Category Archives for Productivity

How many times have you had only 5 things to do in 1 day and you accomplished 0? You start a project, get distracted, move on to something else, come back to it, move on to something else, then move on to something else. At the end of the day you haven’t completed ANYTHING! You just ‘felt’ busy and like you were working really hard but sad to say.. nothing really got done.

I ain’t gonna lie. I’ve been here about 9,952 times and I still struggle with staying focused and just finishing tasks until… I started scheduling my day! Now there are 50 different things you can do to stay focused and finish tasks but I found the one thing that has worked for me best. This isn’t something I came up with on my own. After researching the habits of successful people one thing I found in common is that most of them schedule their day. We are talking their morning routine, their workout, nap time, time for specific tasks, of course meetings, and anything that took up time in their day.

I don’t think anyone follows their schedule to a T but without setting up specific parameters on when you want to accomplish specific tasks, good luck on having long term sustainability on staying focused and being consistent. The plan is in the sand.. but you need a plan to start with. Before I start my actual work work for the day I make sure that I understand my priorities and then set a time in my calendar on when I will work on them. I have the most brain power in morning so I schedule the most challenging tasks before 1pm. After 1pm its tasks that I can just flow with. As much as possible meetings are always scheduled in the afternoon.

Before I begin working on a task on my schedule I turn off my email, IM programs, and anything that could possibly be a distraction. I do leave myself accessible via slack with my team incase something comes up but I turn off the audio notifications. I haven’t quite mastered this process yet but since I have started scheduling my day and when it comes time to doing a task and turning off all distractions, my ability to focus and complete tasks have gone up significantly. I don’t end my day anymore wondering why I haven’t accomplished anything. okay.. maybe sometimes still.

Scheduling my day only takes me about 10 minutes each morning. I am fluid with my day so as priorities change so does my schedule. With scheduling I am able to really focus on what is the most important task for me to move the needle each day vs just aimlessly working. The other benefit of scheduling my day is that I don’t have to stress out about what I need to do. I also leave time in between my schedule to relax, pad time incase tasks or calls run over. The goal is to not make scheduling increase my stress but to reduce it. If you are stressing out about your schedule you need to make changes. Either add more time to a task, more downtime between tasks, or something so the schedule works in your favor and not against you.

— Mike Lord

This story is part of a 7 series post about developing good habits that will launch you in 2018. Follow me and my company, The Why Builder, on medium.

If you missed the first article you can read it here: My 30 Day Habit Challenge

What is the oldest email in your inbox right now? If you are saying from over 6 months ago then chances are that over 99% of the emails in your inbox you probably don’t ever need again. I compare a messy inbox to having a messy room. No one ever see’s it but you know you want to clean it and it causes you stress all the time because you can never find anything when you need it! Then we get to the whole time factor. You spend extra time trying to sort through the mess, many times not even finding what you need. Seconds turn into minutes that turn into hours and possibly turn into days of wasted time each year by not being able to find that email you need.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO RESPOND TO EVERY EMAIL RIGHT AWAY

This habit is super important to me because by clearing out my inbox it reduces my stress level EVERYDAY! Not by a little but by a lot. If you tried to respond or take action on every single email right when it came in then you’d lose a lot of time in productivity by always having to do that all throughout the day. If the email is important and time sensitive for the day then I just deal with it. But if it can wait and life won’t end then I just leave it to be dealt with later. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO RESPOND TO EVERY EMAIL RIGHT AWAY. There is no law that requires this and you’ll never find anything in the employee handbook that says you have to do this. But if you spend 1 time block each day to move emails to folders, delete ones you will never need, flag the ones that require action, and then reply to the non urgent ones, this might only take you 5–15 minutes of your life depending on how much email you get per day. I like to leave emails in my inbox that I need to take action on. It might be a task or something I need to read again or maybe a link to an article that will benefit me. After I complete the action or task then I either delete it or file it. I only keep emails that I know that I might need to refer back to or something that has CYA (Cover Your Ass) value.

After this is done your endorphins kick in, you have a sense of accomplishment and you now know that whatever is left in your inbox is important and you need to take some kind of action. What I am after here is the following:

Now you are probably thinking, “I have over 1000 emails in my inbox!! It will take me hours and maybe even days to sort through all of them???” Like I said earlier, you probably don’t need 99% of them. So here is what you do. ARCHIVE ALL OF THEM (don’t delete them)! I promise you that you most likely won’t even miss them. It’s important that you archive these emails because you will be able to find them if absolutely necessary. If you delete them all most likely after 30 days they are gone forever. Every email program is different but most if not all email software these days have an archiving function. If you use Google Inbox archive is referred to as “Done”.

Now you are get to start with a fresh inbox in 2018 and then its up to you to choose a time in your day that you will always zero out your inbox. Try this for 30 days and let me know how you feel. If you are struggling with anything let me know and I’ll do my best to help you.

Mike Lord

This story is part of a 7 series post about developing good habits that will launch you in 2018. Follow me and my company, The Why Builder, on medium.

If you missed the first article you can read it here: My 30 Day Habit Challenge

I can’t even remember the last time I wrote in a journal. I’m pretty sure the times I did journal was when my life was fucked up in some way. I’m starting this journal today so I can measure my progress and have some kind of historical and statistical data of my journey. I’m barely just scratching the surface of knowing what it takes to be successful. I’m not just talking money but in life as a whole. I spent a ton of time last year researching why some people are more successful than others. As of today, It comes down to one thing and that is H-A-B-I-T-S!

If you look at the majority of successful people in the world they all have their routine and they stick by it. The only habits I’ve had over my entire life was procrastination, laziness, and drug & alcohol abuse. I’ve tried so many things in businesses, sports, relationships, careers, and never reached my potential in any of it. I was trying so hard (and sometimes not trying at all) to have this level of “success”. After 20 years of trying to “make it” I had to take a step back and start from the very basics in life and this is where my journey is today. I picked up a few books which I will share later (not today) that have jump started my path and given me the mindset needed to make huge strides. I will share with you the basic habits I will be focusing on the next 30 days. I’ve already started some of these last year, really 2–3 months ago, but I am trying to make these part of my DNA. If you have ever tried to start a habit, you know how hard it can be to actually make it a part of your daily life.

1. Spiritual
2. Fitness
3. Diet
4. Education
5. Schedule My Day
6. Zero My Day

1. Spiritual

I started reading the Bible last year. I put myself on a 60 day plan for reading the new testament. I’m using an app called YouVersion. I’m currently on day 39/60. I start my morning everyday reading a few chapters. I’ll get into why I am doing this in future posts.

And with all this said, This is my first journal entry of 2018. Just like many of my habit goals above, I will try and do this for 30 days. Sometimes it might be short and sometimes it might be long.

— Mike Lord