My Life Calendar
This chart is a graphical representation of your life in clearly laid units (diamonds) indicating years as shown below:
The first time I saw this chart, I panicked. I looked at this graphical representation of human living years and suddenly life looked so short.
These are your years and they are all you have got. The only way to describe each of these units is precious. Hence, each of this year is represented as a gem (diamond).
Besides the purpose of encouraging regular reflection, the calendar helps me feel more oriented in my life, helps me set goals and hold myself to them, and reminds me to be proud of myself for what I’ve accomplished and grateful for the remaining diamonds in my life.
Extended Life Calendar
The above calendar though is a great visual representation of your years, having a year as a unit of analysis is not much helpful. This is because a unit of 365 days is too big a chunk to be deliberate about. What would really help is to break this calendar into sub units where each unit represents a week. Now, a week is a great unit of reflection and analysis.
The following is the graphical representation of your life with a week as a unit of analysis. Each row would hence comprise of 52 weeks.
The way I imagine to track this calendar is by assigning color codes to your weeks based on how successful they have been according to you. I assign scores to my week on some parameters.
I also mentioned how to rate your week using color codes on a scale of 1–10. However, the next question that one should ask is on what parameters should a week be rated. I took help from a book that I was fascinated lately called Triggers: Creating Behaviors that Lasts — Becoming the Person You Want to Be by Marshall Goldsmith.
The key lesson from the chapter is on the power of asking daily questions to yourself on areas you want to improve upon. Here is a snapshot of how you should frame questions for yourselves. Three benefits of daily questions:
1. If we do it, we get better 2. We get better faster 3. Eventually, we become our own coach
These questions remind us of our original intentions. They recall the times when we displayed desirable behaviour and help us summon up the will to do so again.
At the end of your week, you arrive at an average score. You color code your week according to the score you give yourself.
