Mike has studied productivity a ton and even made a quick ebook at https://regardingwork.com/book – (you can download free)
Here he will give some pointers and make a quick video for Shadstone Ninjas.
Tip 1 – Plan your day the night before
Think of the top 3 things you need to do the next day – and write it down (ideally on a journal – see below).
The concept is – you will sleep on it, process it while you sleep, and do it the next day.
Tip 2 – Write down on a paper journal
Christian gave Mike a great Christmas gift back in 2022 – a leather journal (which we hope to sell on Amazon soon via Excalibur Brothers)
Mike uses it each day – for his day plan and to track his work.
Don’t make it too complicated – on the left side Mike writes each 30-minute set (Pomodoro) he does, and on the left, he has the top 3 things he wants to get done that day.
Tip 3 – Try to do pomodoros (30 minute sets) : Music + timer
Mike had used brain.fm – which is 30 minute non-vocal music – but then he just downloaded them and you can get them here
(Shadstone ninjas please check Shadstone handbook for resource)
He puts a headset in his phone and then plays this music
At the same time, he uses a gym boss – with 30 minute set, 5 minute break, and repeats that for 7 cycles (7 sets) which is about the morning until lunch.
Tip 4 – Putting Writing / thinking Things in Morning Writing Calendar
Over the years – mike got stressed about email and long messages on chats to reply to. But what he did to deal with it – was he would go to google calendar and make an entry:
Next day – 7:30am, topic – reply to ____, or do _____
This way – it
A) gets it out of your mind / stress – but is not forgotten
B) lets you sleep on it, think about it over the day
C) separates your thinking time from your management time
Then the next morning, when I start my morning writing session -I go to the google calendar and see all the different items I put in my 730am writing slot to address.
I map them all out, put on a 30 minute pomodoro timer + music – and get working.
Tip 5 – Decide When is Your Creative Time, and Your Management Time
There is a creative time – when you should not get distracted by calls, meetings, and other things – but we cannot simply never do those things.
In many startups – they say 1 partner is the manager, while the other is the maker – but I try to balance both
The way I do it is break up my day into 2 (sometimes 3) parts:
Morning = creative work – writing, design, deep thinking. Notice it is hard to get morning calls with me.
Afternoon – management – email, phone calls, meetings,
Evening – more of the management.
In afternoon + evening – if I have a request / idea for creative work – I don’t do it right away- I add it to my calendar for 730am the next day.
Tip 6 – Find what works for you – but it is about 1 thing at a time
Now I know most of you are overloaded at Shadstone – as I know we have so many projects and clients.
Multitasking is not real. It is not possible. The human brain can only do 1 thing at a time.
Now, you know I do a million things in a day – but I do one thing at a time. Plan it, do it, and move on to the next.
It is a muscle, and this all takes time. And each of us has our own flow.