The power of the Tournament Draw Method

If you are feeling overwhelmed with all there is to do and handle in life, then the Tournament Draw method can help you.

I first read about this in the book “The Power Of Focus” by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt.

It uses the very simple concept of tournament draws you find in sports, like in tennis, basketball, and football to decide which task you should be doing RIGHT NOW and NO OTHER i.e. who is the winner of your tournament?

Why is this so much more helpful?

Suppose you had list of 16 important tasks that you or your team would love/need doing right away. Since you can’t focus on all of them at once, and you shouldn’t, you must figure out which ONE Thing is your NUMBER ONE task, the one you should be doing right now such that by doing it, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary.

Most of us would compare these 16 tasks with one another in a list and then decide on their order.

Et voilá.

And there’s the rub.

Many would still feel that the list is not exactly giving them CLARITY or a feeling of being on top of things but is rather leaving them stressed out and in DOUBT.

They keep doubting that their decision making process wasn’t the right one.

But with the Tournament Draw method, you can solve that problem because you only compare 2 tasks with each other, just like in the eighth-finals in a tennis tournament.

Comparing 2 tasks with each other is WAY easier than comparing 1 against 15 others.

As a result you now have 8 winners (8 “more” important tasks).

Compare those winners in the quarterfinals.

Then compare the winners of these in the semifinals.

And finally compare the semi-finalists in the final and there is your CLEAR winner, your ONE thing, that you must do and focus on NOW.

You can simply draw this up for yourself on a sheet of paper or download the zip file below which contains an empty printable Tournament Draw PDF so you can get cracking right away.

But …

What if you wanted to play the Tournament Draw only once and see a list of 16 tasks which are in the correct prioritised order?

In most cases, your printed or written version would not work anymore.

Why?

Because if 2 contenders i.e. very important tasks, in the eighth-finals played against each other, then one contender doesn’t even get into the quarterfinals and as a result will sink to the bottom of your list.

Granted, not everyone wants or needs this but larger businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurs will surely recognise this.

So here’s my solution

A Mac Numbers file which is included in the free download. Check it out.

Watch the video to understand how it works and play around with it.

Follow or subscribe to my social channels to see all explanatory videos on this.

I create many videos about this because I’m a fan!

Furthermore, it’s filled with all kinds of goodies which I am sure you are going to LOVE.

Here’s what’s included:

An empty printable PDF version of the Tournament Draw

A manual: 5 Tournament Draw Setup Step sheets to figure it out by reading

The “My Captured Items” sheet with an Awesome Filter

The “Daily To-dos - Quickly Arrange” sheet with an Awesome Filter

“Tournament Draw V3.0 - Macro View”

“The ONE Thing - Single Task Macro View - V3.0”

“Tournament Draw V3.0 - Micro View”

“The ONE Thing - Single Task Micro View - V3.0”

“The ONE Thing - Weekly Planning - v1.0”

FAQs

Q: Does it work every time?

A: No, it’s not exactly waterproof but it will definitely create your first 8 tasks in the correct order and that is if you do the work i.e. if you go over each of your 16 tasks thoroughly before you add them to your Tournament Draw.

Q: Why only for Mac Numbers?

A: I love working with Mac Numbers.

Q: Why would 2 contenders not play against each other in the eighth-finals in your spreadsheet?

A: I’ve programmed it so that every contender plays against an underdog in the eighth-finals.

Q: What if I wanted to make this spreadsheet simpler?

A:  You can do that. Simply hide the columns you don’t need. Be careful, if you are going to move columns around or delete them, your filters may not work anymore. Better save a fresh copy. And of course you can always ask me.

Q: In my Capture Items sheet, I don’t see any rows anymore, why is that?

A: Check your “Awesome Filters” table on the left on your “Captured Items” sheet and see if there are tickboxes checked that hide all your rows. If that didn’t help, go to the inspector and switch off the filtering. It might be that a solo tickbox is checked in a row AND then you’ve hidden that one with additional filter settings in your “Awesome Filters” table.

Q: I have lots of filters on in the Awesome filters table but I’m still seeing all my rows. Why?

A: Check if your “Show All” tickbox is checked. If so, uncheck that one. If that still doesn’t work, your filter settings in the inspector might not be on.

Q: In my Tournament Draw sheet, some (or all) tasks and descriptions are still empty. Why?

A: For a task and its description to appear in your Tournament Draw sheet, you must have at least the Tournament Draw tickbox checked per row you want to see appear AND column C in your Captured Items table must have a number between 1 and 16. Only then will they show up.

Q: Does the Awesome Filters table on the left of my Captured Items table affect the Tournament Draw Macro View or Micro View?

A: No.

If you have further questions, book me and ask.

Thanks!
Davido

Acknowledgements:

I was inspired by the following books which I believe are definitely worth reading if you care about focus, making decisions and task management.

“The ONE Thing” by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

“The Power Of Focus” by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt.

Thank you so much, authors!