If I do it three times…

…I create a template, checklist, or both.

This is my productivity rule.

And it has saved tons of time on the things I do regularly.

Why it matters:

It takes 2 to 25 minutes to transition from task to task depending on who we believe. How many tasks – emails, calls, texts – did you do today? Do the conservative math. That is a lot of time.

Yeah, so?

So. What if you had a template for the next task you had to do? You wouldn’t need to start from scratch. Just grab the template and dig in. Here’s a simple example of an announcement I send my class each week:

One or two sentences about the one big thing we’re covering this week.

What happened: One or two sentences about last week and…

  • Three
  • Key
  • Takeaways

What’s next: One or two sentences about this week and…

  • Three
  • Learning
  • Objectives

Worth watching: One or two sentences about the live session tonight and…

  • Reasons
  • To
  • Watch

If you need help: I give them my contact information.

And I do that in less than 201 words.

Maybe yours doesn’t look exactly like that. Or maybe you need 219 words. But it will save you time.

Take a deeper dive: