With all the craziness and constant go go go we all experience, I try to remember to keep focus on what’s important in life.

Years ago, I remember hearing about something called the 5/25 rule. Here’s a YouTube video I found that explains it more.

My simple explanation of it:

Legend goes, this was advice Warren Buffett gave to his pilot. He had him list out 25 things he wanted to accomplish, prioritize the list, circle the top 5, and here was the kicker — cross off everything that didn’t make the top 5. The way Warren Buffett put it is that the remaining items on the list (the ones not making the top 5) weren’t things you can spend some time on here and there, they were distractions. You need to focus on those top 5 and forget about the rest (at least until you’ve completed or accomplished those 5). I’m probably not explaining this fully accurately, but you get the idea — or go watch the video I linked above or search online if you want more info.

Anyway, that got me thinking of my own “top 5” type list. It’s not really a “top 5 things to accomplish” list, rather, more of a “top 5 things to focus on”. Like I hinted to in the first sentence of this post, we’re all so busy with daily life that it’s easy to lose focus of what really matters. That’s why I came up with my 5 items in what I call my 5 “F”s. This is a list I put together years ago — right after learning about Warren Buffett’s 5/25 rule. This is my 5 focuses. The 5 things I try to keep top of mind with almost everything I do. They’re the 5 things I (try to) consider most important when making decisions or deciding to add (or remove) things from my life. Conveniently enough, I was able to make them all start with the letter “F”, as well. 😉

Here they are:

The most important! If you’re not keeping your family as a main priority, what’s the point of anything? Everything else on the list could almost be thrown away as long as you’re focusing on family… but the other things kind of filter into making a focus on family possible.

Just trying to stay healthy and fit. It’s so easy to make excuses to why working out (or just staying healthy) isn’t important or possible. I still do this too often. Especially since leaving the USMC, working out is no longer part of my job, so I have to work harder to keep focused on it.

Keep learning and improving. In order to get where I want to in my career, I’m always trying to learn more. I also try to ensure I’m not just “settling” in a job I hate. I’ve had jobs in the past where I didn’t like them and, rather than just continue there thinking “well work is work and you’re not supposed to enjoy it”, I worked my ass off to learn to code. Now, I get paid to do something I love - coding and making cool apps.

Saving and planning. It’s hard to keep on top of and I suck at it just as much as everyone else, but I try to follow a budget. Even failing as much as we do on our budget, having one is better than not. It’s kind of like eating healthy — even if you slip up and eat some crappy food, as long as you try to eat healthy, it’s better than just not eating healthy at all. As part of this, I try to save and invest… even if it’s only a little.

Go to church and read the Bible. I’ve read the New Testament before and bits and pieces of the Bible at various times, but I recently finished reading the entire Bible, cover to cover. That doesn’t mean I’m done with it, but I think that’s a decent accomplishment. We also try to attend church consistently. We haven’t gone as much as we’d like and are currently failing big time on this one, but I think we just found a church we’ll start going to regularly.

I’m not always great at keeping everything on this list top of mind, even though I try, but I do my best. Hopefully this list can help you (anyone who decided to read this whole post) remember to keep the important things important in your life.

Do you have your own list? Let me know on Twitter or wherever else!

- Jason