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#HURDLEMOMENT: 7 Strategies To Be Your Most Productive Self · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Emily Abadi Here you are listening to Hurdle Moment.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: It's my new series and honor of all the small
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: hurdles we're conquering each and every day.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: I don't want to get too cocky or anything, but
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: one of my rules is that you always have to
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: celebrate the small wins, and this week's small win is
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: that you guys seem to really be digging this new
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: edition to the pot. My hope, honestly, is that it
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: offers you the motivation right when you need it on
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: hump Day in the middle of the week, in the
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: form of a quickie episode with actionable advice, techniques and
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: strategies to help you get to.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: That next level.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: This week's episode of Hurdle by the Way with Catherine
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  Speaker 2: Switzer had me all sorts of excited, just as excited
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: as actually watching the Boston Marathon at my desk. Now,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: if you don't know anything about Catherine, you've got to
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: check out the episode. She was the first woman to
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: ever run the Boston Marathon. She's such an og a
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: huge inspiration and a huge thank you to all of
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: you who messaged me this week telling me how impactful
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: her story is. I totally feel you because recording it
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: with her was such a pinch me moment. In this
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: week's Hurtle Moment, I'm talking about productivity.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know a single person who doesn't wish that
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: at some point or another they had more than twenty
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: four hours in the day.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: As many of you know, in.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Addition to this podcast, I'm a freelance journalist writing mostly
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: health and fitness content everywhere from Woman's Health to GQ,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: and over the past two years of being my own boss,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: I've had to learn how to maximumly be productive, not
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: just because it feels good to get things done.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: But because it's kind of integral to how.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: I make the big books, which is, you know, relative
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: being a journalist and everything. In today's episode, I talk
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: about my seven tricks to ultimate productivity, which I've learned
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: throughout my own experience. You know, I'm trying to do
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  Speaker 2: the best I can with what I have since.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Going out of my own and.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Some days I feel like I've got the whole thing down,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: and others, well, not so much. Whether you're a first
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: time listener, you've been hanging out with me for a
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: while now, I'm always here to interact with you. And
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: I make a point of reiterating that week after week.
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  Speaker 1: So let's connect.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Hit me up on Instagram at Emily a Body at
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Hurdle Podcast. Let me know what you think of hurdle
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: moment where you're liking about what I'm putting down here,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: and feel free to shoot me an email. It's Emily
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: at hurdle dot us. With that, let's get to this
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: week's hurdle moment. I get a lot done during the day.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: I'm just gonna own that it's not just work stuff either,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: which obviously it's super important because I'm not a salaried
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: employee and I've got to make a living. Just like
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: a lot of the topics you see here, I get
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: tons of messages asking how I managed to fit everything in,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: and trust me, days are truly a struggle.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Some days I feel like I could be sitting in front.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Of my computer for hours, or others I wish that
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: I just had the time to see friends, or just
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: connect with my mom for the first time since what
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: feels like January, or just have some me time.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: But the fact is is that I've come.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: To terms with this idea that I'm doing the best
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: I can with what I have I've also taken the
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: past twenty four plus months of entrepreneurship and freelancing to
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: home in on.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: The strategies that make me feel the most productive.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Now, I won't call myself an expert in this arena
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: by any means, but what I will say is that
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: I'm proud of the progress that I've made at getting
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: things done. So today I share with you seven tricks
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: to be your most productive self. Trick number one, maximize
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: your commute.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: You know it's funny.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: When I first started freelancing, so many of my friends
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: asked me why I didn't want to just work from home.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: And I love my home, don't get me wrong. This
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: special one bedroom that I'm recording this podcast, this episode
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: in is mine. But I knew instantly upon going out
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: on my own that getting up and out of my
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: surroundings and heading into an office would be absolutely critical
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: for me to get the most done every single day.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: It was a way for me to set the tone
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: to separate home life from work life. Now, obviously going
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: into an office and oftentimes putting on something else other
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: than spandex is an important piece to the puzzle.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a super ecstatic we.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Work member actually and I look forward to walking into
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  Speaker 2: my office filled with self starters and super friendly staff
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: every single day. Seriously, if you need advice on we
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: works in New York City, I have been to them all.
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  Speaker 1: I have got you covered.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Every day when I head into the office, it's about
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: thirty minutes door to door, and I used to just
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: listen to some subpar John may or Pandora.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Station during the commute, if we're being real, but.
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  Speaker 2: I slowly realized that it was time I could use
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  Speaker 2: to get something done.
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  Speaker 1: So this can look like a few different things.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Usually the commune is an optible time for me to
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: catch up on the news with the help a podcast
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: I love, like The Daily or a.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: First or group chat.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: I also then have about a five to ten minute
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: walk until I'm actually at a desk, and this is
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: my prime time for a list making. So I open
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: up a note on my phone and I turn on
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: voice typing this is important, and I talk out my
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: priorities for the day. It's like having my own personal assistant,
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: but it's absolutely free. I know saying this probably makes
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: me seem like I'm totally talking to myself on the
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: side of the street, but the reality is that people
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: just really.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Think that you're on a phone call. So it's totally fine.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Anyway, I make my to do list, and I'll touch
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  Speaker 2: on smart strategies for doing that in just a second.
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  Speaker 2: This way, by the time I get to my desk,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: I don't need to take another thirty minutes. While I
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: slowly kind of do this, I've also gotten by this
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: time something accomplished with a little bit of organization and
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: a sense for what's going on in the world. Trick
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: number two say no more, not like no more, but
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: the word no. Use it more often. Joe Holder said
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: it best in episode fifty of Hurdle. He said, the
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: two most important words that you learn in your life
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: are yes and no. And it definitely took me a
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: long time to start using no. I felt as though
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: I wanted to make everyone around me happy, and in
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: order to do that, I had to be a yes woman.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Someone would ask me something like can you help me
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: with this, and I'd be like, sure, no problem, or
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: can you meet me at this time?
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  Speaker 1: Of course, not a problem. But what I realized was
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  Speaker 1: that I was catering.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: To all these things that made everybody else's life easier,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: but it wasn't making mine, and so I started using
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: no more, and I started owning the nights when I
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: needed to go home after work instead of meeting with
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: someone for a workout. And I began taking meetings when
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: it made sense with my schedule instead of constantly being
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: up and down and up and down every single day.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: In this process of learning to be okay with no
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  Speaker 2: I realized that the world wasn't going to collapse by
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: me setting up some boundaries.
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  Speaker 1: It was comforting.
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  Speaker 2: I have to focus on me a little bit to
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  Speaker 2: be the best version of myself for everybody else, and
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: in that process I become just a little bit more productive.
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  Speaker 1: Trick number three, it's simple. Make your bed in the morning.
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  Speaker 2: If you listen to Adam Callen's episode of Hurdle, he's
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  Speaker 2: the co founder of a company called Jane motorcycleis in Williamsburg.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: We talk about how making your bed is a game changer.
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  Speaker 2: That's because when you make your bed in the morning,
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  Speaker 2: it doesn't take a lot of effort, and within seconds,
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  Speaker 2: you feel like you've already accomplished something for the day.
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  Speaker 2: You've jumped out of the opportunity to get a head start.
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  Speaker 2: You feel like you've made progress, and it's easy progress
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  Speaker 2: that makes you feel super productive. So for me, every
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: single day, after I get out of bed, I brush
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: my teeth, I walk back into my bedroom and the
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: first thing I do is make that bed. Then I'm
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: ready to tackle the next challenge. In Adam's episode of Hurdle,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: he talks about how when he started to quote make
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  Speaker 2: the bed in his life, so to speak, he was
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  Speaker 2: able to.
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  Speaker 1: Do more things with more ease.
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  Speaker 2: It taught him that sometimes it's not so hard to
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: tackle the things that are right in front of him.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's a really really special lesson trick
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  Speaker 2: Number four, make smarter to do lists. I can only
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: talk about the smart acronym so much on this podcast,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: And if you want to know more about that, head
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: on over to the New Year's Day episode of Hurdle.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: But have you ever made a to do list and
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: felt so overwhelmed because there are like thirty different things
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  Speaker 2: on it?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah? Same, Now here's the thing about to do lists.
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  Speaker 2: If they are actually just small essays in bulleted form,
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  Speaker 2: then you instantly feel overwhelmed looking at it. Instead of
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  Speaker 2: writing down thirty things on your list, set priority to
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  Speaker 2: about ten max and ten is being gracious at the
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  Speaker 2: top of your list. Put the biggest, scary things that
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: you don't want to do. Trust me, Getting these things
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  Speaker 2: done first in the morning may feel a little daunting,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: but once you tackle what I like to call the monster,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: and I'm using air quotes, then you literally feel like
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: you are invincible and it is stellar.
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  Speaker 1: Trust me.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Smaller to do lists hugely important for productivity. Trick number
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  Speaker 2: five find joy in routine. I am absolutely nothing without
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: my morning routine. To be honest, A part of me
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: feels off if I'm not out the door and sweating
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: in some way within forty five minutes of rolling out
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: of bed. If you want to hear about that morning routine,
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: I talked about it in last week's hurdle moment. Now
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: this isn't me telling you that you also need to
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: be an early riser and burning calories before the sun
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: comes up to be productive. But think about the other
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: routines in your life that can help you get more
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: done when you sit down in the morning to tackle
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: those first emails. For example, do you have a time
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: limit to that? What about the amount of time you're
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: scrolling through your Instagram during the day. I'll let you
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: in on my strategy I've tried my hardest to block
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: off two periods of time for that kind of stuff,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: for me to check out on social media once I've
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: made my morning to do list, and the next time
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: while I'm meeting.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: In the afternoon.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Now, of course, there are always going to be times
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: where messages pop up or a DM or an email
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: or whatever the case may be, and I want to
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: answer them. But making this sort of the standard helps
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: me eliminate from mindlessly checking in on my phone constantly
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: every ten minutes. Plus, Remember, you get the chance to
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: figure out how these routines are going to play out
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: for you, So don't feel like you necessarily need to
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: follow my social media strategy or my morning workout strategy.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: But when you find a routine that feels comfortable, that
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: can totally help you get more things done with time.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Trick number six, stop multitasking so much. When I realized
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: I was constantly doing everything all at the same time,
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: that's when I actually wasn't doing anything to the best
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: of my ability. Instead, I was unintentionally, for lack of
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: a better term, evan a lot of stuff up. When
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: I was writing four different articles simultaneously. All four articles
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: struggled when I was trying to listen to my girlfriend
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: at lunch while answering seven emails. The emails all had
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: typos and my girlfriend felt neglected.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: So what I learned was to dedicate my.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Attention to one thing at a time, to be as
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: I wrote in my New Year's Goals this year, where
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: my feed are I can't say that enough. I started
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: giving things time blocks in my schedule, and this is huge.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: What I mean here is that.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: After putting my to do list together for the day,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: I would make a loose schedule for how I hope
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: things would play out.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: For example, if I had an article I.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Wanted to write about, say productivity for men self. In
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: my schedule for the day, I would plot out when
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: I would take on that article, Say it was from
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: one to two pm, and that way, during that time period,
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: that would be where my attention would go to. There
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: would be no question if I should be doing something
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: else on the two of the list. Of course, now,
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: some things take longer than you'd expect, and that's cool. Please,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: it happens to me all the time. But what you
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: need to do is you need to have the chance
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: and be okay with pivoting when things don't go as planned.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: This is why it's good to have your to do
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: list for the day that's not thirty items long. Take
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: the time you need to do the things that you
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: need to do, and be okay with that. It's forever
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: a learning process. And what I really mean by that
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: is that you need to be honest and realistic about
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: how much time certain things take to get done. For instance,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: if I know it takes me usually an hour to
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: work on a specific project, and I see that it
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: takes me three hours one day, then I can take
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: a step back and think, Okay, what else was I
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: actually doing during these three hours that were outside of
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: what I planned to do? Could I tweak that the
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: next time? Could I not tweak that the next time?
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: Do I need to set more realistic expectations? These are
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: all questions I'm constantly asking myself to be more productive.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: This all hinges off of one of the best pieces
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: of advice I've ever gotten for productivity, which was, over
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: the course of a week, write down every single day
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: exactly how long it takes you to do the things
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: that you want to get done. Let me tell you
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: how this works and break it down a little bit
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: more specifically essentially, obviously, you have your to do list.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Then you set your quote unquote schedule for the day.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Over the course of the workday, write down exactly how
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: long it takes you to get things done. After five
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: work days, take a step back and see how everything went,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: evaluate where you could have made changes, and don't be
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: so hard on yourself. You know this is meant to
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: be a learning exercise. Maybe during this exercise you realize
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: that you're spending way too much time on your phone,
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: or maybe you're taking way too much time texting your friend.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Hey, we all have our vices.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: What I'm saying here is this exercise can be super
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: helpful when you take a step back and see how
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: you're spending your time. So I encourage you all do
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: this this week. And if you do, and you're making
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: lists and you're writing down timestamps, feel free to tag
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: me and them on Instagram and we can wrap about it.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: There.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: My last trick trick number seven for being obscenely productive,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: surround your with people that inspire you.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: In this life.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: There are going to people that are drains and people
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: that are fawcets, and the people that are drains take
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: away your energy.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Without giving you anything in return.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: But the fawcets, these special special people, they are there
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: to set you up and teach you something. They're there
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: to support you in your mission to be your best self.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Now I'm super lucky and fortunate and blessed in all
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: the positive words that there are so many of these
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: people in my life. My good friends, my family, my mentors,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: and these people. I feed off of what they say
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: to me. I feed off of their support and my
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: quest to be a better me. And when I'm going
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: through the tough stuff, when I'm at my own hurdles,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: they help me get through them. They help me move
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: on to the next task and the next goal. These
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: positive influences in my life, they help me be my
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: best self. And that is so critical in terms of
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: productivity and of course, even more importantly overall happiness. And
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: for that I am so so grateful. Now, I want
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: to know what you're going to change in your routine
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: this week? How are you going to be more productive?
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Make sure to tag me if you're making to do
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: lists that are shorter. Let me know if you're writing
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: out a schedule and figuring out better ways to spend
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: your time or setting aside specific sections of your day
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: to check in on social media. Whatever the case may be,
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: whatever productivity trick you really relate to keep me in
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: the loop. Some of these things are going to take
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: time to get right. I personally am still learning new
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: productivity strategies every single day. But what I can tell
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: you is that you're already taking a step in the
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: right direction by recognizing that there's room for improvement.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: I'm going to let you in on a big secret. Guys.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: No one's got this all figured out, and that's okay.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time.