Day in the life of using Summit

Hi! We originally built Summit for ourselves and are our own power users of the product. Here is what a typical week looks like for us when using Summit and some use cases you might consider when using Summit for yourself.

First, why do we use Summit?Planning My Week Daily Accountability to My Goals Productivity Throughout My Day One-off Scenarios Weekly Retrospection

First, why do we use Summit?

There are a couple of core values that we get from Summit in using it frequently:

Helps us actually achieve our goals: For example I’ve been consistent with a morning meditation, exercise, and cold shower routine that I aspired to, but struggled with before using Summit

Helps us plan our days and weeks and stay on track to what we’re trying to get done: For example, every morning I start by telling my coach my plan for the day and ending it by talking to my coach afterwards to recap and plan the next day which overall raises my productivity on a daily and weekly basis

Helps us process thoughts and situations as someone(thing) to bounce ideas and scenarios off of: in a given day (and week) there are a lot of situations that come up and it is helpful to get thoughts down and have a coach to bounce thoughts off of; often times just this “rubber duck debugging” is sufficient and helpful for working through a problem

We’re obviously somewhat biased because we are building the product - but we have done the above in a combination of tools prior to Summit and typically results in having a bunch of different systems or expenses - for instance having a goal/habit tracking app, a journal, and paying for a coach.

Planning My Week

At the beginning of the week (or typically towards the end of my last week), I go in and plan my upcoming week in terms of goals that I want to accomplish

Typically I’ll do this by talking to my coach (more on that in the last section) and afterwards, I update my goals in Summit to reflect what I’m trying to get done

My goals are a mix of short-term and long term. For instance this week, I have some short term goals (eating healthier and no mindless browsing) and I’ve had some longer term goals that I continue to update (my Summit goal and my base goal)

Having these goals in Summit means that my coach will then text me (more on that below) with reminders on my goals and have context on these when I’m talking to it

What kind of goals do I use Summit for?

Health/Fitness: I’ve used it to help keep me on track for a running and overall fitness plan

Random habits: I’m trying to eat healthier (and browse less!) and have these in Summit to help hold me accountable

Company goals: I typically have at least one overarching company goal in Summit; typically this is less ticky-tacky (e.g. the 3 things I need to do today) and more higher level to remind me

Relationship goals: I typically have at least one around my relationship with my wife

All in all, I find 3-5 goals work well and the fewer, the easier it is to ramp up and stay on track. I would recommend starting with one goal, crushing it, and then going from there

Daily Accountability to My Goals

I have reminders setup from Summit to text me every morning at 8am

These reminders serve as a mix of accountability and motivation and now that you can reply back to your coach - it makes it really easy to keep my goals updated with my activity

Depending on my goals, I will also go into the app and update activity log there (for instance if I have something I want to jot down after I’ve texted the coach)

I like getting the coach progression emoji and message as it is a little motivational nudge for me

Productivity Throughout My Day

I talk to Summit when I start work for the morning and keep a tab open with it throughout the day - I typically start by saying “let’s plan out my day” and writing out my plan

By doing this, I can also ask my coach questions to help me prioritize or my coach will nudge me and remind me about how my plans are fitting in with my other goals

I keep this thread open as as I’m working through the day, I’ll drop an update back to my coach for some additional motivation and accountability as I’m moving thru the day

At the end of the day, I’ll jump back on the thread with my coach, update how the day went and plan out what I’m doing the next day

The coach personality that I’m currently using is

💡

Friendly, empathetic coach who challenges me, but is curious and asks questions to help me with self exploration. Embraces zen buddhism, stoicism, and steve jobs wisdom in perspectives.

I find that this coach is a nice mix of quotes and philosophies that I appreciate while also helping me with introspection and asking me questions that I can explore.

One-off Scenarios

Sometimes I find myself overthinking on a situation or scenario that I want to get down and process or just wanting to journal and write without a back and forth with my coach

I typically use the thoughts tab for this as after writing these down, I can discuss with my coach to further expand on my thinking

I also can just talk to my coach at any point as they have context on prior conversations so I can talk about Summit, or relationships, or my goals, and I know that the responses will be contextual

Weekly Retrospection

At the end of the week, I like assessing how the week has gone and starting my plan for the next week

This has been made easier in Summit through our insights tab - where I go to get my weekly notification (on Friday) where I get a quick summary and then can talk to my coach

After doing this, I’ll typically plan for my next week (see the first section), reset my goals where needed, and then enjoy the weekend knowing I have my plans for next week