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How To Decide What To Work On Next
The Goal Achievement Podcast, hosted by Matt East, is all about helping you find clarity, design a plan, and most importantly achieve your goals.
Learn more about Matt’s productivity coaching at www.Matt-East.com/pricing
Subscribe on Apple Podcast & STITCHER.
Productivity Tips: How To Decide What Project To Work On Next
Podcast transcription
Hey guys, what's up, hope you're all doing really well.
On today's episode, I'm going to share with you four questions you can ask yourself at any time to help guide you towards what you should focus on next with your business or your work, let's dig in.
The big question we all face every morning is this: How can we focus more time on the projects, activities, and relationships that are most important and meaningful to us and less time on the stuff that doesn't matter so we can actually move closer to our goals and dreams?
That is the question, and this podcast is the answer. My name is Matt East and welcome to the Goal Achievement podcast. I'm so glad you're here, now let's dig in.
Hey guys, what's up? Thank you so much for tuning in. Got a really, really good listener question today. So the question is this:
Hey, Matt, I've got a question about how to decide on what to work on next? As you know, I'm a freelancer slash entrepreneur, and I've just finished a big client project. And the rest of the stuff I'd like to get done doesn't really have a deadline. How should I decide what to work on next?
So, again, great question. Thanks a ton for sharing that and sending that in OK, here we go.
So I'm going to give you 4 questions you can use. And just like, just like the questions that I've given on this podcast over and over to help establish your top priorities for the day, the 11 questions I've shared, if you need those, just you can go on my website and they're all over. But these are more meant to get your, get your blood in, your brain flow on, and it's more of a brainstorm than me just giving you the answer, you know, you still have to think through it.
So these 4 questions aren't going to give you the single thing that you need to work on next, but they're going to help you act as a guide and get your thinking, and hopefully, after you consider these and you take some time with them, it becomes much more apparent and much more clear as to what to focus on next.
So I've personally used these four questions, not only since I started my business, but even when I was working for a startup or for a company and I was just an employee, and I still use these questions to help drive my activity each day, so here we go.
The first question is just... I would ask yourself is as far as what to work on next, I would ask yourself this:
What is the low-hanging fruit that has financial upside that would help you drive your business forward quickly and with minimum effort?
So is there you know, is there something that you could focus on where you would quickly recoup any financial or time investment that you put in on the project, something like that. So you might be thinking like, hey, man, what's an example of that?
An example of that for me and my current business is creating new ads, so if I create a new ad, if I create like a new Google ad to drive traffic to my website, that's something that takes not too much time, and there's pretty good financial upside on it for me. If that ad is functional and it works really well, if it resonates with my target market, I can benefit very quickly financially by creating a new ad that is that's a solid add.
Another example of that would be like revamping a sales landing page or something like that, so that's something that doesn't take a lot of time, but it can have a big financial upside for me, so I would say that.
So the first question is just, I'll repeat it. What is the low-hanging fruit with financial upside that would help drive your business forward quickly with minimum effort?
That's a great starting point if you're not sure about what to work on next because if you get that going and you recoup some money quickly and you can, it helps drive additional business. It's just a great place to start for an entrepreneur or for a freelancer, so that's the first question.
The second one is:
What tasks have time parameters with people waiting on you?
So or, is there stuff that you're working on where someone's waiting on you to complete something or someone's waiting on you for the green light or someone's waiting on you in any way?
So is there a task that you need to do where people are waiting on you?
If someone's waiting on you, it's a great thing to, to focus on, so maybe this an example of this would be like if you're collaborating on something with someone else or, and they need something from you before they can move on or, you know, something like this for me would be, you know, clients might be waiting on a response for me, and it's not urgent, it's just they're waiting to hear back from me, and that's a good, that's a good starting point for knowing that, hey, I need to do this today and get this knocked out.
The third question is:
What are long-term projects that are important to complete but not urgent? However, they still need your focus.
So something like this for me would be, you know, rebranding my website, no one out there is waiting on me to rebrand my website, they don't know it's coming or they don't know that I'm planning to do that. But it's important to me because, for some reason, I think it's going to do something positive, so that's a good example that.
Again that question is what are long-term projects that are important to complete for you, but not urgent? You know, and they still need your focus, so the rebranding of a website would fall into that, there's a million things that could fall into that, but it's still important, it's just something that nobody out there is waiting on you to complete.
The fourth question is:
What could you do that would make everything else significantly easier for you, and you would benefit from it in like all aspects of your business and life?.
So that's, that's my favorite one here, so is there something you could do that wouldn't make everything else significantly easier for you and you'd benefit, you know, and you'd benefit, all aspects, you'd benefit in all aspects of your life and business.
So an example not for me is, you know, my client acquisition became so much easier when I started a podcast and when I wrote a book, so by writing that book it became so much easier to sell my coaching and to acquire new clients.
So is there something out there that you could do that would make everything else much easier in your life?
And if there, if there is, that's something that you could focus on right now since, since there is nothing urgent or anything with a deadline, as you put it, that you'd want to focus on.
So the 4 questions I'm repeating one time:
Is there any low-hanging fruit with financial upside that would help drive your business forward quickly and with minimum effort? That's something you could focus on.
Number 2, are there any tasks that have time parameters with people waiting on you or just some urgent tasks that you need to complete? If so, that's a good place you might want to start.
Question number 3 is what are long-term projects that are important to complete but not urgent? however, you still want to focus on them.
And number 4 is what could you do today that would make everything else significantly easier, easier for you down the road?
So those are four questions just to get your thinking, get you thinking about what you might want to focus on, and it's probably a combination of... of... of multiple things. So those are the questions that I would, I would suggest you use and then, you know, as far as how to actually prioritize stuff, you can access my book for free and that will guide you through exactly how to plan out your time and how to block time on your schedule to actually complete the task that you come up with that you want to focus on next.
So that's it, guys, that's the answer to my question, keep sending in questions this, I was pumped to see this come in and I answered it right away. So hopefully this helps, and if you have any specific questions that you want answered, feel free to send those in, I'd love to, I'll answer them right away.
And that's it guys, make it a great week. Are you doing your top three? Are you focused or are you heading into each day with clarity and with focus and executing at your highest level possible? I hope so.
That's it, let me know if you guys need anything, would love to hear from you bye-bye.
Hey, everyone, it's Matt again and I have two special offers for you:
First, did you know you can actually download my best-selling book, The Purposeful Planning Method: How to Plan Your Day, Beat Procrastination and Regain Control of Your Time for free from my website right now? That's at Matt-East.com, you just Google Matt East Productivity and it will pull right up, and you can download the digital book or the audiobook, either one for free right now.
I can't promise this offer will last forever, so snag a copy if you want it. This is the exact same book that costs I don't know what it is like 18 bucks on Amazon and Audible so go get it while you can, don't come whining to me if you miss this deal and you didn't download it.
So I'm telling you, if you want it for free, go get it.
Don't wait and take action, knock it out. It's again, it's Matt-East.com, is my website. So, or just Google Matt East, Google productivity coach, I think I come right up first.
So second thing, I want to invite you to work with me, I'm offering my digital productivity coaching right now for 29 dollars and 99 cents a month. That's 70 percent off the regular price, so it's usually 25 bucks a week or 100 bucks a month, so jump on this opportunity.
It's the only coaching that I have available right now, my... I have two VIP level coaching where I actually meet with people over the phone either once a week, or once every other week, and those are sold out. So this is the only way you can work one on one with me right now, and I've decided to price it so that anyone that basically wants this could do it.
It's 29.99 a month, and it's it's perfect if you're looking to transform your productivity and if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably trying to do that. So this coaching works, it's awesome, and man, for 29 bucks like the ROI on this is incredible, or if you're a solopreneur like a lot of my clients, if you're an entrepreneur or if you're just a professional looking for an edge, I mean the ROI on this is incredible because you're not investing much.
Some of these coaches cost a couple grand. I mean, I have a package that costs 500 dollars a month, so this is 29 dollars a month. It's, you can't beat it, it's less than a dollar a day, it's literally less than a buck a day.
So, and we will communicate every single day in an app, it's awesome, it works. I've been doing this for a few years now, I know what I'm doing, and I can help you, so it's, it's amazing, you would love it if you try it, you will love it.
And it's 100 percent confidential, I always like to mention that.
So there is no downside to giving it a shot, so try it, I bet you'll love it, and if you don't just cancel no big deal relax, it's no... there's like literally no downside to this, so give it a shot, you deserve it.
You owe it to yourself to have some accountability, have somebody that cares.
That's why I use a writing coach, I like having somebody that I pay to care about when I'm working on, so it's great, I highly recommend it and I think you guys would love it, and that's it.
I hope you guys loved this episode and we'll chat again soon bye-bye.
Ending Your Week Strong
The Goal Achievement Podcast, hosted by Matt East, is all about helping you find clarity, design a plan, and most importantly achieve your goals.
Learn more about Matt’s productivity coaching at www.Matt-East.com/pricing
Subscribe on Apple Podcast & STITCHER.
How to End Your Week Strongly
Podcast notes
Hope you're all doing really well.
We will talk about how to end your week strong during today's episode, so you can be proud of what you've accomplished this week and build some good momentum heading into next week.
The big question we all face every morning is this: how can we focus more time on the projects, activities, and relationships that are most important and meaningful to us and less time on the stuff that doesn't matter? So we can actually move closer to our goals and dreams. That is the question! And this podcast is the answer.
My name is Matt and welcome to the goal achievement podcast. I'm so glad you're here. Let's dig in!
Hope you're all doing really well. We are going to talk about ending your week strong. So this will be the last episode this week. So I had mentioned I'd record five episodes in a row, Monday through Friday, and the time has come. It's Friday. So this is it. This is the last one. Hopefully, you've been doing your top three priorities with me.
If so, you've been heading into each day with clarity and with focus, and intentionality. So that you could execute at your highest level possible each day. Hopefully, you've had a great week, and let's talk about ending it strong. We want to focus now. We want to get clarity through our top three.
Sometimes, we still drag our feet on actually doing what we set out to do. If that's been something you've struggled with this week, I just want to encourage you to get that clarity through your top three priorities each day, and then, if there's something you're still dragging your feet on, remember your motivation to do something is going to follow starting and taking action. It's not the other way around. You're not going to feel motivated and then get started.
If you're waiting to feel motivated, you'll probably never get started.
You need to take action and trust your motivation follows. I always use the example of exercising or going on a long run. I would literally never go on a run if I waited around to feel like I wanted to go on a run, but once I step outside and I start running, and I'm 10 or 15 minutes into my run, I almost always feel great, and it's like the best part of my day. And I think to myself, "How would I have not run today?"
So that is what we're after.
We want to create your motivation and your desire to continue an activity by actually starting that activity.
I experienced the same thing with writing. I even experienced the same thing with recording this podcast. I might drag my feet to do it. And then, once I get started, I enjoy it. I enjoy the process, I enjoy recording it, I enjoy publishing it. It's always much more enjoyable than I think it's going to be before I actually begin.
So if there's something you've been dragging your feet on this week and you haven't taken action, and you wanted to, and maybe you're a little frustrated about it, I just encourage you to sit down. If you're writing a book, just start writing, get a couple of words down, and, before you know, you fall into a state of flow where you're really enjoying the writing process. If you want to start a business or something like that, sit down with a blank piece of paper and start sketching out what that looks like, and before you know it, you'll be enjoying that process of imagining what your business could be, and you can start to take action on some of those items.
So that's my encouragement for Friday.
Let's end the week strong, let's get clarity, and let's just treat the day with a lot of intentionality and focus.
Be the aggressor when it comes to taking action today. You dictate your day-to-day activities, and you begin on the activities you know need to be done and trust that your motivation will follow.
If you have the guts to begin, your motivation will often follow after you've started. So trust yourself and, let's end the week strong, and let's just make it a great day.
I still owe you my top 3 priorities which are:
I need to send some quotes to a journalist that has asked for some quotes on productivity and high performance. She reached out to see if I could offer some quotes for her article, and in exchange, she will link back to my website, which is excellent! Those links create a lot of good stuff for Google, and it helps you to rank higher. So if you have a website, getting those backlinks is a big deal.
I need to respond to all of my clients digitally who have reached out. I owe them a response. So I will touch base with them and encourage them to end the week strong.
Finally, this afternoon I'm going to do some yard work. Leaves are falling, and we need to clean up our yard a little bit. So I'm gonna do some yard work, I enjoy stuff like that, and that's it.
So that's my top 3 for today. I've got lots of other stuff I'm gonna focus on and make sure I do, but those are things I really, really want to make sure I get done.
That's it, guys! I hope you've enjoyed the 5 straight podcasts, and I really appreciate that many people have reached out, asked questions, and touched base. I really appreciate that. I appreciate you guys!
I really appreciate you listening to this podcast. And if there's anything that you need, please don't hesitate to reach out. My email is just matt@matt-east.com. So hit me up if you guys need anything. Hope you had a great week, and this 5-day series helped you.
End your week strong, get clarity, take action and trust that your motivation will follow if you have the guts to begin. That's it, have a great weekend! Bye-bye!
The Planning Fallacy
The Goal Achievement Podcast, hosted by Matt East, is all about helping you find clarity, design a plan, and most importantly achieve your goals.
Learn more about Matt’s productivity coaching at www.Matt-East.com/pricing
Subscribe on Apple Podcast & STITCHER.
What is the Planning Fallacy? And why do you need to understand it.
The planning fallacy is a concept that says virtually all tasks take longer than what you expect. Virtually everyone in the world overestimates what they can achieve with their time and is optimistic about what they can achieve during a set time. The planning fallacy was first proposed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in 1979.
Podcast Transcript
Hey guys, what's up? It's Matt! I hope you're all doing really well. On today's episode, we're going to talk through the planning fallacy, and I'm also going to give my top three priorities for Thursday. Let's get right into it.
The big question we all face every morning is this, how can we focus more time on the projects, activities, and relationships that are most important and meaningful to us and less time on the stuff that doesn't matter. So we can actually move closer to our goals and dreams. That is the question. And this podcast is the answer.
My name is Matt and welcome to the goal achievement podcast. I'm so glad you're here now. Let's dig in.
Hey guys, how are you doing? Thanks so much for tuning in. We have a listener question today, which makes me really happy and makes recording the podcast much easier because it's a lot easier to come up with content when you guys send in those questions. So thank you, thank you, thank you!
So the listener question is: "Matt, I just stumbled onto your podcast, and I'm trying to do my top three every day, but I usually only get through one or two priorities, not all three. The tasks end up being more complex than I anticipate. How can I fix this so I can accomplish all three?"
Great, great, great question! What you're dealing with is a phenomenon that psychologists call "the planning fallacy", and essentially what that means is that things in general in life take longer than people expect. It's not just you that struggles with this, virtually everyone in the world overestimates their time. They're optimistic about what they can achieve in a set time.
So knowing that, knowing that this is common and knowing that this is something that we as humans naturally do, we overestimate our ability and we underestimate how long something's gonna take. You can start to slowly adjust. You can start to slowly think through, "Okay. So my gut tells me this is going to take a half an hour. I better block an hour for it, I better think about this task taking longer than I anticipate." That way we can start to slowly adjust and tweak in our head what we think it takes.
This is something that I still, I still have to do. I'm like a super optimist. For example, I think cleaning the kitchen will take me like a minute and a half, and obviously it takes 10 or 20 minutes. So I'm way off on that! I think I can do something five times faster than I can. So if I'm working on something technical, like some automation on my email list or my website or anything, you know, where I'm dealing with technology, I have found, I often have to block four or five times longer than I expect. So if something's a technical task that I'm working on and you know, my gut instinct is it's going to take a half an hour, it's probably going to take two hours or three hours.
So, I've learned that stuff just takes longer. It takes way longer than I anticipate. So that's my suggestion is to be aware of this, be aware that things take longer. Once you are aware of that you're able to either change your top three to recognize, Hey I'm probably not going to be able to get to all three of these, these are pretty ambitious priorities, and you can make that tweak. Or if it's just simply you're overestimating the time you can start to figure out how much time you actually have and make sure that your priorities align much more with the timeframe that you actually have to execute that task.
So that is a great, great question. And the thing, the big takeaway is don't get freaked out. Don't get overly frustrated. Everyone deals with this! Virtually everyone I've ever coached has dealt with this. So I understand it's something that literally pops up with virtually every single one of my clients. We always talk through this at some point. People that sign up for coaching are out to kick butt. They're ambitious! Nobody hires a coach to not get stuff done. You don't hire a productivity coach so you can function at a low level. People that hire me are trying to execute at their highest level possible. So people are very ambitious with their top three, and a lot of times we have to have the conversation about "The Planning Fallacy" to get those expectations back in line so they aren't getting discouraged every day with not completing their top three.
So that's it, the planning fallacy in a nutshell. So be aware of it and make the proper adjustments, start to tweak, start to recognize. Like I said, if it's a technical task I'm working on it often is four or five times longer than I anticipate. So I have to think through that. And if it's something simple, you know, stuff generally takes me about twice as long as I anticipate they will.
So that's it for that question! Let me give you my top three today. So this morning it's a weird day. Most of you know, I live in Indianapolis, which is in central Indiana, in the Midwest of the United States and our weather this time of year can kind of be anything. It can be like cold, cold, we have gotten snow this time of year. Or it can be pretty nice. Usually it's, you know, somewhere in between, but a friend of mine, a really good friend of mine, he was keeping an eye on the calendar and he and I have been playing some golf this summer and this year. He's like, "Man, the weather looks really good on Thursday morning. We should try to get out." So we're going to go play some golf this morning before my client calls this afternoon. So I'm excited about that.
So my priority is: play golf, just relax, have fun, and enjoy the experience. Just be present and enjoy being outside. Enjoy the unbelievable weather. It's super warm weather for Indianapolis this time of year today, and just enjoy it, embrace it! It's beautiful outside! Most of the leaves are kind of done changing, but it's just a really beautiful time of year here. So just embrace it. Enjoy the moment. Enjoy the time with my friend and just be all in. I'm trying to put my phone down during that time so I can just be present with my buddy and with the experience.
My next priority is: I had a new client come in last night and I want to make sure I message them, so they're not without a message between now and when I get back from golf. I don't want to leave them hanging. So I need to make sure to send them a message and welcome them aboard as a client.
My third priority is: record this podcast and that's it. I guess my fourth is I have client calls after golf. I need to be on my game for that, but that'll happen. So that's it guys. Yeah, planning fallacy stuff takes longer than you think. Read about it. Google "planning fallacy," it'll come right up. It's an amazing thing. So once you know about it, it can be like a superpower if you know about it, because you can start to adjust and make the proper tweaks and, and that's it. All right, guys, make it a great day. Let me know if you need anything.
Bye bye!
Top 3 Priorities For Today
The Goal Achievement Podcast, hosted by Matt East, is all about helping you find clarity, design a plan, and most importantly achieve your goals.
Learn more about Matt’s productivity coaching at www.Matt-East.com/pricing
Subscribe on Apple Podcast & STITCHER.
Determining Your Priorities
Podcast transcription
Hey, gang. It's Matt. Hope you're all doing really well.
We have been working all week on setting our top three priorities before the day begins so that we can start each day with clarity and with focus, and with the intentionality that we want to approach the day with. And it's been really fun, it's been fun sharing my top three and hearing from you guys about what your top three are.
Fundamental principles drive a lot of high performance and productivity, much more than we think.
You know, it's just so funny because we talk all the time, and I share all the time with my clients, how fundamental principles drive a lot of high performance and productivity, much more than we think and much more than we give it credit for. And doing your top three is a perfect example of that, sitting down before the day begins and getting clear about what you want to focus your time and your energy on that day.
It is a great way to start the day; but I've been asked a few times this week, “Hey, Matt, is all you do with your coaching... You basically just have your clients tell you their top three, and that's it?” That's where we always start, but there's so much more we can do with your coaching experience.
So, obviously, after I've worked with somebody and we're in a good cadence of, um, having them share their top three and me kind of encouraging them, and encouraging some accountability around those top three, we typically start working on, kind of, what would you call it? Fine-tuning your morning routine and your evening routine. So that's what we work on.
And when we do that, we continue to stay focused on the top three. And that is usually what the coaching during the first 90 days consists of, hearing about your top three each day—at least Monday through Friday, that’s totally up to my clients. If they want to send in their top three on the weekends, it’s a hundred percent up to them; some do, some don't. And then, after we are in a good spot with the top three, we start to focus on the morning routine and the evening routine.
So that answers that; I've gotten that question from a few people this week. So, yeah, if you're interested in that coaching, the digital coaching, it's only 30 bucks a month, which is just ridiculous. It's actually $29 a month. I've tried really hard to make it as absolutely affordable as I possibly can. So if you're interested in some digital coaching and you want to become more productive, and you want to get clear each day on what you want to focus on, what you want to spend your time on, and if you want to become more intentional with your time each day, that is a great, great place to start.
You can go to my website—that's matt-east.com—to learn more about that. I'd encourage you to do that. If you're at all interested, it's totally worth it. If you want to chat with me, one-on-one, there's a place at the bottom, in the footer of my website, where you can schedule a free 15-minute call. It's kind of hidden, I think it's the third or fourth thing down there. But it's there. And if you want to connect, I would encourage you to do that.
Lastly, I owe you my top three for today. So. My top three priorities for today are, number one: I'm actually giving that presentation. For the last two days, I've given my priorities. And each day I talked about preparing the presentation I was doing for a startup group here in Indianapolis, called “Tech stars.” And, um, I'm giving a presentation over the sales process and how to actually hold a discovery call. Discovery calls are just where you start to learn about your prospect's challenges and what they do well and what they're looking for.
And, yeah, it's gonna be a blast. I really enjoy working with startup founders and with startups in general. So, can't wait for that. That's a couple-hour call, actually, and it's going to be a ton of fun.
My second priority is I'm going to send a message to all of my digital clients. At least everybody who has sent me their top three, I'm going to respond to them and encourage them to make it a great day.
My third priority is I just need to tidy up some stuff. So I need to clean my desk. I'm going to do a load of laundry and clean up the kitchen, and stuff like that. Just kind of tidy up.
So those are my top three: presentation for Tech stars, messages to all my clients, and tidy up a few things around the house.
So that is the game plan. I hope you guys are all doing really well. Are you doing your top three? Are you taking the time to get clear and head into the day with a clear focus? If you started your day and... Let's say you're listening to this in the afternoon, but you started your day without doing your priorities and your feel flustered or unfocused. Just take some time now and jot them down on a piece of paper and you can still get a lot done. If it's mid-afternoon or whatever, and you haven't set your top three, get focused, spend the rest of the day with focus and with intention, and that's it! Let's execute for the rest of the day at the highest level possible and make it a great day.
Have a great day! I will give you my top three tomorrow, and I'm going to give you my top three on Friday, and then we'll be done with this little top three series. But take time. Get clear on your top three and let's do it, execute at the highest level you can.
So that's it, guys, make it a great day. Also, send me your questions. If you want any questions answered on tomorrow or Friday's podcast, send in the questions.
Two Special Offers
By the way, I have two special offers for you. First, did you know you can actually download my bestselling book, The Purposeful Planning Method: How to Plan Your Day, Beat Procrastination, and Regain Control of Your Time for free from my website right now? That's matt-east.com, or just google Matt East + productivity, and you can download the digital book or the audio book, either one, for free right now.
I can't promise this offer will last forever. So snag a copy, if you want. This is the exact same book that costs, I don't know what it is, like 18 bucks on Amazon and Audible. So go get it while you can. Don't come whining to me if you miss this deal and you didn't download it.
I'm telling you, if you want it for free, go get it. Don't wait, take action. Knock it out.
Now, a second thing. I want to invite you to work with me. I'm offering my digital productivity coaching right now for $29 and 99 cents a month.
That's 70% off the regular price; it's usually 25 bucks a week or a hundred bucks a month. So, jump on this opportunity! It's the only coaching that I have available right now. I have two VIP-level coaching plans where I actually meet with people over the phone either once a week or once every other week, and those are sold out. So this is the only way you can work one-on-one with me right now. And I've decided to price it so that anyone that basically wants this can do it. It's $29.99 a month, and it's perfect if you're looking to transform your productivity—and if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably trying to do that.
This coaching works. It's awesome. And for 29 bucks, like, the ROI on this is incredible if you're a solo-preneur or, like a lot of my clients, an entrepreneur, or if you're just a professional looking for an edge, I mean, the ROI on this is incredible because you're not investing much.
Some of these coaching plans cost a couple grand. I mean, I have a package of that costs $500 a month. This is $29 a month. You can't beat it, it's less than a dollar a day. It's literally less than a buck a day. We will communicate every single day in an app. It's awesome. It works.
I've been doing this for a few years now. I know what I'm doing and I can help you. It's amazing. You would love it. If you try it, you will love it. And it's a hundred percent confidential, I always like to mention that. So there is no downside to giving it a shot. Try it, I bet you’ll love it. And if you don't, just cancel it, no big deal.
There is literally no downside to this. Give it a shot. You deserve it! You owe it to yourself to have some accountability, have somebody that cares. That's why I use a writing coach. I like having somebody that I pay to care about what I'm working on. It's great. Highly recommend it. And I think you guys would love it.
That's it! Hope you guys loved this episode, and we will chat again soon. Bye bye.
Creating and Sticking to Your Morning Routine
The Goal Achievement Podcast, hosted by Matt East, is all about helping you find clarity, design a plan, and most importantly achieve your goals.
Learn more about Matt’s productivity coaching at www.Matt-East.com/pricing
Subscribe on Apple Podcast & STITCHER.
How to Create and Stick to Your Morning Routine
Podcast Transcript
Hey guys, what's up. It's Matt! Hope you're all doing really well. On today's episode, I am going to share with you a tip to help ensure that you actually take action and do your morning and evening routines every single day without a problem.
The big question we all face every morning is this, how can we focus more time on the projects, activities, and relationships that are most important and meaningful to us and less time on the stuff that doesn't matter. So we can actually move closer to our goals and dreams. That is the question. And this podcast is the answer.
My name is Matt and welcome to the goal achievement podcast. I'm so glad you're here now. Let's dig in!
What's up guys! Welcome back to another episode of the goal achievement podcast. I hope you're all doing really well. So I am back for another episode of giving you my top three priorities for the day. I hope this is helping you think through what you want to accomplish with your day and nudges you to determine, and to write down your top three for today. What are the top three things that you want to accomplish today? Hopefully by taking time to think through that, it creates clarity and the focus that you need to help you to execute at your highest level possible today.
But before we do that, before I share my top three for today, I have a listener question kind of based on yesterday's podcast. So let's take a couple minutes to chat through that question. So here it is.
The question is: “Matt, I'm great at doing my top three each day. I've been doing them for a few months since reading your book and it's going great, but I've struggled to consistently stick to my morning and evening routines. I'm trying to make the most of this time, so I'm trying to squeeze a lot of things in, but I end up not doing much at all. How can I improve taking more action with my habit layer?”
That's a great question. So let's think through this a little bit. So I would say to find your rhythm for your morning and your evening habit layer. So for your morning, we call that the habit layer, but it's essentially just your morning routine and your evening routine. And we're just trying to be super intentional with it. I would suggest, in order to get started and to find your rhythm you mentioned that you are trying to squeeze as much in as possible, I would say don't do that. Until you have really built the habit up and you are definitely taking action on what's most important to you during that morning and evening routine.
So that could be whatever you want. That's totally up to you, but as you're trying to gain momentum and to build that morning routine or that evening routine into your day to day, we want to really simplify. We want to make it really easy. Let me give you an example of that: So for my morning routine, I use my mornings to try to exercise. Essentially, I'm just trying to sweat. So it's trying to get some exercise, trying to break a sweat, and the way that I do that is I set up a couple carrots.
So I wake up every day, then I feed the dogs and then I start coffee, and I've set the coffee the night before so all I have to do is hit that start button and I'm good to go. Since I have fed the dogs then I have to let them outside. When they're outside, I pour coffee into my mug and when it's, you know, non COVID, I drive to the gym and then I work out. Then as my reward for working out I jump in the steam room or sauna room, then I shower, then return home. If you look at that, the main goal was to work out. I love drinking coffee in the morning! So the drive to the gym instead of dreading that, I'm able to sip on my coffee.
So that's kinda my reward for getting in the car, the opportunity to sip on my coffee and just enjoy that drive. It's a short drive, no big deal. I'm not usually looking forward to the workout necessarily, but I know if I work out and I get to the gym, I get to chill out and do some stretching and some relaxing and some meditation in the sauna or the steam room. So that's kinda my carrot there. So I've set it up where I enjoy the drive because I get to enjoy my coffee and I get through my workout because I know on the other side of that, I get to relax in the steam room or the sauna before showering and coming home. So that's what I'm trying to accomplish with my morning routine.
That's just an example. I mean, who knows what you're trying to do, maybe you're trying to write or build a business or work out. I don't know, whatever it is, instead of trying to do all those things, like write a book, start a business, and work out in the morning, just really get clear about what you want to use that time for and try to simplify it and try to make it as simple as possible and repeatable as possible.
Try if you can to build in some rewards, like I've done with my being able to sip on my coffee and being able to go to the sauna after working out. Try to build that routine in a way that you enjoy what you're doing and you could do it forever. This isn't about a quick change for 30 days. What is scalable and what can you do for the rest of your life? If that was my morning routine for the rest of my life I would be thrilled with that. I mean, I love that process. I've done it for like 10 years up until COVID and I could do that forever. I can't wait to get back to it!
I'm still not going to the gym, Indianapolis where I live is pretty... a lot of big COVID numbers are here right now, so I'm still avoiding the gym. Instead of going to the gym right now, I either run, or stretch, or when it was really nice out I was going to hit golf balls a lot, which was fun. I had not played a ton of golf since I was younger, and I've kind of started that again since COVID, which I really enjoy. So that's what I'm saying, do stuff you enjoy doing! Make it enjoyable, make the process as easy as you can on yourself. You want to be able to actually accomplish this and not just have it be a dream. Actually build a morning routine that you can take action on every day and that you can do somewhat easily that’s not a grind.
Something to keep in mind with your evening routine is, I see a lot of people who are very aspirational with their evening routines and they kind of forget that they've worked for 10 hours up to that point or eight hours or whatever it is, or they've been focused on other stuff all day long, and they forget that they're going to be tired. So a lot of times people with their evening routines they're little overly aspirational. A lot of times I will try to get my clients to make sure that their evening routine is something that they're going to enjoy and they're going to be able to execute.
Many of you know, my evening routine is basically very much built around spending time with my wife, and relaxing and cooking dinner and just being present around the house and doing some chores usually, and just kind of enjoying winding down. There's nothing that's too complicated or too difficult for me at that point because I'm worn out, you know, I’d get up at 5:30 or 6am. So in the evening I'm not trying to do anything too taxing.
So set yourself up for success, both in the morning and in the evening by trying to give yourself rewards, give yourself carrots and by making it easy, and making it somewhat enjoyable. If you want to tighten it up and add more things later after you have really built up the habits you can, you can do that no problem! That's what I would suggest, if you are struggling to really take action on your morning and evening routines. So that's it! My advice is to find a way to reward and to incentivize the behavior that you are seeking to take action on.
By the way to that person, if you want to actually chat through this, you can schedule a free 15 minute coaching call with me. It's kind of buried on my website, but it's there, it's at the very bottom on the footer, and there's a section where you can have scheduled time with Matt and you can schedule a complimentary 15 minute coaching session if you have any additional questions on that. So schedule some time and we could connect and chat up.
My top three for today. Here we go.
Number one. I need to block an hour to tighten up and to finish that presentation I started yesterday. So I told you I was working on a present for the local Techstars and that presentation is tomorrow, Wednesday afternoon, and I want to have the presentation done and ready to go today. I made great progress yesterday, so I basically just need to tighten it up, make sure it's all good to go, and I'll be all set for my presentation tomorrow.
My second priority is: I'm joining a podcast today as a guest. So I need to prep a bit for that and actually record the interview. That time's already blocked. I need to block a half hour for the prep before the interview. So that'll be good.
Number three is: I'm currently holding all of my client calls on Tuesday and Thursday, so I have a nice chunk of client calls today that I want to just enjoy. I want to bring really positive energy to those interactions and just really focus. So I enjoy those calls. They're all with longtime clients and it's super fun to connect and catch up and to hear what they're focusing and working on and making progress with. So, that's it, that's my top three!
Remember, I challenge you to take some time and get clear on what you want to accomplish today with your focus and energy. I mentioned this yesterday, that fundamental principles really drive high performance and productivity much more than we think. We give it credit for how simple it can be. So planning and taking some time to think through what your top three focus areas and priorities are for today is a great example of high performance being driven by a very simple principle or fundamental principles.
So let's approach every day this week with clarity, and focus, and let's do it! Let's execute at the highest level possible today. So if you haven't already, take a few minutes and write down your top three. Think through it and get it down on paper.
Let's make it a great day! If you need anything, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Bye-bye.
Small Changes Create Big Impact
The Goal Achievement Podcast, hosted by Matt East, is all about helping you find clarity, design a plan, and most importantly achieve your goals.
Learn more about Matt’s productivity coaching at www.Matt-East.com/pricing
Subscribe on Apple Podcast & STITCHER.
Small Changes Create Big Impact
Podcast transcription
Hey guys, it's Matt. Hope you're all doing really well. On today's episode, we are going to talk about how making even a small tweak or adjustment or change in your life can have a massive impact for you.
It has been too long since I have recorded a new episode. I apologize. I've been focused on a few other projects and Rachel and I have been traveling, which has meant that the podcast was not prioritized for a while. We've been focusing on other stuff and, man, it's been a crazy year.
But I'm planning to record; it's Monday, and I am planning to record an episode Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week. So I'm home and I've got the bandwidth to record an episode each day. So that's the plan. The plan is all five days this week, which would be fun.
So, how are you guys? It's been forever. I get to chat with a lot of you guys ‘cause you email me, which is great. And a lot of you, a lot of my clients are listeners of the podcast, and my digital clients I communicate with every single day. So a lot of you guys I still touch base with every day. With that said, you know, Rachel and I were super bummed with the coronavirus situation, like most of the world. I mean, obviously it's been a crazy, crazy situation, but for us, we had a bunch of trips planned when we sat down to do our 2020 goals. So we sit down every year to create some goals and think about what want to focus on. And one of our big things this year was... you know, we've worked our butts off for years and 2020 was gonna kind of be the year of travel for us.
We had booked our first trip to Aruba; we had never been to Aruba, Rachel and I both like to dive and we were going to dive, and we were going to really take some serious time there. I was going to continue to work, she was going to continue to work a little bit, and we were going to take some serious chunk of time. I forget exactly how long the trip was booked for, but it was a good, long trip. And we had an Airbnb... And the Rona killed those plans.
So, obviously, can't be too disappointed, because our health is still good. And everybody in our family has been good. You know, some people have been affected by it, but nothing too tragic. So yeah, kind of killed our travel plans, just because we didn't want to get in and out of planes and hotels and then come back here. And we each have our parents, we didn't want to expose them, and we wouldn't have been able to really see them much if we were getting in and out of planes and all that. We just wanted to be really careful.
So we actually bought a camper, and we have just returned from a really big trip we did out to Wyoming. We got a kinda small... it's a 15-foot Geo Pro Pull behind trailer or RV, or I don't know what you'd call it, just a trailer. It's amazing. It's great. And, it's kind of off-road. We've got a pretty big Jeep Cherokee that we're able to pull it with and we're able to go off-road quite a bit. It's got these big old tires. It's not really like a typical trailer, so we're able to stay a lot in National force. We were able to go out to the sea, the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. And it was just amazing. If Yellowstone's on your bucket list and you haven't done it yet, I would encourage you to visit. It's like another planet with all the thermal features. You can just google Yellowstone and man, the images are amazing. So, that was very cool.
So, yeah, like I said, many of you have emailed since I last recorded. And I talk with so many of you who are clients, we communicate daily. So, you know, I feel a little disconnected from the audience, but with so many of you we've continued to stay in touch, which is good; but, man, it feels really good to record a new episode.
So let's dig right in. I want to kick this episode off with something that I found very interesting, and that I learned when we traveled to Africa for a vacation last year, around this time. And kind of based on what I want to share with you, I'm going to have a challenge for you.
My phone, and I don't know if your phone does this, but my phone... you know, I take a lot of pictures on it, and it will tell me like, “Hey, one year ago today, here are your pictures from today.” Or, “Hey, three months ago here are pictures,” or whatever. So if I'm taking a lot of pictures at a time, it kind of marks that. And then it notifies me. I randomly wake up and on my phone, it'll say like, “One year ago, here's what you were doing.”
So it did that. ‘Cause one year ago we were taking all kinds of pictures, because we were traveling in Africa, we were on a Safari, and it’s just amazing to go back and look at those pictures. You know, Rachel took a really nice camera and I did everything on my phone. My phone takes amazing pictures, and it's fun to go back and look at those pictures.
So I was doing that. I was just kind of scrolling through them and enjoying them and, you know, enjoying the memories and sipping on coffee or something. And taking in the experience again. And I saw a picture I had took of a giraffe eating off of an acacia tree, and it made me remember something that's really interesting about that relationship.
So there's something crazy about those trees. First, the acacia trees out there have huge thorns to protect their leaves from large... I guess it's herbivores, so animals don't come and eat all their leaves. But like I mentioned, the giraffe continues to, it can still eat from the tree despite the huge thorn.
So the thorns don't protect it from the giraffe because the giraffe has this massive tongue and mouth and it can just work its way in there. It's amazing.
And that's not scientific. That's just, I think that because I watched giraffes eat off that tree and that's kind of how they did it. So maybe there's another way. And if you're a scientist or whatever, you can let me know, but the trees actually have another way to combat against the giraffe. And it's crazy. So when the giraffe starts to eat the leaves from the acacia tree, the tree actually notices that it's being injured and eaten, and it emits a distressing null in the form of... I think it's gas, like ethylene gas; and that gas that it's emitting, you know, it's coming through its leaves.
The compounds in that gas are actually potent enough that it could kill a giraffe. So it lets off a poison once it knows that the giraffe is snacking on it. And what's crazy is not only does the tree that's being eaten release that gas so that it protects itself but it actually releases the gas and the other neighboring acacia trees in the area can detect that there's a stress signal. Through their leaves, they can tell that one of their buddy trees is having trouble and it's in distress. And it essentially is warning the other trees to fill up its leaves with toxins to protect themselves. So the trees are bizarrely communicating with each other and protecting one another.
So, first off, pause. How cool is that trees are communicating? It's like the coolest thing ever. I did do a little research on this just because our guide had told us this; he told us this and he explained, “This is what's going on.” And those guides are amazing. So our guide, George, told us this, and I thought it was like the coolest thing that these trees are actually communicating to one another. That kind of blows your mind. But what's even crazier is the giraffe has a way to still eat from the acacia tree.
So they've come up with the game plan to actually still feed from the tree. Giraffes are aware of the poison and realize, you know, some form of communication is happening between the trees, since the giraffe and the acacia essentially evolved together. They have figured out a way around this little issue, and that is that they are able to eat from these trees as long as it is from tree to tree into the wind.
The warning gas doesn't reach the trees around it if they're not up wind, right? So as the giraffes go tree to tree, they just go against the wind, they go into the wind and they're able to snack on a tree for a little bit, and then it starts to release its poison, and then they move on to the next one. But when they move on to the next one, they move the way that the wind is, into the wind, so that they're not, going downstream where the trees have already released their poisons. So they just make that small adjustment: into the wind versus with the wind. And they're able to feed for a little bit and move on to the next tree, which is just amazing.
If there's no wind, a giraffe will typically just walk a hundred yards or so, far enough that that ethylene gas isn't traveling in the air, before feeding on the next tree.
The giraffe has really thought through this and they go against the wind in order to still eat and survive and snack on the trees.
So that's an interesting story. Hopefully you find that interesting. Just reflecting on it, about the acacias and the small tweak that that giraffe makes to thrive and be able to eat versus getting poisoned got me thinking about how important and how critical the impact of just a very small tweak can be in our lives.
And one of the small tweaks that I work with people every day on, particularly my clients, and when I'm recording these episodes... I try to help people make a small tweak and take their life and their feelings of being unfocused and confused and overwhelmed to feeling focused and confident and in control of their goals and their priorities. And we do that with just a very simple, almost boring... When I talk through it, even my clients are somewhat disappointed when I tell them how we're going to start off the coaching, because as simple and as boring as it sounds to make a small change, like setting your priorities, that's how I typically try to help my clients.
Just a very small change, “Hey, in order to stay focused and to spend more time on the projects and activities and relationships that are most important and meaningful to you.” I encourage my clients, as we kick off coaching, to share their top three priorities with me each morning. And it's just that small change that can have such a massive impact if you've never prioritized your time. Or if maybe you did at one point, but you stopped doing it and you stopped writing down what you're going to do and then marking it off as you made progress and as you executed.
You know, so many people want to try and make a massive overhaul on their life. And maybe they do it for a little while, but they think they should have like 30 priorities a day or 50 or something like that. And three seems a little underwhelming.
But just like eating into the wind versus downwind is a very small tweak, determining what you actually want to do and what is your top three things can have such a massive impact and it's so, so doable. And once you start to see some success and you've found that clarity with your top three, it can really start to create some confidence and some momentum for you, which is great.
I probably get at least one question a day from people who've read my book, or from podcast listeners, or from clients about how I determined my priorities and about how someone should determine them. There's a lot of clients who share their top three and want to ask me, “Hey, am I doing this right?” So I get questions all the time about priorities, how to prioritize and all that good stuff.
I'm going to take this week—and I've done this in the past, but I just haven't done it for a long time—this week I'm just going to record all five days, Monday through Friday. I'm going to share my top three each day here on the podcast, just to give you guys a feel for what a top three looks like and sounds like, and kind of how I think through it. I would definitely challenge you to set your top three. So for this week, set your top three, write them down. And then, most importantly, execute on them.
As I'm sure you're aware, priorities are simply areas of your life that are important and meaningful to you. So, you know, if you're unsure what a priority is, that's it, it's just something that is important and meaningful to you. Priorities are typically projects you're focusing on at work or home or activities you want to do, or even relationships that you want to nurture.
11 guiding questions in my book to help you determine your priorities.
And I'm going to share those right now; but these questions are intended to just help you generate ideas. There's no need to answer each one of these every morning. They're just designed to help get some blood flow into your head to help you come up with your top three.
And after you've done this, after you've been prioritizing for like a week and referencing these questions, you really don't have to reference these every day. These are just kind of to help you get going if you've never prioritized your time, but, like, I don't reference these questions every single day.
The questions are, number one: If I could only achieve one thing today, what would that be? So that's a great place to start. If I could only achieve one thing today, what would that be?
Number two: What's the second most important thing I need to accomplish? So that's a good one. What's the second most important thing I need to accomplish.
The third question is: What's the third most important thing? That gets you through three things that are just important.
Number four: What else needs to be done?
Number five: What could I complete today that would make me happy when reflecting on my day? So, what could you do today that at the end of the day, when you reflect on your day, it would make you happy.
Number six: What can I do that will move me closer to achieving my goal? So is there something that you need to do? That's maybe not something that has to be done immediately, like an urgent item, but it's important. It's something that would move you just a little closer to your goals.
Number seven: Are there projects or tasks that others own, but I should follow up on? So is there something you should just follow up on today and see how it's going?
Number eight: What key relationships in my life need my energy today? Is there a person you should prioritize? Is there a relationship that you need to prioritize? Maybe someone at work or somebody within your family?
Number nine: What can I do to remove stress from my life? Sometimes, you know, something can just be stressful ‘cause you think about it. You gotta knock it out and sometimes; something may just be kind of hanging over you and you need to knock that thing out in order to remove some stress. So what can I do to remove stress from my life today?
Number ten: What tasks can I delegate to someone else? Is there something that needs to be done, but you don't need to do it? Somebody from your team or someone else, somebody in your family can help you do it.
Number eleven: Is there a task I'm avoiding that I should complete today? So, if there's something you think about all the time, but you don't move forward on it. Is there a task I'm avoiding that I should complete today?
Those are the questions I like to use to help my clients start to establish their top three. It usually just helps them, like I said, kind of get them thinking outside the box a little bit. And those questions are in my book, The purposeful planning method. That book is available on Audible and Amazon, and just about anywhere books are sold, but it's also a hundred percent free. The digital version is a hundred percent free on my website and the audio version is on my website too, for free. You can just go to matt-east.com to grab that if you're interested. It's free. It's full of stuff like that. It's super practical, it's short, and if you're trying to become more productive, that is the book for you.
So, my top three today... I want to do my top three. I'm gonna share my top three every day this week. So, number one, I'm going to spend two and a half hours... I'm going to block that on my schedule for creating a presentation that I'm giving on Wednesday to a group of startup founders; it's for a local, Techstars chapter. And the presentation is about how to conduct discovery calls and create a sales process. And I'm just going to spend two and a half hours today building that out and kind of getting started on it. I have a good idea where I want to take it, but I haven't sat down and got into the PowerPoint yet. So I'm going to spend almost three hours doing that. I'll block 2.5 hours on my calendar for that.
My second priority is to create and publish this podcast. So that's what doing now. I've blocked time for this.
And number three is to communicate with each of my productivity coaching clients. Reach out to them or respond. Many of them have already sent me a message this morning and I need to respond to each of them.
So that's my top three. And if you've read my book—and I know a lot of you guys have—if you've read my book, you understand that the top three is part of my fluid layer. And that's getting a little complicated if you haven't read the book. But my top three is part of my fluid layer, and there's another layer. We call it the habit layer, which is essentially your morning and your evening habits and routine. So this morning, prior to me doing my top three, and prior to me recording this, I ran and I did a little yoga and did some stretching for about an hour. And that exercise routine is just a part of my morning habit layer. That’s why I don't list that in my top three. That's something that I do more habitually and less like as a one-off for the day where it's like spending 2.5 hours creating a presentation. I virtually never do that. I had to prioritize that or it will never get done. So, just kind of wanted to mention that. I don't didn't list running an exercise on my top three, but I already did it today.
Go and check out my book if you want to learn more about the two layers, the fluid layer and the habit layer, and how they work together. Like I said, that book is free. Just go get it on my website, or if you've already joined my email list, you should be able to just access it no problem if you just go back and reference the emails that I've sent you.
Or you can just google “productivity coaching” and I should be the first; if you're in America, at least, I should be the first option that pops right up.
That's my top three for today. I challenge you to get your top three together and execute, take action on it. And I know so many of you... It's so funny. So many people kind of roll their eyes at the top three. They're like, you know, they think they have like 25 things to do and they can't just imagine knocking it down to three, but then half the time... Those people, they're like frustrated they're only gonna get to do three, and I'm like, “Yeah, let's just do three. Let's just get started with three,” because we're trying to really build momentum, that’s what we're trying to do here. And we're trying to knock out the things that we say we're going to do, which builds a little confidence.
And so often people will give me their top three and then they want to do like 20 things, but then they end up just doing like one of the three. It's harder than you think, stuff takes longer than you think. Today, recording this podcast, I had all kinds of trouble with a garage band and that's what I use to record. And, uh, my microphone wasn't synching or something. This thing should have taken 35 minutes to do, and it's taken an hour and a half. So stuff takes longer than you think, be aware of that.
But, yeah, you know, we've talked so much on this podcast about how fundamental principles drive high performance and productivity, much more than we think. And this type of very simple planning and thinking through what you actually want to do is a great example of that, super simple. But it does work, and it does drive high performance and it will help drive your productivity. So, give it a shot. If you've never tried to prioritize your top three, let's do it!
Let's approach every day of this week with clarity and with focus, and then let's execute and take action on those top three at the highest level possible.
So that's it, guys. Thanks so much for listening. I'm going to record tomorrow, and if you have any specific questions, hit me up, you can email me at matt@matt-east.com. If you email me I’ll respond, so hit me up. I'd love to hear from you guys. Let's make it a great week. Get clear on your top three and let's execute!
Aligning Your Daily Priorities with Your Broader Goals and Aspirations
Learn more about Matt’s productivity coaching at www.Matt-East.com/pricing
Subscribe to The Goal Achievement Podcast on Apple Podcast & STITCHER.
Aligning Your Top 3
Podcast transcription
All right guys, how are you, hope you're all doing really well.
On today's episode, we're going to talk about how you can use your top 3 priorities each day to achieve your larger goals and aspirations. Let's get into it.
The big question we all face every morning is this: How can we focus more time on the projects, activities, and relationships that are most important and meaningful to us and less time on the stuff that doesn't matter so we can actually move closer to our goals and dreams?
That is the question, and this podcast is the answer. My name is Matt East and welcome to the Goal Achievement podcast. I'm so glad you're here, now let's dig in.
All right guys, so we talk all the time about how so much of high performance and productivity is driven by very simple concepts, and I think sometimes people overthink it, and what we talk about today is going to be in line with that. We're going to talk through how you can use your top 3 priorities each day to really move the needle on a specific project or, or goal that you are working on.
So I just want to challenge you to really make an effort this week to align your top 3 daily priorities with your broader goals and your broader aspirations.
You want your priorities to be congruent with what you are trying to achieve with your week, then by executing on those priorities each day, you're connecting, you know, to your week's purpose and you're hopefully connecting to your to your larger, your broader purpose.
Here's an example of how that works, and that sounds a little confusing, I didn't do a great job of describing that. Here's… here's how this works, so a client asked me. Matt:
How how do you use your top 3 priorities to accomplish your business goals?
So I'm coaching a gal that she wants to be a, build up a coaching business, so she asked me that. So how do I use my top 3 priorities? How do I think about my top 3 priorities for the day in relationship to my, the goals I have for my, my business?
So one way I do that is I try to always use my top 3 to dedicated for priorities that are going to drive my business forward. So, for example, let me give an example of this:
A week ago, I wanted to focus on building out a new coaching product, so coaching product that's branded differently than my website than my traditional coaching, and it's a tailored to a little different market, it's just a little bit different, the coaching experience is slightly different and, so anyway, so I've been wanting to build this.
So to give an example of how I use my top 3 to drive the activities that I want, so I had this broader goal, I want to, I want to build out this new product, this new coaching product, and in order to do that, I got to build a website, I got to build a product, got to get it all online, all that good stuff.
So this is what my priorities look like to achieve that larger goal:
So Monday, this was a couple of weeks ago. Monday, pick out and buy a domain name, so I blocked off 30 minutes for that. Second, choose a template for the new website, so I build my websites currently in Squarespace super easy, so 30 minutes to choose a template, I have a lot of experience with that so that just doesn't take long. Third thing is I had to connect the domain that I had bought from like GoDaddy to my website, so that takes 15 minutes. So you see, those are very practical things that I have to do to move the needle forward on my new website and on to build my new to start selling my new coaching project or product.
So on Tuesday, my top 3 were: write website copy for landing page, write website copy for sales page, and create a logo.
On Wednesday it was create a new product in Gumroad that's how I sell stuff, I sell stuff through Gumroad typically. So Gumroad is just essentially it's an online checkout system that works very well it's, you don't have to click around too much so you don't lose buyers online when you're selling stuff. I also created Google ads so that I could get traffic to my new site and I had to configure the product that I'm selling, and I did that within a coaching app that I use.
On Thursday I asked for feedback, I asked my VA to provide feedback and to proof the site to make sure there weren't any, like, noticeable errors or spelling errors or whatever. And the second thing was I wanted to implement feedback and edits from the VA and I had to configure a 7-day free trial, so I wanted to offer this coaching product for free for seven days before people had to pay for it, and that takes a little bit of configuring.
On Friday, I published the site, I published the ads, and I started to sell my MVP, so MVP stands for minimal viable product so what I was building wasn't like the perfect thing. It was kind of just, hey, this is what I'm going to sell initially, I'm selling this at a very low cost, so I don't feel guilty that it's not like the greatest technology of all time. I think it's very good, but it's yeah, so I shipped my minimal viable product. Second thing was be ready to support and answer questions and respond to customers as people start signing up and then 3, make necessary tweaks to the website and product.
So that's an example of all 3 of my priorities each day, I've built around trying to get this website up and get it built. So, I mean, I essentially built a new website and built a new product and I'm getting customers, I've been getting about a customer a day on this new product, it's awesome, it's, if you want to see it, it's productivitymonsters.com, productivitymonsters.com, so it's awesome, and people have been loving it, but yeah.
So that's how I do it, I almost always build my top 3 around my business because I use my morning for exercise, reading, little meditation, drinking coffee, planning my day, and if you've read my book, that's my habit layer, and I use my evenings to cook and relax and try to tidy up around the house and most importantly, try to connect and hang out with Rachel, my wife, and that's my evening habit layer.
So I've got my exercise taking care of kind of my mind stuff with reading a meditation, that's my morning. I've got my relationship stuff covered in the evening, you know, that's hanging out with Rachel when it's not covid that's when I would you know, she and I would go out with family and friends and hang out and connect with people.
So I've got my morning exercise, I've got my relationships kind of handled in the evening, and so during the, the chunk of the day I try to pick out my top 3 is really focused around trying to drive my business forward, and so that's how I do it, that's how I build my top 3 around trying to move my... my business forward.
So, you know, really the bulk of my day, I'm able to use on things, on trying to achieve priorities that are going to move the needle forward on my business goals and objectives. You know, obviously, like people are like Matt isn't your top priority each day, like client interaction, and no, it's not. It's a priority, but it's it's rarely a top 3 priority, I try to prioritize what is going to move my business forward, that client interaction is really more of a activity that sustains my business, it's very important, but 99 percent of the time, I wouldn't include client interaction as a top 3 priority just because it's not moving the business forward. Whereas like doing something like launching a new product or writing a book? Something like that is going to move, it's going to create new revenue for the business, so that's how I think about that.
I hope that helps, you know, really think through it.
Trying to figure out what you want to accomplish this week, like, what's that big thing you want to accomplish and then determine, you know, back into what needs to get done in order to make that happen?
You know, and don't overthink it, I think it's simple, it's not, don't overthink, underthink it you know, usually it's not that complicated. If you're trying to write a book, block time to write and make sure you write for a few hours each day. If you're trying to build a business, figure out exactly what that means, you don't have to go read, you know, seven business books, figure out, you know, what that looks like for you and start taking action on… on those really those needle-moving things that are going to... If you're trying to create a business, it's because you're trying to generate some income, probably.
So try to figure out what's going to move the needle on getting some cash in the door, because if you get that cash, so much else come... becomes so much easier. So... also, you can see, you know, from how I used my top 3 to build a website and launch a new product and to start making sales.
It's a good reminder of how you can really move things forward quickly using only your top 3.
I didn't do anything outside of those for that website, for that launch, I mean that was it, I mean, it pretty simple. So, I mean, a lot of times you can only execute on your top 3 Monday through Friday, and that's... you would accomplish, 15 things, 15 is a lot of things to accomplish if it's the right thing.
So you can make a lot of progress very quickly if you align your daily priorities with that broader goal you want to achieve for the week or for just the broader goals in your life, whatever you're aspiring towards, and, you know, that's just it's very important to recognize you can make a lot of progress in a short amount of time.
You know, I always tell people if you set your, if all you do are your top 3 priorities each day and you do seven days a week, that's 21 things you get done. Most people don't intentionally get done 21 like... move, needle-moving things a week. So think through that, what's really important here is identifying the right priorities, you know.
So I could have instead of, you know, on Monday where I picked out a domain, chose a template, connected a domain to my website. I mean, I could have done I could have said, well, since I'm signing a book, I'm going to read a book on, I don't know some business book like it's so much better to just take the right action and get started on what you're actually trying to do, as opposed to, you know, getting lost in a maze or like doing research for days on end about the business, like just get it going, get it going, start, you're going to iterate, that's why it's, it's beautiful to kind of think through that minimal viable product when you're launching something, whatever you create, it's not going to be perfect on day one, and it's going to be fine, it's going to be fine.
I don't know if I've mentioned this on the podcast yet. This is hilarious and super embarrassing, but I like quick. I did the redesign of the Goal Achievement podcast, you know, like the cover. And I don't know if I mention this on this podcast yet, this is hilarious. But, so I did the redesign and I originally spelled, I left out an "E" like in the middle of achievement, which is so embarrassing on, so like I launched that, like I put it in iTunes, so the goal achievement of that movement was spelled wrong, and, you know, I mean, that is super embarrassing, right?
That's super embarrassing, it doesn't fucking matter, nobody cares like nobody stopped listening to this podcast because of it, I've looked at the numbers, like, you just fix it and move on. So, like, as you're thinking through your stuff that you want to do, it does not have to be perfect, you know? I mean, for God's sake, I launched a podcast and I mean, I spelled achievement wrong and it's the Goal Achievement podcast. You know how embarrassing that is? Nobody cares, I mean, I don't know for sure if anybody noticed. My wonderful niece pointed it out to me very kindly, thank you, so I was just one of my nieces, so thank you to Jonna for that.
But so, you know, people worry about stuff so much that they're going to screw something up, and it's just like whatever you do, it's so much better to execute and take action and screw it up and you can come back and fix it later.
So, so many people are, they want their little thing to be perfect when they launch and just launch, you can have typos on your website, you can have, you're going to have problems. It's fine, nobody really cares, and there's, you're going to refine it and make it better and make it better and make it better, so I would definitely lean towards if you're struggling and you're wanting, like, perfection before you launch your business or launch or whatever it is, don't let perfection hold you back, I mean,I did, I did get my podcast cover looking good and all spelled correctly, but man, if any of you guys noticed that, let me know, that's hilarious.
If if you noticed that and you didn't point it out to me, I'm kind of mad at you, though, so maybe you shouldn't tell me why you are allowed to point stuff out like that to me, I'm close enough with so many listeners, I think if you guys would have saw that, you'd been like Matt dude, you spelled achievement wrong.
So whatever, lesson learned, and yeah, let's hope you guys are well, that was kind of a rant there.
But the big deal with this week:
Get clear on your top priorities each day, get clear on your top 3 priorities each morning if you need help with that, try my coaching, you can try coaching for free for 7 days on the new website productivitymonsters.com it's the bomb and it's, that's only 19.99, so and it is awesome.
People are loving it, give it a shot, that's it. Make it a great week, align your top priorities with the thing that you're trying to get done or achieve. OK, that's it. Make it a great week bye-bye.
Hey everyone, it's Matt again and I have two special offers for you:
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I hope you guys loved this episode and we'll chat again soon bye-bye.