The heart of the journal is the Daily Goals list, which is broken down into four primary sections:

1. Focus Blocks

2. Gratitudes

3. XP and Rewards

4. Wizard of Wisdom Prompts

There are also some notes pages for every day. Use this space to write down anything you want to remember as you work through the Journal. Consider keeping track of important events, creative ideas, or to reflect on what is or isn’t working in your daily routine

Now, let’s dig deeper.

Focus Blocks

One of the best ways to get important tasks done is through the use of focus. To that end, we’ve included Focus Blocks on the Daily Pages.

A Focus Block is a set period of time where you block all distractions and focus on just one task.

Think of a Focus Block like a videogame power-up where you become immune to damage (distraction) and can thus cruise through otherwise difficult tasks with ease. I’ve found no better way to make amazing progress in my life than through this technique.

Use whatever means necessary to shut off distractions.

• Set your phone on airplane mode.

• Turn off notifications on your computer.

• Wear noise-canceling headphones.

• Let family and coworkers know not to disturb you when you have headphones on unless it’s an emergency.

• Close any communication apps like Slack and email.

• Use apps that block the internet or distracting websites.

With distractions removed set a short amount of time to focus. Inside the Focus Shields on your daily page, you can write down the duration of your focus. You can use any time amount you want, but twenty minutes is a great place to start. Use this time to focus on your most important task, and nothing else.

With your focus time chosen, set a timer. Make sure you can see the timer from where you work. Then start the clock and go! If you have trouble focusing for twenty minutes, drop down to smaller intervals to train yourself. Even five-minute chunks of concentration can have a huge impact. Try to get at least three Focus Blocks in each day. You’ll be amazed by what you can accomplish in these short intervals.

Gratitudes

Research has proven the power of gratitude. Spending just a few minutes a day, reflecting on gratitude can have lasting long-term effects on your happiness, productivity, and health. Gratitude is, without a doubt, the simplest way to make our lives better—it’s an easy and instant win.

Whether it’s a problem at work, a trumped-up news crisis, or a stranger cutting us off in traffic, we get easily caught up in what isn’t going our way. Studies show that the easiest way to live a happier life is to shift our focus from the few things going wrong in our lives to the countless things that are going right. What’s incredible about this is how quickly we can shift our focus and benefit from the change.

Don’t believe me? Take thirty seconds to close your eyes after reading the following steps of this exercise:

Think about something that makes you feel grateful. It could be something simple like a warm cup of coffee or something epic like your last great vacation. It can be a person, a pet, or an experience. Spend time recognizing how impossibly lucky you are for your experiences. Repeat this gratitude exercise two more times, picking different things to focus on for thirty-second intervals. Note how you feel after each. 

Gratitude leaves no room for anger or worry. The more gratitude you make space for in your life, the happier you will be. Just like with our other habits, we are going to train this one every day using a simple process. 

On every Daily Page, you’ll find a new Gratitude prompt. Read the prompt, then take a few seconds to consider the experience and bring a smile to your face. Hint: Make sure you physically smile. In the space below the prompt, you can write a note or simply check the box if no note is necessary. Training yourself to think of these things daily will help ingrain the gratitude habit and bring unimaginable joy to your life.

XP and Rewards

If you’ve spent any time playing a roleplaying game like Dungeons & Dragons or the Final Fantasy video game series, you’ll know what we mean when we talk about Experience or XP.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, experience points, or XP is earned for exploring the world and yourself. When you gain enough XP you “level up.” With a new level comes new abilities, skills, and powers.

In the same way, the Level Up Habit Journal helps you track your real-world experiences, and then rewards you with XP.

Everything in the journal will give you XP. The more often you hit your goals, the more XP you gain. Gaining XP represents the gradual improvement of your skills and habits, another step toward a goal, a personal insight, or a job well done!

But wait, there’s more!

One of the most important pages in the Level Up Habit Journal is the rewards page. Here, you’ll see preset XP scores inside each shield, beside the shield, are blank lines. This is a space for you to write down rewards you’ll gain for hitting certain XP thresholds. 

It’s important that these rewards are meaningful. In other words, choose stuff that you wouldn’t normally experience or purchase on an average day.

For example, if you go to the movies often then writing “Go see a movie” on the first line won’t feel like a reward. In contrast, if you don’t often treat yourself to a fancy dinner, then this may have more of an impact and feel special when you achieve your goal.

The XP in the Journal is cumulative, you’ll continue to add it up as you progress through. When you finish this Journal and move on to a new one you’ll start your XP journey over, which means new rewards and more level-ups!

Wizard of Wisdom Prompts

You’ll notice that every Level Up Check-In page has a Wizard of Wisdom prompt there for you to read and respond to. The purpose of these prompts is to help you develop longer-term insights into your life, further refine your identity, and instill some important self-help principles.

The Wizard of Wisdom Prompts will ask you to focus on an aspect of life including health, wealth, and relationships. Each prompt is a simple but powerful tool that you can immediately implement, but it's not enough to simply answer a question once and then forget about it forever—consistency is key. 

That’s why during each Level Up Check-in a new Wizard of Wisdom prompt will be waiting for you. Take a few moments to think about a response, consider what led you to your answer, if at any point in your life the answer might have been different, and what you think would cause the answer to change in the future. 

Specificity is important here. Your answers should not be vague. If you asked about your future goals, and respond with an answer like, “be happy” or “become rich,” then consider spending some time digging into exactly what that means.  The deeper you look into your responses to these prompts the more you will learn about yourself. 

Remember, just a few minutes with these prompts can have a lasting effect on your life so do your best to answer them as truthfully as possible. As Aristotle put it, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”