The way to make sure you act on your values, live them out, is to a) write them down, and b) review them regularly. Writing this stuff down is a waste of your time if you don’t act on it. Which leads us to… Make a Weekly “Values Plan” and Choose an Action to Practice I still have to practice this value, but it helps that I wrote my commitment down where I can review it and work on it. So, I wrote that as a personal policy: “I don’t commit verbal violence toward anyone, including myself.” Eventually I realized the damage verbal zingers could do in my relationships, and the damage my internal name-calling did to myself.
CAL NEWPORT KEYSTONE HABITS CODE
Newport did not share specifics from his personal code of conduct list, but one of my personal policies is this one: “I don’t commit verbal violence toward anyone, including myself.” Recently a friend told me, “I always return the grocery cart to the store.” What do you try to always, or never do? Write those things down - that shows you how you’re already living out some of your values. In Newport’s code of conduct, he writes down sentences that start with, “I always do this…” “I never do this, I never do that…” Newport also has a list he calls his “Personal Code of Conduct.” I have a list like that, too, which I call my “Personal Policies” list. Use the Words “Always” and “Never” to Help You Write Down a Personal Code of Conduct The key is that I’ve expressed my value as an action, a measurable behavior: I either turn away from scrolling through my phone and turn toward my family member - I live out that values-based action - or I do not. So I wrote this concrete values-based action, “When people I love want time with me, and I am just fiddling on the computer or my phone, I lock or shut down the tech toys and walk away, so I can be truly present with them.” (If I am working intensely on something, I might ask that we talk a little later.) Roles: “I want to be the kind of mother, wife and friend who …”Ī values-based behavior related to the role: “…who listens when the people I love want to have a conversation with me.”
Here’s an example from my own list of roles and values: You identify specific actions, specific habits or behaviors, that go with actually living out your values. When you write out your values like this, you make them concrete. “I want to be the kind of parent who does Y.” He advised looking at each role and writing out sentences, a narrative, by starting with the words: “I want to be…” Newport’s method is interesting because you can suss out your values by identifying actions related to your roles in life. Write Down the Values-Related Actions that Your Roles Point You TowardĪ list of roles and values is nice, but it can only make a difference in your life (and others’ lives) when you put those values into action.
CAL NEWPORT KEYSTONE HABITS PROFESSIONAL
He identified some of his roles as a parent and a spouse as a professional as a member of communities and as a “spiritual/philosophical being” (Newport, 2021). Newport keeps a document he calls “Roles and Values.” I think his approach is useful, so let’s walk through it: Identify Your Roles, and the Values You Associate with Them Keeping your values at the foundation is the heart of person-centered productivity. He doesn’t call it that, but he bases his productivity system on a written list of his values and habits, which he reviews weekly. Therefore it did not surprise me to learn that Newport also keeps what I would call a personal framework. Your personhood comes first! Your productivity system is there to serve you, not the reverse. He emphasizes that a good productivity system is a tool to serve the whole person. I’m a big fan of Newport’s philosophy of productivity.
First Things First: Your Personhood Precedes Your Productivity In his podcast, Deep Questions, he recently outlined how he uses a list of his values when he makes personal and work-related plans (Newport, 2021). His influential books Digital Minimalism and Deep Work in particular address how individuals can cultivate what I call a well-lived life, and what he calls the “deep life.” People rediscover this principle of keeping a personal framework, to help them live the kind of life they want to live, all the time.Ĭal Newport writes about the intersections of technology, productivity, and culture. The idea of writing down your roles, your values, and the routines that sustain you is not a new one.
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