My time frame when I began was only 8 days because I wanted to go out of town over Easter Weekend to
Charleston, South Carolina! Which I did!
Plan the Little Things – It gives you FOCUS
I told you that I’m working on my building the next summit. It’s a HUGE
undertaking. At this moment there will be more than 20 - maybe 23 experts from all over the world (Dubai, Belgium, Romania, California, USA, Ireland etc). It’s a LOT to do. And missing any little thing can have big consequences.
If you let yourself keep staring at the SIZE of your task, you will either NEVER start or get stuck because you don’t have a clear path to the “next
thing”.
#1 Write down every task that you can think of that you’ll need to do on a separate index card.
Do not try to judge what is written down. Write the little. Write the big. Write the maybe. You will notice that as ideas come to you and you
write them down- you will then think of 3 more things you need to do to complete the first card’s task. That’s perfect! Just write those on their own 3 cards. For instance, I had a card that said “Send Thank You Note to X” but guess what? I need to buy the card and I need to find the mailing address. Those get added to cards. Those are part of planning the little things.
Once you feel “done” gather all of your cards and sort them. (Will you keep adding cards as you go for things you missed? ABSOLUTELY. Do not worry about that now. Just get into motion.)
#2 Sort the cards you have. Dump all your cards on the floor and just start grouping them together using one or all of sorting rules
you pick below.
Sorting Rules: Sort by 1) Similarity of Task 2) Order they Need to Be Done (A must be done before B etc) 3) Urgency of the Task (You promised to do X by tomorrow)
I use ALL three!
Example: I needed to locate experts for my summit BEFORE I could invite experts BEFORE I could schedule an introduction call BEFORE I could set up their interview to teach on the Summit. I put those cards on the floor in order from left to right.
When I got to the inviting by email, I gathered all of cards that required
“emailing” together so I did it in big blocks. Very mentally efficient. No task switching.
Urgency: You’ll see this when you are looking over your cards. Some are on fire now or shortly will be. I have several expert interviews I am still recording – those are now urgent. J
#3 Assign your groups or piles to a specific day.