Every day is still day one
I am not an engineer, and I built myself a personal assistant anyway. The habit behind it came from a 40-hour learning target I first dismissed as just another number.
In the age of intelligence (AI), if you're not building or automating something yourself, I think you're missing a real opportunity. Even as a leader. Maybe especially as a leader.
I say that as someone who is not an engineer. This is Mr. Dayone, a personal assistant I built for myself. It keeps things moving when I don't, and keeps pushing me to complete my task and learn. A few smaller builds came before it. I'm a beginner again, more than 20 years into my career.
The habit behind it started somewhere else. Every year, everyone at a company I worked at had the same challenge, senior leaders included. 40 hours of learning.
At the start I saw it as just another number. And when a number becomes a target, people do funny things to hit it. Atomic Habits changed my mind.
It was never about the hours. It was a habit system.
I think about someone stepping into their first leadership role right now. The calendar fills up, the team grows, and learning something new becomes the thing you'll get to later. The title makes being a beginner feel risky.
That's why I called it Mr. Dayone. Every day is still day one.
And yes, I asked Mr. Dayone to publish the LinkedIn version of this post.
So try it. Then tell me, what's one thing you're going to solve for yourself?
The pointer
James Clear, Atomic Habits (2018). The book that changed how I saw the 40 hours. Its argument is that results come from the system you keep, not the goal you set, which is exactly what the learning target turned out to be.