3x10 Report #28 - 2026

 

Garden. Still raspberries  

Guitar.  New month, new song: Gymnopedia  

Projects: in 10 days (10/1-10/10), I only did __ 30-minute chunks:

Project 1: Fretboard Mastery.   

P2-Cookbook. just 1 item:  

P3-CSU! just 1 item  

The 4 Disciplines of Execution (from the book by McChesney, Covey, and Huling):

1. Focus on the wildly important: Pick one or two goals that matter most, instead of trying to improve everything at once.
2. Act on lead measures: Track the behaviors you control that drive results (like hours of deep work), not just lag measures (like papers published) that you only see after the fact.
3. Keep a compelling scoreboard: Make progress visible and simple so you can tell at a glance whether you're winning.
4. Create a cadence of accountability: Review your progress regularly, usually weekly, and commit to next steps.

The daily shutdown is Newport's end-of-workday ritual. He runs through the same steps every day:

• Check email and messages one last time for anything urgent.
• Move any unfinished tasks or loose ends into your task list so nothing is floating in your head.
• Glance at your calendar and plan tomorrow.
• Say a closing phrase, "shutdown complete," to mark the end of work.

After that, he doesn't think about work until the next day. His reasoning is that unfinished tasks keep nagging at your attention, and a clear stopping point lets your mind rest, which helps you do better deep work the next day.