January 14, 2025 • 24 mins
Unlock the secrets to a highly productive and successful 2025 with the Align Productivity Framework. Imagine setting goals so impactful that they transform your year, all while crafting a clear action plan to make them a reality. This episode promises to guide you through this powerful system, grounded in the wisdom of productivity giants like "The 12 Week Year," "The One Thing," and "Atomic Habits." From dreaming big to defining the steps necessary to achieve your visions, I share how you can break down your ambitions into 90-day SMART goals that truly align with your long-term aspirations.
As we dissect the principles of the 12 Week Year, you'll learn to prioritize effectively and harness the power of deep work sessions. Whether it's developing a new course to generate six-figure revenues or simply battling the whims of Dallas weather, I share personal insights and practical strategies to help you stay on track. And don't miss the lighter reflections on the quirky, unpredictable climate shifts that keep Texans on their toes. Join us next week for a special segment on the top 10 pitfalls to dodge on your journey to achieving those ambitious goals.
Resolutions off the rails? You’re not alone. But there’s still time to turn things around. The ALIGN Productivity Challenge is a proven system to help you achieve your goals in just 90 days—no fluff, no overwhelm. Head to AlignProductivity.com and start your comeback today.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Episode 270,.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Late Night Internet Marketing.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
This week on the Late Night Internet Marketing
Podcast, I'm going to give youeverything you need to have an
incredibly successful 2025.
I'm talking your best year ever.
I'll be introducing my AlignProductivity Framework and I'm
going to give you everything youneed to get productive right
away.
All this and more on the LateNight Internet Marketing Podcast
(00:29):
.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
The Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast.
But you want a business to runyourself.
You want to know how to startand where to begin.
Can you get out your comfortzone, my friend?
Yes, you can do it right whenit's late at night.
(00:58):
At the end of the day, yourdream's burning inside.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
So keep it up and you will find and now broadcasting
late at night from a littlestudio in the big state of Texas
, your host, mark Mason.
Hey, hey, hey, how is everyonedoing?
I am your host, mark Mason, andthis is the Late Night Internet
(01:29):
Marketing Podcast, where wetalk about building businesses
online.
Even if the only time you haveto work on them is late at night
, I'm coming to you from thelittle studio in Dallas, texas,
and of course, it's that time ofyear again where we sit down,
stop down and talk about goalsfor the coming year and a lot of
(01:50):
discussion about the best wayto achieve them.
Now I've been working on goalengineering and outcome
engineering, both professionallyand as a side hustler, for a
long time.
Professionally, we're talkingabout three decades of achieving
outcomes in my corporate lifeand with a late night internet
(02:11):
marketing podcast.
This is a topic we've been onnow for more than a decade and
we've gone through an evolutionwhere we've taken the best
learning from some of the bestbooks out there.
12 week year, the One Thing,atomic Habits 5 am books that
talk about getting up early inthe morning and how to do things
(02:33):
, and year by year, I'veincorporated those into what I
refer to personally as my ALIGNframework.
Now, the ALIGN framework isreally an acronym and it stands
for assessing goals, listing thesteps that are needed to
achieve those goals, initiatingthe action that you need to make
(02:59):
those goals a reality on aday-by-day basis, gauging your
progress and nurturing thehabits that underlie a
successful outcome.
Now, that's the Align framework, and what I want to do in this
podcast is explain it all to youso that you can get started
right away.
I'm actually, later in January,going to be coming out with a
(03:21):
very, very inexpensive AlignProductivity short course, kind
of a mini course, and the greatnews about that course is, as a
loyal listener of the Late NightInternet Marketing podcast,
that's going to be available toyou free of charge when it's
released later this month.
I'll have more information onthat next week, but this week I
(03:44):
want to set the stage, whet yourappetite, maybe, get you
excited and even get you startedabout what's involved in the
Align framework and kind of theculmination of really 20 years
of reading literature andunderstanding what makes
productivity work for mepersonally and for other people
(04:04):
around the world.
Okay, so in the Align frameworkwe start with the letter A,
which I told you is assess goals, and by this I don't mean the
standard old way that we talkabout.
I think it's really good tohave smart goals and it's really
good to have a goal I want togrow my email list by 5,000
subscribers by July 3rd.
We're going to get to that, butreally, what I want you to do
(04:27):
is reflect and dream, and theconstruction that I usually use
for this when I'm coaching is ifyou and I just me and you were
in a Starbucks or a coffee shopmaybe something even better than
a Starbucks and we were havinga conversation one year from
today and you were so excitedfor the meeting because you
(04:49):
couldn't wait to tell me whatyou were so proud of, what you
had finally been able toaccomplish.
You didn't even think you coulddo it, but you've been able to
do it and you were so excited totell me that.
What would that be?
I think it's good for that tobe a smart construction.
In a way.
(05:10):
I think it's good that it'sspecific and measurable and
attainable and time-bound all ofthose things relevant to your
bigger goals.
But if we were talking in ayear, what would you tell me and
what would get you reallyexcited?
And maybe there are many thingslike that that you would like
(05:32):
to accomplish, many large goalsthat you have for the coming
year.
For this purpose of thisexercise, I want you to reflect
and dream about the goal that'sreally would be the most
impactful to you.
What would change your life themost?
What gets you most excited?
What are you most fired upabout?
What do you really want to gooff and do?
(05:53):
And for the purpose of thisexercise right now, let's just
choose one.
That's the A in the Alignframework is assessing your
goals.
Once you've assessed a goal,then what we're going to do is
we're going to move on to the Lin the Align framework and
(06:14):
that's list the steps for thegoal.
Now we know from the veryfamous book the 12 Week Year
that we can accomplish in 90days what it takes most people a
year to accomplish.
So what we want to do is set avery specific 90 day SMART goal,
(06:34):
something aggressive andmeaningful that's aligned with
our dream.
It's the first of maybe fourbig steps that we're going to
take to achieve this year longdream, but we're going to set
the 90 day goal first.
So what do I mean?
Like this Maybe you've decidedthat your big goal by this time
(06:56):
next year you want to addsix-figure revenue to your
business so that you can have asix-figure business.
You're starting at zero, butyour big dream is that you want
to have a six-figure business.
Well, maybe the first thing youneed to do in 90 days is create
a new course that can be thebasis for this new revenue
(07:18):
generation, and maybe that'sgoing to be a pretty good size
course with many videos thatyou've got to film and you've
got to lay out the course and dothe research, do the marketing
for the course and maybe youdecide that's about a 90 day
project for you.
That's the kind of goal thatI'm talking about and we want
(07:39):
that to be a very specific 90day smart goal.
In 90 days, on April 1st, I'mgoing to launch a new course
called XYZ course.
It's going to be a seven modulecourse and each module is going
to have five videos.
This is a 35-video course andit's going to cover XYZ topic
(08:03):
and I'm going to launch it tothe market on April 1st and it's
going to sell for $297.
And that's my 90-day SMART goal.
And the reason that that's sucha great goal for me is it
aligns with my vision of$100,000 new revenue stream and
the basis of this is going to bethis new course.
(08:24):
But I'm going to do the firstpart of this the very important,
most part in 90 days and when Ithink about that, as I'm in
this listing steps, the stepsthat I want to list are one week
chunks.
In the first week, I need toget clear about what the course
is about, outline it, do themarket research and so forth.
(08:45):
That's necessary to get a clearoutline.
In the second week, I'm goingto create the slides that I need
for all the video presentations.
In the third week and fourthweek, I'm going to film all of
the videos that I need to makeall 35 videos.
I'm going to really kill it andI'm going to film all those
(09:07):
videos.
In weeks three and four and soon.
If you mess with that for awhile, write that down and get a
rough outline for what you wantto accomplish each week.
This is again very welldescribed in the book, the
12-Week Year.
But this is where you liststeps and here's why we do this,
because step three, the I inthe Align framework, is that you
(09:30):
need to initiate daily actions,and here's the problem I think
that everyone faces.
This is something that it tookme a long time to figure out.
I would wake up on a randomTuesday morning and not always
be crystal clear on exactly whatI needed to accomplish that day
(09:53):
.
What is it on the secondTuesday in February when I wake
up?
What's the one thing, the onecritical task that I need to do
that day?
So in step three, we'reinitiating a daily action that
supports our goal for the week.
So let me give you an example.
(10:14):
Let's say that our goal for theweek is to film 15 videos, and
we know that's a rate of two orthree videos a day.
I better be making sure thatthe one thing that I get done on
that Tuesday is filming thenext two or three videos.
It doesn't matter if the phonerings, if other stuff happens.
(10:34):
Other stuff gets in the way.
The one thing that I'm going toprioritize is that I am going to
get those videos recorded.
Why?
Well, because I've got this12-week plan and in this week I
know I need to be recordingvideos.
Well, why am I doing that?
Because I need to build thiscourse.
(10:55):
Well, why am I building thecourse?
Because I have this vision.
I have this aligned vision thata year from now, I'm going to
have a new $100,000 revenuestream and it's going to be
based on this course that needsthese videos.
And that means on this Tuesday,if I'm going to realize that
(11:19):
dream, I need to be recording.
See, if you had just said Iwant a hundred thousand dollars
in a year, it would be reallyhard for you to tell me exactly
what you needed to do on arandom Tuesday.
So what I recommend for each dayis that you have one task that
you absolutely must get done and, if possible, you block out a
(11:40):
deep work session on yourcalendar to to actually get that
work done.
It is like a doctor'sappointment or an airplane
ticket where you can't move it.
You gotta be there and you'regoing to get that work done.
And then I recommend that youhave two additional tasks for
those great days when you get alot more done than you expect
(12:04):
that you're going to get done.
Now, in this video recordingthing, super easy you record.
You're going to record twovideos today and, if everything
goes well, you'll record a thirdone maybe, or a fourth one, but
the key thing is that that onecritical task that you've got to
do today to support the goalthat you've got to meet this
week to support the goal thatyou're trying to achieve in 90
(12:27):
days.
That gets done today.
And I've found that the key tothat is blocking a deep work
session for one hour.
And the way I do it is I takethe first five minutes to get
organized, get myself together,I work for 50 minutes and then I
take the next five minutes tokind of stretch and decompress
(12:51):
and stretch out.
And you know, as long as I get45 or 50 minutes of deep work in
in that calendar time, I thinkthat I'm always happy with that.
And I get 45 or 50 minutes ofdeep work in in that calendar
time, I think that I'm alwayshappy with that and I get an
amazing amount of work done thatway.
One of the daily habits that youneed to do to support this is
the habit of scheduling deepwork.
(13:12):
And the second habit that youneed in order to make this work
is that you need to, daily andweekly, make sure that you are
staying on track with your plan.
And that gets us to step four,the G you need to gauge your
progress, monitor and adjust,and the best tool and this is a
(13:36):
tool that goes all the way backto David Allen and getting
things done.
The absolute best tool you cando for gauging your progress is
weekly reviews.
And what are we doing in ourweekly reviews?
We're touching base with thebig picture, emotionally and
mentally $100,000 of new revenueand all the things that that
means for you and your life, andthat exciting conversation that
(13:59):
you want to have one-on-onewith me in a cafe a year from
now.
Every Sunday I sit down and Itouch base with those goals and
then I take a look at myquarterly plan and I honestly
reflect on where I am in the12-week plan, how I did this
week with regard to the plan.
Did I do a good job or not sucha good job?
(14:22):
And I adjust accordingly.
And maybe that means I need towork a little extra hard next
week.
Or maybe it's that I recognizethat this week wasn't such a
great week and I give myself alittle grace and I act
accordingly next week and do alittle better.
Or maybe this means that thisweek, you know, I'm doing my
(14:44):
weekly review and last week Iskipped it and I see that my
habits aren't exactly what theyneed to be.
Whatever I'm doing, I'mmonitoring and adjusting, and
I'm doing that once a week.
I do mine on Sunday nights.
You may choose to do yours onMonday morning.
What's important is that you doit.
And then step five is to nurturethe habits.
(15:06):
That's the N in the AlignProductivity Framework and you
know, really, habits arefundamental to having sustained
success in anything, and Irecommend that you review the
book Atomic Habits.
But for you, your habits aregoing to be things like the
(15:28):
weekly check-in, about having aplan each day with an hour of
deep scheduled work and, for me,checking in at the end of the
day and maybe journaling alittle bit.
Man, today was not great.
Today was really great a littlebit.
Man, today was not great.
Today was really great.
And I've started using chat GPTa little bit for this, where
chat GPT and I are having aconversation about how things
are going and it gives meencouragement and so forth.
(15:49):
Like that I think artificialintelligence will be
increasingly valuable in therole of kind of sideline coach,
where every day you kind ofbrain dump into something like
chat GPT and it's able toorganize your thoughts for you
and create a really nice journalentry for you, so you have a
(16:11):
record of what's going on.
So here's the thing If you'reable to stack together, using
the Align framework, 90 days ofreally significant work and in
most of those days you're ableto do the work that you said you
were going to do Not all ofthem, but most of them, maybe
(16:32):
way more than half, but notnearly all of them what you're
going to find is, if you stackup day upon day upon day of
progress and that progress isproperly targeted at the most
important goal, this 90-day goalthat you set at the beginning
of the Align framework, you'regoing to be amazed at the
(16:53):
progress you're going to be ableto make and the thing that
you're going to be able to buildjust simply by staying on
target for 90 days and remindingyourself every day that
tomorrow is going to be a newday where you're going to work
on a very specific thing thatsupports your overall 90-day
(17:15):
plan.
This is the Align framework.
Now there are a lot of toolsand techniques and worksheets
and a lot of things that I planto deliver in the course that's
coming in the month of January.
I will make sure that'savailable to you.
You can sign up to be on thewaiting list at markmasoncom
(17:37):
forward slash align.
That's markmasoncom forwardslash A-L-I-G-N.
Get on the waiting list and,like I said, listeners of this
podcast will get this course forfree when it first comes out.
And what I'm hoping for is thatyou'll love it and you'll write
that down and you'll become atestimonial for the course, and
(18:00):
really that's the idea, apartfrom rewarding you for listening
to the podcast, because Ireally appreciate you and I hope
this is helpful to you.
So that's the Align framework.
Very straightforward Assess yourgoals.
List the steps needed toachieve those goals.
Goals list the steps needed toachieve those goals.
(18:24):
Initiate daily actions in orderto execute the plan.
Gauge your progressrelentlessly and honestly, week
by week, and nurture thefundamental habits that are
needed to generate wins.
You know you're going to havesetbacks and that's okay, but
you're also going to have smallwins and I want you to celebrate
those and you will be amazed,when you stack these things up,
(18:47):
what you can accomplish.
So that's what I have for youtoday.
I hope your year is off to anamazing start.
I hope that this gets youexcited about what you might
possibly accomplish in thecoming year.
I'm super excited for you aboutwhat I know you can accomplish
(19:07):
and what I've helped peopleaccomplish using this framework,
and I'm hopeful that you willfeel a little bit of that
excitement and go achieve somethings that maybe you never even
thought were possible.
How great would that be for you.
It would be amazing for me,especially if you told me about
(19:28):
it.
I'd love to hear from you andyou can reach me at feedback at
latenightimcom.
I'd love to hear from you, hearwhat your dreams are for 2025,
hear about what you'd like tohear on the podcast.
Just check in with me and sayhey, that's feedback at late
night.
I amcom.
I answer every email.
(19:48):
It's not a robot, it's reallyme.
Sometimes it takes me a hotminute to get to your email, but
I will answer it.
So I hope you have a fantasticweek, because next week I'm
going to tell you about the 10most critical mistakes that you
absolutely must avoid if youwant to achieve your 2025 goals.
(20:09):
Hey, I'm Mark Mason,latenightimcom.
Markmasoncom.
I hope to talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Ciao, I hope to talk to you soon.
Ciao, content, access, the shownotes and more.
(20:42):
See you there.
Until then, go and make somegreat progress on your internet
business one night at a time.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Hey, hey, hey, if you're new around here, this is
the after the show part of theshow where I talk about.
I don't know whatever I want totalk about.
So if you're still here, youknow the main content of the
show is over and this is justthe part where I just talk about
what's been going on.
And what's been going on herein Dallas, texas, is that the
(21:16):
weather has changed from shortsand t-shirt weather to ski
parker weather.
I know if you're from up North,you you're going to laugh at me
, but it went from 65 degreesand sunny shorts and t-shirt
weather to 20 degrees and thewind is blowing out of the North
(21:36):
at 750 miles an hour orsomething crazy like that.
And in Texas we say if you don'tlike the weather, just wait a
minute, it'll change.
Because this change happened inlike I don't know an hour and a
half.
The temperature just plummeted.
So it's a little bit chillyhere now.
We'll survive it.
Hopefully we won't get too muchprecipitation, because in Texas
(21:59):
when it snows or or or Godforbid we get ice, we're toast.
I mean we, we just we're notset up for it, we don't have the
gear for it.
Uh, we'll have to hunker downif that happens.
So, uh, pray for great weatherhere in Texas and I'll see you
next week.
We'll be talking about the 10mistakes that you absolutely
(22:21):
must avoid if you want toachieve your goals in 2025.
Ciao.
Episode 270,.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Late Night Internet Marketing.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
This week on the Late Night Internet Marketing
Podcast, I'm going to give youeverything you need to have an
incredibly successful 2025.
I'm talking your best year ever.
I'll be introducing my AlignProductivity Framework and I'm
going to give you everything youneed to get productive right
away.
All this and more on the LateNight Internet Marketing Podcast
(00:29):
.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
The Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast.
But you want a business to runyourself.
You want to know how to startand where to begin.
Can you get out your comfortzone, my friend?
Yes, you can do it right whenit's late at night.
(00:58):
At the end of the day, yourdream's burning inside.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
So keep it up and you will find and now broadcasting
late at night from a littlestudio in the big state of Texas
, your host, mark Mason.
Hey, hey, hey, how is everyonedoing?
I am your host, mark Mason, andthis is the Late Night Internet
(01:29):
Marketing Podcast, where wetalk about building businesses
online.
Even if the only time you haveto work on them is late at night
, I'm coming to you from thelittle studio in Dallas, texas,
and of course, it's that time ofyear again where we sit down,
stop down and talk about goalsfor the coming year and a lot of
(01:50):
discussion about the best wayto achieve them.
Now I've been working on goalengineering and outcome
engineering, both professionallyand as a side hustler, for a
long time.
Professionally, we're talkingabout three decades of achieving
outcomes in my corporate lifeand with a late night internet
(02:11):
marketing podcast.
This is a topic we've been onnow for more than a decade and
we've gone through an evolutionwhere we've taken the best
learning from some of the bestbooks out there.
12 week year, the One Thing,atomic Habits 5 am books that
talk about getting up early inthe morning and how to do things
(02:33):
, and year by year, I'veincorporated those into what I
refer to personally as my ALIGNframework.
Now, the ALIGN framework isreally an acronym and it stands
for assessing goals, listing thesteps that are needed to
achieve those goals, initiatingthe action that you need to make
(02:59):
those goals a reality on aday-by-day basis, gauging your
progress and nurturing thehabits that underlie a
successful outcome.
Now, that's the Align framework, and what I want to do in this
podcast is explain it all to youso that you can get started
right away.
I'm actually, later in January,going to be coming out with a
(03:21):
very, very inexpensive AlignProductivity short course, kind
of a mini course, and the greatnews about that course is, as a
loyal listener of the Late NightInternet Marketing podcast,
that's going to be available toyou free of charge when it's
released later this month.
I'll have more information onthat next week, but this week I
(03:44):
want to set the stage, whet yourappetite, maybe, get you
excited and even get you startedabout what's involved in the
Align framework and kind of theculmination of really 20 years
of reading literature andunderstanding what makes
productivity work for mepersonally and for other people
(04:04):
around the world.
Okay, so in the Align frameworkwe start with the letter A,
which I told you is assess goals, and by this I don't mean the
standard old way that we talkabout.
I think it's really good tohave smart goals and it's really
good to have a goal I want togrow my email list by 5,000
subscribers by July 3rd.
We're going to get to that, butreally, what I want you to do
(04:27):
is reflect and dream, and theconstruction that I usually use
for this when I'm coaching is ifyou and I just me and you were
in a Starbucks or a coffee shopmaybe something even better than
a Starbucks and we were havinga conversation one year from
today and you were so excitedfor the meeting because you
(04:49):
couldn't wait to tell me whatyou were so proud of, what you
had finally been able toaccomplish.
You didn't even think you coulddo it, but you've been able to
do it and you were so excited totell me that.
What would that be?
I think it's good for that tobe a smart construction.
In a way.
(05:10):
I think it's good that it'sspecific and measurable and
attainable and time-bound all ofthose things relevant to your
bigger goals.
But if we were talking in ayear, what would you tell me and
what would get you reallyexcited?
And maybe there are many thingslike that that you would like
(05:32):
to accomplish, many large goalsthat you have for the coming
year.
For this purpose of thisexercise, I want you to reflect
and dream about the goal that'sreally would be the most
impactful to you.
What would change your life themost?
What gets you most excited?
What are you most fired upabout?
What do you really want to gooff and do?
(05:53):
And for the purpose of thisexercise right now, let's just
choose one.
That's the A in the Alignframework is assessing your
goals.
Once you've assessed a goal,then what we're going to do is
we're going to move on to the Lin the Align framework and
(06:14):
that's list the steps for thegoal.
Now we know from the veryfamous book the 12 Week Year
that we can accomplish in 90days what it takes most people a
year to accomplish.
So what we want to do is set avery specific 90 day SMART goal,
(06:34):
something aggressive andmeaningful that's aligned with
our dream.
It's the first of maybe fourbig steps that we're going to
take to achieve this year longdream, but we're going to set
the 90 day goal first.
So what do I mean?
Like this Maybe you've decidedthat your big goal by this time
(06:56):
next year you want to addsix-figure revenue to your
business so that you can have asix-figure business.
You're starting at zero, butyour big dream is that you want
to have a six-figure business.
Well, maybe the first thing youneed to do in 90 days is create
a new course that can be thebasis for this new revenue
(07:18):
generation, and maybe that'sgoing to be a pretty good size
course with many videos thatyou've got to film and you've
got to lay out the course and dothe research, do the marketing
for the course and maybe youdecide that's about a 90 day
project for you.
That's the kind of goal thatI'm talking about and we want
(07:39):
that to be a very specific 90day smart goal.
In 90 days, on April 1st, I'mgoing to launch a new course
called XYZ course.
It's going to be a seven modulecourse and each module is going
to have five videos.
This is a 35-video course andit's going to cover XYZ topic
(08:03):
and I'm going to launch it tothe market on April 1st and it's
going to sell for $297.
And that's my 90-day SMART goal.
And the reason that that's sucha great goal for me is it
aligns with my vision of$100,000 new revenue stream and
the basis of this is going to bethis new course.
(08:24):
But I'm going to do the firstpart of this the very important,
most part in 90 days and when Ithink about that, as I'm in
this listing steps, the stepsthat I want to list are one week
chunks.
In the first week, I need toget clear about what the course
is about, outline it, do themarket research and so forth.
(08:45):
That's necessary to get a clearoutline.
In the second week, I'm goingto create the slides that I need
for all the video presentations.
In the third week and fourthweek, I'm going to film all of
the videos that I need to makeall 35 videos.
I'm going to really kill it andI'm going to film all those
(09:07):
videos.
In weeks three and four and soon.
If you mess with that for awhile, write that down and get a
rough outline for what you wantto accomplish each week.
This is again very welldescribed in the book, the
12-Week Year.
But this is where you liststeps and here's why we do this,
because step three, the I inthe Align framework, is that you
(09:30):
need to initiate daily actions,and here's the problem I think
that everyone faces.
This is something that it tookme a long time to figure out.
I would wake up on a randomTuesday morning and not always
be crystal clear on exactly whatI needed to accomplish that day
(09:53):
.
What is it on the secondTuesday in February when I wake
up?
What's the one thing, the onecritical task that I need to do
that day?
So in step three, we'reinitiating a daily action that
supports our goal for the week.
So let me give you an example.
(10:14):
Let's say that our goal for theweek is to film 15 videos, and
we know that's a rate of two orthree videos a day.
I better be making sure thatthe one thing that I get done on
that Tuesday is filming thenext two or three videos.
It doesn't matter if the phonerings, if other stuff happens.
(10:34):
Other stuff gets in the way.
The one thing that I'm going toprioritize is that I am going to
get those videos recorded.
Why?
Well, because I've got this12-week plan and in this week I
know I need to be recordingvideos.
Well, why am I doing that?
Because I need to build thiscourse.
(10:55):
Well, why am I building thecourse?
Because I have this vision.
I have this aligned vision thata year from now, I'm going to
have a new $100,000 revenuestream and it's going to be
based on this course that needsthese videos.
And that means on this Tuesday,if I'm going to realize that
(11:19):
dream, I need to be recording.
See, if you had just said Iwant a hundred thousand dollars
in a year, it would be reallyhard for you to tell me exactly
what you needed to do on arandom Tuesday.
So what I recommend for each dayis that you have one task that
you absolutely must get done and, if possible, you block out a
(11:40):
deep work session on yourcalendar to to actually get that
work done.
It is like a doctor'sappointment or an airplane
ticket where you can't move it.
You gotta be there and you'regoing to get that work done.
And then I recommend that youhave two additional tasks for
those great days when you get alot more done than you expect
(12:04):
that you're going to get done.
Now, in this video recordingthing, super easy you record.
You're going to record twovideos today and, if everything
goes well, you'll record a thirdone maybe, or a fourth one, but
the key thing is that that onecritical task that you've got to
do today to support the goalthat you've got to meet this
week to support the goal thatyou're trying to achieve in 90
(12:27):
days.
That gets done today.
And I've found that the key tothat is blocking a deep work
session for one hour.
And the way I do it is I takethe first five minutes to get
organized, get myself together,I work for 50 minutes and then I
take the next five minutes tokind of stretch and decompress
(12:51):
and stretch out.
And you know, as long as I get45 or 50 minutes of deep work in
in that calendar time, I thinkthat I'm always happy with that.
And I get 45 or 50 minutes ofdeep work in in that calendar
time, I think that I'm alwayshappy with that and I get an
amazing amount of work done thatway.
One of the daily habits that youneed to do to support this is
the habit of scheduling deepwork.
(13:12):
And the second habit that youneed in order to make this work
is that you need to, daily andweekly, make sure that you are
staying on track with your plan.
And that gets us to step four,the G you need to gauge your
progress, monitor and adjust,and the best tool and this is a
(13:36):
tool that goes all the way backto David Allen and getting
things done.
The absolute best tool you cando for gauging your progress is
weekly reviews.
And what are we doing in ourweekly reviews?
We're touching base with thebig picture, emotionally and
mentally $100,000 of new revenueand all the things that that
means for you and your life, andthat exciting conversation that
(13:59):
you want to have one-on-onewith me in a cafe a year from
now.
Every Sunday I sit down and Itouch base with those goals and
then I take a look at myquarterly plan and I honestly
reflect on where I am in the12-week plan, how I did this
week with regard to the plan.
Did I do a good job or not sucha good job?
(14:22):
And I adjust accordingly.
And maybe that means I need towork a little extra hard next
week.
Or maybe it's that I recognizethat this week wasn't such a
great week and I give myself alittle grace and I act
accordingly next week and do alittle better.
Or maybe this means that thisweek, you know, I'm doing my
(14:44):
weekly review and last week Iskipped it and I see that my
habits aren't exactly what theyneed to be.
Whatever I'm doing, I'mmonitoring and adjusting, and
I'm doing that once a week.
I do mine on Sunday nights.
You may choose to do yours onMonday morning.
What's important is that you doit.
And then step five is to nurturethe habits.
(15:06):
That's the N in the AlignProductivity Framework and you
know, really, habits arefundamental to having sustained
success in anything, and Irecommend that you review the
book Atomic Habits.
But for you, your habits aregoing to be things like the
(15:28):
weekly check-in, about having aplan each day with an hour of
deep scheduled work and, for me,checking in at the end of the
day and maybe journaling alittle bit.
Man, today was not great.
Today was really great a littlebit.
Man, today was not great.
Today was really great.
And I've started using chat GPTa little bit for this, where
chat GPT and I are having aconversation about how things
are going and it gives meencouragement and so forth.
(15:49):
Like that I think artificialintelligence will be
increasingly valuable in therole of kind of sideline coach,
where every day you kind ofbrain dump into something like
chat GPT and it's able toorganize your thoughts for you
and create a really nice journalentry for you, so you have a
(16:11):
record of what's going on.
So here's the thing If you'reable to stack together, using
the Align framework, 90 days ofreally significant work and in
most of those days you're ableto do the work that you said you
were going to do Not all ofthem, but most of them, maybe
(16:32):
way more than half, but notnearly all of them what you're
going to find is, if you stackup day upon day upon day of
progress and that progress isproperly targeted at the most
important goal, this 90-day goalthat you set at the beginning
of the Align framework, you'regoing to be amazed at the
(16:53):
progress you're going to be ableto make and the thing that
you're going to be able to buildjust simply by staying on
target for 90 days and remindingyourself every day that
tomorrow is going to be a newday where you're going to work
on a very specific thing thatsupports your overall 90-day
(17:15):
plan.
This is the Align framework.
Now there are a lot of toolsand techniques and worksheets
and a lot of things that I planto deliver in the course that's
coming in the month of January.
I will make sure that'savailable to you.
You can sign up to be on thewaiting list at markmasoncom
(17:37):
forward slash align.
That's markmasoncom forwardslash A-L-I-G-N.
Get on the waiting list and,like I said, listeners of this
podcast will get this course forfree when it first comes out.
And what I'm hoping for is thatyou'll love it and you'll write
that down and you'll become atestimonial for the course, and
(18:00):
really that's the idea, apartfrom rewarding you for listening
to the podcast, because Ireally appreciate you and I hope
this is helpful to you.
So that's the Align framework.
Very straightforward Assess yourgoals.
List the steps needed toachieve those goals.
Goals list the steps needed toachieve those goals.
(18:24):
Initiate daily actions in orderto execute the plan.
Gauge your progressrelentlessly and honestly, week
by week, and nurture thefundamental habits that are
needed to generate wins.
You know you're going to havesetbacks and that's okay, but
you're also going to have smallwins and I want you to celebrate
those and you will be amazed,when you stack these things up,
(18:47):
what you can accomplish.
So that's what I have for youtoday.
I hope your year is off to anamazing start.
I hope that this gets youexcited about what you might
possibly accomplish in thecoming year.
I'm super excited for you aboutwhat I know you can accomplish
(19:07):
and what I've helped peopleaccomplish using this framework,
and I'm hopeful that you willfeel a little bit of that
excitement and go achieve somethings that maybe you never even
thought were possible.
How great would that be for you.
It would be amazing for me,especially if you told me about
(19:28):
it.
I'd love to hear from you andyou can reach me at feedback at
latenightimcom.
I'd love to hear from you, hearwhat your dreams are for 2025,
hear about what you'd like tohear on the podcast.
Just check in with me and sayhey, that's feedback at late
night.
I amcom.
I answer every email.
(19:48):
It's not a robot, it's reallyme.
Sometimes it takes me a hotminute to get to your email, but
I will answer it.
So I hope you have a fantasticweek, because next week I'm
going to tell you about the 10most critical mistakes that you
absolutely must avoid if youwant to achieve your 2025 goals.
(20:09):
Hey, I'm Mark Mason,latenightimcom.
Markmasoncom.
I hope to talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Ciao, I hope to talk to you soon.
Ciao, content, access, the shownotes and more.
(20:42):
See you there.
Until then, go and make somegreat progress on your internet
business one night at a time.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Hey, hey, hey, if you're new around here, this is
the after the show part of theshow where I talk about.
I don't know whatever I want totalk about.
So if you're still here, youknow the main content of the
show is over and this is justthe part where I just talk about
what's been going on.
And what's been going on herein Dallas, texas, is that the
(21:16):
weather has changed from shortsand t-shirt weather to ski
parker weather.
I know if you're from up North,you you're going to laugh at me
, but it went from 65 degreesand sunny shorts and t-shirt
weather to 20 degrees and thewind is blowing out of the North
(21:36):
at 750 miles an hour orsomething crazy like that.
And in Texas we say if you don'tlike the weather, just wait a
minute, it'll change.
Because this change happened inlike I don't know an hour and a
half.
The temperature just plummeted.
So it's a little bit chillyhere now.
We'll survive it.
Hopefully we won't get too muchprecipitation, because in Texas
(21:59):
when it snows or or or Godforbid we get ice, we're toast.
I mean we, we just we're notset up for it, we don't have the
gear for it.
Uh, we'll have to hunker downif that happens.
So, uh, pray for great weatherhere in Texas and I'll see you
next week.
We'll be talking about the 10mistakes that you absolutely
(22:21):
must avoid if you want toachieve your goals in 2025.
Ciao.
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