Hello and welcome to another special episode of the conversations with coaches podcast I am your usual host, Kevin, it’s just me solo. This is that a that special series that we run called Lessons, which is essentially an excuse slash reason slash place that I can just vent in distributed all the wonderful things that all these coaches I get to talk to bring to me, very regularly inspired, which is a great place to be professionally. But I don’t want to brag on my situation too much more than that. I do, however, want to share one of the and I think I was audibly taken aback by how much I love this idea. When a coach shared with me this technique they have for their list making. So I’m a list maker from way back. That’s kind of been my thing for as long as I can remember, like, having an organized brain, I guess which, you know, it’s questionable if you ask my friends and colleagues whether it’s true these days, but that is neither here nor there. So when I make lists these days, a lot of my productivity comes from making sure that at the end of every day, like at the end of every workday, not like right until I go to bed, I like to as I’m kind of winding up my I guess you could call it the more task oriented or accomplishment oriented part of my day, especially for work personally, professionally, I will make a list or I will revise or review a list that’s already in play. That’s just basically the things that I have to do the next day, important meetings, I should prep for any content I have to write or episodes of a podcast, I have to record Hint Hint, is basically lay that out so that all the things that need to be tackled tomorrow or with with priority are towards the top of the list or are prominent on that list. And there’s still a list of things that are for you know, the rest of the week, I’ll do the same thing on like a Sunday afternoon or evening, just to kind of like, get my brain in the right place, and to get all of the things that my brain needs to accomplish in the right place.
So that when I step into my day, the next day, the next morning, don’t kind of there for me, anyway, find there are various strategies for this. And it really is, find the strategy that works best for you modify it even more to make it more special to you. Because really, we all do, we all go about our business in pretty unique ways. Even though there can be plenty of systems that we apply that maybe you all, you know, find in common. I’m sure a lot of you listening are some version of a list maker like myself, but I almost guarantee you do it in a different way than either I or anybody else listening does. So here’s the here’s the tip this coach gave me, I’m still quite taken by it. And I’m kind of figuring out how I want to implement it into my into my into my daily tasks on my weekly tasking anyway. So it’s really, really simple, super straightforward. I’m almost mad, I haven’t thought of it before, I probably have and then just neglected to implement it or just hit me in the right way, you know, the way things work sometimes. So I’m making lists, and I’m like, you know, lining up my daily tasks. So I’m, you know, setting them up for the next day. And it’d be I’m doing my weekly list where I’m just like setting up the important priorities for the week to come again, meeting content, right, podcast, to record tasks, to manage websites, to edit or in other ways, you know, whatever happens to be all sorts of stuff, I wear a lot of hats, sometimes, oftentimes, but so when I’m making that list, and when this coach I was speaking to and she’s making her list what she also adds at the top or so more prominent on that list. We’re both we both lean when we are, we’re discussing how we make our lists, we’re both you know, old fashioned pen and paper types.
But we also have our calendars and we have our notes, apps and all that stuff. So however you do it wherever you do analog, digital, wherever, I guess it’s really the only two options, I suppose anyway, wherever and however you do it in someplace prominent on the list, but the mood for that day, or like a single word that sort of encapsulates the nature of that day, the way that you intend that day to feel, or the quality that you want that day to have. And as we were talking, I was like, Oh, this is perfect. Let me give you like an example of how I would do this. Like one really easy example is I mean, I could put a podcast, they say I’ve got three coaches to interview and maybe I have some other content, content, content to record pot, pod content might be content, I’ll have to workshop that. But I’ll make me balance me in a very extroverted day, I have a lot people to talk to both to lead an interview, maybe I’m being interviewed myself, maybe I have some some team meetings, some internal meetings where there’s gonna be a lot of interaction. And so maybe I’ll have that like, you know, it’d be podcast or meeting day or let’s put zoom at the top of the list. Telling me cueing me to understand that my priority for the day is really going to be putting a lot of energy out being extroverted, engage, participating in meetings, interviewing, like being quiet when you’re interviewing, because obviously it’s really easy to especially with coaches, you’re getting into a conversation you’re going back and forth to remind myself like Okay, remember to set the coach up to speak so that the person I’m interviewing up to really nail their points and often little stuff like that, that just is in my brain, it’s ready to go.
But that prompting that mood word or, or just I say move I like mood because moods kind of simple because I mean, really, Zoom is a mood. But you know what I mean? Like, another good example would be like say I have a writing day or content day, that’s okay can be very internal work. And a lot of times it’s a focus work. Now, rather than just put like focus on the on the day, which that could also work to kind of, you know, play it as you lie. But I’m thinking about the ways in which I have to orient my brain, my creativity in order to like, write really good emails for different clients, for myself for for boxer. Because not only do you have to lock into that particular creative mindset that that produces written content that produces good written content, but you also have to do it for certain people, like I routinely have to write in different voices, different tones for different companies, sometimes more more for brands, sometimes for an individual who I know and who I write emails for who also represents their brand, there’s, there are layers to it, it’s kind of a, it’s gonna say a lot of work, it’s a lot of work, I should say, maybe more accurately, it’s definitely a particular kind of challenging work that I’ve been very fortunate to get a lot of practice on. And so I’ve gotten better at it. But I’m really finding that orienting my day around a particular kind of mood and calling that out, as I’m making my to do list for the following day. Putting it on the list, picking a word that resonates with me, it’s like this is the word of tomorrow, you know, energy, zoom, you know, voice whatever it happens to be I’m still like I said, I’m still workshop and how it works, but setting a mood, as well as setting a to do list. I’m kind of really liking it, I’m kind of calling it there’s a particular productivity methodology just called daily, weekly, daily weekly tasks.
It goes by different names elsewhere, but I’ve kind of taken to calling it from from my current version, I guess 1.0 This new type daily weekly mood like beside daily slash weekly slash mood. I’m gonna play with a little bit but anyway, I want to share that with you because I feel sad, I feel it’s very appropriate I feel like we don’t often remember to be as intentional about the states of being we want to be in for a day as we are with the tasks we have to accomplish. And I like the way that that tripped me I was like, oh, you know what, there’s there’s a there’s a place for the light I don’t shine the light often there often enough there. I’m not putting enough attention intention. In that place where the bumps I’m not setting the mood I was gonna I’m not saying Knudsen romance but I’m not setting the mood as often or as intentionally as I could be and maybe shouldn’t be so anyway, I wanted to share that with you. As you can tell, I’m kind of excited about it still in the playing around with it mode, but it already has and it’s gonna continue to positively positively affect my workflow. And just my overall health and well being I say workflow, it’s more than that. It’s my overall health and well being, which of course includes my workflow in my general mood. Anyway, I will stop saying the word mood, and I’ll talk to you again soon.
