The Perfect Day Formula by Craig Ballantyne, Summary

What would your perfect day look like? Visualize it. To have the perfect day, you must be proactive. Who are you trying to become? Focus on how you live your life and spend your time. If you want to stop procrastination, incorporating  rules, rituals, and habits into your daily routine can help you. I've wanted to read The Perfect Day Formula by Craig Ballantyne for a while now because I learned about it from Early to Rise newsletter. The book was worth the read for me.

The Perfect Day Formula Built on Three Cs

1. Control: Make sure to control your mornings.
2. Conquer: To master your day conquer the chaos of the afternoons.
3. Concentrate: Focus on what matters in the evenings.

Structure = Freedom

You create structure when you have rules to live by, which makes you more productive and decreases stress.

Control the Morning

You can control your thoughts, words, and deeds.

What can you control? Things you control:

• Time you wake up.
• When you go to bed.
• How you start your day.
• Temptations and enter your life.
• Systems in place to deal with the above.
• Belief in self.
• Take more control of your schedule.

Start getting up fifteen minutes earlier, so you can work on your number one priority. You have control over your behavior. Your success is your responsibility. You need to act and do first things first. Prepare for your day the night before. The earlier you start, the less distractions you face. Magic time is what you can achieve first thing in the mornings when there are no distractions. It's a time when you are most focused and energetic as well as creative. Find your magic time.

Have you read?

Time Management in 20 Minutes a Day By Holly Reisem Hanna, Review

When you accomplish something first thing in the morning, it sets the tone for your day. You'll have more victories throughout the day and make more progress. 

1. Structure
2. Rules
3. Ritual
4. Organization
5. Planning

The above are keys to success. If you want to stop procrastination, rules, rituals and habits can help you. Some questions I had about this book were how to create rules and use them. The rules you create to live by must align with your big goals and dreams and the actions you must take. An example for me is that I need to lose the Covid-19 weight. On average people put on 15 pounds and they’re calling it Quarantine 15.

The rules to live by are not to eat after 7:00 p.m. and not to order take-out food more than two times a month. Before the pandemic, I seldom ate after 7:00 p.m. I have to start intentionally doing that again. I also have to stop ordering takeout more than two times a month. If you set goals for this year and you haven't accomplished them, revisit them, and set rules to live by that align with your actions to accomplish our goals, you have to step up and match your dreams with the level of commitment necessary to achieve them.

The Perfect Day Formula: Some Benefits of Having Rules to Live By

When you intentionally set your rules to live by and follow them, you’ll:

1. Have fewer regrets.
2. No longer wake up vowing to “never do that again.”
3. Have a strong framework for success.
4. Experience greater opportunity and attract success and positive people.
5. Have multiple solutions to your obstacles.
6. Reap extraordinary rewards.
7. Stand up to temptations.
8. Have less guilt, fear, frustration, and worry.

What Are Rules? 

Rules are a clear set of personal philosophies that will make the decisions you make each day easier. As I'm reading this, I remember that I crafted my personal constitution – rules to live by. Unfortunately, I forgot to print them, so I've forgotten to uphold some of them. Out of sight, out of mind. When you have rules, you own your days, achieve your goals, and can work on the legacy you want to leave behind. Your rules are a way to get rid of bad habits. Write them down.

Craig Ballantyne has 12 rules he lives by. 

Don't go overboard with how much you think you can accomplish each day. When you have too much to do you’ll get overwhelmed. Break down your to-do list goals into process goals. This means your script and schedule task beginning and end times. Have a few items on your to-do list that are specific, actionable and non-conflicting. Complete your number one priority first. Lack of preparation prevents you from achieving your goals.

You Need to Script Your Day

Scripts have start and end times for all tasks, phone calls, and meetings. Start at the finish line and work backwards. This is Reverse Goal Setting. A script is essential for success. Plan your days to get more done. Include dedicated time for reading emails. You also need a not to-do list.

The Perfect Day: Not To-Do List

Here are some important activities that you shouldn’t engage in:

• Hit the snooze button when you wake-up.
• Check email first thing in the morning.
• Answer every phone call that comes in at all hours of the day.
• Mindlessly surf the Internet.
• Waste time gossiping or arguing with colleagues about non-work-related topics.
• Consume food or drink that makes you tired or unwell.

Make sure you add things that are a weakness to you. Find ways to eliminate temptation. If your weakness is junk food, don't have them in your home. You need rules to address known bad behavior.

Seven Steps to Build Habits of Steel

Step 1: Determine what matters so you can focus on it. 

Choose how you use your time. What will take you closer to a farther away from your goal.

Step 2: Identify the steps you need to take to achieve success.

You won’t always stick to your rules, but more often than not you will.

Step 3: Create a checklist for new habits. 

Break the checklist into an action item. An example is a checklist of morning rituals. For me, it could be something like this.

1. Read the Bible.
2. Pray.
3. Listen to a guided meditation
4. Journal what I experience.

Step 4: Prepare the night before.

Prepare your checklist.

Step 5: remove all obstacles. 

Getting rid of obstacles, temptations and bad habits are crucial to success. This will go a longer way than just creating better habits and relying on willpower. When you get rid of temptations, it allows you to then make better decisions.

Step 6:  Take massive action. 

There are lots of things you can control in your life. One such thing is the time you get up. You have the time and space to take the right action.

Step 7: Learn and improve. 

Learn lessons from your mistakes and struggles and make improvements.

The Big Three in Place

1. Get up fifteen minutes earlier.
2. Know your number one priority and work on it first.
3. Use rules to create rituals, routines, overcome obstacles, get rid of temptations and stop procrastinating.
4. Replace bad habits with better ones.
5. Go to bed on time so you get enough sleep.

3 Important Rules for Life

1. “State what time you go to bed and get up every day.
2. Write down the number one action step you will take each morning that moves you closer to your big goals and dreams. It could be work, it could be writing, it could be exercise. Choose the right priority activity for you.
3. Create a Simple Health Plan. Do you need to meditate, exercise, eat better, or sleep more? In your health rule, state what you don’t eat (so that you find it easier to avoid food temptations), when you go to bed, when you meditate or pray, or when and how you exercise.”

Final Thoughts: The Perfect Day Formula by Craig Ballantyne

This book is worth the read. The Perfect Day Formula helps you to become more productive. Set only four goals at a time. Have goals in the following categories.

1. Health
2. Wealth
3. Social self
4. Personal enrichment

Create process goals to go with outcome goals.

Next Steps

Wondering what to do next, you can do all of:

1. Buy my new book, Leadership Reading: Spilling the Tea on How Top Leaders Read

2. Buy and Read The Perfect Day Formula by Craig Ballantyne

3. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

4. Join the Art of Learning Membership Site

5. Download Unlock Your Genius Power Reading Tips Sheet

6. Buy me a cup of coffee!

If you want access to my Bookish Notes, please consider joining my membership site, the Art of Learning.

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