I pulled out my old journals this week.

Not for nostalgia. A portco CEO I was on a call with was stuck.

Couldn't get moving in the morning.

Too many open decisions.

Too much noise.

Too much… everything?

So, I wanted to show him something.

I walked over to the closet and pulled out three journals, all the same brand/color that I bought at target early 2021.

The first page reads: "David Riggs, Become a Millionaire by 28." Dated March 6, 2021.

Below it, there were a set of questions. The same questions I’ve asked myself every single morning for five years running.

That is it. Nothing clever. Nothing complicated. I wrote those questions when I was 22, broke, running a company I had no business running, and I wrote them again this morning at 28 with a portfolio of companies behind me.

The questions did not change.

What I wanted the CEO to see was this - something as simple as answering a few questions to start your morning can cut down the noise. If that doesn’t happen, your time gets prioritized by whatever is the loudest, now whatever is the most meaningful.

I tend to hesitate to “prescribe” certain things to do in business. Everything is contextual. But… I have a strongly held confidence that something as simple as this makes a big difference.

(As an aside, I shared more about an adjacent goal above in an earlier issue. Here. You might enjoy it)

Here is what six years of repetition taught me.

The insight is never in the answer. The insight is in what you notice about yourself when you answer honestly.

If you write the same avoidance three days in a row, that is your business screaming at you.

If you feel dread every Monday, that is data. If the most important thing never gets done, your priorities are not your priorities.

If you skip it for a week, that is data as well.

I think founders overcomplicate this. Most everyone I work with knows what to do. It’s the “doing” that they find challenging because of all the other things they could be doing.

Three questions and a cheap $4 journal from Target could get you there.

What is the difference between March 6, 2021 to May 13, 2026?

Almost six years of repetitive small steps that added up. And a much different human on the other side.

There is no magic pill. There is no productivity hack that replaces sitting with yourself for five minutes and being honest about what you are avoiding.

Write down the three questions. Answer them tomorrow morning. Do it again the next day. And the next. And the next.

You get the idea :)

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