How To Make Progress Every Day

Are you making progress every day?

Or are you stuck?

Here's how to get unstuck and make consistent progress easily...

Even if you feel overwhelmed and behind.

P.S. If you're looking, here are a few things to help you:

- Hang out with 20 marketing directors for 2 days in Orlando, FL at the Momentum conference. You'll walk away with a simple strategy that works, the skills, plan, and confidence to make it happen. ​Click here for details.​

- Download the Marketing Director Roadmap to get the one-page blueprint to succeeding as a marketing director.

Transcript

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This is the Marketing Director Daily, and I'm Tim Parkin. Lately, inside my coaching group, the advisory board, I've been telling marketing directors a lot of the same thing. And so I thought you might be able to benefit from that. And that is how to approach projects, how to get things done faster, how to make it easier, and how to not get stuck, how to not become paralyzed or overwhelmed with the thing you've got to do. How do we make it easy? How do we get it done quickly? How do we make it effortless? So I want to unpack this for you today and talk about it. Because it's a big challenge. There's a lot to do as a marketing director, and you don't have the luxury of time. And you also probably don't have the luxury of resources of people to help get it done. So it's really important that we're fast so we can get stuff done and that we can move through it quickly and easily and not get stuck. When you're stuck, a lot of bad things happen. If you're overwhelmed and you stay overwhelmed, things tend to pile up. And that's never good, that's never fun. Because it just makes it harder to gain momentum, to get moving. When you're stuck and when things start piling up as a result, you become more stuck. The analogy often is if you're digging a hole, stop digging. So we need to figure out how to get unstuck. How do we move even when we don't feel like moving? How do we take the first step, even when we're frozen and overwhelmed and afraid, about how we're going to get it all done? The other bad thing about being stuck is that sometimes it causes us to do the wrong things, that we're reactionary instead of being proactive. And that's a big challenge because we need to be clear and strategic about what we're doing. If we're just reacting and trying to get things done quickly, we can often be doing the wrong things or working on things that won't have the impact that we want them to have. In addition, it's easy to make mistakes if you're just trying to get things done and cleared off your plate because you're overwhelmed, because you've been stuck. But more importantly, if you're stuck, if you're not making progress, if you're frozen, that looks bad to leadership, to your team. It makes you look like you're not being effective in your role. And nobody wants that. You don't want that, and leadership doesn't want that. So it's really important that we have a way to get unstuck, to make progress faster and easier, and to always know how to keep things moving forward. If you can do this, if you're never stuck, if you can constantly be moving forward, making progress every day, and finishing projects fast and easily, effortlessly, a lot of good things happen. One, it feels good to make progress, and progress begets progress. When you're moving, as the Newton laws state, an object in motion tends to stay in motion. And so progress, momentum builds, keeps you going. And so often the best way to get going is to get going. So progress drives more progress. And that's what we want compounding progress. In addition, if you're making progress, if you're able to get things done quickly, you look amazing. You look like a hero. Because frankly, most people can't. Most people get stuck. Most people are slow and they put things off or they get easily overwhelmed by all the stuff to think about. So if you're someone who gets things done, not only do you feel good about it, but you look good too. And that's good for you, it's good for your career, and it's good for the recognition that you get from leadership, from your peers, and from your team. But more importantly, the most important part of getting things done, of being able to take action quickly, is you get data, you get feedback, you get to observe what actually happened. I often tell marketers that marketing isn't about getting results. And that confuses some people until they realize what I mean is it's about learning what works. If you do stuff and you figure out what works or what doesn't work, that's all that matters. The results are irrelevant, in my opinion. Because when you do stuff and you figure out what works and what doesn't, it's really easy. Just do more of what works and stop doing what doesn't. And so when you're able to take action quickly and make progress quickly, you get the feedback. You get to learn what works and what doesn't. So then you can do the right things and stop doing the wrong things. But if you're stuck, if you're not making progress, you'll never learn. And then it'll cause you to be even more stuck. So let's talk about the practical. Let's talk about the step-by-step. How can you take action quickly? How can you be someone who gets things done? How can you make all the progress you want and more? Well, it turns out there's a lot of things you can do. But the first thing that you need to realize is that you are in control. You are in the driver's seat. You get to decide how much action you want to take. And so often we think it's external. We think that there's so much going on, that there's so much coming at us, but really it's you. You have the ability to decide, to process, and to choose what to do and how to approach it. So the first thing is to realize that you're in control and then to break it down, break it into pieces. I can't tell you the number of consultations, conversations, coaching calls I've had with marketing directors, where they have a big, challenging, scary problem, a project that they can't wrap their minds around, or a project that they've been putting off for a while, or a project that's really important and critical that they get right. And at the end of the conversation, what they almost always say to me is, wow, that was a lot easier than I thought. Now I have a clear understanding and a clear plan. All I had to do was take a moment, think about it, and break it down. So if you're stuck, if you're not making the progress that you want, if you have a project that's been sitting there for a while, or if you're unsure of your next step, you've heard it before, but you need to hear it again. Break it down. We use a tool inside the coaching group called the Six Week Project Planner, and it breaks any project into six weeks. You might be thinking, what if I have a big project? Well, that clearly can't fit into six weeks. And so you need to first slice the project down into steps, into phases. What is the first phase? How can you start this? How can you launch it? We don't have to complete the whole thing. We're looking for progress, not perfection. Success, not perfection. So the first thing is to realize how big is this project and what is this first phase? Something you can actually accomplish, complete, publish, launch in six weeks. What does that phase one look like? It's going to be rough, it's not going to be the whole thing, and that's okay. We want to get moving. Because remember, momentum compounds, progress builds. So number one is slice it into a phase one. What is phase one? What can you realistically accomplish in six weeks? Number two is to be really clear on what is the outcome that you want. At the end of a six-week period, for this particular project, for this phase of the project, what is the outcome? The more clear you are on the outcome, the easier it is to actually do the project. That may not sound true, but it is. Completing projects is not about understanding the step-by-step and how to do it because things change. As you get into the project, new things arise, requirements change, et cetera. Life happens. But when you're clear on the outcome from the beginning, we can decide what to do and what not to do. We can choose the fastest path to achieve that outcome. We can set aside our assumptions and think differently, think creatively about what do we really need to do to drive that outcome. So once you have a project that you've sliced down to a phase one, then get super clear, really crystal clear about what is the outcome? What is done look like? What does success look like? At the end of the six weeks, you're telling your boss what you did. What does that look like? What's the checklist of things you could check off to say we did this and this and this, and the outcome was blank. What is the outcome? That's step two. Figure out what the outcome is. And then very simply, step three here is to slice it up. Imagine that your project is a piece of pizza and you cut it into six different slices. I don't know about you, but I can't eat an entire pizza. But I can certainly eat one slice at a time. And so we're going to take your project and slice it up into six different slices. And it should be no surprise here that we'll eat one slice every week. That makes it really manageable, really doable, so you know exactly every week which piece of the project you need to finish, which slice of the pizza you need to eat and when. And I personally take it a step further. For each slice of my pizza, of my project, I outline three to five bullet points, little tiny tasks that I need to accomplish, that if I accomplish those, will complete that slice of the project. And I schedule those onto my calendar and into my project management tool so that every week I know exactly step by step what to do for the project, how to get that slice of the project done every week. So every day I'm making tiny progress that adds up and lets me finish that slice of the project every week. So that at the end of six weeks, my project is done, my outcome is achieved, and I'm making progress. I'm gaining momentum, and I'm feeling amazing about the work that I'm doing. So let me recap here for you. Because being stuck, feeling stuck, and not making the progress that you want is a terrible feeling. And it's not a viable or tenable solution moving forward. You can't afford to be stuck. And you don't have to be stuck. You just need to take some time, take a deep breath, step back, and break it down. Use these three steps to first decide what is a realistic phase of your project, phase one, something you can accomplish in six weeks. Then be clear on your outcome, because that will determine everything. And the more clear you are on that outcome, the easier it will be to slice it up and decide what those steps look like. And then break those down even further into tiny micro actions that you can easily and effortlessly accomplish every day and every week. If you follow this process, if you think in this way, you'll never be stuck again. You'll make consistent progress every day, and you'll accomplish all the outcomes you set out to achieve. It's no fun being stuck, but you don't have to if you make it easy and if you break it down. So go get started today. Take some time after listening to this to break down a project you've been working on, or a project that you're starting, or a project that you're in the middle of. Break it down, get started, and start making progress.