16.6 — A Daily, Weekly and Yearly Practice

Everything in this volume that is a practice, arranged by frequency.

And one instruction before the list, because it determines whether any of it happens.

Do not adopt all of it.

Take two items. Keep them for three months. Then add one.

A person who adopts twelve practices on a Monday is doing none of them by March, and every tradition in this volume knows it — which is why the traditional prescriptions are short and repetitive rather than comprehensive.

Daily

Ten minutes of attention practice

From 6.9, and it is the foundation because it trains the one capacity everything else depends on (16.1's item five).

Two minutes: settle. Posture, three long out-breaths, then stop controlling the breath and just know it.

Five minutes: know the breath. When the mind wanders, note where it went in one word — planning, remembering, wanting, worrying — and return. The returning is the exercise.

Two minutes: check the state. Which hindrance is present, and apply its antidote rather than pushing through (6.9).

One minute: goodwill. Yourself, one person you love, one person who is difficult today (16.2).

The five-minute audit

From 8.11, at the end of the day, in a fixed place.

Which of the six was running today? Desire, anger, greed, delusion, pride, envy.

Where specifically? A moment, not a theme.

What did it cost, and who paid?

One behaviour I would do differently, stated as a behaviour.

And what went well? Not optional — a review that only finds faults trains you to find faults.

And the two-second move

From 6.8, whenever it applies.

Notice the tone before it becomes a story. This is unpleasant.

This is not a scheduled practice. It is the thing the ten minutes is training, and it is where the value is.

Optional third: the state check

From 5.8, three times a day, ten seconds.

Which is running — clarity, drive, or fog?

And the rule: only decide in clarity. Fix fog with movement, not thought. Fix drive with stillness, not more action.

Weekly

Ten minutes of review

Did I hold the lines? (13.8.)

Is there anybody who has been trying to tell me something? (3.3, 8.8.) If yes, go and ask them, and do not respond for a day.

What is the exit price on the thing I am avoiding, and has it gone up? (8.10.)

And the five questions, quickly (8.10): am I producing a counter-argument for everybody who warns me; have I been offered what I said I wanted and not wanted it; is a commitment being held because of what people would think; can I trace my decisions to one moment when I was made small; do I keep agreeing with what should be done and watching it not happen?

One contact

One person contacted who has nobody else contacting them.

14.4's finding is that relationships are the largest single factor in a life going well, and 8.11's finding is that a commitment has to be unconditional or it stops.

One person, one message, every week, regardless of whether you feel like it.

And one unfilled hour

From 14.6 and 6.2.

No input. No phone, no book, no music.

The first twenty minutes are the queue clearing. The material arrives afterwards.

Monthly

One morning alone

14.6's version. A long walk is the easiest, because it satisfies the body's restlessness while leaving the mind free.

And the question to bring: what am I avoiding?

Negative visualisation

Once a month, not daily (14.2, 10.5).

Deliberately imagine losing what you have. The effect people report is not gloom; it is that they see it again.

And one small deliberate cost

16.4's practice.

Say you were wrong about something minor, publicly. Refuse a small advantage that would require a small deception. Ask a question in a room where you are supposed to already know.

Each one converts a preference into something that has held, and each one costs almost nothing.

Yearly

The eulogy

14.8, once a year, two hours.

Re-read what you wrote. Ask whether it is still what you want said, and whether the gap has narrowed.

The code

13.8, once a year, an hour.

Re-read it. Does it still fit the life you actually have?

And 3.2's warning: a commitment written for a life you no longer live should be released, and taking the release when it is offered is the correct move.

Two days alone

14.6, once or twice a year.

No company, no screens. The first day is difficult and the second is where the useful material arrives, which is why one day is not enough.

The conversation

14.8 and 14.2.

Tell one person what you want — medically, and afterwards. And ask one person the same.

Once is enough, and then whenever something changes.

And the decision record

16.5's highest-yield habit.

Read the predictions you wrote a year ago against what happened.

Memory rewrites your past predictions to match outcomes, and you cannot learn from a record you have edited.

The whole thing, on one page

Daily: ten minutes of attention; five-minute audit; the two-second tone-check whenever it applies.

Weekly: ten-minute review; one contact; one unfilled hour.

Monthly: one morning alone; one negative visualisation; one small deliberate cost.

Yearly: the eulogy; the code; two days alone; the conversation; the decision record.

Total: about twenty minutes a day, half an hour a week, a morning a month, and two or three days a year.

Why this format and not another

Three reasons, all established earlier.

It is behavioural rather than dispositional (13.4). Every item is checkable.

It is unconditional (9.7, 12.7). The value is in the performance, on a schedule, with no expectation of a result on any given day — and the moment it becomes conditional on producing something it stops within a month.

And it is short. 8.11's rule: ten simultaneous improvements is zero improvements.

What to do this week

Two items. Not twelve.

And the recommended two, for most people:

The five-minute audit, because it is the cheapest and it produces the diagnosis everything else acts on.

And the one weekly contact, because 14.4's finding is the largest single factor and it is the one most people's calendars have no room for.

Three months. Then add the ten minutes.

What to carry from this page

Two items, three months, then add one.

The returning is the exercise, not the staying.

Keep the fifth audit question — what went well.

Read your predictions against the outcomes once a year.

And the whole thing is twenty minutes a day. The reason it does not happen is not time.

Next: 16.7 — the last page.