LET’S GROW

This is actually a victory because I used to burn out every two weeks and this time it was 2 months. 

The breakdown created an opportunity to make my time management more efficient. I spent this last week trying 3 different time management techniques, and here is how well they worked for me. 

Technique 1 -  Pomodoro Technique

This technique uses a timer to break your work down into intervals. Each interval is known as a Pomodoro, named after the tomato-shaped timer that Cirillo created. 

Rating - 3 out of 5 tomatoes 🍅🍅 🍅

This was good, but required prep. I had to make a list of the items I needed to do beforehand. Probably a good practice, but this week I didn’t want to. When I finally got organized enough, though, it worked!

Technique 2 - Eisenhower Matrix

Organize your task list into four separate quadrants, sorting them by important vs. unimportant and urgent vs. not urgent, as shown in the graphic below.

Urgent tasks are those we feel need to get done immediately. Important tasks are those that contribute to your long term goals or values. Ideally, you should only work on tasks in the top two quadrants—the other tasks, you should delegate or delete.

Rating - 4 out of 5 presidencies 🦅 🦅 🦅 🦅

This one is like productivity triage. Organize the most important parts and start with those. It reminded me of therapy sessions where my therapist wouldn’t allow me to focus on things out of my control. 

I think my struggle with this is that, with creative endeavors, there are so many moving parts it’s hard to break them down so succinctly.  It did teach me how to prioritize better. 

Technique 3 - 80/20 rule

This rule centers around the idea that 20% of your actions are responsible for 80% of the outcomes you see. The goal of 80/20 analysis is to help you prioritize tasks that are most effective at solving problems.

Rating - 5 out of 5 solved fractions 4️⃣ 4️⃣ 4️⃣ 4️⃣ 4️⃣ 

The reason I liked this the most was that it was a bit broader in it’s view. I made a list of all the things I do in a day (business-wise) and calculated what 20% of that is.

That number was 3 and then I looked at the list and saw what was the most important. 

1. Patreon

2. Newsletter

3. Instagram 

That list is in no particular order, but it helped me to focus where I am most effective. I will still touch on those other items on the list, but the first touches go to those three things.

Are there other ones you could suggest? Reply to this email or post it over on the Discord available to the besties.