How to set up your Personal OS Field Guide and run it — section by section, with a filled-in example for each. The book and the course go deeper; this gets you running today.
Personal OS is one system stacked top to bottom. Higher layers govern the ones below — so you build in order, and never tune a layer while the one above it is hollow. Identity (who you are) → Direction (where you're going) → Cadence (your rhythm) → Execution (what you do today).
Work the front of the guide once, in order. You'll revisit it often — but you only build it once.
The end-state your life is aimed at. Write it as if looking back from the end — what must be undeniably true?
Who you are in four lines: your Core (who I am), Operating (how I live), Decision (what I choose under pressure), and Override (what I do when stuck).
Your standards as constraints — what you refuse to do, what you always do, and how you enforce each one. This is the heart of the standard.
The governing values and principles you steer by — your yes and your no in a few words.
The horizon everything serves, written in the present tense as if you're living it. The 5- and 1-year are the checkpoints that make the 10-year real.
A few outcomes for the year written as proof conditions — "by year-end, X will be true" — not task lists. Three to five is the sweet spot.
For each goal: why it matters, what done looks like, the quarterly breakdown (each quarter ships a real outcome), your weekly lead measures, obstacles & if-then plans, and your next step.
Block your week at your peak. Fixed anchors (family, rest, your deep-work block) plus protected time for what matters. A map, not a prison.
Here’s a full ideal week for your edition — peak blocks land where your brain actually peaks. Same standard, different clock. Use the toggle up top to see the other one.
The fixed set you run every day — a startup ritual to begin and a shutdown ritual to close — plus a reset you define before you need it. Drift is normal; staying drifted is the only failure.
Open your 12-week cycle: a theme, two or three objectives, and the weekly lead measures that move them. Tick each week you move an objective forward.
Plan & Reflect on the left: Today's Three (work, self, relationship), your Secondary tasks, what you'll say no to, the startup checklist, then your evening close and prime. Agenda & Notes on the right: a 30-minute time block and a capture grid.
At each week's close: review the week behind you (wins, where you drifted, the smallest fix), process your captures from the notes pages, then preview the week ahead and set your first Daily Three.
Three undated month spreads map the three months of your cycle. Fill in the month and dates, mark your key anchors, and track the habits you're holding.
Set your Three, work your blocks, close and prime at night.
Run the Weekly Engine — review, process captures, preview.
Open a Month in View; set anchors and habits.
Run the Quarterly Kickoff; reset objectives for the next 12 weeks.
Import the PDF into GoodNotes, Notability, or Noteshelf. Tap the Contents page or your app's bookmarks to jump anywhere. Write in edit mode; navigate in view mode.
The binder edition is loose-leaf and hole-punched for a 6-ring A5 binder; the bound edition reads like a book. Both run the same system, front to back.
Not sure where you stand? Take the free Personal Standard Score.