well worth it.