Eight questions to close the day

I don't put much faith in big turning points. I believe in well-made days, added up. One day at a time is where life actually happens — and yet it's usually the part we look at least on purpose.

A while ago I picked up a simple habit: before I close the day, I stop for a few minutes and ask myself a few questions. It's not a journal, not a spreadsheet, doesn't take time. Just an honest moment of review:

• What did I build today?
• What did I learn?
• What did I contribute to?
• What did I waste?
• Who did I invest time in?
• What can I do better tomorrow?
• Who will I invest in tomorrow?
• How am I feeling?

The last one seems out of place among the more "productive" ones. It isn't. How I'm feeling almost always explains the rest.

The value isn't in any single answer. It's in the repetition. A day reviewed like this is just a day; three hundred and sixty-five become a direction. We tend to plan life in big, distant goals and to live it in loose days that don't talk to each other. These questions are the stitching — what links today to who I want to be becoming.

Time is the only thing I spend and don't get back. Closing the day with five minutes of attention is the cheapest way I've found not to let it pass on autopilot.