Latest / Business Roundtable / Maximizing Personal Productivity

Transcript

Maximizing Personal Productivity · Business Roundtable

0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Business Roundtable podcast where you have me, your
0:05
host, David Carr Steward your business, helping you help yourself and your teams
0:10
by leading them effectively helping you with your overall organizational health. And we have
0:17
Bill hatchback. Welcome Bill, good to be back. Yes, Bill and
0:24
I were just talking. We thought we'd have a podcast episode on personal productivity
0:30
or how do you assess your productivity? So we're going to dive in there
0:34
and I'm going to actually drop in an assessment. I'll actually show it on
0:38
my screen here so you guys can those that are watching us, we'll be
0:43
able to see that there is a free assessment for full disclosure for those of
0:49
you that don't know, I'm actually certified with Full Focused Planner and this is
0:55
a tool that's offered free as part of Full Focused Planners. Let me share
1:00
my screen here so you guys can see that. Here we go, and
1:04
you can simply go to the title up there at the top of the screen
1:08
right here and take this assessment. Really getting clear at what's stopping you accomplishing
1:14
your biggest priorities. We're going to talk about our experience in personal productivity as
1:19
individuals working with teams, and so if you have not had the chance to
1:25
check this out, I definitely encourage you to do that. Take the free
1:26
assessment. It takes just a few minutes, and we'll be happy to share
1:30
you with our results as well along the way. So that's what we'll be
1:36
covering tonight on our podcast. I'll come back there, Bill. So,
1:42
Bill, when you think about productivity and another book we were talking about earlier
1:47
was Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, you know, how are we how
1:53
are we productive? What does it mean to be productive? Because there's a
1:57
lot of things we can do right right, But just what when you think
2:02
about that word productivity? What what kind of comes to mind for you?
2:08
Well, for me, it's, well, it's getting stuff checked off the
2:14
old the old to do list. Yeah, you know, I'm I'm kind
2:19
of old fashioned on it. I have my my the back of an envelope
2:23
that I'll write new things on and if if it's unimportant or can't get be
2:30
gotten done immediately, then it'll go on the computer as a as a two
2:35
do item mh and uh, And it goes on the to do on the
2:39
on the computer. If it's a regular item so if it's a if it's
2:45
regular recurring, it goes on my master checklist and that says, day by
2:49
day the things that I have to get done and uh so so yeah,
2:55
But basically it's the it's getting those things checked off. I had one,
3:00
uh one trainer once who referred to it as a to do list. That
3:07
thing that's good, that's good. Yeah, yeah, put a put a
3:13
little bit of a positive spin on it or more positive spin on it,
3:17
get little energy going there. Absolutely absolutely well. I I definitely think that
3:23
is definitely part of productivity, like what are we accomplishing? What are we
3:27
getting done? Right? Tada? And one of the things in this assessment
3:34
that's on Free to Focus again, you guys can check that out. I'll
3:37
drop the link in there. Is you're looking at what you're saying, Bill,
3:42
like what what are the tasks that you have or the objectives or whatever
3:46
you want to call it, and is it easy to find, is it
3:53
easy to manage or is it something that's that's harder to do? And so
3:59
to this episode go through some ideas you know that you guys can, as
4:02
listeners and viewers of this can look through and do an inventory yourself this assessment
4:08
is a great little tool. But oftentimes what I found Bill, like you
4:11
said, if you're you don't have some kind of system, it's hard to
4:14
track knowing what you're getting done, right, And so it's like hard to
4:17
assess like how productive am I? Right? Like what am I actually getting
4:23
done? So there's a point of like gathering the things to get done and
4:27
then actually, like you said, Bill, like getting to actually check them
4:30
off, like did I actually accomplish that? Right? Yeah? Yeah?
4:34
And you're making sure that Yeah. I saw some of the questions were more
4:41
about how they're organized than what is organized. And you know, and I
4:47
haven't really considered considered that. I guess I could get a little more organized
4:53
in my method. Well, and I think you know, this is part
4:58
of knowing yourself, right, we've talked about some previous episodes. We're all
5:01
a little different. I think there's some you you have to process it through
5:06
what your kind of I say, preferred behavioral style. And if I you
5:11
know, there's certain things will work for certain folks, and I think we
5:15
got to be careful about applying it to everybody because I think there's a danger
5:19
in that some people really need a solid detailed system. Other people just need,
5:27
you know, maybe some major categories or some different ways you can go
5:30
about it. I've kind of find over the years of having trying all different
5:34
types, Bill from the Franklin Covey Planner to do Asana. I have my
5:43
full focused planner, I have my Warrior app. There's different things that I've
5:46
tried, and over the years it keeps a little clearer, gets a little
5:49
more refined, you know. But it's I find that it's it's good to
5:57
assess how it depends on how your collect rating. If it's personal versus a
6:00
work versus like a group or a team, that's a different type of collaboration,
6:04
right, right, productivity you have to assess that, yeah, because
6:11
it's it's being the being a solopreneur, there's no one available to delegate to.
6:17
Mm hmm, so either you know, for most things, For most
6:21
things, I either have to say no or figure out a way to do
6:25
it. Mm hmmm hm. You know, like a lot of entrepreneurs,
6:30
I have a hard time saying no. Well, and that that's a big
6:33
that's a big one, right because if you say yes, it goes on
6:35
your list, right, Bill, And maybe you need to say no,
6:38
not even put it on your list right right, because that could be affecting
6:42
your productivity. In fact, I'll just throw it up again because we were
6:46
just talking about this today with another client. In the Seven Habits have Highly
6:48
Effective People, it talks about your commitment being proactive. Well, don't make
6:54
a commitment to something unless you really think you're going to do it or somehow.
6:58
There's another great book I read years ago called Getting Things Done by name
7:02
David Allen, and he talks about categories. And one of the categories I
7:04
really like is the someday maybe category, meaning it's it's kind of like your
7:10
time with Bill, Like it's down there, it's down on the list.
7:14
I don't want to completely forget about it, but it's not all that important
7:16
at this point, you know. So being able to clarify what's important,
7:24
because I don't know about you, Bill, but I can fall into this
7:27
thing of thinking I'm being productive and really I'm I'm working on stuff that doesn't
7:30
isn't really that meaningful or impactful? Yeah, happened to you. To go
7:36
back to the to the Stephen Covey book. Of course, there's the four
7:42
the four Panels of of Important unimportant, urgent and uh and not urgent.
7:49
I don't remember what that urgent not important, not urgent important uh. And
7:56
then you have just plain urgent. You have urgent and important and import Yeah.
8:01
Absolutely, I do like I do like having things in that type of
8:07
order and trying to do that, you know, get the get that that
8:11
first, that first box cleared, so you can live in the second box
8:15
of things that are important but not absolutely absolutely, And there's we could definitely
8:20
dive into a little bit more of the tools here, because I think there's
8:24
some I use, like I said, use the full Focused Plan as an
8:26
analog tool, and I use my work wake Up Boy or app as my
8:30
digital tool. Those are my primary ones, and you get in there.
8:33
But I think it's important that if we're One of the questions too, is
8:37
if we're spending a lot of time in a week, that might be an
8:43
indicator, like you were saying, Bill, maybe we're not working on all
8:46
the important things, or maybe we're not prioritizing our time well, and so
8:50
possibly it's just an indicator. It doesn't mean it's for sure, but if
8:54
you're feeling like you don't have a time for everything, that might mean that
8:56
things are out of control and your in your priority and what's most productive,
9:01
right if you're feeling like it's always getting away from you. Ye, So
9:07
kind of looking at that, what's your average time that you're spending on on
9:11
on a working in a week, you know, yeah, yeah, And
9:16
I unfortunately find a lot because I've got so many things on my plate,
9:22
I find myself working in the a lot in the urgent side of things,
9:28
you know, and the someday maybe stuff list gets gets longer and longer,
9:33
and and that's it's okay to put the someday maybe stuff and you know what's
9:39
happening. Sometimes what I do bid is I go back and I look at
9:41
the list in your life and then it's not even and it's it's in that's
9:46
unimportant, not urgent right area. And you might go back and look at
9:50
it, you know, in a month or two, and you can probably
9:52
drop out. You're probably like, yeah, that's never I'm never going to
9:56
get to that. It's not really that important. How many people have I'm
9:58
not a car guy, but how many people have like car projects like I'm
10:01
going to get to that one day and they never get to it? Right?
10:05
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I have a car parked over at my
10:11
parents house. You have a car project, my little car project. It's
10:16
not that much of a project, but but it's uh, yeah, it's
10:22
so yeah, So I think it's important. So we talked kind of look
10:26
at all your tasks that you have, Look at the time it's taking,
10:28
how do you and the like. But when you when you say, Bill,
10:31
You've got a lot of different things. And I would say probably you
10:35
said urgent, but I'm I'm thinking probably you're thinking urgent and important, right,
10:39
not just not just urgent, but things that are actually really important,
10:41
like writing your book. I know you're working on that. How do you
10:45
feel though, and this is this is a question for everybody that's listening.
10:48
How do you feel about your current workload? Do you feel like even though
10:52
it's a lot, do you feel like energized you feel or do you feel
10:56
like, Okay, I've got a system of process or do you feel more
11:00
like overwhelmed by it all? What would you say? Ye? For me,
11:07
I'd say I'm getting to the point of being overwhelmed. And it's more
11:13
about things in my personal life that it is about things I would call professional
11:18
life, right, that are that are overtaking, you know, like like
11:24
this last year, bought a house with some land on it, and I
11:28
wanted to do things that homeowners do with their land. And uh, I
11:33
finally got the trees. I finally got my apple trees planted, so I
11:37
haven't saw that. Yeah, and uh, and the chickens are getting pretty
11:43
big. But but yeah, you know, so planting and and uh of
11:50
various things and and whatnot, but those aren't really I haven't really integrated them
11:56
into my list of things to do. So it does really show up as
12:01
as to do ye or toda. Yeah, absolutely, Well that's you.
12:07
You're you're saying earlier, you're like saying, yes, you're being additive but
12:11
not taking out other things. Yeah, and uh, you know I've take
12:18
been able to take some things out mostly because I I don't know, I
12:22
can't bring I have a hard time bringing myself to the to to move things
12:26
into the Sunday maybe call them because those things will get lost and yeah,
12:30
uh and yeah, but well you know, my dad was a do it
12:35
yourself kind of guy, and he didn't want to pay somebody else to do
12:37
it. He's like, I could do it better myself. I'll do you
12:39
know, and that's hey, if that's your thing, I mean, it's
12:43
okay. Just recognize sometimes you're limiting and how much you can all get done,
12:48
right, You only have so many hours in the day. And I
12:50
think you bring up a good point, Bill, because I fall into this
12:54
trap too where I'm doing a lot of things and then somebody asked me something
12:58
and of course I want to help out. And again this is knowing yourself
13:01
kind of believing. Going off our conversation last week, our tendencies, Bill,
13:05
We're talking about in our last podcast, know yourself to lead yourself to
13:07
their tendency is to say, yes, we have a patterned behavior. I'm
13:11
using the connector voice in that we've talked about in five Voices. A connector
13:18
is oftentimes, you know, people pleasing and wants to help other people and
13:22
be, you know, resourceful. So I know that about myself and I'm
13:26
I oftentimes will overdo it, you know. And it's like I have to
13:31
be careful about saying, like you said, Bill, yes, because that
13:35
means I might not get the other stuff that's actually important done on my list,
13:41
you know. Yeah, and some of those important things tend not to
13:46
show up on the list. Because they're they're personal things, and we don't
13:50
want to schedule the time with family and friends because that's kind of the that's
13:56
the free flowing part of our lives or or something to that effect, right,
14:01
And but we have to remember that those things take time. Yeah,
14:07
and uh, and so we have to put them on the list so that
14:09
we know how much time we have left in the day. One hundred percent.
14:16
No, I I I I agree with you, and you know that
14:20
that's one of the things. I will well, we'll get into the a
14:24
little bit of the I mean, well, I guess we'll just this is
14:26
a good transition here because we're talking about how do you how do you you
14:31
know, do you have some kind of system that you can capture all these
14:35
things, like you're talking about Bill, your personal things, not your work
14:39
things. How do you do that? Because I I used to keep a
14:43
little bit more siloed, but then I had trouble tracking them all, especially
14:48
on my calendar. So I literally merge them all because I had to be
14:52
able to see them like the calendar. You guys think, if you guys
14:56
are listening, I mean, it's it's another way of organizing your in assessing
14:58
your productivity, what's the meetings, what's the time whether you're meeting with somebody
15:01
or blocking out time whatever that is, what are you committing your time to
15:05
right? And so for me personally, Bill, I had to create a
15:09
system that integrated my calendar with my list. I've used Microsoft for years,
15:16
or if you want to use it, there's a calendar and there's like a
15:18
to do list on there. If you you can overlay those things. I
15:22
mean, there's all different ways. There's different systems that can do that.
15:24
But I think it's important to find a system that works for you, whatever
15:31
that might be and for you. I think this is something I do in
15:35
Warrior. That's why I like this digital system because it has I can I
15:41
can code if you will my task by is is this a spiritual thing my
15:46
being? Is it balance something in my relationships? Is a business? Or
15:50
is it physical my physical body? Now you can have more domains than that
15:54
full focused plannerres others that you can use, but the idea is whatever that
15:58
makes sense for you, however you want to aggregate it, Like you said,
16:00
Bill, because I think I just talked to a client today and they're
16:03
talking to me like that. They're they have all these like they're trying to
16:07
be proactive at work, but they're not doing the same thing in their family
16:08
life, and they feel like their family is getting the short end of the
16:11
stick, you know. Yeah, and the things that are important to you
16:18
have to be prioritized. I mean, hm, you know, I've I've
16:22
often heard people talk about, you know, the things that you do are
16:27
what are the priority for you. So if you're spending all your time at
16:33
work, well then family is not your priority because that's where you're spending all
16:37
your time at work. Absolutely, and yeah, so we have to we
16:44
have to be careful with that. And taking an assessment of of what you're
16:48
doing right now is certainly an important thing to do to figure out just what
16:53
are your priorities and yeah, you need to shift them like exactly. Yeah,
17:00
And if you don't have a way of assessing that, one of the
17:03
things I do in my coaching program is we do a series of what I
17:10
call back maps understanding where you're at in these things, and so you go
17:15
do do a deep dip of just kind of the facts of where you're at
17:17
in your life in these different domains. So then you have a basis for
17:21
understanding of like what, like you just said, Bill, what do I
17:23
want to achieve? So that you're being intentional about it, because you know
17:29
most of most people have success in life. When you look at people and
17:33
you think that their overnight successes, that's not the case. People have done
17:37
things over time incrementally. I mean there's a great picture of you, Yeah,
17:44
look at like that. I think there's a picture of like, yeah,
17:47
Microsoft, or Jeff Bezos with Amazon, right, he's sitting in his
17:49
office with the Amazon side. It didn't It took time and repeated actions to
17:55
get be to get there. So don't be fooled anybody that thinks like,
17:59
oh, I can just do this thing and boom having success. It doesn't
18:02
work that way or it's not sustaining. So you get celebritary right, you're
18:07
like, oh goodness, But then it doesn't last. They're not able to
18:10
repeat it and they're not able to sustain it. So I think it is
18:15
important, like you said, Bill, to kind of look whatever that is
18:19
for you to find a system. I've gotten system agnostic. I guess over
18:26
the years, I figures just find a framework that works for you. In
18:30
getting clarity, I've learned a little bit from all different resources. I mean
18:36
from like you said, seven habits through through what and then I've incorporated what
18:41
I train in because what I found Bill for me as and I know you're
18:45
a coach to coach consultant, but as a coach, it's super important to
18:49
ask anybody whether whatever coach you're hiring. We've talked about this in a previous
18:52
episode of Coaching, So if you guys want to go back and listen to
18:55
it, please do. But we said, find coaches that live, uh
19:00
what live what they're coaching you on. You know. Uh. The reason
19:03
I take this assessment is because I wanted to look and see where I'm at.
19:07
I'm on a journey and so it's Bill, We're not. We haven't
19:10
figured it all out, all of it. Nobody would say, but hey,
19:11
for further along than you are, we can share some nuggets. Right
19:17
then find that, but find the folks that are living it and ask them.
19:21
Let me see your success. What have you achieved? How are you
19:23
doing it? Because that to me is really really important. That's why I'm
19:27
not so big on it doesn't matter that the system if you want to use
19:30
Monday dot Com or sign or full Focus or the warrior. I don't care.
19:36
I just want to make sure you get the results, right Bill.
19:38
Yeah, And it's not just about what the latest and you going to the
19:44
latest and greatest system or or anything like that. It's the system that you'll
19:49
use too. Yes, that has to be taken into account because you know
19:53
these are all great there are there are a million great systems. But if
19:59
you're not going to use is it? Then it doesn't matter? Right,
20:03
So you have to make that personal commitment to absolutely here's whatever system you do,
20:11
you do pick up right and and just ask yourself, are you like
20:15
one of the questions in the assessment, like are you hitting the deadlines?
20:18
Are you actually getting the things done that you thought? Because if you're not,
20:22
well, that's that's a way of assessing your productivity, right Bill,
20:25
Are you you know, are you getting the results? Are you reaping the
20:27
reality that you desire or not? Well? If you're not, then you
20:33
need to re you know, reassess your commitments or what you said you're committed
20:37
to. Right. All right, So one thing, one thing you brought
20:45
up earlier I wanted to bring out in this Bill. I want to ask
20:49
you this question because you're talking about you know, you have this new land,
20:53
now you've got you know, animals, you're playing the orchard, all
20:56
sorts of good stuff. But the reality is sometimes what we do is the
21:03
word margin, I think is an important word in full focus. We've talked
21:07
we talked about this in full focus in particular, margin meaning is everything so
21:15
packed, so so many things, but there isn't any space to allow for,
21:22
you know, the the unexpected things that come in life, right right,
21:29
that that inevitably come. I mean, are you constantly late because you
21:33
just oh, I didn't anticipate that phone call. Oh I didn't anticipate you
21:37
know, I didn't have a clean shirt, and I gotta go run a
21:44
line, you run, you know, I mean, and so we end
21:48
up, you know, feeling like maybe we're just running NonStop instead of trying
21:52
to create space or margin. I want to speak to that bill. Yeah,
21:57
you know, so many people will accept the reality that you must budget
22:04
for money for the unexpected. You know, all my car broke down,
22:10
but it's a good thing. I've got this emergency fund. But did you
22:12
budget the time that getting that car repaired is going to take? You know?
22:18
And absolutely, you know, so you you really need to to create
22:23
a time budget. Whether you call it a margin or or a budget,
22:30
there's because I when I do calls, I always set margins in. I
22:36
work margins into the system. So there's you know, fifteen minutes before to
22:41
prep for that call, fifteen minutes after to to decompress or or process that
22:45
call. Pardon me, but it's really hard to set that into things that
22:53
aren't on a calendar, you know, if if it's not in the then
23:02
yeah, too often I don't put things into the calendar with specific deadlines and
23:10
specific times to work on them. I just have the list of things and
23:15
it's okay, I'm going to work on that thing now. And that works
23:22
most of the time for me. But it does make it difficult to set
23:26
up margins within the within the system so that I can have a little bit
23:32
of breathing room, so that if something comes up but I need to run
23:36
to the store for something, then I have the time to do that,
23:41
right. Yeah. So I think, as you guys go through this and
23:44
hear us talk about that, are you creating that margin in the space to
23:48
allow yourself you know that, especially if you're working with teams and other things
23:53
like that, you need to leave other people, you know, margin on
23:56
your team so that they know, like you said, Bell, I think
24:00
that's really important, and then ask others what do they say about your proactivity?
24:04
If you can get honest feedback candor I mean really, I would ask
24:11
encourage you to ask people and have them to be real with you. We
24:17
don't want we don't in the podcast. I think we've talked about this before.
24:19
The difference between you being kind and nice. We don't want this is
24:22
not where we want a nice response, a polite response. We want them
24:26
to be real with you and say, you know, I really could have
24:29
really been a benefit of me if you would have gotten this that it's frustrating
24:32
me, or whatever the case might be. So then you can have awareness
24:34
as to your effectiveness in getting the job done. And I would say this
24:41
takes the maturity bill because I know early on in my career was something that
24:45
I would I would definitely ask. I would not be looking for I would
24:48
I get it maybe a in an annual review, maybe, but I didn't
24:55
get it and I didn't seek it out per se. I think as I,
24:57
as I grew in my career, started to understand the value of getting
25:02
critical feedback and constructive feedback honestly, and so you know, listen to what
25:11
others are saying, even if they're maybe not saying it overtly to you,
25:15
but it may be coming out on the side because they just don't want to
25:18
they don't feel like they can say it directly to you, or maybe they
25:19
said something to a colleague and it gets back to you. I don't know,
25:23
Bill, what's your thoughts on and soliciting feedback from others. Well,
25:29
you're right, yeah, nice is not kind. Kind is not nice.
25:34
Yeah, kind is honest, and honest isn't always nice. Isn't always the
25:41
feel good thing? Mm hm. Quite often might hurt quite a bit to
25:48
hear honest feedback, But it's got to be that way. And if if
25:52
you feel yourself is kind, then you need to give that honesty to other
25:59
to other people. And and when you ask for feedback, you need to
26:03
make sure they understand you want the hard hitting truth of matter. Yeah,
26:11
and Bill, I was gonna ask you, Bill, just to model it
26:17
here for the folks too. So either if I was like, you know,
26:21
so, say Bill, you're you're you know, you're we're doing the
26:23
podcast or whatever, say Hey, Bill, you know, could you give
26:27
me feedback on how I'm you know, running the podcast. Am I doing
26:32
a good job? Am I missing the mark? You know giving I'm basically
26:34
giving you permission to speak into my life right right, because I'm coming into
26:38
you and I'm being vulnerable, and I'm saying, Bill, can you just
26:42
be honest with me and let me know what's going on to really invite you
26:45
to speak into my life? Right? Absolutely? And I might come back
26:53
with things, well, we have had a partial conversation about it, and
26:59
that list to you expanding onto audio platforms. Yeah, and but beyond I
27:07
might say, I might say something like, sometimes the show seems too structured
27:15
mm hmm. But that, of course is my personal opinion of it.
27:19
And I mean you did ask for that, yep. So exactly. My
27:25
podcasts tend to be a little unstructured and uh and free flowing because I'm doing
27:33
more of an interview type of a show than a than an advice and and
27:38
help kind of show. Mm hm. So uh so yeah, so we
27:42
just we just chat. We have a we have a conversation that goes where
27:45
it goes, and and we talk over each other on occasion, and uh,
27:52
and just have a lot of fun, like like a couple of people
27:56
might have on at a you know, a coffee shop or a bar or
27:59
something. Yeah. Absolutely, so yeah, yeah, And I love your
28:06
example. I want to give the audience. I want to give audience a
28:10
background because yes, if you guys are listening to this podcast and not watching
28:14
us on YouTube or our live or you know, on LinkedIn or Facebook or
28:18
whatnot, it's because Bill. I give Bill credit here. Bill was the
28:22
one that said, hey, David, you could take this and put it
28:25
into a podcast feed. And when I launched my other podcasts, Intelligence,
28:29
Human Leadership this year, I was like, oh, I could do that,
28:32
And so it was Bill's feedback that got us. So if you're listening
28:34
to us, you can think Bill Hatch here because he's the one that encouraged
28:37
me to get that that feed going out there. And I'm really glad that
28:41
you did, so thank you, Bill, no problem, Yeah, yeah
28:48
no. And then on the flip side, so there in this case,
28:51
I was asking you, you know, I was seeking out your feedback.
28:55
On the flip side, if somebody is not asking for your feedback, you
29:00
could also do is you can depending on the relationship. But you can also
29:03
say, and again I'm encourage you to be open to this, but if
29:07
somebody comes to you and says, would you be open or would you be
29:11
be you know, allow me to you know, are you open to feedback?
29:14
Are you open to hearing maybe a different perspective. I'd encourage you to
29:18
lean into that. But then you know, if they say, no,
29:19
I'm not ready for it, I'm not really No, I'm happy, I'm
29:22
good where I'm at. You know that's fine too, Just you know,
29:25
I mean meaning I want to encourage. Like Bill was the one. Actually
29:29
I don't know if I asked you, Bill, but you you just had
29:32
we talked about it. But then you also suggest to some other things which
29:33
I was completely open to. So again, if you have the relationship and
29:37
you see somebody struggling with productivity, don't don't let them continue to struggle if
29:41
you at least offer help, right, Yeah, And there is always the
29:48
option of going through a third party m HM or something. If you don't
29:52
have that relationship with the person who needs who you feel anyway needs some a
30:00
feedback, then you can always go to someone you feel they trust and talk
30:07
with them about it and like, hey, I'd like to give this to
30:10
somebody, but we don't have that kind of relationship. Mm hmm. I
30:15
actually have have that, and have that recently happened to me and the person,
30:22
the person I wanted to give the feedback to, we didn't have the
30:25
relationship to have that kind of conversation, so I went through, So I
30:29
went through a third party and and said to her, you know, this
30:33
person might be struggling with something and and here's how I see it, and
30:40
you may want to go in take it to them. And she did and
30:45
the situation got resolved and and everybody is pretty happy. Now. Yeah,
30:52
well I think that I think that's great, Bill, That's a great observation.
30:56
Fact. It's funny you mentioned that I had another conversation with the line
31:00
today about that that she was talking to me a bit frustrated about another coworker's
31:04
response to getting some things done, and so yeah, to the point it
31:08
was like, I don't know if I can go directly with them, and
31:11
I need Also it's also good too, because we may need to vet some
31:12
things out. We may be off in our assessment for different reasons, right,
31:18
but we can get some better clarity there. And like voicing that.
31:22
So that's a great, great perspective, Bill. I if you guys are
31:26
seeing somebody else struggle and maybe don't have that relationship with the person, find
31:30
a third party that does, and also just just share from your perspective in
31:34
a way of like, hey, I may be off here, but this
31:36
is kind of what I'm seeing. So I think that's that's important. And
31:41
I actually would say, honestly, anybody that does any kind of performance reviews
31:45
or you're you're doing somebody, I highly encourage getting third party input, you
31:52
know, not just maybe the person you're assessing, because they may see things
31:55
you don't know how. I don't know how many of you that are listening
31:57
have been a supervisor for somebody that you don't really actively work with that much.
32:02
And now you're saying I needed a review of this person because quote unquote
32:06
I'm their supervisor. But they actually work with these other people more than they
32:09
ever work with me. So how do you know that they're being productive or
32:14
not? Well, you need to talk about the other other team members,
32:16
right, Yeah, So I think that was that was a really good point,
32:22
Bill that you made, And ultimately, what's the point of being productive?
32:27
I mean, the idea is, what's the idea of being more productive?
32:31
Why do we want to be more productive? I mean, what's what's
32:35
the end goal here for me? Bill and I'll chime in and I'd love
32:39
to hear, but really, as I'm just going to go back to seven
32:45
habits here for a minute. You know, we talk about and this is
32:47
also in our Giant Tools a circle of influence. I want to be most
32:52
productive because I want to become a better version of myself. I want to
32:58
contribute to others, and I don't want to just I don't want to be
33:02
stagnant. I don't want to, you know. I feel like there's always
33:07
opportunity to do more. As long as I'm alive and breathing, there's more,
33:12
there's more to be done that God's not done with me yet, and
33:15
so it's a continual evolution or transformation, if you will. I want to
33:22
become a different version of myself, a better version of myself over time,
33:28
and so there's a refining of how do I become more productive? I leave
33:30
the unproductive ways of being I leave or I've accomplished, which are great.
33:36
I think it's important to look at look at the gap of where we were
33:39
and where we look back and we're like, oh man, it's an amazing
33:43
journey of like I accomplished those things, like you said, the Tada's Bill,
33:46
But for you, what what makes it? What what inspires you to
33:51
be continue to be more productive, to contribute and do what you do?
33:53
Bill, Impact, My great goal is to have an as yet undefined impact
34:02
of the positive impact on the world when when the time comes for me to
34:08
be done with it. Yep. You know the different things that I do.
34:15
Some of the things that I do are toward that goal, and some
34:19
of the things that I do are towards supporting that goal. My my ability
34:24
to do it, you know, like like I take little jobs to make
34:30
money so that I can support myself while I'm working on writing a book.
34:34
Because very infrequently do you get paid to write a book. Yeah, yeah,
34:38
yeah, you're not. Yeah, you get paid after you know so
34:43
so yeah, and so you have to work to get that that book paid
34:47
for absolutely absolutely, you know. That's that's so important, Bill, and
34:58
impact is huge. I I agree wholeheartedly with you that we are in place
35:05
of positively influencing others. And that's really kind of what I was thinking about
35:10
as you were talking tonight, is what's what's the impact that starts? If
35:15
it starts with ourselves, right and from there we can positively affect others.
35:24
And but if we're not working on ourselves first, how how are we going
35:29
to have you know, others? Yeah, I think a lot people in
35:34
this world they think they want to infect others, but they're not They're they're
35:37
not being productive, they're not evolving themselves. It's like you've got to do
35:40
the work on your on yourself, right, Yeah, yeah, I was
35:47
gonna throw up here. I think this is a good little image for those
35:52
Again, if you guys are just listening to us, I'm sorry, sorry,
35:54
you're gonna have to go find us on uh uh YouTube. We have
36:00
all of ours on just guys can look up my look up David Carr Intelligent
36:04
Human Leadership, look at Steward your business. We have the YouTube page up
36:07
there. But I'm going to share a quick little screen here and let me
36:12
show this one. But this is this is also based on the seven high
36:15
habits of highly effective people. And let's see here there we go pull that
36:22
up. Let's see it's kind of a weird window there, but let's see
36:30
if I can do it that way, it's give me a little tip time.
36:31
But you guys can see this. So in this window you will see
36:36
this five circles of influence, which really starts with ourself, or at least
36:42
five circles we'll use in the giant self family team, our organization, in
36:46
our community, so it really starts with self. So like you said,
36:50
if we're productive with ourselves, it can radiate out from there, and we
36:53
want to do that intentionally, not accidentally. So so very important. So
37:01
yeah, I'll leave you guys with that tonight. We're grateful to have you
37:06
guys on here and joining us with the Business Ground Table podcast we'll have we'll
37:10
be back again are We strive to do this every week and provide you guys
37:15
value and resources. If you have questions and you want to know more,
37:21
you can just simply reach out to either myself or Bill will personally respond to
37:24
you. We would love to hear from you and if you have ideas or
37:29
feedback on this again, we talked about feedback, right Bill, how can
37:32
we be more productive? How can we be more impactful? We would love
37:36
to hear hear that from you. We totally invite you in that we invite
37:39
your comments, feedback and to help want to help you become the most impactful
37:47
and positively influencing person you can be in your world. So, Bill,
37:52
last thoughts as we wrap up the podcast for tonight. Well, the one
37:57
thing we didn't touch on was doubt was deadlines. Oh well yeah, then
38:02
is a great way to be to keep yourself productive is absolutely this is going
38:08
to be done by such and such a date. That is important to do
38:15
intentionally, especially for the solopreneur who was working on some project that's not going
38:22
to get that you're not getting paid to do, but that will pay you
38:28
once it's done. Yep, you know, because like my book you know,
38:31
or book series, I haven't said it will be done by this date.
38:37
I started out doing that and then I kind of stopped and drifted.
38:39
Now it's sitting over here on this panel. Yes, well, and I
38:45
think that's a good point Bill, as we're thinking about it, and we
38:47
will probably do another whole episode. We can do another episode of breaking things
38:51
down. We didn't get to smarter goals or other things. We wanted to
38:53
give you guys a high level assessment here just to get a sense of like
38:55
how do you assess your productivity? So getting that feedback and again, yeah,
39:00
when you get feedback, right, Bill, they'll tell you are you
39:02
meeting your deadlines or you're not meeting your deadlines? What are you that?
39:05
But when you're a solopreneur you don't have that. But again, I think
39:07
to your point, Bill is breaking it down into smaller chunks, right,
39:14
actionable chunks that you can do the tada, right, Yeah, what is
39:17
that? What is that? So it's like you don't say, write a
39:21
book because that's so big. Right, it's maybe write an outline. Maybe
39:23
it's it's write one chapter. Maybe it's you know, do research for this
39:29
chapter. Yeah, write a page, whatever that is, right, whatever
39:31
that might be. The more you can break it down, the better.
39:35
And again then you can assess, like you said, Bill, checking it
39:37
off, did I get it done? Did I check off what I did?
39:40
And I think it is better to make smaller commitments and get them done
39:45
then try to make a big one and not do it right. So look
39:49
at that, look at how you're breaking down, breaking down you know your
39:53
your components, like you said, Bill, and are you able to hit
39:57
those deadlines? That's a great insight. So again being intentional in leading yourself.
40:02
Knowing this about yourself too. It's really important how you work and the
40:08
system that works best for you. And again, if you guys, are
40:12
you interested in want to learn more? Both Bill and I can share a
40:15
deeper dive in our experiences. We would love to talk with you. Yeah,
40:21
you know so, thank you Bill for coming back on and if you're
40:25
if you're interested, we're always in. We're always inviting new guests. And
40:30
if you have a you know something interesting you would like to share or contribute,
40:34
please reach out. I'm happy to talk with you and see if you
40:37
would like to be on our panel on the Business Roundtable podcast on behalf of
40:42
Myself, Bill, all of our esteemed guests in the past. We appreciate
40:46
you guys listening and appreciate all your support. Go out there and be productive
40:51
and make an impact in the world. Thanks so much. All right BYEE.