Electronic devices are designed to help busy users keep track of everything they need to remember. However, studies show that the “low tech” practice of writing things down is actually better for retaining things in one’s memory. To protect the busy professional against any sort of memory loss resulting from use of tablets, laptops, or other digital devices, Nashville entrepreneurs Robbie Goldsmith and Chris Wilcox have created a one-of-a-kind productivity manager.
Unlike a “planner” which is made to track activity in a particular calendar year, the Dailygrit productivity manager is actually constructed without a specific calendar.
“It’s more about what you have to do this week… to get progress moving in your life, to get productivity done, to get your businesses to a place where you want them to be in the future,” Robbie tells Launch Engine.
Robbie is a busy guy himself and Dailygrit is all about his desire to help those trying to organize their calendar appointments, meeting notes, and other life/ work details. His entrepreneurial story starts just after he moved to Nashville in 2010. At that time, he began working for the Nashville Entrepreneur Center (NEC).
“I helped, kind of formulate, build that center under the leadership of Michael Burcham,” Robbie recalls. He was at the NEC from 2012-2015, where he created the Project Music accelerator for music startups.
Robbie is now the owner of Hustle Media Company, a social media marketing agency that serves clients in the entertainment, beverage, and golf spaces. Hustle Media is one of three businesses Robbie has owned, with the other two being Bach Weekend, which he says was the original bachelorette party planner for Nashville, and Rocket Experiences, “a philanthropic team building company” aimed at teams of larger companies for them to give back to the community.
The productivity manager includes a baseline quarterly pre-assessment for users to rate their satisfaction with life and career progress, a three-month target project goal for users to reach, motivational content, a habit tracking section to help set goals throughout the week, and a communication tool so that users can remember info for contacts.
Robbie says, “Most of them [productivity managers] either focus on a calendar-based viewpoint—which is simply your calendar in your phone that’s on paper—or they try to change your mindset as an entrepreneur. And kind of our issue was we don’t really need our mindset changed. We just need something that makes us more productive and keeps us focused on the task at hand. So we tried to solve that problem.”
It should be noted that the Dailygrit productivity manager is set up in a weekly format, with every two pages of the productivity manager holding page space for a full week. The days of the week are generic placeholders for four categories of tasks, and the Monday-Sunday layout isn’t specific to a particular calendar year. The productivity manager is intended to narrow a professional’s view. As a result, users only have space to write down six tasks maximum per day.
The idea for the DailyGrit productivity manager was plucked from the ethos back when Robbie’s office for Hustle Media was in the NEC. He tells Launch Engine, “A friend of mine and I from the Entrepreneur Center, [Chris]… We kind of were both bringing in every day a different type of planner. Essentially, [it was] a way to get more productive, to keep our week on track, X-Y-Z. And we couldn’t really find one that we loved.” Robbie recalls that the initial discussion blossomed into action in February 2020, when he combined forces with his old office mate to make the DailyGrit productivity manager.
According to Robbie, COVID-19 actually worked in their favor for starting the DailyGrit productivity manager, as it gave him and his business partner enough time to figure out exactly how they wanted the thing to look.
“I’m kind of old school, and so is [Chris]” Robbie explains. “And we thought that we always enjoyed paper over digital.”
The productivity manager is made for entrepreneurs, employees of organizations, volunteers, and creative professionals so as to enable them to get more out of their work day. Like many people buying office supplies, Robbie sees that there are virtually a million planners at different price points available to consumers.
“What I’ve learned from experience and testing this over the… last ten months is that it really does help me keep my tasks in order, and [organize] what I need to do,” Robbie says of using the Dailygrit productivity manager over tools one might download. He explains that though some people prefer apps, he works much better writing things down.
“Through my time as an entrepreneur and networking and stuff, I find that a lot of people are the same way,” he says of his decision to stick to physical tools for notetaking and planning. “If it’s tangible, [I’ll] make sure it gets done.”
The DailyGrit productivity manager is sold as both a 13-week notebook to cover every quarter and as part of a four-pack that maps out a year’s worth of tasks. Information about the productivity managers can be found via the Dailygrit website.
For further information about Hustle Media, be sure to visit its website and social media.
