The Full Focus Planner by Michael Hyatt (24:03)

Transcript (v2):

Using the Full Focus Planner by Michael Hyatt Company. 

So in this module, I'm going to show you how to use the Full Focus Planner by Michael Hyatt Company. 

So they have a few different versions of this planner. I've got here the Classic (version) in oatmeal. They also have a more compact version of this, which is a little slimmer, a little bit more like the Productivity Planner, that doesn't have separate notes page(s), and just is a little bit more concise, that I think if you have ADD, that might be a better choice for you.

They also have an Executive version of this which is just a little nicer on the outside. Inside, everything's pretty much the same. So let's just do a quick walkthrough. 

When you get the Full Focus Planner, what you're going to want to do, is you're going to want to go to FullFocusPlanner.com/start

And when you go there, they've got a whole series of videos that will walk you through each part of this planner. 

Now, this is a very robust planner, and it can be a little overwhelming and a little intimidating when you first see it. So what they suggest, and I agree is, is the best place to start is just with the Daily pages; just setting your "Big 3" for the day and number #1 priority, number #2 priority, number #3 priority.

Anything else that you might want to do in terms of Other Tasks. You've got a Calendar section here where you can write in your appointments, meetings, Zoom calls, etc. 

And the Full Focus Planner is actually a quarterly planner. So what Michael Hyatt teaches (is) is basically to break your Annual Goals into Quarterly Goals, and then use one planner per quarter.

So this lasts 90 days. 

So go through and do the videos. And then you've got a place at the start for your Annual Goals. So you can sit down and write down what your Annual Goals are. 

So here's an example from I think this is my first planner, ever where I wrote down all the goals that I had set for last year.

And of course, this was at the beginning of last year before Covid. So we had to do a lot...some adjustments to this. 

And then I kind of wrote them in this would be (done in) quarter one, this would be quarter one, etc.. What you'll notice though here, is that a lot of my stuff was quarter one, one, one, one, and you can't do that.

And the reality is you can only focus on 2 to 3 goals per quarter. So this helps you to really think through that and try and figure out what your order and what your priorities are. What's the lead domino? What's the first thing that's most important? So you can start off with your Annual Goals. 

Then they've got what's called a Goal Detail pages where you get to break down your goals into a what's called a S.M.A.R.T.e.r. framework.

So what you want to do here is write your goal down in a way that it's Specific, it's Measurable, it is Attainable, it's Relevant, and it's Time-based. 

And then the “E” in S.M.A.R.T.e.r. is Exciting. In other words, it's going to be a goal that is, that excites you. If you're not excited about it, then it's not going to motivate you.

And then the “R” is Risky. So it should be a goal that has a little bit of risk to it. In other words, there's something that challenges you about the goal. If it's not challenging you at all, then it's also not going to motivate you. It should be something that pushes you just above your comfort zone or a little bit outside your comfort zone.

So that's the framework they use. You've heard of S.M.A.R.T. Goals.; They just use S.M.A.R.T.e.r., so just add excite - exciting, and risky. 

So then you're going to list what (life) domain that is; spiritual, emotional...What what type of goal it is. 

What your Key Motivations are; In other words, you're Why? Start with your Why! It's really important to go, okay, well, why do I really want to achieve this, and really think through that, and write that down?

And then you're going to list some Next Steps. You're not going to list everything that you need to do, but what are the next steps? What's the next 3 to 5 things that you can do to move forward on that goal?  

And then what's your Reward? If you accomplish that goal, how are you going to celebrate that

And that's really important to do, because I can tell you I have a tendency not to do that for some reason. But you need to take time to celebrate the wins, whether it's a daily win or a weekly win or the big goals. And you put something there that's a reward. It might be to treat yourself to a spa treatment or something like that, or for me it's to buy usually a piece of gear, like a new camera, or a new lens or something like that.

So something that's going to spur you on. 

They also have a section here for what's called a Streak Tracker. So if this is a new habit that you're trying to create, let's say you want to write every morning for 15 minutes, which is the new habit that I'm doing. Or you want to start the habit of journaling, and using something like The Five Minute Journal.

You can actually write that here and you can check that off and create that new habit. 

So this is an example of what I wrote last year. To give you an example here. One of my goals was to just start creating my own Podcast, and to go all in on doing that. That was again, pre-Covid - I point that out.

So I wrote down some things here. 

One of the things that I like to write as a key motivation is “the Cost of Not”; in other words, not just listing the Pro’s as to why I want to achieve this, but the cost of what would happen if I don't. So I write down here, you know, if I don't achieve this, nothing's going to change.

I'm not going to grow my audience, and I'm going to grow my influence. I'm not going to reach the people that God's called me to reach. 

So think about the cost of not doing, or working on, not accomplishing that goal. That can be really important. 

So here for the Podcast, some of the benefits in my specific case were to drive traffic to my website, to promote and market and sell my products and services, because this is something that was in my passion & strength zones.

So, you know, when you're doing the stuff that's in your passion zone - that you love to do, that you enjoy and that you're really proficient at, you're always going to be happier. 

Not only going to be happy, you're going to get better results than doing something that you're not really passionate about, and maybe you’re not really good. 

Sometimes we can learn to do things, and we can become somewhat proficient at it. Especially as a business owner, because we have to at the beginning do everything. But it's not really what we should be doing.

We get to a point where we need to start delegating some of those things out. Like Bookkeeping. Or maybe it's things like Social Media that, you know, you like some of it, but you don't really have the time to do it.

For me, I just want to be Creating Content. That's my Focus; Creating Content. Creating Content. So now I have other people to help me to do some of that work.

So then I listed what the next steps were. 

So for this particular goal was to write an action plan of what - a detailed action plan of all the steps. 

Then to find a podcast host, which was anchor.fm. 

Then to outline my content of what I was going to do first, which was going to work. And I chose to do a podcast dealing with voice-over services because that was one of our big areas of profitability with voiceover.

So that was the first episode that we did. 

And then we Recorded the clips and we, we put that out, we Published it. 

So in my particular case, we were doing an Audio and Video Podcast, so it was a lot more involved than just doing the regular Audio one. So we had two cameras. I had the talent here, we filmed it, we recorded the audio, we then cut a trailer for it and we did a trailer.

We promoted the trailer, then we did episode, we did a five minute preview (episode) so people get a feel for what was actually going to be contained. So it was a highlight from the first two episodes that we had, Part 1 of my interview with one of the voice talent folks that I work with - Jewels Jaselle, and we did Part 2.

So this goal was accomplished. Well, some of it was accomplished. We only did that because we had to pivot because of Covid, because I couldn't get other people in the studio and I didn't want Todoist on Zoom, at least at the beginning. Now I'm probably a little bit more comfortable doing that. So that's how you break that goal down.

And from there, I actually put this into Todoist, and I put the action steps into Todoist, so I have a digital version. 

And then I track my time in Todoist. So when I'm in Todoist, I can connect that to the Promo app. And when I'm working on one of the action steps or on this goal, I just click that timer, and now I'm tracking my time on that goal.

And I know that I'm working on something that's important to me, because I actually listed this as my number #1 goal at the beginning of the year.  

So that's the Goal Detail page. Now they have about 10 or 12 of these in the Full Focus Planner. You do not need to do that for every goal. In fact, you'll be overwhelmed if you do that.

The recommendation is you only write down or fill out the Goal Detail pages for the goals that you're going to work on in that quarter. So if you're in quarter #2, only what you've listed for quarter #2. maybe two things or three of the goals, would you actually fill out that goal detail page (for). You don't have to do this all over again every time you start a new planner. 

You do rewrite your Annual Goals. And while some people may find that a little bit of a a pain point, I actually think it's good. It actually reminds you every time you write these things out, every quarter, it's reminding you of what you said was most important to you at the beginning of this year.

So that's the Goal Detail pages. 

They then have a Monthly Calendar section, which I don't use a whole lot, but you can put certain things in there like holidays, spring break, jazz trip, Easter, Passover. 

They have a section called Rolling Quarters. Again, I don't use that, but if you working on a large project, you could put Project Milestones here for that project that you're working on.

So if you're doing, say, a new website, you could have an okay Brand Script by this day, Wireframe by this date, First Draft this date, Second Draft after feedback, API Connections, (going) Live. So you can use this as a Project Planner if you want to. I don't use Rolling Quarters.

And then they've got a section, and this is a very important section.

This is a section for your Daily Rituals. 

And what you're going to do there is you're going to write down your Morning routines, your Workday Start up routine, your Workday Shutdown routine, and your Evening ritual. And we're going to go into a lot more, a lot more detail on that. I'm going to show a example where I have one here.

Okay. So here's an example of (of) some of my rituals;

Get up at a certain time. 

Start my Podcast; I usually listen to a sermon, or, something that my church has got out right now, we're doing this series on the Book of Proverbs, so a short ten minutes on that. And then one of the other podcasts that I listen to, such as Focus On This podcast, or a Business Made Simple podcast, or a number of the other business and productivity ones that I like to listen to..

Coffee. Make the Bed. Go to the Bathroom, Shave, Shower. And Start Work.

One of the things I've done this year is I actually turn my water to cold at the end of my shower. I got that tip from Dan Miller. So I start off normal at about 9 o’clock and then I turn it down to about 7:00 and 6:30. What that does is it just kind of wakes up the body. I know there are people like Tony Robbins and others who go into an actual cold bathtub or something with ice and that shocks their body.

That's what I do. It's a little trick that that I found works really well for me. 

And then I have my Workday Startup. Now, this has changed a little bit since I first did it this way. But I go through, I start my day, take my (ADD) tablet, will go into that (later). 

And I go through my Five Minute Journal, which is basically going through a list of different things that I'm Grateful for.

What would make Today Great?  

And then I'm Affirming something; In other words, I'm taking something that's a biblical truth usually, from my quiet time or sermons I've listened to, and I'm affirming that in a manner that is positive. 

So, for example, 1 Thessalonians 5:16 says; “Rejoice in the Lord. Always give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you”. Actually, it says “Be Joyful”.

So I've affirmed that here in this section; 

 “I am Always Joyful, Prayerful and Thankful - in All Circumstances”. 

 And the reason I've written that is not because I am, but because that's what God calls me to be, and that's what I need to be. So by saying that instead of just saying; “I am great”, “I am awesome” (etc.), that's not what I use affirmations for.

I'm using them to state and to reaffirm a biblical truth that that I need to remind myself of and focused on. 

And here's another one; “I am so Grateful for ... ”

Again, I’m trying to Change my Mindset and my Attitude to be Grateful and being more Positive. 

And it's amazing how much more Productive you will be and can be when you're Thankful, and when you're Positive, and when you're Grateful

So that's part of what I do. Here's another one; 

 “I am capturing every negative limiting and negative thought and replacing it with a positive, good and true and faithful thought”. 

So that's been Philippians (4:8), where Paul writes; “Whatever is True, whatever is Pure, whatever is Noble, (Ah), Lovely, Excellent....Think about such things”. 

And that was early in February. And that's so important in the world where we're constantly bombarded with negative, negative, negative, negative.

We went through years with every piece of news on the (mainstream) news, or in your Facebook feed was negative. Every day was some some big disaster. And you can live like that if you want to (bombarded by negative inputs). I choose not to! 

So, that's part of my Morning Routine now. And this was a new habit that I started. Now, I used to do this.

You'll notice if you go to my Daily pages, I had a Gratitude List here. So I was doing this before and I had my Quiet Time and a Scripture, etc. Okay, there's the same scripture again. So I'm really working on that! (laughing)

But now I just do it in this Journal and this forms the basis of most of my Morning Routine.

So Daily Ritual's. Workday Shutdown, which is basically just putting an end on the day. I've worked from home for like 20 something years. A lot of you have just started working from home due to Covid, and you're enjoying it. But one of the downsides of working from home can be that you're always “on” (call), and there's no end to the day.

And it's really important if you want to be productive, that you have a set Start time and a Finish time, and that you put an end to the day.  

Whatever that time is for you, 3:00pm, 5:00pm, 6:00pm - that you wrap the day up. And what I basically do is I'll take a look at my productivity score for the day, number of hours I’ve worked. I'll go through and I'll tick off what I've done or haven't done.

Okay, so he has a good day or actually did some things on Monday. I did my Weekly Preview. I did some financial stuff, and I did some visuals for my web page - for the Marketing Agency services page on my website. So I did that, and this is how I use the Daily Pages. So we'll get onto the Daily Pages now. And again, what Michael Hyatt teaches is no more than 3 things. So you pick your "Big 3", what they're going to be, you list them here. 

And I will put a time here. You can put them into your calendar. Or if you're using something like Todoist, you can put them in Todoist with an alarm. 

And then I have some other things and you can use Other Tasks to put other tasks that you're doing, like return this email, send a message to so-and-so.

You could also use it to break down those "Big 3" into smaller bite sized pieces. So for for this, I have to do, you know, A, B and C. So it's a good way to do (use) it. 

The great thing about the Full Focus Planner is that has a full Notes section, which is really, really awesome. So you could use this to journal, which is what I was doing.

You can also use it for things, again, (like) Quiet Time Scriptures, I write things like that down (here). You can write - use it to do actual notes. So for here I was working on this day on my web page and I was going through a number of different pages and I have to check out certain things. So I needed to make sure the form - that I had a capture form on every one of these web pages, to capture an email address, and that I had my metadata on each page correct for SEO.

So you can use, that's how I use the notes that day. 

When I'm having a meeting, I will write things down sometimes there. I don’t have an example here, but meeting notes are really good, you can use it for meeting notes. 

Tutorials - when you're trying to learn something new. I will write notes for software and things like that that I'm learning.

So a lot of different ways that you can use the Notes page. 

Now that is only in the Full Focus Planner in the Classic or the Executive (style). As I say, they have a Pocket Planner that is a slimmed down version, much like the Productivity Planner, which we'll go into in a separate video. And that one, it has a smaller notes section.

So if you're a person who writes a lot of notes, then the Full Focus Planner is great because you can have them in one place. 

It also has a section at the end for additional notes, and an Index, and places where you can sketch. So a lot of people like to sketch things on and grid paper, especially if you're a creative person and you want to visualize something.

They have a whole section there where you can just sketch things. So you can do some mind mapping and things like that. Or create a landing, a web page, a landing page or sketch that out, etc.. 

So that's the essence of the Full Focus Planner. It's mostly the Daily pages. Now, the other section that's very, very important is the Weekly Preview.

And this to me is the most powerful thing in the planner.  

Oh, there's a section for Ideal Week which you can use. I actually just do it on my my calendar. 

This is section for Key Projects now the new one.

But the the Weekly Preview is at the end of each week (turning pages). And they have a very detailed weekly preview.

So essentially what you're going to do here is you're going to list your Wins for the week. So what were your biggest wins and your accomplishments for the week? 

Then you can do an After Action Review on what your "Big 3" were for that week. So every week your planning, your listing, what your "Big 3" are for the week, these are my top three priorities that I need, I want to finish.

I need to finish. So how far did you get in that? 

Then you're going to talk about What Worked and What Didn't? So what about the week worked for you that helped, and what didn't work? What's not working right now? 

Maybe it's your computer. Something on your computer or software or technical piece of gear isn't working. Maybe just something relational with people you're working with isn't working and there's some tension there, some stress there.

So you write that down. And then you list down, what can we Keep, Improve, Start or Stop? Or you can just remember the KISS acronym K.I.S.S. What do you need to Keep this week? What can you Improve? What do you need to Start doing? And What do you need to Stop doing? 

Then they have a section here for Personal and Professional tasks (carryover). And the idea here is that you go through your week, and whatever didn't get done, either from your "Big 3" or Other Tasks, gets listed here. And that may be something that you're going to look at before you finalize your "Big 3". 

They have a section here where you can plan out your week, and you can list like, ok Monday... if you want to Theme your days, for example, you could say, okay, Monday I’m going to do Content (creation), Tuesday is going to be for Meetings, Wednesday is going to be for Marketing, Thursday is going to be to create more Content, however you want to do it.

You can use this for anything you want. You could use this for your Workout schedule. You could use it for a Meal Planner. 

You've got your (Weekly) "Big 3", of course, the most important section. 

And then you've got what's called a Self-Care Planner, where you plan the things that you need to do to recharge yourself. So for sleep, maybe you want to get to bed at a certain time, or you want to turn the TV off at a certain time.

What are you going to do this week to make sure you get enough sleep? What are you going to do this week to make sure you eat right? Nutrition is so important. Move; What are you going to do for exercise? 

You need to schedule these things. What gets scheduled gets done! 

What are you going to do to connect relationally with people?

I can't stress how important it is to have that weekly connection with people. So whether it's in-person, or via Zoom, or on the phone with a friend. Who do you want to connect with that week? 

And then what are you going to do to relax, and I mean relax, whatever that is for you? For me, it might be going to the beach and just sitting under the umbrella and doing nothing, or listening to some music.

Maybe it's just getting some extra sleep. Maybe it's just reading a good book. Whatever it is that you need to do to recharge the batteries.  

So that's the Full Focus Planner. And I can look back and I can say this helped me to accomplish a lot of the goals that I set in 2020. 

So it's not magical, but writing your goals down, having a weekly preview process where you review your wins, what you didn't do, what worked, what didn't, what you're going to do better this week really, really helps.

And the other things that this has in it is a Quarterly Preview at the very end. So you can go back and do a quarterly preview and look at your highlights for the quarter. Again, the same format; What did you Accomplish? What didn't get done? What Worked, what Didn't? What can you improve? What can you Keep doing? Improve? Stop? Start?

It's the exact same format for each quarter. 

And what you can do is, the Full Focus Planner has a Facebook page as well as a paid group called Compass, where you can do virtual weekly previews and virtual quarterly previews.  

So if you struggle with having the discipline to sit down and do those, that planning, you can log on live and they will walk you through that. And (they’ll) say, “okay, we're now going to list our wins”, and they give you 5 minutes.

“We're not going to list...”, and there’s a whole bunch of you on that call, on that Facebook Live. And you can do it live, or you could just watch the replay and do it that way. 

Or you could set up a call with a friend or a buddy who uses the same system, and an accountability partner. And you could do the same thing to push you to do that.

In fact, Full Focus Planner has just created a audio walkthrough for your weekly preview that you can download on your phone, play. And you'll hear Blake walking you through; “Okay, now list is your wins”. “Now list how you did on your ‘Big 3’". And you just follow the prompts and do it. So that's the Full Focus Planner.