Day 5 - Uncovering Common Mistakes (A Way To Avoid Customer Frustration)

An easy way to create a smooth path for your users

Today we add the common mistakes our customers may make as they apply what we teach them.

This is Step 4 in creating Atomic Courses. See the full outline of my process here.

It's easy to assume that when we teach a lesson, a customer will do exactly what we suggest without error. But this is NOT what happens. They will make mistakes.

Help them avoid errors by describing them in advance and offering a solution.

In my outline, I added a bullet called "Mistakes" for each lesson in the course. This process took about 10 minutes.

When you review the outline, you'll see that I added the word "Mistakes" in bold to each lesson and then listed mistakes.

This is a small step but quite valuable. You don’t realize how many mistakes you’ve made and learned to avoid until you start looking for them.

Your future customers will appreciate you took the time to do this step. You’ll save them hours of needless frustration.

That's all for today.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Rodney

P.S. I made a 3-minute video explaining more of the thinking that went into the outline. You can see it here.

The outline is just below the subscribe area.

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The outline so far

• Part 1: Setup iPARA

  • Defining each element

    • What are the elements of iPARA?

    • Why are the elements organized as they are?

    • How do you sort stuff into each box?

    • Examples:

      • show 10 items on a desktop, then explain where each goes and a reason why

      • Video demonstrating the sorting of items from a desktop into PARA folders

    • Mistakes:

      • Overthinking each element (search can find something if you "misplace it")

• Part 2: Using PARA daily

  • Adding stuff to the Inbox

    • Why add stuff to the inbox and not just find the right place for it immediately?

    • How do you add stuff to your inboxes?

    • When do you add stuff to your inboxes?

    • Examples:

      • Found a web page with some cool info for a project you may do someday,

      • read an article about potty training (parent of a 9-month old),

      • found a great quote in a book you read and you typed it up in a note

      • Saw a gift idea for your Christmas that's month's away

    • Mistakes:

      • Not scheduling regular time to review your inbox

      • Not adding a note to explain why you saved something

  • Producing projects

    • What do I mean by "producing projects?"

    • Why is it important to produce a project?

    • How do you use project folders to help you produce projects?

    • Examples:

      • Fully Alive Program,

      • five training courses I do every year,

      • PARA course

    • Mistakes:

      • Not keeping the same name for a project across all your systems

• Part 3: Maintaining PARA

  • Weekly Review

    • What is the weekly review?

    • Why is it essential?

    • How do you conduct it?

    • Example: Video demo

    • Mistakes

      • The Either/or error - do a little if you can't do it all

  • Monthly Review

    • What is the monthly review?

    • Why is it so important?

    • How do you conduct the monthly review?

    • Example: Video demo

    • Mistake:

      • Not having this in your calendar