Welcome to Day 4 of the Club 12 Productivity Challenge - a 7-day challenge designed to help you build an air-tight productivity system.
Here’s what we’ve covered so far:
Conduct a Mind Cleanse — In Day 1, you learned how to beat overwhelm by conducting a Mind Cleanse, which is when you get everything out of your head and onto paper.
Create a task list you can actually get done — In Day 2, you learned how to make your tasks more approachable and actionable.
Find your Peak Performance Period (PPP) — In Day 3, you learned how to identify your Peak Performance Period (PPP)—which is a 3-5 hour window when you have the highest amount of energy, willpower, motivation and mental clarity. This is the time of day when you should be working on your most important stuff.
Today, we’re looking at the most effective way to tackle your tasks on a daily basis.
Let’s dive in…
Not a Club 12 member yet?
I’ve been reading, researching, and teaching productivity for nearly twenty years now. I’ve read all the books and I’ve tried all the systems.
If you asked me to compress two decades of productivity knowledge down to just two principles, here’s what I’d tell you:
Maintain a master list of all your goals, projects, and tasks.
Use the 1-2-5 Method™ to create a prioritized list of actions to work on daily.
Maintain a master list
First, let’s talk about your master list.
If you keep your list in your head, you’re dead.
Start a master list to hold all your goals, projects, and ideas. Keeping a list like this is like having a second brain. And it can skyrocket your productivity.
As you’re writing out your list, think about your bigger, long-term goals (such as a project you’re working on or a revenue target you’ve decided to reach) as well as your short-term, smaller goals (like executing tasks that will bring your project closer to completion).
Create and maintain a master list of your current goals, projects, and tasks. Doing this will put your mind at ease and keep you organized.
Not doing it will leave you feeling distracted, demotivated, and constantly feeling like there’s more to do. You won’t feel at ease, because you’re trying to carry too many open loops in your head.
Make a “master list” of all your goals and projects. It doesn’t matter whether your master list is digital or paper-based. The only thing that matters is that you have a trusted place to put everything you’ve got going on.
After you create your master list, be sure to maintain it.
Add ideas to it as they come to mind. Put goals in it that you want to work on in the future. Keep a list of your current projects in it.
Once you’ve got a trusted master list in place, you can pull from it to organize your week and plan a productive day…
Use the 1-2-5 Method for daily productivity
With a master list, you now have a trusted place to pull from as you plan out what to work on each day…
But how do you decide what to work on? How do you figure out what’s most important? And how the heck do you get it ALL done?
First things first: you do not try to get it all done.
If you wake up each day and create a mile-long to-do list, you’re setting yourself up for failure and procrastination.
Let me show you an easier and more effective approach…
It’s called the 1-2-5 Method™ — a framework I originally created to simplify my own approach to getting things done on a daily basis. Now, hundreds of thousands of people around the world use it to accomplish more each day.
Here’s how it works:
Each day, you pull from your master list of active projects, tasks, and goals — and then create a prioritized list based on three tiers: 1 Big Thing, 2 Medium Things, and 5 Little Things.
1 Big Thing (1BT): Your most important work of the day. It’s the one thing that will have the biggest impact — a project, a hard problem, or anything that needs deep, uninterrupted focus. This is usually something that takes 60+ minutes to do. Work on your 1BT during your PPP.
EXAMPLES
Write the first draft of a report
Build a key feature
Prepare for a big presentation
2 Medium Things (2MT): Supporting tasks that need real focus but are not as intensive. They keep momentum going without requiring your full mental energy. These should take you 30-60 minutes each to do or work on.
EXAMPLES
Respond to complex emails
Review and give feedback
Research a topic
5 Little Things (5LT): Quick wins that clear your plate. Calls, admin tasks, short messages — the small stuff that would otherwise pile up and distract you. These should take you no more than 30 minutes each.
EXAMPLES
Schedule a meeting
Send a follow-up
File an expense report
Here’s how to use it each day:
