Hey iza,

Earlier this week we asked a simple question...

If March ended and you felt really proud of the month… what would have happened?

The most common answer, by far, was this one:

“I created momentum on a long-term goal.”

Carey and I spent some time thinking about what’s behind that, and two insights immediately surfaced.

First, the biggest mistake people make when trying to create momentum is thinking they need to clear their plate first.

Your internal monologue might sound something like:

“Let me just get through all of *this* stuff… then I’ll finally have space to focus on the project that really matters.”

The problem is that most of that “stuff” is shallow work. Emails. Admin. Loose ends. Quick tasks that quietly drain your energy.

So what happens?

You spend the best hours of your day grinding through low-impact work, and by the time you fiiiinally create space for the important project… you’re exhausted.

Momentum doesn’t come from finishing everything else first.

It comes from protecting your best energy and directing it toward the work that actually matters.

Inside Lifehack Tribe, one of the first exercises we walk members through is a time and energy tracking experiment. You gather your own data about where your hours go and when your energy naturally peaks throughout the day.

Once people see that pattern clearly, it becomes much easier to stop burning prime energy on shallow work and start using it for the project they actually want to move forward.

Another theme became clear as we read through the responses...

Many people want momentum on something meaningful, but the starting point feels fuzzy.

The project is important, yet it’s hard to see the path forward.

Instead of trying to figure out the first step, define the final outcome of the project. What does success actually look like when the project is finished?

From there, work backward:

• Identify the key milestones that must happen along the way

• Break those milestones into concrete tasks

• Put the tasks in the correct order

• Assign ownership and resources

• Then build a realistic timeline

When you plan a project this way, momentum becomes much easier to create because you’re no longer guessing what to do next.

Inside Module 2 of our Asana Mastery course, Carey teaches this entire process in detail and shows exactly how to turn a vague idea into a fully mapped project plan inside our favorite task management platform, Asana.

If you’ve been feeling stuck on where to begin, that module alone will give you a clear starting point.

And we've got a COUPON CODE to share with our survey nerds...