The Red Thread Audit

Step 1: Map Your Current Commitments (10 minutes)

List:
• Your main responsibilities,
• Ongoing projects,
• Regular meetings, and,
• Informal obligations taking your emotional energy.

Don't evaluate yet. Just make the list.

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Step 2: The Energy Check

For each item, ask:
• Does this meaningfully contribute to something I care about?
• Does it strengthen my authority, clarity or usefulness?
• Does it feel necessary, habitual or avoidant?

Mark each item with:
• + (Energising)
• 0 (Neutral)
• − (Draining)

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Step 3: Identify the Red Thread

Answer this question...

“If I could only justify my role through one concern over the next three months, what would it be?”

This is your Red Thread.

Now revisit your list and circle only the items that genuinely serve it.

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Step 4: The Release Decision

Choose ONE commitment that:
• Does not serve the Red Thread,
• Eats up disproportionate energy, and,
• Can be reduced, delegated or ended.

Decide what you'll do differently about it this month.

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Operating Principles

Harden:
• Prioritise coherence over being busy for busy's sake.
• Let results, and not goodwill, justify commitments.
• Accept that focus always disappoints someone.

Soften:
• Release guilt about not doing everything.
• Allow value to come through after you subtract.
• Treat clarity as an act of care and absolutely not as selfishness.

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Reflection Question

What changes when your actions are pulled by a single thread rather than multiple demands?