Action Item: The Quest to be Good at Everything

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Good morning, 

Welcome back to Action Items a series in which we condense and extend each of our interviews into actionable bullet points — only for paid subscribers. 

This week we’re revisiting my interview with Henrik Werdelin — a man on a quest to be good at everything. And when he says everything, he means everything: He’s a co-founder of successful startup Bark, he runs a venture development firm called prehype, he teaches entrepreneurship courses to university students, and he’s a husband and father. 

Henrik’s outlook is a little bit contrarian — rather than preaching a narrow focus, he aspires to be as good at every area of his life as he can be. 

Being good at everything, is a tall order — and that’s why he devised the 8 + 1 system. It helps him to divide each important area of his life up into buckets and make sure each bucket is getting enough attention. 

Today’s Action Item is 745 words, that’s 3:45 minutes of actionable takeaways. 

Let’s dive in! 

👉 Question for members

After you read this interview, spend 10 minutes writing down what you think the buckets in your life are. What did you come up with? What areas need more attention? Reply to this email with your findings, and let’s chat!  

✅ The 8 + 1 system

To use the 8 + 1 system, Henrik breaks down his life into 8 buckets:

1. Transact: Make enough money to support your life
2. Invest: Work, money, time that compounds over time
3. Assist: Help others
4. Learn: Acquire skills and knowledge you need to move forward in any area 
5. Health: Care for your body including exercise, sleep, meditation and food
6. Family: Spend time with and care for the people you live with
7. Relationships: Connect with people in your life outside your family
8. Self-Kindness: Small things that make you happy every day

Then he makes time every week to do a Review Period to look at his 8 bucketes and make sure that things are well balanced — that’s the +1 in the 8 + 1 system.

He does his + 1 review by drawing a grid in his notebook, listing the buckets, and then listing out which activities in his week are going to each one. This creates a holistic, big picture view of his life that helps him see where he’s doing well — and where he’s falling short.

🧐 How to find your buckets

Henrik’s buckets aren’t generic labels like “home” and “work.”

Instead, he’s organized his buckets around inputs and outputs in his life. For example, Assist, Learn, and Invest are all inputs. Transact is an output. Having both types of buckets as part of his system is important to make sure he’s balancing his life appropriately.

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The Everything bundle now has 10 paid newsletters including Superorganizers. Here are a few articles from around the bundle that you might like:

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