5 Steps To Getting More Done
If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m a bit obsessed with my to-do list and learning how to improve my productivity system. I’m slowly building out a library of books, a full notion database of youtube videos and podcast notes, and my book notes database is becoming an endless sea of personal cliff-notes.
About a year ago I read Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day, by Jake Knapp, and John Zeratsky. The first ten steps of their process for accomplishing more are some of the most important principles I’ve ever applied, and today I’m going to share those with you, and by the end give you a better understanding of how to apply these principles to your own life.
We’ll be covering:
- Write It Down
- Groundhog It
- Stack Rank Your Life
- Bath the Little Stuff
- The Might-Do List
1. Write It Down:
A classic quote from David Allen defines my entire approach to productivity, “Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”
This defines my entire approach to productivity and the primary concept of writing it down. In my own experience, I was constantly battling time and never accomplishing anything due to my inability to separate medical daily tasks from important “must do” items. This concept changed my entire approach to calendars and to-do lists.
By writing down everything I need to do I am able to visualize my week, and through this system, the need to decide on the spot has been completely removed. Removing resistance is a common theme in my life, and by planning out my calendar, and to-do list, and building habits around my vision of a productive routine, crossing items off of my list has become almost effortless.
2. Groundhog It:
“Groundhog It” refers to the following points:
- If you didn’t get to your Highlight, it’s probably still important. Repeat for a second chance
- If you started your Highlight but didn’t finish it or if your Highlight was part of a bigger project, today is the perfect day to make progress or start a personal sprint (#7). Repeat to build momentum
- If you’re establishing a new skill or routine, you’ll need repetition to cement the behavior. Repeat to create a habit
- If yesterday’s Highlight brought you joy or satisfaction, hey, there’s nothing wrong with more of that! Repeat to keep the good times rolling
Repetition leads to mastery, mastery leads to efficiency, and efficiency leads to success. This is the natural progression of productive people, and by implementing these ideas into daily life positive habits become automatic. The first five minutes is the hardest part of every task, and by creating repetition the resistance of just getting started can slowly be removed.
3. Stack Rank Your Life
Stack ranking furthers the idea of the daily highlight by encouraging us to create multiple highlights based on importance. By ranking your tasks from most important to least important we now have a step-by-step guide for each day; removing any need for thinking about the next item on our agenda.
Productivity is all about removing resistance from our system while increasing the resistance to engage in distractions. Here’s my own example of this; turning off social media notifications on our phones means less chance of getting sucked into the Instagram rabbit hole.
4. Bath The Little Stuff:
Knapp and Zeratskies TLDR, “Bundle up the small tasks and use batch processing to get them all done in one Highlight session. In other words, make a batch of small things your big thing.”
The way I apply this in my own life is by setting aside a few hours every Sunday to complete all of my repetitive tasks. Unfortunately, I can’t remove eating from my system, so in a three-hour period, I do my best to finish my meal prep, declutter my house, and plan out my calendar for the week so I can continue working towards my goals instead of spending my time focusing on these small tasks.
By removing these items from my daily list, I find myself having an extra 1–2 hours a day for working on my current business and future projects.
5. The Might-Do List:
If you read my article “Why You Can’t Get Anything Done,” you may remember my detailed approach to managing my to-do list. Tasks are broken down into “must-do,” “might do,” and “whenever I get to it.” After implementing this system my productivity soared, and my stress levels plummeted. I recommend this approach to anyone feeling overwhelmed, it may change your life.
These are the tasks that don’t make the highlight list, so they don’t deserve a place in the time-sensitive category. This list simply exists to help me earn bonus points for productivity after finishing all of my necessary obligations.
In Conclusion:
If this sounds like a lot, don’t worry, I know it is.
Applying these concepts was by no means an overnight process, and honestly, I don’t adhere to this as a law, I used these 7 steps as a springboard towards building my own system for managing my to-do list and my calendar.
Give it a try, experiment, find what works for you, and maybe come back and let me know what you figure out.
Thank you for reading!
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Other Articles I Recommend:
- Why You Can’t Get Anything Done: t.ly/NNGw
- How To Be Successful At Anything: t.ly/PN5g
- How Waking Up Early Changed My Life: t.ly/yO1l
Check Out “Make Time: How to Focus on What Really Matters” Here:
