A popular concept in the corporate world is the north star metric. Simply put it refers to the most important metrics or goals that a project is working toward.

For a project it might refer to increasing sales, new customers, traffic etc.

But I started applying this concept to my personal life and it has been a game changer.

The core principle is that choosing a few core north stars allows us to prioritize our actions accordingly.

So at the start of 2023 I sat down and decided my biggest north star metric was going to be my physical health and fitness.

This meant that every single other goal came second to this.

If I had limited time and could only choose 1 activity, that activity was something that was going to further my health: gym, cooking, etc

It gave me a clear cut way to make time management decisions. I didn’t have to waste time on what the best use of my time was.

It was simply anything that helped my physical fitness.

Prioritization without a North Star

Without a north star metric, what tends to happen is we prioritize by the most recent thing. Or by what appears to be the most urgent at that time.

For example, a new email from a co-worker may suddenly seem more important than a long term project simply because it seems urgent.

Even though the long term project is more important than the recent email.

Prioritization with a North Star

When we have a north star defined, we are able to prioritize which tasks are most closely aligned with that goal.

This can be applied on a daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly basis.

This was my to-do list the other day. I decided that day health and work projects were the most critical things to focus on.

As such, I had to push “responding to emails” and “cleaning my room” to another day.

Had I not had these north stars, all of these tasks would have seemed equally important.

Some North Star Examples:

• Health + Fitness

• Career Growth

• Income Growth

• Relationship Improvement

• Skill Acquisition

• Company Growth

These might seem trivial, but we often don’t realize how poorly we prioritize where we spend our time.

Over the next few weeks I encourage you to take a look at your screen time on your phone and see if you’re able to guess what your highest used apps are.

The same principle applies to our lives.

The main takeaway is start taking note of where you are spending the most time, and ask yourself if this is aligned with the goals of your ideal life.

New Podcast Episode is Live!

Some Recent Posts: