Focus Your Hustle Series Part 2 of 4 ( Part 1 here) 

 

You can eat an elephant. Just not all in one bite- Oprah

Absolutely every single solitary amazing thing that has been built or accomplished, at one time, looked impossible, unfathomable and riddled with obstacles. But someone, somewhere decided to take a chance, plan, focus and break down that impossible goal to not only make it possible, but a quite real reality.

We see these humongous projects executed well again and again and we wonder just how it all gets done, what the planning process is like, what the costs are, who is needed etc.

What I can tell you, is that projects, whether big or small, simple require these key things:

• a well defined specific goal ( the hardest part)

• a detailed plan broken down

• a commitment to get there

• a way to analyze or measure the results

Amazingly, the hardest part about reaching a goal is narrowing it down to a specific, well defined task. This is actually what holds most people up. So first, let’s get clear on examples of things that are not goals:

• I want to lose weight

• I want to be successful

• I want to have a great career

Do you see the trend? A goal is pretty freaking tangible, and uber specific, and you can add tasks or details to complete it, for example,

• I want to lose 6 pounds this month. I currently weigh 160 lbs, burn 1000 calories a day with my normal tasks, and need to burn approximately 4000 calories a week for the next 4 weeks to lose 6 pounds this month. That is about 6 workouts where I burn at least 700 calories.

Now that, my friends, is a goal, and now you can break that goal down into mini tasks, projects and daily doables.

 

Baby Bites and Mini Sprints

So what are baby bites and mini sprints? Again, these are Kristi terms, but they are what help me and my clients to break down goals into daily doable tasks that make us feel accomplished while also getting us incrementally to our goals.

I mean, most of us have so many tasks to accomplish during the day, that it can be hard to get a lengthy stretch of time to work on projects. Letting the not having lots of time problem, keeps a many entrepreneur in the same never launch boat. 

10 minute lists: These are things that if you have small increments of time, you can get these things knocked off your list. They don’t take very long ( they are 10 minute projects) but they help to get your overall goal accomplished. Examples of some of my 10 minute goals include:

• making phone calls that are not project related but that need to be made

• sending off a few emails

• scheduling a few social media posts

• come up with the title and outline a blog post ( simple outline of 5-10 bullets of what I want to cover in this post)

• Social media posts are awesome for 10 minutes lists. I spend at least 10 minutes per day on Twitter, thanking people for following or retweeting me. But also, Twitter is where I get the BEST connections, so this is the time where I go on and comment on people’s posts, find out about upcoming events in my niche, and finding out who’s sharing my posts. I also will hop on Facebook and schedule a few posts or comment on other’s posts. I find that 10 minutes is all that I need to keep up with our social media pages that are generally scheduled.

 

30 minute lists: When you don’t have a full hour, but have short breaks where you can get a small chunk of work done.

• Writing blog posts. Yep, no matter how long they are, most of my blog posts are written within 30 minutes because I do the 10 minute task of outlining my posts. Also, some of the best writers in the world have said that, some of your best bursts of writing happens in 30 minutes or less.

• Getting one of your mini sprints done, like reading up on a particular subject or social media platform and how to incorporate it into your marketing plan

• Schedule out the month for what events you will attend, what blog posts you will write, how you will make money, etc.

• Call, return calls, return emails from organizations you are hoping to speak with or sending potential organizations your speaker’s kit and proposal

 

Project blocking: Project blocking is taking on a project for 2-3 uninterrupted hours at a time. No phone, no email, no Facebook. Just your project for a set time. You’d be truly amazed at how much you can get done with project blocking if you are commited to not allowing anything to interrupt or discract you. I’d turn off the television, go somewhere where you cannot be disturbed. Leave your phone in the car ( you won’t die) listen to music. Here are 8 songs that serve as AWESOME background noise that will help you work

• My project blocks are where I actually work on larger tasks. Even if the task could take 2 weeks ( mini sprint) , this is where I spend the time on each task broken down. Project blocks are basically, mini sprints broken down into projects that I can get done in large chunks of time that carry the overall project or goal forward. For example, let’s say I am planning an event, some of my project blocks could look like this:

  • find and contact speakers who’d be perfect for the event and locate 2 alternates ( 2 hours)

  • research new marketing techniques for the social media platforms I will use for this project ( I am constantly looking at and searching for new marketing techniques, but whenever I am planning an event, I always search again for new stuff)  ( 2-3 hours)

  • create strategic marketing plan and schedule it out on the calendar from all of the information I found in the research ( 2-3 hours)

  • Find or contact my designers and hold a meeting with them to discuss design needs for this event ( 2 hours)

Mini sprints: Mini sprints are times when you work really hard on a particular project for a given period of time. Mine averages 2 weeks where I am working really hard, for many hours on a particular project, or mini sprint, at 2-3 hour intervals, with 30 min-1 hour breaks in between for 2 weeks at a time.  Mini sprints can always be broken down into project blocks, 30 minute tasks and 10 minutes lists. Do you see how you can plan your goal to totally break it down? Now, once this mini sprint is done, you must take some time to rest, recoup, and plan your next mini sprint or project. Some of my mini sprints have included:

• creating an event

• website overhaul

• designing a new event website

• writing an ebook

• writing a book

• marketing an event

• writing a proposal

• creating a portfolio

So now, by making this lists and project blocking, no matter how much time you have in the day, you know how to break down your goals into digestible smaller bites and work towards completing your projects. No matter how busy you are for a given week, you can still get many things knocked off your 10 minute or 30 minute lists and still be moving forward on your goals. Sometimes when we ONLY look at the overall project or the mini sprint project, we get totally overwhelmed. But once you break it down into what tasks actually need to be done, it become much more manageable, you know exactly what to do with your time and this makes it easier to hire out, assign or delegate specific tasks to team members or assistants.