Best Of 2021: Manage Your Projects

Hello my friends. I'm Brendon Burchard, host of the Brendon show and founder of growthday.com and I'm honored to be your high performance coach today. I believe that every day we can be inspired. We can live with intention and purpose. We can bring the joy and honor the struggles of each day to push ourselves to grow, to serve, to be a role model, to lead extraordinary lives. I believe that every day is a great day to grow. That's why I started my company, growthday.com it's an online personal growth platform where you can get me and the world's best personal development teachers live coaching you every week, sharing our wisdom, keeping you motivated and accountable, encouraging you to find the aliveness and the connection and meaning of life that we're all after. If you're not a member yet, please go sign up@growthday.com and join our huge worldwide community of achievers. For less than a dollar a day, you get the world's best teachers live every week. And look, you've probably known for a long time that you needed some expert guidance, an inspired community and life changing tools. So please, your breakthrough awaits you@growthday.com now let's get to today's episode. My friends, please listen closely. Maybe you take some notes so you remember these insights of personal growth and share this episode with three of your friends because we all have to share more positive messages in the world today. So share this with three friends just like you who are committed to their personal growth. And also be sure to tag me or DM me on Instagram. Rendon Burchard, Join our million plus community there on Instagram so I can say hi. Thanks again for listening. Now let's begin.

Launching a podcast, writing your book, building your business with a specific initiative, doing a specific promotion. Everything that we do can ultimately be broken down often into projects. And when we know what those projects are, then everything can change for us. If we don't know what those projects are and we're winging it and we don't know what's happening and we're struggling every day to deal with randomness, we're in trouble. And if you want to write down something right off the bat in this training today, it's such a simple one. And that is randomness and reaction are the enemies of efficiency and free time. The more that we're random with our activities and we can't cluster them into big projects or initiatives, the more that we're just randomly doing tasks and we don't Know if any of those tasks are actually lining up to the accomplishment of an objective. The first thing, when I'm looking at all the projects that I have and when I say all the projects I might have, literally in general I might have at any given time, probably 10, 15, 20 different projects. It's a big list. And each of these projects could have tons of tasks. Right? Every project has activities, tasks, milestones, deadlines. Think of project management, each one of these. So for example, if this one was international expansion, think how many activities could go beneath that. International expansion. Hire international team lead. Great. Okay, rebrand. So make sure the name is appropriate in different locations. Great. Translate. Okay, great. Get product in the international markets. Okay, great. Get a legal team from or representing the international markets. Great. All these tasks could, like this one little thing that looks like a project. It could have all these little tasks. And same thing for you. What happens when you've got all this going on is it's easy to get overwhelmed. And what most people do, they only see these big buckets of things they can achieve. And here's where the biggest disasters I have ever seen in small businesses, in people's personal lives, in big, huge companies. The biggest disasters always happen when leaders only conceive and only conceive the big projects. And I bet you've done that before. How do you know if you've done that before? There's this thing called overwhelm. And if you ever had overwhelm, you probably saw the lines, but not the tick marks. Is it true? Is there any element in your next six months that's going to be a train wreck because you're going after all the big lines without recognizing the tick marks. A lot of people do that. And so the reason I bring this up is because there can be so many projects. Your first job, your very first job, is to get rid of as many of them as possible over the next year to three years. In terms of your focus, you can't do all of these things. And as you're keep doing all these things, your output quality goes down. Right. Obviously, we're all just a single person. Even if you have a team supporting you, you just can only take on for yourself a finite number of projects. And you have to be the guard at the gate of your attention. And you got to be a mean guard, and you got to be a weaponized guard, and you got to turn down thousands of people trying to get into the gate of your attention. Same with projects, though. I mean, you got to be very careful because in the Gate. There's only so much size of your attention. And if you keep letting these huge projects imagine a project as a tank, you keep letting these big tanks come in to your space. You can't get that many tanks in there. And the more you keep trying to get in there, the more it's war, the more it is a disaster. So I really need you to work just so hard at saying no, so hard at discerning which projects matter to you and be ruthless about is so hard. There's times in my life where I've told, you know, my clients, my teams, other people, you know, I'm going to take on this, this and this and this. But ultimately, when it came down to actually scheduling and planning, I was like, I can only do these two. And I had to cancel many other projects or delay them and that just ends up happening. I've also turned away major television shows or bigger opportunities in my career because it didn't fit or align with the other projects I was taking on. Because the thing is, most people think they have to take on more projects to succeed. And I tell them no. First, you have to define the projects that will help you succeed, Define the projects that will help you succeed. Then second, protect them at all costs. Define the projects that will help you succeed and then protect them at all costs. And then third, achieve those projects efficiently and quickly. Got it. What are the major projects that are going to help you really stand out? Succeed or bust through? Number two, what are you willing to turn away, stop doing, saying no to in order to protect that. And when I say protect a project, it also means not just saying no. It means a protected project. Mean it is on your calendar. Right. You can't protect a project unless it's scheduled. A lot of people say, right now I'm protecting my project. I'm like, show me down. If it's not on the calendar and scheduled, it's not protected. It's a daydream. There's a difference. A project lands on a calendar, you can't protect something that's not in the calendar. All right? Be very wary of not understanding that. And then the last part. Make sure that you are efficiently and swiftly moving forwards to completing that project. Right. Once I say I'm going to do a podcast and it is time to go, that thing is going to happen as a project within a 30 day period. That fast? Most projects are elongated so far. See, here's how. You know, I said I promised to teach you guys. How do you deal with the circumstance in which you have 100 different tasks that you have to do as soon as possible. And we'll talk about that later. But my first suggestion to you is you should never had that list. You got that list because you let too many tanks in. You took on too many projects and you didn't swiftly complete them. And by taking on too many projects and not swiftly moving to the words of resolution of that project, things started adding up. Now at this point you're like, gee, Brendan, this is a really motivating session. When do the balloons and bears come out? You know, you might be completely free. Like I might be too hard on you right now. But I think it is really important that people realize life is short, that your brand matters, that what you're doing in the world is important. So organize yourself. If you want to organize yourself for yourself, organize yourself for other people. I think it's really important. And I also see so many people who say, brenda, I'm going to write a book. Six years later, they don't even have a chapter done. I'm like, it doesn't take anyone six years to write a book. It takes you six years to choose to sit down and actually do the work. But most projects, people are elongating, they're not deciding, you know what, okay, here's the project. Let's SWAT team it. Let's challenge ourselves. How fast can we complete it? At what degree of high level of excellence can we complete it swiftly and quickly. Let's go. And so there's no defined challenge on a project. So the project isn't even feasible. Does it make sense? If you haven't said, I'm going to do this thing by this time and there's a challenge to it, you'll keep letting the end of that project, the boundary at the end, bleed into the future. And now what you really have is a daydream or a hope. I would say the difference between a project and a hope is a project has a boundary. A hope is just, I hope to become a best selling author. I hope I can train people one day. There's no boundary. There's no deadline, there's no firm box around this project and when it's going to be completed in a 30 day or 60 day calendar. And I share that with you because I really believe you probably think things will take longer than they really need to. And the reason you tend to believe things take longer than they really do is because you made the first mistake. And that is you took on too many of these. Does that make sense? Sometimes psychologically we think things, especially as you get older, maybe you develop a greater family or now you're in your 30s and 40s and 50s and 60s and 70s, and now the opportunity to help more people or the obligations to care for more people piles up. And as it piles up, you made the very first mistake of taking on too much. And by taking on too much, it fooled your mind into thinking things take long. Does that make sense? It's a big switch in people's minds. I have to do as a high performance coach a lot. It's, oh, you think things take so long because you are used to taking on too much. Most dreams, most major initiatives can be accomplished in one to three years, tops. And if you think I'm crazy, please go work one day of your life for a Fortune 500 company and realize that major CEOs are walking in saying, we are going to transform our whole company, all of our teams, all of our products, and we're going to do it in three years with these three initiatives. And it was like, whoa, how does that happen? And you're obviously, if you're a small business person or you work from home, it's easy to say, well, yeah, but they've got teams and budgets, Brandon. I'm like, it's not the teams and budgets that help them move forward. It's the defining of the right projects. Then it is protecting those projects and then it is moving swiftly to the speedy resolution accomplishment of those projects. It doesn't matter. It's not about the size of the team because you and I both know major organizations with tons of team who take years to move. They're like just, I mean, molasses. So it's not about time and budget because a lot of major companies are buried. Kodak had tons of team and they also had tons of budget, and they also couldn't turn fast enough. They took on, they took on too many projects that weren't the relevant projects in the marketplace. Not only did they have too many projects, they had too many irrelevant projects, and now you're toast. There's nothing worse than too many of something and too many of the wrong things as well. And I know, you know what I'm saying. So before I even define this framework for you and we jump in, I'm hoping this is changing some mindset gears. Most people are thinking wrong about their projects because either A, they don't have any, or B, that they're going to think them too long. And I want to push you, I want to challenge you and go, what if the big dream that you have could be accomplished faster. And once we move things from hopes to projects and we get clear on keeping everything else out that doesn't lead towards the achievement of that specific project, I'm telling you, life can change. Hey, it's Brendan and I want to.

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This is how I choose projects that matter. Number one, I look at this thing that no one likes to talk about, feasibility. Okay? And I got a simple rule here that you might write down. And this simple rule says to me 1218. What does that mean? That means when I'm looking at a list of projects, I first identify the ones that I can feasibly based on what's already on my plate. The projects I'm already implementing, going to complete, trying to finish. Can I finish the projects that I'm trying to prioritize? Which ones can I Finish. Finish. What's the word? Finish in the next 12 to 18 months. That's the first thing I look at. I mean, assuming these are projects that matter, which I'm assuming you wouldn't have written them down if it didn't. Now I start kind of prioritizing them. I go, okay, which ones can I finish in the next 12 to 18 months? And I tend to lean towards those. Why? One, psychological health, right? If you're just doing something for years and years and years and you have no completion towards it, at some point you're like, you don't get that celebration, that contribution, that completion. I think it's important to complete projects two. You know what? None of us knows what's gonna happen in two to three years from now. And isn't it true? I mean, could you imagine, like, look at where our society is right now. Did you see this coming three years ago? Most people did not. Okay? But look at where we are. We're all like, what the heck is going on? We've had this sea change, it feels like in the entire culture in the last three years. So if you couldn't see that coming, a global cultural change in three years, how are you going to see what's going to happen for you if you couldn't pick it up from the culture? Right. Does it make sense? Humans, we suck at seeing the future in general, that we love to envision it. That's why I want to tighten it down. I want to take you out of your 10 and 5 and 3 year thinking now and bring it back to what's the feasibility? Because, look, we gotta be realistic. I talk with moms all the time who they feel guilt and upset. They're like, you know, I just had a baby six months ago, but I'm trying to do these seven different projects now, and I feel like I'm not getting ahead. I'm like, you just had a baby. Can we talk about that? No guilt here. Look, I know you have seven projects, but let's take these seven projects and go, which one can you really do in the next 12 to 18 months? Because you know what? If you take those seven and you boil it down to two, won't you wake up every day feeling better about yourself? Right? Feeling horrible about ourselves day in and day out about projects that we're not working on. That's not the game. That's not what's going to bring enjoyment or flow in your life. I tell a lot of people the reason you're blocked from more flow in your life is because you have too much overwhelm, you have too much guilt about undone things. How are you going to flow in the moment if you have all this guilt about undone things? So stop thinking you have to do everything and minimize the projects and flow into one or two projects. You'll be way happier. So it's a feasibility standard for me. And I know this isn't popular with a lot of people. They're like, but Brendan, I want to dream 10 years out. I'm like, oh, no, do that. I'm just saying, what should you actually do in the next two years? And I'm not saying don't do projects that aren't going to achieve or help you move towards that 10 year dream. I'm saying pick the first things first. If you haven't ever read Stephen Covey's work and writing on first things first, go ahead and read that. It's kind of the same theme I'm trying to accomplish here with you. Feasibility test. Can I do it in the next 12 to 18 months? If not, it doesn't mean I'll never do it. Calm down. It means I'm going to take that little project, I'm going to pick it up, I'm going to move it out to a New Year's conversation in two years. That's all. I'm going to literally open up my calendar two years out, January 1st, and move this little project and put it in there for a reevaluation at that time. And guess what? The guilt goes away as soon as I hit save on that calendar day. There's no guilt because I have chosen psychologically, consciously to pick that thing up and move it and drop it over there. And I know that sounds so simple, but I promise you're probably one of the people, because high performers are bad at this. They carry so much guilt about undone things. I say, but these things, they're not feasible right now. So just take all these non feasible things and move them to their appropriate time. And once they've moved and you've locked them, there you go, oh, I'm going to get to that. Then your brain goes, thank you. You gave that a place. This is when I talk about how to achieve a project three times, how to achieve projects three times faster. The number one move there is do a feasibility test on what you have today and grab those projects you feel guilt about being undone with or that are on your plate vying for attention right now and grab it, move it, give it a place in the future. And now you can give the time to the things that's right here. That is the near term thing that you can swap team and achieve quickly within 12 or 18 months. When I sit down with people, almost every major project I've ever talked with somebody could be done in three months. It's super rare that someone's working a project that's going to take multiple years. And the only reason it keeps getting multiple years is they keep putting so many other projects on their plate. Isn't it true? But if you only had three major projects you're working on, like a Fortune 500 CEO will do with three major initiatives, life gets very whoom. Achieve those three, pick new three. Woomp. Achieve those three. Pick new three. Woomp. Achieve THOSE three, pick new three. That's how I want you to move through. Stop trying to do 12. What I want you to do is take three, accomplish them, then the next set of three, then the next set of three,. Then the next set of three. And I know three doesn't sound like a lot, but all of a sudden if you achieve three projects, your brain's like, I'm good at this. A confidence comes in and of course all the joys of the results of those projects come in and you're moving ahead, baby. Number two, I ask, will I give it visibility? And this is important. You can achieve that which you don't see. And so here's my test and my suggestion to you. If I came into your house, I said, okay, SWAT team time, let's bust out all those projects. Can I see them? Like if I showed up at your house right now, is there a wall? Not a vision board? Because vision boards often are really bad if they don't have times on them. Okay, I always say a vision board should always have a schedule on it. Otherwise it's hopes versus projects. Make sense? So now let's back it away and say, okay, if I show up at your house or your workplace, show me where are the projects at. In companies or teams, they'll drop those projects into Asana or Trello. These are project management tools that you often see teams have. Trello, Asana are probably the two big most popular one. Basecamp is another one. And why are those popular? Because it visualizes the projects. Now people can move them around like tiles in time and space. It's important for you to have that. But here's the test I want you to have. And this is huge. I need you to have daily visibility of your projects. The number one thing I said you could do to achieve your projects, three times faster is pick three, make it the near term ones, 12 to 18 months. Everything else, grab it. Give it a place in the future after those things. Okay, that's number one. It's a strategic ordering of the feasible projects in the near term. Number two, this was the one I told you. It changed my life forever. Ever, ever. I begin every day when I begin the work part of the day looking at my projects, writing down my. I literally write down my project. So if you guys have seen the one page productivity guide, if you don't know what that is, just google it. One page productivity guide. You'll see my YouTube video on it. I begin every workday in my mind with a fresh piece of paper saying, what are the three major projects I'm working on right now? And I really think about that every day. And then I say, what's the five next major steps to achieve them? That is how I began my workday. I've never in a decade began my workday looking at my email ever. That's like the worst thing ever. And we proved that. You know, however many years ago with High Performance Academy, we did that simple test. It was so simple. If we stopped people checking their email in the first 60 minutes of the day and instead gave them a morning routine and had them think through their projects, the people they need to reach out to, and the priorities of the day, that's what they did before email. They achieved 30% more in their chosen field of productivity that week. Meaning you're 30% more productive if you don't begin your day in your inbox because then you're not beginning in reaction. And I know you've heard me say it a million times, but it's so important. The inbox is nothing but an organizing system of other people's agendas. I don't want you to do other people's agendas at the beginning of the day. I want you to do yours. So the number one transformation in my life is I have daily visibility to my projects. I literally start the day looking at the projects. Not emails, not tasks, not even priorities. Big picture, what are the three major things I'm working towards and the five things would have to accomplish now? It doesn't mean I'm going to accomplish each of those five that day. I'm just going to know what they are. Step one, then I look at the people in my life. Who do I need to reach out to and who should I am I waiting on for a decision that I need to reach out to? And then number three, I Take all that intel. Okay. I've thought through the major projects and the steps. I've thought through the people I'm waiting on or need to reach out to. And now what's my priorities for this day? And I write those out. Now, those may or may not align with the calendar, but I do that from my mind without looking at my calendar every day. In other words, I'm kind of both recalling and brainstorming every day. Projects, people, priorities. I do that first. Once I lock that in my head and I think I know what it is, then I open my calendar and I might see, oh, but from 9 to 11, I'm doing this interview. From 1 to 4, I'm doing these live casts. From this time to that time, I'm doing my email. And. And then I try to take those priorities and move them into any free boxes or into the already scheduled tasks. But it's by having visibility every day on the projects that I don't lose sight of them. And, oh, my God, the number of small business owners and entrepreneurs I've worked with who literally, every day, they just sit down and they have a similar process. But what they do is they write out to do lists for the day. But the two to do lists of the day are just what comes to mind. And they're not organizing into projects yet. And so they get a lot of to do lists off and they run a lot of errands, but they don't feel any progress because they're not completing projects. Does that make sense? So I don't know what it is for you, but you need a visual tool every day to see your projects. If you use a tool like Asana or Trello or Basecamp. Cool. I use a blank piece of paper every day. You might use a flip chart or a. Assuming everyone has flip charts in their houses, of course. You might use your whiteboard. You might use a pinup board. You might use, seriously, one of those, you know, erasable pens on your frigerator. I don't care. But you need to write your projects down every day and think about them every day. It's daily. This is my challenge to you. Daily visibility to your project. It will change your life forever. It will help you prioritize. It will help you think through. It will help you reorganize. It's everything to me. Daily visibility. Without that, I would be a terrible mess. So please also notice where the daily visibility happens. I don't want you to look at it at noon. I want first work effort. This means if you did your morning run or your morning movements or your workout or you did your morning reading or meditation or whatever you did when it's time to work and to move ahead that day, even if you stay at home, even if you don't have a job, a career or brand and you're a stay at home parent or single, and you're. Even if you don't have your thing yet, start developing the conceptualizations of projects, big picture thing that you want to achieve, breaking it down, tasks, goals, timelines, and start moving towards that thing. Even if it's just planning a vacation for yourself, make that a project and make it real. Just get at it. Okay, but I want it daily. You got to see your projects daily. Otherwise, guess what? If you don't, in your focal area, I want you to use metaphor. If you, in your focal area, you don't put this, you know, this circle of projects there on your dashboard of attention, guess what happens? Well, then everything else just comes in and you fill it with that and now you're reactive. I need you to have a fixed point each day and that fixed point is what are the projects you're working towards that will help you achieve your mission, your goal, your purpose or your dreams? What are those projects? It's very important, is operationally necessary for you to move forward faster.

Okay, my friend, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Brendon Show. Tell some people about this episode. It's on each of us to spread positivity and empowerment and during these times of chaos and negativity, right? So I'm asking you to be the dealer of hope and personal growth and education in your tribe. So take a screenshot right now and share the screenshot and this link to this episode with three of your friends today. Post it on social media, use the hashtag growthday. That's Growthday, because that's the name of my company and we're always giving away prizes to our community. If you'd like to help me personally, then please rate and review the podcasts on Apple Podcasts. Give us some stars, cheer us on, leave a review. Because believe it or not, that stuff.

Actually really does help.

And I read all of them. So my last thought for today, please remember you are stronger than you think and the future holds good things for you. Tomorrow can be an inspired day. Every new morning is a second chance and every day is a great day to grow. We're thankful to have you here in the Growth Day community, so be sure to go deeper with us@growthday.com.

Sam.