Starting Small to Go Big

I have been one with productivity issues in the past. I have made bold promises to myself just to miss them too. In order to reach the goals I have I have made them much smaller.

Travis Sago sent me (and hundreds of others) an email a year or two back talking about a little system he uses to do some work when you really do not want to. The premise is simple. Force yourself to take one step, no matter how small, and give yourself permission to quit if you do not feel like doing more.

His example had him writing a title for an article as his small step. This usually led to him writing the intro, then then another paragraph, then another. Before he knew it, he was done.

I take my minimums up a notch, but the premise is the same. I aim to write one page of content each day, any more is bonus. On days where I need to do research, I aim to just get outlines done for a batch of articles. In both cases the snowball effect is amazing.

Here is what happens.

I sit down to outline my new pack of PLR for the week. This involves doing a bunch of research and immersing myself in the content. I find talking points and set them up in logical order to create all my content.

When I do that I usually get myself pumped to really crank out the content, to the point that I usually end up creating an article or more on research day.

The next night I sit down to write my one article I see my outline sitting there waiting on me. That first article goes down in record time. Since the "hard" work is done, I glance at the next outline and just crank that one out too.

Before I know it I have most of the pack completed.

There are some days when I simply do not feel like doing much, but thanks to the above days I do not feel bad about the small amount of progress.

Yesterday I decided to apply it to creating an ebook. This is the first one I have written, but using my minimum output system I know it will be easy.

I had to get a couple new packs listed on my site, but then after I started to do the necessary outlining of the book. I threw in a base outline with all the information that I want to include and saved it. I meant to print it off so I could build on it during breaks at work, but forgot to do it.

Today was the day to start writing. I aimed to write my one page and so far I am about done with one chapter. Once I started the process I became a freight train that was impossible to stop until my butt told me to take a break.

Give this a shot and see how it helps you out. I would encourage you to start a little bigger, but Travis's method is great too.