Since the tenth month of the year is duly upon us, this Philosopher-in-Residence thought we should try a little “ten-for-ten” mindfulness exercise this fortnight.

In perfect serendipity, this should take you around ten minutes.

Think of your top ten values, the things that feel most important to you, most of the time. I’ve popped mine below as an example (in no particular order).

LEISURE

ADVENTURE

INNER PEACE

COMFORT

FREEDOM

CREATIVITY

PURPOSE

JUSTICE

HEALTH

SAFETY

The next step is simply to score each value out of 10 for how close you feel you’ve delivered on your version of the ideal for that on an average day.

For example, if you don’t allocate any time to LEISURE on an average day you would score yourself 0/10. If your ideal amount of leisure time is 2 hours a day, and you usually achieve that, you would score yourself 10/10.

Repeat this scoring for each of the ten values. You will then have a score out of 100 when you add them all up.

0-24 means you may be in a state of flux, never or rarely putting yourself first, in a state of anhedonia. Don’t beat yourself up about this, but do try to diarise some quantifiable plans to add a few percentage points to your score for next week.

25-49 means you are approaching a sense of balance, but when you’re feeling under pressure, you have a tendency to cut out self-care activities rather than trimming time off everything on your to-do list.

Don’t beat yourself up about this, but do try to diarise some quantifiable plans to add a few percentage points to your score for next week.

50-74 means you are a values-forward person, but you would benefit from identifying what situations or triggers make you deviate from your values. Don’t beat yourself up about this, but do try to diarise quantifiable plans to add a few percentage points to your score for next week.

75-100 means your daily actions are intrinsically linked to your values, probably leading to a sense of uplift and nourishment in most of the things you do. Don’t rest on your laurels, but do identify where and how you could help others and make sure your sunny values are reflected outwards as well as controlled inwards.

We’d love to hear how you get on!

Next fortnight I’ll be writing On Duty. Take a break from whatever duties you’re on to pop by and read all about it. Please get in touch with any particular aspects of this subject you’d like me to write about.

In the meantime,

Happy Planning

PS If you want some other free tips for your business life, check out the Working Well blog – out fortnightly on Wednesdays, courtesy of Make Me A Plan’s Productivity Expert, Pen Le Kelly. Browse the latest edition here:

https://www.makemeaplan.com/news/are-you-giving-customers-what-they-want-or-just-what-they-expect/