Productivity Systems

Funny, so I’m writing that title for this week’s issue and I realize it comes off as boring. Not much screams “yawn” more than talking about “systems”. 😜

But, it is SUCH as important topic on so many levels. And something I’ve definitely been spending some time on internally here. So, figured I’d talk about it with ya this morning. 😇

Hey there, BTW! 🙏 I hope the week is kickin’ off nicely for you and you’re ready to make things happen.

Busy week here, too. Lots going on. Lots to juggle. Which is also why this topic came up for me. So, let’s dive in…

Featured This Week

How To Reduce WordPress Block Editor Bloat For A Faster Editor

The WordPress block editor was loading up a little slowly. Excess right-side panels and blocks I never used. Here’s how you can disable the right panels and blocks you’re not using in the block editor and streamline things for faster load time.

Tweaking Your Time Management System

Last week, I spent some time re-visiting and tweaking my software setup for managing my todos and, basically, my time. I had some constraints. Some things that were just disjointed.

I definitely don’t come at you here as somebody who has this all mastered. 😇 But, I will just say…

Have you looked at how you managed your own time lately?

Let me share what I figured out… and a few tools. Just in case you find it handy.

See, Concierge means that I end up dealing with a LOT of tasks. Some big and some small. And we use Basecamp for collaboration. Every Concierge client has a private project within Basecamp and we use that to interact so that we don’t lose things in the cluttered email inbox.

Basecamp has a nice task system, however…. it is inside of Basecamp. Which means that client tasks end up being in a separate pool of stuff from my regular in-house tasks.

And none of this stuff was showing up on my calendar, either.

So, here’s what I found….

After some research, I ended up signing up for Todoist. Todoist is a nice task management system. All cloud-based. My little digital sovereign self would usually shy away from using a cloud system like this for something so trivial, however being cloud-based means that it has integration capabilities that I wouldn’t have if it were a local database.

Then, I found Pleexy. This is a simple little web service that can take tasks from a variety of different systems and sync them up with your central task system. So, I use Pleexy to sync Basecamp tasks up with Todoist. Anytime a new task appears in Basecamp, it shows up in Todoist. If I mark it complete in Todoist, it makes it complete in Basecamp. Such a time-saver.

Next, I signed up for Fantastical. This is a Mac-only calendar, but what I like about it is the integrations and how it will put my Todoist tasks right onto my calendar into the same interface. Not only that, it happens to integrate nicely with FastMail’s calendar. So much integrates with Google Calendar, however I just prefer not to use Google tools for such things

I’m still working out a few of the details in this system, but now it is much better integrated than it was before.

Now, aside from tools, a few little strategies I’m paying fresh attention to…

• The benefit of tasks and calendar meshed into one is that you can drag tasks onto the calendar to schedule exactly when they will be done.
• Time blocking is when you designate blocks of your day toward certain things. For instance, client work before lunch, then other things after. Something like that.
• Making use of recurring tasks and recurring reminders is really helpful to ensure you don’t forget things and do successful actions repeatedly.
• Perhaps implementing a daily journaling exercise for a little personal accountability. Just a few minutes to look at how the day went, acknowledge what is working well and things that could be improved.

What works for you?

BONUS TIP: Todoist also has the ability to add tasks by email. Each project as well as the inbox has a unique email address. So, now I can use this within my FluentCRM automation’s to add tasks to my task list based on site activity. For instance, when somebody signs up for Concierge, I now have a task automatically added to my task list to onboard that new client.

Your setup might be different, but between email notifications, webhooks and other such items, you can integrate outside systems within your CRM automations. It can be pretty handy!

This Week In Concierge

Here’s a little of what’s been in progress last week for clients….

• Connected up a client to Amazon SES for sending marketing emails and getting approved for production access
• Built a new video library for a client modeled after my own new video library at BMA
• In the process of re-building a client’s membership purchases using WooCommerce and putting his automated processes together
• Helping a client get set up on xCloud so he could host a host of his own clients
• Recorded a ton of Loom videos to help clients figure things out, such as automations, CRM tags, and building their own Fluent Forms

Also, in the spirit of improving business systems, I’m also trying to take the time to document processes used for Concierge services to clients. It is a challenge doing that at the same time as performing the actual service, but it is just one of those things that…. if I don’t, I will be forever tied to it.

Documentation. One of the joys of business ownership. 🤣

WordPress Quick Bits

FluentCommunity Updates. I’ve been monitoring the development of the next product from the WP Managa Ninja people…. FluentCommunity. They just issued the 1.0.45 update which introduces dark mode, a new editor, a live chat application, FluentCRM integration and much more. It is moving quick. This is going to likely turn into a solid alternative to BuddyBoss, which is something I really look forward to. BuddyBoss needs a competitor.

Pretty Email Launch. BracketSpace is launching a new plugin to build pretty emails…. called Pretty Email. The idea here is to have a custom-tailored editor just for beautifying your WordPress emails. Technically, it doesn’t launch until the 16th, but it is on pre-order.

Smart Events Calendar. The team behind Digital Access Pass is launching a new scheduling tool called Smart Events Calendar. Looks like it has some promise, to be sure. Personally, though, I’m pretty into the “Fluent” ecosystem so I find FluentBooking to be a better fit. But, love seeing the competition!

WordPress 6.7. A new Roadmap to WordPress 6.7 has been posted. It won’t be released until November 12th and it will be the last release of 2024. This version will, of course, include the 2025 theme, improvements to the block editor, HEIC support in the Media Library, improvements to the Query Loop, and much more. Check it out here.

Interactive Polls in BuddyBoss. Version 2.6.9 of BuddyBoss has been pushed out and it now includes the abilty to create polls in the main activity feed or group feed. Similar to how you can do on Facebook. Check out the changelog.

TutorLMS Getting Subscription Support. The upcoming 3.0 release of TutorLMS is going to be getting it’s own subscription support, meaning you will be able to sell subscriptions without relying on an outside plugin. That said, I honestly would just stick with WooCommerce for this. The integrations are way better that way.

WooCommerce 9.3 Launch Scheduled For the 10th. Tomorrow, WooCommerce 9.3 is scheduled to be pushed out. The changes are mostly nerdy, however I do find it worthy of mentioning that they’re saying they reduced the overall code footprint by 27%. The overall size of the plugin has shrunk, mostly due to compression of certain assets internally. More on that here. But, hey, anything to streamline WooCommerce is a good thing.

Business Systems… And Your Website

So, on the theme of my “bonus tip” in the article above, I want to talk a bit more about systems.

To get things done, it requires a system. A system is just a series of steps that create some kind of (hopefully) predictable outcome. Think of an assembly line as an example.

Well, our businesses are a collection of systems.

These systems might not be very well thought out. They may be all in your head. They may not be consistent. But, the degree and quality of the outcomes you get in your business and life are a result of your systems.

And whenever you’re NOT getting the output you want, you look for constraints in the system. These are points of friction. Parts of your system that get bogged down.

And you wanna start devising ways to identify those constraints and then solve them. That’s kinda what I was doing above when I was re-visiting how I manage my tasks.

But, your WEBSITE is a fundamental part of your system. And one thing I have a lot of fun doing is molding a website and it’s underlying tools in order to facilitate the systems of the business that website is powering.

Your website is there to do WORK for you. Not just look pretty.

Some examples of how a website can automate things and move business systems along could be:

• Having a lead generation form that sends specific email notifications to the right people for immediate followup
• Having those same leadgen forms trigger automatic followup email sequences to help close a deal
• CRM automations (like inside of FluentCRM) that create tasks or projects automatically for you or your team to perform certain manual tasks. You could use FluentBoards for this, or integrate with an outside system like mentioned previously.
• Building a form on your site to collect certain specific information you need from a client to perform a job for them, therefore alleviating all the back and forth of manually written emails.
• Automatically sending out requests for a testimonial after course completion, or after a consultation is completed. Then, you can even collect those testimonials using a form on your site, fed into a custom post type so you can do the whole thing on automatic.

What I find is that a lot of people don’t actually look at their business as a collection of systems. And then, even if they do, they haven’t sat down and actually considered all the ways that constraints in those systems could be solved using the mechanics of their website.

I find this kind of thing fun as hell. 🤓 I like to build business platforms and websites that actually do real work and automate. Automate… but without losing our humanity. It just means we can scale ourselves, using the tools of our website.

Wanna talk about it for YOUR business? Get in touch and let’s see what the opportunities are.