Ep 280 | Tools and Strategies I Use to Stay on Task

This episode combines the best of goal setting, weekly planning, and quarterly focus techniques using both digital tools like ClickUp and traditional methods such as the Full Focus Planner by Michael Hyatt. Sami provides valuable insights into creating impactful daily actions through effective task management, practical tips for maintaining focus on both short-term and long-term goals, and ensuring team alignment. Tune in for motivational advice, and learn about her favorite tools that can make your planning process smoother and more productive.

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What you'll learn:

→ How to effectively set and track goals using a combination of technology and pen-and-paper methods.
→ Weekly planning strategies that break tasks into manageable ‘buckets.'
→ Tips on staying committed to routines and planning tools for maximum productivity.
→ The importance of maintaining visibility on quarterly goals for consistent progress.
→ Practical methods to keep your team aligned and motivated.

Want to skip ahead? Here are key takeaways:

[04:25] Use a project management tool to keep track of all the things. This way you can take things out of your brain and put them down to do at a future date. It helps you with scheduling and ensuring you don't forget any important tasks.
[8:48] Utilize the Full Focus Planner to help you break big goals into quarterly, weekly, and daily priorities.  It will help you make sense of what you have coming up and how you can prioritize the never ending to-do list.
[12:35] Commit to your own system, everyone's is diferent. Building habits makes you more productive and helps you keep things moving forward.
[14:15] Find a place to keep your big picture goals visible. That way as you move through the year you don't stray too far away from what you wanted to accomplish. 

Resources

Ep 185 | Take Back Your time in 2023 with Chelsey Newmyer
Ink+Volt desktop Planner
ClickUp*

Full Transcript

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
So all month long, we've been covering goal setting and how to make the most of those goals and get the thing done. And so today I'm going to share with you some strategies that I've used, what I've used in the past, what I'm currently using to sit down at my desk and know what I'm working on, to not have to really think about what do I need to get done today? Because a lot of times we will fill that time with things that keep us busy, but are not the things that are actually helping us get to the end result. We might have tasks that feel good to check off on the to do list, but is it really doing what we need for our organization? Similarly, there's things that we know are going to do things for our organization, but maybe they're tasks that we don't really enjoy doing. So really kind of thinking through all of the things that are on your plate, the strategies and the goals that you've committed to doing, and how can we make it happen?

How can we sit down every day and know that at the end of the day we might not have completed everything, but we do know that what we did was going to be the most impactful to getting us to that next step. So that is what we are going to talk about today. I'm just going to share some strategies that I've used technology, pen and paper, usually a combination, and see what works for you. And if you have great tips, I'd love to hear them also like, what is it that you do to kind of help you stay organized and stay on track? So before we get into it, this episode is brought to you by our October freebie. If you want a short video of how I get my planning done, how do I get organized? How do I start to put together the big vision for my upcoming year? I recorded a short little video for you, so you can walk through my plan for how I go through my big rocks, how I kind of make sure to coordinate my personal and professional schedules together, and all of those good things. So you can go grab that at the first click.net/resources. We've been launching new freebies every single month this year, and so there are a lot of great tools and resources at your disposal, so definitely check that out as well. So for now, let's get into the episode.

Intro
You're listening to the digital marketing therapy podcast. I'm your host, Sami Bedell-Mulhern. Each month we dive deep into a digital marketing or fundraising strategy that you can implement in your organization. Each week, you'll hear from guest experts, nonprofits, and myself on best practices, tips and resources to help you raise more money online and reach your organizational goals.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
Getting the work done is easier said than done, and especially when you're trying to manage all of the different hats that you wear, all of the different parts of the business that you offer. That you operate in, maybe your team, your board, all the things it can be really hard to prioritize, and when you're in the weeds, it feels really, really tough. And so that is kind of where I've been. I have multiple businesses that I run some with other people. I have multiple clients that I work with. We also have different projects that we're working on, and courses and things that we want to do, all the things. So how do I know how to best prioritize all while making sure that the money's still coming in, right? Because if we don't have the cash flow, then we can't continue to operate, grow and expand. I know you know how that feels. So we can tend to go to the thing that is the biggest fire and continue to work that way, in a more reactive way. It's harder to be proactive and really think about the things that we need to do today. So there's a few tools that I use at different stages of kind of my planning process.

So the first tool is a digital tool, and I love a good project management tool. I talk about clickup all the time. I love clickup, and it just continues to get better and better. And so I would really encourage you to, especially if you work with the team, put a project management tool into works when you have your big goal, and you have kind of, this is what we have decided, is how we're going to do it. You can start to put those things in there, and then some of those things can go on autopilot, right? Things like this is when the general newsletters need to go out. This is when we have our event coming up. And what you know we want to trigger to start planning. These are the dates that I want to make sure we're updating the website right. You can start to go ahead and put all of those things in there. What I love about that is it just like takes it all out of your brain. Now you're not having to think about, you know, are you going to forget to do that? Or did you remember to do that? You don't have notepads of paper all over? Well, you might still have notepads all over your desk, but you're not trying to fumble through the pages to figure out where you put that thing you have a meeting, put the notes or the tasks or the to do's that you need in your project management tool right away. Then you don't have to think about them. You don't have to worry about it. Even better yet. Take notes from those meetings directly into your project management tool, so you can easily turn them into tasks and assign them to the people that need to do the follow up or the engagement.

So I use a project management tool all the time, every day. It's how my team knows what to work on during the day. We can move things around. We can add notes. We can have conversation. And again, what I love about it is the conversations stay within the task, right? You know how emails sometimes will look more from one topic to another, and all of a sudden you're trying to search for that information, but it's in a subject line that is completely unrelated. You would never think to look there, right? It gets confusing. So I really love a project management tool for that, and it helps you save a lot of time and energy. It's also great then for people to be able to go back and say, Okay, well, what did we do last year? What did we do here? Like you can go back and find that information. It's all cataloged automatically because you've been putting it in there. So again, click up is my favorite. You don't have to use that one. There's tons of great ones out there. Don't spend too much time trying to figure out which project management tool you want to use. Just pick one. You know, I think there is, excuse me, I'm getting that cold. I think there is a resource in our free resources section at thefirstclick.net/resources, which is your tech checklist. It is a guide to walk you through how to determine the tech to use in various situations. So if you're really wanting to make sure you can dial this in quickly, definitely check that out again at thefirstclick.net/resources, that tech checklist can really help kind of guide that process so that you don't spend too much time doing the research and you can get more time in action.

So that's kind of how I start to use a project management tool big picture. Some of them, you can even track your goals and your milestones and put all that information in there as well, but it's super helpful. You can have eyes on everything that's happening in your business and be able to adjust accordingly. So project management tool highly, highly recommend. Now I'm also a pen and paper girly. Because, like I said, I tend to hold all of the thoughts in my head. I get, you know, stressed out, and then I'm overwhelmed, and then I feel like I have all these things to do. And so what I have started doing is I have a currently I use an ink and vault their desktop planner, and it's just a one week view, but I can write down all my tasks and to do's, and so I keep it next to me on my desk. So if I'm working on a project, I can just and something pops into my head, oh, I need to do this. I need to follow up with this donor, or I need to text this client. I need to switch gears and do it, but I can just write that down on my paper tablet and remind myself that that's something that needs to get done. When I'm done with the project I'm working on, I can go back to that and prioritize some of the other things that are on my list. It helps me at the beginning of the week to really think about what do I need to get done this week? And I can kind of also start to put some of those things in buckets. So this is where you might have a little bit of duplication and overlap in that you might have some things in your project management tool. I like to use the paper to help me put those buckets to say, Okay, I need to have this blog written. I need to do this marketing strategy for a client. I need to, you know, whatever, write all my social media posts, record podcasts. I can start to put those into buckets of what day I'm gonna work on them again, pulling them out of my head in order to think about it. I know I've got time and space. You could also do this digitally in your calendar or your Google Calendar. You could do this in your project management tool. I like to do it on pen and paper. It feels good to kind of process and write it down for me, but that's definitely something I do on Mondays. In the morning, I sit down map out my week and figure out exactly what I have to get done.

But before we let me back up a little bit, because I got a little ahead of myself, I used to use the full focus planner by Michael Hyatt. Obsessed with it, highly recommend, and I might go back to using it again. I'm not quite sure yet what I'm going to do for 2025 but what I love about it is that it is each book is a quarter, so you can really kind of think about, Okay, we have our big chunks. We have our big plan for the year. Hopefully you've written down kind of what your goals are for each quarter, or what some of the timelines are, right, like when you have events, or when you have campaigns, where you know that this is a quieter quarter, where you can focus on some of the other longer term vision projects, whatever that might look like for you when you have that written down that I love, the process that the full focus planner walks you through, from mapping out your schedules to understanding your morning routine, your shutdown routine, what are the things that you need to get done in this quarter. So it walks you through that very nicely, and then it walks you through a mini version of that every single week. So you are going through gratitude. You're you're reviewing what was working and what's not working. You're reviewing kind of, what are the big things that have to get done. Who are you going to connect with? How are you taking care of yourself? There's self care stuff built. Into it too, which I love. And so it's really kind of a nice mental way to be like, Okay, this is what my quarter looks like. This is what I'm going to get done. And we're going to work through this, this book, and you can just have it all laid out nicely. I might go back to the full focus planner. I'm just not quite sure, yet it works if you work it right. This is the thing that we're spending a lot of time on right now is what are we truly committed to?

Because all of these strategies are great, but if you don't build that habit, it's not going to do anything for you, right? If you don't put in the time and effort to start to put these, these things into place, then you're just buying a planner that's sitting on your desk. So really think about what you're committing to. And if you choose to use one of these tools, use it. Make sure you're using it. So anyway, so yes, both of them, right? I like to work on my weekly my weekly schedule, so that I can kind of start to put those things in place. The other thing that I like about having it down on paper is I can go back when I'm doing my Monday planning. I can go back and look at the week before, or usually a couple weeks before, and I'll try to highlight things that I didn't get done or follow up. So a lot of times I'll write on on my desk planner. I on the back side of that page, I'll write some notes for that week, right? So everything kind of stays in the same place, and I can go back through and highlight and say, okay, these things didn't quite get done or I didn't follow up with these people. So it's easy for me to make sure that I'm pulling those tasks through that I didn't complete. So I can do that and make sure everything's good to go. It just helps me in my brain. So now I know when I'm sitting down every day what I need to work on, and I trust that it is the thing that is going to help me really move forward in the goals that I have set for my organization. Now what I also like is that it gives you the empowerment to say, hey, when somebody comes to you with this task or this project or whatever, you can say, You know what I have space in my calendar this week. I can absolutely help you with that. Or, Hey, this is what I've got going on this week. These are top priorities. These are what I really need to focus on. I can do it next week, or I can do it this time or another, right? It allows you to really have in your brain. These are the things that I know I have to get done. These are the two or three things that I have to get done. And if I don't, then I know that I'm not working us towards the goal. I'm just being reactive. I'm not being proactive. And we did a podcast episode I can't remember the number off the top of my head with Chelsea Neumeyer, so we'll link that up in the show notes at thefirstclick.net/280 but we did a podcast episode with Chelsea Neumeyer where she talks about a bunch of different strategies for organizing your to do list, because you're never going to get your to do list all done.

So we still want to set ourselves up for feeling successful and knowing that we are doing the most important work that we can Okay, so full focus planner, I use the daily or the weekly desk pad from ink and bolt. And then the other tool that I've been using this year, which I love, also from ink and bolt, is their meeting planner, not meeting planner, but they're meeting one on one note notebook, again, it's just a little notebook that I can easily take with me. It looks nice, and it has all the prompts and organization for me to put things together for notes for that meeting. So you're somebody who really wants to take notes and not type them in, which I love to do, because, again, it helps me kind of with the brainstorming and like, the creativity and just like things thinking in that's a great desk or a notepad that you can have to keep your notes, write your follow up, and then again, when you're done, come back, put put the next steps in your project management tool so you know that they don't get lost and there's better visibility within your whole team. So those are just a few of the things that I use. I definitely have. I'm not a post it person. I don't have post its all over the place. But I do also have an idea folder in my clickup. So if somebody comes to me with an idea, or if I come up with something and it's just not the right time, we can put that in an idea folder for me to go back and look at. We've talked about that a few times on the podcast. And then I'm also going to implement this year a whiteboard in my office that I can kind of put my big goals, my big picture. Here's my annual goal, here's my quarterly goals, and here's what I need to do this month, so that it can be right in front of my face and I can see it. I think that's really important, because especially as the year goes on, we have a lot of energy going into year end. We have a lot of energy coming out and starting the new year fresh. You know, by the end of q1 going into q2 sometimes we can get distracted and forget exactly what we said we were going to do. So it doesn't mean that your goals can't change or won't change throughout the year, but to remember first, this is what we said we were going to do. These are the biggest priorities. Then, when you sit down as a team or with your board or whomever, you can say, Okay, well, if we're going in this direction, do we want to do a full on shift, or are we getting too far off track, and we need to come back to what we said we were going to do. It makes it easier to have those conversations, because we forget.

We all get. Go in and hustle and bustle and we forget about the things that we said we were going to do. So we want to keep that top on our radar. Doesn't mean it can't change, but we want it to change for a reason, and not just because we kind of slowly got sidetracked and started working on something different. I hope these tools are helpful for you. Again. You could use a regular notebook and sticky notes. You could use washi tape and make everything look really pretty, if that helps you open up your notebook. Sometimes, I've done that in the past. I have also in the past, just ordered on Etsy printables, because I've, you know, had a hard time finding the exact planner that I like, so I order printables and made my own planners. I have, you know, done all sorts of things, so whatever works for you, just figure out that strategy so that you know exactly what you're doing when you sit down, make sure you have your goals in front of you, and make sure you know what your detail goal is for q1 and let's rock it. Let's make 2025, our best productive year. And then we'll see the results. Right? The more we're working the plan, the better the plan is working for us, and the better we're going to be able to increase our impact. So thank you so much for listening. You can find the show notes and all the resources that I mentioned here, and there's a lot of them in the show notes at the first click.net/ 280, happy, planning, organizing, and most importantly, executing. And again, if you have any of those strategies you want to share with me for something that's really working, well, I'd love to hear you can send us an email at hello@thefirstclick.net Thank you so much for listening. Make sure you are subscribing wherever you listen, or on YouTube if you're watching us. There, we have some things we're working on for 2025 I'm not quite sure exactly what it's going to be, but we're excited to be here with you and excited for another year of podcast. But thank you so much for listening, and we will see you in the next one. Bye.