Today’s email is a little different. (Heck! They’re all a little “different.”)
I thought I’d report on things I noted down today while I was trying to do ONE thing…
That ONE thing was to settle on the topic for the short course I am going to work on this month. This is for my second product.
I observed a few things about about myself as I dove into the couple of places I store the ideas I’ve come up with over the past weeks and months.
I’ll just throw these, and some other related bits, into a few bullets here. To hopefully make this seem like it’s going to be orderly and make sense and be useful to many. 😏
One of those places I went looking for my past product ideas is my “Projects” folder. Which is meant to be for in-progress projects. And there were a couple of things lurking in there to check.
But because it was generally a cluttered shambles. I felt the need to stop and tidy it up. Now I’m down to 8 folders. When there were 25+ before. But… not what I started out doing.
I noticed I easily get dragged into sorting and sifting things. Because, like tidying your kitchen, it’s something that needs doing RIGHT NOW!!! Or the sky will fall!!
Yeah… it just doesn’t need doing right now! But feels like I’m working. Feels like I’ve accomplished something. Sure. But not the RIGHT thing to accomplish right now.
Not sure if you can relate to that.
Found a few things in that projects folder that I’d already completed ages ago. But lazy-ass me hadn’t tidied up after himself. So tidied those things away into the archives.
I knew I’d thrown quite a few ideas for products into my phone notes app. So that meant they were now lurking in the pile of text files in my Dropbox inbox. So had to trawl through there of course (more tidying as we go).
Eventually I looked at the actual Courses folder in my ideas folder. As, who knows, maybe I actually put something straight into the right place!!
I managed to dream up a couple of ideas as I went. So noted them down. And might actually just go with one of those.
Then… I’m not sure how I really got here, but I ended up doing a lot of work on the upcoming coaching page for my website. I kinda just found myself doing it and wondered how I started. Not too sure. (And not sure I have any good excuses for that brain fade).
Now, to be fair, it was on my todo list for today. So I wasn’t feeling to bad about this “distraction.” But not sure when my brain just gave up on what I’d asked it to do.
Many hours later, I’d not settled on the product to create. But I guess I am a little closer. With a couple of not bad ideas sitting there to choose from.
And I do feel a bit more relaxed knowing that I can find things in my Projects folder. And there’s nothing there I should have attended to weeks ago!
Oh yeah… I also typed much of this email as I went!!
So that was all a little random. But there is (I think?!?) some method to the madness.
Well… no method. But some useful things to reflect on, like…
I am easily distracted by things that need doing. But don’t need doing as much as the thing I’m supposed to be doing. Just call me “The Procrastination King.”
It’s fun writing an email like this as I go. I was making notes about what I was doing directly into BerserkerMail. Then tidied it up a bit.
But not sure how fun this might be for you reading it. (You can always let me know.)
There are big doubts that come along with putting together an email like this and sending it to my list.
After all… aren’t I meant to be some sort of role model who has it all together? Who never has days when he succumbs to doing digital housekeeping, rather than the work he sets out to do?
But I’m OK with hitting “Send” on this email because, reality is… this is reality!
Most days my first priority is writing an email. Or working on an article. Some days it’s client work.
And most (ish) of the time I get the stuff done that I need to. And then do the housework kind of things.
Plus I’m not going looking for products to develop every day.
Although I’m now looking at the calendar wondering how on earth I’ll pull it off this month. But… I will. Somehow. I hope.
It was a useful to me to make these little observations. As I’ll know what might be in store when next time I sit down and decide, “right, today I’m picking my next course to plan.”
I can be aware to look for telltale wandering of my attention. And notice when I’m getting busy on tidying this or that.
And… here’s today’s shameless transition to a short pitch…
If your attention needs to be on getting a domain name for your business, then Namecheap is a reliable and affordable option. I have most of my domains with them now.
A less random kind of email it will be tomorrow. I promise (ish). 😛
Ready to build your email list? Go here…
EmailForTheWin.com
Chris Milham