The kids and I are traveling with Joe today through Thursday, and that means I’m working on a laptop in the front passenger seat.

I’m surrounded by gadgets, water bottles, and crumpled napkins.

The four kids are buckled in behind me, watching a movie with talking animals on the tiny screen. Right now we’re parked outside of an equipment dealer somewhere in Peoria, IL, while Joe has a short meeting with the owner.

I’ve just done some social media work for a client, and now I’m taking fifteen minutes to get a blog post up.

The kids are excited to get to the hotel and swim.

I’m excited to get to the hotel and swim and then have naptime afterwards.

We’re six people in a car, making our way through Missouri and Illinois while Joe does his work and I do mine and the kids do theirs.

We all have work, don’t we? Work that matters. Even the little ones have work.

Their work is to take in the world around them, to learn, and play, and explore, and do their school. And make full use of the hotel’s pool.

Their work matters. Their work is how they grow up into intelligent, happy, productive adults.

Joe’s work is, short description, to sell parts. But he sees his work as helping his customers – these small engine and equipment dealers, farm stores, rental and service shops – to succeed. They succeed and so does he.

His work matters, both for him, for our family, and for his customers.

My work is, short description, to write. But I see it as helping my readers – all you creative pros, consultants, freelancers, designers, bloggers, microbiz owners – to succeed. To help you be more productive. To help you stay motivated. To help you stay focused. To dole out some encouragement so you can make it through a bad day. To pass out tips and ideas from my own experience that might help you make the most of your time and skills. You succeed and so do I.

What’s your work today?

Short description…

Maybe it’s designing websites, or blogging, or creating a new product for your Etsy shop, or helping a customer solve a problem, or sketching out a new idea for your next creation.
But there’s more to it than that, isn’t there?

Josh Kaufman says in his book The Personal MBA that businesses depend on people and systems. I love his description of systems as “the invisible structures that keep your business running…”

Or something like that. I’m paraphrasing.

But people…

Without people, the systems don’t matter.

Without people, you can design/create/produce all day long but have no one there to see it, hold it, appreciate it, use it.
The people matter on both ends of your business. And that’s why the work matters.

You, a person, are the driving force of the business, the heart & soul, the idea machine, the visionary, the chief cook & bottle washer.

And on the consumer end, you’ve got the needs & desires of the people you’re in business to help.

We all have work to do, and the work matters, because people matter.

Photo Credit: *Sally M* via Compfight cc

I gave myself a mini-challenge this morning as I read/wrote/planned my day: write down (quickly, in 5 minutes or less) 5 ways to simplify and 5 ways to be more productive.

Here’s what I came up with. No real strokes of genius here, but, hey, for 5 minutes…

5 6 ways to simplify

1. Eat the same thing(s) for breakfast/lunch every day
2. Use only ONE notebook for all my notes, info, planning purposes
3. Use laptop for creating, tablet for consuming – defined use
4. Put the 2 older kids in the same gymnastics class together instead of 1 in dance and 1 in karate
5. Pack our winter gear away so it quits falling out of the closet
6. Choose & prep Sunday outfits for everyone in the family (including shoes!) and hang UP in closet

5 6 ways to be more productive

1. Only one project going at a time
2. Block/designate a particular time for conquering as much of the ‘random task list’ as possible… and ignore it the rest of the time
3. Create templates to use for all repeated writing/publishing work
4. Aim for a daily word count
5. Choose subject/theme for each week to help stay focused in reading, research, notes, ideas
6. Take copious notes

Of course my ideas may not apply to your life, but you get the point. Well, just in case, here’s the point: take a brief amount of time to think of practical, small ways you can simplify your life and consciously improve your productivity.

Then apply one or two of those small things right away.

I know if I did this daily, or even weekly, I would see a huge number of aggravations disappear (winter clothing, ahem) and I would see a lot of smart streamlining (templates!) and more focus in my work.

An aside: Rami Rantala of Better Productivity Blog has put together an up-to-date list of 50+ productivity blogs. A nice resource, and he’s keeping it updated. Check it out for plenty of insights into simplifying, being productive, improve your work flow, improving your life.

Just don’t check it out when you’re supposed to be working on something else…

I needed a new planner. Really. One with some customization. One with a weekly overview, and a daily spread, and some blank pages for all the notes I take through a day.

I’ve tried, with great and repeated failure, to do my planning/organizing/task managing digitally.

Guess I’m just a paper person, when it comes down to it.

So I spent some time drooling over the Levenger site, but my cheap side won out. I went to Office Depot instead.

And I stood there and thumbed through 27.4 different kinds of planners, none of which were exactly right. 

Too big, too little, too complicated, too simple. Too bulky. Too flimsy. Stupid formatting. Ugly design.

Whatever, I thought. I’ll just go simple, and make do for now, then I’ll order something great after I have time to figure out what it is.

I ended up walking out with this:

Fancy, huh?

A spiral-bound, graph-printed notebook. A stack of index cards. Together with the clips I already had, I’m in business.

Low-tech?

It’s working for me.

So the tip, embedded in this meandering soliloquy, is that sometimes high-tech, fancy, customized, personalized, widgetized, complicated, even high-quality, isn’t what you need.

Don’t misread me: I’m all over high-quality products, and I’m happy to pay for that quality.

But sometimes what you need is simple functionality.

In fact, most of the time, all we really need is simple functionality; the rest of the upgrading and tweaking may take us to incrementally higher levels of productivity, but may not.

The upgrades and tweaks are usually more for our own enjoyment.

That’s fine.

But when you’re stuck and frustrated with your system, or lack thereof, try downgrading. Go low-tech for a while.

Get back to basics.

It’s refreshing.

“Each opportunity I tried taught me something about my personality and my passions, and even though I realized fairly quickly that it wasn’t a great fit, I don’t regret the time I invested in trying.

Growing up, we’re taught that ‘winners never quit,’ but that’s not really true at all.

In fact, winners quit all the time. They just quit for different reasons than losers.

Rather than quitting because things get tough, winners give their all and quit when they see that something’s not working, not just because they’re discouraged.”

- Mandi Ehman, in her book How to Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too

Photo Credit: osde8info via Compfight cc

I was struggling recently with trying to get a grasp on, or overview of, the work I do.

You’d think I know it pretty well, eh? After all: it is MY work.

But, like many things, the “work” itself isn’t a simple event or task to be done day after day. Oh, there’s some of that, to be sure.

But there are layers of work.

• Work that needs to be done daily, over and over again.
• Projects that have a beginning and an end, but that might span a few days or a few months. Or more.
• Work for the future (a.k.a. career capital) and work for the present (profit-making work).
• Work for myself and work for clients.
• Preliminary work and finishing-up work.
• And there is learning, building skills, deliberate practice.
• Okay, fine, there’s procrastination work, too.

I keep trying to categorize this work, and separate it, and put it into contexts that make sense, and I’ve banged my head against the wall on this.

The work never seems to fit into the limits and schedules I create.

I always feel like I’m missing something important. I spend more time organizing the work than actually working.

Know that feeling?

Last week, though, I went back to my ever-dependable method of thinking in order to work it out. When I can’t work something out, or click to an answer, or when my efforts keep ending in frustration, I free write about it.

Somehow, I usually end up hitting on the elusive thing I’ve been missing.

In this case, I hit on the broad understanding I needed by realizing, suddenly and clearly, the major areas into which my work can be categorized.

And now, with those areas set before me, I can sit down and plan for the day or week what needs to be done in each area. At the end of the day, I can see what hasn’t been done – in each area – and what needs to be carried to the next day.

I actually feel like I have a pretty good grasp on what I’m doing, what I should be doing, what I want to be doing, what I can improve on doing…

Here’s the tip

To sum up, then, here’s the productivity tip:

To better understand, organize, and accomplish your work, spend some time thinking about the major areas into which you can divide your work. 

Then, once you have those areas defined, plan out your day’s, week’s, or month’s work within those areas.

My major work areas

Your areas will be different than mine, I’m sure, but for the sake of giving an example I’ll share mine below, with my comments from my little free writing session. [Why was I talking about myself in third person? I have no idea. You don't question when you're free writing; you just write.]

Book: these are the longer projects that belong to Annie Mueller, author, not to any particular blog or site that Annie Mueller contributes to, or to any persona or expertise that Annie Mueller is cultivating. These are just the books I want to, need to, have to, hope to write in my lifetime. This needs to be ongoing, steady work.
Project: this is the current not-a-book-but-not-a-blog-post long form project that most likely belongs to a particular site or niche blog or expertise that I am cultivating as an income stream and/or part of our business, Mueller Creative, LLC.
Blog: these are the niche blogs/sites that I am working on as part of our business, Mueller Creative, LLC. These should be rather analyzed and approached not so much “with passion” as “with pragmatism.”
Client: this is all work that is done for/with a client rather than for a book, project, or blog under my own ownership…This also includes client work that doesn’t necessarily involve writing: business consulting, workshops, social media, copywriting consultation, editorial, etc.
Reading: reading is something that fuels & inspires & teaches me, and I need to make sure it happens, daily, really. Fiction, nonfiction. Blogs, books, magazines, poetry, all sorts of reading.  The kind of reading where I take notes and the kind of reading where I get so lost in it I forget that notes can be taken.
Marketing: social media and all that entails. This is activity, not creation: reading & commenting on blogs, being active on social media, sending out emails/newsletters, etc. Plus other means of marketing, such as emails, guest post pitches, etc.
Future: the ideas, articles, posts, notes, etc that don’t fit into any current book, project, blog, or client work but that are there in my head asking to be let out.

Those are my major work areas; what are yours? Comment below or shout it at me on Twitter. 

Photo from PPC.org

The things that worked in the past don’t always continue to work into the future.

Direct mail marketing, for example, and their specific format: that’s been a multimillion dollar industry in and of itself, not to mention the multimillions in sales it’s (purportedly) made for many other businesses and industries.

Dan Kennedy is maybe the current best-known direct mail marketing superstar/coach. He still mails me stuff sometimes.  [Here is an example of that preferred direct-mail format, in landing page form, direct from Dan Kennedy.]

Funny, I’ve never bought anything from one of his direct mailers.

I bought a book of his once, in a bookstore, before I’d ever seen a mailer from him.

I bought it because I liked the title and so I picked it up. I sat down with my coffee and flipped through it and liked how he wrote and what he said: in short, I wanted to read the whole book.

[It’s depressing to me how often a few moments with a book does NOT result in this feeling, nonfiction and fiction both. There is always a mountain of mediocrity to sort through.]

But I bought the book, and as a result of the book, I’ve read his blog and a couple of his other books. And I think he had a lot of things figured out, and probably was (and is) amazing at the type of copywriting he did (and does), designing direct mailers and speaking to the psychology of people when selling…

So on.

But let’s talk a little bit about how cultural perceptions, and what is accepted or appreciated, shift with society, with generations.

My generation, for instance: we don’t buy from direct mailers, at least not from direct mailers of the Dan Kennedy sort. In fact, we have a special term for direct mailers: JUNK MAIL.

I don’t purchase from landing pages that look like this:
BIG PICTURE OF PERSON-I-Don’t-KNOW + ALL CAPS HEADING + BIG BOLD PROMISE + EMOTIONAL PITCH + ACT-Now-or-Else-False-Urgency-CALL TO ACTION.

In fact, if I click on a landing page like that, I don’t even stop to read what the product is.
I IMMEDIATELY CLICK AWAY, CLOSE IT OUT, NEVER TO RETURN.

Why?

I don’t know. It’s not that all these direct mailers and their Internet counterpart, the ‘sales landing page” are spammy or hokey or fradulent or anything like that.

Many times, in fact, they’re quite clear about what they’re selling and what it contains and what it can get you. Okay, sure, some of them make some really hyped-up vague claims & promises. But not all.

So I’m not clicking away based on a certainty that there’s a lie or a fraud or a deception. I don’t think that’s it.

It’s just the general opinion I have of these ads, I guess.

Perhaps we’re not talking about a deliberate deception, but the feeling is a slicked-back-hair, sleazy sales guy trying to get me to spend too much money starting a home-based business, MLM style.

That’s the association I have with pretty much ALL direct mailers and landing pages that are built on this kind of template. Because that’s what happened: marketers have taken the direct-mail format and simply transferred it straight onto the new-improved technology. Voila, now we have direct-mail-style landing pages.

These direct mailers are still being created & mailed out, too, but those will almost certainly fade away in time, due to rising postage costs.

The copycat website landing pages, though, that are being build on this direct-mailer-template… THOSE probably won’t go away.

Maybe they’ll slightly decrease, because my hope and belief is that most of the folks of my generation respond about as well as I do to this type of sales approach.

Which is to say, we respond with a big fat NO, or the equivalent, with the quick click on the X or back arrow before we have to look at ANY MORE BIG TEXT SCREAMING AT US ABOUT QUICKLY BUYING THIS NOW BUYING IT NOW BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!!!

What’s the point of this tirade? To remind us of a few things:

1. What might have worked with GREAT success in the past is not necessarily going to work in the present or in the future. No, we shouldn’t reject an idea just because it has a history; but we shouldn’t accept an idea or “mode of doing” based on that characteristic, either. Let each idea, method, or suggestion be thought of, tested, tried, and proven – one way or another – to work or not to work, right here, right now, in this application.

2. What might have been superb in the previous technology (or previous iteration of a current technology) is not necessarily the best way to use the current technology (or iteration). Times, tastes, and people’s responses change. The bells, whistles, designs, and basic assumptions that creative pros have need to change with them. Otherwise we waste our time trying to bring an old, dead version of a thing back to life, when the wise move is to let it die and move on to what is current, fresh, new, living.

3. You might disagree with somebody’s expertise or opinion on a particular subject, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll disagree with ALL of their opinions, or that you won’t be able to get value from their other areas of expertise. Dan Kennedy, case in point: I don’t agree with Kennedy that direct-mail is the way to go in marketing, but I do think he knows a lot about copywriting, the psychology of sales, and marketing in general. So I’ll read, take away what makes sense to me, leave the rest. You may not like my politics or my taste in books, but you might like my productivity tips. Take those, leave the rest.

What are your thoughts on direct mail marketing, and/or the landing pages based on that style of marketing? Do you ever purchase from either one?

Photo Credit: Ian Sane via Compfight cc

Because I like lists, and I like examples, and I like daily routines…

• Here’s a whole list of interviews with regular people regarding their daily routines, from Elizabeth Larkin, About.com’s Guide to Personal Organizing. Larkin tells you a bit about each person and a few take-away points, then there’s a link to the full interview. Good tips. I find I learn the best tips from real people sharing what really happens in their days. We’re not ALL good at everything, but we’re ALL good at a few things, at least. When we share the stuff we know and are good at, we can all get better. 
• Here’s Mike Vardy’s daily routine. If you don’t know who Mike Vardy is, just understand that his website is called The Productivityist… so, well, he might know a thing or two about a good daily routine. Also he wrote this book, and this one.
• Here is John Jantsch’s daily routine (or Daily Productivity Routine). Jantsch is a blogger, expert on small business marketing, and author of several books.
• Here is blogger/Mom Rachel Meeks’ Real-Life, Practical Daily Routine. In my book, the writer/blogger-Mom genre of daily routines is the most helpful & fascinating. That couldn’t be because I am of that genre? Naaaaah.
• Here is screenwriter John August’s daily writing routine.
• Here is writer/Mom Elizabeth Esther’s daily routine. Yep, another one of “my” genre. Well, hey, it’s MY blog…
• Here is homeschooler/Mom/biz owner Kelsi’s daily routine. Side note: WHY don’t people put their last names in their blog bios? I feel like a high school student when I introduce someone by first name only. [Did I mention I'm a homeschooler, too? So this is also my genre, I guess. Sorry. I'll try to branch out now.]
• Here, from BrainPickings, is a great one on the Daily Routines of Famous Writers. I Loooove This.
• Here is Sundance filmmaker David Lowery’s daily routine, in a great short-film form.
• Just for kicks, here is Karl Lagerfeld’s daily routine and here is Hunter S. Thompson’s daily routine. Oh, also Scott Disick’s daily routine [here's a gem: "Another hard decision comes to hand: picking the right vehicle for the day...". Wow.]
• Here’s the daily routine of a cadet in the U.S. Coast Guard.
• Here are the “daily rituals” of a Space Marine. Serious stuff, here.
• And then, to round it all off, here’s a toddler’s daily routine at Little Buddies Preschool Centre.

Of course there’s this blog which became this book. <swoon>

Photo Credit: Jonathan Kos-Read via Compfight cc

You don’t have to know all the needed information to be the person you want to be.

You grow as you go. You gain knowledge as you take action.

You learn as you act and move forward. [See: I can learn what I need to learn as I need to learn it.]

You can’t prepare yourself, gain wisdom, get experience by standing still.

Move forward daily toward that person you want to be, and as you do, you will become equipped.

Take action.

You will become that person by acting like that person.

But only by action

• daily action
• habitual action
• consistent action
• risky action
• big, hairy-scary, extreme action
• small, timid, cautious, but regular action

The difference between those who dream and those who become is the action.

Dream about it. That’s great. Dreams can fuel you and motivate you. But dreams cannot change your life. You change your life by what you choose, by what you do.

The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do, well. -Longfellow

“…a schedule is the planning of a day by time, activity, etc. Children understand it as a routine; it is the way in which they learn what will or will not happen next. Schedules are made by adults, while routines are the physical execution of the schedule that children, over a period of time, get used to.

If the schedule is consistent, children learn the pattern.

When children have too many unknowns, anxiety builds up and they start showing emotional reactions to the inconsistency.”

-Moises Roman, UCLA Early Care & Ed. Dept.

Photo Credit: Aman Deshmukh via Compfight cc

More is just more, and the time we have can only hold so much in it.

Thoughtfully choosing what you’ll put into your hours is the mark of wisdom and maturity.

You’re saying no, anyway: a wise friend once said that whenever she says Yes to one thing, she’s automatically saying No to another. In other words, every new “more” that we take on carries an opportunity-cost with it.

The “more” isn’t bad, necessarily; but it’s also not the best, necessarily. It’s our first obligation (before taking on MORE obligations) to figure out what is best. To make a conscious decision about what should always get the Yes from us.

If that’s something that doesn’t come easily to you – or if you find yourself feeling stressed and guilty about making those decisions and sticking with them – consider one (or more) of the books in this list. They’ve helped me immensely. Maybe they could help you too.

1. Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward
   by Dr. Henry Cloud
2. The Sayings of Confucius [this link is to the free Kindle version]
3. Simpler Living by Jeff Davidson
4. Thoughts [or Meditations] of Marcus Aurelius
5. The On Purpose Person by Kevin W. McCarthy
6. Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives
   by Richard A Swenson M.D.

Do you have any books to add to the list?