HSH 146: Productivity Hacks to Get More Done
Zach Spuckler:
This is the Heart, Soul and Hustle podcast, episode number 146. And on this episode, we're talking about what I do to be productive. And I've had a lot of people ask me in the past exactly what I do to stay focused, get things done, and create consistent content. So if you've been wondering, this episode is for you. So stay tuned.
Zach Spuckler:
Hey, there, you're listening to the Heart, Soul and Hustle podcast. My name is Zach Spuckler. And on this show, we talk about how to go from passionate side hustler to full-time online business owner with tips, tricks, and interviews to help you take it to the next level. Let's do it.
Zach Spuckler:
All right. All right. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to another episode of the Heart, Soul and Hustle podcast. Now I'm kind of geeked up for this week's episode because a lot of times I talk about really tactical stuff in terms of marketing, and I'm still going to talk really tactical. I'm still going to give you some really good insights on what works for me, but we're going to talk a little bit more about the productivity side of my business because a lot of people ask me, "Zach, how do you get so much done," and I want to preface by saying, I didn't get as much done when I first started. And I'll talk about this in the episode. But one of the biggest things that's helped me get more done is having an incredible team. So Jessica, Ashley, Heather, Jenny, Dave, if you're listening, we appreciate you. And some of those team members are very new to us. Some of those team members have been around a long time, but regardless of whether you've been with us for a week or a month, we really appreciate having you here.
Zach Spuckler:
So what I want to talk about today is a couple of different productivity strategies that I use that let me get more done, and I'll give you some tools and resources and things that you can use that are going to help you get more done as well. So with that being said, let's dive right into it. Now I want to share that really my productivity has kind of peaked in the last two weeks or so. I would even argue maybe the last four to six weeks and I'll talk to you about some of why that is. But one of the things that I started doing that has been a huge game changer for me is adding consistent daily actions to my day.
Zach Spuckler:
Now for me, the first one is that I go on a walk to Starbucks every single day. Now I'd be lying if I said, I haven't slept in a couple of mornings and missed it first thing in the morning, but for the last 15 days, I've been walking every day to Starbucks. It's just under a mile each way, so I get about 1.6, 1.7 mile walk in every single day. And when I get to Starbucks, I don't do anything super sugary. I usually do like an oat milk latte or a black coffee with some almond milk and ice coffee with some almond milk, an ice tea with no sugar added. I try to keep it relatively healthy. I also want to reward myself for taking the time to go to Starbucks every day. My health hasn't been a top priority for me for the last few years, which is kind of scary to admit to you guys.
Zach Spuckler:
I've gained some weight. I haven't been the healthiest. And so this sounds silly, but having a consistent daily action of movement even if it's not a crazy exercise, even if it's not the insanity level hit workout that everybody's preaching, for me, it's helping me get more focused for the day or if I do it later in the day, it's helping me get recentered as the day continues. Now I've tried this in the past. To be fully honest, I've tried like, "Oh, I'm going to add one thing to my life. I'm going to add one thing." And what I really generally do is I go all in on something over the top right? I say, "I'm going to do whole 30 or 75 hard, or I'm going to go all in on this type of diet or this type of program," and generally I fall off the wagon.
Zach Spuckler:
So what I did this time is rather than try and do this massive big shift in activity. I said, "I'm just going to walk 30 minutes a day," and I got a habit tracker. And that habit tracker is just a journal. It's from Baron Fig. I'll link it up in the show notes, but this Baron Fig journal has a page where it's just literally a chart that says the month, the day, and a little line for me to put what my habit is and to check it off. And guys, there is something so, so satisfying about being able to check something off that you got it done for the day. It's like this sick twisted pleasure that I get checking something off the list. And if you're not a big fan of pen and paper, it may not work as well for you. You can check out the Streaks app.
Zach Spuckler:
It's called Streaks. It's on the app store. I've used that in the past as well, but I did that and then I added another habit. So after I was walking 30 minutes a day, I did that for a couple of days and then I added drink 64 ounces of water a day. Now, is it the gallon that's recommended by the 75 hard? Is it half of my body weight? No. But is it way more water than I was drinking in the past? Absolutely. And then another week and a half, two weeks later after I'd been walking every day for 14 days and drinking water every day for 14 days, then I added 15 minutes of personal development because frankly, I hadn't been reading as much. I hadn't been listening to audio books. I hadn't been consuming content. And to create consistent content in the world it really helps to have sources of inspiration, whether that be podcasts, audio books, blogs, right?
Zach Spuckler:
I'm not saying steal other people's ideas, but I'm saying getting fresh perspectives really helps with creating consistent content. So for me, one of the biggest things I've done that has just boosted my productivity like to crazy levels in the last couple of weeks has been having daily actions or routines that I follow and micro habits that allow me to shift in the grand scheme of things. So what I really anticipate is that in the next three to four months, I'll have stacked up all these really great habits to a point where I'm doing a lot of good things every day and it becomes a more second nature. Like even now, I'm 15 days into my daily walk and it's like, I crave that. I want that. I want to do it.
Zach Spuckler:
Last night, I ended up going for a walk around 5:00 PM at dusk because it was late and I hadn't gone on my walk yet and was I craving doing that walk at that point? No, but I knew I would be able to tick it off. I knew that it was going to serve me to just go for it. And so I did. Now, that's one thing that I've done to be really productive in the last couple of weeks. Another thing that I've done that's been a total game changer is, and you can do this whether you have a team or not. I want to preface with that. But I met with my integrator, my number two, the person on my team who kind of makes the things run for me and we planned out the next six to eight weeks in the business. And generally what I've always done in the past is I've kind of been like, "Oh, I have this idea. Let's chase it. I have this idea. Let's chase it. I have this idea. Let's chase it." And what I've started doing is my team now knows what to expect and I've given them and myself permission to say, "Hey, we don't have the capacity for that right now."
Zach Spuckler:
So a perfect example of this is we planned out January through February and on February 26th, we started talking about some of our March planning. And I said, "I really want to launch an affiliate program for the challenge launch toolkit. I really want to give people the opportunity to promote the challenge launch toolkit." That's our $37 product that we've sold almost 900 copies of in the last few months and we're trying to take it to 5,000 copies this year and I thought affiliates would be a great way to do that. And my team said, "Zach, we don't have the capacity to add affiliates to our plate right now." We talked about starting March 1st, and that's what we're going to do. So on February 26th, when I reached out to them and said, "Can I promote the affiliate stuff early?" They said, "No, you can't. It's not in the plan." And having a consistently planned process or a consistently processed plan, however you want to look at it, allows me to focus on what's important because I can't be working on a project that doesn't come out for four months. I can't be working on a project that's not ready yet. I have to be focused on executing the plan.
Zach Spuckler:
So what a lot of people do is they have big lofty goals, they have ideas, they have programs, they have things that they want to do and what they do is they basically say, "I'll do whatever it takes to achieve that goal," and they start chasing shiny objects thinking it's going to bring them closer to the goal. What we have done with our plan is essentially put blinders onto shiny objects. And when we come up with an idea, we say, "Hey, that might not fit right now. Let's put a little pin in it. Let's come back to it when we do our next round of planning and let's see if it makes sense." Another example is we don't have a freebie right now. And luckily, this is releasing March 2nd. We do have a freebie now, the Ultimate Guide to Launching Your Digital Course with Facebook ads in 2021. Ooh, that's a mouthful, but we have that freebie that I wanted to release about a month ago. And you could argue that that freebie was going to grow my list and move us closer to our list growth goals.
Zach Spuckler:
But my team said, "Zach, you got to write a welcome sequence. You got to create the guide. You've got to PDF it. You've got to link it up. You've got to set up the forms." And even if they helped me, I'm stealing that time away from what our focus was for February, which was on hiring new teams and getting someone to come support us in the business with our Facebook ads. Now that's a whole nother story. I can get into that because a lot of people were like, why would you hire someone to manage your Facebook ads when you manage Facebook ads for people? It really boils down to, "I don't have the bandwidth to manage a ton of other people's ads and then come stare at mine and try to optimize them." It's kind of like the... Oh, I'm going to forget it now. It's like the dog walker who doesn't walk his own dog or the barber who doesn't cut his own hair right? Same concept.
Zach Spuckler:
So our focus for February was getting these incredible new people on the team and starting some new strategies and testing some things out. And so if we do that, we don't have the capacity to create a whole new freebie sequence and promote our other products. Okay. So that's the second thing, really creating a plan for the next six to eight weeks and I learned the six to eight weeks from a friend of mine, Amber McCue, who has this incredible fresh start planner that I will also link up in the bio. Geez, you guys. I'm not going to edit that out. I want you to know that I make mistakes. The fresh start planner that I'm going to link up in the show notes and what that did was helped us plan out our year and break it down into either six to eight weeks or 90 day sprints. And so that was the second thing we did to really amp up our productivity this year. Even before I started going on my walks, I feel like we have been unstoppable this year and we're exceeding our revenue goals. We're exceeding our targets that we set to hit and it's been a really great journey so far.
Zach Spuckler:
Now the third thing that I do that's made me really productive is I got another journal from the Baronfig Company called the Do Work journal. Now, if you've listened to the show for a long time, you know that one of the things I preach when it comes to productivity is having your top three priorities for the day. And what I tell people is that if you want to get more done, don't just create a list of to do's for the day, create a list of to do's but at the top of the list, have the top three things that move the needle in your business as priority. And the Baronfig journal, it actually walks you through every day, your top three tasks and it actually has a little star next to them so you know they're a priority and then it's got a whole list of to do's. Now, a couple of hacks for this. First thing is make sure that your top three priorities are tasks, not projects, right?
Zach Spuckler:
So like for example, one of my tasks today was record a podcast. And that takes me about 30 to 45 minutes to record the podcast, put it in the files, get the transcription and then my team takes care of the rest right? Second thing is they need to be momentum or revenue generators, and not everything you do in your business is going to generate revenue directly. I may or may not sell some challenge launch toolkits since I referenced it in this episode, but this is a momentum generator. It creates content. It creates connection. It creates context for my audience. So this podcast generates momentum in my business, so I view it as a top priority for the day. The third thing is that it has to be tasks that are not obligations unless they're revenue generators. So your top three priorities shouldn't be like client meeting one, publish my Instagram posts because I've been doing it every day for three years, and meet with my team.
Zach Spuckler:
Like those things have to happen, right? If they're non-negotiables, they're not a top three priority. They can go on your to-do list, but not as a top three priority. Now, the other thing that I love about this Baronfig journal is that it also has a weekly overview and you set your top three priorities for the weeks, your top three goals. And for me, these can be more project based, more getting things done based. And I love this because this is in direct sync. I actually joined a program with Amber McCue who created that fresh start workbook I'm going to link up to, and we talk about how you need to have CEO time at the beginning of every week. That's what Amber calls it. And CEO time is basically 15 to 30 minutes of uninterrupted time where you're planning out your week.
Zach Spuckler:
And we just started doing this a couple of weeks ago. And by we, I mean, me and guys, it's a game changer because how often do we start Monday morning, we kind of stumble out of bed. If you're full-time especially as an entrepreneur, you stumble out of bed, you kind of maybe make coffee, you jump right into work and you just kind of start hacking away at the stuff you think has to get done. Instead of doing that, what if you took 15 minutes to figure out what are the priorities for the week? What has to get done? And even better, what if the priorities for the week are based on the plan for the six to eight weeks or 90 days? It's a total game changer you guys. And I know it sounds silly. I know it sounds simple. I know it sounds like, "Can 15 minutes really transform your business?" I sincerely believe we are going to have our best year ever because we're doing this kind of work.
Zach Spuckler:
We're stepping back. We're slowing down. We're making plans. We're making priorities and we're doing this stuff that works. Okay. Now the other thing that I've started doing, and this is as a direct result of the program that I'm in with Amber is she has what's called Monday momentum. And I promise I'm not an affiliate for Amber's program. I'm not an affiliate for the fresh start planner. I'm just recommending it because it works for us, but every Monday she has something called Momentum Monday and Momentum Monday is basically an hour of time where you're using the Pomodoro technique, which is where you work for 25 to 30 minutes, you stop for five minutes, and then you resume. Okay? Most of us don't actually have time in our day where we're purely focused for one or two hours. Just think about that. We write an email and then we jump over to Facebook and we write an email and then we check our Instagram, or we record the podcast and we jump right into our email to see what's going on for the day. Having a focused hour, even if it's just a couple times a week is huge.
Zach Spuckler:
So the thing that I love about the Monday momentum is that you actually come on Zoom, you turn your camera on and it's a lot harder to be distracted when you know other people are there with you. So if you've got friends in the online space, think about scheduling a coworking time. I used to love when we were allowed to leave the house. I used to love going to coworking spaces because changing the environment changes the way you function and the environmental change doesn't have to be a different space. It could be a different context, which could be a coworking session with various people. So I just want to encourage you to start thinking, "How can I create focused blocks of time in my business where things get done," is that you actually put on your calendar from two to 3:00 PM, that there are no calls allowed. You do not schedule calls. You do not open Facebook. You do not open email. You do not open Instagram and you just show up and do work and you hack away.
Zach Spuckler:
And here's what people say, "What do I hack away at?" Well, if you're implementing everything I'm talking about or even just some of it, I'd highly recommend you get the three priorities for the day at the top of that list. So when you're working for an hour, you're not just saying, "I'm going to do work for an hour." You're saying, "Well, I already sat down at the beginning of the day and planned out what I'm going to do, or what's a priority for the day. Now I've got a focused hour to hack away at those priorities."
Zach Spuckler:
Now, before I wrap up, I want to do a quick recap and then talk about some of the advanced stuff that I do that's a little more down the road, but something you could absolutely start playing with. So first thing we said was productivity hacks around a daily action or routine. For me, it's a 30 minute walk to Starbucks for a relatively healthy coffee and tracking that with a habit tracker. The second thing we talked about were setting your priorities for the day. Setting your priorities for the day, including top tasks, not projects, the momentum or revenue and the non obligatory things that create forward momentum in your business. Then, I talked about how you need to plan your weekly and your daily goals, tasks, and priorities. And then I told you how the focused hour of work has been a total game changer for our business even if it's just a couple of times a week, and then you move into trying to do it every single day.
Zach Spuckler:
Now, a couple of advanced things and why are these advanced? Because these are the things that my team helps make happen. Okay. When I started, I was wearing a million hats right? There were a million positions in my business, customer service, customer fulfillment, operations, finances. It all had to be handled by me. But over time, I built up a small team and we love, love, love, love working together and getting things done. So one thing that you can do if you want to get more advanced in your productivity is start outsourcing your email inbox. So what I do is my team knows what is and isn't important because we've been working together for a while and they'll just archive stuff that's not important and they'll forward stuff to the support inbox, which they manage when it requires support, when it requires additional tasks. Okay.
Zach Spuckler:
That has been an absolute game changer for us, just me not being in the inbox 24/7. And then we have a tri weekly meeting every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and my team says, "Here's what's going on in the support inbox that I don't know how to handle, what should I say?" And we'd tell people, they'll get a response in 24 to 48 hours. We're meeting every 48 hours and so generally, we meet that deadline just by having our regular meetings. And that's the second thing, team meetings. If you've got a team and I find that recalibrating three times a week has been a game changer for us. Now you could probably get away with just one or two meetings a week and I know that's what a lot of people recommend to get started. And that's great. We meet three times a week because we have an agency arm of our business and we have to check in on all of our client accounts three times a week. And I personally like to know what's happening because I do a lot of communication with clients still and I like to give my team the reporting information for the clients, and we just do a really nice check-in. So that's really important to us and that works super, super well.
Zach Spuckler:
The last thing that I'll say is just outsourcing. Start thinking about what are the things that are not momentum movers in your business that you can outsource, even if it's like just for a short period of time. My friend, Denise Duffield Thomas wrote a book Show Preneur, which I'll also link up in the show notes and she talks about this concept that if you don't like having a big team, not every hire or outsource has to be a team member. And I'll give you a really specific example.
Zach Spuckler:
We switched over to Thrivecart and Kajabi, which we love, but we were having a really hard time getting people who buy a product to show up in Kajabi. So I had my team take a look at it. We put about three or four hours into it and we couldn't get traction. We couldn't make it work. We just kept running into like error messages, non sync messages. And so I reached out into a network group that I'm in and said, "Does anybody know how to set this up?" And what we did was we hired someone for two hours to fix it. That is two hours that they knew what they were doing. It probably would have taken me more than two hours. It cost me like $125. And you might be thinking, "Oh my gosh, that's a lot of money." And I'm not saying it's not, but what I am saying is in that time that we were losing customer trust, customer value, customer connection and frankly, the time I was paying my team to send everybody their logins manually for like a week, that was well worth $125 to fix. Okay.
Zach Spuckler:
So you may not be at a level where you're ready to spend $125, but could you hire someone for an hour to just sort through your tech? Could you hire someone for two hours to proofread your blog posts so you don't have to do it for three hours because you're a slow proofreader? I just want you to get into the mindset of, "What are the little things that I can hand out?" So just to be clear, the more advanced stuff is outsourcing and building a team and if you want an episode on that, let me know. You can DM me on Instagram at Heart Soul Hustle. Let me know what you'd like to see on the show, but guys, that's what we've been doing.
Zach Spuckler:
This has been a game changer for our productivity. We're getting more done than we ever have before and I hope you liked this episode. It's a little different than what I typically do, but I felt called to do it. So I did. If you want to get a recap of this entire show, you can head over to heartsoulhustle.com/146. Again, that's heartsoulhustle.com/146. We'll have an outline of the show and we'll have an entire transcript of the show waiting for you along with the resources that I mentioned in the show. So check it out. And just as a reminder, if you haven't already, check out the challenge launch toolkit. You can head over to toolkit.heartsoulhustle.com and that's what I call the challenge launch toolkit.
Zach Spuckler:
Now, this is a complete toolkit that walks you through how to launch your digital courses with challenges. Really great little resource. It's $37. And we're going to walk you through how to run your challenge, how to run ads for your challenge, how to write emails for your challenge, how to sequence your challenge. I mean, it's really robust. I won't go too far down the rabbit hole of what all's included. You can check it out at toolkit.heartsoulhustle.com. So you guys, thank you for listening to another episode of the Heart, Soul and Hustle podcast. I hope you got mad value. If you did, don't hesitate to leave us a review and until next time, keep hustling.
