The First Seven Days Revealed Something Painful to Me…

One of the most difficult things to do in this planning that I’ve done is to follow it and start over in the new 90-day sprint.

I want to ignore everything that I know will benefit me in the long run for the short-term gains.

It’s 12:45 AM right now as I’m tapping this out, and I have so much that I want to do.

• More posts on TwiX

• More article drafts on Medium

• More ideation for new guides and in-depth tips

More, more, more!

Yet this week, I’m executing as if it’s January again because this is what’s going to pay off in the long run.

Sprint 2 has begun…

We’re in Phase 1 right now.

That means I’m using this time to study and execute and refine on my worst shortfalls in writing.

Here are three universal things that everyone needs to improve all the time:

Titles, hooks, thumbnails.

If I were to go back seven years ago to my younger self, I’d give him this piece of advice because it is timeless.

If you can’t get someone to read your work regardless of how crappy it is, you won’t improve nearly as quickly!

In fact, I’d say that the progression rate is at least an order of magnitude difference.

You could cut the iterative process timeline down from years to months…even weeks if you have that kind of dedication and time.

But we’re 9-5 parents who are doing this…

That’s the nugget that I want to dig into in future issues, but let’s drop down one more rung for those of you who are playing on the ultra-nightmare difficulty…

That’s right, those of with a 9-5 and are newly-minted parents.

You really want to do this?

You’re reading from the right person who (barely) survived it.

Let’s talk about power and time management.

Build in flex time

This balance is going to suck unless you have support, and I mean a lot of it. Otherwise, I don’t recommend it. Content creation is forever. Your baby needs TLC right now.

When you have the responsibilities of keeping a newborn or infant happy and fed and well-rested, you need to have a framework that enables you to adjust on a dime.

Emergencies happen, priorities change, your energy and patience fluctuate throughout the day.

You don’t have time to ponder the implications of what’s unfolding when you’re running on two hours of sleep, diaper in one hand, baby in the other, and all pandemonium is about to start again. You have to stay focused right then and there. Drooping eyelids be damned.

Here’s the motto:

Rigid in habit and flexible in execution.

Your content creation process time has to be in a period when you have both time and power to do it. This is completely different from everyone else so when you first make this leap, take stock of what your day looks like.

If you really want to make this work, you will have to ensure that your partner is on board to support you.

For me, I made sure that my wife was as well-rested as she could be so that she would “happily” go through two rounds of care in a row (roughly 3 to 4 hours) so that I could edit a video (which was what I was focused on with our second child).

It was either that or I would use that time to sleep depending on my mental state. Power and time…you need enough of both so if you’re short on power, use this time to rest and alternate it.

It doesn’t matter what time it is. If you have a block, that’s the block. Two hour blocks are find as well, and how you choose to use it is up to you.

Here’s my general recommendation when you are just starting out, though:

• 25% brainstorming

• 25% studying

• 50% execution

This has served me well in the long run, but my balance is shifted around now these days. I’ll go over this in more detail in the next issue.

Your cadence for content creation, whether it’s creating videos or posts or articles, won’t suffer if it’s every other day or even twice a week. Babies grow fast, and the time periods between changes doubles. Your challenge is to ride the wave and fill in the gaps.

That’s all I’m going to say about this, but to summarize:

1. Set an agreement on what the support and schedule is going to look like.

2. Protect the time slot.

3. Manage your power and time like a hawk.

It’s 1:17 AM. The quality of this issue is probably lacking a bit, and I apologize for that. This issue was about power and time management, and the next one will go into how I use my time in detail.

Thanks for reading!