Pat Cummins' Fuckup

"In late 2021 my world changed. In the space of a month, I became a father for the first time and was was given the job of the Captain of the Men’s Australian Test Cricket team. I didn’t know how I was going to pack these two monumental ‘jobs’ into a life that I already felt was crazy busy. It took me at least a year to fully adjust to this new life. I felt like I was treading water and overwhelmed trying to hold onto all the things I did pre becoming a Dad whilst juggling the new roles. I was terrible at saying no and felt like although I now had many roles I wasn’t giving any of them my best. It took me at least a year to fully adjust to this new life. I felt like I was treading water and overwhelmed trying to hold onto all the things I did pre becoming a Dad whilst juggling the new roles. I was terrible at saying no and felt like although I now had many roles I wasn’t giving any of them my best.

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It wasn’t until I stumbled on a great piece of advice that I felt like I started to get clarity on how to manage my time. I believe it was Warren Buffet (but may have been someone else!) who first proposed the 5/25 list. How it works is write down the 25 things that take up your time rank them in importance from 1-25. For me, the Top 5 were:Being a Dad/HusbandPlaying Cricket/CaptainingSeeing close Friends/FamilyOff Field Business CommitmentsHaving space to think/learnNow how this works is to not only specifically concentrate on the top 5 items but to ACTIVELY AVOID the other 20 items on the list. These other 20 items for me included such things as networking, studying, DIY, catch-ups with acquaintances and random phone calls. These are all things that I somewhat enjoy doing but to give my top 5 the best of me, sacrifices needed to be made. By adhering to these simple rules I gained a sense of control over my time and began to experience less regrets."

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