The last two days something really interesting is unfolding on some blogs I follow (and some I didn’t follow yet). It’s something like a pub crawl between blogs, with online entrepreneurs and freelancers challenging eachother to put each other’s lessons in practice.
Christine O’Kelly (Self Made Chick) was put “On Notice” by Dave Navarro (Freelance Folder / Million Dollar Leverage), when he decided to start a 30 trial by putting the lessons of Christine’s e-book into practice. Christine in return shouted out to Dave to “Show her the money“, taking up a similar trial with the time management lessons of Dave.
Both of them are pushing themselves to improve, and openly challenging, praising, questioning and discussing what they experience. It’s a lot of fun to follow and read and discuss along. More great people are following and discussing, like James Chartrand (Men with Pens), Monika Mundell (The Writers Manifesto), Michael Martine (Remarkablogger) and Naomi Dunford (Ittybiz).
E-books
I somehow missed the fact that Christine published a 26-page e-book “How I Built A Profitable Freelance Business for Under $50 (And How You Can Too!)”. I got my copy, but have yet to read it (probably tonight).
I did download and read Dave Navarro’s e-book “How To Turn Your 24 Hour Day Into a 30 Hour Day”. Sign-up for his newsletter to get your copy. It’s a small e-book as well, but it really rung a bell with me. Dave touches on some points that I had discovered in recent months as well. He talks about not getting started, about keeping focus and eliminating distractions, about keeping yourself accountable for your goals and about having too many goals. So he got my attention!
Now where’s the cash?
Well the C.A.S.H. is a four-step program Dave discusses in his book:
- Clarity - identify your top priority using a checklist
- Accountability - review progress on a regular basis
- Strategy - adjust your strategy until your done!
- Honor - honor the process, by starting over
That’s in a nutshell where the cash is, and how you can find your 6 hours. If you want to know more about it, download the book.
My top priority? Plan my days!
Well, it’s been staring me in the face for a while now. When I used the simple checklists of Dave, they pointed out to me that I’m doing pretty good at my time results management already. My single top priority is to plan my days though. Planning my days is something that I have not been doing, but with a tendency to overcommit and a tendency to underestimate the time needed to complete a task, it’s quite essential.
So I created my own daily sheet to plan my day. Basically it’s a sheet of paper with a timetable divided into 30 minutes segments, with a column for my planning, a column for my actuals and a column for remarks. I’ll put it up for download soon. Update: download the daily planning sheet (pdf) here.
I’ve only been working with it for a day and a half now, so it’s hard to say that I have achieved results with it. I have noticed some thing already:
- It has made me more aware of how I spend my time and on what.
- It works as a focus tool, reminding me when I’m not working on the stuff I planned.
- It’s going to be a great reference to learn about how much time certain activities actually require.
And Dave’s convinced that most people who feel that they overcommit, are actually underplanning. So if I get this down, maybe I don’t feel overcommitted anymore.
I’ll keep you posted!
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You can be an Original too!
Dave Navarro
Thu 2008.02.21
Thanks for the kind words. Your daily sheet will be one of your biggest assets to keep you on track.
I appreciate the linky goodness!
Joseph Bernard
Thu 2008.02.21
Excellent resources on this blog. I will go explore some of the catchy titles soon. Looks like you have some good things going. Nice job.
Joseph
http://www.ExploreLifeBLog.com
http://www.Peace-Together.com
Monika Mundell
Fri 2008.02.22
Hey Lode,
Thanks for the link and gee I’m thirsty - a bit early for a beer I guess.
Like you I’m also struggling with these issues and I actually booked Dave’s special consultation (I read the book too and liked what I saw but need a kick up the bum). So for $50 for two kicks one cannot grumble.
Working with daily sheets has always been the very thing I struggle with most. It works for a day or two or even a week and then zoom - gone. Now sure what you call that but it’s driving me nuts.
James Chartrand - Men with Pens
Fri 2008.02.22
Looks like I’m late to the party… Dave’s programs kick ass. I guarantee you’ll get something good out of those.
Thanks for the linkage!
Christine O'Kelly
Fri 2008.02.22
Monika - you’re going to enjoy that consultation with Dave. But then the harder part is to actually DO the perfectly great advice he give you!!
Lode (I’m jumping on the bandwagon and going with the short version
) - CLARITY is definitely something I’m being challenged on right now. I suddenly had a stream of new ideas and need to pin them down into actionable goals.
I’m with you - I really need to get back to planning my days. I used to be great at it and I had this great little whiteboard with checkboxes that kept me on track. But then I thought I could handle it without the whiteboard… I think that’s where I went wrong. In fact… I’m going to dig that out right NOW.
Lodewijkvdb
Fri 2008.02.22
@Monika - It’s great that Dave can make money by kicking people in the bum
“Hi I’m Dave, people pay me money to kick them around.”
@Christine - I agree, DOing is the hard part. But without that part it’s all a mirage. And “Lode” is perfectly fine
The daily sheets are great so far. Up until now I’ve been switching between doing the work I planned and doing work I did not plan. But it’s giving me a lot of information about my day. I’m going to include a picture with the sheets of this week in my upcoming weekly review post. Should be interesting
Dave Navarro - Freelance Smackdown!
Fri 2008.02.22
@Lode -
Looking forward to seeing daily sheets. They make all the difference.
… especially in kicking your own butt at the times you went off course!
Monika Mundell
Sat 2008.02.23
@ Lode: yes, great analogy for Dave and I look forward for it to happen as i feel that is just what i need right now
@ James: thanks for the heads up, I was never more excited more than right now in anticipation of being kicked in the butt.
@ Christine: that’s exactly what I’m afraid of most e.g. keeping the action. All though I found a similar system that works for me right now pretty well with circles/ticks,crosses and arrows and my trusted Moleskine.
My biggest issues is getting sidetracked and trying to do too many things at once and then getting nothing done!
Christine O'Kelly
Sat 2008.02.23
Wow Monika! I need to hear about this circls/tick/cross/arrow technique! This sounds way more advanced than the checkbox technique I use on my whiteboard (I did in fact get that out after writing my last comment and begin using it!)
I’ve read a post about Moleskins that talked about them as if I should already know what they are… is this only for cool people? am I missing something here?
Lodewijkvdb
Sat 2008.02.23
I read a post some time ago about circles, crosses and ticks too. Can’t remember where though.
I did implement the technique of circles instead of checkboxes (they’re now checkcircles
). That was a micro efficiency (boxes take a little longer to draw).
I check the circle when done.
I cross the circle when I’m not going to do the task anymore (happens sometimes).
I use the arrow, when the task is deferred to another time.
When I review my lists in my moleskine in the morning, I use an orange highlighter to ‘cross out’ the tasks that are done. The benefit of doing that is, that you get to check your finished tasks twice (very gratifying), you can still read what the task was and it makes the unfinished tasks stand out better. Those are the white lines between all the colored ones
Works like a charm. Too bad I can’t remember or find the site I read about this, he deserves the credit.