One Thing: Design Audit
Design thinking mini-series, Part 1
If you look at your calendar, your energy at 3pm on a Thursday, your bank account, your screen time, these are largely outcomes of design decisions.
Over the next four weeks, I’m sharing a mini-series on using design thinking to get the outcomes you desire in your work and life. Design thinking is a core pillar of my coaching approach and the foundation of Design Your Joyful Life, where we do this work together in community.
Hi friends,
If you zoom out, your work and life have been quietly “designed” by the accumulation of your choices and defaults: what you say yes to, how you work, how you spend, how you rest (or don’t).
For this series, choose one arena focus on:
Work/leadership
Money
Health/body
Time/energy
Relationships
Or…that thing that you keep thinking about and not actually changing.
Design Audit
Design thinking starts with understanding what is, honestly and without judgement. With your chosen arena in mind, run a quick audit of the first three weeks of 2026:
How would you rate this arena from 1-10?
(1= red flag, 10 = more than enough. Jot down any notes.)
Where is the momentum?
(increasing, holding steady, or on the downswing)What does this quick assessment reveal about your desires for this arena?
Deep down, what do you wish for here?
A big arena for me this year is time and energy for my coaching business. When I look at my calendar, I can see where my energy leaks toward other pursuits instead of protecting my best thinking and coaching time. The momentum is increasing, and I know there’s more I can prototype to get my rating closer to a 10.
There’s no fixing or changing yet, just noticing. Next week, we’ll start exploring how to use the structures (like the calendar in my example) around your arena to support what you actually want.
Take good care,
Lisa