Question: Can you guess what they are?
Answer: The beginning and the end.
Sometimes getting started can be so difficult. There’s often a lot of thinking going on, and strategy. In the beginning not much is being built so it can feel like there’s not much progress being made. But as you continue to push forward, you begin to pick up momentum.
Eventually you reach a flow where you’re cranking out content and it almost feels like you’re on cruise control.
But then things start getting a little challenging. You’ve lost your initial excitement for the campaign and the build out is really starting to feel like work. To make things worse, you’ve saved some of the hardest, least enjoyable tasks for last. You ask yourself, will the lose ends ever be tied up?
Sound familiar? While most of us can chuckle at relatable struggles, in the end there’s nothing funny or even fun about partial implementations, campaigns that never launch or falling short of needed results.
As human beings and entrepreneurs, we want to be making progress, achieving results, even if those results aren’t monetary, they’re results. It’s at the beginning and end when we’ll engage in diversions (demonstrated in the top chart on this page) because it feels like we’re not obtaining the results we desire. Simple awareness of this pattern should help, but is there anything else we can do?
As a matter of fact, there is. Have you ever heard of the Pomodoro Technique?
It’s a time management method I’ve recently adopted that has dramatically increased my productivity while also extending the overall amount of time I’m able to work during a day.
The Pomodoro Technique is based on four main principles:
- Work with time – not against it
- Eliminate burnout
- Manage distractions
- Create a better work/life balance
There are six stages in the technique:
- Decide on the task to be done.
- Set the pomodoro timer (traditionally to 25 minutes).
- Work on the task until the timer rings. If a distraction pops into your head, write it down, but immediately get back on task.
- After the timer rings, put a checkmark on a piece of paper.
- If you have fewer than four checkmarks, take a short break (3–5 minutes), then go to step 1.
- Else (i.e. after four pomodoros) take a longer break (15–30 minutes), reset your checkmark count to zero, then go to step 1.
We’d love to here your thoughts and experiences on building campaigns (and actually launching them). If you have tips, tricks or questions, share them in the comment section below.
Happy Charting,
Team Graphly
P.S. Return to our blog this coming Monday for another hand drawn chart.
