The Wealth Spa

The Dog Ate My Blog, or 5 Time Perception Tips, part 1

Posted on 09. Jul, 2008 by Elizabeth Potts Weinstein in Life Balance

You may have noticed that I’ve been neglecting this blog … and may think, here comes the lame “sorry I’ve been neglecting my blog” post. Yes, things have been crazy (trying to get an info product & book out the door, relaunching all my websites, husband w/ a herniated disc, business, kid, house, cat, life, etc.), but that’s not the reason … really it’s all about internal time perception.  I felt overwhelmed & out of control, and so I was. 

Instead of just apologizing and making excuses in this blog post, I’m sharing the first of 5 time perception (aka time management) tips that have taken me from total overwhelm (and blog-freeze) to productivity & completion.   

Time Perception Tip #1:  Do #1 First 

I finally figured this out just this week, even though I’ve been hearing about this idea for over a year.  In the 4 Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss talks about spending the first 2 hours of your day doing the most important thing for your business, instead of what most people do (check email, return phone calls, tidy your desk, eat a donut).  When I first read this book over a year ago, I thought this was a great idea, but instead of picking one thing I just wrote down all my to-do’s for the day and put a star next to the ones that were most important.  But of course, I did not do those first because they were So Big, and I have to check email to get back to my Virtual Assistants, blah blah blah, so I still wallowed in a bunch of sort-of-important tasks.

Then I bought my friend Marie Forleo’s Productivity Secrets for Creative Entrepreneurs home study course.  Probably would not have bought it, except that Marie offered the first hour as a free download … and after one listen I got so much out of it, I felt guilty to not pay her some money.  Marie also teaches the “do the first thing first” strategy.  But instead of doing the first thing first, I wrote down TWO things to do first, and still spent time checking emails (what if the VA’s emailed I don’t want them to sit around unproductive?!?, as if they couldn’t IM or text me) and piddling around in little tasks.

But this week I hit the wall.  I was So Far Behind in multiple projects where I promised delivery (and people had already paid me money!), and I had changed the delivery date more than once.  What a lame way to run my business, and very non-Grow Up! Strategies.  So I thought let’s try Tim & Marie’s theory, full-on, just as an experiment.

On Tuesday I picked one important project to do.  Actually, it was one project w/ 3 parts — getting back to 3 clients who needed some documents from me (and one of them has been waiting since April!) and were energetically & actually “pinging” me constantly.  I could feel them (and read the occasional email) that they needed their stuff done, and that pinging I felt kept me from being productive on the rest of my life. 

So on Tuesday I did that client work first.  No clearing out the email box.  No writing a blog post.  No drafting an email blast.  No cleaning the house (okay, I liked that “no”).  No work until these client projects were done.

Took until 2:30 PM until they were finished (did have a 90 minute phone call, pick up Grace from preschool, and fix/eat lunch).  But let me tell you, getting those three client projects done had an amazing effect on my day and the control I feel over my life.  After I got those project done, I felt like accomplishing & finishing all the projects on my master project list were possible.  That the little to-do’s on the rest of my daily task list were easy.  And for the first time in a Long Time, I got everything done.

So if you are overwhelmed by daily little tasks ond a bunch of big projects, pick one most important project and today get the most important task done to further that project … first.  No email, no blog posts, no twitter/facebook/plurk, no futzing with anything until that project is done. 

Tune in next time for Tip #2:  Stop With Aggressive (aka Crazy) Deadlines

Related posts

• You Can Do Anything in Just 15 Minutes (6)
• Stop With Aggressive (aka Crazy) Deadlines: Time Perception Tip part 2 (2)
• Is Distraction Inevitable? 6 Tips to Get It Done (1)
• Going With the Flow (2)
• Everything Is Not #1: Time Perception Tip #3 (3)

Tags: life hack, productivity, Time Management