productivity Archives | Solopreneur Solutions

The Parking Lot Strategy: Where Good Ideas Go So They Don’t Wreck Your Focus

Donna Amos — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 18:45:31 +0000

If you’re a solopreneur, you don’t suffer from a lack of ideas.

You suffer from too many good ones.

A new offer concept.
A podcast idea.
A collaboration.
A rebrand thought.
A funnel tweak.
A course outline that showed up at 11:47pm when you were supposed to be asleep.

The problem isn’t creativity.

The problem is interruption.

Every time a new idea enters your brain and you act on it immediately, you pull energy away from your current priorities. Momentum breaks. Progress stalls. Confidence dips.

That’s why the 3-Plate Rule works.

But the only way the 3-Plate Rule survives is if you build a place for all the other ideas to go.

Enter: The Parking Lot Strategy.

Why You Can’t Ignore New Ideas (And Shouldn’t)

Telling a solopreneur to “just ignore new ideas” is like telling a golden retriever not to chase a tennis ball.

It’s not happening.

Ideas are part of your wiring. They’re often signals of growth, evolution, or opportunity.

But here’s the key:

Not every good idea is a good idea right now.

Timing is strategic.

Execution is finite.

Your energy is limited.

What Is the Parking Lot Strategy?

It’s simple.

You create one dedicated place where every new idea goes.

Not your Notes app.
Not sticky notes.
Not random Google Docs.
Not your brain.

One structured document titled:

Future Projects – Parking Lot

Every time inspiration hits, you immediately park it there instead of acting on it.

That’s it.

No debate.
No mini-research spiral.
No “just let me outline this quickly.”

You park it.

Why This Works

The brain resists focus when it fears loss.

When you try to ignore an idea, your brain says:
“But what if we forget it? What if it’s brilliant?”

So it keeps resurfacing.

But when you park it somewhere visible and safe, your brain relaxes.

You’re not abandoning the idea.
You’re scheduling it for evaluation later.

That’s emotional regulation disguised as strategy.

The Monthly Review Rule

The Parking Lot only works if you review it intentionally.

Once a month:

Open the document.
Scan all ideas.
Ask: Does any of this deserve to become one of my next three plates?

If yes, it graduates.
If not, it waits.

Some ideas will sit for six months and suddenly become exactly right.

Others will quietly expire.

Both outcomes are healthy.

The Hidden Benefit: Depth Over Dopamine

New ideas give you dopamine.
Finishing projects builds authority.

One grows your ego.
The other grows your business.

When you protect your focus and delay execution, something powerful happens:

You build depth.
You finish things.
You stack wins.
You stop feeling scattered.

And scattered is exhausting.

Try This Today

Open a new document.

Title it:
2026 Parking Lot

Now write down:

The offer tweak you’ve been thinking about
The side project you keep mentioning
The platform you’re tempted to join
The new branding idea

Put them all there.

Now close the document.

Return to your three plates.

Feel that?

That’s relief.

Final Thought

Growth doesn’t come from chasing every spark.

It comes from choosing which fire to build.

Your ideas are not the enemy.
Your timing is the strategy.

Protect your focus.
Park your brilliance.
Build what you started.

Your future self will thank you.

Download the The Focus System for Solopreneurs

The post The Parking Lot Strategy: Where Good Ideas Go So They Don’t Wreck Your Focus appeared first on Solopreneur Solutions.

Organizing Tips for Busy People

Donna Amos — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 14:44:47 +0000

TOP TIPS

You are busy, and life can get pretty chaotic, right? Between juggling work, home, and everything in between, staying organized might seem like a distant dream. But fear not! You can bring much-needed order to your busy life with a few smart tips and a sprinkle of determination. Ready to get your organize on? Let’s roll!

Make a Killer To-Do List

Start each day with a clear to-do list. Break it down into bite-sized tasks. It’s like giving your day a roadmap – super helpful!

Embrace the Power of Decluttering

Less is more, friends. Regularly declutter your space – trust me, it’s liberating and makes staying organized easier.

Set Up a Command Center

Create a spot at home (or on your phone) where all important stuff lives – calendars, notes, reminders. It’s your go-to organization hub.

Time Blocking is Your Friend

Allocate specific time blocks for tasks. It’s like having appointments with your chores and is a game-changer for productivity.

Digitize Where Possible

Use apps and digital tools for reminders, notes, and lists. They’re handy, and you’ve always got your phone.

Prioritize Like a Pro

Not all tasks are created equal. Identify your top priorities and tackle them first. It’s about being smart with your time and energy.

Learn to Say No

You can’t do everything (and that’s okay!). Saying no is crucial for managing your time and keeping your sanity.

Weekly Planning Sessions

Dedicate some time each week to plan. This little ritual can help you stay on top of things and reduce last-minute scrambles.

Keep Essentials Ready

Have a designated spot for your daily essentials – keys, wallet, phone, etc. It’s a small step that saves a ton of time and panic.

FAST ACTION STEPS

Declutter One Area Today: Pick a spot – your desk, a drawer, your purse – and declutter it right now. It’s a quick win that’ll feel great!

Download a Productivity App: Find an app that resonates with you and start using it for daily tasks and reminders.

Schedule Your Next Week: Take 15 minutes to plan your next week. Put it in your calendar, digital or physical, and feel the stress melt away.

Full Focus Planner: A great resource to structure your goals and implement them daily, weekly, quarterly and annually.

Productivity Hacks and Tips for Solopreneurs

Donna Amos — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 14:47:14 +0000

Being a solopreneur is rewarding, as the amount of money you earn is often directly related to the amount of time you put into building your business. Despite the lack of distractions from the office, though, many solopreneurs struggle to push away all of the distractions of everyday life, including chores, TV, text messages and the various websites that always seem significantly more entertaining than the task at hand.
Ask yourself this question,[Tweet ” If you closed your largest contract tomorrow and it quadruples your workload, can you handle it? #Productivity “]Should we not always be prepared for that moment? If you really want to succeed, use these tips to boost your productivity.

Wake Up Early

You might think that you’re a night owl, but many of the world’s most successful people are early birds. When you wake up early, you’re able to get a few of your tasks done before most people are even starting their days. Of course, to wake up early, you usually have to go to bed a bit earlier. Going to bed late can be a hard habit to break. To help yourself fall asleep when you don’t think you’re tired, try Dr. Weil’s 4-7-8 breathing technique. While lying in bed, you inhale for four seconds, hold that breath for seven seconds, then slowly release the breath to a count of eight. Repeat this a few times and you’ll instantly fall asleep.
Even better is to spend at least 10 minutes when you first arise to meditate. There is an app that I love called CALM you can find it in the app store. They also have a great website you can use. I recently heard a podcast with Hal Elrod where he discussed the Miracle Morning, I have been practicing his process and can say it has been a great help.

Take Some Time for Exercise

Exercise gets the blood pumping, the endorphins rising and the creative thoughts flowing. You don’t have to spend hours at the gym to get the benefits, either. Since you’re waking up earlier, simply take at least 10 of those minutes for a quick workout. This could be a few yoga moves, a walk around the block, or just some traditional exercises like pushups and jumping jacks. Your body will thank you, and you’ll feel energized enough to get through your daily tasks. If you’re not sure what to do, there’s an app for that. Check out the 7 Minute Workout or Nike Training Club.

Get Out of the House

If you’ve been trying to work from home, consider a change of scenery. When you’re in your own house, there are plenty of surprising distractions around. It’s amazing how an undesirable business-related task can make you long to get up and clean the toilet or do the dishes – tasks that you’d normally hate doing. Instead, work from a local coffee shop or hit up the library if you don’t want to spend a few bucks on coffee. In these types of settings, you’ll have nothing to focus on but your computer.

Divide Up Your Work

It’s easy to procrastinate when you’re faced with large tasks like “create a website” or “write a book.” It’s hard to know where to start when you need to do something like this. Instead, break up these large tasks into much smaller ones that are easy to accomplish. If you’re not sure how you can get started with this, consider browsing the resources available at Franklin Covey. This planning system is based on the book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey, and the company offers a lot of great tools for becoming more organized and effective. Or maybe try some of these Successful Entrepreneurial Hacks to become more productive.

Eliminate Distractions

It’s hard to work if you keep checking Facebook, looking at news updates and checking text messages. In today’s society, it’s easy to feel like you have to instantly respond to everything, but this simply isn’t the case. Turn your phone’s buzzer off and keep it in another room to increase productivity. If you have a hard time staying off of distracting sites, you can install plugins that will block those sites for you, like StayFocused.

Focus for Short Time Periods

Sometimes, a bit of momentum can go a long way. Force yourself to work exclusively on a particular task for a set period of time, then give yourself a break. In the Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo, you work for 25 minutes, then take a five minute break. After you repeat this process four times, you can take a longer break. Similarly, the (10+2)*5 method by Merlin Mann is all about working for 10 minutes, taking a two minute break, and repeating this five times (for a total of one hour). These little hacks really help you to focus on the task at hand. Since you don’t have much time to do the work, you work hard to get things done.

Visualize

Visualization can be a powerful tool in helping you stay focused on your goals. One way to do this is with a vision board. This often includes pictures of the things you want to focus on, along with words or quotes you find inspiring. When you’re feeling down, you look at this and are reminded of your goals. Many people do this on paper, using magazine pictures. However, you can also find apps or online versions of vision boards if you prefer something digital. Alternatively, it might be helpful to use a white board to monitor your projects. Having a large visual like that can help you stay on track.

Now or Later

Throughout your day, you’ll be presented with many new tasks you hadn’t originally planned for. The trick is deciding whether they need to be done immediately or whether they can wait until later. Without a boss breathing down their necks, it’s easy for solopreneurs to get off track. In most cases, if it’s something you can do in two minutes or less – like replying to an email or returning a phone call – you can do it immediately. Other things should be saved for later. A tool like Pocket can help you save interesting articles to read later.

Prep for Tomorrow

There’s no better way to start out the day than with a clean work area and a set plan. Make a daily to-do list that includes simple things like taking out the garbage and making sure that all of the dishes get done. Set the timer for the coffee machine so that it will be ready when you are. Decide which of your tasks are most important and need your attention. When you wake up, you’ll feel prepared to tackle the day head on.
It’s surprising how much you can get done when you remain conscious about your day-to-day tasks. By following just a few of these suggestions, you’ll see that your work is a lot more productive, and you’ll start getting much closer toward reaching your goals.
If you have a hack or tip that works for you and your business, please share in the comments.

The post Productivity Hacks and Tips for Solopreneurs appeared first on Solopreneur Solutions.

How Solopreneurs Can Increase Productivity

Donna Amos — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 15:04:27 +0000

The term “solopreneur” is starting to gain traction in modern business jargon. Put simply, it’s a portmanteau, or etymological blend, of the words “solo” and “entrepreneur.” Essentially, a solopreneur is an entrepreneur, or savvy business person, who is, at this stage in their career, mostly working alone or for themselves. I became a real solopreneur in my coaching business in 2002 and then renamed my business in 2009 to Solopreneur Solutions. It’s not a career choice that suits everybody, but solopreneurs tend to choose self-employment as a means of spending more time with family on a schedule that suits them. Solopreneurs want to spend time on their own aspirations rather than someone else’s, but that means that the risks and costs associated with not succeeding as a solopreneur are far greater than those incurred working for someone else. Increasing productivity—not to mention maintaining it in the first place—is extremely important for all solopreneurs, but without a boss hovering over your shoulder it can be hard to summon the motivation to remain productive and constantly meet your productivity goals. Here are some tips to increase and maintain your productivity under your own steam, so you can maximize your time and effort for optimum results:

Timing Is Everything

[tweet_dis inject=”@Donnaamos”]Your circadian rhythm dictates when you’re tired versus when you’re most awake, and it changes throughout your life. Young people, particularly teenagers, are most awake at night, and least productive in the early mornings—while people past the age of fifty tend to find themselves doing their best work in the morning and zoning out after dinnertime. Of course, the person who knows your rhythm best is you. So if you work when you’re at your most productive and allocate high-priority tasks to those times, you’ll find that your workload and its associated stresses will diminish in opposite proportion to your increasing productivity.

Set Priorities and Stick to Them

When you’re going over your tasks for the day ahead, you need to prioritize them, in order, from most important to least important. This also involves rationally approaching tasks. Do you really need to do everything on your to-do list today, or is there a low-priority task that can give way to something more important? You always want to tackle the harder, most unpleasant tasks early in the day, particularly if you’re an early riser. Brian Tracy wrote about this in the book, Eat That Frog. This takes advantage of your ability to focus and leaves you stress-free for the rest of the working day.

Set SMART Goals

You need to set goals in order to achieve them. Increasing productivity is that simple, but your goals need to be relevant to your big-picture plan of attack. Using the SMART acronym enables you to set, and stick to, these sorts of goals.

S is for Specific. Make your goal clear and unmistakable.
M is for Measurable. If you can’t quantitatively assess your success, how will you know when you’ve achieved your goal?
A is for Attainable. Your goal needs to be realistically achievable. This critical step maximizes productivity and avoids slumps in morale.
R is for Relevant. Does your goal contribute to your business? What does it mean to your overall plan?
T is for Time constraints. You won’t get anywhere if you have forever to achieve your goal, so set a time limit within which you need to reach your target.

[tweet_dis inject=”@donnaamos”]Setting SMART goals means that you’ll achieve what you set out to achieve and know exactly when you’ve done it. It’s a great way to boost morale and productivity so that you can get the most out of your busy day.

Use the Pareto Principle

The Pareto principle goes by a few names, including the 80-20 rule and the law of the vital few. It’s named after Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that twenty percent of Italy’s population owned eighty percent of its land, and twenty percent of the pods in his garden produced eighty percent of its peas. So, in basic terms, the Pareto principle assumes that twenty percent of your problems will take up eighty percent of your time. As a solopreneur you know all to well that effective problem solving can mean life or death for your business, you know the disproportionate impact a cranky client or malfunctioning machine can have. The other side of the coin, though, is that twenty percent of your actions can give you eighty percent of your potential benefits. This rule of distribution might sound a bit corny, but if you pay attention you can observe it in business and in nature. Stick to this principle and use it to dictate your priorities and time allocation.

Here are a few tools solopreneurs might try to increase productivity.

The app Forest helps to stay focused and be present. Whenever you want to stay focused you plant a try, it takes 30 minutes for the tree to grow, if you leave the app during that 30 minutes then you will kill the tree. So if you have the habit of looking at your phone every 20 seconds this could be very helpful.
RescueTime gives you an accurate picture of how you spend your time to help you become more productive every day. RescueTime premium gives you the ultimate control over your productivity. Track time offline, receive alerts, block websites and much more.
Pomodoro technique is a simple and fun way to manage your time. You can read the book here. And there are a few apps that help with implementation. One of them is focus booster a simple app for implementing the promodore technique for time tracking.
Are you a solopreneur? Do you have a favorite productivity tip or app you recommend to help increase productivity, please add it to the comments below.

The post How Solopreneurs Can Increase Productivity appeared first on Solopreneur Solutions.

4 Tips for Staying Productive While Working From Home

Donna Amos — Sun, 14 Jun 2015 14:25:16 +0000

When you began your solopreneur business you may have chose to work from home, the thought of working from home appeals to a lot of people for some pretty obvious reasons. You get to skip the commute and have complete control over your environment, in addition to never having to worry about what the weather’s like.
However, working from home can present its own challenges, which you may not expect. Many find it hard to maintain the same level of productivity that they achieve while working in an office. However, with a few simple tips, you can minimize distractions and maintain a balance while you work from home.

Vary the Scenery

In an office, you’re exposed to a number of different environments on a daily basis. Something as simple as going out for a lunch break or getting coffee means time away from your person’s workspace. The same holds true for things like going to a different floor of the building to talk to someone from another department.
However, working from home can easily leave you feeling trapped in a rut when you spend all day working in the same space. Because of this, it is important that you set aside time for activities outside of the house.
Something as simple as going to the gym or taking a walk can break the monotony and help you feel refreshed and energized. Don’t forget that there are many co-op workspaces available for telecommuters, as well as coffee shops, libraries, and bookstores that offer free or inexpensive Wi-Fi.
You can also do something as simple as taking your laptop and going to an outdoor space at your home to work or setting up a desk on your treadmill and spend some time there.

Keep Set Work Hours

Being able to set your own schedule is one of the best parts of telecommuting. However, it is very easy to procrastinate if you have no schedule in place at all. The pressure that you feel when you work in an office can actually help most people get things done by a certain time. This is why it is important to maintain a fixed schedule.
However, if the 9-5 grind doesn’t work for you, telecommuting leaves you the freedom to work when you feel most productive. If you find it easier to concentrate after dinner, that’s fine. If you prefer to get up at 5 a.m., more power to you. Just set aside specific hours for nothing but work.
And just like in the office, don’t forget to take breaks! This helps you keep your brain fresh for any task. Grab some coffee, do a couple stretches, step outside for some fresh air.

Get Rid of Distractions

One of the most difficult things about working at home is that it’s like a gingerbread house full of temptations and time-wasters, and this can be a big hindrance to getting things done.
The best way to deal with this is to create a dedicated workspace. This can vary depending on how easily you become distracted. Your space could be anything from a certain chair at the kitchen table to a whole dedicated home office.
However, you should eliminate any potential source of distractions from the space (like a television), as you’re more likely to succumb to the temptation to procrastinate when you can actually see distractions from your workspace. Clutter can also become a distraction, so keep your space orderly, you will accomplish more.
One more distraction to consider is family and friends, often when you work at home they think you are available at anytime to chat, shop, run errands and anything else you can think of. Make certain you put boundaries in place from the beginning, this will keep the distractions at a minimum as well as prevent hurt feelings.

Get to Know What Works for You

As we’ve already touched on, not everyone thinks — or works — in the same way. When you work from home, you can keep yourself on track by designing your environment and processes around what helps you thrive.
It’s not just about scheduling, either. There’s no cubicle to work around, no open workspace to distract you. Now’s the time to consider that standing desk or an exercise ball to replace your office chair, or splurge on a double monitor setup. Do you need natural light, or do you prefer a darker room? Do you prefer to deal with email in the morning or at the end of the day? All of these are decisions you can make to help you stay focused and on task.
[tweet_box]Working from home is a wonderful thing for business owners, but you should be prepared for challenges and temptations. [/tweet_box]Then, take steps to counteract them. Make your space and your processes your own to achieve maximum productivity.

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