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.
Productivity, in my book, means moving fast while you’re working (and outputting more “stuff”, whatever that might be, that makes you more money).
Next week we’ll talk about how to kill procrastination – which is when you struggle to start working, or keep working (this is a more emotionally difficult issue to solve).
The reason I’m talking about productivity is because the results of the last 30 Second Survey I sent to my list showed that a vast number of people claimed that productivity and procrastination were their number one business problem.
If you have a very limited amount of time each day to work – and you’re finding that you’re able to start working, but that you move too slowly…
Or, if you have a lot of time and you actually work a lot, (not procrastinate) but don’t have a ton to show for it at the end of the day…
Then add this 3rd productivity trick to your arsenal and it might produce the breakthrough you’re looking for…
Productivity Trick #3: Only Use AI To Lightly “Edit”
The first 2 productivity tricks I talked about were:
- “Share what you ACTUALLY do, not what’s sexy.”
- Use a pre-established framework (not a template)
When I’m writing about problems I’ve solved, and how I ACTUALLY solve them (not just what sounds “sexy”), I move 5-10x faster. When I’m using a framework that’s already hard-wired into my brain, it goes even quicker.
Now, when I was devising this series of emails I felt a strong urge to stop my advice on productivity here with those 2 pieces of advice.
Religious implementation of these 2 tricks has made the biggest difference in my speed this past year.
But there’s one last thing on productivity that I’ll share and it’s related to AI.
I move fastest when I keep moving – barely letting my fingers stop – and then I use AI to help me “edit” at the end – but ONLY at the end, after I’ve written everything and only in a very specific way I’ll show you in just a second.
So the third productivity trick is to basically never stop writing and keep your fingers moving knowing that AI will help you at the end.
Like I said yesterday, the framework I use for content like this email is a modified version of Jason Fladlien’s Why/What/How To/What If Framework.
The “What” of that framework is describing the step-by-step process for solving a problem.
What I do is I start with the “What” part of the framework.
I write the step-by-step process first because it’s the easiest and fastest and I don’t have to think too much. Starting with the “What” lets me just keep going and going.
After I’ve completed the “What” section, I keep going and finish out the “How To” and “What If” section.
Then I head back up to finish off the Introduction – the “Why” section. I don’t know why… but I find it the most difficult to write so I leave it until the end.
One trick I use is to add “tk” next to words, sentences, or ideas I want to come back to later. I NEVER want to leave my document or to stop writing until draft 1 is done.
In the English language, no word is spelled with letters “tk” together. So when I’m done with my draft and I need to add, edit or insert something I can use the “Find” (command “F”) search function to go back through my document.
Now, here’s how I use AI.
After I’ve written the whole document, rough draft 1, I copy my content and head over to ChatGPT.com.
Then I use this simple prompt: “Can you show me where there might be spelling errors, grammatical errors, or structural errors? Just bullet point out where the mistakes might be:”
I paste my content below.
ChatGPT will spit back where there might be errors like this:
### AGAIN AND IMPORTANT:
I do NOT use AI to write anything. I only use AI to point out where I might have made fixable mistakes. Sometimes AI doesn’t like my way of styling things or structuring sentences – so I ignore it. But I’ll often miss words – and sometimes AI can help me clarify a confusing sentence.
When I use AI like this – it actually helps me go faster in the moment – I know that a super computer who, in many ways, thinks more clearly than I do will catch mistakes later on. That way I do about half as much backspace deleting and editing on the fly.
You’ll be shocked at how much faster you move when you feel confident that mistakes will quickly and easily be caught later.
And that’s it for this trick – keep your fingers moving. Start with the easy, step-by-step part of your writing, then lightly “edit” with AI after.
Now tomorrow, there’s something I’d like to show you that’s a perfect bridge between productivity issues and problems with procrastination.
I’ll show you something a therapist taught me and it’s worked wonders for me personally.
I can now figure out when it’s GO TIME – what days are days I need to take advantage of and pump out work – and what days I can safely take my foot off the gas without guilt.
Let’s talk about that tomorrow!
– Derek
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