December 7, 2023
Ruthlessly Simple Time Management for Solo Professionals
Today, I presented my Ruthlessly Simple Time Management for Solo Professionals webinar for the first time.
It was a lot of material, and I wasn’t sure how long it would take, so I blocked out two hours.
It ended up being almost three... yikes!
The first half was my slide presentation, and the second was Q&A with the live attendees.
Here’s a summary of the key themes covered in the preso:
- Increasing productivity by simplifying and streamlining systems for time management and task management
- Using a calendar only for appointments/commitments, a to-do app only for tasks, and checklists/SOPs for recurring processes
- Keeping to-do lists short, being ruthless about pruning old tasks, and having a "maybe someday" list
- Having just one calendar, one to-do app, and one inbox for email to avoid things falling through the cracks
- Writing checklists and SOPs just for yourself first without trying to make them generic for delegation
And here are the 20+ questions I answered:
- “I’m sure people ask about what hardware / software you are using and where they can get it?”
- “Would love to know how you break up your days/weeks. I know some people only do ABC on these days vs XYZ on those days. Or they only take calls on this day/these days. Or they block off a certain day each week for certain tasks etc.”
- “How do you factor in family time, exercise, sleep? back when you started vs now.”
- “What time management/prioritization advice would you give to someone who’s starting and can dedicate max 50% of their time to their freelancer company?”
- “As a solopreneur, I have many different things to do, and while I now more or less understand how to do each one, I struggle to put structure my week so that I know more or less when I do what. I don’t know, like invoices on friday afternoon, content creation early morning, etc I have never been good at that”
- “You mentioned David Allen’s GTD on your last TBOA podcast. I would like to hear how you incorporate (parts of) this method into your workflow”
- “When you were starting as a Coach, how did this system loooked backed then? Any lessons to share?”
- “Did you have a coach during this process, or did you evolve organically?”
- “How do you stay on top of current events, market intelligence, etc.? So many newsletters, so little time!”
- “Re: pseudocode workflow, how do you handle daily must-do’s, e.g. the daily email? Just toss recurring into TODO, something else?”
- “How do you manage client work if you’re only checking email once a day. I have clients who email me at all sorts of times.”
- “How do you handle interruptions? The pseudo code is cool, but I don’t feel like life works with a loop like that. haha.”
- “For email, do you have any rules? It looks like your inbox is a dumping ground of everything”
- “Could you share some changes that your client did that increase the margin to 66%?”
- “Since you say don’t put tasks on your calendar, do you also suggest not trying to time block?”
- “How do you motivate yourself to do the tasks that you know will drain you?”
- “How do you make sure you are getting enough mind rest? Do you ever have days set aside where you are not running through this process? Or how do you set up your process so you don’t feel like you’re in an endlessly grinding machine? (Someone else asked about family time/sleep, but seems like mind rest is another issue)”
- “What if you have a client who insists on having a shared to-do list in Monday.com? Should I copy those to-dos onto my own list?”
- “Does your to-do tool also have a ‘weekly calendar’ view? And do you ever use that? It can give me peace of mind to know what tasks I have scheduled for a later timepoint in the week (because then today I don’t need to worry about it), and only seeing a brief list of tasks of today would therefore give me stress I feel? (but I love the idea of using a calendar for appointments only, so I am tempted to start a separate to-do list :) )”
- “Do you have set "hours" you’ve given yourself to sit in your office each day?”
- “Where will you add the deep work for clients, which takes 3-4 hours of creative work? Like Writing Proposal Or Code Feature”
- “Any hack to keep a TODO under 5-10 mins? I complete task under that time and increase my margin would be a game changer”
- “You alluded to your streaks being visible. Does your to-do list somehow show if you’ve broken your a streak?”
- “Do you use tags or contexts (like David Allen recommends) in your to-do app?”
Replay available for a limited time
The webinar was NOT open to the public.
If you want to watch the replay, you must be a member of my Ditcherville coaching community.
The recording will be available for download until Sunday, December 10th, at 11:59pm.
After that, it’s gone for good.
See you in Ditcherville?
If you feel like you’re working so hard that you can’t get ahead and desperately want to get back to running your business instead of it running you, I hope to see you in Ditcherville by Sunday, December 10th at 11:59pm.
Click below to become a member of Ditcherville and get access to this private presentation:
Monthly, annual, and lifetime memberships are available.
Yours,
—J