What You'll Discover In This Episode:
If I wanted to update my website, what task should I add to my task list? Update Website would make sense, right?
Well, yes, but you’d be doing yourself and your business a huge disservice if you had such a large project listed simply as Update Website. That name doesn’t take into consideration the steps involved or how long the task will take you.
You might assume Update Website should only take about four hours of your time and so you block out four one-hour chunks of time throughout your week. By day two, though, you realize you bit off way more than you could chew this week, decide there’s no way you’re going to get your website updated in four hours, and so you keep pushing that task to the backburner - even though your website desperately needs updating. You’ve tweaked your brand colors, the pictures of you showcase a hair color you haven’t had in years, and the copy still refers to a program you no longer offer, after all.
So what should you do instead? Use this simple strategy I swear by to turn your task list into an action list you can execute on…
Break down the giant task into smaller, more manageable components and verberize each of those tasks! In other words, get specific with the action that needs to be taken on every task by starting it off with an action verb. Here’s the brief example I created for updating my website:
REVISE - Offer Pricing
RESEARCH - Websites I Love for Inspiration
RESEARCH - Photographer
HIRE - Photographer
SELECT - Website Images
EMAIL - Website Image Selections To Designer
RESEARCH - Designer
HIRE - Designer
RESEARCH - Copywriter
HIRE - Copywriter
REVIEW & EDIT - Website Copy
Instead of just slapping the words Update Website down there, taking the time to verberize tasks makes them so much more actionable. That’s because you’re making the decision ahead of time what needs to get done so you can swiftly move from one step to the next with clarity and without resistance. There’s no interruption to your workflow figuring out what’s next.
Knowing what needs to get done will also help you manage your time better because you can much more accurately estimate how long it will take to complete tasks when they’re broken down into smaller, more manageable tasks. Also, not breaking down large tasks might make them feel too big, too time-consuming, or too energy draining, so you don’t even tackle them. Keynote sounds daunting but CREATE Keynote Talking Points sounds doable.
Transforming your task list into an action list by breaking it down and verberizing it will limit the roll over of tasks from day to day and week to week which can be frustrating and a waste of time.
In this episode of Productivity Straight Talk, I dive into this simple strategy that is guaranteed to help you reduce stress, manage your time, and get shit done, thus leaving a positive impact on your business and life!
