Being Productive

by Mark Carrington · Published December 20, 2019 · Updated December 21, 2019

Actions Steps to Being Productive

Have a few threads coming together on the subject of getting things done and being productive.

being productive

A Being Productive Framework

Last month I attended a seminar with Brendan Nichols talking about wealth management. He shared a ton of ideas on what to do. He trained with Robert Kiyosaki and his materials are strongly influenced by that. His big thesis is one needs to get your self and life organised around 4 quadrants, Money, Relational, Spirituality and Physical.

Now I simplified this a bit to break my life into two compartments, Passive Income (I do not have a job so there is no direct income) and Mental Health. I wrote a little while about building financial freedom which gives the context for where I am in my journey.

I put a bunch of relational, spiritual, and physical things into the Mental Health bucket. I really struggle with depression and a low frustration threshold – bucketing activities that help with that is proving to be a good forcing device te get out of the back hole. All of these things help with that. For now, the key things that go in there are fitness (walking and cycling), time outdoors (all my fitness stuff is outdoors and I am doing a bit of gardening), orchids (spotting and growing), relationships (friends and family). For Passive Income, I am focused on investing (and a little trading) and Internet Marketing with a focus on working as an Internet Profits Certified Partner.

Being Productive Action Steps

He ended the seminar by laying out a process he called the Quantum Accelerator. The process is quite simple (and I have combined a few steps)

At the end of each day write up a to do list for the next day and highlight two primary tasks (i.e., those that support your primary outcome)
At the start of each day get centred in a way that works for you. Cup of tea – meditation – gratitude mantra – anything really.
Start with a one hour time slot – 5 minutes on organising the list and the day and 55 minutes targeting the two primary tasks.
Remind yourself what the primary outcome is and talk to yourself about how the day will unfold and how you will be. (3 steps in one here)
Do the two primary tasks first – then work through the rest.
End of day score how you think you did and start a new list for tomorrow.

Now the part that I really related to was to get money tasks into the top of the lists. This is brutally simple idea – focus on tasks that will make you or save you money.

Focus on Money Tasks

Now I do do this already. My first task every day is all about passive income from investing. In the summer time, I use the minutes before market close (8 am Sydney time) to make trading and investing choices. I then update the prices for the day’s activity and do the accounting and make notes on why I did what I did. Breakfast happens after that. That all makes money or improves the way I make investing choices. Winter time is a little different as markets close at 6 am – so I stay awake late and do it before market close.

What I am less good at is applying this money tasks idea to Internet Marketing activities – at least now I do have to do lists.

Bite Size Chunks

Another trigger during the week was a comment from one of my Internet Profits partners who was struggling with priorities and the scale of what has to be done to build the new business from the ground up (plus learn what has to be learned). This is what I wrote – word for word

Bite size chunks is the key. I was taught an approach – aim for 4 tasks a day. One of 15 minutes and 3 of 45 minutes. Use the 15 minutes task to plan and/or clear social media. The other thing I learned was to write a list each day. Each morning spend 5 minutes planning and get 2 money tasks done first. Those tasks need only be 45 minutes. Combine the two and use money task idea to keep focus.

I borrowed the 4 tasks idea from Robert Plank – I read it in The Checklist Mindset (available in Kindle and Paperback). He does not mention it but the 45 minutes idea has NLP foundations. Apparently the brain does a remapping (left to right and right to left) every 45 minutes – ever wondered why webinar sessions are 90 minutes long? The art then is to break bigger tasks down into 45 minute chunks rather than trying to smash away at a 3 or 4 hour task. The big benefit also is to use the break between tasks to take a break. By accident, I have built in a walk outside for my breaks. When we renovated the room that housed my coffee machine, it went into the garage. I have left it there. I use the walk as a chance to check on garden things and water plants and stuff like that helps with mental health.

I borrowed the money tasks idea from Brendan Nichols. Imagine starting each day with two 45 minute money tasks and what passive income flows could accrue. The best part of the 4 tasks model is they could all be done by midday as they only add up to 140 minutes = 2 hours and twenty minutes. It would not be hard to get two cycles done every day with the right disciplines and focus.

You would think that armed with such clarity I would be ripping ahead. I have to say that keeping on top of all the things I am trying to do is a huge challenge. When I wrote the to do list at the end of my holiday this week, the list very quickly became 12 items long. Admittedly some of these are longer time fuse things – just have to slot in the time periodically to do the preparation and the training needed. Here is the list

Update marketing stats
Schedule social media posts
Complete HTML emails
Video for Sandra’s website problems
Promote Labs promotions
Membership site setup
Bonus pages in Commission Gorilla
Copywriting bonus pages and buyer’s frenzy sales page
Youtube channel (branding, images, structuring into playlists)
Crypto strategy
Youtube ads training
Product Dyno training (Stephen Luc)

That is a long list.

We all know the drill. Write to do lists. Choose the priorities. Do the important stuff.

Now I got an email during the week from Trello, the project management software people with the subject line.

The 5 Biggest Blockers To Your Productivity

Maybe there are some clues in there. They list 5 productivity woes.

Prioritization
Time management
Communication
Ability to focus
Feeling burned out

First observation is these are not blockers = misleading title. But let’s work through them and see what might help me.

Prioritization is all about finding out what is important and what is urgent. They use the Dwight D Eisenhower matrix for this.

being productive

Simple really

Do the urgent important stuff.
Decide on the non Urgent Important stuff (i.e., make a plan);
Delegate the not important urgent stuff and
Delete the rest.

They also suggest using a thing they call the rule of 5 = all about realigning things you are working on or planning on working on with the ultimate objective (what Brendan Nichols would call the Primary Outcome).

I have written before about using Trello as a tool to help doing that. It just has not worked out that way though I have been working on to do lists.

Time Management is all about breaking work up into chunks – Robert Plank technique and a pomodoro timer will do that just fine. An important part of the pomodoro technique is managing distractions – just got to switch them out as each break in flow costs time to get back on track.

Communication and Feedback is all about making sure you are heading in the right direction and are not going to discover that you were not right when a seagull flies over and poops on what you have done. Now this is not something I have to deal with too much – other than making sure I do follow the training with care and implement right first time.

Ability to Focus is a perpetual battle with your brain which wants to get distracted. For the most part distractions result in the release of dopamine – the feel good factor – even though we know full well is it ends in a mess. There are two ways to do this – switch off the notifications. It is what I do. OR go work in a coffee shop. The novelty of a new location will be enough to satisfy the brain’s thirst for the feel good factor. Weird idea – I would have thought it would be the opposite. Distracted and not working.

Experiencing Burnout has two facets – pure burnout and being overextended = overwhelmed. This is me. The solution is simple – make fewer decisions. When I was working I chose to wear only white shirts – no decisions needed. It seems that i was not alone

I wear only gray or blue suits.

Barack Obama

The strongest tool for dealing with overwhelm and burnout is to just say No. The other tool is to remind yourself that functional is good enough. Get it working first and perfect it later. That way you only have to know enough and do enough to get it working. The make it better activity can go on another to do list.

Resources

Project Management: I use Trello as a project management tool to document all my work steps. That will provide a toolbox for managing projects and also for managing an outsourcer down the line – try it for free