October 13, 2025 • 28 mins
Are your days full of meetings, messages, and madness? Feel like you’re reacting instead of creating?
In this episode, Bob and Jeremy take on the chaos of modern working life – hybrid schedules, constant pings, and the illusion of being ‘back-to-back’ busy – and show you how to get a real grip on your time.
From Stephen Covey’s time matrix to Ivy Lee’s brilliantly simple ‘Success Six’, they share practical tools to help you prioritise what matters, reclaim your focus, and feel accomplished – not just exhausted. You’ll also hear why Friday has quietly become the new Saturday, how retirement is being totally redefined, and why your energy peaks (not just your schedule) should shape your day.
Expect laughs, real-life examples, and five powerful tactics you can try today – from time blocking and batching comms, to deleting, delegating, and finally saying no.
You’ve got 24 hours a day… but are you flying the plane or clinging to the wing?
Tune in now and discover how to make time work for you.
For more info, free resources, useful content & our blog posts, please visit realitytraining.com.
Reality Training - Selling Certainty
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jeremy Blake (00:01):
Okay, Bobby, great.
You're in the room nice andearly.
So you're okay to join thismeeting in a couple of minutes.
Bob Morrell (00:06):
Ah, no, no.
I must stop you there, Jay.
I'm really sorry.
Um, I've got a couple of thingshappening today.
As you know, I'm back to backall day.
I've just had uh an email comein from um you're my boss.
I must reply to thatimmediately because you know he
he he demands that.
And I've also had a text fromthe client, and I've got to look
(00:29):
at that and reply to thembefore we do this.
So I'm just I'm just in a bitof a moment here where I'm
trying to get all these thingsjuggling.
I know you want to do thismeeting, I know it's important,
but if I can't get ahead ofmyself here, I'm just not gonna
be able to concentrate.
So can you give me 10 minutesat least, at least, just to just
to sort a few things out beforewe begin?
Is that okay?
Jeremy Blake (00:46):
Yeah, I mean it must be wonderful living in this
kind of highly stressful poortime management sphere.
Bob Morrell (00:52):
It's not always like this.
It's just it's just sometimesthese things all come at once,
you know.
It's just it's reallydifficult.
You know what I mean?
Jeremy Blake (00:58):
Yeah, absolutely.
Bob Morrell (00:59):
But I know you've booked this room for an hour,
but uh, you know, we don'treally need to, you know, it
won't take that long.
Jeremy Blake (01:05):
I mean, this meeting compared to your diary
full of all these meetings thatyou're back to back, these
jewels that you're clearlyhaving, they're all of equal
importance, or smile justbecomes less relevant.
Bob Morrell (01:15):
I know you're being I know you're being a bit
sarcastic, but I I you know me.
I I this is just the way I am,okay.
Jeremy Blake (01:22):
So do you work with this man, this woman, this
person?
Are you recognizing or is thisyou?
If so, this episode's for you.
Stay right there as we dissecttime.
Bob Morrell (02:02):
You've got Bob Morrell.
Jeremy Blake (02:04):
And Jeremy Blake, we are your hosts.
We are going to deal with ourwell, one of our favorite
topics, but it's got worse,hasn't it, really?
Um, wouldn't you say that we'reall at home or largely, and uh
people still can't manage theirtime?
Bob Morrell (02:19):
Well, I think time has changed, especially when it
comes to work.
Um I was commenting the otherday uh in a training room that
Thursday nights in most citiesnow are pretty damn busy in the
bars and the clubs becauseFriday it's a ghost town.
Jeremy Blake (02:34):
Yeah.
Bob Morrell (02:35):
And that's because everyone's time means that
they're working from home on aFriday.
And why wouldn't you?
I mean, if that's an option,it's a it's a great idea.
Um, I would love to find somestats about the effectiveness of
Fridays and working from home.
I mean, you and I work fromhome all the time, and we're
very effective all the time.
But I think it's an interestingperspective that Fridays has
(02:58):
now become the kind of defaultuh day.
And I wonder how much gets doneon a Thursday when you know
that Thursday is the new Friday.
Does Thursday become the daywhere you start to sort of wind
down at about three-ish andstart looking at the clock and
think, or should we pop out foran early one?
You know, that sort of thing.
Jeremy Blake (03:17):
Well, of course, none of this affects people
working in hospitality, nomedical professions.
Um, all sorts of people havehad to continue managing their
time, key workers as we callthem.
Um so let's get into this.
I want to start with a quote,which is very simple is the bad
news is that time flies, thegood news is that you're the
(03:39):
pilot, and that's from MichaelAltschuler, translated Michael
Oldschuler, no terrible Germanjoke.
And um he is a serialentrepreneur.
I haven't found out what serialhe invented, but um he is
somebody who's had lots ofbusinesses and he's written
books.
But I love that.
I mean, there's so many quoteson time, and when I hadn't seen
(04:00):
that one, I just thought, well,that's true.
People forget they're thepilot.
We all have the same amount oftime.
As Zig Ziggler went on about weall have 24 hours in a day.
It's not time, it's lack ofdirection.
You know, it's not knowing whatyou're doing with it half the
time.
Bob Morrell (04:14):
Well, I think that's a very interesting point.
Time is a concept that has beencreated by man.
Um, you can argue that sciencedictates it because we have the
earth going around the sun, andthere's all that stuff which
dictates the amount of time wehave uh in a solar year, etc.
(04:35):
And I know that's where it allcomes from.
And of course, our initialcalculations about that were
wrong because we we moved fromuh one calendar to another, from
the Roman calendar to a moremodern calendar years later,
because we'd actually got thosecalculations of the year uh
incorrectly uh monitored.
So I think it's interestingthat we are using science to
(04:59):
give us those units of time.
But on that, I think it'sreally interesting.
I um saw an interview the otherday with um my old friend
Prince, um, as you all know, I'ma big Prince fan, and he became
uh a Jehovah's Witness uh inthe last 25 years of his life,
and what that meant was ofcourse they don't celebrate uh
(05:21):
Christmas and birthdays and thatsort of thing.
And he was asked in aninterview about how old he was,
and he just said, Look, he said,We've all got one birthday,
which is the day you were born.
He said, uh after that, it'swhat you do with it.
And he said, I don't celebratemy birthday, which is why I look
as good today as I did 20 yearsago, right?
Which is a very good point.
If you're not, if you're notsitting to you're not, if you're
(05:44):
not thinking in your brain, ohmy god, I'm gonna be 56 on the
next birthday, oh God, oh, howdo I look?
You're using that birthdayevery year as a kind of monitor
for you to look at yourself andgo, oh my god, I'm falling to
pieces, you know, this is theend.
And if you don't think thatway, if your mindset is I'm not
gonna monitor time in that way,I'm not gonna conform to having
an annual celebration, I'm notgonna conform to worrying about
(06:06):
what date it is, what time itis, I'm just gonna maximize the
use of time that I have, thenmaybe that does alter how you
are perceived and how you comeacross.
Jeremy Blake (06:16):
You said a minute ago that things have changed or
time has changed.
And in a weird way, just in thenews recently here in the UK,
that fantastic debate aboutpensions, when do you stop
working?
And just listening to youtalking then, I think some
people tune into almost thepoint of when they think their
body won't be able to do enough.
Yes.
But well in advance, like going,How dare they ask me to work to
(06:40):
67 or 68?
I was planning on packing up at65 and allowing my body to do
very little and do less and tobe less mobile and well who who
has chosen the that 65, 66, 67?
Bob Morrell (06:52):
Who's chosen that as the cutoff?
Jeremy Blake (06:54):
Well, we know we know it's finances, it it's
based on economics, so but butthat's crazy, isn't it?
Bob Morrell (06:59):
And yeah, I was I saw a thing the other day, an
interview with um Liam Neesonand Pamela Anderson, who are in
the new Naked Guns Well.
Yes, but Archie's big he saysit's good.
Jeremy Blake (07:08):
Yeah, and surprisingly, Liam Neeson can
carry comedy, apparently.
Bob Morrell (07:12):
Oh, he is quite funny.
He was very good in DairyGirls.
I I think he's great.
But um he's 72, Liam Neeson.
Yeah, now I do have uh certainopinions about some of his other
films, but Liam Neeson's 72.
He's now in a relationship withPamela Anderson, he's 58.
Oh yes.
Oh, they've found love on theset of Naked Gun.
Now, he's 72, okay.
(07:34):
He's a he's a famous film starand he's making films all the
time.
If you were in his boots, wouldyou stop work?
72, you're getting paid goodmoney to make films, it's good
fun, you get your expenses, youmeet lovely people, you have a
great time.
You know, 70 these days, youknow, that's interesting.
Jeremy Blake (07:53):
So I think a lot of before we even get into tips
and managing time, it's good totalk maybe bigger picture more
holistically about this.
I think if you are engaged inyour social life, your emotional
life, your working life, thenit's much easier.
Because I know just down fromhere two retired policemen who
live neighbours um down, who wholoved being policemen, but they
(08:16):
joined young.
They worked their careers inLondon, they've moved out of
London.
They are both the most two mostactive people in this little
bit that I live in.
Um massive gardeners, cyclists,but they're often down the pub
boozing together.
They are constantly doingprojects, and they they say that
classic thing, oh Jeremy, I'mbusier now than I've ever been.
(08:37):
Because they've got rich andfull you know they've got rich
and full lives.
So so many people, if workdefines you, and as you know,
I've got a brother who worktotally does not define him,
he's just retired, actually.
That one.
Yeah.
Um, and you've got nothingoutside of work, then I think
it's a real struggle.
A real struggle that you stopwork.
I mean, you and I, you know,we've had teachers in our lives.
(09:00):
Um, the classic thing iswhenever we talk to the
financial advisors, they'realways kind of ooing and ring
about how you wind the teachingdown, and that a dramatic stop
to leave the classroom and stopis basically going to stick you
under.
Um, you have to have a gradualdecline.
Teachers are the highest deathrate when they stop working
(09:20):
because they've lived off a kindof adrenaline stress of kids
wanting stuff, emails coming in.
Miss, can you mark this?
How do and if that just stops,their brains don't know what to
do.
So it has to be a gradualthing.
I I mean, retirement probablyisn't advisable in this modern
age with how we've lived withour stress lives.
Bob Morrell (09:39):
But then I suppose there are lots of other people
who manage their retirementsbrilliantly, go on lots of
cruises, um, they've paid offtheir house, they've got an
asset, they, you know, can dowhatever they like.
Now, to do whatever you like isan appealing thought, but if
you can't think of what you'dlike to do, then it's
(09:59):
unappealing.
Then you've got nothing tothink about but yourself and how
you're feeling, and startworrying about elements of your
body and ailments, yeah, andthat's how you end up, you know,
generating these sort of no,I'm not saying that's exactly
how it happens, and you know, ofcourse, there's lots of
different ways that that thepeople can make themselves ill,
but I I think we are in asociety which is increasingly
(10:22):
healthier, living longer, yeah,being more active into an older
age.
And I think that also means,coming back to the original
point, we have options when itcomes to managing our time.
Um, I heard a brilliant thingthe other day on the on the uh
on a podcast about sleep.
And I'm I'm a terrible one if Idon't get enough sleep.
(10:43):
You know, I'm literally like abear with a sore head.
Um, and it used to stress methat I wasn't getting enough
sleep, which meant I didn'tsleep very well still further.
And then I heard a brilliantthing where a guy said, Look,
it's not about the sleep you getevery night, it's about the
week.
Think about the week.
If you can get enough sleepspread over a week, you're fine.
(11:05):
Yeah, it's it's the individualnight, couple of uh early
nights, couple of earlymornings, you're you're you're
gonna be okay because you'llmake it out through the week and
you'll be all right.
Um, and and that that reallyhelps.
But there are some people forwhom if they if they cannot get
eight hours, they cannotfunction.
Jeremy Blake (11:21):
No, I may I manage it up.
So this week, very busy, got upat 4 a.m.
I hadn't flicked the um soundoff, and I had Florence texting
at 2 a.m.
going, can someone turn thelight off even though I'm
staying away?
Um so I was on a flight at sixto head up to Glasgow, and then
lack of sleep and all of that.
But I made it up and I did myclassic thing of just massive
(11:43):
brilliant power naps on theplane or whatever.
I'm I'm much better at sleepingthan I used to think I was.
So good.
So yeah, let's so we're talkingabout time, which of course
doesn't stop.
The clock starts and it'srunning, and you're running at
work.
But our sketch at the beginningshows a lot of the frustrations
that we have, and I'm sure youmust have, or you could be this
person who seems to have filledyour your diaries with endless
(12:06):
meetings and appointments thatare sapping your time.
Bob Morrell (12:09):
So I've got three questions.
Um, I've asked um my onlineassistant to give me three
questions to help someone withtheir time management.
Okay, and you will recognisesome of these questions.
So the first one I'm gonnaapply to you and and see what
you think.
Are you spending more time onwhat's urgent or on what's
(12:33):
important?
No, I'm definitely spendingmore time on what's important.
Okay.
So in that sketch at thebeginning, you had somebody who
was absolutely prioritizingurgency.
And the note here then is ifurgency always wins, you might
be living in reaction modeinstead of working
strategically.
Jeremy Blake (12:54):
Oh my gosh, the amount of people who are
responding to requests forinformation, spreadsheets,
client chasing, all of thatstuff.
Let's go through these and thenactually we can go back to a
few of the um Yeah, tips thatcome from them.
Bigger than tips sort of theauthorities on time in a sense.
Bob Morrell (13:11):
Sure.
Um, which tasks today could youdelay, delegate, or delete
without negative impact?
Hmm.
Good question, isn't it?
Jeremy Blake (13:25):
Yeah.
Um, I've got a nice, prettyclear diary with just two more
main things.
I'm designing something.
I could all you can always putoff designing a program.
So I'm I'm running a one-dayprogram with with um an entire
company, actually.
Um but I like doing that littleand often because that's
important.
I don't have to design thewhole thing now.
(13:47):
It's a sort of partimprovement, part creative
workshop.
Okay.
I could put that off, but thenI'll have less time to design
it.
So just getting a bit more doneon that would be good.
Bob Morrell (13:57):
But that sounds like important work, though, it
is, it is, which is why I'mdoing it.
Is there anything that youcould delegate to someone today?
Um I've delegated taking mydaughter somewhere, so I'm not
doing that now.
Jeremy Blake (14:09):
So there you go.
That's good.
I've managed the car betweenthree teenagers, because there's
one car between three.
So yeah, that's all delegated.
Bob Morrell (14:19):
Well, the point is most of us aren't very good at
delegation.
Okay.
Most of us also have a level ofcontrol that we like to
maintain.
Jeremy Blake (14:28):
Yeah.
Bob Morrell (14:29):
And when we feel that we are giving some of that
control away, that can bedifficult.
So I think that's an animal.
Jeremy Blake (14:34):
Well, just on that point, when I was training in
Scotland this week with theseleaders, I talked about I I call
him because everybody canpicture it, I make it a hymn,
the Weatherspoons manager whopulls that thing out of their
imaginary belt, and it's a sortof magnetized disc on a chain
(14:55):
that they hover over the till,they type some digits and go,
there you are, John.
So the Weatherspoons overridemanagement key.
Yes.
Which is, can you not just tellme how to do that on the till?
No, no, no.
Call me over whenever you havethese.
And it's like, you know, I'vegot somebody who's I've got to
cancel the double scotch andchange it to a double brandy.
Come here, I'll do that foryou.
(15:16):
Why can't you just tell themhow to do it?
Bob Morrell (15:19):
You know, rough day, was it, Jay?
Jeremy Blake (15:22):
In the Weatherspoons.
Yeah.
That must be why I came up withthe uh the whole Weatherspoons
override thing in the firstplace.
Bob Morrell (15:30):
Exactly.
Now, I think that's a I mean,there's some there's a load of
stuff we could say about that,but we'll come do another
podcast about that.
The other question here is atthe end of most days, do you
feel accomplished or justexhausted?
Jeremy Blake (15:43):
No, very accomplished.
I mean, it also I'm lucky.
The separation of my work frommy home, having a garden office,
has totally changed my life.
I don't, I I, you know, I shutthis thing down, have my list,
have my success six sorted,which we'll talk about, which is
a time management planningtool.
Um no, all of those, and how doyou answer those?
Bob Morrell (16:03):
Well, I um I definitely spend more time on
things that are important.
I have to react sometimes tourgent things, but I try and
react to the same thing.
Well, you find them mostlyurgently.
Jeremy Blake (16:13):
Domestic?
The ones that my ones that getin the way are the domestic
ones.
Bob Morrell (16:18):
But that's because your garden's your office is in
your garden, whereas I don'thave anyone to distract me, you
see.
So that's the first thing.
Well, I I get I get them comingin still and asking.
There you go, that's it, yousee.
Um I think I think that umthere are things I could
delegate and uh delete.
But you see, the thing aboutaccomplishment is this you and I
(16:38):
have our own business, okay?
So if we have to work onsomething late, and if I have to
work on something late, which Ioccasionally do, especially
when we're very busy, I don'tmind because actually I can see
the value of what it is I'mdoing.
If I had to do somethingincredibly, you know, just
administrative and work late onthat, you know, putting in data
(17:00):
or something really kind of Ithen I'm not sure I I I could
cope.
But because it's our business,we are invested in it, so
therefore our all of the time weinvest has a value.
So I think that's anotherelement which uh which is.
Jeremy Blake (17:13):
Well, you invest the time to produce the income,
I suppose, the results, thehappy customers.
Bob Morrell (17:19):
Yeah, absolutely.
Um so let's think about sometips.
I've got five tips here.
Well, can we go into your pointone?
Jeremy Blake (17:26):
You you use some of the language that uh so let
me remember 1989.
Uh a book is published.
Bob Morrell (17:33):
What book is that, which relates to your tip?
The seven habits of highlyeffective people.
Jeremy Blake (17:38):
Yep, first published 1989.
Stephen Covey, who sadly welost to a cycling accident, or
was it ice skating?
He he um he didn't die becausehe ran out of time.
Um, time is taken away fromhim.
But his point in that book ishe has this um time quadrant,
doesn't he?
But we can condense that.
The the general tip is is iturgent or is it important?
(18:02):
And then he also gets you toconsider urgent and important.
So, right, fair enough.
But we make the point thatthose are deadlines,
emergencies, and crises.
Back to the first sketch, theproblem that that version of Bob
had is that he's seeingeverything as urgent and
important.
Bob Morrell (18:20):
Yeah.
Jeremy Blake (18:20):
Because there's no plan, everything's not spaced
out, it's highly reactionary.
And Covey says, as Bob wastalking about a moment ago, that
the box you want to live in isthe not urgent but important,
because you can buildrelationships, um, develop
people, develop yourself, uh, doproper work, and that's the box
(18:41):
to be in.
We both feel more than half ofthe United Kingdom and abroad
that we're talking to isn't inthat box because they seem to
tell us that straight aftertalking to us about something,
they're going to anothermeeting.
And I'm thinking, what are youdoing?
Are you when are you doing thejob that you're meant to be
doing?
Because if you're endlessly inmeetings, what are you doing?
Bob Morrell (19:00):
He also talks about um things which appear urgent.
So, how many of us have ouremails ghosting onto our screen
when we're working?
And we go, Oh, that's much moreinteresting than the thing I'm
working on.
Let's have a look at that.
And it distracts us.
And we reply to that email, andthe person you reply to goes,
Oh, they're there.
I'll send them another email.
You suddenly have an exchangegoing on, you're trying to do
(19:22):
some work.
It is poor time management tohave that.
Or there's a sound when youremail comes in, or there's a
sound when your phone sends youa text and you go, Oh, I'll have
a look at that because it'smore interesting.
And you can't resist that thingwhich appears, oh, yeah,
appears to be urgent, but itisn't.
Jeremy Blake (19:40):
The phone is a huge addiction.
I'm very good at turning itoff, and I note which of my
trainers I'm co-training withcan do that and which can't, um,
and who are who are thinkingsome good stuff comes in.
We know that there's a dopaminehit, so the science has
researched this.
You get a little bit ofdopamine going, ooh, when you
get a message or a text or athing.
Um let's talk about the finalbox, which is all that stuff
(20:03):
that is neither urgent norimportant.
Um, which is hey, come and havea look at these photos of me
being amazing at the weekend.
Look at me, look at my dress.
Uh, have you seen thishysterical TikTok?
Um, let's watch a little sketchtogether.
I mean, you and I, we we findthese moments to do our
wonderful, not urgent, notimportant stuff.
Um yeah.
(20:24):
And we'll go and watch an oldsketch or send someone a sketch
or something, you know.
Yeah.
Dick Henry, we couldn't, we'reobsessed by sharing Dick Henry's
sketches, weren't we, for awhile?
Oh, brilliant, brilliant.
Absolutely.
So uh that's Covey.
Uh he's he's one of the sort ofum pioneers of encouraging time
management.
I think the most recentresearch that I really like um
(20:45):
is the time management wherewhere you're saying time has
changed is more like energymanagement.
Because if you're working fromhome, there's going to be
certain times of the day whenyou're better at doing certain
tasks because you're not in afactory and you're not in an
office if that isn't your job.
So you're not necessarilyconforming to everybody else's
rhythm or operating rhythm.
(21:06):
And the idea being, it's quitesimple, is we think about birds,
types of animals.
There's two animals you'll beabsolutely fine with, and the
the other one, they haven't gota brilliant name for it.
So there's the early bird, andthe early bird catches the worm.
And um, the early bird meanssomebody who is quite good in
the morning, quite focused, upand at it, um, not a teenager.
(21:26):
Teenagers we know, it's allscientifically proven, would
love lessons at school to startat about two o'clock in the
afternoon.
So the early bird is somebodywho can do quite focused work
early.
Then there's the night owl.
Um, and I'm talking to a nightowl now.
Bobby, I think you're stillprobably a night owl, aren't
you?
Bit of a night owl.
You're quite good at night.
You're better than me in theevening, aren't you?
You kind of got more energy atnight, I'm sure you have.
(21:47):
I don't know that that's true.
I think it depends.
I've always thought you werebetter at staying up later than
me.
Anyway.
Um, so the night owl issomebody who can do some of that
work quite a bit later.
And then there's the thirdbird, who's kind of good in the
kind of midpoint of the day.
And what this research says isthat you need to find out when
you're best at doing certaintypes of work.
(22:08):
So if you want to get yourfocus stuff out of the way
before nine in the morning, dothat.
If you're actually good workinglater, do that.
I remember you telling me yearsago, Bob, that IBM got hold of
this way before anybody else andsaid, we don't care when you do
the work, just get it done inthe period.
And if you're a night owl, dothe work at night rather than
nine to five.
They IBM are one of thepioneers of crashing that.
Bob Morrell (22:28):
I don't know that they still run their business
like that, but certainly for along time, you were empowered to
manage your hours in your ownway.
Um, and I think that was quiteuseful.
And indeed, where you workedfrom, which saved a lot of time
as well.
Jeremy Blake (22:44):
So let's come to you for some of your tips, and
then we can finish if you likeon a nice little planning tool,
which is about time as well.
Bob Morrell (22:50):
So, really good, easy tips.
We're going to give you aplanning tool because the first
one is prioritize with a cleardaily plan.
Okay, so that's a good one.
Now, this is something which Idon't do enough, and we should
time block your calendar.
So if you know you need time todo something focused to
(23:12):
something that's reallyimportant, block out the time
and make sure you're notavailable.
Just absolutely block that timeout and don't be available.
And that could be for a privatething as well.
If you want to go for a lovelywalk and you want to take some
time out for yourself, block thetime so that you can absolutely
do that.
Um, this is a really good one.
Use the two-minute rule.
(23:32):
If something takes less thantwo minutes, do it immediately.
Okay, don't let those build up,just do them quickly.
Tame your communicationchannels, just been talking
about it.
So emails, messages, look atthem in batches rather than as
they happen.
That's a great one.
And lastly, build in buffertime.
(23:53):
So don't just have you knowback to back.
We hear that all the time, backto back.
Well, make sure there's 10 to15 minutes between each meeting
to go and have a cup of coffee,look out the window, do
something to take your mind offthings before so you can have a
bit of a life before you go backin.
Because I guarantee if you'rehaving back-to-back meetings, by
(24:14):
the time you get to about threeo'clock, you've had it.
Your effectiveness is going tobe extremely limited if you're
not taking regular breaks.
Jeremy Blake (24:21):
Yep.
Very good.
Um I'm just thinking about thatback to back.
Sort of funny.
Back to back, the alternativesare spooning or front to front,
but my brain has just wanderedoff there.
Um, which would make you makethe time much more interesting,
wouldn't it?
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Jeremy Blake (25:06):
So let's finish with um Ivy Lee's success six.
So, Carnegie building bridges,all this wonderful stuff in the
United States, and uh all hisgrowing empire of building
things he can't get enough donein the day, and he wants his
senior managers to be muchbetter at running projects.
He asks Ivy Lee, who's actuallysort of the pioneer of public
(25:28):
relations, and he says, Okay,I've come up with this idea.
You're gonna do two things inthe morning, then you're gonna
have a cup of coffee, you'regonna do two things, then you're
gonna have lunch, you're gonnado two things, then you're gonna
go home.
So you divide your day into sixparts, and you do your worst
first.
Get the thing out of the waythat you're dreading, then you
do something else, then youreward yourself with a cup of
coffee, chalky bicky, whateveryou need.
(25:48):
Then you're gonna do two moreseries of tasks, and then you're
gonna have lunch, then you'regonna do two more and go home.
Now, if you write this thenight before, it could be a
group of tasks.
It could be called 10 prospectsbetween 11 and 12, it could be
phone these people back, itcould be design this, and all
the stuff Bob's just said aboutblocking out, buffering, all of
this can map in.
(26:09):
Now, what it means is insteadof having a ridiculous list with
20 things on that you're nevergoing to accomplish, you lift
them off that list and put itonto your success six and you
cross them off as you go.
So it's a prioritizationmethod.
It also gets you to realizewhat is important in the day
that you're running.
I tend to write mine the nightbefore, but you could also write
them on the morning of.
Now, if you operate that forsome weeks, you'll see how good
(26:31):
you are.
You'll also see what'sbothering you.
Who is it that's maybe senioror appearing to be knocking
stuff out, bothering you, butnot letting you keep to your
success six.
But also if it's rewrittendaily, then you're really poor
at saying no.
Bob Morrell (26:47):
Very good.
So that is something for you totry, the success six.
Now, this is a subject we keepreturning to because uh it's
something which we all need towork on, because of course we're
all creatures of habit.
And if you're in the habit ofuh scrolling on your phone for
half an hour at a time, um,that's the habit you're going to
(27:08):
be into.
And then you'll think, oh God,I've wasted all that time.
Okay, well, then limit yourtime, give yourself a 15-minute
limit.
Um, you know, take control ofthat time you're spending rather
than allowing yourself to bedrawn into things in a way which
will distract you from morevaluable things that you can be
(27:28):
doing.
And of course, this appliesequally to home life as it does
to work as well.
Yep.
So good luck with managing yourtime more effectively.
We will see you on anotherpodcast soon.
But in the meantime, thank youfor listening.
Jeremy Blake (27:44):
Please share, review, and rate.
It helps us hugely.
You can forward this tosomebody who you think could
really do with the help.
You can write us a few words,um, give us a review, give us
some feedback.
Thank you ever so much.
unknown (27:57):
Bye.
Okay, Bobby, great.
You're in the room nice andearly.
So you're okay to join thismeeting in a couple of minutes.
Bob Morrell (00:06):
Ah, no, no.
I must stop you there, Jay.
I'm really sorry.
Um, I've got a couple of thingshappening today.
As you know, I'm back to backall day.
I've just had uh an email comein from um you're my boss.
I must reply to thatimmediately because you know he
he he demands that.
And I've also had a text fromthe client, and I've got to look
(00:29):
at that and reply to thembefore we do this.
So I'm just I'm just in a bitof a moment here where I'm
trying to get all these thingsjuggling.
I know you want to do thismeeting, I know it's important,
but if I can't get ahead ofmyself here, I'm just not gonna
be able to concentrate.
So can you give me 10 minutesat least, at least, just to just
to sort a few things out beforewe begin?
Is that okay?
Jeremy Blake (00:46):
Yeah, I mean it must be wonderful living in this
kind of highly stressful poortime management sphere.
Bob Morrell (00:52):
It's not always like this.
It's just it's just sometimesthese things all come at once,
you know.
It's just it's reallydifficult.
You know what I mean?
Jeremy Blake (00:58):
Yeah, absolutely.
Bob Morrell (00:59):
But I know you've booked this room for an hour,
but uh, you know, we don'treally need to, you know, it
won't take that long.
Jeremy Blake (01:05):
I mean, this meeting compared to your diary
full of all these meetings thatyou're back to back, these
jewels that you're clearlyhaving, they're all of equal
importance, or smile justbecomes less relevant.
Bob Morrell (01:15):
I know you're being I know you're being a bit
sarcastic, but I I you know me.
I I this is just the way I am,okay.
Jeremy Blake (01:22):
So do you work with this man, this woman, this
person?
Are you recognizing or is thisyou?
If so, this episode's for you.
Stay right there as we dissecttime.
Bob Morrell (02:02):
You've got Bob Morrell.
Jeremy Blake (02:04):
And Jeremy Blake, we are your hosts.
We are going to deal with ourwell, one of our favorite
topics, but it's got worse,hasn't it, really?
Um, wouldn't you say that we'reall at home or largely, and uh
people still can't manage theirtime?
Bob Morrell (02:19):
Well, I think time has changed, especially when it
comes to work.
Um I was commenting the otherday uh in a training room that
Thursday nights in most citiesnow are pretty damn busy in the
bars and the clubs becauseFriday it's a ghost town.
Jeremy Blake (02:34):
Yeah.
Bob Morrell (02:35):
And that's because everyone's time means that
they're working from home on aFriday.
And why wouldn't you?
I mean, if that's an option,it's a it's a great idea.
Um, I would love to find somestats about the effectiveness of
Fridays and working from home.
I mean, you and I work fromhome all the time, and we're
very effective all the time.
But I think it's an interestingperspective that Fridays has
(02:58):
now become the kind of defaultuh day.
And I wonder how much gets doneon a Thursday when you know
that Thursday is the new Friday.
Does Thursday become the daywhere you start to sort of wind
down at about three-ish andstart looking at the clock and
think, or should we pop out foran early one?
You know, that sort of thing.
Jeremy Blake (03:17):
Well, of course, none of this affects people
working in hospitality, nomedical professions.
Um, all sorts of people havehad to continue managing their
time, key workers as we callthem.
Um so let's get into this.
I want to start with a quote,which is very simple is the bad
news is that time flies, thegood news is that you're the
(03:39):
pilot, and that's from MichaelAltschuler, translated Michael
Oldschuler, no terrible Germanjoke.
And um he is a serialentrepreneur.
I haven't found out what serialhe invented, but um he is
somebody who's had lots ofbusinesses and he's written
books.
But I love that.
I mean, there's so many quoteson time, and when I hadn't seen
(04:00):
that one, I just thought, well,that's true.
People forget they're thepilot.
We all have the same amount oftime.
As Zig Ziggler went on about weall have 24 hours in a day.
It's not time, it's lack ofdirection.
You know, it's not knowing whatyou're doing with it half the
time.
Bob Morrell (04:14):
Well, I think that's a very interesting point.
Time is a concept that has beencreated by man.
Um, you can argue that sciencedictates it because we have the
earth going around the sun, andthere's all that stuff which
dictates the amount of time wehave uh in a solar year, etc.
(04:35):
And I know that's where it allcomes from.
And of course, our initialcalculations about that were
wrong because we we moved fromuh one calendar to another, from
the Roman calendar to a moremodern calendar years later,
because we'd actually got thosecalculations of the year uh
incorrectly uh monitored.
So I think it's interestingthat we are using science to
(04:59):
give us those units of time.
But on that, I think it'sreally interesting.
I um saw an interview the otherday with um my old friend
Prince, um, as you all know, I'ma big Prince fan, and he became
uh a Jehovah's Witness uh inthe last 25 years of his life,
and what that meant was ofcourse they don't celebrate uh
(05:21):
Christmas and birthdays and thatsort of thing.
And he was asked in aninterview about how old he was,
and he just said, Look, he said,We've all got one birthday,
which is the day you were born.
He said, uh after that, it'swhat you do with it.
And he said, I don't celebratemy birthday, which is why I look
as good today as I did 20 yearsago, right?
Which is a very good point.
If you're not, if you're notsitting to you're not, if you're
(05:44):
not thinking in your brain, ohmy god, I'm gonna be 56 on the
next birthday, oh God, oh, howdo I look?
You're using that birthdayevery year as a kind of monitor
for you to look at yourself andgo, oh my god, I'm falling to
pieces, you know, this is theend.
And if you don't think thatway, if your mindset is I'm not
gonna monitor time in that way,I'm not gonna conform to having
an annual celebration, I'm notgonna conform to worrying about
(06:06):
what date it is, what time itis, I'm just gonna maximize the
use of time that I have, thenmaybe that does alter how you
are perceived and how you comeacross.
Jeremy Blake (06:16):
You said a minute ago that things have changed or
time has changed.
And in a weird way, just in thenews recently here in the UK,
that fantastic debate aboutpensions, when do you stop
working?
And just listening to youtalking then, I think some
people tune into almost thepoint of when they think their
body won't be able to do enough.
Yes.
But well in advance, like going,How dare they ask me to work to
(06:40):
67 or 68?
I was planning on packing up at65 and allowing my body to do
very little and do less and tobe less mobile and well who who
has chosen the that 65, 66, 67?
Bob Morrell (06:52):
Who's chosen that as the cutoff?
Jeremy Blake (06:54):
Well, we know we know it's finances, it it's
based on economics, so but butthat's crazy, isn't it?
Bob Morrell (06:59):
And yeah, I was I saw a thing the other day, an
interview with um Liam Neesonand Pamela Anderson, who are in
the new Naked Guns Well.
Yes, but Archie's big he saysit's good.
Jeremy Blake (07:08):
Yeah, and surprisingly, Liam Neeson can
carry comedy, apparently.
Bob Morrell (07:12):
Oh, he is quite funny.
He was very good in DairyGirls.
I I think he's great.
But um he's 72, Liam Neeson.
Yeah, now I do have uh certainopinions about some of his other
films, but Liam Neeson's 72.
He's now in a relationship withPamela Anderson, he's 58.
Oh yes.
Oh, they've found love on theset of Naked Gun.
Now, he's 72, okay.
(07:34):
He's a he's a famous film starand he's making films all the
time.
If you were in his boots, wouldyou stop work?
72, you're getting paid goodmoney to make films, it's good
fun, you get your expenses, youmeet lovely people, you have a
great time.
You know, 70 these days, youknow, that's interesting.
Jeremy Blake (07:53):
So I think a lot of before we even get into tips
and managing time, it's good totalk maybe bigger picture more
holistically about this.
I think if you are engaged inyour social life, your emotional
life, your working life, thenit's much easier.
Because I know just down fromhere two retired policemen who
live neighbours um down, who wholoved being policemen, but they
(08:16):
joined young.
They worked their careers inLondon, they've moved out of
London.
They are both the most two mostactive people in this little
bit that I live in.
Um massive gardeners, cyclists,but they're often down the pub
boozing together.
They are constantly doingprojects, and they they say that
classic thing, oh Jeremy, I'mbusier now than I've ever been.
(08:37):
Because they've got rich andfull you know they've got rich
and full lives.
So so many people, if workdefines you, and as you know,
I've got a brother who worktotally does not define him,
he's just retired, actually.
That one.
Yeah.
Um, and you've got nothingoutside of work, then I think
it's a real struggle.
A real struggle that you stopwork.
I mean, you and I, you know,we've had teachers in our lives.
(09:00):
Um, the classic thing iswhenever we talk to the
financial advisors, they'realways kind of ooing and ring
about how you wind the teachingdown, and that a dramatic stop
to leave the classroom and stopis basically going to stick you
under.
Um, you have to have a gradualdecline.
Teachers are the highest deathrate when they stop working
(09:20):
because they've lived off a kindof adrenaline stress of kids
wanting stuff, emails coming in.
Miss, can you mark this?
How do and if that just stops,their brains don't know what to
do.
So it has to be a gradualthing.
I I mean, retirement probablyisn't advisable in this modern
age with how we've lived withour stress lives.
Bob Morrell (09:39):
But then I suppose there are lots of other people
who manage their retirementsbrilliantly, go on lots of
cruises, um, they've paid offtheir house, they've got an
asset, they, you know, can dowhatever they like.
Now, to do whatever you like isan appealing thought, but if
you can't think of what you'dlike to do, then it's
(09:59):
unappealing.
Then you've got nothing tothink about but yourself and how
you're feeling, and startworrying about elements of your
body and ailments, yeah, andthat's how you end up, you know,
generating these sort of no,I'm not saying that's exactly
how it happens, and you know, ofcourse, there's lots of
different ways that that thepeople can make themselves ill,
but I I think we are in asociety which is increasingly
(10:22):
healthier, living longer, yeah,being more active into an older
age.
And I think that also means,coming back to the original
point, we have options when itcomes to managing our time.
Um, I heard a brilliant thingthe other day on the on the uh
on a podcast about sleep.
And I'm I'm a terrible one if Idon't get enough sleep.
(10:43):
You know, I'm literally like abear with a sore head.
Um, and it used to stress methat I wasn't getting enough
sleep, which meant I didn'tsleep very well still further.
And then I heard a brilliantthing where a guy said, Look,
it's not about the sleep you getevery night, it's about the
week.
Think about the week.
If you can get enough sleepspread over a week, you're fine.
(11:05):
Yeah, it's it's the individualnight, couple of uh early
nights, couple of earlymornings, you're you're you're
gonna be okay because you'llmake it out through the week and
you'll be all right.
Um, and and that that reallyhelps.
But there are some people forwhom if they if they cannot get
eight hours, they cannotfunction.
Jeremy Blake (11:21):
No, I may I manage it up.
So this week, very busy, got upat 4 a.m.
I hadn't flicked the um soundoff, and I had Florence texting
at 2 a.m.
going, can someone turn thelight off even though I'm
staying away?
Um so I was on a flight at sixto head up to Glasgow, and then
lack of sleep and all of that.
But I made it up and I did myclassic thing of just massive
(11:43):
brilliant power naps on theplane or whatever.
I'm I'm much better at sleepingthan I used to think I was.
So good.
So yeah, let's so we're talkingabout time, which of course
doesn't stop.
The clock starts and it'srunning, and you're running at
work.
But our sketch at the beginningshows a lot of the frustrations
that we have, and I'm sure youmust have, or you could be this
person who seems to have filledyour your diaries with endless
(12:06):
meetings and appointments thatare sapping your time.
Bob Morrell (12:09):
So I've got three questions.
Um, I've asked um my onlineassistant to give me three
questions to help someone withtheir time management.
Okay, and you will recognisesome of these questions.
So the first one I'm gonnaapply to you and and see what
you think.
Are you spending more time onwhat's urgent or on what's
(12:33):
important?
No, I'm definitely spendingmore time on what's important.
Okay.
So in that sketch at thebeginning, you had somebody who
was absolutely prioritizingurgency.
And the note here then is ifurgency always wins, you might
be living in reaction modeinstead of working
strategically.
Jeremy Blake (12:54):
Oh my gosh, the amount of people who are
responding to requests forinformation, spreadsheets,
client chasing, all of thatstuff.
Let's go through these and thenactually we can go back to a
few of the um Yeah, tips thatcome from them.
Bigger than tips sort of theauthorities on time in a sense.
Bob Morrell (13:11):
Sure.
Um, which tasks today could youdelay, delegate, or delete
without negative impact?
Hmm.
Good question, isn't it?
Jeremy Blake (13:25):
Yeah.
Um, I've got a nice, prettyclear diary with just two more
main things.
I'm designing something.
I could all you can always putoff designing a program.
So I'm I'm running a one-dayprogram with with um an entire
company, actually.
Um but I like doing that littleand often because that's
important.
I don't have to design thewhole thing now.
(13:47):
It's a sort of partimprovement, part creative
workshop.
Okay.
I could put that off, but thenI'll have less time to design
it.
So just getting a bit more doneon that would be good.
Bob Morrell (13:57):
But that sounds like important work, though, it
is, it is, which is why I'mdoing it.
Is there anything that youcould delegate to someone today?
Um I've delegated taking mydaughter somewhere, so I'm not
doing that now.
Jeremy Blake (14:09):
So there you go.
That's good.
I've managed the car betweenthree teenagers, because there's
one car between three.
So yeah, that's all delegated.
Bob Morrell (14:19):
Well, the point is most of us aren't very good at
delegation.
Okay.
Most of us also have a level ofcontrol that we like to
maintain.
Jeremy Blake (14:28):
Yeah.
Bob Morrell (14:29):
And when we feel that we are giving some of that
control away, that can bedifficult.
So I think that's an animal.
Jeremy Blake (14:34):
Well, just on that point, when I was training in
Scotland this week with theseleaders, I talked about I I call
him because everybody canpicture it, I make it a hymn,
the Weatherspoons manager whopulls that thing out of their
imaginary belt, and it's a sortof magnetized disc on a chain
(14:55):
that they hover over the till,they type some digits and go,
there you are, John.
So the Weatherspoons overridemanagement key.
Yes.
Which is, can you not just tellme how to do that on the till?
No, no, no.
Call me over whenever you havethese.
And it's like, you know, I'vegot somebody who's I've got to
cancel the double scotch andchange it to a double brandy.
Come here, I'll do that foryou.
(15:16):
Why can't you just tell themhow to do it?
Bob Morrell (15:19):
You know, rough day, was it, Jay?
Jeremy Blake (15:22):
In the Weatherspoons.
Yeah.
That must be why I came up withthe uh the whole Weatherspoons
override thing in the firstplace.
Bob Morrell (15:30):
Exactly.
Now, I think that's a I mean,there's some there's a load of
stuff we could say about that,but we'll come do another
podcast about that.
The other question here is atthe end of most days, do you
feel accomplished or justexhausted?
Jeremy Blake (15:43):
No, very accomplished.
I mean, it also I'm lucky.
The separation of my work frommy home, having a garden office,
has totally changed my life.
I don't, I I, you know, I shutthis thing down, have my list,
have my success six sorted,which we'll talk about, which is
a time management planningtool.
Um no, all of those, and how doyou answer those?
Bob Morrell (16:03):
Well, I um I definitely spend more time on
things that are important.
I have to react sometimes tourgent things, but I try and
react to the same thing.
Well, you find them mostlyurgently.
Jeremy Blake (16:13):
Domestic?
The ones that my ones that getin the way are the domestic
ones.
Bob Morrell (16:18):
But that's because your garden's your office is in
your garden, whereas I don'thave anyone to distract me, you
see.
So that's the first thing.
Well, I I get I get them comingin still and asking.
There you go, that's it, yousee.
Um I think I think that umthere are things I could
delegate and uh delete.
But you see, the thing aboutaccomplishment is this you and I
(16:38):
have our own business, okay?
So if we have to work onsomething late, and if I have to
work on something late, which Ioccasionally do, especially
when we're very busy, I don'tmind because actually I can see
the value of what it is I'mdoing.
If I had to do somethingincredibly, you know, just
administrative and work late onthat, you know, putting in data
(17:00):
or something really kind of Ithen I'm not sure I I I could
cope.
But because it's our business,we are invested in it, so
therefore our all of the time weinvest has a value.
So I think that's anotherelement which uh which is.
Jeremy Blake (17:13):
Well, you invest the time to produce the income,
I suppose, the results, thehappy customers.
Bob Morrell (17:19):
Yeah, absolutely.
Um so let's think about sometips.
I've got five tips here.
Well, can we go into your pointone?
Jeremy Blake (17:26):
You you use some of the language that uh so let
me remember 1989.
Uh a book is published.
Bob Morrell (17:33):
What book is that, which relates to your tip?
The seven habits of highlyeffective people.
Jeremy Blake (17:38):
Yep, first published 1989.
Stephen Covey, who sadly welost to a cycling accident, or
was it ice skating?
He he um he didn't die becausehe ran out of time.
Um, time is taken away fromhim.
But his point in that book ishe has this um time quadrant,
doesn't he?
But we can condense that.
The the general tip is is iturgent or is it important?
(18:02):
And then he also gets you toconsider urgent and important.
So, right, fair enough.
But we make the point thatthose are deadlines,
emergencies, and crises.
Back to the first sketch, theproblem that that version of Bob
had is that he's seeingeverything as urgent and
important.
Bob Morrell (18:20):
Yeah.
Jeremy Blake (18:20):
Because there's no plan, everything's not spaced
out, it's highly reactionary.
And Covey says, as Bob wastalking about a moment ago, that
the box you want to live in isthe not urgent but important,
because you can buildrelationships, um, develop
people, develop yourself, uh, doproper work, and that's the box
(18:41):
to be in.
We both feel more than half ofthe United Kingdom and abroad
that we're talking to isn't inthat box because they seem to
tell us that straight aftertalking to us about something,
they're going to anothermeeting.
And I'm thinking, what are youdoing?
Are you when are you doing thejob that you're meant to be
doing?
Because if you're endlessly inmeetings, what are you doing?
Bob Morrell (19:00):
He also talks about um things which appear urgent.
So, how many of us have ouremails ghosting onto our screen
when we're working?
And we go, Oh, that's much moreinteresting than the thing I'm
working on.
Let's have a look at that.
And it distracts us.
And we reply to that email, andthe person you reply to goes,
Oh, they're there.
I'll send them another email.
You suddenly have an exchangegoing on, you're trying to do
(19:22):
some work.
It is poor time management tohave that.
Or there's a sound when youremail comes in, or there's a
sound when your phone sends youa text and you go, Oh, I'll have
a look at that because it'smore interesting.
And you can't resist that thingwhich appears, oh, yeah,
appears to be urgent, but itisn't.
Jeremy Blake (19:40):
The phone is a huge addiction.
I'm very good at turning itoff, and I note which of my
trainers I'm co-training withcan do that and which can't, um,
and who are who are thinkingsome good stuff comes in.
We know that there's a dopaminehit, so the science has
researched this.
You get a little bit ofdopamine going, ooh, when you
get a message or a text or athing.
Um let's talk about the finalbox, which is all that stuff
(20:03):
that is neither urgent norimportant.
Um, which is hey, come and havea look at these photos of me
being amazing at the weekend.
Look at me, look at my dress.
Uh, have you seen thishysterical TikTok?
Um, let's watch a little sketchtogether.
I mean, you and I, we we findthese moments to do our
wonderful, not urgent, notimportant stuff.
Um yeah.
(20:24):
And we'll go and watch an oldsketch or send someone a sketch
or something, you know.
Yeah.
Dick Henry, we couldn't, we'reobsessed by sharing Dick Henry's
sketches, weren't we, for awhile?
Oh, brilliant, brilliant.
Absolutely.
So uh that's Covey.
Uh he's he's one of the sort ofum pioneers of encouraging time
management.
I think the most recentresearch that I really like um
(20:45):
is the time management wherewhere you're saying time has
changed is more like energymanagement.
Because if you're working fromhome, there's going to be
certain times of the day whenyou're better at doing certain
tasks because you're not in afactory and you're not in an
office if that isn't your job.
So you're not necessarilyconforming to everybody else's
rhythm or operating rhythm.
(21:06):
And the idea being, it's quitesimple, is we think about birds,
types of animals.
There's two animals you'll beabsolutely fine with, and the
the other one, they haven't gota brilliant name for it.
So there's the early bird, andthe early bird catches the worm.
And um, the early bird meanssomebody who is quite good in
the morning, quite focused, upand at it, um, not a teenager.
(21:26):
Teenagers we know, it's allscientifically proven, would
love lessons at school to startat about two o'clock in the
afternoon.
So the early bird is somebodywho can do quite focused work
early.
Then there's the night owl.
Um, and I'm talking to a nightowl now.
Bobby, I think you're stillprobably a night owl, aren't
you?
Bit of a night owl.
You're quite good at night.
You're better than me in theevening, aren't you?
You kind of got more energy atnight, I'm sure you have.
(21:47):
I don't know that that's true.
I think it depends.
I've always thought you werebetter at staying up later than
me.
Anyway.
Um, so the night owl issomebody who can do some of that
work quite a bit later.
And then there's the thirdbird, who's kind of good in the
kind of midpoint of the day.
And what this research says isthat you need to find out when
you're best at doing certaintypes of work.
(22:08):
So if you want to get yourfocus stuff out of the way
before nine in the morning, dothat.
If you're actually good workinglater, do that.
I remember you telling me yearsago, Bob, that IBM got hold of
this way before anybody else andsaid, we don't care when you do
the work, just get it done inthe period.
And if you're a night owl, dothe work at night rather than
nine to five.
They IBM are one of thepioneers of crashing that.
Bob Morrell (22:28):
I don't know that they still run their business
like that, but certainly for along time, you were empowered to
manage your hours in your ownway.
Um, and I think that was quiteuseful.
And indeed, where you workedfrom, which saved a lot of time
as well.
Jeremy Blake (22:44):
So let's come to you for some of your tips, and
then we can finish if you likeon a nice little planning tool,
which is about time as well.
Bob Morrell (22:50):
So, really good, easy tips.
We're going to give you aplanning tool because the first
one is prioritize with a cleardaily plan.
Okay, so that's a good one.
Now, this is something which Idon't do enough, and we should
time block your calendar.
So if you know you need time todo something focused to
(23:12):
something that's reallyimportant, block out the time
and make sure you're notavailable.
Just absolutely block that timeout and don't be available.
And that could be for a privatething as well.
If you want to go for a lovelywalk and you want to take some
time out for yourself, block thetime so that you can absolutely
do that.
Um, this is a really good one.
Use the two-minute rule.
(23:32):
If something takes less thantwo minutes, do it immediately.
Okay, don't let those build up,just do them quickly.
Tame your communicationchannels, just been talking
about it.
So emails, messages, look atthem in batches rather than as
they happen.
That's a great one.
And lastly, build in buffertime.
(23:53):
So don't just have you knowback to back.
We hear that all the time, backto back.
Well, make sure there's 10 to15 minutes between each meeting
to go and have a cup of coffee,look out the window, do
something to take your mind offthings before so you can have a
bit of a life before you go backin.
Because I guarantee if you'rehaving back-to-back meetings, by
(24:14):
the time you get to about threeo'clock, you've had it.
Your effectiveness is going tobe extremely limited if you're
not taking regular breaks.
Jeremy Blake (24:21):
Yep.
Very good.
Um I'm just thinking about thatback to back.
Sort of funny.
Back to back, the alternativesare spooning or front to front,
but my brain has just wanderedoff there.
Um, which would make you makethe time much more interesting,
wouldn't it?
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Jeremy Blake (25:06):
So let's finish with um Ivy Lee's success six.
So, Carnegie building bridges,all this wonderful stuff in the
United States, and uh all hisgrowing empire of building
things he can't get enough donein the day, and he wants his
senior managers to be muchbetter at running projects.
He asks Ivy Lee, who's actuallysort of the pioneer of public
(25:28):
relations, and he says, Okay,I've come up with this idea.
You're gonna do two things inthe morning, then you're gonna
have a cup of coffee, you'regonna do two things, then you're
gonna have lunch, you're gonnado two things, then you're gonna
go home.
So you divide your day into sixparts, and you do your worst
first.
Get the thing out of the waythat you're dreading, then you
do something else, then youreward yourself with a cup of
coffee, chalky bicky, whateveryou need.
(25:48):
Then you're gonna do two moreseries of tasks, and then you're
gonna have lunch, then you'regonna do two more and go home.
Now, if you write this thenight before, it could be a
group of tasks.
It could be called 10 prospectsbetween 11 and 12, it could be
phone these people back, itcould be design this, and all
the stuff Bob's just said aboutblocking out, buffering, all of
this can map in.
(26:09):
Now, what it means is insteadof having a ridiculous list with
20 things on that you're nevergoing to accomplish, you lift
them off that list and put itonto your success six and you
cross them off as you go.
So it's a prioritizationmethod.
It also gets you to realizewhat is important in the day
that you're running.
I tend to write mine the nightbefore, but you could also write
them on the morning of.
Now, if you operate that forsome weeks, you'll see how good
(26:31):
you are.
You'll also see what'sbothering you.
Who is it that's maybe senioror appearing to be knocking
stuff out, bothering you, butnot letting you keep to your
success six.
But also if it's rewrittendaily, then you're really poor
at saying no.
Bob Morrell (26:47):
Very good.
So that is something for you totry, the success six.
Now, this is a subject we keepreturning to because uh it's
something which we all need towork on, because of course we're
all creatures of habit.
And if you're in the habit ofuh scrolling on your phone for
half an hour at a time, um,that's the habit you're going to
(27:08):
be into.
And then you'll think, oh God,I've wasted all that time.
Okay, well, then limit yourtime, give yourself a 15-minute
limit.
Um, you know, take control ofthat time you're spending rather
than allowing yourself to bedrawn into things in a way which
will distract you from morevaluable things that you can be
(27:28):
doing.
And of course, this appliesequally to home life as it does
to work as well.
Yep.
So good luck with managing yourtime more effectively.
We will see you on anotherpodcast soon.
But in the meantime, thank youfor listening.
Jeremy Blake (27:44):
Please share, review, and rate.
It helps us hugely.
You can forward this tosomebody who you think could
really do with the help.
You can write us a few words,um, give us a review, give us
some feedback.
Thank you ever so much.
unknown (27:57):
Bye.
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