I had written ‘write 4 blog posts’ on my goal for the day. It was my batch day for marketing and let’s just say I didn’t get the 4 blog posts written.

I found myself in a rabbit hole of researching new courses to buy on writing welcome email sequences, trying to onboard a new client and getting lost in my inbox… and then I had a new cool product idea come into my head that I wanted to start working on and then I was scrolling through instagram and saw a cool instagram caption that I liked and then I decided I wanted to write out some instagram captions… and well I hope you get the picture.

As a business owner it can feel like there are so many tasks to do, yet it’s hard to stay focused on the one task. I began batching my days and noticed a huge difference, yet I still struggled with what to do when new ideas came because I didn’t want to forget them (and honestly it sounded more exciting than writing blog posts).

I began researching new ideas and ways to do things… and that’s when I came across Ashlyn Writes parking lot method. It was a game changer, I do it a little differently to her, yet had to give credit where credit is due.

Here’s how it works…

Have a notepad and pen (or a virtual one if you prefer!) by you throughout the day and anytime something comes into your head:

1. Write it down

2. Leave it and keep working on the task you are working on

Some examples of things I write down is:
– A cool product idea
– Some task that I need to do that I forgot about
– Someone I want to send a message to and touch base
– A resource to research
– A blog topic idea or instagram caption idea

… this parking lot list can be anything and everything you want it to be.

Now the fun part: sorting through the list

At the end of the day here is what I do:

1. Sort through the list and complete the tasks that don’t take much time, yet are something that need to get done that I had forgotten

2. I put the ideas or big picture goal ideas onto my goals project braindump in Asana

3. Everything left on the parking lot I either: leave it, schedule it, eliminate it, outsource it

For example:

Eliminate it – a course that I wanted to research… and after thinking about it realise I don’t need right now, so I eliminate it

Schedule it – a task that isn’t urgent, so I go to my Asana calendar and schedule out the task for an appropriate day (I use my batch days to help this)

Outsource it – for example a new email header for my email welcome sequence, I will outsource it to my VA to create one for me.

Leave it – I will write that on tomorrow’s parking lot list if it’s something I want to think about or don’t have time to schedule it out; like to schedule a call with my coach and am unsure of my availability yet.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

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