The 6% Club

5The 0–10 Rule

YOUR MIND IS full of clutter. Thoughts, fears, hopes, things that people tell you, things you want to tell them. Regrets, wishes, new information to process. Feelings, decisions to make, things you forgot, things you remember. You're tired. You're hungry. You have a sick child. Your boss is being unreasonable again.

That cluttered mind needs to make decisions. It needs to make good decisions. It needs to prioritize. You need to manage your energy, your time, your attention.

How do you even find the time and the mental focus to do that when there is so much going on? When your mind is so tired and there is so much to do, so much information goes through that brain of yours? How do you get focused on good decisions as far as your time, your priorities, the things you need to focus on, and the things you need to do?

I've got a tool that will help you very much with that. It will help you cut right through the noise and know what to do. It's called the 0–10 Rule.

1. What the 0–10 Rule Is and How I Developed It

I developed the 0–10 Rule when I was a psychology PhD student. We were learning to use a scaling system as therapists when dealing with someone who is depressed. When someone is depressed, everything seems dark, and if you ask the person if they feel better compared to yesterday, they would have a hard time answering. Yesterday was dark, today is dark, and tomorrow seems dark, too.

As therapists in training, we were taught to use a scaling system of 0–10 ...