0:45

Capturing ideas for projects, how I break them down into categories, how I use them inside of a planner, and how I have them organized in Notion. So hopefully, walking you through this

0:47

process will give you a better idea into my own project management strategy, give you some ideas for yourself, and help get you started on creating a more organized and mindfully productive life. Let's go ahead and get into it. Welcome to the Mindful

0:49

Productivity Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Steckler, and today

0:51

we're going to be talking

0:51

all about projects.

0:54

Specifically, I'm going to be walking you

0:57

through how I organize my mind and my

0:57

brain when it comes to capturing ideas for

1:01

projects, how I break them down into

1:01

categories, how I use them inside of a

1:06

planner, and how I have

1:06

them organized in Notion.

1:09

So hopefully walking you through this

1:09

process will give you a better idea into

1:12

my own project management strategy, give

1:12

you some ideas for yourself, and help get

1:17

you started on creating a more organized

1:17

and mindfully productive life.

1:21

Let's go ahead and get into it.

1:24

Welcome to the Mindful

1:24

Productivity Podcast.

1:27

I'm your host, Sarah Steckler, and this is

1:29

the place to be to live a more

1:29

mindful and productive life.

1:32

If you're ready to turn daily chaos into calm and start your days with intention,

1:34

then get ready to join me as we dive deep

1:39

into mindful living and

1:39

personal productivity.

1:41

It's time to connect with your true self

1:41

so you can live the life you want to live.

1:46

And it all starts now.

1:57

Hello, friends. Welcome back to the podcast.

2:00

I'm so excited to be here today to talk to

2:03

you about project management, specifically

2:03

when it comes to capturing all of your

2:09

ideas, organizing them, categorizing them,

2:09

and being able to take action on them.

2:14

Because there's nothing worse than having a ton of ideas in your head and feeling

2:16

absolutely completely paralyzed and stuck.

2:21

And to be honest with you, that's exactly

2:21

where I feel in my life right now.

2:25

After our huge move, I still feel like I'm

2:25

treading water, all that stuff, trying to

2:32

figure out what I want to do with my life

2:32

now, what does it look like, what does my

2:36

business look like, and what are the

2:36

things I really want to prioritize.

2:40

When you do work from home or run your own

2:40

business, this is probably one of the

2:43

hardest things to do as a creative

2:43

entrepreneur because you have endless

2:47

ideas but you don't have endless energy

2:47

and the days can get away with you.

2:51

I have had so many days lately, honestly,

2:51

weeks and months where it feels like I

2:56

haven't really moved the needle on much of

2:56

anything in my life and business,

2:59

and it can feel like everything is

2:59

piling up and cluttering around me.

3:04

Literal stuff, literal

3:04

ideas, all that thing.

3:07

So today I thought I would actually take

3:09

some time as a helpful reminder to me

3:09

in walking you through this process.

3:14

There's something about trying to talking

3:14

about stuff, teaching other people,

3:18

reflecting on processes that

3:18

can really help us individually, too.

3:22

And that's one of the reasons why I'm

3:22

excited to get back into podcasting,

3:26

because I feel like the more I talk about

3:26

all these different mindful productivity

3:29

strategies, the more I remember them for

3:29

myself, and it becomes very, very helpful.

3:34

So today I have a plethora

3:34

of things in front of me.

3:37

I've got a notepad, I've got two of my

3:40

planners, and I've also got my Notion

3:40

daily dashboard open where I have a

3:45

project database, and I'm going to

3:45

be walking you through all of it.

3:50

My goal here is hopefully not to overwhelm

3:53

you, but to give you an idea of how I

3:53

break down my project process

3:59

and hopefully give you some ideas for

3:59

how you can begin to do this as well.

4:05

One of the things that is really, really

4:08

important to me is to make sure that I'm

4:08

capturing all of my ideas so I don't feel

4:14

that like FOMO or I don't

4:14

forget about things.

4:17

I can tell you, there have been times

4:17

where I have wrote down a crazy, amazing,

4:21

incredible idea on a notepad, totally

4:21

forgotten about it, and then literally

4:25

found it like four years later and was

4:25

super sad that that could have been

4:29

something I implemented

4:29

into my business earlier.

4:31

So part of project management is

4:31

also capturing all of your ideas.

4:36

It's something I also talk about. There's an episode, let

4:38

me check what number.

4:42

Okay, I had to pause. It is Episode 144 of the

4:43

Mindful Productivity Podcast.

4:47

It's called idea capturing. And in that episode, I go deeper into

4:51

talking about our brain's true capacity,

4:51

how to optimize your mental energy, how to

4:56

effectively capture your thoughts and

4:56

ideas, the power of servicing your ideas,

5:00

and strategies to effectively

5:00

organize and vet your ideas.

5:03

I won't spend too much time in this

5:03

episode going into all of those as they

5:07

relate to projects because you can listen

5:07

to that episode, which I will link below.

5:12

It's really, really helpful

5:12

for doing all those things, journaling,

5:16

brain dumping, organizational

5:16

note taking, you name it.

5:20

But today we will be talking

5:20

a little bit about that.

5:23

So there might be a little bit of overlap.

5:25

But to dive in, I want

5:25

to walk you through.

5:28

I actually did a little list here on a

5:28

notepad in front of me talking about

5:35

the idea of breaking down projects

5:35

into different categories.

5:40

And I also just want to say anytime you're

5:40

doing a brain dump or you're trying to get

5:45

stuff out of your head and you're feeling

5:45

very overwhelmed,

5:48

there's going to be all different kinds

5:48

of angles that you approach that process.

5:52

There's going to be higher up to working

5:52

down to the microcosm of your ideas.

6:00

So starting big and going down small, and

6:00

then there's going to be the other way.

6:04

So when you're capturing your ideas, don't get overwhelmed and, well, do I make

6:06

categories first and then put stuff into

6:10

categories, or do I make stuff and

6:10

then put them into categories?

6:13

It's going to be a little bit of both.

6:15

So as I'm sharing this,

6:15

just keep that in mind.

6:18

But I wanted to start out breaking down

6:18

some of the current overall bigger,

6:24

broader project categories that

6:24

I currently have in my brain.

6:28

So I broke them down into essentially four

6:28

different categories.

6:32

I have home, so that's my home

6:35

environment, what's going on with my

6:35

house, as you can imagine, that could be

6:39

decluttering projects,

6:39

keeping the kitchen clean, you name it.

6:43

I have the self, so that's me, my mental

6:46

health, my sleep schedule, any

6:46

workouts, meal plans, right?

6:50

All of that falls into there. And then I have family.

6:53

So this can include spouse, kids, pets, or

6:57

if you don't live with anyone else in your

6:57

household, this could be external family,

7:01

friends, coworkers,

7:01

whatever you deem, other entities or

7:05

individuals that require your

7:05

time, space, or attention.

7:09

There are things outside of you that

7:09

you're going to have to respond to.

7:15

Then I have my business. And one thing I want to say about the

7:17

business project category is that I've

7:22

broken this down into two things which

7:22

really, really impacts my energy capacity.

7:28

So I have both passive

7:28

project goals and active project goals.

7:34

So for example, passive goals in my

7:34

business will be things like learning.

7:39

These are things where there are courses that I need to go through, podcasts I want

7:41

to listen to, books I want to read, or

7:46

anything I might be attending, so summits

7:46

or maybe bundles that I'm going through.

7:52

Most of those things are passive. Now, within that, courses are going

7:54

to have you take actionable steps.

7:58

If you're in a program or coaching program, you're likely going

8:00

to need to participate.

8:03

So don't think of these as blanket statements, but more so use what part of

8:05

your brain are you most likely using?

8:11

I really like identifying what these

8:11

passive and learning goals are for me

8:15

because there are definitely times where I

8:15

have days or weeks where I

8:20

can't really get the creative side of my

8:20

brain to work, or I didn't sleep well, and

8:24

the idea of trying to

8:24

speak or write or do anything in that

8:29

capacity or even decision making

8:29

feels incredibly overwhelming.

8:34

So it's nice to lean and fall back on to

8:36

learning goals and projects where I can

8:36

just sit back, I can watch videos and

8:42

courses, I can read stuff, and I can just

8:42

tell myself, all you have to do is learn.

8:47

You don't even need to test yourself

8:47

or be able to remember everything.

8:51

You can give yourself permission to go

8:51

back through materials more than once.

8:55

But there is something really lovely about

8:57

saying, Hey, today I am just

8:57

going to have a learning day.

9:01

And that's also something

9:01

I love to do as well.

9:04

If you ever create theme days in your business, having a complete day that's

9:06

just devoted to learning is amazing.

9:12

Those types of projects.

9:14

And then there's also projects within

9:14

my business that are active, right?

9:17

These are things where I'm actively doing something, creating something,

9:19

or actively decision making.

9:25

And some of those decision making projects

9:25

revolve around not actually tangibly doing

9:31

something on my computer or in a journal,

9:31

but sometimes that also means taking me

9:37

and my Bulldog Bella out to a park or to a

9:37

walk in the forest

9:41

to really be able to think through things

9:41

in my business and make bigger decisions.

9:47

Again, some of those specific projects

9:50

within the active phase of my business

9:50

could be things like creating podcast

9:54

episodes, blogs, curriculum development,

9:54

creating sales pages, etc.

9:59

You name it. Another thing I want to mention about

10:01

projects is that projects can overlap and

10:05

also there are many projects in your

10:05

life that will happen simultaneously.

10:11

We're not in a vacuum or some void where

10:14

only one thing is happening at a time, I

10:14

wish sometimes, but most of the time

10:18

you're going to have projects in

10:18

your life and business that overlap.

10:22

You're going to be doing things at

10:22

multiple times in multiple ways throughout

10:27

the week, the month, what have

10:27

you, and that's totally okay.

10:30

You can have multiple projects going on.

10:33

We'll get into a little more detail in

10:36

terms of how I set up projects

10:36

specifically in Notion.

10:39

I want to walk you through, obviously

10:39

verbally, what I have set up in that

10:44

database so that you can see how I break

10:44

down all the specifics of projects.

10:50

But I thought it'd be fun now to actually

10:53

take a minute and walk you through how I

10:53

organize my projects

10:57

from ideas to actual things that I might

10:57

write down in my journals or planners.

11:02

If you've been listening to my podcast for

11:02

a while, then this probably comes as no

11:06

surprise to you, but the first

11:06

thing I do is a brain dump.

11:10

I do use my daily productivity

11:10

and brain dump book for this.

11:13

I thought it'd be fun to actually go

11:13

through some of the brain dumps I've done

11:17

in the past and some of the

11:17

projects that I outlined.

11:20

I will actually open up a blank page.

11:22

Usually for this, I use the page that has

11:24

a completely blank page on

11:24

the brain dump template side.

11:28

And in this one, this is all the way back

11:30

from 2021, specifically for quarters one

11:30

and two, I had a project list for 2021.

11:37

I haven't looked at this,

11:37

obviously, in years.

11:39

Some of the projects I listed out were a

11:42

published with purpose evergreen funnel,

11:42

getting more specific on the SEO for my

11:47

blog post, creating a funnel for

11:47

my pretty simple podcast course.

11:52

I wrote down circle community,

11:52

which I actually did that.

11:55

Everything's an experiment in business.

11:57

So I actually moved all of my paid

12:00

Facebook groups from my courses into

12:00

one circle community for a while.

12:04

And it actually, it was great.

12:04

I loved circle.

12:07

I loved that whole platform. But getting people to actually go to

12:11

another platform outside of Facebook

12:11

was a horrible disaster and a fail.

12:15

And I found this to be true also

12:15

as a participant in communities.

12:20

I love things like mighty networks, I love

12:22

Slack, but if I don't put it on my

12:22

calendar or make a regular intentional

12:28

decision to go check those communities,

12:28

I just totally forget about them.

12:32

And that's essentially what

12:32

happened with my circle community.

12:36

Students really loved it.

12:36

It was really fun.

12:38

We had a lot of cool community builders in

12:38

there, but the engagement just plummeted.

12:44

So even though that was one of my project

12:44

goals and I did accomplish it in 2021, we

12:49

did end up going back into the Facebook

12:49

group simply because it just became too

12:53

difficult for people to remember

12:53

to go to an outside community.

12:56

So just wanted to share that because

12:58

sometimes things don't go as planned, right? And it doesn't mean you're a failure.

13:01

It just means like, oh, that didn't work.

13:03

Other projects I had, I redid one of

13:03

my courses and updated the curriculum.

13:10

I set up a new project management system.

13:13

I think I was experimenting a lot with...

13:17

No, I was definitely a

13:17

notion by this time.

13:20

I'm trying to think. I don't know what specifically

13:21

that project was for.

13:24

I had a project to organize

13:24

and revamp my notion.

13:28

I remember that time it

13:28

was a little bit messy.

13:31

I had a project for setting

13:31

up my 2021 Google calendar.

13:36

2020 taxes was a project.

13:39

Oh, and then I also had a list of things

13:39

I wanted to learn in March of that year.

13:45

I had a couple of different things.

13:49

It looked like I was still experimenting

13:49

with ClickUp at that time.

13:53

I had some coaching calls I was attending

13:55

and some different courses that I

13:55

wanted to continue to learn from.

13:59

So that was some of my project

13:59

brain dumps that I did there.

14:03

And then inside of my brain dump book on

14:03

the daily productivity page, there are two

14:08

columns where basically you choose two

14:08

main focuses for the day, and then you

14:11

break down those things

14:11

into five target areas.

14:15

These aren't necessarily specific tasks,

14:17

but these are things that you can

14:17

do in a Pomodoro's worth of time.

14:21

So that's what I'll typically do as well.

14:25

And another thing I do with my brain dump

14:25

book is in the very back,

14:30

there are brain dump pages where you

14:30

have a brain dump template.

14:34

And then instead of the

14:36

daily productivity page, there are

14:36

actually two columns on the right-hand

14:41

side of the spread with

14:41

a bunch of checkboxes.

14:45

So what I actually do every now and then

14:47

is I'll go back through

14:47

all of my brain dumps.

14:50

And I love that I have this all

14:50

in one book, right one area.

14:54

And I will actually go through and

14:57

highlight or circle things that I really

14:57

don't want to forget, and I'll brain dump

15:01

those in the back of

15:01

this book on this page.

15:05

Right now, I can see that at the time of

15:08

this brain dump, I think this was February

15:08

2020, I had written down a bunch of stuff

15:15

from all my collective

15:15

brain dumbs that year.

15:18

So I had a category for journals, and then

15:18

underneath that, I wrote down all of the

15:23

different new journal and planner

15:23

ideas that I wanted to create.

15:26

I had a list for course catch up, and then

15:26

all of the different courses I was

15:30

currently working through,

15:30

course content creation.

15:34

And then I had the current

15:34

course I was working on.

15:38

I had a list for publish with purpose

15:40

updates because things are always changing

15:40

in the publishing space and with Amazon

15:45

and all the different publishing

15:45

avenues you can take.

15:49

And so I had some updates there. And then I also had a couple of things I

15:54

wanted to add to my regular

15:54

weekly Pulsepoint check in.

15:57

So I have a whole template

15:57

and a Notion template now.

16:01

I used to have a Google Doc that I would

16:03

print out or a PDF and sometimes

16:03

I still like to do that.

16:06

But now I have a template all in Notion

16:06

so I just duplicate that every week.

16:09

But I had some stuff I wanted to

16:09

add to my ongoing weekly stuff.

16:14

Looks like I said delete desktop photos

16:17

and files, which is good

16:17

because that gets really messy.

16:20

Weekly sales and expenses.

16:23

Oh, weekend intentions, that's nice.

16:26

Then I had another category

16:26

for product ideas.

16:31

A couple of different things there

16:31

that actually never happened.

16:35

What I did was those were things that I

16:37

had collected from my brain dumps for that

16:37

year that I was like, I don't want to

16:42

forget these things, so I

16:42

put them top of mind here.

16:45

Then on the right-hand side page with

16:45

those two columns, I made two categories.

16:52

I wrote catch up tasks

16:52

and future planning.

16:54

What are the things out of these

16:54

that I want to do right now?

16:59

What are ideas and projects that I'm

16:59

just going to move to the future?

17:03

I'm not even necessarily going to give a specific date right now, but

17:04

I just want to keep those top of mind.

17:09

What's so nice about doing this is then

17:09

you feel, again, less FOMO about your own

17:15

brain and your own creative process,

17:15

because instead of having to go back

17:18

through pages and pages and pages of brain

17:18

dumbs from that year, I now had the most

17:24

important stuff pulled out of

17:24

those places in one spread.

17:29

Now when I was looking back at that year

17:31

and moving forward, I was like,

17:31

These are the things I need to know.

17:34

These are the cliff notes version of

17:34

my brain that year all in one place.

17:40

I share that to share a little

17:40

bit about my process there.

17:44

As you can see, this is time consuming.

17:47

Not terribly so, but I really do

17:47

love to take time to do all of this.

17:53

It's one of those things in business where

17:56

you're not actively making money

17:56

doing something like this.

17:59

But it really helps streamline my business

17:59

because it becomes so much easier to make

18:04

decisions and plan my day when

18:04

I take time to do these things.

18:10

So that's what I do

18:10

there in my brain dump.

18:12

And then I use, and you can see there's a

18:15

whole process here of

18:15

thinking, going on forest walks,

18:19

making decisions in my brain and idea

18:19

aiding, and then putting pen to paper.

18:24

And all of these different things I feel

18:24

like, tap into a different area of my

18:30

creativity and the

18:30

productivity side of my brain.

18:33

I love doing both. I prefer to write things down

18:35

and then go into Notion later.

18:38

And you'll see why in a second. It also just makes things clearer when

18:40

you're putting stuff into Notion because

18:44

you don't have to have all that space to

18:44

brain dump and there's less

18:48

verbiage and words, and you can really

18:48

just get clear on what are the tangible

18:52

outcomes I want to include

18:52

in this project.

18:54

You can set deadlines and specific tasks.

18:57

So this all really does pay

18:57

dividends in the long run.

19:01

Inside of my other planner that I use, the

19:04

Mindful Productivity Guide, and I will

19:04

link to both of these below if you want to

19:08

see walkthrough videos of what's

19:08

included in them or try them out.

19:11

But inside of this planner, which is

19:11

undated in the beginning of it, and I'm

19:17

only going to talk about these pages

19:17

within it because there's all kinds of

19:20

stuff in here, I

19:20

actually have project pages.

19:23

And these project pages are,

19:23

again, a two page spread.

19:27

So when you open up the page on the left

19:27

hand side, you've got your project page,

19:31

and on the right-hand side,

19:31

you've got project notes.

19:34

And what I like to do, in fact, let me see

19:37

what projects I currently have

19:37

outlined in this specific one.

19:41

I'm getting close to needing to

19:41

start a new planner project page.

19:47

Okay, so here's one.

19:47

I did a website audit.

19:51

This was back in 2020 update and transfer.

19:56

So I can't remember if I was changing the

19:59

theme of my Squarespace site, but I

19:59

had all these things I wanted to do.

20:02

So this was a project. So what I did is I answered all these

20:03

questions I have for myself here.

20:06

So there's the due date, the work

20:08

timeline, there's a space

20:08

for date completed.

20:11

I estimated my time estimate.

20:13

You guys, if you're ever doing a new

20:16

project or something, again, doesn't

20:16

matter, I highly recommend tracking your

20:21

time, not just, hey, how many

20:21

days or weeks did it take you?

20:25

Because that's really not an accurate

20:25

representation of what we're doing.

20:29

Because what you really want to

20:29

know are the hours and minutes.

20:32

So using something like clockify.

20:35

Me or any other time tracking device, even

20:35

if it's literally using a stopwatch and

20:42

writing down the time you work on

20:42

something, can be so incredibly helpful to

20:46

let yourself realistically

20:46

know how long things take.

20:49

I did this a lot years and years ago.

20:52

I worked with a few clients

20:55

updating or creating Squarespace websites

20:55

for them, and it was really eye opening to

20:59

see just how many hours

20:59

certain things took me.

21:03

And then that way, when I was editing the

21:05

proposal and we were talking about the

21:05

timeline, I could really be realistic and

21:09

it's going to take me 20 hours to do this,

21:09

and I'm probably going to be able to do

21:15

that over the course of four or

21:15

five days, not just two days.

21:18

And so I just felt like it was so much

21:21

easier to set the expectations

21:21

and the timeline for them.

21:26

And I feel like the communication was

21:26

so much better when you know, you know.

21:30

And internally, it's also nice because

21:30

you can set expectations for yourself.

21:34

There are so many days where I sit down on

21:34

my computer and I'm like, I'm going to

21:37

just totally do this amazing, epic,

21:37

long form blog post in two hours.

21:43

And then you realize, well, no, it'd be

21:45

helpful if I actually did a brain

21:45

dump, created an outline first.

21:49

Maybe that takes two hours and then

21:49

maybe I sit on it a little bit.

21:53

I get some feedback from people and then

21:55

day two is when I really start

21:55

writing the first draft.

21:59

Anyway, time tracking, very helpful.

22:03

The other thing I have in this template on

22:05

this left hand side page is I have

22:05

a column that says to research.

22:10

So it looks like here I had

22:10

a couple highlighted things.

22:15

This, again, was for updating my

22:15

website or doing a website audit.

22:18

I said, learn more about Convert box

22:18

and create a strategy around content.

22:24

So that's a tool that I have used.

22:26

And then I wrote down brainstorm weekly

22:26

newsletter and onboarding email.

22:32

So these were things I wanted to research,

22:35

create a schedule for

22:35

routine maintenance checks.

22:38

So not necessarily things I needed to

22:38

research outside of myself, but things I

22:43

needed an answer to before I could

22:43

really move the needle in the project.

22:47

And then there's an area

22:47

for task breakdown.

22:50

So I actually had to go through all of my podcasts and update them manually, along

22:52

with blog posts.

22:56

I wanted to check every page for past

22:56

things that I might want to update.

23:02

This was a huge... I'm remembering back to doing all this.

23:07

And I also had here, do I want to consider

23:07

having a link to that Buy Me a Coffee

23:13

thing, which I've never had

23:13

anyone buy me a coffee.

23:16

So I think I still have a link to it

23:18

somewhere, but it's not really

23:18

something that happens in my business.

23:24

And yeah.

23:24

And then so then in my project notes, this

23:26

is where I have questions

23:26

or some journaling.

23:31

I had some ideas about my

23:35

products and my courses and how I might

23:35

want to outline them in my website.

23:41

And so, again, these

23:41

were my project pages.

23:43

So I also have...

23:45

I'm looking at another project here. I had a project for my

23:47

published with purpose launch.

23:51

So I had a live launch plan to research.

23:57

I had map out what the on

23:57

demand events were going to be.

24:01

And then I also have projects

24:01

for curriculum development.

24:05

I have an ongoing project now for a bigger

24:07

project I'm doing in my business, which

24:07

I'm still keeping secret right now.

24:11

And I've also used these project pages in

24:14

the past to outline the next 16 episodes

24:14

for my podcast or a quarterly chunk

24:21

of episodes, especially if I'm doing

24:21

a series or something like that.

24:24

Projects can also be content

24:24

mapping ideas, all those things.

24:28

That's the process that I currently use

24:31

when it comes to ideating

24:31

and pen to paper.

24:35

Now I thought it would be fun for me to

24:38

open up Notion and show you, well, tell

24:38

you how I have my project database

24:44

organized and some of the

24:44

things I have selected.

24:47

Keep in mind, you do not have to

24:47

make yours as complicated as this.

24:51

I wouldn't even say it's complicated. I would just say it's detailed.

24:54

But this is something I have created

24:54

inside of my program, Pretty Productive

24:59

Life, and students get access to

24:59

all these templates and everything.

25:03

And so I'm going to actually walk you through what I use and the exact thing

25:05

that's available inside of that.

25:09

So I don't know how familiar you may be

25:12

with Notions, so I want to try to

25:12

keep this as simple as possible.

25:17

Inside of Notion, which is essentially a

25:17

Wiki style editor, and you can create all

25:24

things like you can create text boxes, you

25:24

can create databases, which can be viewed

25:29

in many different ways, tables, caban

25:29

boards, timeline views, gallery views.

25:37

There's all different kinds of ways that

25:37

you can look at all of the same

25:40

information, and this

25:40

is why I love Notion.

25:43

But inside of here specifically, I have

25:46

something I've created

25:46

called my daily dashboard.

25:49

I also do have podcast episodes where I

25:51

walk you through how I've

25:51

set up my entire Notion.

25:54

If you want to check those out, I

25:54

will make sure to link them below.

25:57

But inside of my daily dashboard, this is

26:00

where I have a lot of those views of my

26:00

various databases

26:06

positioned or curated in a way where I

26:06

can surface just the information I need.

26:10

So if I'm scrolling down here on my daily

26:10

dashboard for my life and business, I have

26:16

a whole area that says

26:16

current projects and content.

26:19

And underneath here, I have projects, and

26:21

then I have different

26:21

views of all the projects.

26:24

So I have my main projects and I can see

26:27

the status of them, what the

26:27

percentage of them being completed is.

26:32

And then I also have different

26:32

views that are like tabs.

26:36

So I have projects that are specifically

26:39

for any summits, bundles or

26:39

affiliate launches I'm a part of.

26:43

Last year was the year of

26:43

bundles, it felt like.

26:47

And there were, I think at one time, I

26:47

think I was participating in seven or

26:51

eight different bundles over the

26:51

span of two or three months.

26:55

And it was wild. It was a lot of fun.

26:58

I got to collaborate with a lot of fun

26:58

people and grew my email list like crazy.

27:02

But there were so many details.

27:05

So having this view of all of the current

27:05

bundles and summits I was a part of, along

27:12

with a bird's eye view of what week each

27:12

one of them was happening, the promotion

27:17

schedules, and then all of the links

27:17

within sight of each of those saved me.

27:22

I would not have been able to

27:25

keep track of everything had I not

27:25

organized everything in that way.

27:29

And now I actually have templates inside

27:32

of this project database where if I'm

27:32

invited to or accepted into another summit

27:37

or bundle, I can just click on New Summit

27:37

or Bundle, and it will bring up all of the

27:44

tasks that I know I need

27:44

to get information on.

27:47

So where are the promo materials?

27:49

What are the promo dates?

27:52

What are the dates for your coupon code

27:52

in Thrivecard that you need to have?

27:57

What's the product you're offering?

27:59

Where are the templates for any

27:59

copy or anything like that?

28:02

All of that's already pre populated in

28:04

there because I've done so many of these

28:04

now, I know what all those details are.

28:08

And that's another reason why I love

28:08

tracking things in Notion and using

28:13

templates, because once

28:13

you do one project in Notion, you can

28:18

create a template from

28:18

it and use that again.

28:21

So I do the same thing for curriculum

28:24

development or sales pages

28:24

or anything like that.

28:28

Once I do a project, I'll go back through,

28:28

do a recap of how that went, and then I

28:34

will take the important parts out of

28:34

it and create a new Notion template.

28:38

So let's actually jump in to one of...

28:42

Well, first of all, I'll tell you some of the current projects that

28:44

are on my table here.

28:48

Now, this is now done, more or less.

28:50

I still feel the emotional weight of it. But we finished our

28:52

PCS, or our permanent change of station

28:56

from Washington State

28:56

down here to San Diego.

29:00

My husband's in the Navy

29:00

and we move quite a bit.

29:04

We finished that. What was really cool about that project is

29:06

I am a solo entrepreneur, so it's just me.

29:11

I don't currently have a team or VA.

29:13

My husband, obviously, is very

29:13

much part of that project.

29:16

So I was able to invite him into Notion.

29:18

And then we were able to

29:20

pick and choose and assign each other

29:20

different tasks within that project.

29:25

I don't even want to

29:25

think about all we did.

29:28

It was wild.

29:28

And I hate doing the move.

29:30

At first, when we first started this

29:32

lifestyle together over 10 years

29:32

ago, every move was really exciting.

29:37

Now it's both exciting but also I know

29:37

what it takes and how much it drains me.

29:43

So I definitely dread them a little bit. But having all of those tasks laid out

29:45

really, really saved us from forgetting

29:50

details or remembering to

29:50

circle back with people.

29:52

As you know, moving, I'm assuming as you

29:52

know, if you've moved, you know that there

29:58

are so many things that take place and so

29:58

many things that get like people drop the

30:01

ball and you have to circle back with

30:01

people and it's a lot of frustration.

30:07

So let's see, I also had a project for

30:07

my live round of published with purpose.

30:15

So I have a project template that I create

30:17

every time we do a live round that

30:17

helps me schedule out the calls.

30:21

And I also use that place to write

30:21

down ongoing student questions or updates

30:28

to the course that come up

30:28

during those live calls.

30:31

It's also where I take

30:31

notes for all those things.

30:34

And then I had curriculum development for

30:34

pretty productive life, which is still

30:38

ongoing, and some other courses that I'm

30:38

a part of that I've created as projects.

30:43

So again, this is similar to what I was

30:43

talking about inside of the planner.

30:48

These are all now in Notion. So if we open up one of these projects, I

30:50

want to show you or tell you some of the

30:56

different items, different components

30:56

I have within of this database.

31:02

And again, these are just

31:02

some of the things I have.

31:04

You do not need to have all these

31:04

things, but these are helpful to me.

31:08

So I obviously have a checkbox for

31:11

whether or not an item or

31:11

project has been completed.

31:14

And the beauty of Notion 2 is you

31:14

can filter and sort your views.

31:18

So when I've completed a project, then

31:18

that disappears from my current view of

31:23

current projects so I don't see it anymore. I also have a quick description of the

31:25

project, the owner, which is typically me.

31:31

And then I have a date category,

31:31

which is the due dates, like the DO.

31:37

So what's the time frame for this process?

31:40

So for this curriculum development, I actually have a couple of months

31:42

here that I'm working on this.

31:46

Then the actual duration, that

31:46

sometimes can be different.

31:50

For example, when I have a summit or

31:50

a bundle that I'm participating in, the

31:56

due DO dates are when I'm doing

31:56

stuff and working on things.

32:00

And that typically expands much

32:00

longer than the actual promo dates.

32:06

So the duration of the bundle may only be

32:08

4 to 7 days, but the due

32:08

dates may be a month or more.

32:12

And then I have an actual date

32:12

for when the project is due.

32:16

And then I have a project scope category,

32:16

which is actually just a tag property.

32:25

So it is, in fact, it

32:25

is a select property.

32:30

So I have either I choose whether it's

32:30

an ongoing project or a one-off project.

32:37

One off projects are just that.

32:40

They're only happening one

32:40

time and then they end.

32:43

They have a start time and an end time

32:45

where ongoing projects are something that

32:45

I'm working on either for a longer period

32:51

of time or they're projects

32:51

that never really end.

32:55

So household maintenance, for example,

32:55

would be an ongoing thing or lawn care,

33:00

something like that would

33:00

be an ongoing project.

33:04

I also have this

33:04

linked to my task database.

33:08

So I have another database

33:08

specifically for all of my tasks.

33:12

And inside of my project templates,

33:14

anytime I create a new project, any

33:14

task that I add to this specific project

33:19

in this window in Notion automatically

33:19

gets tagged with this specific project.

33:24

So if I were to jump back to my main task

33:24

database and look at any of those tasks,

33:29

if I put them in here, they're

33:29

already tagged with this project.

33:34

So I know exactly what belongs to what

33:34

and everything gets placed appropriately.

33:40

I also have an area where I typically

33:40

will link projects to specific weeks.

33:47

So I do have a weeks database where I have

33:50

different things that

33:50

I do within my weeks.

33:53

I don't want to get too much into the build of my notion because I do have

33:55

separate episodes

33:58

where I do that, and I don't want to

33:58

confuse everyone listening too much.

34:02

But then I also have a status property

34:05

and I also have a, let's

34:05

see, focused project stage.

34:11

So inside of how I do this, I have a whole

34:14

focused project training inside of Project

34:14

Effective Life where

34:17

I walk through something similar to this,

34:17

but more in-depth in terms of how to

34:22

create projects and how to break them

34:22

down, make sure you're meeting your

34:26

deadlines and your milestones

34:26

and you know what all those are.

34:29

And then I have different

34:29

things, like I have type.

34:32

So I have different types of projects.

34:35

So I have summits, content creation,

34:35

curriculum development, learning,

34:39

marketing, household operations,

34:39

creativity, family finances.

34:43

There's a few more just

34:43

to give you an idea.

34:47

And then I also have areas where I can

34:47

link things to specific products or

34:52

services that I offer or specific goals or

34:52

objectives within my business at scale.

34:57

So that's what this looks like

34:57

inside of Notion.

35:01

And again, I don't always use all these properties, but they're there and they can

35:03

help me surface and filter all these

35:09

different projects depending on

35:09

how I want to at any given time.

35:12

So not only can I surface things by

35:12

like, Is it a summit or a bundle?

35:17

But I can also surface things

35:17

by is it an ongoing project?

35:20

Is it business?

35:20

Is it personal?

35:22

And all of that can really help me stay focused and less overwhelmed because

35:24

instead of looking at all of my project

35:29

ideas and unfinished projects and projects

35:29

for next year, next quarter and projects

35:35

now, but also projects not

35:35

happening until next week.

35:37

Instead of seeing all of those at once, I

35:37

can be like, just show me the projects for

35:41

right this second, right or right today or

35:41

this week or specific projects that are

35:46

just for my home that have to happen

35:46

this week or that are ongoing.

35:51

That is so nice because you're definitely

35:53

going to have times where you need

35:53

to filter and sort your life.

35:57

So that's what I have there.

36:00

I also, too, I can't remember if I already

36:00

said this, I just want to remind you that

36:05

everything in your life

36:05

is essentially a project.

36:07

So when you think about it

36:07

that way, tasks become...

36:12

Everything can be just as overwhelming,

36:12

but tasks then roll up into projects.

36:18

And I love this because when I think of my

36:18

cleaning schedule, for example, as more of

36:26

an ongoing project, then

36:26

instead of being like, Oh, no, there's

36:31

dishes in the sink, and I'm a horrible

36:31

person who doesn't have their life

36:34

together, which there's

36:34

always dishes in the sink.

36:36

I cannot, for the life of

36:36

me, keep a clean kitchen.

36:40

It's just always messy. Instead of thinking about that and being

36:44

like, Oh, if I walk in there to get

36:44

another cup of coffee or feed my cat,

36:48

instead of being like, Oh, the dishes are

36:48

in the sink and I'm stressed out, I can

36:51

just remember that that's a part of my

36:51

cleaning or household maintenance project.

36:57

And I'm not working on that today

36:57

or even this week necessarily.

37:03

So I don't have to worry

37:03

about that specific task.

37:06

And just that change in mindframe mindset really

37:08

helps me sometimes because I'll have the

37:13

same thing happen in my business where

37:13

I'll see, for example, I'm behind on the

37:17

podcast or I haven't recorded a podcast in

37:17

weeks or months, which is this is the

37:21

first year where that's

37:21

really been a thing.

37:23

And instead of beating myself up for being

37:26

inconsistent or not having the capacity to

37:26

do that, I just remind myself that's

37:31

currently not on your

37:31

project scope right now.

37:34

You're not currently

37:34

working on podcasts, right?

37:37

We've put that aside until

37:37

May or June, whatever.

37:40

Right now, here's what

37:40

you are focusing on.

37:42

So the more you can put and think about

37:45

everything in your life

37:45

as a project, the better.

37:48

Another thing that I think can be really

37:50

fun is to create a project

37:50

for all of your hobbies.

37:54

Maybe that's something I could do

37:54

deep dive in in another podcast.

37:58

But having a hobby project where here's

37:58

the things that I'm doing ongoing for my

38:04

mental health or my well being, or

38:04

here's the things I just love doing.

38:08

And all of those things could

38:08

be tasks within the project.

38:12

Not so much as tasks that you need to do.

38:16

But sometimes I get in a place with my

38:16

mental health or I have a depressive

38:20

episode or whatever, and I, for the life

38:20

of me, just feel so paralyzed in my brain.

38:26

And it's so nice to bring up a list of,

38:29

hey, here's all the things that you

38:29

can do that will make you feel better.

38:35

The other weekend, I went to Michael's and

38:35

bought a little wooden bird house and

38:39

painted it, and it looks

38:39

silly and not that great.

38:43

But I can tell you, I had the time of my

38:45

life listening to lo-fi music on

38:45

YouTube and painting that birdhouse.

38:49

And in the half an hour it took me, I felt

38:49

worlds better and I stopped thinking about

38:55

the state of the world or my anxiety

38:55

and was able to really focus on that.

39:00

So having projects that help you with your

39:00

mental health and remind you of all the

39:06

things that are available to you

39:06

can be incredibly helpful as well.

39:10

As you can tell, I could talk about projects and project management for a lot

39:12

longer than the almost 40 minutes that

39:17

I've been talking, but I hope that this

39:17

gives you some ideas into how you can

39:24

capture, manage, and take

39:24

action on your own projects.

39:28

I hope you have a wonderful

39:28

week moving forward.

39:31

Thank you so much for

39:31

listening to the podcast.

39:33

As always, I have show notes and links to

39:36

everything over on my website at Sarah

39:36

Steckler.com you can always say hi on

39:41

Instagram as well if you

39:41

enjoyed the episode.

39:44

I'm @sarahsteckler. Thanks so much for listening

39:45

and I'll see you all next week.