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Are you busy trying to be more productive? · Inside Strategic Relations

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I've recently posted on YouTube a video of my massive Obsidian library that's a note
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taking application, and I showed the graph and people started asking questions that show
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me that they're actually not very productive. I'm justin hit with inside strategic relations.
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If you want to be more productive and you want to get better results,
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you can't be distracted by tools. So folks were asking the question of
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like what the settings were for this graph I produced? So you may not
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know, I have a single repository for all the articles, the podcasts,
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the notes, the newsletter issues, all in one place so that it makes
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it easier for me to develop and produce special reports, consulting assignments and by
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book of work. And there's so many opportunities to do note taking, the
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second brain, to have apps organize your day, to work on your schedule,
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and I just figure there's only one me, So I'm going to put
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all that in one place when it comes to what I personally do each day.
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Now, if you want to get more things done, you can't be
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so busy trying to be productive that you don't accomplish those important things in your
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day. So I want to present to you five simple observations that will help
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you get back on track and accomplish more. First, we have to understand
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that today's world is so full of distractions. There's an unlimited supply of podcasts,
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videos, courses, and other things trying to help you be more productive.
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And when you get this information, in fact, I want my clients
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to be more productive because when you get this information, you're able to accomplish
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more with fewer resources. You're able to overcome obstacles more easily. You're able
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to build a stable base or foundation towards whether it's a better career or more
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clients for your professional business, more customers for your retail or service business.
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These are worthy things that are worth that desire, and they feel that desire
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to be more productive. But when you're worried about the setting someone else has
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for a note taking application other than you know what you've tried yourself and asking
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for feedback, then you are being distracted. And this distraction is now part
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of the natural state of things that is keeping you from getting work done.
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So observation number one is that you need to work in an environment of productivity.
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So you're sitting on a computer and you literally have an unlimited number of
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boobs and butts on the Internet that can distract you. Now, it doesn't
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matter what your boobs or butts are. It could be cat videos, it
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could be the latest political drama, it could be a lot of different things.
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But the Internet is full of ninety nine point nine nine nine percent things
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that are not what you're supposed to be doing right now. So what you've
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got to do is reduce distractions. Now, that could mean working from a
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computer, if you work on a computer in an environment where you are not
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connected to the Internet. I actually like corporate environments that block pretty much everything,
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and that's what we do in the home office here. And then anytime
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I'm traveling, I have to get on a VPN in order to see the
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actual Internet. Otherwise, content filtering the way my systems set up security options
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prevent so much access. I still manage to get in trouble. And by
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the way, this is a challenge that I have from time to time,
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believe it or not. Sometimes I'll do podcasts when I should be doing something
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else that would be more productive. But again, the reducing the distractions and
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having a system for eliminating clutter will help you organize your environment so that you
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can find things so that you get results. So I do sometimes create podcasts
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as procrastination, but I have a formula to create podcasts that produces an artifact
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that provides additional leads and content and connections that build my business. And so
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even your distractions need to be productive. And you do this again, what
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is your environment? Do you have an environment to do your bookkeeping that has
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all your filing organized in one place? Do you have an environment to do
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your writing or thinking? That's a really important thing. Sometimes doing less is
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more productive because you're now clarifying and are we organized so that we can find
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stuff? You know, everybody has an organization system, but can you find
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the important things you need so you're not spending a lot of time looking for
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stuff and instead doing things. Number two focus on two to three deliverables a
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day. Notice I didn't say focus on two or three to do items.
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I said deliverables. So in the case if I decide to do a podcast,
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a podcast consists of show notes, the podcast audio itself, small promotion
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descriptive, landing page or descriptions that go in the podcast. If I'm going
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to commit to doing a podcast, I have a deliverable that's pre defined,
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and it's my most important way when it comes to serving my clients or delivering
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work for prospective clients. What is your three two to three deliverables. Now
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you're gonna have low skill essentials every day, you want to delegate those out
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We talk about this as staffing arbitrage. If you're mowing your own grass,
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doing your own laundry, washing your own dishes, cooking your own meals,
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you know, those types of things can be outsourced to other people, even
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if it's just how you're teaching your kids to be more responsible and have adult
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skills, or as an agreement between partners or a marriage arrangement that you're you
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know, hey, I'm going to go out and work, and you're going
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to go here and work, and then together we're going to do these things.
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This sounds antiquated in old fashioned, but really, unless you enjoy it
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for the exercise, mowing your own grass is a skill that someone else can
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do. So I've read places and I've talked about this in the past.
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If someone can do the work that you're doing at a sixty percent efficiency,
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so maybe you're gonna do it one hundred percent and you're going to be completely
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satisfied the way you do it. If somebody can do it sixty percent,
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and you can go off and do a more valuable activity such as deliver something
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to a client, such as finishing a piece of work that you'd started,
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as such as doing something that has it requires your skill set, then you
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should go ahead and delegate that activity. So we're being more productive on purpose
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by how we allocate resources. And then again we're not trying to do seven
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things today, We're trying to do three very important deliverables. Completing three very
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important projects each day. Then you might be saying, well why not four.
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I say, if you can't complete two, if you can't complete three,
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then you won't complete four. So let's just focus on three. And
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then you can have a list somewhere of other deliverables, other outcomes that once
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you complete these three you can pull from that list and just get started.
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And again that builds on having an environment for productivity. You can one of
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these items and just go to the environment. Going number three, you want
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to be clear about what you want and this goes beyond goal setting. This
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goes into clear picture of what you want your future life to look like.
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What do you want your future experiences to be? What do you want your
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future opportunities to be? Now? I wrote a book called what do you
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Want? And How Do You Get It? And so I try to demonstrate
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that you start accomplishing more of what you want by having a clear picture of
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it. So you know you're manifesting in a sense because you've created a plan,
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a written plan. But once you decide what you want, you now
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get a clear clarity that's not available to a lot of other people where you
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can start building a success as a habit because you can see the path to
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where you want to be. Now, a lot of folks will say I
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want a million dollars, Well, great, what does a million dollars look
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like to you? They start describing lavish cars and experiences and traveling, and
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it's a little hard to get a million dollars if you're spending, you know,
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a million dollars. But some people will say, hey, look,
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I'd like a retirement account that can spend off forty thousand dollars a year,
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or seventy thousand dollars a year, or one hundred thousand dollars a year.
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See, the tangibility of your outcomes comes with the clarity of your focus.
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And if you're going to make success a habit, and you know what success
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looks like and you defined it on paper. The reason we do it on
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paper not to computer screen, because remember all those titties are out there,
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all those distractions, all those you know, cat videos. We put it
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on paper so that you can open up your journal and you can read and
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say, oh, this is what I like to accomplish this month. Here's
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where I'd like to be in three months. And you start building out these
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written plans and then you can work with them without distraction. Number four,
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you want to be better with the basics. There is no secret to success
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that is magical. Now we have magical thinking, and we have that dopamine
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hit when you see something cool and when you learn the latest gimmick where you
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find the latest app. But I know from observation in my own experience that
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that wears off. But the one thing that never changes is getting up and
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showing getting up early, showing up on time, doing the most important work.
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Focusing on proficiency with the tools that you have, so you don't need
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better tools. You need to know how to use the tools you have.
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Better delegation if you're not chasing secrets, you can take that energy and apply
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it towards getting actual work done. But you're improving overall efficiency by having that
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core element taking care of that. That what we call a minimal viable product.
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That's number five, the minimal viable product. I have observed that people
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will go out of their way to create the perfect article, to create the
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perfect deliverable, to create the perfect you design. Now. Now, there
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is value in craftsmanship and creating art and creating these beautiful things. But very
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often your customer doesn't know good from good. And so if you have a
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good, better and best solution, and you define in advance what it means
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to be good, and the customer buys good and you deliver good, they
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will be more than happy with what you're doing. Most people don't deliver half
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of what they promise, and so if you promise something and you deliver it,
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the customer will be happy. Now, it might feel better for you
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if they bought good to give them excellent, but they don't know what excellent
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looks like and they now determine that that's good. And so what ends up
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happening is you end up chasing an expectation that cannot be met when you could
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have defined expectations and deliver upon those things that you promised, And so it's
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it's a kaizan after completion. Kaizan is Japanese for continual improvement. And so
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you define what good is. You define what now the customer could buy.
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You know, we're talking about good, better, and best. The customer
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may want best, so you define what best is in relationship to what good
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is, and if the customer is willing to pay for best, then you
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deliver best. But you don't go and try to improve on best until you
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have a new agreement with the next customer, because you might be budgeted to
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deliver best, and if you deliver excellent, then you're over budget. You're
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not making any money, and so now you're working harder and getting less to
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show for it. See, you're if you have an incremental approach with a
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minimal viable product, clearly defined to the customer, clearly agreed upon in the
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contract or agreement. You know, going the extra mile is useful, yes,
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but after you've delivered and gotten paid for the mile, you're on right
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now. And that's really how I look at it when I talk about two
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or three deliverables. If you can't do one deliverable to day, then don't
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try to wear yourself out doing too Now, what you'll find out when you're
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working better in the basics is that you'll get five, six, seven deliverables
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done. You'll start stacking deliverables into projects. Then you'll start assigning projects out
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to individuals. You'll start building this network, and before you know it,
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you'll be looking back on your life about all the accomplishments you've had, not
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looking forward about how could you be more productive? How could you be better?
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See, that's a self esteem issue more than anything else. You know,
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if I could just tweak one more little setting on this browser, maybe
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it'll go faster. Maybe if I just do this, my internet would be
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better. Those are not important things. You could have a slow internet,
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which keeps you away from the distractions. You could have no social media,
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which I've noticed a lot of wealthy people don't have social media. They're not
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even on LinkedIn. And that's not a criticism, is an observation that you
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might be aware of because again they're focusing on the basics. They're delivering every
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day, they're clear about what they want, They have an environment for productivity,
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and so all these other distractions have no place in their life. And
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again, there is more progress to gain incrementally than leaps and bounds. Now,
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an outside observer, we'll see that you're leaping forward and you're climbing the
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corporate ladder very quickly, and you suddenly have all this wealth and success.
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But it's not built on jumps. It's built on a stable foundation, a
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firm foundation that's layered in over time, and so when you have setbacks,
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you don't go back as far. You don't fall off the ladder, because
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there is no ladder. You've built a pyramid, and you're sitting at the
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top of the pyramid on a firm and strong foundation of business relationships, of
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appropriate use of resources, of focus of attention. And you've balanced that with
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the quiet times that are necessary for reflection to really know what you want.
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You've balanced that with satisfaction, and now you're ten times more productive, one
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hundred times more productive than most people in your social group, or more valuably,
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you've upgraded your social group. And you might be average with your social
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group, but everybody's getting things done, worthy, things done, worthwhile,
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goals accomplished, now, it doesn't matter how productive you are if you're doing
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the wrong things. Okay, So one of the things I help my clients
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do is solve million dollar problems. I know, with inflation, it probably
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should be zillion dollar problems. But you're going to have obstacles in your life,
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and instead of looking for the new way to be productive, you sometimes
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can benefit from stepping back and saying, Okay, am I doing the core
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things that are necessary for my success? Did I accomplish today? Did I
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accomplish this week the core things that I determined in advance were necessary to reach
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my point of success? Did I give it enough time to see if I'm
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on the right track? See? Too often the distractions will get us going
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down one alley over here and going to see you have the capability to get
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the results that you're looking for. Unfortunately, a lot of us are are
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distracted. And I will admit there are times that I am distracted and I'm
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not getting the right things done and I need to step away from the computer.
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I need to step away from my office. I need to just go
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to a quiet space, meditate and get refocused on what needs to be done.
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And again that's why the paper is important. I can take my journal,
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I can write about my frustration. I can flip through a few pages
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and say, look now that that's on paper, that's behind me. Here
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are the two or three things I need to do today to get the results
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done. Let me look at the calendar. What are we expected to deliver
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to clients? And now it becomes more project management and productivity is a natural
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outcome of good organization of resources, good connections with business relationships, good identification
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of opportunity. Need a new app on your phone, You don't need a
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new productivity piece of software. You don't need half the stuff that people are
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telling you. You can have a notepad in a pencil, because all you're
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doing is creating a placeholder so that that activity is not in your brain,
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and instead your brain is focused on incremental improvement after delivering a minimal, viable
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product. It's focused on refining the basics. It's focused on opportunities for delegation.
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As you're doing the most important things, those other essential low skill activities
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are still getting taken care of. It's about being clear about where you want
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to be or what you want to do, and then again cultivating an environment
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of productivity where when you file papers, you can actually find them, where
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you are recycling old work and getting leaps and bounds ahead of your competitors because
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you're not starting from scratch every time. So, if you're a business owner
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or an executive and you want to find more ways to be productive, I
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have a free email newsletter that helps should not only be more productive, but
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position yourself as an expert in the marketplace so you're more in demand. To
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position yourself as an authority in your marketplace, so people will do the things
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that you ask them to do and then ultimately build stronger business relationships. You
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can get your copy of this newsletter at www dot inside Strategic relations dot com
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slash newsletter. Now, what we've been talking about today again is the five
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observations I've had about being more productive. I'll admit upfront there are times that
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I am not productive at all, but these five observations help me get back
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on track, and I even will look at my own self to say where
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could I improve, rather than going out there and saying what's the next tool.
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The tools will not help you improve unless you've got the foundation straight.
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So if you're distracted, if you're challenged. If you're frustrated, don't worry
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about it. We could be more productive getting you back on track. If
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you like my support and getting you on track. If you like my support
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in the sense of the so, what do you want and how to get
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it? Report? Just visit our website at www dot inside strategic relations dot
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com. You can ask about our peak performance program, you can ask about
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some of the books and reports that we have available, or simply ask a
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question that I'll answer in another podcast. I want to thank you for listening.
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I'm just in hit with Inside Strategic Relations and I'll see in the next podcast.