Daily Commitments Checklist

The Happiful Daily Commitments Checklist is our custom-designed form that keeps you on track for your most important recurring daily activities and thus to achieving your goals and living a happier, more fulfilled life. This customizable tool is the key to developing positive habits through consistency and accountability.

Checklists are the proven tool to create consistently excellent performance, and the Daily Commitments Checklist combines your Morning Routine, your Evening Routine, your Weekly Routine, and the Key Activities that are most important to achieving your goals. The Checklist is so important, I can almost guarantee that if you use it daily, you will Be Happiful, and if you do not use it, you will struggle to implement your desired habits, follow your planned daily and weekly routines, or follow through on your intended recurring actions.

The first group of Action Steps is to customize the Checklist. Let’s go ahead and do this now:

  1. To edit and use the Checklist, click the link to access the Daily Commitments Checklist Google Doc. Then, if you are a Google Docs user, click File and then Make a Copy; if you prefer to use Excel, Numbers, or another spreadsheet application then click the link and then File, Download, Excel.

  2. Now, you’ll edit the Checklist to customize and save your Morning Routine, your Evening Routine, and Weekly Routine. For now, skip the section entitled Daily Activities, which we’ll talk about later in this lesson.

  3. The Example is set up with a good basic Morning Routine, but you may want to add or subtract items now or over time.

  4. You may also want to add items to the Evening Routine that you will go through at the end of each workday.

  5. The same with the Weekly Routine; the pre-loaded actions are only those that are needed to create your Weekly Plan and to ensure you print out your new set of forms. You almost certainly have other recurring actions that you want to remember to do on a weekly basis, and you should add them here.

Now we want to determine our Key Activities and edit that section. Each of the lines that say Key Activity should be replaced with the daily activities that are most impactful for achieving your Annual Goals.

A lesson from Darren Hardy in his book ‘The Compound Effect’: For every goal in your life, there are likely just 1 or 2 activities that you should do daily that are most impactful to achieving that goal. As an example, for a salesperson to hit their revenue goals, the Key Activity is the number of live (in person, by phone, or on video) conversations with a prospect or referral source. So you would change Key Activity 1 to ‘Live Conversations with Prospects’ and under goal you might set a weekly goal of 50 live conversations per week. If you have a Fitness goal, you might change Key Activity 2 to be ‘30 minute workouts’, and your weekly goal might be 5 per week. If relationships are a priority, you might target and track quality time spent with loved ones. Then, each day, you enter in the number that you actually achieved that day, and then total it up at the end of the week to see whether you met your goal or need some extra focus and attention in that area.

So your next set of Action Steps:

  1. Consider each of your Annual Goals and identify the Key Activity for that Goal. (We cover Annual Goals in the full Be Happiful Program. For now, consider the major areas of your life and any goals you have set or ways you want to improve.)

  2. For each Key Activity, in the Goal column, set yourself a weekly numeric goal (such as 50, for the example of Live Conversations with Prospects).  

  3. Go into your already-customized Daily Commitments Checklist and enter in the name of the Key Activity and the numeric goal for each. You can insert lines if you have more than 6 Key Activities you want to track.

Congratulations, you have now created an incredibly powerful tool to keep you on track every day. 

You should have customized each section to create your own daily protocol with your Morning Routine, Daily Key Activities, Evening Routine, and Weekly Routine. If you haven’t yet done that, stop and complete those steps.

Like information, the Checklist is useless unless you use it. Using your Checklist every day is simple, and is the primary determinant of whether you will stay on course with the Be Happiful program or not: Print it out every weekend as part of your Weekly Routine, and then use it every day, keeping it visible wherever you work, checking off completed actions and filling in numbers where appropriate (such as how many live conversations you actually had with prospects that day).

I truly can’t emphasize enough the importance of using the printed Checklist every day. I have only 5 pieces of paper on my desk every day, and I am certain they are the keys to my success: My 5-Year Vision and Values, my Affirmations, my Weekly Plan, my Happiful Planner, and my Daily Commitments Checklist. After I complete my Morning Routine, the first 3 are put in my notebook, and the other two stay out on my desk all day to keep me on track for what to do next, checking off each action from either the Happiful Planner or the Daily Commitments Checklist as I complete it.

The act of physically checking off tasks creates a sense of momentum and achievement. You’ll see your progress accumulate as you diligently work through the list. But perfection is not the goal. Some days you may not complete every item. That’s OK – refocus and continue onward. Over time, small steps add up to incredible change. Tracking your progress helps you stay committed. And celebrating wins, no matter how small, keeps you motivated.

Consistent use of the Happiful Daily Commitments Checklist trains your mind and body toward positive habits and provides accountability. When you align daily actions with your values and goals, you put yourself on the path to greater health, happiness and success. Let this simple tool guide you there.

Customize and use your Daily Commitments Checklist and you are absolutely certain to be a big step closer to Happiful!