I just had a healthy snack, and now I have energy. It's not going to last long, because it wasn't really a healthy snack. It was a hostess cupcake. But I'm good for a few minutes, so I've got to do this now.
I've got to make this work. Hello, and welcome. Welcome, indeed, to the Daily Grateful. I am Michael Kroos, and every day, every weekday, I show up here and talk about stuff.
Stuff that I'm grateful for. Some stuff that I'm not grateful for, but I want to be grateful for. Some stuff that I'm fixing to get ready to be grateful for. Thank you, Scott Smith.
I stole that from him. Scott Smith, by the way, the Daily Boost podcast, you need to listen every damn morning. It's that good. You really do.
But anyway, on today's edition of the Daily Grateful, while I still have my sugar high, how do I prioritize ruthlessly? I mean, you know, you've got to get stuff. You've got to get it done. I've got ways that I've always done it, but I've got to tell you, there's things that you can add to that.
My son, Zach, helped me with this. He really helped me with this. I'll get into that in a minute. But here's what you do.
I use a yellow pad. All right, guess what? I'm not using a yellow pad right now. I'm using this little notebook that I got at a podcasting convention in 2019.
I just found it, and it's small, and I'm carrying it with me. And I put my, you know, ruthless priorities in there. And here's how you do. You identify the biggest goals and what really, truly matters.
I mean, you've got to do that. I only do three, okay? Never more than three. You write down more than three things, and I can't tell you about it.
Or I'll just tell you about me. I have an ex-wife who can write down 30 things and just go like a bat out of hell. Not me. And by the way, she wasn't really that great at getting all this stuff done, and she'd usually beat her out halfway through.
Notice how I'm not identifying the wife that I'm talking about? That's on purpose. But anyway, you list everything that's on your plate, three of them. Then I sit down, and I do this brain dump thing where I have these things listed, and I have several lines in between each one.
And I just put all the things down that I need to do to get those things done, big to small. Just go and get it. Categorize these things by the importance of what it is and how to get it done. That's very important.
Deadlines. You've got to be honest about deadlines. Can something truly wait without a consequence? That's an important question to ask.
And then delegate or eliminate. I've been known to do that. I will delegate if I can, and I'm good at doing that. I'm reasonably good at doing that.
And the other thing that I do is I do time blocks. I was working yesterday on a presentation that I gave last night. Actually, I did it today. I'm recording Wednesdays on Tuesday night.
So it's confusing. I know, but stick with me. I had to get a PowerPoint presentation done. I'm the worst damn PowerPoint creator that you have ever seen in your life.
I really suck at it. But it's necessary, and it really adds to a talk. If people can look at my ugly face and then look at a pretty picture behind me where I'm describing what I'm talking about. Okay, it's just very important to do that.
So I blocked time, and I blocked an hour in the morning to just go to town on this damn thing. And then I decided how many slides I needed. It was 27. I decided that.
Okay, and I would block an hour. And in that hour, I had to do 10 slides. Well, I wasn't that successful with that. I would get seven slides.
Then I would take a break and then watch something on YouTube or something, and then walk right back in to the computer where the thing was set up. And I would block another hour, and I would go after it with the goal being 10. Well, the second hour, I actually did 13. So by the time I was done, I think there was 28 or 29 slides.
But I got it done. It was exhausting as hell. I've got to tell you, it was exhausting as hell. Other things that you can do.
And this is what Zach taught me how to do. He was so damn good at this. And he just had this common sense that he was born with. And since I created him, I cannot believe that he knows this.
Batch similar tasks and group errands or calls together, which I was terrible at. Probably still am. And Zach used to say, doesn't it make more sense to put this together with that? And I hate it when my youngster makes sense.
But he was right. He was just absolutely freaking right. So I learned how to do that well now. Just to take the similar things or especially errands that can all be done together and just batch them all together.
Say no a lot. Okay, don't be afraid to decline tasks. Don't be afraid to say no. Do it graciously.
But say no, because a lot of people want me to do stuff. And I have learned how to say no. Embrace the power of later. Not everything needs to be done right now.
But you take those important things. The three things on the list. You need to work on those. But other stuff that's coming up in the rear, they don't have to be done today.
Put them off and forward another day. It doesn't even have to be tomorrow. Okay? And then the other thing that I like to do is I like to acknowledge when I get something done.
When I got that PowerPoint done, I was so happy. I went through it like three times to make sure I didn't screw it up. And I stuck it on the flash drive. And I was off to go give my talk at office feeling good.
You know, I was feeling like really, really good. So it's important to give yourself time to do stuff like that. It really is. So I'm grateful for all that I've learned when it comes to prioritizing things ruthlessly.
Damn it. Okay? I'm grateful for Zach for helping me out on the big thing that he helped me out with that by putting things together, grouping things together that are similar. You know?
I'm grateful that I found this little book. It's so easy to carry around with me. I'm liking that. Oh, well.
Tomorrow is Thursday. And on Thursday, we talk about podcasting. I don't know why, but we just do. So on tomorrow's show, stay tuned to learn something new about podcasting.
For The Daily Grateful, I'm Michael Kroos. I don't know why, but we love you. Thank you.