Big Changes
So I have been around a lot of change over the last few weeks, in those few weeks I have been looking for a way to deal with it all.
Or instead, accept it and work out what to do with it, change happens all the time, and I’ve got better and working out how to harness the energy and indecision that comes with it.
It still affects me, but I can recognise the different types of emotions and energy coming towards me and either discard them or embrace them.
This time I stalled out for about a week and then I was able to get back on the horse, rather than whine. Of course, whining is way easier to do
I thought I’d tie up how I skipped whining and got into action in this post, change and uncertainty have been complete showstoppers for me in the past, now I am winning.
End Of An Era
The most significant change was the closing of @Work Hubs the coworking space I have worked at alongside my freelance practice for the last three years, but more on that later, the message here is what I did with the time.
Luckily the end of @Work Hubs coincided exactly with the fantastic weather we are having here in the UK and the start of the 90 Day challenge in Content Marketing Academy community of which I am a member.
We’ll start with the 90 Day Challenge, the goal is to commit to producing a consistent amount of content every week for 90 days, this could be a post every day or a podcast every week, but you have to keep up the delivery.
Every week there is a group call where Chris from the CMA gives feedback on how the group are doing.
My first one was a car crash, my second one better and this one I am going to break through the sound barrier.
I produce a lot of content but keeping going all the time is a massive challenge for me, it is also what we talk about in London Bloggers Meet Up and Write Club most of the time.
I mean, how hard can it be? Open a google doc and write something and put it online.
Ever since I published my first blog in 2006 on Blogger I have had this wild fantasy of posting a lot of content; I love it, I mean I LOVE it.
I am crap at writing for other people, but I am great at their strategy, story and making connections between posts and projects.
BTW this is my favourite blog post ever; it is about when I cut the top off of my finger at a restaurant.
More Everything With 90 Days Of Massive Action
Then I got the video below from Jeff in an email; I signed up for Jeff’s Google Analytics course when it came through as a deal on App Sumo.
I have never known where to look for how to get the most out of Google Analytics.
I’ve been following Avinash’s blog since 2009 and get it, but I have would never dare claim about what to do with it.
Which, when you have chosen a path based around making content to make websites rock you kind of need to have a more profound grasp.
Jeff’s analytics course is easing me through the Google beast, don’t ask me anything yet I am still getting a grip on it!
How To Get Big Changes In Just 12 Weeks? More Of Everything
Here Jeff describes how many “more everything” happened after his team produced 90 videos, emails and blog posts in 90 days, of course, there was growth, but the best thing he got was motivation and pace.
At the end of the video, he talks about how it takes him three hours to make a 20-minute video nowadays, not a week.
I have this pace with podcasting, but not with blogging and that my friend is where we are going in the next 90 days.
How You Going To Do That?
Sorry to make this sound way more comfortable than it is, so forgive me for simplifying the whole thing, it has taken years to get here, and it always pissed me off when someone would write a post and say something like ‘it’s just a change of mindset and more green tea.’
You have to make your ‘own’ system, this I read about in Scott’s 2011 book Making Ideas Happen, and I have been tweaking my system ever since, there are about 100 other books, but the one I’d recommend is 12 Week year.
I’ve been following this for around three years now and have read it and read it and read it and then reread it.
We even started a meet up based around 12 Week Year called Not So Manic Monday, which will be back after the summer in September.
In the meantime, my friend Karen and I have a call every Monday to keep each other on track.
We have our goals and report back to each other on where we are and what the breakdowns are and what the intention is for the next week.
I Still Don’t Know What I Am Doing
What I found surprising is that I struggled to articulate what my intention was for the 12 weeks and what I had to do for the next week.
I get ready to go and then don’t know where I am going.
Committing to the “12 Week Year” forced me to write down and say what I am going to do every week.
I even swapped project tools to make sure I had no room for hiding, also though I am a fan of Zenkit and Kanban boards.
But I went back to Todoist because it syncs with Exist App and tracks EVERYTHING I do so I know where I am slacking off.
Exist App connects to Gmail, Fitbit, Rescue Time, Apple health and even Twitter to let me know the combination of habits to have a good day.
When Karen and I have our call, I can report back from the Todoist Karma counter and also see what is happening in Exist App.
Planning And Execution
Another significant change for work this year has been committing deeply to Coschedule again for planning content.
Coschedule it is a content app that works online and sits inside your WordPress website.
From here you can organise, write and publish blogs, Mailchimp emails and all your social media.
I still highly recommend tools like Mindmeister and Zenkit for project planning and execution, but the edge that Coschdule has over these tools for website content is that you are planning your work and working your plan in the same app.
In this current ‘12 Week Year,’ one of my core goals is to get super fast at creating and shipping blogs, podcasts and emails.
That means fine-tuning the processes for Ouishare Radio which my partner in crime Trevor is particularly impressive at.
On my site I need to get sharper at getting ideas from my head to my website like the post you are reading now, this was where Jeff’s video touched a nerve for me.
We’ll be deep diving into “How To Kill Writers Block And Thrive” next week at London Bloggers Meet Up at The Studio in Camden, the new home for all our coworking and Ouishare London antics.
