Before you read any further, pick up your phone.
Open three things:
The last five photos in your camera roll.
The last five WhatsApp messages you sent.
The last five emails you sent.
Don't tidy anything. Just look.
We run this with every owner we work with. We did it with a client last week, and it was the quietest 3 minutes of the session.
What it shows you
Ask most owners what matters to them and you'll get a good answer. Family. Health. A business that doesn't need them every hour of the day.
Then they open their phone.
The photos are screenshots of invoices and whiteboards. The WhatsApps are to the team, chasing. The emails were sent at 10.40pm. Somewhere in there is one picture of their kids, taken at a weekend match they spent half of on a call.
That isn't a judgement. It's data. Your phone is the most honest record you have of where your attention actually went this week. Not where you'd say it went. Where it went.
The gap between those two is the running cost.
Now ask one question
Look at the fifteen things in front of you and ask: if this week repeated for the next year, would I be happy with where I'd ended up?
If the answer is yes, close this email and get on with your day.
If it isn't, the next step is working out what's pulling your attention there, which parts of the business only work because you're in them. That's what our diagnostic does. It's free, it takes a few minutes, and nobody will chase you afterwards.
Or just hit reply and tell us what was in your camera roll. We'll go first if you like:
Christmas present inspo
Saturday morning chaos with cousins
A pretty epic bonfire (homemade - kudos to my husband)
She wanted evidence that I had done her hair right… I passed the test. Phew!
A pretty depressing train dinner after a late night working last week. Vegetables?
Claire & Steve
