Ideas for better living
Tools and articles to help you plan your future and improve productivity towards your dreams
This Google Sheet template is an easy way to digitally keep track of your daily tasks, but with a very special feature. In addition to your tasks, it includes an area to stay mindful of your current focus and priorities so that when something new comes up, you’re always reminded of what you SHOULD be working on.
Normally $3, but if you sign up to receive my weekly email, it’s yours free!
Once you’re clear on your purpose and current focus, it’s time to get to work. Just because you know where you want to go doesn’t mean you’ll get there. It takes a lot of hard, dedicated work (and a bit of luck) to realize our dreams.
There are two key skills you need to improve to get better at making progress:
It all starts with having a good planning system. Use your purpose to guide your annual planning. I use the Roadmap for this which was particularly designed for content and client-based businesses. I also use it for my personal life.
At the beginning of each season, I evaluate how everything is going and choose to either continue my current focus or pick a new one. Then at the start of each month, I fill in what I’ll do each week to stay on track.
At the beginning of each week I schedule which tasks I’ll do when and break everything down into smaller, more manageable bits of work in my focus based to do list.
If you struggle with time management, you probably have too many things on your list. This is when prioritization is needed. The Bullseye prioritization tool (coming soon), can help you figure out what you REALLY need to do, and what you really need to let go of.
Ideally, you’ll want to keep 1-2 chunks cleared each day for ‘focused’ work. Give yourself 2-4 hrs for each block and schedule it after a meal (your brain uses a TON of energy), when you tend to find you work the best. For most people, this is first thing in the morning.
Then I just have to stay focused and do the work. Simple, but not easy.
If you’re a knowledge worker who spends most of your day behind a screen, avoiding digital distractions is the #1 best way to stay focused and on track. I wrote an entire article that goes into the details of this, but the basics include:
Sometimes, even when we have the best plan, and all the productivity hacks implemented, we still feel stuck. This is usually due to fear.
Fear often disguises itself as perfectionism (fear of letting go), procrastination (fear of failing), and anxiety (fear of the unknown). Fear holds us back and we end up doing nothing instead of something. If this sounds familiar, read this article On Fear and Confidence and work with a mindset coach to help you make real progress towards your dreams.
If you want to try out some of our best strategy tools to help you make progress towards your dreams, sign up below and I’ll send you a promo code for 100% off any tool under $10. Yes, for real.
