A frequent comment I get is that I do a lot ‒ podcasts, videos, articles, and side projects. How do I manage it all?
Well, I create tasks for myself that are easy to accomplish:
🙄 On a serious note, I do try to stay organized throughout the week to ensure that I create enough content consistently every single week. Here is what that schedule looks like:
Monday
- Plan notes for new podcast episode.
- Get caught up with work.
Tuesday
- Record new podcast episode.
- Edit podcast.
- Publish podcast to Anchor and YouTube.
Wednesday
- Share podcast to social media.
- Side project coding.
Thursday
- Begin writing new article.
- Continue side project coding.
Friday
- Finish writing article.
- Save cross-posted drafts on DEV and Medium.
Saturday
- Publish article and share on social media.
- Try to relax.
Sunday
- Write and publish newsletter.
- Release side project bugfixes, features, etc.
- Plan and prepare for the upcoming week.
I make heavy use of Trello to keep my tasks and notes in one place, with due dates to serve as reminders.
A lot of this ties in to the conversation that I had with Tzelon Machluf on managing productivity. We both agree that sometimes the day job gets in the way of that, and that is where having that M-F schedule helps.
I also asked Tzelon how he manages it himself. Here’s his response:
I have a few tasks (about 5) for each day. This works for me better as I’m not overwhelmed and allows me to focus only on the important things.
So at the end of each day I write ~5 tasks for the next day. 🙂
Sounds like an effective plan to me! I try to do this as well, hence my whiteboard.
Keep in mind that it is also extremely important to take breaks when you feel like you need it. In honor of that, I decided not to do a podcast episode this week as I became more overloaded with other work. Having this upcoming Monday off will definitely help to get me back on track though.
📖 Articles to help stay motivated
Here are a few good reads to help you stay motivated.
- How I learned to be more productive with my workdays by Kelly Vaughn
- Building a product in a week by Miguel Piedrafita
- The Create Camp Manifesto by Tzelon Machluf
🎧 Podcasts on productivity
Here are a few podcast episodes that are good listens on this topic as well.
- Tips for Work Life Balance from Syntax Podcast
- Should You Wake up Super Early in the Morning as Founder? from The Startup Chat
- The Truth Behind The Definition Of “Hustle” from The Gary Vee Audio Experience
What I did this week
I published a new article today titled The benefits and origins of Server Side Rendering. A good read if you’ve ever been confused on this topic.
I also participated in #DevDiscuss, a hashtag-based discussion on Twitter hosted by the DEV community. This week’s topic was debugging, and a lot of people seemed to have resonated with my tweet about the rubber duck debugging technique:
That has been my week. A bit less content than usual but I’m still trying to stay consistent. If I am able to form that habit now, then the rest of the year will go by smoother. I would love to hear from you regarding productivity, either positive or negative. See you next Sunday!