Dr Rangan Chatterjee reveals the question you need to answer every day to help 'make better decisions'

Virgin Radio

3 Jan 2024, 12:13

When Dr. Rangan Chatterjee visited Virgin Radio, he spoke about changing the way we interact with our own lives.

The doctor, author, TV presenter and podcaster joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch to discuss his Three Question Journal, which prompts readers to answer three questions in the morning and three in the evening as a way of beginning to tackle difficult conversations and check-in daily with ourselves. 

Telling Chris about an “approach I have found works for many of my patients over the years”, Rangan explained: “If they can ask themselves the right questions each morning, the answers help them to change their life. And so I thought, ‘Well, why don't I put together the three most impactful questions I believe we can ask ourselves each morning and each evening?’ and the Three Question Journal has those six questions within them.

He continued: “Journaling has been shown in scientific research to reduce symptoms of depression, reduce symptoms of anxiety, improve happiness, lessen our perception of pain, improve our health, improve our performance by up to 25 percent. So journaling is a science-backed practice.”

The medical doctor and a professor of Health Communication and Education at The University of Chester told Chris: “One of my favourite questions is, ‘What is the most important thing you have to do today?’ I love that question, because it really helps you focus on what matters in life. When someone first thinks about that question, most people are probably going to go, ‘I've got loads of important stuff to do today. I’ve got something that's important at work, something that's important in my home life’. But the word ‘priority’ I learned recently, when it came into the English language, I think in the 1500s, it was only singular. It's a singular word, you can only have one priority. But now we get drowned in these multiple priorities. And so what is the most important thing you have to do today? If you answer that first thing in the morning with a cup of tea or a cup of coffee, it helps direct your focus.” 

He added: “I guarantee if you answer that question, day-in, day-out, you will start to make better decisions in all aspects of your life.”

Rangan, who hosts the most listened-to health podcast in the UK and Europe, Feel Better, Live More, continued: “One thing I want to make really clear for anyone who wants to journal, they don't actually need to buy a journal. These questions which we're going to go through - and I've just done a whole episode on these six questions in detail, if people want to listen to that on my podcast - essentially, you can just do that on a piece of paper. You don't need to buy a journal. The reason I created this is because some people, in order to turn a new behaviour into a ritual, they like to have a really nice, beautiful journal that makes it feel like something special.” 

On another one of the three morning questions, “What quality do you want to show the world today?”, Rangan explained: “A lot of the time we show up in the world we're just repeating past behaviours. And that question, I started asking myself about a year ago, and it's been transformative, because you basically visualise how you want to be in the world. 

“This morning when I was in my hotel room in London, I was writing down my answers. I said, ‘I want to show the world the quality of patience today’. And by setting that intention in the morning, it means that I'm much more likely, instead of reacting to someone in the day... to show up with that quality. And so, when I was getting on the tube this morning, and a couple of people barged past me to rush on, I just smiled. I was totally chilled.”

He added: “I'd like to think I would have been, had I not answered that question. But the fact that just 40 minutes before that, I'd written down, ‘I want to show the world the quality of patience’, I'm much more likely to do it. And there's so much neuroscience of evidence on visualisation, what we imagine in our heads, and what is actually real, there's not that much of a difference in the brain.”

The Three Question Journal is available now from intelligentchange.com.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.