How to Optimize Your Day: Tactics From Chess

To reach your full potential, you should optimize your days. But how do you do that? Here I’d like to share with you tactics to do it that I learned from the world of chess.
Back in 2013, I wrote an article titled Optimizing Your Life One Move at a Time. There I wrote about what I learned from watching the World Chess Championship at that time. I noticed that the moves the players made were colored according to how optimal they were. Here is a screenshot:

As you can see, there are three possible categories for a move: optimal (blue), suboptimal (purple), and weak (red).
This, I believe, is a good metaphor for how we live our lives. Just like in a chess game, you face situations throughout the day where you need to make decisions. These decisions are your “moves” and your decisions could be optimal, suboptimal, or weak.
Your goal is to make as many optimal “moves” as possible. If you do, you will optimize your day. And if you do that day by day, you will optimize your life!
So how can we make optimal “moves” throughout the day? Here are some tactics.
1. Have a Good Morning Routine
The way you start your day sets the tone for the rest of the day. That’s why you should start your day right.
A good morning routine is like a good opening in chess. An opening consists of proven moves to start a game that have been tested for years. Professional chess players use these openings to start their games on a strong foundation.
Similarly, you should have a good morning ro...

Source: Life Optimizer - August 9, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Donald Latumahina Tags: Time management Source Type: blogs