Important Note: For anyone and everyone who is working from home, schooling their kids from home, and just generally feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment, we are offering our flagship Time Management Course for half price.
This course has several lessons that are specifically relevant to work-from-home creative folks as well as full-time, stay-at-home parents. This is one of those lessons.
The entire course is available for anyone to sign up at a 50% discount. It will remain discounted at least through the middle of April.
Use coupon code WFH to get full access for half price.
Below is one of the lessons from the course.
How to Accomplish Your Most Important Tasks
For a long time, a 3×5 notecard and a permanent marker were my secret weapons for productivity.
It doesn’t matter who you are, what you do, or where your responsibilities and priorities lie. This is a sure-fire way to ensure things stop slipping. It’s a very simple approach to getting organized and back in control.
Because I work from home and work for myself, it means I am solely in charge of making sure I do the right work each day.
As such, I need direction for where I am going with my business, and I need to take steps each day that keep things moving forward. Otherwise, I’d be in trouble.
Everything I do — both as a creative outlet and as a business model — is based on writing.
These videos? They start with writing.
Our newsletters? Our other courses and classes? Our reviews? My blog posts? All of it starts with writing.
Thus, for me, the single most important task I can do every single day is to write. That’s why I do everything I can to make sure my writing time is as fun and productive as possible. Here is how I do that…
The Note
My secret is that my writing for today actually began yesterday. That’s because, at the end of each day, I write down a note for myself that I will read tomorrow.
The note contains my writing topic for the next day. And that note is the single most important element of my personal productivity system. Because that note tells me the goal of the single most important thing I have to do today.
Why This?
As you know, distractions and diversions are everywhere. Most days I don’t wake up excited to write. I need help getting focused and staying focused. My note is a critical component to that.
Writing down the topic that I’m going to write about tomorrow gives me a few advantages:
- It gives my subconscious a 12-hour head start. The well of my writing mind gets the whole night to fill itself up with what it wants to say on the topic. I don’t have to be anxious and keep it at the front of my mind, wasting my time and energy thinking about. Tomorrow is when I will write about it.
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When it comes time to write, I have all my energy at my disposal. When I sit down to write, I haven’t yet spent any of my time trying to muster up an idea, or comb through a list of possibilities, or try to find inspiration. It’s time to write, and I am not desperate; I am clear. I know EXACTLY what to write about because it’s there before me. All that’s left is for me to open up my writing program and to write.
This is at the heart of what it means to schedule and plan your most important task. My writing time happens at the same time every day. So it’s already scheduled. That’s why the only thing left for me to do is identify HOW I’ll be spending that writing time.
What is one thing YOU can do today that will make life for your future self a little bit easier?
Perhaps it’s to leave a note out for yourself. Write down what the first thing you’re going to do tomorrow when you begin your work day.
Or maybe something else in your day-to-day routine could be made easier by doing some “prep” work the day before.
The habit of writing down your single, most important task every day, is an excellent one to help you ensure things don’t slip. This proactive, intentional approach will help you be more in control of your days.
In some of the other lessons, we’re going to build on this idea and discover how to use it for planning your whole week and your whole day.
Get Half-Price Access to the Entire Time Management Course
Here is a list of the other public lessons we have shared.
Or, use coupon code WFH to get access for 50% off.
