The P.R.E.S.E.N.T. Principle

Last week on my morning walk I listened to Erik J. Fisher’s podcast Beyond the To Do List. Because I love learning new ways to work smarter I enjoy hearing Erik interview all sorts of people on that topic.

This day, he was interviewing Claire Diaz-Ortiz. She heads up social innovation at Twitter and is an author and speaker. She posts on Twitter @Claire and has 328,000 followers.

Erik was probing her about her eBook The P.R.E.S.E.N.T. Principle and how she structures her day. I was fascinated.

When I got home I checked Amazon for the book and saw that I could download it free from the Kindle lending library. (Did you know there was such a thing?)

The book is short and it’s easy to memorize the seven steps to planning a beautiful day based on the acrostic P.R.E.S.E.N.T.  Not only was I able to download it to my Kindle on the lending library and read it to my husband on our trip to Naples, but I was able relay it to a friend, word for word, while talking at Starbucks later that day. I love it.

Claire lives a busy life as the social innovator at Twitter. Like that little bluebird that’s the Twitter icon, she’s flitting all over the globe speaking and working with business people. She was named one of the top 100 most creative people in business. If you think you’re busy, you’re probably fooling yourself.

Therefore, when Claire said she’s found a way to schedule what’s most important not only for her day, but for her purpose-driven, soul nourished life, I was all ears. It’s her conviction that if you lead your morning, you’ll lead your life. And I already know the hard way, if you don’t lead your life, it’s certain someone else will do it for you.

The more I thought about following Claire’s outline, the more I wanted a printed form that utilized her “seven steps to life in the now.” So I created one!

The truth is, I’m the wordsmith and Sue Riger is the brilliant graphic designer who I love working with. I couldn’t do any of this without her artistic gifts in flow. She’s the “brush” and I’m the “quill” of Brush & Quill Productions. Over the last four years, we’ve made a happy, productive team.

Sue has just starting blogging at A Painter’s Journey. She writes from the eye of the artist – seeing the details and paying attention to beauty. If you are an artist, you’ll even find painter’s tips.

We finished our downloadable form yesterday and Claire gave us permission to offer it to you, free of charge. Might you take a look and see if you can put the P.R.E.S.E.N.T. Principle to work for yourself? It provides a way to purpose in the morning how you choose to lead your day rather than give the honor to someone else.

It covers everything strategic to your well-being:  prayer, reading, journaling, your three most important tasks, your To Do List of 10 things, exercise, soul nourishment, and at the end of the day, space to track how you did.

You can download the Kindle edition of Claire’s book on Amazon for just $2.99. It’s a quick read that will jell these principles in your heart. Click here to download your PDF copy of The P.R.E.S.E.N.T. Principle Planner. Our gift to you.

And if you’re using it, please let me know how it’s working for you?