When you struggle to prioritize the right work and communicate it to the people who matter (including yourself) - it's easy to default to simple, unremarkable tasks. Things you can point to and say "See, I've been working hard!"

But deep down, you know that type of work won't get you where you want to be. If you run your own business (or side-hustle) the feeling can be even worse. You actually own your time but consistently focus on "downhill work" instead of the essay, code, sales calls, or videos that can change the trajectory of your business.

Like you, I had years of frustrating, unproductive work weeks (and months, and years). Sure I was getting things done and had a reputation of a being a "hard worker"... but I wasn't doing the important "uphill work" or focusing on the creative output I knew I was capable of. And since I struggled to define my own priorities and tasks, I sure couldn't communicate that with confidence to bosses, co-workers, or even friends and family who requested my time and attention.

When you combine your power-ups to face these "procrastination dragons" in life, you realize you have what it takes to overcome each challenge and move through the valley to the summit.

You can do this each day with the right tools, community, and guide alongside you. Practically you already know how to be productive, but it’s so dang hard to do in the moment. You get in your own way, and that’s normal! Here are the common mental traps that seek to throw us off our quest each day.

😩  Overwhelm: there's too much to do and I don't know where to start.
🐿️  Distraction: too easily swayed by social media, downhill work, and too difficult to restart.
😳  Self-Doubt: why even try, my ideas are dumb and people don't respond to me anyway.
🔫  Golden Gun: if I can find the perfect tool/app/system to work in, I'll be successful.
👎  Negative Feedback: someone told me my thing sucked and it really wrecked my confidence.

You face these little dragons each day. Dragons of self-doubt and distraction, fear of not being good enough, worry you’ll be found out, of long odds and missed opportunities. We all face them! But we were never taught how to face the dragons of procrastination and fear. You never were given the guidance, outfitted with the tools of a hero, or trained in the subtle arts of heroic productivity.

Every morning is an opportunity to slay the daily dragon. A few successful days lead to a victorious week, sharpened skills, and a much needed confidence boost. Because here's the secret of long-term productivity and reaching the summit of your goals and aspirations.

Successful days lead to victorious weeks, which stack on top of each other into your best year ever. 

There's another wonderful paradox about the span of a week. It's long enough to make real progress on a goal, but short enough that a bad week doesn't wreck the entire year. That's great news. You can even approach a small set of weeks, i.e. a 6 week sprint, to complete a significant goal in a reasonable amount of time. For example, I created this course in a focused 6 week sprint. We will cover all the material + implementation calls in another 6 week sprint.

You can use this framework to strategize what you want to focus on for a heroic week, short sprint, or stacking weeks to achieve a larger goal.

✍️ Want to write a book? Stack 12 good weeks of writing together, like Stephen King does.

💰 Want to hit your monthly sales target? Stack days and weeks of steady sales calls to best fit customers.

📹 Want to start a YouTube channel? Stack 10 weeks of short videos then decide if it's a thing you want to keep doing (more on that 10 round concept in the course, it's a game-changer). 

My favorite scenes of the Lego movies are when the master builders assemble and put together this new thing custom-built for the challenge they face.

With all the different tools and all the different things they have, they assemble this custom design to fight the battle in front of them.

In the scene pictured above Emmet is running into battle. He sees all the opportunities and pieces available to him - and because of his experience and (new found) confidence, it's both a joy and a breeze to assemble the machine in real-time to fight Lord Business and the micro managers.

As you gain experience and inner confidence, you'll start to understand how you can combine different power-ups together to create this master plan for how you're going to do the things that matter to you over time, or even just in the moment.

You may only need to use one or two at a time, but then as you make progress, then you'll start to also see like, "Now I can turn this into a specific goal or project. This is what I want to have accomplished at the end of the quarter." So you start using the goal-setting framework.

You've attached it to the power-ups you're already using. You're assembling the productivity framework that you need specific to that situation. It's flexible because different things are going to happen in your life. You're going to be a different person at 25 than you are 30 or 35. You get new jobs, kids, all these different things happen.

A weekly quest is a perfect amount of time to experiment with different quests and opportunities to grow and gain valuable XPs (experience points). You can identify underdeveloped skills and use new power-ups to "beat the boss" that's kept you from moving forward. Even if the experiment turns out to be a dud, that's ok! You've gained XPs, become more confident, and made intentional progress to becoming more focused and productive in your life.

If it goes well... then now we're on to something. Now you have a victorious week you can begin stacking other successful weeks on. The bigger the stack gets, the harder it is to push over, even when you take a break from it! You can even borrow some of those blocks in the stack to mentally start building another. That's right - when you realize and accept success in one archetype and area, it gives you the confidence to approach new opportunities and challenges.

I'm glad you asked! Here is how the Productivity Power-Up is structured...

🧱 Lesson 1: Starting Stacking Productive Weeks

From the very beginning we start stacking productive, effective weeks. You'll learn how to focus tasks and knock out weekly deliverables that help you make progress on your biggest goals. When you're proactive and intentional at the start of the week it will laser focus your productivity and give you confidence to say "no" or "not yet" to non-urgent tasks that seek to distract us.

Power-Ups & Experience Points (XP) - GAP Weekly Preview

🗺️ Lesson 2: Goal Setting & Creating a Map of Your Life

In this lesson you'll learn different goal setting strategies for short and long term achievement. You'll build confidence with mini-goals and challenges, accelerating your growth and experience faster than you imagined. Think of this as a way to create a map of where you want to go!

Power-Ups & Experience Points (XP) - QMWD Goal Setting & Integration

⏰ Lesson 3: Transforming & Focusing Your Time

The most valuable asset you have is time. In this lesson you'll learn how to better understand and transform the time you have to focus on the "uphill work" that drives the most value. Instead of spinning your wheels you'll create the time for what matters most.

Power-Ups & Experience Points (XP) - Time Tracking, Calendar Blocking, Attention Allocation

✅ Lesson 4: Mastering the To-Do List

In this lesson you'll learn how to master your to-do list and how to resist (even laugh) at the daily distractions of modern life. You'll see how each of the previous power-up lessons combine to help you align daily tasks with long-term goals and how to protect the time you need to thrive.

Power-Ups & Experience Points (XP) - Task Management & Kit Assembly

☀️ Lesson 5: Heroic Habits

You start the second half of the program by applying a heroic habit framework to daily life. You'll see how to supercharge your weekly quests and quickly sidestep those productivity pitfalls with a few simple steps and systems. With habits it's not about how much you do, but how often you do it!

Power-Ups & Experience Points (XP) - Habit Loops & Rewards of Routines

🗃️ Lesson 6: Build a Personal Knowledge Base

In this lesson you'll take a literal inventory of your current work, commitments, ideas, and notes. One of the most common struggles in personal productivity is accessing information and ideas that we already created! You'll learn how to use the PARA method (by Tiago Forte) to offload your "second brain" and never start from scratch again.

Power-Ups & Experience Points (XP) - PARA Method, Personal Knowledge Base

📝 Lesson 7: Effective Note-Taking Systems

Note-taking is the most misunderstood practice of productive people. In this lesson you'll learn a simple system based on years of research and academic proof. When you implement and practice QUICK notes the problem of "how do I start with this project?" will vanish.

Power-Ups & Experience Points (XP) - QUICK Notes, Creative Confidence

🧠 Lesson 8: An Unbreakable Productive Mindset

In this lesson we integrate all of the power-ups to help you see the entire map and understand what's needed of you to keep stacking productive weeks into an epic year!

Power-Ups & Experience Points (XP) - Creative Confidence, Kit Builder Mindset

🏗️ Summit Sessions: You're a Master Builder

In this special follow-up session you'll learn more about how to continue integrating and improving your personal productivity kit. We'll take specific examples from the community and assemble the productivity kit to make each week a victory.

♻️ Summit Sessions: The Cycle Begins Again... and that's a good thing

After a couple weeks we come to realize the cycle of challenge and improvement never ends... and that's a good thing. Without a new call to adventure, we grow stale. It's your nature to be called out of your comfort zone - but this time you have a new mindset and tool kit to meet the challenges of each day.