The Difference Between Getting Shit Done and Taking Prioritized Purposeful Actions

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TRANSCRIPTION – THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GETTING SHIT DONE AND TAKING PRIORITIZED PURPOSEFUL ACTIONS:

Today I want to talk to you about your to do list, and I am going to say some cuss words.

As a mom of five I feel I owe you that disclaimer so that if you are watching with kids, I am not teaching them a word that you don’t want them to know.

By the way in my house my kids know some classics – partially my fault, partially my husband’s fault – and I want.. always want to be aware of that for you in the future.

But we’re going to talk about your to do list.

I want you to pull out your to do list and count. Right now. How many items are on your to do list for today?

I’m not talking about this week. I’m not talking about this month’s goals or this year’s goals.

I’m talking about the list that you want to accomplish today.

This video is for you if you have more than five items on it because we are going to talk about the difference between getting shit done and taking prioritize purposeful actions.

I will get to the top three differences in just a moment, but I want to invite you to like this video, comment down below with your aha, like my page and just share with me and others who may be able to benefit with this… from this video, what your big aha is we’re out of the video and how I can support you in the future.

I would love to make videos based upon what you need to know.

I have been a victim in the past — and I pulled out one of my old planners — I have been a victim of the past of getting sucked into getting shit done lists.

On my team, we called them GSD lists, and we had several. We had one for today, one for this week, one for this month. And we had a whole bunch of other lists for next week, next month, next year. And I would even separate them between personal and client tasks.

There were days — let me just show you an example — This is the positive productivity planner, which has not yet been released… (By the way art my nails gorgeous? My six year old gave me my first… gave her first manicure this past weekend)… But I want you to see there are no less than… I can count… 14… No less than 25 to do list items on the sheet for this day.

And this was actually a good day. Now that I’m looking over it — I’m looking at the date, Thursday, October 12 2017… I know though, that if I go back through some other through some other days… Yep, I see them all over… There are … There are crazy making tasks on here.

Saturday, September 2, 2017 – Take a bath; Bathe the kids; Clean up office; Clean up the little room; Put away laundry…

I understand that those are items will affect you in your day. I mean I’d love to take a shower. It’s… It’s honestly, well I’m not going to even touch upon that right now.

I love to take showers. I love to take baths. It does not deserve a spot on you’re getting shit done list.

The Difference Between Getting Shit Done and Taking Prioritized Purposeful Actions

The difference between the getting shit done list and the prioritize purposeful action list, number one difference, is that — and I’m looking at my cheat sheet — items on your getting shit done list… They may be inconsequential tomorrow whereas the items on your Prioritized Purposeful Action List, you’ll still be feeling the actions or the the results of them 10 years from now.

Let me give you an example. If you work on writing your book today, you can read that book — potentially if you finally finish it — in 10 years.

If you put on your getting shit done list, “take a shower,” you’re gonna have to take a shower tomorrow, you’re gonna have to take a shower every day for the next 10 years. So why are you cluttering up your list with things like that?

The Difference Between Getting Shit Done and Taking Prioritized Purposeful Actions

So number one, items on your on your getting shit done list — you may not feel the results of tomorrow.

You may stink a little less if we use the shower example, but the items on your Prioritized purposeful Action List you will feel years from now.

The Difference Between Getting Shit Done and Taking Prioritized Purposeful Actions

Number two, everything and anything winds up on your GST list whereas your PPA list — your Prioritized Purposeful Action list should have no more than five.

I like to say focus on two to three, but I, myself always have about five items on my list.

There are many days where it… where they bounce over from one day to the next if I don’t get to them. But let me show you why this is so important to you.

This is again September 2 2017. I am recording this video at the beginning of 2020. I had on this day… I had 9… 11… 19 items on this list and one item got done completely, and two items it looks like got halfway done.

I will tell you that seeing one item done completely and two half done out of a list of 19 feels a lot less then if you only put five items up, and you do accomplish one, and then maybe two are halfway done,

I love to give myself a big ol pat on the back at the end of the day where I do get — my goal is always to complete three PPA tasks by the end of each and every day. And if I make a list of 20, PPAss versus a list of five, it just doesn’t feel as… like I was productive. Let me just put it that way.

Keep your list of five. Make it the most important things. And that is where the difference number two comes in.

The Difference Between Getting Shit Done and Taking Prioritized Purposeful Actions

Difference number one again in the in my list of the difference between getting shit done and taking prioritized purposeful actions was that your GST list does not go any further than tomorrow whereas your PPAs go well into the future.

The Difference Between Getting Shit Done and Taking Prioritized Purposeful Actions

Number three is your Prioritized Purposeful Actions can only be done by you.

You’re getting shit done list often has tasks that can be done by other people. For example, cleaning up my office, I could have paid a kid allowance or bonus allowance to clean up my office for me. And right now there…. The cat shredded a roll of toilet paper all over my office floor. I might bribe a kid and say “Sweep it up. I’ll give you 50 cents.“

I don’t need to do it.

Picking up my littles room… My littles should have been picking up the room. Why did this wind up on my to do list? I could have had grocery shopping. Well, there’s Instacart or my husband does it. No, it doesn’t need a place on here as well.

I had many days where I had clean out your inbox on my on my GST list. My friend, your email box is going to be back full again tomorrow.

Do I love a clean, empty, inbox?

Heck, yes, I do. I actually have a picture of my dream house as the backdrop on my on my Gmail, but I do not want to be focusing my time over cleaning up my inbox before I focus on writing my book, creating these videos, getting a new podcast episode out, because I am the voice of my podcast, or creating a course, writing a blog article.

Those items… those evergreen content items — especially because I specialize in marketing — those evergreen content items have a much longer shelf life than cleaning my inbox ever will.

To put it in perspective a little bit more for you, this past weekend, my inbox was down to 13. It is now back over 200. It’s irking the heck out of me but that is not a priority of mine this week. I don’t know if it will be a priority again in February because I’m speaking next month and I have two courses I’m creating, and I want to be here with you.

If I am spending the time to go through my inbox, that is getting shit done. That is not taking prioritize purposeful actions.

So let’s go back to the difference between getting shit done and taking prioritize purposeful actions…

Getting shit done focuses on today. Prioritize Purposeful Actions focuses on the long term. So, that was way number one.

Way number two. Prioritize Purposeful Actions can only be done by you whereas getting shit done items can be done can be delegated can be… you can pay contractors to do them or maybe you just don’t need to be focusing on them at all.

What’s the worst that’s gonna happen if I don’t post on Twitter today? That was on my GST list of the past.

And way number three, everything and anything, as I already discussed, winds up on your GST list whereas only the most important three to five items of today should wind up on your Prioritize Purposeful Action List.

Please, my friend, stop making a mile long Santa style list of everything and anything that comes up in your head.

The Difference Between Getting Shit Done and Taking Prioritized Purposeful Actions

Focus on today’s priorities. Focus on the activities which are going to impact you, your family and your business for the long term.

Stop focusing on things which have a one day or even a one hour shelf life.

I’m Kim Sutton. I’m the host of the Positive Productivity podcast and I’m also a business and marketing automation mentor specializing on working with business and life coaches.

And, today I would love to know how many Prioritize Purposeful Sctions you will have on your list every day. I also want to know how many items were on your GST list when we started this video just a few minutes ago. So leave a comment down below.

And, because you hung out with me for this long, I want to offer you my 30 Day Work Smarter, Not Harder Challenge where I talk about things like Prioritized Purposeful Actions, how to stay focused on them, how to delegate, how to build your team, how to set up automation in your business, so that neither you nor a team member needs to do everything.

So if you’re interested, check down below in the comments or in the description and there will be a link for you to sign up right away.

I will be back in a couple days with my next Feel Good Funnel Friday video. I don’t even know what I’m discussing. I have a few ideas today — Did I just say “disgusting?” I don’t even know what I’m discussing them yet. But I’m sure it will be good.

But until then go forth and make it a positive and a productive day.