This week we’re going over a few productivity tricks I’ve implemented this past year that have helped me reach all-time highs in revenue.
Despite having lots of free time to work, I’ve struggled for most of my adult life to be efficient with my work hours. I still don’t produce as much as I want, fast enough – so most of what I’m showing you this week has been learned the hard way. I am not a natural when it comes to productivity and I suspect most people reading this newsletter aren’t either.
In fact, a recent survey of my audience showed that most of you view productivity or procrastination as your number one issue in business.
The tricks I’m showing you this week have worked wonders for me and just might provide the breakthrough you need to take control of your work hours and start producing more, faster.
Productivity Trick #2: A Framework Makes The Dream Work
I apologize for that phrase… but I’ll leave it in for the sake of speeding through this email.
Trick #1 that I showed you yesterday was learned from a mentor/coach: "Share what you ACTUALLY do, not what’s sexy."
When you write about things you’ve already done, you go from "creating" to "documenting". And when you’re just documenting, your writing will speed up tremendously.
This year, I’ve focused heavily on following frameworks in everything I’m doing. Frameworks take trick #1 and put it on overdrive.
A framework is a basic structure that you hang your content on.
(Note: I do NOT use templates. I think they actually make you write more slowly and should only really be used in the editing process but I’ll come back to this.)
I have different frameworks that I use for emails, sales letters and course content.
At this point, these frameworks are hard-wired into my brain, so when I sit down to write, and as long as I write about things I ACTUALLY do, I’m able to move fast.
Like right now.
I know basically exactly how this email should flow – the structure, aka framework.
I knew what my intro needed to accomplish. And then what this section on trick #2 should do. I know what I’ll say after I’m done describing this trick and how I’ll close it out.
The framework that I use for content like this comes in part from genius marketer Jason Fladlien. It’s called the Why/What/How to/What If Framework.
The basic concept is that everyone has different learning styles. Some people need to be told why they should do something (they need the benefits). Others just want the step-by-step process. Others only want to know what they might mess up and how they can fix it. And some are only motivated if they know what kind of results to expect by following the content.
If you can hit on all four learning styles, your content is much more powerful to your readers.
That’s as far as I’ll go into the framework for now, but as I said, this structure is now basically hard-wired in my brain.
It makes it so all I need before I sit down to write is 1) an idea of what problem to help solve and 2) some real-life experience solving that problem.
When I have those 2 things in place, I can pump out content that people love and helps them get results in a very short amount of time.
In other words – I move fast and I’m more productive and I make more money as a result.
My recommendation is to find a framework that resonates with you and learn it inside and out.
- If you need a framework for emails, there’s Email CopyHour.
- If you need a framework for sales letters, there’s regular CopyHour.
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If you need a framework for producing digital products there’s Email Delivered Courses.
There are other frameworks out there too that I’m sure you’ve come across.
You will be shocked how quickly you can move… how much more you’ll create… with the right frameworks, that resonate with you, in place.
Frameworks make writing fun again (if it’s lost any of its luster for you). They’re not rigid like a template and you’re no longer overwhelmed staring at a blank page not sure where to start or take things.
Now, I’ve been stressing the difference between productivity (which is about moving fast while you’re working) versus procrastination (which is struggling to start working or to keep working).
So tomorrow we’ll continue with productivity and speed… The things that make you fast, in the moment, while you’re working.
The next trick is… gasp… AI-related in a certain way. I don’t recommend that you use AI to write – I think it slows you down on top of it just plain sucking because it doesn’t have your real-world experience…
But I’ll get into how you can use it productively tomorrow.
Talk to you then!
– Derek