Day 6 - Adding the Incremental Exercises
How we keep our customers from biting off far more than they can chew
Day 6 is when we add the heart and soul of every course -- the incremental exercises.
Today we follow Step 4 in creating Atomic Courses. See the full outline of my process here.
At this stage, we don't need to create all of the instructions yet. Just describe the exercises in general. List steps if you know them already.
Important point: Put boundaries on infinite tasks.
In the course I'm planning, a customer could easily spend hours on just one exercise if they let it go on too long.
Those exercises have limits.
Do X 10 times
Do Y to 3 items
Do Z for 10 minutes
Otherwise your customers end up exhausted and feeling like they didn't make much progress.
A specific limit, gives them a hit of dopamine when their brain says "Yeah, I finished the task!" Review the outline below and you'll see that I marked the word "exercise" in bold and wrote a bullet describing the exercise.
It took less than 10 minutes.
That's all we need at this stage.
See you tomorrow for the next update.
Rodney
P.S. The outline is just below the subscribe button.
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")
Exercise: Listing 3 projects, 3 areas, 3 resources and 3 archives and put them in a note in your inbox
Exercise: Sort 10 items from your hard drive or browser bookmarks into PARA.
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
Exercise:
Add 1 web article to your inbox,
Add a note about your progress through this course to your inbox
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
Exercise:
List all of your projects
Create a folder for one project that doesn't have a folder
Make a note that lists three thoughts or ideas you have about the project
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
Exercise:
Schedule your first weekly review - block an hour even
Put the date in your digital calendar with a link to your weekly review checklist
Follow the weekly review checklist
Monthly Review
What is the monthly review?
Why is it so important?
How do you conduct the monthly review?
Example: Video demo
Mistakes:
Not having this in your calendar
Exercise:
Schedule your first monthly review
Put the date in your digital calendar with a link to your monthly review checklist
Follow the monthly review checklist