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Work Less, Earn More is the podcast that explores how to get the most out of every hour you work. Gillian Perkins brings more than a decade of experience as an entrepreneur and educator to help you design a business that's not only flexible and fulfilling, but highly profitable. She shares strategies that are working in her own business to save time and maximize profits. She also features interviews with successful business owners on how they’re achieving big things in their businesses with crazy-little time investment. Share Work Less, Earn More with an overworked entrepreneur you know who could use a change of pace!
[0:00] If you are facing my long to-do list and you don't know where to start and everything
[0:04] feels super important, maybe also urgent, then let's talk about that. Because there is a simple system that you can use to sort through this to-do list and figure out which things are really the most important and urgent so that you can decide where to start and what is the most important thing that you work on now to avoid major bad consequences, but also make sure that you are working on your goals. So let's get into this.
[0:31] [intro bumper]
We became entrepreneurs because more than anything, we want freedom. We want to be in control of our own schedule, income, and life. But unfortunately, that isn't always the reality of being a business owner. I'm Gillian Perkins, and I'm on a mission to take back entrepreneurship for what it's supposed to be.
In every episode, I'll share with you how to get the most out of every hour you work so that you can work less and earn more. Let's get to it.
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[1:06] I have worked up this little spreadsheet here, and I have populated it with a bunch of random to-dos. So what I did is I came over here to ChatGPT and I asked it to generate a mixed up random list of 20 tasks that a content creator might have on their plate. If they have a podcast, a YouTube channel, they do Instagram and they're working on launching a course. Now this may or may not be your actual situation, probably not, like what are the chances, right? But it'll be easier to explain how to work this system if we've got mixed up to-do lists with some mixed up priorities to work with. So here's our to-do list. And the very first thing we need to do is just organize them by project. We need to see what we are working with. So I'm just going to jump in here, start moving some things around and figuring out what these different projects even are that this person is working on. First off, we've got these podcast show notes. So I'm going to move this down and we're going to add a project that is a podcast. Next up, there's a task here relating to launching the course. So let's add that. And then there are also obviously some YouTube tasks here. So let's create a category for that. And then there are also some Instagram tasks as well. So Instagram...
[2:19] Now, of course, you can totally do the whole process in something like Asana or ClickUp or whatever project management software you like to use. I wanted to just use a spreadsheet for this example here in the video so that you can see how you can do this even with a free tool. But it would certainly be easier to move the tasks around and organize them by project if you were using an actual project management system.
[2:42] Okay, so it's taken me just a couple minutes to organize all the tasks by project. It's already feeling a lot more manageable a lot less chaotic the next thing we want to do though is sequence them and what I mean by that is we want to put them in the order that they would need to be done like what is the first thing that we need to do for the podcast next thing for the podcast next thing for the podcast and so on and then for the course launch like what is the first thing that we need to do what's the next thing and so on and so here we're just thinking about like what tasks are dependent on what other tasks we're not talking about importance here but just Are there certain things that have to be done before other things?
[3:18] So when it comes to the podcast, all of these tasks are not necessarily dependent on each other, but it does seem to me like it makes sense to finish up working on last week's episode first. And then if we are going to be updating the branding, we might need to add a task in here that is like to create the updated intro and outro for the podcast. So I'm just going to go in here and do that. And then once it is created or recorded, then we could edit it. And then of course, we could record new episodes. Maybe that's already done though, since it's not on this list, but we will be able to use that updated podcast intro and outro, and then they'll be ready to go. So then we can schedule the episodes. And that seems like it makes sense to do before we are coordinating with guests for future episodes, since we need to make sure, of course, that those episodes are getting out to the listeners. Okay, let's come down here to the course launch items now.
[4:11] Now, again, these tasks aren't necessarily dependent on one another very much, but I do see that creating the workbook PDF for the course would definitely need to come after outlining the module three lessons. So let's go ahead and move those two items around. And then it would be helpful to have the testimonials ready to go before we are creating the sales page. So let's move those two items as well. And then chances are that we are creating the sales page before we are writing the launch emails or testing the checkout process. So coming down here now to the YouTube videos, we've got batch recording the YouTube B-roll. We have researching keywords and titles for future YouTube videos. Okay, so we would want to swap these two, right? Because we need to do the researching before we record B-roll for anything.
[5:00] Once we have recorded, we will need to organize those video and audio files into folders. So we'll move that up here after that item. And we'll definitely be doing all of those video creation things before we are uploading captions or timestamps for the video, right? Now, I do see we have this item down here that is draft content calendar for the next 30 days. So this could either be like the very last task, you know, maybe this is all for stuff we've already planned. and now we need to plan the next content we're going to create or that could be the very first thing, right? If we don't already have a plan. I'm gonna put it at the end for now. And then finally, Instagram tasks. So we've got responding to Instagram DMs, designing Instagram carousel graphics for a reel, filming Instagram stories, promoting the waitlist. So that relates to the course. And then brainstorming hooks for upcoming Instagram reels.
[5:54] Now, we haven't gotten to talking about urgency yet, but it does make sense already that we probably want to respond to the DMs first. So I'm going to leave that one there. And then we're going to move this filming Instagram stories promoting the waitlist up here for the course. And I'm going to just put it at the end of this course process here. And then we can go ahead and keep these things in this order because we want to deal with these urgent DMs first, and then design the graphics for the reel we already planned before we are planning more content. So we'll just move that there. Okay, so now we've organized all these tasks, obviously, because they are random tasks generated by ChatGPT. They're not as like dependent or sequential as your reel to do list might be. And also your reel to do list, you might have already kind of done this step, because you're not going to be writing down your tasks in random orders normally. So this is probably mostly done, but it still is always good to go in there and think about what is dependent on what, because that immediately is going to help you figure out what you should do first.
[7:03] Now, next up, we're going to start ranking some things. So specifically, I want you to start with your goals or your projects that you're working on. How urgent are each of them and how important are they? So don't worry about the individual tasks right now, just these projects. And by the way, I left these projects having these checkboxes because they might be things you will actually finish and check off. Now, some of them are more like long term processes, at least in this case, podcasts, like that's not something we're going to finish. But launching your course certainly is. And your project here, it might not be just YouTube videos, but it might be like publish this YouTube video on such and such a topic or publish YouTube video, this specific title. And those are things that you will check off. Okay, so coming in here, how urgent are each of these things? How important are they? So podcast is a little bit urgent because maybe you have a weekly publishing schedule. So on a scale of, say, one to 10, we could probably give the podcast a six or a seven because it's moderately urgent. And how important is it? Well, it depends on what it's doing for your business, right? If this is a main way that you generate leads, this could be very important. If it's just something new that you're trying out or your podcast is a really small part of your business, you know, not very important. So for the sake of this example, I'm also going to give the podcast a six here.
[8:22] Now, the course launch, this one is going to be pretty urgent because we have an impending like course launch date that we have already promised. So we're going to say a nine. And it's also pretty important because we are expecting a lot of revenue to come in from this course launch. So I'm going to give it an eight here. Now, YouTube videos, how urgent is this? Well, maybe it's a little bit more flexible, your schedule for posting on YouTube. So we're going to say only like a five with urgency. But it is very important because that's where a lot of your leads come from. So we will give it an eight for importance. And then we've got Instagram. So Instagram, obviously, like pretty flexible on timing normally. So we're just going to give it a five for urgency. And then for importance, also, maybe it is not a major part of your business. So we'll just give it a four for importance.
[9:12] So now this immediately is going to help us see which group of tasks we need to focus on first. And as you can see here, the course launch tasks, these are going to be the most important, followed by podcasts and YouTube videos being like fairly equal in importance. In this case, it seems like YouTube videos are a little bit more important to this business. But how would you decide between those two if they were kind of equal in importance and urgency? Well, this is where the deadlines and consequences come in. So let's actually add a column here to the right. And this one is going to be for consequences. So consequences, of course, are what will happen if you don't get this task done by its deadline. So for the podcast. Now, again, keep in mind, we're talking more about like the next podcast episode. What is the deadline for the next podcast episode? Let's say that that episode is going to be coming out like a week from now and that that date is going to be March 9th, okay? And then for the course launch, we have put this deadline on it. It's going to be launching at the end of the month, so March 30th. The YouTube video, again, this is for the next YouTube video. Maybe it's coming up a little bit sooner and we were planning to publish it on March 7th. And then Instagram, obviously there's not really a deadline here. We might have a deadline for a specific piece of content, but it's more just kind of that hamster wheel, right? So we're not even going to put a deadline there.
[10:37] Consequences. What bad thing will happen if we do not publish the podcast by three, nine, or it's significantly late? Well, maybe we will lose leads. Maybe we will kind of damage the trust with our listeners or lose trust. And maybe this will cost us some course sales. Now, those are some pretty significant consequences. They're not the end of the world because we're not saying that we won't have any leads or that we'll lose all the trust with the listeners or that we won't have any course sales. But it is going to be impacting our revenue for this business. Now, coming down to the course launch, what will happen if we don't launch the course on this date? Well, we definitely will lose a lot of course sales, especially if we never launch the course, then we won't have any of that revenue. But even if we launch the course a few days late, it might make some potential buyers think that they can't trust us. And so they're a lot less likely to buy the course. So we're just going to put lose a lot of course sales. And then also maybe we potentially lose future customers because they don't trust us as much.
[11:45] With the YouTube videos, it's going to be pretty much the same thing as the podcast, at least in this situation. And then with Instagram, what happens if we don't post on Instagram? Probably we're losing leads, like both present and also future, because if we don't keep posting on Instagram, then we kind of won't stay on the algorithm's good side. We won't keep growing. And so that could kind of erode the reach of our account.
[12:11] So now that we see these consequences and we see the due dates, it becomes a little bit easier to decide what to focus on. While the course launch is a little bit further in the future, it is very important and it would have a big consequence if we didn't follow through on this course that we said we were going to launch. So this is going to be fairly high priority. And then the podcast and the YouTube videos, their due dates are coming up sooner. So they're a little bit more urgent, even though they're a little bit less important. And the YouTube video, we're supposed to publish a little sooner, so we need to prioritize that. Now for step number five, we can go through and we can rate the urgency of the first task for each of these different projects that we're working on. Now, if you have sequenced them so that you have like the first task first and the others are dependent on this, you don't necessarily need to rank the urgency of all the other tasks because they will come after that first task is completed. So just at least rank the urgency of the first. You also don't really need to rank the importance of that task because we are assuming that this task is essential for this project. However, if as you are doing this, you realize that actually this thing could be delegated or this thing doesn't need to be done at all, that is definitely a good thing to be looking out for.
[13:27] So for the podcast, we've got writing the podcast show notes for last week's episode. How urgent? How important is that? Is it the task we should work on right now? Well, it's probably about like a six for urgent because that's how urgent the podcast is overall. We want to be able to publish the next episode on time. So we need to get this done. But it's not super important. In fact, we actually could skip this and nothing terrible would happen. Coming down here to the course launch, we really do need to outline this module because we need to stay on track. So it's more that it's urgent that it gets done so we can meet this course launch deadline. So I'm going to give this a nine for urgency and then also a nine for importance, because we can't launch this course without outlining module three, right?
[14:15] With the YouTube videos, researching the keywords and titles for future YouTube videos, if we are planning to publish a YouTube video soon and we haven't done this yet. Well, that is going to be very urgent. It's not as important as like launching the course itself, but it's pretty important. So we'll give it a seven. And then coming down here, responding to the DMs, that is very urgent. Like people are waiting for a response. So we'll give it a nine for urgency, but it's not super important if this isn't one of our main sources of leads. So we'd probably give it like a four or five for importance.
[14:47] And so now we know what we need to focus on right now. And I really do think that the most important part of this process is just organizing tasks by project and making sure that those tasks are in the right order. Now, if you already have a project management system you use, like Asana or ClickUp or something, then like I said, you'll probably want to do this whole process in there. But if you would like to use a spreadsheet like this, then I'm going to leave a link down in the description below where you can grab a copy of this one without all the tasks on it, of course. But I'm going to erase all those things and just keep this framework that I created with the urgent and important columns and the consequence and then like the checkboxes and everything. So you can grab that down below if that'd be helpful to you.
[15:28] [outro bumper] Thank you so much for listening to this episode of work less earn more. Here's what I want you to do next. Take a screenshot of this episode you're listening to right now and share it out on your Instagram stories. And when you do, make sure you tag me at Gillian Z Perkins so I can see you're listening. Sharing on stories is going to help more people find this podcast so they too can learn how to build their business in a way that allows them to work less and earn more. And if you really love the show, head over to Apple Podcasts right now and leave Work Less, Earn More a review to give it a boost and help even more people find it. Okay, let's wrap this up. I'm Gillian Perkins, and until next week, stay focused and take action.
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