Do you get to the end of the week and think, how stressful it was, how you didn’t have any time for yourself?
You look at your jobs lists and things have been crossed off, but apart from a small amount of satisfaction of that, you are left with a bit of an empty feeling that the week wasn’t much fun?
This is how I felt, I love writing lists, I have lists of lists!
Maybe you are like me and you write things on a list that you have already done, just so you can cross it off?
But life shouldn’t be that boring. Life should be for living and having adventures.
But then boring old work gets in the way and pesky house stuff like chores.
Want to know how I turned all that around, and found a way of fitting in plenty of time for fun AND got more productive with the things that needed doing?
I got my flow.
I don’t mean in a hippy, chilled out kind of way, I learnt a new system of writing lists, called FLOW, from my business mentor. I then tweaked it a bit, to make it work across all areas of my life, home, me and business. It has been the best thing I have learnt all year!
Below is his account of how much of an impact using this system had on his life, and then after that, I explain how I use it in everyday life.
“Would you like to learn the exact steps I took to become more productive in my business in 2017 to grow my monthly income from $0 to $25,000 and go from working 80 hours a week to less than 30. All in less than 9 months.
Interested?
First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Danny Clarke and I run an online coaching business for home based business owners.
For several years I have been fascinated with achieving more.
Both financially and my time.
For the majority of my adult life, I didn’t have a lot of either.
Ha!
I am a pretty rebellious character. I did well at school, got decent grades but i hate being told what to do. I don’t like the ‘system’ and detest the idea of having a 9-5 job.
Now, if these things are for you, cool, total respect.
It’s just not my thing.
The reason this is important to know is that before I became uber productive with my time last year, which led to an increase in my income, my happiness and my time I wasn’t some super anal, time conserving, minute watching guy.
In fact I hated the idea of systems and routine ‘cos I liked to do ‘what I want, when i want’.
the irony being i can do more of what i want, when I want now.
Lol.
Before I share with you my weekly 30 minute system, here are some things to think about that helped me make the mental switch needed to choose to be more productive.
Because it was a decision for me.
Why do you want to be more productive with your time?
What happens if you remain the same?
How committed form 0-10 are you to make the change?
When do you expect to see results in your life?
If your answers to this are only ‘meh’…
My system?
Will be a waste of your time to be blunt.
You’d be better using the 30 minutes watching your favourite TV Show on Netflix.
If you are ready?
Lemme explain how it works…
Once a week, set aside 30 minutes to write down your ‘to do list’. My mentor calls this a brain dump.
Sunday night has always worked well for me for 3 reasons:
1. Kids tend to be in bed a littler earlier.
2. I’m well rested from the weekend.
3. Ready to get started for a new week.
Here’s what to do
1. Write down everything you want to get done in the next 7 days. Don’t include just your biz stuff, include the stuff that makes you money, keeps you healthy / happy, areas you can become more productive and finally family stuff.
2. Use our FLOW system
F irst L ast O ther W in
Circle the 3 things that MUST be done with an F.
The last 3 with an L.
Everything else has an O.
Then choose the one big thing you want to do this week which is non-negotiable which will push your business forward.
Break this big goal down in to 3-5 smaller tasks which you’ll complete every day.
It’s as simple as that.
Which is kinda the point.
The key to this system is focusing on your priorities.
So now that you know, give it a go and see how this can help you achieve your best year so far.”
I knew I needed to focus on me just as much as my business so I didn’t burn out. So I took this a little bit further and actually have 4 categories for my Sunday night brain dump,
- Health
- Wealth
- Productivity
- Fun
I then follow Danny’s system of putting everything on there that needs doing and colour coding (who doesn’t like a bit of colouring!) to organise my time.
This way I also prioritise me, as there are loads of things in my Fun section and I make sure they get done. 
Here’s an example of one of mine.
These are all the mega important things that need doing for the week, I don’t add anything else on until they are all ticked off.
However I do have a daily list too on most days (I know, I did tell you I loved making lists!). That one is for all the niggly little things that I need to remember to do and that crop up throughout the week. Like take the meat out the freezer, put the washing on, that kind of thing.
Does it seem like a lot of work?
Initially, yes. But because you actually become far, far more productive when you are using this system, after a couple of week you actually end up having far more time on your hands and you certainly end up having more time for you.
How often have you got to the end of the week and realised that you ran out of time to call a friend, or you missed an episode of your favourite show, or you didn’t make time for exercise?
This is a fantastic way to solve that problem.
I’d love to know what you think, and how you get on using it. Keep me posted!
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