Red Days and Green Days

At the end of each day, I ask myself

“Did I spend this day the way I want to spend my days?”

If the answer is “no” too many days in a week, month, or year — I know I need to make a shift. My wife and I call those “red” days, from the idea of coding a day either “green” (good) or “red” (bad).

Keeping track of them helps you avoid recency bias, and thus overcompensating, if you’re having a red day. Was it the first red day in a long time? Or the fifth one this week?

A few red days are OK, especially if they’re in service of some greater good or goal. And each person has a different red day tolerance.

But, don’t put off fixing those red days for too long.

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.¹