Prioritizing…Nashville Style

Hey there!

I love Nashville – I love the music, the people (J. Rodney Turner’s there!), I’ve been in films there, I have family there, and there’s a vibe about that town that’s like no other – they get stuff done.

So it’s natural that a Nashvillian would come up with four great ways to make some sense out of your to-do list.

Here are four tips that one NashVegas resident has for making things happen.

David

PS: To celebrate 100 episodes, I’m going to hold a virtual AMA – an “Ask Me Anything” session – for that particular video. I’ll be looking through all the comments you’ve left for the first 99 videos, and grabbing any really good questions you might have and answering them. You can also “ask me anything” via email: just send your question to me, at [email protected], with the letters AMA in the subject line. I’ll try to answer all the questions I get – and it can be about anything you want to know about: VO, acting, on-camera presence, internet marketing, productivity, radio, TV, film, even the process and products I use to put out these videos.


(Click/tap ↑↑↑↑↑↑ that red YouTube button to subscribe to my channel. You’ll get notified when I release new videos.)

Hope this helps!

David

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hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
and I love Nashville I love Nashville
I’ll call it nashvegas I love the music
I love the vibe there I love the people
there Jay Rodney Turner’s there my good
friend Leslie Ellis is their Grammy
award-winning singer my daughter Madison
is their future Grammy award-winning
singer I’ve been in a lot of films there
with dr. Bob the real Bob James I have I
have friends and family and I just love
the way the city feels it feels like
they’re on a mission to make people
happy they get things done and so it
makes sense that a Nashville ioan would
come up with four great ways to help you
prioritize your to-do list I mean we
make two dues and we think okay we’re
gonna write all these things down and
we’ll check them off as we do them and
that’s kind of where it ends but it’s
not about urgency and importance
sometimes we’ll even shift things around
and put things at the top of the list
right
what you should really be paying
attention to according to a guy by the
name of Rory Vaden who I’m now his new
biggest fan
at least widest fan is to take a look at
significance rather than urgency or
importance those are important you know
urgency and importance if something apps
get done right now that’s great but you
also want to look at the things that
will help you amplify magnify getting
that particular thing done for example
and it’s got four things that you can do
the first one is can I eliminate this
task do I really have to do this is it
on my to-do list because I wanted to jot
something down and I managed to jot this
thing down is that why it’s there if so
really be hard on yourself and consider
do I need to do this sometimes we set
ourselves up with busy work that just
takes up a slot on the to-do list right
and then the second thing that he says
to do is if you can’t eliminate the task
what about automating the task right so
he uses the example of online bill pay
right you can’t eliminate that you got
to pay your bills but you can automate
it and I can tell you that in the course
of a month I probably save two hours not
having to write out checks or not having
to go and enter a payment it’s just
automatically handled I think it’s one
of the greatest things that banks offer
I love it and if you can’t eliminate it
and you can’t automate it can you
delegate it now I will tell you that as
of the the time that I’m recording this
video I’ve been working with a new
assistant
Rachael’s still with us but I now have
steena working with me as well
and she’s really started to offload some
of the things that I could have been
delegating all these years but have just
never gotten around to going through the
training and the positioning to make
sure that someone could do that for me
so can you teach somebody else how to do
this pay them to do it can you delegate
it can you have somebody else take care
of it for you
that will move things off or up on your
to-do list as well and then he comes up
with this brilliant idea for the fourth
thing and that is to procrastinate on
purpose and that is do I really need to
do this task now or can I do it later I
don’t know who said this you guys could
go to quote inspector and figure it out
but somebody once said the best way to
deal with something that you have to do
is just wait because sometimes it takes
care of itself
now I wouldn’t rely on that but the idea
that if you consciously say I’m going to
do that later because I need more
information
or I need to be better prepared really
not just I’m procrastinating but I need
to do this in a better state of mind
when I’m not angry like if you’re
writing you know a complaint letter or
something like that
or you have something sensitive that you
need to talk about someone close to you
with and you got to get your thoughts
together that’s on your to-do list but
it’s worth thinking about whether you
need to do it right now or whether it
can happen later so with those four
things and the idea of urgency and
importance versus significance if you
start to think about things that way you
can prepare yourself for the next day
that’s what I mean by amplify and
multiply there are some things that you
can do that set you up for success later
on the next day the next week the next
month the next year so it’s worth sort
of examining how you’re putting together
your to-do list and following those four
steps check it out tell me what you
think what do you think what do you do
with your to-do list what tool do you
use for your to-do list is it just a
paper list do you have something more
developed online like a to-do list
online do you use something like Trello
or asana or what’s the one that I used
to use Basecamp
there’s the tada list there’s todoist
there’s the to don’t list there’s all
kinds of things you can do but if you
keep these things in mind you’ll find
yourself spinning your wheels less and
being able to put things in better
perspective think about significance let
me know what you think in the comments
below I’d really appreciate it
also put on your to-do list that for the
100th episode of these videos I’m gonna
be holding an ask me anything a virtual
ask me anything session and it’s not
gonna be live I want to gather all the
questions between now and then so I’ll
be looking at all of the comments that
you’ve been putting in all of the videos
and if you haven’t seen some of the
videos go check them out leave me a
comment or a question I’ll spend some
time just before we do the hundredth
episode checking that out and if you
haven’t left a comment but you have a
question that you’d like me to answer go
ahead and send me that via email just
put in the subject line I am a question
and that way I’ll know that’s what you
want and then I’ll answer as many as I
can one hundredth hundred first episodes
I don’t know I’ll take as much time as I
need to but that’s coming up the virtual
AMA to celebrate 100 of the 365 videos
that I’ve been doing this year once a
day it’s the challenge and you guys have
been helping me meet it I really
appreciate it if you’d like to subscribe
to my youtube channel go ahead and click
on my head or a subscribe button
somewhere on the page if you want to see
the latest video I’ve done click on that
frame you’ll play it at YouTube I want
to thank you so much I’m David H
Lawrence the 17th I’ll talk to you
tomorrow.

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Responses

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  1. I’ve found that the best way to track to dos is the way that works best for you, not what the newest or most innovative tool is.

    For example, I moved away from a physical planner to google calendars exclusively and found that while scheduling was easier, my task completion spiraled.

    So I use a hybrid and keep a small physical book for things I want to check off and my google app for scheduled appointments. And it’s what works for me, even if others think it’s inefficient. What’s inefficient is using a tool that isn’t helping you to get things done!

  2. Why are you wearing your old glasses? Don’t want you to get neck strain again; we need you to stay strong and keep doing these videos!

  3. These are not my old glasses – the ones that had me tilting my head back. Those old trifocals progressive lens glasses were donated to The Lions Club and hopefully are helping someone else see better. The ones I’m wearing in the video are readers. But thanks for looking out for me!

  4. Hi David, being a fellow radio personality; I wonder if you might be able to elaborate some on the crossover from being trained as an on-air talent to commercial voiceover. Many years ago, I would take VO bootcamps/classes and the first thing I’d get asked is : “do you work in radio?” I guess it’s something with cadences or so I’ve been told. Thanks