I will start with a short introduction to the power list concept. It is a concept developed by Andy Frisella. It’s free and easy to get started. The only thing you need is a pen and a notebook. So what is The Powerlist?

The Powerlist concept

At the beginning of your day, you think of 5 tasks that will make you grow as a human being and write them down. You have to check them off as you complete them. You can choose to complete those tasks whenever you want on the day. If you decide to meet them in the morning, to be free of them for the rest of the day, that is entirely up to you. When you complete the day with all tasks checked off, you write a big W on the page that stands for Win. It means you have won that day. Otherwise, you put an L on the page. You can guess what that stands for LOSE. The bigger your winning streak gets, the more your confidence grows. Once a task becomes a habit, you can replace it with a new one. You are free to change it every day. The big idea of this power list is to sustain consistent growth every day. So let’s get into how this concept helped me.

How to get started with The Powerlist

I heard about this concept on a podcast, and it sounded powerful to me. I was sick of all those reminder apps and task managers. It took me too much time to set those up, and I don’t feel like looking on my phone all the time. So I got my pen and notebook and started writing tasks down right away. However, it didn’t go as smoothly as I expected it to be. I made my tasks way too big and sometimes put whole goals in there. So the result was either it cost me too much time, or I ended up losing the day. Just because it wasn’t realistic Andy Frisella even warns you for this:

“Put in small actionable tasks that are not dependent on other people.”

So, in the beginning, I had to deal with some L’s. But of course, I wanted to get that W, so I improved every day to get the task as specific and realistic as possible, without decreasing the added value of the task. What helped me with that was realizing that tasks can be small since you will complete them every day. It’s like the snowball effect. The impact of the task will get bigger and bigger every time you move in its direction.

How did Andy Frisella’s Powerlist help me?

When I got the hang of it, I got addicted to scoring those W’s. I also introduced a weekly review. I used that review to look critically at the past week, where I could improve and set a few goals for the following week, where I could base some of my Powerlist tasks on. Before you know it, you have 30 W’s in a row, and you begin to realize that you experienced 30 days of consistent growth. That’s powerful. Because without The Powerlist you wouldn’t have that, and it only took you 1 hour a day, if not less.

You can apply the tasks to all aspects of life. For example, you want to improve your relationship with your spouse. You put a task in there that says: Do something to help my spouse. Or professionally: Finish task X. The best part is that it is scalable. Nobody dictates what you put on there but yourself. If something essential needs to action, it goes on my power list, and it gets done before the end of that day. The winning streak is getting so big that I can not afford to break it.

Am I still using The Powerlist?

YES I love it! Five tasks are just enough to cover the most critical areas of your life, and also, if you want, you could complete them within an hour. Like I mentioned in this article: The secret to success. Consistency is key for success and personal growth. This tool is excellent for utilizing that concept on a very understandable level and low entry point.

Power List results

The biggest reason for still using The Powerlist is the benefits gained from this.

Consistent week and day planning

I have a hectic life:

• Two young kids
• A wife
• A full-time job
• I want to stay in optimal shape

And on top of that came Andy Frisella’s Powerlist. So I needed to handle my time as efficiently as possible first, I started with my roles As you can read here: Become pro-active using time management.. I filled my calendar with fixed items, like bringing the kids to school, working, dinner. The advantage of that is that you can quickly identify the time available for other tasks. That’s where I plotted my Powerlist tasks.

Realizing that when you simplify the tool, there is no escape from taking action

What do I mean by this? I mentioned that I tried a lot of reminders and task manager apps. They can be handy, but for me, it takes too much time to set up. And when set up, you are constantly required to track it on your phone, which is full of distractions. What ended up happening was, I found this excellent task manager app. I thought to myself; this is the one I’m going to be hyper-productive with this app. After a week or so, I stop using them and blame the app. With Andy Frisella’s Powerlist that is not possible. Because you only have one notebook and one pen. So it’s really up to you to take action!

Almost one year consciously being a better person than the day before

I am now on almost one year with my Powerlist and I’m not planning on quitting it any time soon and here is why: For the past year, I’ve been using it I actively and thought every day about how to be a better person than the day before. In all aspects of my life that are important to me, this is so powerful and easy to use.

Identified which areas of my life need improvement

Because of actively thinking about the actions that would make me a better person, I looked into the things that might be slightly uncomfortable and found out that way where part of my growth was. But also, I was being honest with myself and asking myself hard questions. Here are some examples of the outcome:

• Spending more quality time with the people most important to me
• Getting into physical shape
• Phoning people close to me
• Becoming a more involved parent

I Realize that every day for the past year, I did something to improve that. Which otherwise, I wouldn’t have done for sure!

Do what I promised to myself I would do

This one is essential to me. It’s about the integrity to yourself. If you live what you tell yourself to do, you’ll feel great instead of just telling yourself lies. Like: I’ll eat healthy next week. I’ll go to the gym next week. Do the things you promise yourself when that starts to happen. You will start making more significant promises like:

As of tomorrow, I start running every day at 06:00.

Knowing you are going to do it. Something I trained and learned using The Powerlist. To be clear, that is an actual promise I made to myself, and I committed to it, which feels great!

Integrity to yourself is the basis for self-confidence!

Ingrained good habits

You start with some tasks, and within a week, you’ll start doing them automatically. When that happens, it’s time to replace that task on your Powerlist. What’s happening is that the task became a habit. I, for example, now contact a friend or family member every day. Something that was on my Powerlist and I was not used to doing. That is just one example of many.

Conclusion

Andy Frisella’s Powerlist became one of the most important tools of my life. So it’s safe to say I encourage everybody to give it a try. It’s effortless to use, and there is nothing to lose besides a pen and notebook. Next to this concept, I’ve also been going through another concept Andy Frisella created. It’s called the #75Hard Challenge. It’s a physical/mental toughness challenge that goes hand in hand with The Powerlist. I completed the #75Hard Challenge and am now in phase 2. What I can tell you is that the impact that it had on my life is unbelievable. It transformed me completely, mentally and physically.

Ready to win some days? Start your Power list now!