2 Minute Drill Magic

Today's an off day for me. I know that's probably not what I'm supposed to say on Day 2 of The MAP Year, but the whole point is to be honest and not performative. So this is me being fully transparent: I'm writing this because I have to, not because I want to. It's the first time in a long time I've felt that way about writing, too. It's been more than a year and a half since starting my newsletter, over 6 months of publishing weekly podcast episodes, and about 6 weeks of writing daily posts like these via email.

Now, a couple paragraphs in, I already feel a bit lighter. That’s why I still use the 2 minute drill. It's something I picked up early on in my customer service days for making stuff on your to-do list feel manageable. Back when I was working as a marketing rep for NOLS, one of the responsibilities that our team shared was handling the company's customer support inbox. We all had access. On a given day, we'd rotate through portions of the CS inbox, on top of working through our own. So I started using "the 2 minute drill."

First thing in the morning, after parking my bike outside and filling my coffee, I'd sit down at my desk and pull up the CS inbox. Then I'd start going through the list of emails, looking for ones that would take less than 2 minutes to respond to. If one was going to take a lot longer, I'd mark it unread and move on to the next one. So on and so forth.

A crazy thing happened... after knocking out a handful of Twosies (lil nickname for the 2 minute drill emails), I'd find that the momentum made the bigger ones feel less, well, big. So I'd tell myself I'd work on one for two minutes. Then, I could close it out and come back later if I wanted. But that was almost never the case. Once started, I'd keep going until it was done. Unless, of course, I got pulled away for a legitimate reason.

So, as you can see, that's what's happening here. Today was not my day. My to-do list is long, and my cheer is in short supply. But the 2 minute drill has helped me once again.

Here's a snapshot of my simplified to do list:

Top 3

1. record and edit podcast episode & write companion essay.
2. reformat a growth strategy roadmap for a client.
3. edit MAP Year tracking template.

Next 5

• weekly essay writing.
• respond to substack comments.
• schedule monthly Creative Circle call.
• schedule monthly Tech Troubleshooting call.
• onboard new client + access to shared drive, project plan etc… 

Our Daily MAP Year Prompt 
02/365

How much of my stress is self-imposed? What can I eliminate, automate, or delegate—in that order—to make things more manageable?

If I were to zoom out, is there an actual reason why something on my to-do list can't move to make my workload a bit lighter?

onward.
-dmac