1 Main Goal. 3 Major Tasks Per Day.
For the past 6 months of 2015, I have been testing, trying and tweaking my daily productivity strategies, hacks or whatever you want to call it.
I have tried everything out there. I have tested different Pomodoro lengths, I have tested different breaks, routines, optimal work hours, x tasks, focus on 1 thing, the Miracle Morning, etc.
A lot of them, admittedly, didn’t fit with me. I think it’s just me being lazy but heck, it didn’t work, so the quest goes on.
Then I realized something.
Every guy that has ever written a real productivity “hacks” post always mentioned that you need to adjust it and see how it fits with YOUR style.
You know what?
They are right.
I always thought of it as a “disclaimer” so they won’t get flamed and all but damn, I was stupid to over look it.
I guess I never learn.
I actually already learned this with fitness and nutrition. Adapting other people’s work and creating workout programs to what actually fits you is the most important thing. Not just following a cookie cutter approach that somebody created for their own use. I actually tweaked the Miracle Morning to what works for me now. So I’ve fully incorporated a morning routine to my life that fits me.
Anyway, enough about my denseness.
This post is about productivity in terms of getting sh*t done and hitting goals. So, here’s what I did.
I took bits of everything that worked for me, reflected and mashed them up together. Genius.
This is what worked for me.
- Start with 1 Main Goal
- Then break it down to Short Term Goals
- Give yourself 6 weeks to accomplish 1 Short Term Goal
- For 6 weeks, do 3 major tasks daily to accomplish the Short Term Goal
- Use a Pomodoro timer
- Everything else is pushed back later in the day until after those 3 tasks are done
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Tools
I use only 2 tools for this.
- Things App — Simple, clean, specific, recurring task capabilities and syncs to your iOS devices.
- Pomodoro Timer for Mac — Sits in your menu bar. Just activate it.
I set up my Things app to do 3 new recurring Tasks daily.
When I wake up to “plan” my day, I make sure I rename the auto generated “things” to what I need to do to reach my Short Term Goal.
Turn on the Pomodoro Timer and get to work. The number of Pomodoros depend on the task. I have mine at 30 minutes per Pomodoro.
Note:
You can also plan tasks in advanced and schedule each of them for specific dates.
That doesn’t work for me though. I tried planning tasks in advanced but…
ME + Planning About Something in Advanced = Things Going Wrong.
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Results
I’m 7 weeks in now. I’ve hit 2 of my Short Term Goals already since 1 short term goal went better than expected.
One of the Short Term Goals I had was to built up an SEO checklist, that can put my current blog project on the map. Well, things worked out pretty well.
I still need to adapt to what other tasks I have in the day so I don’t spend too much time on the 3 tasks but the important thing is that I got to finish the tasks that I normally won’t do.
Oh, since I finished my 3 tasks already for today, I decided on writing here since I promised myself to write on Medium 4 times this year.
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Conclusion
Sure, I’m just a few weeks in and sure, it can be a little slow but as you fellow entrepreneurs know, we have a bunch of other tasks that take up our time.
We tend to push the important tasks to the end of our list to finish off non-essential things first. Things that take up less brain power or are just not tedious.
That’s why we don’t get the important things done.
Throughout the day, it’s a constant battle with time and time never loses, you just have to find a way to work with it.
It’s easy to be overwhelmed.
We need to start with the important things and focus on 1 thing at a time. (I feel like Mark Watney in the Martian. Read the book if you haven’t. It’s a fun sci-fi story.)
Anyway, I hope this little piece can help out somebody out there. It’s not the typical length that I write with, but who has the time to read a 5,000 word article on productivity nowadays?
Have some “spare” time? Share this out or follow me on Google+, Twitter and Instagram. Oh, check out our blog as well if you need digital marketing and SEO tips.
Disclaimer: This might NOT fit with how you work but tweak it to see if it works for you. ☺
