Self-management & focus
For: Anyone whose week feels full but whose progress feels thin
Self-management is more visible to others than it is to you. A 10-question check on whether your priorities, focus, and pace are actually adding up — or just looking busy.
- 10 questions
- 3 dimensions
- ~3-4 min
- Self · Peer · Both
Self-management has a quiet failure mode: you're working hard, hours are full, the calendar is jammed — and yet the things that actually mattered most aren't moving. From the inside, the noise feels like progress. From the outside, the gap between what you say is important and where your attention actually goes is much more visible. This template surfaces three dimensions: where attention goes vs where you say it should, how well you defend focus when it's under attack, and whether your pace is sustainable. 10 questions across three dimensions, calibrated for the receiving side — because the receiver sees the pattern, while the operator usually only sees the next task.
How it works
Run it on yourself first — be specific about a recent week. Then send it to people who watch your work patterns: peers, your manager, direct reports. The most useful gap is between 'I'm focused on the right things' (your view) and 'you spend most of your time on whatever's loudest that day' (their view).
What's inside — 10 questions across 3 dimensions
Where attention goes
whether your daily work actually reflects what you say is most important
Defending focus
whether you protect deep work, or context-switch every few minutes
Recovery & sustainability
whether your pace is one you could keep up indefinitely
The questions, in full
Every question is included below. You answer them yourself first, then send the same set to the people who've seen you work.
Where attention goes
- Q1Rating (1-5)
This person's daily work reflects what they say their top priorities are.
- Q2Rating (1-5)
When something low-priority becomes urgent, this person doesn't let it hijack the rest of the week.
- Q3Multiple choice
Looking at where this person's time actually goes, the bulk of it is...
- — Their actual top priorities
- — A mix — sometimes priorities, often whatever's loudest
- — Mostly reactive — they fight whatever's on fire
- — Heavily admin / meetings — little space for real work
- — Hard to tell — they're always busy but I'm not sure with what
- Q4Open answer
If you could change what this person spends most of their time on, what would shift up — and what would drop?
Defending focus
- Q5Rating (1-5)
This person can hold focused attention on one thing — they don't context-switch every few minutes.
- Q6Rating (1-5)
This person says no (or "not now") when something would derail their focus — without being rude about it.
- Q7Rating (1-5)
This person has a clear way of working that lets them get things done — it's not just heroic last-minute pushes.
Recovery & sustainability
- Q8Rating (1-5)
This person works at a pace they could keep up indefinitely — not a sprint that quietly leads toward burnout.
- Q9Rating (1-5)
This person actually rests — weekends, evenings, holidays — and you can tell they came back recharged.
- Q10Open answer
What's one habit or pattern that — if this person changed it — would noticeably improve how sustainable their work feels?
The research behind these questions
Drawn from Cal Newport's Deep Work on focused attention as the leverage skill of modern work, Greg McKeown's Essentialism on the discipline of saying no to almost everything, Brigid Schulte's New America research on time, overwhelm, and recovery (Overwhelmed), Adam Grant's research on systems-over-willpower, and Tasha Eurich's work on the link between rest and self-awareness (Insight). Each question targets a specific behavior an outside observer can verify — not vague 'well-organized' rating.
References
- — Cal Newport — Deep Work (Georgetown University)
- — Greg McKeown — Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
- — Brigid Schulte — Overwhelmed (New America, Better Life Lab)
- — Adam Grant — Hidden Potential (Wharton)
- — Tasha Eurich — Insight
Ready to run this round on yourself?
Sign up, pick this template, answer it about yourself, and send the same questions to the people who've been in the room with you. The gap between your view and theirs is where the actual learning lives.