Latest / The Missing Secret Podcast / Gaining More Time – A Better Daily And Weekly To Do System

Transcript

Gaining More Time – A Better Daily And Weekly To Do System · The Missing Secret Podcast

• 0:04
  Unknown: We believe life is precious. This is it. We've got
• 0:08
  one shot at this. It's on us to live life to the fullest to
• 0:13
  maximize what we've been given and play the game of life at our
• 0:16
  full potential. Are you living up to your potential? Are you
• 0:20
  frustrated that despite your best intentions, you just can't
• 0:24
  seem to make the changes needed to take things to the next
• 0:27
  level. So you can impact your career relationships and health.
• 0:32
  If this is hitting home, you're in the right place. Our mission
• 0:36
  is to open the door to the exceptional life by showing you
• 0:39
  how to play the game of life at a higher level. So you're
• 0:42
  playing at your full potential, rather than at a fraction as
• 0:46
  most people do. We'll share the one thing that once we learned
• 0:50
  it, our lives were transformed. And once you learn it, watch
• 0:54
  what happens.
• 0:57
  Welcome to think it be the podcast. I'm Kelly Hatfield.
• 1:01
  Hey. And I'm John Michell. So the topic today is getting more
• 1:06
  time by being highly organized. That's probably a good idea.
• 1:11
  Don't you think? Kelly for time? Hello? Yeah.
• 1:16
  That's a good thing. Good thing. I mean, really, the time is our
• 1:20
  most precious commodity, right? Yep, absolutely. You know, I
• 1:24
  tell you, one thing I've learned is, is to be highly organized
• 1:29
  boy, you have got to have a great system. The system is the
• 1:34
  key. And, and so often, I see that people are not very
• 1:40
  organized, and they admit it. And
• 1:44
  but I see when you have a great system, literally, you can
• 1:47
  create time. And if you don't have a good system, you flush
• 1:53
  time down the toilet. And so
• 1:56
  this in in today's visit, I just want to talk about the
• 2:02
  organizational system, we created this been so powerful.
• 2:07
  And when I talk about an organizational system, I'm
• 2:10
  really talking about daily and weekly to dues. And our system
• 2:17
  basically comes down to three things. You plan your day, the
• 2:22
  night before you time, block your day, and you identify your
• 2:27
  top three priorities each day.
• 2:30
  And it's I mean, it's amazingly simple. And the reason it's
• 2:35
  important to prioritize those and highlight those top three
• 2:39
  priorities is in case your day gets off kilter, which is
• 2:43
  sometimes do does, you can just go and focus on what's
• 2:49
  highlighted as your top three priorities and the power of, of
• 2:53
  always getting your top three priorities is so amazingly
• 2:59
  powerful. And so I tell us your thoughts on this whole concept
• 3:05
  of, of organization and and the system we have, I think, you
• 3:11
  know, the one thing that I'd like to add, you know, well,
• 3:13
  first of all, the amount of stress, like we all have a ton
• 3:18
  of stress in our lives, right? You know, just there's so much
• 3:21
  for us to do, and so many competing interests, we have
• 3:24
  full lives that aren't just about our careers, they're about
• 3:27
  our families, and all of those things. And so the thing I want
• 3:31
  to say about this organizational system is,
• 3:37
  is the mind thrives on order. We talk about that. And so what
• 3:42
  happens when you're organized, and you're focused on the things
• 3:46
  that move the needle, and you plan your day, the night before,
• 3:49
  is that it's, it's freeing. When you do this and get into the
• 3:54
  habit of doing this, it's freeing and there's one other
• 3:57
  thing I want to emphasize here too, is that we're talking about
• 4:00
  time right now time is finite.
• 4:04
  This also changes the quality of your time. Does that make sense?
• 4:10
  Absolutely. So you can not only get more done with less, but
• 4:14
  you're going to be thinking about how you're spending this
• 4:18
  time and how you're going to show up during this time and it
• 4:22
  shifts your entire this organizational system shifts
• 4:26
  your entire perspective on time. And so anyway oh I know you're
• 4:32
  gonna get more into it John, but I get so excited about this
• 4:35
  because time is finite. We've This is it. So the question you
• 4:40
  want to be able to ask yourself at the end of the day is like
• 4:42
  hey, did I win the day to day? Yeah, did I did it this was it
• 4:46
  and I hate to be morbid you know, but I am motivated by you
• 4:49
  know by morbidity I am you know if this is for me.
• 4:55
  What am I happy with how I with what this day looks like? What I
• 4:59
  can't
• 5:00
  lished how I showed up in all of the different areas of my life,
• 5:03
  I want to know the answer yes to that the majority of the time,
• 5:07
  and this organizational system helps you do that. Right? Well,
• 5:10
  and I'll describe the organizational system in a
• 5:13
  little more detail. So the first step is, like we said, plan your
• 5:18
  day, the night before. Boy, I can't say enough about this, you
• 5:24
  know, basically, the way we do it, is at the end of the day, we
• 5:30
  sit down and plan what we're going to do tomorrow. Exactly.
• 5:34
  When and, and there's so much power in creating again, to your
• 5:39
  point, that order of now you've got order for tomorrow, as
• 5:44
  you're wrapping up today. And you know, as your as your put
• 5:49
  your little head on the pillow, and you you know that tomorrow
• 5:53
  is plan, that's a great feeling. It also sort of frees your mind
• 5:58
  to think of other things, maybe that you can do tomorrow that
• 6:04
  you wouldn't otherwise be able to get to, because you hadn't
• 6:08
  planned the day. So that that first step of of planning your
• 6:13
  day, the night before, absolutely powerful. Then the
• 6:18
  second thing is you're going to time block your day. So on the
• 6:21
  daily to do sheet, you'll have all the day, all the hours of
• 6:27
  the day in and 30 minute segments sort of lined out. And,
• 6:33
  and as you as you plan your day, you basically also list what are
• 6:39
  your top three priorities each day. And so as you you, first of
• 6:44
  all, take those top three priorities and time, block them
• 6:48
  into your day, then if you got that done, you highlight them in
• 6:53
  yellow, so they they stick out. And then the next step is you go
• 6:57
  in and fill out the rest of the time on your day with the things
• 7:02
  that aren't your top three priorities. And so once you
• 7:05
  finish that, and you're looking at that sheet of paper, now,
• 7:09
  every thing you're going to do that day is planned out, you
• 7:13
  know what time, and the top three priorities are staring you
• 7:18
  in the face and with in, in red in yellow highlights. And so
• 7:24
  it's just a powerful way to, to do your day. And then then as
• 7:31
  you start your day, and you start crossing off things,
• 7:35
  you're getting this continual dopamine hit from the the
• 7:40
  psychic energy of getting things accomplished. And so
• 7:45
  that's, that's how the system works. And it's,
• 7:50
  it's interesting, when I, when I
• 7:54
  put this into my life, and it, it moved me from probably a six
• 7:59
  or seven on an organization to attend on a scale of one to 10.
• 8:03
  And I thought, man, if it has such a big impact on me, I bet
• 8:08
  you'd have a big impact on my employees. And I had like 175
• 8:12
  employees. So I started going into the managers, and I asked
• 8:15
  him, you know, on a scale of one to 10, how organized Are you?
• 8:19
  And, and they would generally say about a sixth. And I'm like,
• 8:24
  Wow, what a what a difference we can make if we as a company, all
• 8:29
  do this. And I thought I'm going to teach some managers first and
• 8:33
  then then the managers will teach the rest of the team. And
• 8:38
  so off we go. And it was such a game changer. And we got so much
• 8:44
  more done when, when it expanded beyond just me. Have you seen
• 8:50
  that with your team? Oh, in terms of organization?
• 8:54
  Absolutely. You know, for all of the same reasons. And I think
• 8:57
  there's there's so much research on the fact that our brains
• 9:01
  aren't designed to multitask, you know, so when you got a
• 9:05
  plan, you know, any place for the different activities on your
• 9:09
  calendar, those were things that move the needle that are that,
• 9:12
  you know, are the top priorities for the day.
• 9:16
  You know, then you're again, creating that order and creating
• 9:20
  a space to do just that activity. So you speed up, that
• 9:24
  activity is your protected time. And it is for that activity and
• 9:27
  that activity alone. So what we have found with our team, is
• 9:31
  when you're given a certain amount of time to do something,
• 9:34
  guess what? It gets done. And you know, and they're focused on
• 9:40
  it. They're not switching gears a million times. So at the end
• 9:42
  of the day, feeling like they've got a bunch of unfinished
• 9:45
  things. They've got those those key priorities done. And that
• 9:49
  sends that feedback loop to where it's like, oh, you know,
• 9:54
  these little victories that you're celebrating throughout
• 9:56
  the day for things that actually you've accomplished and you've
• 9:59
  moved the ball
• 10:00
  A little further forward. And I think that's where so much of
• 10:04
  our momentum as a team has come from, is from feeling like
• 10:08
  you're actually accomplishing things, right? And then right,
• 10:11
  because, you know, because we are, and then we went up to it
• 10:15
  too, and, you know, kind of took it to the next level,
• 10:17
  organization, you know, the the AP of organization, which is,
• 10:25
  you know, so if you've got a meeting, let's say you've got a,
• 10:29
  you know, a meeting with, with someone where you're thinking,
• 10:33
  you're looking at that spot on your daily calendar, where that
• 10:38
  meeting is, and you're like, how do I want to show up?
• 10:41
  You know, what do I need to be prepared with? Am I prepared for
• 10:44
  that meeting? And how do I want to show up, who's going to be at
• 10:47
  that meeting, what it where you're really, so that you can
• 10:51
  show up, be very present, engaged. And so we're also
• 10:55
  finding that the outcome of those meetings, whether they're
• 10:58
  sales meetings, whether they're level 10 meetings, where there's
• 11:02
  so much more productive, the meetings themselves are, because
• 11:07
  people are really thinking through how they're going to
• 11:09
  show up in that block of time for that particular activity,
• 11:12
  whether it's a meeting, whether it's a, you know, one of their
• 11:15
  time blocks for a priority that they need to take care of. So
• 11:19
  there's an intentionality around how you're showing up in that
• 11:23
  time. Does that make sense? Absolutely, you know, I see with
• 11:27
  with me, I will time block my planning of the meeting, you
• 11:30
  know, if I have a meeting at three o'clock, I might time
• 11:33
  block for 15 minutes, how am I going to run this meeting? What
• 11:38
  do I want to accomplish? How do I want to show up, and so I'm
• 11:42
  not only time blocking the meeting, I'm time blocking the
• 11:45
  preparation for the meeting. And you know, another thing that
• 11:49
  that's, I think critical, is, people are so distracted today
• 11:57
  with emails and text messages. I mean, it's just phenomenal how
• 12:02
  distracted people are. And
• 12:06
  in our organizational system, we teach people to look at your
• 12:11
  email, at the start of the day to see if there's anything
• 12:16
  that's just critical. But basically, our plan is you don't
• 12:22
  return the emails in the morning. And you designate a
• 12:25
  time like maybe three o'clock in the afternoon, to return your
• 12:29
  emails and to return your phone calls. And before that time, you
• 12:35
  know, you're rolling and with the also the idea that the
• 12:39
  morning is for your agenda. And the afternoon is to be
• 12:44
  responsive to other people. And, and I found that philosophy to
• 12:51
  be really powerful, because again, you got to get your stuff
• 12:55
  done. And you had to be responsive to other people. And,
• 13:00
  but but designating the morning for your priorities is so
• 13:05
  empowering. And and it's just a great way to do it. And it just
• 13:10
  allows you to focus and and I assume that's essentially how
• 13:15
  you do it as well, right? Yes, absolutely. And I think there's
• 13:19
  one thing I want to add to this is, you may be thinking, Oh,
• 13:22
  that's easy for you to say, You know what I mean? Like, I've got
• 13:26
  employees, you know, meeting stuff all day long. And I've got
• 13:29
  clients that are counting on me and all of this.
• 13:33
  What I would encourage you to do, and that it's so easy, your
• 13:37
  brain automatically wants to go there, because you've organized
• 13:40
  and you've managed your email that way, you've managed it
• 13:43
  forever, you know, so your brain is kind of trained to be plugged
• 13:47
  into it all day long. But what is a game changer is when you
• 13:52
  communicate clearly to your team, to your clients, to
• 13:56
  whoever would be emailing you that this is how I work. So I'm
• 14:01
  going to check into my email, I look at it first thing in the
• 14:04
  morning, maybe I usually do a half day like as soon as I'm
• 14:08
  done eating lunch, I'll check in to see if any of the people that
• 14:10
  are on my priority that had to do with my priority list or
• 14:14
  moving project forward. got back to me real quick to see if
• 14:17
  there's anything there that that connects to my priorities at
• 14:20
  all. If there isn't, then it doesn't get addressed. It goes
• 14:24
  to the you know, it goes to my last check in at the end of the
• 14:26
  day. But my team knows that they know they're not going to get an
• 14:30
  email back from me at 10am on something that it won't be
• 14:33
  coming until the afternoon. That if it's an emergent situation
• 14:37
  like there's blood or smoke involved that they can get in
• 14:40
  touch with is that your rule of thumb it is blood or bone that's
• 14:45
  that's the
• 14:48
  No I know that they can call me we've got the you know direct
• 14:52
  message. There's a way that they can get in touch with me if they
• 14:55
  need to, but that so my point is be clear about
• 15:00
  How you manage your inbox with the people in your life so that
• 15:04
  they are very clear about and have very clear expectations of
• 15:09
  what they're going to get from you. And when you're going to
• 15:11
  respond, that takes a lot of the pressure and stress off. Because
• 15:15
  when I first started doing this, I was like, Yeah, but like, if
• 15:18
  I, if I don't get back to a client right away, they're going
• 15:21
  to, you know, or if I don't get back to a team member, maybe
• 15:24
  they're going to, you know, whatever the case may be, that's
• 15:27
  just old programming, those are stories, myself. So it just
• 15:32
  requires very clear communication.
• 15:35
  And that immediately relieves stress. It trained them, they, I
• 15:39
  needed to train myself and I needed to train other people.
• 15:42
  Right, right, how I was going to be using my email and replying
• 15:46
  to them. Right? Well, and, you know, it sort of goes back to
• 15:49
  this thing that we've often talked about, about identifying
• 15:53
  what moves the needle, you know, the vast majority of stuff does
• 15:56
  not move the needle. And, and always looked at, I'm saving the
• 16:02
  morning for what moves the needle, that's gonna be my
• 16:05
  agenda. And I'm not distracted by texts or emails, and what a
• 16:11
  what a much better way to live and operate than how most people
• 16:17
  are operating where, where they're always checking their
• 16:21
  emails and checking text messages. And, you know, it's
• 16:24
  just it's, it's a much more powerful way to operate. And
• 16:29
  like you said earlier, the mind thrives on order. So and I think
• 16:34
  the way that you apply this using our 12 minute a day,
• 16:38
  technique is, is you basically reaffirm that you plan your day,
• 16:44
  the night before your time, block your day, and you
• 16:47
  highlight your top three priorities. And as you're using
• 16:51
  that system,
• 16:54
  again, the system is a key because that's, that sort of
• 16:57
  causes you to do those, those things. And I would say to our
• 17:01
  audience, if anybody actually wants to see this system, again,
• 17:05
  it's a daily
• 17:08
  to do sheet and a weekly to do sheet on the weekly to do sheet,
• 17:12
  where identifying, you know, different categories in your
• 17:16
  life. And it's sort of customized, the weekly sheet is
• 17:20
  customized to your life in six or seven categories, which is
• 17:24
  another powerful thing in the process of planning your week,
• 17:30
  makes it easy to plan it. And so it's powerful, but if anybody
• 17:35
  wants a example of this, we'll be glad to provide it to them.
• 17:40
  So just email, either myself or Kelly, think a bit.com. John,
• 17:46
  thank you. via.com. Kelly, ah, that thing could be att.com. So
• 17:52
  anything else, I you know, I one other little quick thing that
• 17:56
  you just brought up in those key categories of your life, like,
• 17:59
  this isn't just about being more productive in your work life or
• 18:03
  your career. This is about being productive and showing up in the
• 18:07
  different areas of your life. So as a parent, as a significant
• 18:11
  other, like you literally are putting the things on your
• 18:15
  calendar, like maybe it's a soccer game that you're
• 18:17
  attending for your kid, well, you are thinking about how do I
• 18:19
  want to show up? Like, how do I want my child to know that I'm
• 18:23
  there for them? Well, here's a clue for everybody put your
• 18:27
  frickin phone away, you know what I mean? And be present and
• 18:30
  watch the game. Instead of being I sit, you know, in the stands
• 18:33
  at my nephew's game. And I'm just like, watching all these
• 18:36
  parents with their heads in their phones and like, come on,
• 18:40
  you know, like this, you know, and show your. So I mean, it's
• 18:44
  those kinds of things. But I wanted to point that out. We're
• 18:46
  talking right now about career and but you just brought up a
• 18:50
  really good point about the different areas of your life.
• 18:52
  And there's a place where all of this lives on your calendar. So
• 18:55
  right, right. Okay. Well Until next time, we'll see you.
• 19:01
  Thanks for listening today. If you've had your own aha moment
• 19:05
  from today's episode, send me or John an email. We'd love to
• 19:10
  share your epiphany with our audience. So email us at
• 19:14
  Kelly@thinkitbeit.com or John@thinkitbeit.com. In the
• 19:19
  meantime, live the exceptional life