My GET IT DONE System In A Nutshell (Part 1 of 2)

By Bryan Ward, Husband, Father of 4, Inc. 500 Entrepreneur, and Founder of Third Way Man

I used to be the WORST procrastinator.

I'm talking a whole 'nother level of dysfunction… as in waiting so long to change my watch after daylight savings time that it synced up again six months later 'cause I'd never changed it.

Yeah. Like that.

I use to blame it on being a "creative type."

The REAL reason? That eluded me for years (more on that in a minute).

I tried every productivity system you can think of.

I read "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey.

I read "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.

I tried day-planners, tickler files, productivity apps, and every time management method under the sun.

And I was still a frustrated, procrastinating, nothing-to-show-for-it-all mess.

In the next few pages, I'm going to show you the breakthrough system I developed that works specifically for busy dads, so you, too, can seize the opportunities around you and GET IT DONE.

To kick it off, I'm going to give you the crown jewel of my system: my daily action plan process, captured on one piece of paper.

It's embarrassingly simple… and it has absolutely changed my life.

Thanks to this one piece of paper, I…

* Grew a client's company 10X from $20K to $200K per month in sales in 6 months

* Cofounded a health supplement company and grew it from nothing to $33M in annual sales in 5 years, earning a spot on the Inc. 500 and 5000 list two years in a row

* Spent over $1M a month (profitably) on Google AdWords

* Wrote copy that brought in over $3.3M in sales

* Generated over $1.2M in affiliate commissions

* Sold over 240,000 books online via paid advertising

…all while working roughly 6 hours a day (sometimes more, sometimes less).

Given my distractibility, and laziness, and the fact I have a wife and four kids, age toddler to teenager…

…I needed a system that was simple, effective… and Bryan-proof.

After years of trial-and-error, I finally nailed it.

Here's my favorite part… my one page daily action plan:

(See, told you it was stupid simple…)

Now I'm going to break it down for you, one part at a time, so you can see the elements that make it so powerful.

Part I: The Core

The first part is what I call The Core:

What's the Core?

Put simply, it's the "legacy-grade" work that SHOULD constitute the core of your workday:

The big, bold actions that change the game and create legacies…

…the work that builds empires…

…the work with the potential to OUTLIVE you.

For me, that means…

* Writing content
* Writing sales copy
* Creating and refining the vision
* Selling products and services
* Brainstorming new products, collaborations, and strategies
* Finding talent

Notice that CORE work comes first, before FTA (I'll unpack "FTA" in a sec).

There's a reason for that: these are the FIRST THINGS I do every workday.

BEFORE my meetings.

BEFORE I pick up the phone.

BEFORE I read the reports.

And, most definitely, BEFORE I check email.

Not just because I'm at my most creative and productive in the morning, but because this allows me to plant my flag on each and every workday:

To say to each and every distraction… to every person who would happily derail me, "this day is MINE, not yours."

Notice also that there are only THREE action items here.

That is by design: a minimum of 3 hours dedicated to a maximum of 3 tasks (I actually prefer ONE task, done for three hours, for ultimate work flow).

So… that's the first piece.

If you do nothing else but block off your morning to do CORE work… your life will change DRAMATICALLY.

Of course, that isn't the only piece of the puzzle. You're a dad, after all: your life is busy, and complex, with multiple demands…

…which leads us to the next part.