The Habit Mechanic - Unlock your Human-AI Edge

Train Your Brain for the AI Revolution (3/6) - Planning with the Task Director

• Dr. Jon Finn

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Dr. Jon Finn introduces Step 2 of the Success Cycle—Planning with the Task Director—which helps connect daily Brain State optimization with meaningful long-term goals through a structured approach.

• Creating a FAM story (Future, Ambitious, Meaningful story) acts as a personal lighthouse guiding brain energy
• The power of connecting daily brain states to your 10-year vision through a structured approach
• Building motivation through tracking progress, managing stress, and creating self-fulfilling prophecies
• Identifying and strengthening six foundational areas: sleep, diet, exercise, stress management, confidence, and focus
• Mastering "Super Habits" like the 3-to-1 reflection that enhance multiple areas simultaneously
• Categorizing tasks as "ice cubes" (routine tasks for medium-charge states) or "ice sculptures" (complex tasks for high-charge states)
• Prioritizing tasks for the next 30 days to strategically allocate optimal brain states
• Maintaining the system through weekly reviews, a task inbox, and regular time estimate adjustments

If you're interested in becoming one of the world's first Human AI Performance Psychology Coaches, we currently have a few places available. Get in touch via our website for more details.


Speaker 1:

Hello Habit Mechanics. It's Dr John Finn here. I hope you're having a great week so far. So in this podcast we are picking back up with the Train your Brain for the AI Revolution book, one that shared the first section of the book, which was the sort of introduction to AI and brain states, our brain being like a battery that has three core brain states. Some of those brain states can now be um replicated by technology, ai. Some of those brain states can be augmented with technology. So in in that that part of the book which is and I've got a beautiful hardback cover of a hardback version of the book in my hands right now so in that part of the book we covered the first seven chapters. So if you haven't listened to that already, you can go back and listen to it. Then in the second episode, we covered brain state measurement. So you go back and measure your brain states or listen along if you've got the book. And then what we're going to talk about in this episode is I'm going to share with you the chapters that are connected to step 2 of the book, which is planning with the task director. So remember the success cycle has four steps. Step one is measure your brain states. Step two is planning with the task director. Step three is optimisation with the day designer. Step four is optimisation with the routine engineer and then in step five the bonus step we show you how to use that system to help others to thrive and be at their best.

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So, as I've been saying, most coaching is failing in the AI era because it's just getting more and more difficult to actually put into practice the things that we agree are a good idea. So we might recognize that we're overly stressed and have some stress management techniques that we've been taught or learned or been coached on, but we don't use them, we forget to use them, and that's why we need a systematic approach. And that's why we need a systematic approach. So we need a way of actually measuring our brain's neurobiological rhythms and patterns and understanding that with more clarity, so we can get more control. And that's step one of the success cycle. We need a long-term strategic plan so that we can connect what we want to be working on today, which might be stress management or something else, or better leadership, or better parenting or whatever with the distant future, and that's why we have step two of the success cycle, which is planning with the task director. But having a long-term strategic plan isn't enough. We need a daily strategic framework, and that's step three, which is optimization with the day designer. And then we also need a way of automating that daily strategic plan, and that's why we have step four automation with the routine engineer. And then if we want to become a coach and help others, or a leader and help others, we can use that same simple, practical, proven four-step system as our coaching framework or or part of our leadership um system. So, yeah, so, anyway, that's the context.

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So what's coming up is um. What we got here. We got chapter 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19, and essentially we're going to work from helping you to craft that bigger vision of your future all the way back to the next 30 days. And I think this is what's really key in the success cycle is that we have that clear 30-day focus, but we can connect that 30-day focus to our bigger, bigger, meaningful goals. So I'm going to show you step-by-step exactly how to do that. But, yeah, we're seeing just in 30 days, with our one to one coaching clients that our head of coaching, andrew Foster, is working with, and that some of our human AI performance psychology coaches, those that are in the pilot group just working with people, and the 30-day process has been so powerful. So don't just uh, don't just listen to this. Take some notes and put things into practice. And if you're interested in becoming, um, one of the world's first human AI performance psychology coaches, then we do currently have a couple of places available, so get in touch and we can share more details. But enough from me here. Next up is chapter 14. And then we'll go all the way through to chapter 19, um. So, yeah, make some notes and if you don't ever have any questions, feel free to reach out um. You can do that via the website, um, if you're not in the app, or or or in one of our other channels. So, yeah, enjoy.

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Cycle step two Planning with the task director. The foundation determines the height. The task director. Chapter 14, creating your future vision.

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Sarah sat in her favorite coffee shop, a notebook open before her. I had my brain state profile score. She explained, but I kept asking myself what am I really trying to optimise my brain states? For what future am I trying to create? This is where you'll use one of the task director's most powerful tools the future, ambitious, meaningful story, which we call the FAM story. Just as a lighthouse's beam guides ships through darkness, your FAM story helps direct your brain's energy toward meaningful long-term goals while managing your states day by day. Working with the task director helped me discover something crucial Sarah shared. My brain state profile wasn't just showing me my current performance. It was revealing the gap between my present brain states and the ones I needed to achieve my biggest goals. Creating my FAM story helped me see exactly how to use the success cycle to close that gap.

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Think of your FAM story like an iceberg. The visible tip represents your long-term vision where you want to be in 10 years or so. Just above the surface are your medium term goals for the next one to four years. Underwater are your 12 month objectives. Then, deeper underwater are your monthly targets, weekly priorities and daily actions. Each layer connects your present brain states to your future ambitions.

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The power of your FAM story comes from how it creates what we call a wave of motivation. This helps direct your brain's energy and willpower's efforts in three powerful ways. First, it helps you track progress. Research shows the single biggest cause of burnout isn't overload. It's working too long without experiencing personal progress. Your FAM story lets you see the weekly, monthly and yearly progress you are making in your life, all driven by brain state optimisation. Second, it helps manage stress. Setting and monitoring goals makes it easier to reset and recalibrate when we falter. When set correctly, goals become powerful stress management tools. They're meant to be adjusted and refined as you progress or fail to progress, serving as adaptable signposts that help willpower and its specialists optimise your journey. Third, your fam story creates self-fulfilling prophecies. Walt Disney famously said if you can dream it, you can do it. Columbia University professor Robert Merton's research showed that believing you can achieve something significantly increases your chances of success. Your FAM story helps willpower guide you your horribly unhelpful emotions toward positive behavioral patterns aligned with your ambitions, making it easier to optimise your brain states today, because you can clearly see how it will help you create a better tomorrow.

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The task director helped me understand something powerful, sarah explained. Every time I updated my FAM story, usually every four to eight weeks, I could see more clearly how managing my brain states connected to my bigger goals. Better sleep wasn't just about feeling less tired. It was about having the high-charge brainpower to write my novel. Using AI tools effectively wasn't just about productivity. It was about creating space and energy for what mattered most. Sarah discovered something else too. As I mastered this process, I found myself naturally helping colleagues create their own FAM stories. There's something powerful about helping others connect their daily brain states to their biggest dreams.

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In the next chapter, you'll learn exactly how to create your own FAM story with the task director. You'll discover how to connect your brain state profile to your future vision through specific questions and exercises. Just as Sarah used this tool to transform her performance, you'll see how optimising your brain states today shapes the future you want to create Chapter 15. Creating your FAM story with the Task Director Success cycle, location Step two, progress 25% complete. Let's discover how to use the task director to create your FAM story, the tool that will connect your brain state profile to your future vision. Just as Sarah used this process to transform her well-being and performance, you'll learn how to map out your journey from current brain states to you, consistently being at your very best. To make it easier to create your fam story, I have created a PDF template to guide you through the exercises in this chapter and the next chapter. Go to toughermindscouk, forward slash, train your brain. To download your copy First, the task director will help you think about who inspires you.

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This was eye-opening, sarah shared. I started listing people I admired, from famous leaders to authors who have walked the path I want to follow. Looking at their patterns helped me see what brain states I needed to cultivate. Write down your answers to the following questions. First, think about who inspires you. Be specific and name names Some ideas, in no particular order, to spark your thoughts Parents, siblings, grandparents, family colleagues, people who have changed society scientists, nobel Prize winners, entrepreneurs, mentors, writers, sporting champions, political leaders, high achievers, musicians, artists and other creative people.

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If you're not sure, start by thinking about the kind of people who don't inspire you. Next, think about why the people who inspire you actually inspire you. Be specific, identify their shared and individual qualities. Some ideas, in no particular order, to spark your thoughts Dedication, persistence, self-sacrifice, determination, desire, work, ethic, success, tolerance, progress, excellence, innovation, humility, dependability, resilience, attitude, guts. Think about what you do to feel at your best.

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Here are some examples have fun, help others, develop myself, relax, do meaningful work, show humility, give my best, have a good work-life balance, achieve results, be dedicated, be determined, persist with difficult challenges, be resilient, show the right attitude, make personal progress, be diligent, be dependable, be tolerant, eat well, sleep well, show self-control. Then think about why is it important for you to do these things and what outcomes do they help you achieve? Next, think about your top strengths. Here are some ideas, in no particular order, to spark your thoughts Dedication, desire, persistence, self-sacrifice, positive attitude, calm, work ethic, reflective Success, humility, tolerance, diligence, dependability, excellence, attitude Innovative. Then think about the most important and difficult things you have achieved in your life so far or in the past 12 months. Finally, think about how you managed to be persistent to secure this achievement.

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Although I knew I didn't have perfect answers for all of these areas, just thinking about these things was crucial. Sarah explained I started seeing the connection between my role models, strengths, best moments and the type of person I wanted to be in the future. Congratulations. With these insights, you're ready to build your FAM story iceberg, chapter 16. Breaking down your FAM journey the step-by-step action plan. Success cycle location Step 2. Progress 20% complete.

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Now that you've explored your inspirations and reflected on your strengths, it's time to transform these insights into a practical plan. The task director will guide you through creating a detailed roadmap that connects your brain states to your biggest goals. The FAM form provides a systematic approach to this planning process, you'll learn how to break down your long-term vision into specific actions that optimize your brain states day by day. This creates a clear line of sight, from your future ambitions to your daily choices. As Sarah discovered, this planning process brings clarity to every level of your journey. Once I had my complete FAM story, I could see exactly how managing my brain states today would help me achieve my 10-year vision. Each daily action became a meaningful step toward my bigger goals.

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Broadly, the FAM form makes you think about the future and present in the following terms what do I want to achieve in the distant future? What do I need to do in the next 1-4 years to achieve my distant future goals? What do I need to do in the next 12 months to achieve my 1 to 4 year goals? What do I need to do in the next 6 months to achieve my 12 month goals? What do I need to do in the next 3 months to achieve my 6 month goals? What do I need to do in the next 30 days to achieve my 3 month goals? What do I need to do in the next 30 days to achieve my three-month goals? What do I need to do this week to achieve my goals for the next 30 days. What do I need to prioritise today to achieve my goals for this week?

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Sometimes we might feel reluctant to commit to achieving a major long-term objective, but the beauty of the FAM form is that it allows us to be flexible. We can decide to pivot and change our goals. They are not set in stone. I encourage everyone who wants to be their best to periodically think about their own long-term goals. I step back to reflect and use the FAM form to update my FAM story every four to eight weeks.

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My FAM story goals change because my life circumstances change. Sometimes the changes to my goals are tiny and sometimes they are big, but what is most important is that I am engaging in a purposeful reflection and planning process. This helps me learn about myself and to be at my best. The fanform helped me see how it all connected. Sarah shared my 10-year vision included writing a novel while maintaining a thriving career and family life. That meant optimising my high-charge states for creative work, using AI tools effectively in medium-charge periods and mastering my recharge patterns. Each layer of the iceberg showed me exactly what to work on next. Here are the FAM form questions to help you create your own FAM story. Remember the answers you give and the goals you set are not set in stone. They are flexible and can be changed at any time to make them more helpful for you.

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1. Think about what you'd like to be doing and what you'd like to have in the medium to distant future, for example, 10 years into the future or more. Some words to get you thinking about your future goals Location, family, possessions, friends and relationships, health, home, money, roles and responsibilities, job Tip if you are not sure, start by thinking about what you do not want your future to look like. Developing your long-term goals will take time. The aim of this exercise is not to create perfect goals, but to get you thinking and started on your journey to having a clearer understanding about what you want your future self and life to look like. Remember whatever you write down can be changed. Should you set goals that might feel unrealistic? I do because I have found that, even if I do not achieve these goals, having a high level of expectation is helpful. It means I achieve a higher level of happiness and performance than I would have if I'd set myself less ambitious goals. This is something I have learned through practice. Should you make an exact copy of my approach. No, you need to develop an approach that works best for you. You will only work out the best way to set the type of goals that work best for you by trying things out. Goals are powerful tools, but it can take a lot of trial and error to learn how to use them effectively.

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Y times five To make your long-term goals more meaningful and powerful. To make your long-term goals more meaningful and powerful, try to understand why you want to achieve them. An effective way to do this is to ask yourself why five times. For example, if you want to get a promotion at work, you might ask yourself why. The answer might be because you want to earn more money. So you would then ask yourself why do you want to earn more money? That answer might be because you want to move to a bigger house. Then you would ask yourself why do you want to live in a bigger house? This answer could be so my young children have a garden to play in. The next question you might ask yourself is why is it important for you to have a garden your children can play in? The answer could be I understand the importance of outdoor play for healthy development, and I want to provide a space at home where they can do this. By the time you have asked yourself why at least five times, you will develop a clear understanding of the deeper reasons for your goals and ambitions. The more meaningful your reasons for wanting to achieve a goal, the more powerful they will be in helping you persist and succeed.

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Now let's get back to our FAM form questions. 2. Think about what you need to achieve in the next one to four years to make your distant to medium future goals attainable. 3. Think about what you need to achieve in the next 12 months to make your 1-4 year goals attainable. 4. Think about what you need to achieve in the next 6 months to make your 12 month goals attainable. 5. Think about what you need to achieve in the next three months to make your six-month goals attainable. With your long-term FAM story taking shape, you're ready to discover how these aspirations translate into daily actions. In the next chapter, we'll explore the foundational habits that will turn your vision into reality. Explore the foundational habits that will turn your vision into reality, the daily practices that optimize your brain states and steadily move you towards your goals.

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Chapter 17. Building your foundation for success. Success cycle location, step 2. Progress 40% complete.

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Now that you've created your long-term vision with the task director through your FAM story, it's time to focus on something crucial the daily habits that will build your path to that future. As Sarah discovered, transforming your brain states isn't just about big goals. It's also about the small, consistent actions that create lasting change. Creating my FAM story was exciting, sarah shared, but the task director helped me see something important I needed to strengthen my foundation before I could reach those bigger goals. That meant focusing on basic habits that would optimize my brain states day by day. Think of these foundational habits like the base of your lighthouse. Just as a lighthouse needs a solid foundation to maintain its structure during rough seas and storms, your brain needs core habits that maintain optimal states through daily challenges.

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Here are six key areas that need your attention. Number one sleep your brain's primary recharge mechanism. Quality sleep isn't just about feeling better. It's essential for maintaining the high charge states you need for premium thinking work. Number two diet the fuel for your brain's energy system. What and when you eat directly affects your ability to maintain optimal brain states throughout the day. Number three exercise your brain's natural energy optimizer. Regular movement, especially walking, helps regulate your brain states and enhance your capacity for both high-charge thinking and proper recharge. Number four stress management. Your brain's balance system. Managing stress effectively helps prevent hue from becoming overactive and draining your energy unnecessarily. Number five confidence. Your performance foundation. Building and maintaining confidence helps you tackle challenges while maintaining optimal brain states. Number six focus, impact and productivity. Your daily effectiveness system. Having clear routines and systems helps you match tasks to your appropriate brain states.

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You might expect we'd start by directly tackling these foundational areas fixing your sleep areas, fixing your sleep, changing your diet, establishing an exercise routine but Sarah discovered something counterintuitive. The fastest way to improve these foundational habits is to first master what we call super habits. The daily three-to-one reflection you learned in chapter one is a good example of a super habit, because it helps you to both plan and reflect. Super habits. Work by helping willpower. Guide Hugh toward better patterns across all foundational areas simultaneously. Think of them as master keys that unlock multiple doors at once. The fam story is also a super habit, and you'll learn others in the coming chapters. This was a breakthrough moment for me. Sarah explained I kept trying to fix everything at once my sleep, my diet, my exercise routine but the task director showed me how consistently using the three-to-one reflection actually made improving these other areas easier. Instead of fighting multiple battles, I was creating positive changes across my entire system. Let's examine how the 3-to-1 reflection naturally enhances each foundational area.

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Sleep enhancement the evening reflection helps calm your thinking by redirecting Hugh's spotlight away from threats and worries. This activation of your recharged brain state makes quality sleep more accessible. Sarah discovered that on nights, when she skipped her reflection, her mind would race with unprocessed thoughts from the day. Diet and exercise awareness. Regular reflection makes you more conscious of how your choices affect your energy and performance. When Sarah wrote about feeling energised after a morning walk or sluggish after a heavy lunch, these connections became clearer. This increased awareness naturally guided her toward better decisions without requiring constant willpower.

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Stress management the practice of deliberately finding positives helps willpower guide Hugh toward calmer patterns. Each time you complete a reflection, you're training your brain to look beyond threats and problems. This builds your capacity to maintain balance even during challenging times. Confidence building challenging times Confidence building Writing down your daily successes, no matter how small, creates a more balanced view of your capabilities and progress. Many of us focus primarily on what went wrong or what's still incomplete. The three to one ratio ensures you're acknowledging more positives than areas for improvement, enhancing focus, impact and productivity. Consistent reflection increases your awareness of which approaches work best, helping you match tasks to your optimal brain states. Sarah began noticing patterns in her most focused days, which helped her design better schedules and routines. Understanding super habits was exceptionally insightful, sarah shared. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by all the areas I needed to improve, I could focus on one powerful practice that naturally enhanced everything else. The task director helped me see that mastering these key habits was like finding shortcuts to better brain states across the board. In the next chapter, you'll discover exactly where you stand on each foundational area and learn how to use super habits to strengthen your base for optimal performance.

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Chapter 18. Measuring and Strengthening your Success cycle location Step 2. Progress 60% complete. Now that you understand how super habits like the 3 to 1 reflection can enhance your foundational areas, let's measure your current patterns To identify which areas need your attention. Take the Human AI Readiness Brain state assessment again. This time, rather than focusing on your overall score, pay attention to the areas where you score highest. These indicate which habits need the most work. Think of this assessment like running a diagnostic check on your foundational habits.

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Each statement reveals something important about how your brain is functioning across the foundational areas we discussed. Take a moment to rate yourself honestly on each statement below. You'll score yourself from 1 to 10, where 1 means never and 10 means always. Write down your score for each statement. Here are the statements Statement 1. I find myself responding to urgent issues instead of having a plan or sticking to my plan. Remember, one means never and ten means always. You're probably somewhere in between. Write down your score. Statement two I get interrupted by others emails, phone and my own self-doubt or negative self-talk and it takes me longer to complete my work. Again, remember 1 means never and 10 means always. You're probably somewhere in between. Write down your score.

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Statement 3. I sleep poorly and it takes longer to complete my work to a high standard. Statement 4. I waste time doubting my decisions, second-guessing myself and beating myself up. Statement five my mind feels foggy and it slows down my work. Statement six I put off important tasks even though I know they need doing. Statement 7. I feel overwhelmed and I make mistakes that take time to fix, meaning it takes longer to complete my work to a high standard. Statement 8. I find myself scrolling social media when I know it is not a good use of my time or helpful for me being at my best. Statement 9. I sleep poorly and it makes it harder to spot and prevent mistakes in my work. Statement 10. My mind jumps between tasks instead of focusing on one thing, meaning it takes me longer to complete my work. Statement 11. I get distracted, including by my own self-doubt and negative self-talk, meaning it takes longer to complete my work to a high standard. Statement 12. I feel like I could achieve more if I felt more confident and focused. Like I could achieve more if I felt more confident and focused. Statement 13. I waste time because I'm not thinking clearly. Statement 14. My diet choices leave me feeling sluggish and it takes me longer to complete my work to a high standard. Statement 15. Lack of regular exercise, for example. Statement 15. Lack of regular exercise, for example, 10,000 plus steps and elevated heart rate, reduces my mental energy and focus. Please note, you can access a digital version of this self-assessment, which shows you an overview of your scores at tuffermindscouk forward slash.

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Train your brain Understanding your results. After completing the assessment, you might feel overwhelmed by all the areas that need attention. This is exactly how Sarah felt at first. Looking at my scores was daunting, she shared. But the task director helped me see something important. I didn't need to fix everything at once. By focusing on consistently using the three to one reflection, I started seeing improvements across multiple areas. This is why we start with super habits.

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Consider what happened when Sarah established a consistent evening 3-1 reflection practice. First week she began noticing patterns in her sleep quality. Writing down positives helped calm her racing mind. The practice itself became a signal to her brain that the workday was ending. Second week, she started recognising how different foods affected her energy. The impact of her exercise patterns became more apparent in her daily reflections. She could see clear connections between stress and productivity. Third week, her confidence grew as she documented small wins. Sleep improved as evening reflection became routine. Other positive habits started feeling more natural creating your foundation. Natural Creating your foundation Based on your assessment results. Choose just one or two specific habits to focus on this week. Remember Sarah's experience.

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Start with mastering the three-to-one reflection, then let other improvements follow naturally. Take a moment to identify 1. Which foundational area needs the most attention this month? 2. How could consistent use of the 3-1 reflection help address this area? 3. What small step will you take today to establish your end-of-day reflection practice. To establish your end-of-day reflection practice, the task director has a saying the foundation determines the height.

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Just as a lighthouse must build upward from a solid base to project its beam toward distant horizons, you can't achieve your fam-story vision without first establishing strong foundational habits. But rather than trying to build everything at once, focus first on mastering the super habits that make all other improvements easier. Moving forward, you might be wondering about specific strategies for better sleep, diet, exercise, stress management, confidence, focus, leadership or other foundational practices. While these are crucial for your long-term success, diving into those details now would take us away from your most important immediate goal mastering the success cycle itself. Think of the success cycle as the ultimate super habit, the system that makes building all other habits easier. When you're ready to explore deeper insights into habit formation and super habits, you'll find comprehensive guidance in Appendix C For additional insights about building specific habits at individual, team and leadership levels. Please see my best-selling book, the Habit Mechanic, where I share over 30 habit-building tools.

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But for now, let's focus on completing step two of the success cycle. In the next chapter you'll learn how to organise your tasks into clear priorities, creating the foundation the day designer will use to craft schedules that optimise your brain states. As Sarah discovered, this simple but crucial step transforms how you use your energy each day. Chapter 19. Organising your priority tasks for the next 30 days Success cycle location Step 2. Progress 80% complete. Let's build on what you've already accomplished with the task director. Through your FAM story, you've connected your long-term vision to shorter-term goals. You've also identified key foundational habits that will help optimise your brain states. Now it's time to get clear about all the tasks you need to complete.

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Think about your daily tasks and responsibilities. They fall into two distinct categories based on the type of brain state they require, and we use the metaphor of ICE to help us understand them and use them effectively. Ice cubes are your routine tasks, the kind that need consistent but not maximum brain power. These tasks work well with your medium charge brain state. Think of routine emails, basic admin work or standard meetings. Many of these tasks can be automated or semi-automated with AI tools. Ice sculptures are your complex tasks, the ones that demand sustained premium thinking. These require your high-charge brain state. This includes not only challenging work projects like strategic planning or creative development, but also the focused effort needed to build those foundational habits you identified earlier. Increasingly, these tasks can be made easier with AI tools. The task director helped me see this distinction clearly. Sarah shared Writing my novel was definitely an ice sculpture. It needed my best thinking energy, but I could also use next generation AI to help me write faster. However, processing team updates was more like freezing ice cubes, something I could handle in medium charge state or even delegate to AI tools. Understanding this difference helped me stop wasting my high charge hours on tasks that didn't really need them.

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Creating your organised task lists. Follow these steps to create your organised task lists. Step 1. First, write down everything you need to accomplish in the next 30 days that isn't part of your normal day-to-day routine. Include work and family responsibilities, personal development tasks and anything else you think is relevant. Don't worry about categorising yet, just get a complete brain dump onto paper. Step two label each task as either an ice cube or ice sculpture. Step 3. For each ice sculpture task, assign a priority number, 1 being your highest priority, and estimate how many minutes or hours it will likely take to complete. Step 4. For each ice cube task, assign a priority number, 1 being your highest priority, and estimate how many minutes or hours it will likely take to complete. Here's how Sarah's lists looked Ice sculptures high charge tasks Task 1.

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Continue to build my daily 3-to-1 reflection habit Priority score 1. 3 minutes per day. Task 2. Develop new customer service strategy Priority score 3. 12 hours. Task 3. Establish morning exercise routine Priority score 2. 20 minutes per day. Task 4. Learn new AI data analysis system Priority score 4, 8 hours. Task 5. Write first novel chapter Priority score 5, 15 hours. Task 6. Decorate the kitchen Priority score 6, 20 hours. Task 6. Decorate the kitchen Priority score 6, 20 hours.

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Ice cubes medium charge tasks. Task 1. Review daily team reports Priority score 5, 1 hour. Task 2. Update project trackers Priority score 2, 30 minutes. Task 3. Schedule recurring meetings Priority score 3, 30 minutes. Task 3. Schedule recurring meetings Priority score 3, 30 minutes. Task 4. Call SAM to provide project update Priority score 1, 30 minutes. Task 5. Renew my passport Priority score 5, 1 hour.

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Creating these structured lists gave me a completely new perspective. Sarah explained, instead of just reacting to whatever seemed urgent, I could be strategic about using my brain state. The task director helped me see exactly when I needed my high charge hours and plan accordingly. Three essential maintenance strategies. The task director showed Sarah three important strategies for maintaining this system.

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Strategy 1. Schedule weekly reviews. Every Sunday evening, sarah would update her lists with new tasks and review existing ones. Sometimes, tasks I thought would be ice sculptures actually became more like ice cubes as I got better at them, she explained. For example, once I learned the new AI data analysis system, using it became a medium-charge task. Other times, what I thought would be a simple ice cube turned out to need more focused thinking.

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Strategy 2. Create a task inbox system. Sarah kept a task inbox, a single place to capture new responsibilities as they came up. Every evening I'd review this inbox she shared. I categorise each new task as either an ice cube or sculpture, assign it a priority, estimate the time needed and added it to the appropriate list. This prevented new tasks from disrupting my brain state optimisation. Strategy 3. Review review time estimates regularly.

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I learned to track how long it actually took me to complete iSculpture tasks versus my initial estimates. Sarah explained this helped me become more accurate in my planning. I also discovered something interesting about timing. I also discovered something interesting about timing. Sarah said Tasks often took different amounts of time based on my brain state. A report that might take three hours when I was foggy, could be finished in 45 minutes during high charge times. Understanding these patterns helped me create much more realistic schedules with the day designer.

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Take time now to create your own prioritised lists. If it's helpful, include the success cycle as one of your ice sculpture tasks. Remember, nothing in this approach is prescriptive, so create your lists in the way that is most helpful for you. Also, remember this isn't just about work tasks, it's about everything that's important in your life. Congratulations, you've now completed step two of the success cycle.

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Step two of the success cycle. Before we move on, and if you think it's helpful, take a moment to think about people you admire for their ability to prioritise and plan effectively, whether it's a colleague, a leader you respect or even a renowned business figure. What makes their approach so effective? This might help you to improve your relationship with your own task director, and you might even name it after one of those people you admire. Next, we'll move on to step three, where you'll discover how the day designer uses these priority lists to craft schedules that optimise your brain states across each 24-hour period. But first organise your tasks clearly for the next 30 days. As Sarah discovered, this simple step creates the foundation for transforming how you use your energy each day.