The “Keystone” Method For More Freelance Income (In Less Time)

Discover how the “keystone” method will allow you to avoid distractions, stay focused, and ultimately make more money in less time.

I want to share about an important concept with you today.

It’s called a “keystone habit.”

And as you’re about to see, keystone habits can help you avoid distractions … stay focused … and ultimately more money in fewer hours.

But they can also undermine your productivity and rob you of your precious time.

Positive Keystone Habits Compound Your Success

See, a keystone habit is a single habit or behavior has a massive ripple effect throughout the rest of your day. And those ripples can be either positive or negative — depending on the habit or behavior.

For example, putting your gym clothes out the night before is a positive keystone habit. Since that one simple step makes it more likely you go to the gym.

And in my experience, once you go to the gym, the entire rest of your day is better. 

It’s easier to focus. You have more energy. And you wind up getting a lot more done.

Which means the one small keystone habit of putting out your gym clothes the night before has a tremendous positive impact on the rest of your day.

However keystone habits also work the other way.

Negative Keystone Habits Drag You Down Like An Anchor

For example, when I’m working on a big client project like a long-form sales letter, I’m tempted to check my messages first thing in the morning. Even though I turn off notifications and pause my inbox.

That’s because sitting down to write first-thing in the morning feels difficult. Almost like my brain needs to “warm up” first — before tackling a project as daunting as a 10,000-word sales pitch.

And that leads me to feel like I need to check a few messages first to get my brain into “work mode.”

Yet that one small decision can wind up causing me to go into an endless loop of checking and replying to messages and emails — instead of making progress on the sales letter like I had planned.

An Attempt To Replace The Negative With The Positive

So I recently went looking for a new “keystone habit” to replace checking my messages in the morning. And I decided to start spending the first 15-20 minutes of my morning hand-copying old sales letters. 

Not because I think this is magically going to make me a better copywriter through osmosis…

But because it’s a good way for me to get my mind focused on writing copy — without having to write new words from scratch.

And I thought that would be a great way to prime my brain and nervous system to begin my work day — without getting lost in an endless loop of message-checking.

The Result?

Now it’s only been a few days since I started this new keystone habit. But so far, it’s been a resounding success.

The proof? Just look at my time-tracking data for the last few days…

See those big, 4-hour blocks of blue? 

That’s me spending a solid 4 straight hours of deep work on a client sales letter.

And do you see the little orange blocks right above them?

That’s me spending 15-20 minutes copying a legendary sales letter by hand to start my day.

So at this point it should be clear…

If you want to get more done in less time, the trick is to identify your keystone habits — both good and bad.

Then find a way to be consistent with your good ones. And also find ways to replace the bad ones.

Your productivity and your bank account will thank you.

---

Now Let Me Show You How To Make Freelance Clients Come To You — Like Clockwork — Using A Simple, 30-Second Conversation…

All the details are inside my free business blueprint 30-Second Referrals.

With this free PDF, you’ll discover how to use a simple, 30-second conversation to get two referrals from every single client you sign. (I’ll even show you exactly what to say during this conversation with my word-for-word script on page 13.)

That way, you can make clients come to you like clockwork. And you can fill your pipeline with more new business than you can handle.

But there is a small catch…

30-Second Referrals is only available to members The Freelance Like A Pro email list.

So enter your best real email below to join us and claim your free copy of 30-Second Referrals now. (And you’ll get my members-only emails to help you run a more profitable and stress-free freelance business, too.)

Thanks for the freelancing guide and the emails that you've been sending out — the 30-second referral method is so stupidly simple, that it's genius!

Connor Inch, Freelance Copywriter