My Friday Findings

Happy Friday all. I have been putting this off for quite a while now. But since reading “The One Thing” (more on that in a bit) I have closed everything down and it's just you and me now - until I get this done!

Recently a number of friends and past colleagues have asked for my advice on things like raising money, tips on starting a business, books to read, health and fitness or to hear my founding story of Nutrifix.

I have to pinch myself a little when people ask for my advice as I have yet to achieve anything! But, it's not till I start talking through my experiences when I realise how much I have learnt since starting my own business in September.

The benefits of journalling is well known. So as part of my journey I am committing to writing my weekly learnings. So WELCOME to the first of my Friday Findings (I'll think of a better name dont worry).

So what can you expect in this weekly post?  To be honest - I'm not completely sure yet! But, I will commit to sharing my biggest finding and learning. Whether that’s a key takeaway from a book I'm reading, a productivity or health hack, business or management tip. It may even be a restaurant or recipe I've discovered. The one thing I can promise you is complete honesty.

For those that don’t know me, my general approach to life, work, fitness and nutrition - is very much test and learn. Everyone is different, so what works for me may not work for you. But what you will realise is that by adopting this approach to life you will move fast and you soon work out what works best for you. Some tests work well and I’m still using them today. Others are a complete flop. I'll be writing about both!

I’m constantly trying to better myself and whilst I'm by no where near 100% efficient - Im getting closer!

I hope you enjoy and please do feel like sharing or commenting if you found it useful or have any thoughts or recommendations.

So recently, an absolute game changer for me recently has been reading the book The One Thing.

Before reading this book, I used to kid myself that I was productive. Yet at the end of every day I had no idea what I had achieved. A usual day looked like

• 8am - Write a to do list
• 8.30am - Open and check emails, open all the articles I was going to read through the day
• 5pm - Wonder where the day has gone - look at my to do list and the 30 tabs I had open in Chrome

I would often be able to tick off a few minor tasks - but there were always 2 / 3 large projects looming over me. Which I would always have an excuse for! I even made up that I was relying on others to get started on it.

This has pretty much been the pattern of my day for most of my working life. Until now and having read The One Thing.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out the book is about determining what and concentrating on your One Thing. We can’t multi task - you are lying to yourself if you say you can. We can’t! And now that I have realised that and focus on one thing at a time, my productivity has gone through the roof!

So how do I use it in my day?

For The One Thing to work, you need to start setting some goals. I have a trello board with my 5 year goals (both personal and for my business), 1 year goals and 90 day goals. These goals allow me to determine what my priorities are.

(Side note: if you haven’t used Trello before - its a great way to manage your life and your team)

After my 90 day goals on Trello - I have two boards. One named “PROJECTS” - these are big tasks which should take between 3-4 hours. Any longer they are too big and will appear too daunting - break them down until they will each take 3-4 hours to complete. My second board is named “EVERYTHING ELSE” - this board is filled with small tasks. The kind of tasks I usually filled my day with - emails, book dinner etc.

Each week I review this trello board and I match them up with each of my goals.  If they are not going to help me towards one of my goals - why have them there?

Then at the start of each day I decide what my most important task for the day is. This is by far the hardest part.

You need to be completely honest with yourself - really question and challenge this task. It should come from the PROJECT board and is often the task you have been putting off. Its the task that if you complete everything else will be easier. The task that if you completed only this today your day would be considered a success!

And the final part? Doing it! Lock yourself away, close everything down - emails, whatsapp, facebook, insta, everything! Until you have completed the task. I have found that if I don’t do this first thing in the morning - I don't get it done.

Simple! Right?

Anything but! But the sooner you start practising and adopting this - the sooner your productivity will sky rocket! It does take practise and I would say I manage to achieve mine 3 days out of 5.

If you work in an office where you are constantly barraged with questions - find a way!  Work in a quiet room, put some headphones in, perhaps even learn to say no or can we talk later. My team know how I like to work and I have recommended them all to read The One Thing and to adopt the same approach. It's 3-4 hours a day of complete concentration and after that - well tackle everything else - the easy bits!

If you like to write lists - then try The Productivity Planner. It uses the same approach and a great way to plan out your projects and tasks.

Today, my most important task was to write this blog… and done!