Marina Del Ray Author On Writing Bestselling Books

WritingPhoto by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

Ready to boost your productivity to new heights? I recently spoke with Marina Del Ray resident and USA Today Bestselling writer, Russell Nohelty. He is not only an author, he also runs three companies. Clearly, Russell has to be very productive. In our conversation he shares how he does it. Best of all, his approach is actually very simple. 

The One Thing

Russell uses The One Thing approach which was made popular by author Gary Keller. The One Thing focuses on moving one domino or boulder at a time. If you focus your attention and energy on one specific area, you can move past the one challenge that is in your way. And then once you push that domino over, you create momentum. Then you move on to another domino. Most people don’t have one clear intention. They are just very busy. But being busy does not mean you’re being productive. 

For example, Russell wanted to be a USA Today bestselling author. Not so much for the acclaim, he wanted to have this behind his name so get more clients and reach more readers. It took about two years of pushing all sorts of different boulders and working with people to push that boulder over. But he pushed that boulder down in 2018, and says that it felt great. 

Another Important Approach 

Russell uses time blocking during the week to take care of the tasks that are most important. Every block of time is labeled as green time, yellow time, or red time. Green time is when you are working on things that are moving you towards your goal or working with customers. Green time is when you’re making money. 

Yellow colored time is focused on activities that are indirectly related to Russell’s income. For example, these could be things such as customer service, shipping something, or doing payroll. Lastly, there’s red time. These activities have no bearing on making money at all. Some of these things include eating lunch, going to pick up your kids from school, or going to a doctor’s appointment. While all of these things have no bearing on making money, these tasks are still essential, so they must be done. As you can see, this time blocking approach is really simple and straightforward.

Working During The Right Time

It is very important to work when you are most productive and have high amounts of energy. Russell says that while he doesn’t have any kids, he has two dogs that are very, very needy. They want his attention most between about 6 am and 8 am, and 5pm to 7pm. Because of that, he knows that he is most likely to have a problem with distraction during those times. With this knowledge in mind, he does not schedule his green time during those hours. 

When you apply this concept to your own life, consider the times you are most productive and have the most energy. Then consider the times you have the most distractions or obligations to other people. Sure, you might be able to minimize your distractions, but if you fight your own body's energy supply, you'll never reach your desired level of productivity.

A Final Word

 To further connect with Russell I recommend checking out his podcast, titled The Complete Creators blog and podcast. This content helps creators build better businesses and then make the best work of their life. And don’t forget to check out his author website which features his fiction work which focuses on fantasy, sci-fi and supernatural stories.

A special thanks to Russell for our conversation. I truly learned a lot from it. I hope you are able to use some of these approaches to be more productive on your journey.

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