How I Got More Done at Live for Today

I had a real proud moment at Live for Today recently.

I sat back at the end of the day and realised I’d finally made progress on the sort of job I used to put off. If you’ve ever finished a busy day with your most important task still on the list, here’s how I’ve learnt to decide what to work on first.

Being busy isn't the same as being productive

For years, I’ve been, dare I admit it, a bit of a procrastinator. I’d open my laptop, look at a list that seemed to cover every part of the business and start with something I knew I could finish. Reply to an email. Sort out a small problem. Get a few ticks on the list before the first meeting.

Those jobs needed doing. The trouble was that I could spend the whole morning doing them and still have the same big job waiting for me after lunch. If it was something like reworking our company proposals, I’d tell myself I needed a decent stretch of time to get into it. Somehow, that stretch of time never turned up.

Looking back, “rework the proposals” was a poor instruction to give myself. I could have started by opening one recent proposal and marking the bits I’d have to explain to a customer. That’s a job I can get on with between meetings. It also gives me somewhere to pick up the next day.

I was getting plenty of things done. I just wasn't always getting the right things done.

Then something changed

At Live for Today, we’ve set ourselves an ambitious annual revenue goal to reach by August 2029. In 53°, we call that a Moonshot. Putting a number and a date on it made it easier to have a practical conversation about what had to change in the business.

We break that goal down into Missions, with up to three live at a time. Each Mission gives us a priority to work on now. Projects and tasks make it clear what we’re going to do about it. If the priority is making it easier for customers to book, for example, redesigning the proposal has a clear purpose. I can ask whether the new version makes it easier for someone to make a decision.

I use the Moonshot view in 53° to see the goal and the active Missions together. It helps when a new idea comes up. I can look at what we’ve already committed to and decide whether the new work is worth moving something else back.

My new approach to getting things done

When I sit down in the morning, I look at what we’re trying to move forward that quarter. Then I choose one job I can make meaningful progress on that day. If I can’t tell where I’d start, I rewrite it as a smaller action.

I try to give that job some time before the inbox takes over. Some mornings a customer or a member of the team needs me straight away. Having picked the job already means I know what to come back to once I’ve dealt with it.

I also use Brain Space in 53° for ideas that pop up while I’m working. I jot down the idea and a line about why it might be worth coming back to. That’s usually enough to let me close the tab I was about to open and finish what I started.

Five times more productive? Really?

Five times was my gut feeling. I didn’t measure it. What I can see is that more of my time goes into jobs I used to carry over from one day to the next.

I judge that by looking at what changed. Did I get a first draft ready for someone to review? Did we make a decision that had been holding a project up? Either can make for a good day, even if there are only a couple of ticks on my list.

The biggest surprise? Less stress.

I used to finish work with half a list still running through my head. An idea I hadn’t written down. Someone I needed to get back to. A job I’d put off and would have to make time for tomorrow.

I still have unfinished work at the end of the day. The difference is that I can see what’s due, what I’ve set aside and where I need to pick up again. That makes it easier to shut the laptop and spend time with my family without mentally planning the next morning.

We're building the tool I wish I'd had years ago

When we started building 53°, I wanted somewhere I could look at the plan for the business and see what it meant for the work I was doing that week. Using it at Live for Today has made that need feel even more practical. If I open a task and can see which priority it supports, I can make a quicker decision about where it fits in my day.

That’s the part of how 53° brings the plan and the work together that I use most. I can follow a job back to the project it belongs to and see why we decided to do it in the first place.

One final thought

Tomorrow morning, before you open your emails, pick one job that will move a current business priority forward. Write down the first action you can finish in one sitting and give it a time in your day.

At the end of the day, see if you can say what moved forward because you did it. That’s what I felt proud of at Live for Today.

If you want to work back from the bigger goal, start with our guide to setting a Moonshot.