I introduced you to a much more powerful filter: the Leveraging Question. That filter will reveal the actions that amplify your efforts far beyond what you believed was possible. By utilizing the Leveraging Question, you will accomplish tasks that both are important and make your life permanently easier.

executing your plan is like navigating the seas. I love that verb—to navigate—because navigating encompasses the act of setting the original course, but also includes all of the minor changes needed to fulfill the original plan and still arrive at the destination.

Computer programmers call this a “sprint.” It’s a short period of time where they go all out to try to build something new. I find that thinking about your week in the same way leverages Parkinson’s law to your maximal benefit.

This is the first practical step in your weekly planning session. You’ll take five minutes to reflect on your past week and try to find one powerful lesson, then use that to improve your performance in the coming week.

“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” —William Arthur Ward

Workflow is an idea that encompasses everything that has to happen for you to get your work done and move the ball forward: the disciplines, the mindsets, the techniques, the technologies, and the systems.

Let’s clear something up before we go on: your priority is not the only thing you’ll do this week. Quite the opposite—it’s probably just one of a thousand things you’ll do! Rather, your priority is the thing, above all others, that must be done. It’s the task that must be put at the front of the line and given the right-of-way. Simply put, if you

“The best way to change long-term behavior is with short-term feedback.” —Seth Godin

The result was a simple model that I call the Four Layers of Accountability. It’s the secret sauce behind our business success with the Lifehack Method and something that anyone can use to create powerful accountability in their life.