When I became a full-time entrepreneur, because I didn’t have anyone telling me what to do, there were many days I felt like I didn’t accomplish anything. While I knew that wasn’t true, it wasn’t a good feeling, especially since I am a very performance-driven person. Over time, I developed a system to not only help me stay on task, but also do a much better job of tracking my daily activities. Everyone has their own method (and sometimes expensive journals) that works for them, but maybe my system could help you too.
In Google Drive, I have a spreadsheet labeled “schedule” (clever, I know). My master sheet has columns for each day of the week Monday-Friday and then one column for the weekend. Under each column, I list the activities that need to be done on that specific day. I have a lot of activities that are a daily task. For example, a daily post on LinkedIn, my workout, Instagram growth time, etc. Then I also have weekly activities like content calendar development for clients, the 2 workouts I teach at the gym, email marketing, etc.
I used to delete my task once it was done, but then it’s easy to forget that you actually did it, right? So under each column’s tasks, I have a cell labeled “DONE” so I copy and paste the task into the DONE list once it’s finished. This simple change makes sure that I have proof of what I got done that day, always keeping me accountable and feeling accomplished.
For the weekend column, I try not to work too much on the weekend so I might add tasks like Instagram growth, making a post, cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry, etc. That list stays pretty short so I can enjoy much needed time off.
The Passion Planner
This is where my productivity gets taken to a whole new level. Now that I have my tasks prepared for the day, I use a Passion Planner to schedule out every 30 minutes of my time. There are 2 ways to do this. The first way is to write out everything you want to do BEFORE you do it, creating a schedule for yourself. The second way, which seems to work better for me, is to either pre-schedule half a day at a time or even writing out tasks as I set aside the time to do them. By writing it out as I do it, there’s a bit more flexibility like if I get an unexpected phone call that takes 15 minutes, I don’t have to alter my whole schedule to track it.
I got my Passion Planner for free here and then had it printed and bound locally so I could customize it. I had a couple other documents I wanted bound with my planner so this worked best for me. I think my final total for printing and binding was under $35.
If you have questions about my system, please let me know and I’d be happy to clarify. Happy planning!
