My 3 productivity strategies as a solopreneur & parent
Teaser: A behind-the-scenes story at where this email came from
I almost scrapped this email.
Last night, my 2 yo and 7 mos old conspired against me and my plan of sleeping at night (gasp).
And I woke this morning to scrambled eggs for brains.
How could I write about being productive when my world was chaotic?
Only when I was doing a quick, unplanned workout in the garage while my two older kids shoveled snow in the driveway…
That I realized:
This is the perfect time to write about productivity.
Because if you're parenting kids, especially kids under 8 yo, no day escapes chaos, unpredictability, or overwhelm.
So today is a prime day to share battle-tested productivity strategies.
My 3 productivity strategies:
1. Make a weekly to-do list
Kate Northrup introduced me to this concept.
A few years ago, I’d do a huge daily to-do list. However, that list felt overwhelming.
And it didn't account for interruptions, a bad nap day, or space for a project taking longer.
Even worse, if I didn’t check everything off, the day felt like a failure. Which was the exact opposite of how I wanted to feel.
Now I do a weekly to-do list and get items accomplished based on that day’s theme.
The days of my week are themed to avoid context switching which, research has shown, drains mental capacity and takes you much longer to get back on task.
Joanna Wiebe of Copyhackers introduced me to this idea. Split up your work week and give each day a theme.
Here’s mine:
2 days for client work
2 days for content & marketing
1 day for freedom
1 day for sanity (aka day off)
1 day for CEO work: deep thinking a la Bill Gates
2. Determine my weekly priority
The word priority comes from the Latin word meaning singular.
It means ONE thing. Not many as we think of it today.
To figure out your weekly priority, Greg recommends asking yourself:
What's the #1 thing I need to accomplish this week to be successful?
(To dig deeper into this idea, check out Greg’s book Essentialism.)
For 2023, I've created 3 lists of my weekly priority depending on good, better, best scenarios.
I’ll consider my week a success if I accomplish what’s on the good list.
3. Be consistent
For years, I believed this idea about consistency:
Until I had kids and realized two things:
Kids thrive on consistency and routine, which creates windows of time where I can reliably work (like nap times)
A creative business thrives on consistency, so the muse knows when to show up for you.
A mountain isn’t climbed in one giant leap. It’s climbed in 1,000s of little steps all taken in the same direction.
Now my goals are built around this idea of small steps headed in the direction I want to go.
It’s more sustainable, successful, and serene.
You’re amazing,
Laura
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Featured photo source: Prateek Katyal