My business mentor/partner Dean Holland posted this today to the iPro Partners Facebook group. Very appropriate for this post and is a reflection of his commitment to his group. Contact me for how to join iPro…

Here’s a quick productivity tip that should really help you, I’ve used it for years (as some here already know)

Here’s the benefits of what you’re about to learn:

+ Reduced overwhelm feeling
+ Increased clarity
+ Increased speed of progress
+ Faster results

Not a bad list of bullets huh 🙂

So here it is…

Often as entrepreneurs (of all stages) we can feel like there’s a TON of stuff to do and work on, sometimes it’s true and sometimes it’s not.

At times this feeling can leave us paralysed into procrastination where we stop really doing anything productive as it feels a mess, and in that state it’s easier to “feel” productive by browsing Facebook etc

Also at times this state can cause us to focus on the wrong things altogether, the things that ultimate won’t put cash in our bank accounts

To overcome this I use a process called “What Matters Now” or “WMN” for short

This process is in 2 parts…

Step #1 – Take a pen and paper, or use a software tool if you prefer (I use BaseCamp, that’s what is in the screen shot) and just write EVERYTHING that’s whirling around in your head

I mean EVERYTHING, even if it’s not work related. Keep writing until you literally cannot write anything more

I call this part “The Brain Dump”

This first part of the process alone will lift a weight off your shoulders, and in fact anytime you begin to feel like there’s too much to do again I want you to grab your list and add to it until your mind is clear once again.

Now you’re holding a list of everything that’s keeping you where you are.

On this list will be some menial tasks that you’ve been putting off that you probably need to just get off your plate, there’ll be items that don’t really matter but you’ve told yourself it needs to be done

But most importantly on this list you’ll find tasks that will certainly move your business forwards in the fastest time possible and lead you to make money faster than all other tasks you’ve dumped on the list

These are what you’re looking for to take into the final step…

Step #2 – Now created a second list called “What Matters Now”

From the larger list created in step 1 now move the most important tasks to your new WHM list.

These items should only be the tasks that will lead you to making money, nothing else!

Once complete ALL YOU FOCUS ON is the WHM list tasks, the others won’t go anywhere but they are not as important. You have them out of your head and on the list to come back to but now you know what to focus on for now to move forwards fastest!

Here’s an example to help..

List of Everything (Brain Dump)
———————————————

– Check emails
– Check FB private messages
– Write a blog post
– Email my list
– place a banner ad
– wash my car
– cut the lawn
– place an order for a solo ad
– create a new squeeze page
– finish writing my book

What Matters Now
——————————————-

– create a new squeeze page
– finish writing my book
– Write a blog post
– Email my list
– place a banner ad

See how that works… ?

Now go write your WMN list following the steps above and do it as often as you need to… some will benefit from doing it daily, some weekly and a few maybe monthly

Thanks for the great comment Stephen. I’m reminded of an old ‘joke’; How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time 🙂

When reading it I thought back to when I was starting out building my own blogs and other websites and the often very complex subject areas that need to be covered. Scanning through those tasks in your mind before tackling them can easily begin to instill lots of images in the mind that eventually lead to overwhelm then procrastination as you begin to accept “I Can’t” as a basic and ongoing suggestion to yourself.

What’s more…. what I didn’t cover in that quote was that creating the list first by thinking about what needs doing, then beginning the first item and the next and so on, usually makes what seemed complicated very simple.

This is akin to practicing an instrument very slowly… when you practice it slow what seemed complicated is very simple and very doable. Of course knowing that you would adopt a fundamental autosuggestion something akin to the old: “I can and I Am”