Ditch 'Doing' for 'Done': Why Less Work Leads to More Results
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[00:00:00] Hello, welcome to the productivity genius podcast. I'm your host, Kelly Fifield. And in this episode, we're looking at why working on things is a really inefficient way to get things done in your business, in your life. So the alternative to working on things is deciding what results you want to create in that time.
So instead of putting something on your calendar, like Lead magnet, or work on business, or emails, or work on Facebook ad, right? These are the types of things I used to write in my planner. These are really ambiguous things. They're gonna be more difficult to follow through on to even start the process because they're so unclear as to what it even means.
And you are less likely to even feel great about your progress at the end because you didn't define what success would even look like in that time.
Instead, on your planner or on your calendar, what you want to put is what result are you going to [00:01:00] create by the end of that time. Even if the amount of time that you have isn't enough to like finish a whole project, right? So maybe it is, you're working on your lead magnet. I know for me at this point I'm in the planning phase of my lead magnet.
Next time I put on my calendar for my lead magnet, the result I will have in that time is I will have the plan. for my lead magnet. I'm going to create start to finish what things I would like to complete, what I want to get done, how long I want to give myself for those things, and have that step by step plan.
That's the next thing. So next time I put that on my calendar, that is what it will say. It will say complete plan for lead magnet. I won't put work on lead magnet. It'll be complete plan for lead magnet. Now, once I have that plan, the next time I work on the lead magnet, next time I have to put on my calendar for that, it will be something very specific.
Like for example, if I was doing a video lead magnet, it might be record the video, or it might be record and edit [00:02:00] the video. And then maybe another step at another time might be create the landing page for the lead magnet. Or create a mock up for the landing page for the lead magnet.
You want to be really specific about the thing you're going to complete during that time.
This is going to make it much easier to get started because it's so clear you're not dealing with the confusion.
And having that clarity is really going to help you stay focused during that time block because you know what the end looks like. So if we leave it really open ended and are like, okay, I'm going to work on my lead magnet during this time, maybe you'll work in a very focused manner.
Maybe you won't. Maybe when you know, you get an Instagram notification or something if you're just working on your lead magnet It would be very easy to like take a moment just to see who's messaging or what's going on over there
when you've got one hour to maybe record and edit the video plus upload it to the landing page and When that Instagram [00:03:00] notification goes off, you're going to know I don't have time to start scrolling Instagram. I've only given myself an hour to get these three things done, and I need to stay really focused in order to complete that in this time.
When we tell ourselves we're going to work on something that's so ambiguous that, we don't really have to be super focused. What is working on something? Spending a little time? Having it up on your screen? How much progress? Do we need to make in order to decide we quote unquote worked on something.
This one simple change will make dramatic improvements in how much you are completing in any given week and on any given project.
If you just put work on specific project on your calendar over and over again, you really have no idea how long it's actually going to take to complete it. But instead if each time you have time or you schedule time to Dedicate to that project you're very clear about what you're going to get done in that time Each instance of working towards that goal is going [00:04:00] to get you further along because you're guaranteeing yourself, almost guaranteeing yourself, that the end of each work session you're going to have a result. You're going to be further along. You're going to have a piece of that project done. So whether it's a multi step project and each time you're getting a little bit done, Or it's a single step thing, like right, maybe you have a time block where you're like, I'm going to write my weekly newsletter and I'm going to get it done in this hour, or I'm going to record this week's podcast, and I'm going to get that done in 20 minutes.
At least, you know, at the end of this time, this thing is completed.
Scheduling for results makes it easier to follow through on the time and it dramatically increases the chances that you're going to continue to make forward progress. And get things done.
So, as you're filling out your planner or your calendar, give yourself a little bit more clarity. be a little bit more clear about exactly what you're putting on your calendar. Instead of putting something very general and vague that's going to make it difficult, A, for your [00:05:00] brain to follow through on, B, for you to even know if it was a successful time block.
C, really hard to stay focused because there is no real clear definition of what should be done. Instead, put exactly what result you want to have created by the end of that time. That's going to help you get so much more done and work so much more efficiently.
In our next episode, we're going to talk about neuroplasticity.
Our brain's ability to learn new things, do new things, change in dramatic ways
is, for lack of a better term, mind blowing.
We can leverage this in so many different ways, but of course, together next week, we'll look at how to use that
to change our brains to be more productive. But until then, I hope you have an amazing week.
