👋 Hey there!
🚅 This is issue #36 of The Double E Bullet where I share two action-packed bullets to help you elevate your entrepreneurial journey and take you from founder to fearless leader.
BULLET ONE
​📅 Creating a Calendar that Works for You 📅
Do you control your calendar or does your calendar control you?
As solopreneurs & business owners running small teams, I’m sure you’ve felt frazzled and exhausted, seemingly without any hope of being able to catch up on your to-do lists.
I know I have.
And that’s exactly why I had to find a way to turn my calendar into my ally instead of my worst enemy.
My secret? Time blocking.
The concept is quite simple: take one work day and divide it into smaller segments to work on specific tasks from your to-do list.
Here’s how you can start incorporating time blocking into your routines:
- Check your to-do list and note any pending or incomplete tasks that you have. Also keep in mind your order of priority.
- Go to your calendar and assign a task for a specific block of time. For example, 4:00 – 4:15pm will be spent reviewing the content for the Double E Bullet.
- Make sure to prioritize tasks according to how it will help you achieve your long term goals.
Now, a big question I get asked: what about smaller but urgent tasks?
Typically, I would time block my days with tasks that require deep work. These are the kinds of things that will help transform your work day into a well-oiled schedule. Oftentimes, high value tasks also require more brain power.
Once you’ve blocked out time for deep work, sneak out a few blocks of your time for shallow work. These are the types of tasks that are urgent and needs to get done but don’t work towards your long-term goals such as answering emails, making phone calls, or doing paperwork.
Even if these don’t require as much concentration, it is still important that you focus when doing these things so you don’t go beyond the allotted time (or you ruin the rest of your schedule). Better yet, use the power of delegation and assign these tasks to other members of your team.
Of course, it won’t magically transform the way you run your business or your entire life because it does take some practice and tweaking. To do this, I had to make sure I scheduled tomorrow’s task (or the coming week’s workload) when I did my shutdown rituals, right before I closed my laptop.
You can also check out this time blocking masterclass episode from the Elevated Entrepreneur podcast.
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BULLET TWO
📜 Article: Finding Your Purpose 📜​
And speaking of time blocking and managing calendars…
I’m sure we’re all guilty of being procrastinators at some point. Even if I’ve built many businesses myself and helped other people scale theirs, there are still times when I would find myself putting off tasks to the last minute.
​In his hilarious and insightful 14-minute talk, blogger Tim Urban shares what he thinks is going on in the mind of procrastinators and why they (we?) behave the way they do.
He talks about the rational decision makers and instant gratification monkeysinside our brains and how the latter are only chased away by the panic monsters, which wake up when the deadlines and due dates draw nearer.
But beyond that, he also left a very interesting thought to ponder: there are projects in our lives that don’t necessarily come with deadlines such as starting a new career, building a business, or leading a healthy lifestyle. And with the little time we humans have, we might want to think really hard on the things that we keep putting off because we may no longer have the time to do them.
🧨 DHIREN’S UPDATES 🧨
If you’re a visual type of person, you’ll enjoy this Youtube video where I share about procrastination, my best tips for beating our procrastination bully, plus my top favorite tool for doing so.
Make sure to watch it as it can be really helpful once you start time blocking your days!
That’s all for this edition! What was your favorite bullet?