Category: video

What happens when you work from a weekly list without a daily list

by EvieBurke, posted in Task List, video

Last week I came across an article that was a compilation of productivity advice from around 10 different small business owners.

The first person they listed advised something to the effect of pick 3 things to do each day instead of having a long to-do list.

A couple of people later someone’s advice was a daily to-do list is too constraining, instead create a weekly to-do list and do the tasks as you feel like doing them.

Soooo, which is it?

I wish these lists would come with a bit more information about the person and their company.

Do they have a personal assistant? Is there a large team supporting them? Does he spend most of his time in meetings? Is his weekly to-do list already very short? Is he marking his weekly list with the one or two tasks that are the highest priority for the day?

If I had to guess, the person who thinks you should work off of a weekly to-do list and do tasks as you feel like doing them has a really great personal assistant who’s encouraging him/her to do the important things that are buried in that weekly list and they might not feel like doing.

My experience with clients and my own personal experience is that when you’re working from a weekly list without a daily list one of three scenarios will generally play out:

  1. You end up doing all the fun and exciting and maybe even easy things that the beginning of the week. Which means at the end of the week you have all the things you don’t care to do or require more energy. And then something isn’t going to be done because it’s exhausting and you didn’t budget your energy/attention very well.
  2. The beginning of the week feels like you have all the time in the world to get the things on your list complete. So, you dilly-dally or spend more time than you need to on the tasks you do decide to work on and suddenly there’s A LOT left to do on Thursday and Friday.
  3. You’re so overwhelmed by your list of things that you want/need to get done this week that you do very little or nothing. Or you bounce around a lot because there are so many high priority tasks that need to be done NOW.

You might have guessed that between the options of working from a weekly list or a pick 3 things to do for the day – I’d go with picking 3 things.

More to the point, I recommend creating a daily to-do list in whatever format works best for you. If that’s a list of three things, great! If that’s formatted some other way, great!

To the business owner that finds a daily to-do list too constraining, I’d love to know how you’ve created your daily list in the past. There are many different ways to create it that allow you to get things done in an efficient way and do things that work with your energy and attention level for that day.

If this topic feels like it’s impacting you personally, and you’d like some help, let’s talk! The easiest way to set that up is by applying for coaching by clicking here.

PRODUCTIVITY FOR SOLOPRENEURS: INSIGHTS TO GETTING THINGS DONE #107

Productivity for Solopreneurs - Insights to getting things done #106 : The two types of procrastination and strategies to stop them now

The two types of procrastination and strategies to stop them now

by EvieBurke, posted in video

We’ve all done it.

We’ve all had days (or more) where the things we know are important to do don’t get done.

It’s annoying.

It’s frustrating.

And sometimes we can’t figure out how to break the cycle.

It’s procrastination.

Let’s talk about the two types of procrastination and what to do about them.

The first type of procrastination is probably how most people define procrastination.

You have short bursts of productivity, but it’s followed by long periods of other stuff. Nothing important gets done, but if something does get done, not a lot of it gets done.

That’s unproductive procrastination.

Some strategies that can help with this are:

  • Know what being distracted or procrastinating looks like for you. For example, if I’m watching a YouTube video in the middle of the day, I might be procrastinating. What does it look like for you?
  • Get enough sleep! If you’re tired, it’s really hard to stay focused, which can lead to procrastination.
  • Only check social media at certain times.
  • Have a game plan for what you’ll do when you check your social media. That might look like knowing how much time you’ll spend checking it, knowing which groups you’re going to check out, and if you’re going to look at your notifications or not.

The other type of procrastination is productive procrastination.

This is where you get a bunch of your low priority tasks done and oops, you just ran out of time today to get that really important thing done that needed to be done.

It can also look like that same really important task being on your list for days or weeks.

Are you a master of productive procrastination?

Some strategies for this are:

  • Be aware of excuses that masquerade as reasons (all those really important things needed to be done NOW – but actually they weren’t that important or didn’t need to be done right now)
  • Ask someone to hold you accountable for getting the thing you’re procrastinating about done
  • Block time in your calendar for when you spend time on your high priority tasks
  • Define the task very well – break it down
    • For example, instead of “Update your picture on your About Me page” it becomes:
      • Post to a specific local Facebook group for headshot photographer recommendations
      • From the recommendations pick 2-3 photographers to research
      • Research those 2-3 photographers
        • Review their work on their website or social media
        • Determine where they’re located (is it reasonable for you to travel there)
        • Find out what their packages are and the prices
      • Pick the photographer you want to work with
      • Find the email address or phone number to contact them with
      • Email or call them to find out their process for scheduling and doing headshots
      • Set up a time to take the pictures
      • Pick the picture you’ll use for your website
      • Upload the picture to your website
      • Delete the old picture from your About Me page
      • Add the new picture to your About Me page
    • Breaking the project into smaller pieces makes it much more manageable. You only need to do ONE thing at a time.

For a quick review:

Unproductive Procrastination:
Watching TV, Netflix, YouTube, etc; Facebook (or your social media method of choice) – those things that don’t move anything forward, but can eat a lot of your time.

Productive Procrastination:
You do everything BUT the thing that you really should be doing. It felt productive (all those things got checked off your todo list as done! But at the end of the day/week, you didn’t make the progress on the important things that you wanted to – actually not productive)

If this topic feels like it’s impacting you personally, and you’d like some help, let’s talk! The easiest way to set that up is by applying for coaching by clicking here.

PRODUCTIVITY FOR SOLOPRENEURS: INSIGHTS TO GETTING THINGS DONE #106

Productivity for Solopreneurs - Insights to getting things done #105 : Intentions vs Goals

Intentions vs Goals

by EvieBurke, posted in video

Every month in the Unnamed Productivity Club we have a Planning Party.

This isn’t about the club.

It’s about something I share there everymonth before we do our planning.

It’s the difference between intentions and goals.

It’s an important distinction because too many times I see someone setting a goal that they want to make a certain amount of money or sign this many new clients this month.

And maybe they even create a really fun way to track their progress toward that goal.

But if you ask them about how they’re going to achieve that goal, they have some vague plans that they’re not tracking.

This is why this distinction is so important.

When you separate intentions from goals, you end up with a two-step process that helps you create the outcomes that you really want.

So, what is the difference between intentions and goals?

What most people call goals I call intentions because you intend for them to happen, but can’t actually control it. You can make the conditions more favorable for them to happen, but you aren’t directly in charge.

You can’t control what happens.

Intentions are things like how much money you want to make, how many clients you work with, etc.

You can’t force someone to work with you, that’s a decision that someone else makes.

However, you can do any number of things to encourage those intentions to occur.

Those are goals.

Goals are how many phone calls you make, how many networking events you attend, how many social media posts you put on your business page each week, etc.

YOU can control the outcome of your goals.

Next time you’re doing monthly planning for your business (or anything really) ask:

  1. What do I want to happen? What’s the income, client, or other intention that I’m setting for the month.
  2. What goals will encourage that intention to occur?

And you can create a really fun way to track your progress toward your goals AND intentions if you want.

You can learn more about the Unnamed Productivity Club by clicking here.

Or to have a private goal setting session with me, fill out the application for coaching by clicking here.

PRODUCTIVITY FOR SOLOPRENEURS: INSIGHTS TO GETTING THINGS DONE #105

Productivity for Solopreneurs - Insights to getting things done #104 : How a to-do list helps you get more done in less time

How a to-do list helps you get more done in less time

by EvieBurke, posted in video

Every Monday my to-do list is pretty much the same.

And that might lead you (or even me) to think that I don’t need a written to-do list to get those things done.

This Monday I didn’t write down my to-do list until after lunch.​​

The result was that some of the things I completed on Monday didn’t need to be done that day or even the next.

And some of the things that didn’t get done Monday would have made my week flow a little bit better if they would have been done.​​​​

Basically, with a to-do list, I wouldn’t have just gotten more done, I would have completed more of the important things (like writing and sending this email earlier).

Let’s talk about how a to-do list helps you get more done in less time (and to get those little things that come up but aren’t super important done).

PRODUCTIVITY FOR SOLOPRENEURS: INSIGHTS TO GETTING THINGS DONE #104

Productivity for Solopreneurs - Insights to getting things done #103 : Systems vs Processes (and how they help you)

Systems vs Processes (and how they help you)

by EvieBurke, posted in video

What processes and systems do you have in place for your business?

You have them, even if you don’t know it!

That’s one reason why today I decided to talk about the difference between processes and systems and how they work together.

But when I Googled it to see if someone could define it clearly, I felt like I understood it less!

Instead of defining it (and confusing us both!) I share some real-life examples in the video below.

PRODUCTIVITY FOR SOLOPRENEURS: INSIGHTS TO GETTING THINGS DONE #103