Week 1 · Grounded Presence · Day 7 of 28 · Sunday · Review · 10 min
Week 1 review: measure your speaking pace and fillers
Day 7 · Week 1 Review
Redo the Day 5 prompt, compare your pace and fillers with the first run, write three honest answers, and choose one habit to carry into Week 2.
Review days are where the gains stick. Redo the Day 5 prompt in Speak and compare pace and fillers with your Day 5 run (your history is in Me). Then answer three questions in today’s notes: what already feels more natural, what did you avoid this week, and which single habit will you carry into Week 2. Pick one. One habit carried beats five noted.
Steps
Redo it in Speak: 60 seconds, “Describe what you do to someone who’s never heard of it”.
Picture it · 3 examples
Example Redo it
Sunday morning, kitchen table, Speak open. Same prompt as Day 5, same sixty seconds. You are nervous in a way you weren’t the first time, because now you know what you are listening for. Halfway through, you hear yourself pause before the second point, and keep going.
At home Sunday, at the kitchen table
Laptop open, coffee, Speak. “Describe what you do to someone who’s never heard of it.” You stand up to do it, which you did not on Day 5. Sixty seconds. You hear yourself pause before the second point.
In the car In the car, Sunday afternoon
You do it in the car outside the supermarket because the house is loud. Phone on the dashboard, Speak open. You get through the sixty seconds without one “basically”. On Day 5 there were three.
Compare the numbers with your Day 5 run in Me.
Picture it · 3 examples
Example Compare
Day 5: 184 words a minute, 5 fillers. Day 7: 161, 3. The line on the chart bends the right way.
In the office Looking at the chart in Me
Two dots on the chart. Pace down from 171 to 155. Fillers down from four to two. Hedges the same. You screenshot it and send it to nobody. It is for you.
At home The number that didn’t move
Pace moved. Fillers moved. Hedges did not: three on Day 5, three today, and all of them “I think”. You now know what Week 2 is for.
Write your three answers in today’s notes: what feels more natural, what you avoided, your one habit.
Picture it · 3 examples
Example Three answers
At the kitchen table, two minutes: “More natural: the pause at the door. Avoided: eye contact with people senior to me. Habit for next week: pause before I answer.” The second line took longer than the other two together.
At home Written at the kitchen table
“More natural: the slow first sentence, I did it in Thursday’s meeting without planning. Avoided: the clean exit, I still hover. Habit: exit lines.” Three lines in today’s notes. Honest, especially the second one.
In the car Written in the car
“More natural: asking a follow-up. Avoided: standing still, I fidgeted all through the barbecue. Habit: hands at rest.” You nearly write something kinder for the second line. The true one is more useful.
Choose the one habit to carry forward.
Picture it · 3 examples
Example Choose one
You write “pause before answering” on a sticky note on the monitor. One habit, visible.
In the office On the laptop lid
One habit: “exit cleanly”. On a sticky note on the laptop lid, where you see it every time you open it. By Wednesday you have used the exit line twice and only noticed afterwards.
At home In the phone notes
“Hands at rest.” You set it as the title of a note and pin it to the top. On Tuesday you read it in the lift. On Thursday you do it in the meeting without reading it.
Today’s notes
One line each.
- What feels more natural
- What you avoided
- Your one habit
Lock it in
Tick what’s true.
I redid it and compared.
Picture it · 3 examples
Example Redid it and compared
Sunday morning, the same sixty seconds as Day 5, then the chart in Me. 184 to 161. Five fillers to three. Small numbers. The direction is what you were checking for, and it is right.
At home The two runs side by side
You play Day 5 and then Day 7 back to back at the kitchen table. The words are nearly the same. The second one has pauses in it. You did not notice putting them there.
In the car Compared in the car
Day 5 run, Day 7 run, one after the other through the car speakers. Your partner, in the passenger seat, says “the second one sounds like you’re not in a hurry”. The chart says the same thing in numbers.
I wrote my three answers.
Picture it · 3 examples
Example Three answers written
Three lines in today’s notes. The second one, “avoided eye contact with the directors”, you wrote, deleted, and wrote again. That is the line that will change next week.
At home At the kitchen table
“More natural: the pause. Avoided: the exit. Habit: exit lines.” Written in two minutes on Sunday morning. On Day 14 you will read these again and be surprised the exit was ever hard.
In the car Written in the car
“Avoided: standing still.” You write it in the car outside the supermarket on Sunday, because it is true, not because it is comfortable. Next Saturday, that is the line you remember at the door.
I chose one habit for Week 2.
Picture it · 3 examples
Example One habit chosen
Pause before answering. You wanted to carry three. You carry one, on a sticky note, and by Wednesday it is happening in meetings without the note.
In the office Exit lines
“Exit cleanly” is the one. Monday, you use it in the kitchen. Tuesday, in the corridor. By Friday the sticky note is redundant and you take it down.
Drinks & dinners Hands at rest
You chose still hands for Week 2. At Tuesday’s dinner your hands stay on the table through the whole story. Nobody says anything. You notice, which is the whole habit.