Welcome to Issue #41 of Dave’s Productivity Newsletter (formerly Notion Creators), where I share 1 Big Idea & 3 Updates to help you work with more focus and intention.
BIG IDEA
Getting Unstuck
Each new year offers an opportunity for a fresh start, to kickstart old projects, and to build positive habits.
This was far from my experience for the first few days of 2024.
After contracting a virus the day after Christmas, the start of the year brought fever, coughing, and aches that lasted days.
This is definitely not how I intended to start the year, but I underestimated how hard it would be to get back into work mode, while still not at 100% physically.
This should not be this hard. Understanding productivity is literally my job.
Nonetheless, the first days of 2024 came and went, along with the struggle to get any meaningful work done.
I finally got unstuck, after doing three key things. If you’re in the same boat, hopefully there’s something here to get you unstuck. 🙂
🔁 Review All Open / Active Projects
After taking several days off, we can forget all the active or incomplete projects we’re carrying into the new year. Reviewing every project allows you to archive projects that are not important, review incomplete tasks for each project, capture new action items, and start planning to close out projects.
Goal: An accurate list of active projects and tasks
⏰ Estimate Time to Complete Each Task
Seeing all your tasks across projects can get overwhelming fast. Now’s not the time to worry about when everything will get done.
What can help, however, is giving yourself time estimates for each task. One you find yourself with a free block of time, or you’re in creative flow and want to keep going, seeing time estimates for each upcoming task can give you an idea of what to take on next, and ideally complete those tasks without having to revisit them later.
Goal: Estimate time to complete upcoming tasks
‼️ Order Tasks by Priority
Now that you have all open tasks in one place, it’s time to prioritize.
Skip this step and you’ll be in a constant state of overwhelm, not sure what to do next. Which really means, nothing gets done.
One thing to note about prioritization: when everything is prioritized, nothing is prioritized.
It can be tempting to mark several tasks as high priority, but this defeats the purpose. Whether it’s a deadline for a client, or an upcoming product launch, it can feel like everything is urgent. If in fact, you do have several overlapping deadlines, this might mean you need to rethink projects and deadlines.
Goal: Prioritize a small number of tasks that are both important and urgent.
☝🏼 Focus on One High-Priority Task at a Time
This is the key to getting unstuck. If you’ve gone through the steps above (thoughtfully of course), then you have the most important actions right in front of you.
But tasks won’t complete themselves.
This is the moment to reach into your bag of tricks to increase focus and decrease distraction. Maybe you need to set up your pomodoro timer, put your phone on Airplane mode, or head to your coffee shop of choice. Whatever it is, put yourself in a position mentally to complete the one highest-priority task.
Doing so will kickstart your momentum, rebuild your confidence, and finally get you unstuck.
Do you have other recommendations for getting unstuck? I’d love to hear what’s worked for you! I’d also like to add some additions to the next newsletter, so let me know! 😉
NEWSLETTER NEWS
📰 We Have a New Name
You may have noticed the updated name; no big reasons other than making the newsletter focus clearer for new subscribers. From here on out, this is Dave’s Productivity Newsletter ;)
NOTION CONSULTING
Notion Consultant Certification is Up and Running!
This has been a long time coming, but excited for all of you aspiring Notion consultants to join the Certified Notion Consultant community. And congrats to Sam Bird, who’s the newest Consultant to join!
NEW COURSE
Big Changes to 🛠️ Workspace Builders Bootcamp!
If you’ve been following this, I’m launching a bootcamp encompassing every resource I’ve created over the past two+ years and 40+ workspaces built.
After several conversations and feedback, we’ve decided to make Workspace Builders a self-paced course, making all lessons instantly available when the course launches!
There is still a community component that will live on Circle, but this makes the course universally available, regardless of your location or region.
Sign up below if you want to stay up to date!
NOTION NEWS
What’s Coming from Notion?
Did you catch Notion’s mysterious posts the past few days? There’s lots of speculation as to what’s coming our way. I think it may have something to do with calendars (syncing to Google Cal please!). What do you think Notion will announce? Drop a comment below or reply to this email; curious what you think!
🙌🏼 That’s it for this week!
I’d love to hear what you think. What content resonates? What do you want to see more or less of? Just hit reply to let me know!
And if you’re loving Notion Creators Weekly, I’d love it if you helped spread the word! 😀