design compass

From Dave Evans, How to Live a Meaningful Life (2026):

Principle	What it means in planning
Fully engaged, calmly detached	Make good decisions; release attachment to specific outcomes. Plan well, then let the year unfold.
Story crafting	Pick the truest, most generative narrative for the year. The story you tell yourself shapes what you notice and what you attempt.
Moment making	Build in KRs that are about being present, not just producing outputs. The meaning is often in the doing, not the done.
Got to → Get to	Reframe obligations as privileges wherever honest. Shifts motivation and reduces chronic stress.
Scandal of particularity	There is no perfect plan — only the real one. A good-enough plan lived fully beats a perfect plan lived anxiously.
Subtraction	Decide explicitly what you’re not doing. Every yes is a no to something else. Name the no’s.
Destination sickness	The failure mode where you’re always at the next goal, never present. Build in presence-checkpoints.