October 18, 2023 • 18 mins
Are you too busy trying to be productive to get anything done? Distracted by the next productivity hack or latest tool for organization.
So many distractions, including note taking platforms, second brains, and apps for your devices. If you want to accomplish more, it takes a fundamental change.
An unlimited supply of podcasts, videos, and courses to help you be more productive. But you aren't. This change helps you be more productive instantly.
What if all you needed as five simple observations to get you back on track of getting more done. Today's episode steers you back on track.
You'll become more productive without tools, without gimmicks, and even if you don't know the latest trick. Others will wonder how you go so much done.
It doesn't matter how productive you are if you're doing the wrong things. Let's help you solve million dollar problems.
Business owners and executives find ways to be more productive with strong business relationships. The most productive people have access to networks of resources.
To build strong business relationships, join us at https://www.insidestrategicrelations.com/newsletter/
#IncreaseProductivity #BusinessRelationship #MoreDone #ProfitableBusiness #DeepWork #MinimumViable
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/inside-strategic-relations--3010682/support.
So many distractions, including note taking platforms, second brains, and apps for your devices. If you want to accomplish more, it takes a fundamental change.
An unlimited supply of podcasts, videos, and courses to help you be more productive. But you aren't. This change helps you be more productive instantly.
What if all you needed as five simple observations to get you back on track of getting more done. Today's episode steers you back on track.
You'll become more productive without tools, without gimmicks, and even if you don't know the latest trick. Others will wonder how you go so much done.
It doesn't matter how productive you are if you're doing the wrong things. Let's help you solve million dollar problems.
Business owners and executives find ways to be more productive with strong business relationships. The most productive people have access to networks of resources.
To build strong business relationships, join us at https://www.insidestrategicrelations.com/newsletter/
#IncreaseProductivity #BusinessRelationship #MoreDone #ProfitableBusiness #DeepWork #MinimumViable
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/inside-strategic-relations--3010682/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
I've recently posted on YouTube a videoof my massive Obsidian library that's a note
taking application, and I showed thegraph and people started asking questions that show
me that they're actually not very productive. I'm justin hit with inside strategic relations.
If you want to be more productiveand you want to get better results,
you can't be distracted by tools.So folks were asking the question of
(00:24):
like what the settings were for thisgraph I produced? So you may not
know, I have a single repositoryfor all the articles, the podcasts,
the notes, the newsletter issues,all in one place so that it makes
it easier for me to develop andproduce special reports, consulting assignments and by
book of work. And there's somany opportunities to do note taking, the
(00:48):
second brain, to have apps organizeyour day, to work on your schedule,
and I just figure there's only oneme, So I'm going to put
all that in one place when itcomes to what I personally do each day.
Now, if you want to getmore things done, you can't be
so busy trying to be productive thatyou don't accomplish those important things in your
day. So I want to presentto you five simple observations that will help
(01:11):
you get back on track and accomplishmore. First, we have to understand
that today's world is so full ofdistractions. There's an unlimited supply of podcasts,
videos, courses, and other thingstrying to help you be more productive.
And when you get this information,in fact, I want my clients
to be more productive because when youget this information, you're able to accomplish
(01:33):
more with fewer resources. You're ableto overcome obstacles more easily. You're able
to build a stable base or foundationtowards whether it's a better career or more
clients for your professional business, morecustomers for your retail or service business.
These are worthy things that are worththat desire, and they feel that desire
(01:53):
to be more productive. But whenyou're worried about the setting someone else has
for a note taking application other thanyou know what you've tried yourself and asking
for feedback, then you are beingdistracted. And this distraction is now part
of the natural state of things thatis keeping you from getting work done.
(02:14):
So observation number one is that youneed to work in an environment of productivity.
So you're sitting on a computer andyou literally have an unlimited number of
boobs and butts on the Internet thatcan distract you. Now, it doesn't
matter what your boobs or butts are. It could be cat videos, it
could be the latest political drama,it could be a lot of different things.
(02:37):
But the Internet is full of ninetynine point nine nine nine percent things
that are not what you're supposed tobe doing right now. So what you've
got to do is reduce distractions.Now, that could mean working from a
computer, if you work on acomputer in an environment where you are not
connected to the Internet. I actuallylike corporate environments that block pretty much everything,
(03:00):
and that's what we do in thehome office here. And then anytime
I'm traveling, I have to geton a VPN in order to see the
actual Internet. Otherwise, content filteringthe way my systems set up security options
prevent so much access. I stillmanage to get in trouble. And by
the way, this is a challengethat I have from time to time,
(03:23):
believe it or not. Sometimes I'lldo podcasts when I should be doing something
else that would be more productive.But again, the reducing the distractions and
having a system for eliminating clutter willhelp you organize your environment so that you
can find things so that you getresults. So I do sometimes create podcasts
as procrastination, but I have aformula to create podcasts that produces an artifact
(03:49):
that provides additional leads and content andconnections that build my business. And so
even your distractions need to be productive. And you do this again, what
is your environment? Do you havean environment to do your bookkeeping that has
all your filing organized in one place? Do you have an environment to do
(04:09):
your writing or thinking? That's areally important thing. Sometimes doing less is
more productive because you're now clarifying andare we organized so that we can find
stuff? You know, everybody hasan organization system, but can you find
the important things you need so you'renot spending a lot of time looking for
stuff and instead doing things. Numbertwo focus on two to three deliverables a
(04:31):
day. Notice I didn't say focuson two or three to do items.
I said deliverables. So in thecase if I decide to do a podcast,
a podcast consists of show notes,the podcast audio itself, small promotion
descriptive, landing page or descriptions thatgo in the podcast. If I'm going
(04:53):
to commit to doing a podcast,I have a deliverable that's pre defined,
and it's my most important way whenit comes to serving my clients or delivering
work for prospective clients. What isyour three two to three deliverables. Now
you're gonna have low skill essentials everyday, you want to delegate those out
(05:14):
We talk about this as staffing arbitrage. If you're mowing your own grass,
doing your own laundry, washing yourown dishes, cooking your own meals,
you know, those types of thingscan be outsourced to other people, even
if it's just how you're teaching yourkids to be more responsible and have adult
skills, or as an agreement betweenpartners or a marriage arrangement that you're you
(05:36):
know, hey, I'm going togo out and work, and you're going
to go here and work, andthen together we're going to do these things.
This sounds antiquated in old fashioned,but really, unless you enjoy it
for the exercise, mowing your owngrass is a skill that someone else can
do. So I've read places andI've talked about this in the past.
(05:57):
If someone can do the work thatyou're doing at a sixty percent efficiency,
so maybe you're gonna do it onehundred percent and you're going to be completely
satisfied the way you do it.If somebody can do it sixty percent,
and you can go off and doa more valuable activity such as deliver something
to a client, such as finishinga piece of work that you'd started,
as such as doing something that hasit requires your skill set, then you
(06:18):
should go ahead and delegate that activity. So we're being more productive on purpose
by how we allocate resources. Andthen again we're not trying to do seven
things today, We're trying to dothree very important deliverables. Completing three very
important projects each day. Then youmight be saying, well why not four.
(06:41):
I say, if you can't completetwo, if you can't complete three,
then you won't complete four. Solet's just focus on three. And
then you can have a list somewhereof other deliverables, other outcomes that once
you complete these three you can pullfrom that list and just get started.
And again that builds on having anenvironment for productivity. You can one of
these items and just go to theenvironment. Going number three, you want
(07:03):
to be clear about what you wantand this goes beyond goal setting. This
goes into clear picture of what youwant your future life to look like.
What do you want your future experiencesto be? What do you want your
future opportunities to be? Now?I wrote a book called what do you
(07:24):
Want? And How Do You GetIt? And so I try to demonstrate
that you start accomplishing more of whatyou want by having a clear picture of
it. So you know you're manifestingin a sense because you've created a plan,
a written plan. But once youdecide what you want, you now
(07:46):
get a clear clarity that's not availableto a lot of other people where you
can start building a success as ahabit because you can see the path to
where you want to be. Now, a lot of folks will say I
want a million dollars, Well,great, what does a million dollars look
like to you? They start describinglavish cars and experiences and traveling, and
(08:07):
it's a little hard to get amillion dollars if you're spending, you know,
a million dollars. But some peoplewill say, hey, look,
I'd like a retirement account that canspend off forty thousand dollars a year,
or seventy thousand dollars a year,or one hundred thousand dollars a year.
See, the tangibility of your outcomescomes with the clarity of your focus.
And if you're going to make successa habit, and you know what success
(08:30):
looks like and you defined it onpaper. The reason we do it on
paper not to computer screen, becauseremember all those titties are out there,
all those distractions, all those youknow, cat videos. We put it
on paper so that you can openup your journal and you can read and
say, oh, this is whatI like to accomplish this month. Here's
where I'd like to be in threemonths. And you start building out these
(08:52):
written plans and then you can workwith them without distraction. Number four,
you want to be better with thebasics. There is no secret to success
that is magical. Now we havemagical thinking, and we have that dopamine
hit when you see something cool andwhen you learn the latest gimmick where you
find the latest app. But Iknow from observation in my own experience that
(09:16):
that wears off. But the onething that never changes is getting up and
showing getting up early, showing upon time, doing the most important work.
Focusing on proficiency with the tools thatyou have, so you don't need
better tools. You need to knowhow to use the tools you have.
Better delegation if you're not chasing secrets, you can take that energy and apply
(09:39):
it towards getting actual work done.But you're improving overall efficiency by having that
core element taking care of that.That what we call a minimal viable product.
That's number five, the minimal viableproduct. I have observed that people
will go out of their way tocreate the perfect article, to create the
(10:01):
perfect deliverable, to create the perfectyou design. Now. Now, there
is value in craftsmanship and creating artand creating these beautiful things. But very
often your customer doesn't know good fromgood. And so if you have a
good, better and best solution,and you define in advance what it means
(10:22):
to be good, and the customerbuys good and you deliver good, they
will be more than happy with whatyou're doing. Most people don't deliver half
of what they promise, and soif you promise something and you deliver it,
the customer will be happy. Now, it might feel better for you
if they bought good to give themexcellent, but they don't know what excellent
(10:43):
looks like and they now determine thatthat's good. And so what ends up
happening is you end up chasing anexpectation that cannot be met when you could
have defined expectations and deliver upon thosethings that you promised, And so it's
it's a kaizan after completion. Kaizanis Japanese for continual improvement. And so
(11:09):
you define what good is. Youdefine what now the customer could buy.
You know, we're talking about good, better, and best. The customer
may want best, so you definewhat best is in relationship to what good
is, and if the customer iswilling to pay for best, then you
deliver best. But you don't goand try to improve on best until you
(11:30):
have a new agreement with the nextcustomer, because you might be budgeted to
deliver best, and if you deliverexcellent, then you're over budget. You're
not making any money, and sonow you're working harder and getting less to
show for it. See, you'reif you have an incremental approach with a
minimal viable product, clearly defined tothe customer, clearly agreed upon in the
(11:52):
contract or agreement. You know,going the extra mile is useful, yes,
but after you've delivered and gotten paidfor the mile, you're on right
now. And that's really how Ilook at it when I talk about two
or three deliverables. If you can'tdo one deliverable to day, then don't
try to wear yourself out doing tooNow, what you'll find out when you're
(12:13):
working better in the basics is thatyou'll get five, six, seven deliverables
done. You'll start stacking deliverables intoprojects. Then you'll start assigning projects out
to individuals. You'll start building thisnetwork, and before you know it,
you'll be looking back on your lifeabout all the accomplishments you've had, not
looking forward about how could you bemore productive? How could you be better?
(12:33):
See, that's a self esteem issuemore than anything else. You know,
if I could just tweak one morelittle setting on this browser, maybe
it'll go faster. Maybe if Ijust do this, my internet would be
better. Those are not important things. You could have a slow internet,
which keeps you away from the distractions. You could have no social media,
which I've noticed a lot of wealthypeople don't have social media. They're not
(12:54):
even on LinkedIn. And that's nota criticism, is an observation that you
might be aware of because again they'refocusing on the basics. They're delivering every
day, they're clear about what theywant, They have an environment for productivity,
and so all these other distractions haveno place in their life. And
again, there is more progress togain incrementally than leaps and bounds. Now,
(13:20):
an outside observer, we'll see thatyou're leaping forward and you're climbing the
corporate ladder very quickly, and yousuddenly have all this wealth and success.
But it's not built on jumps.It's built on a stable foundation, a
firm foundation that's layered in over time, and so when you have setbacks,
you don't go back as far.You don't fall off the ladder, because
(13:41):
there is no ladder. You've builta pyramid, and you're sitting at the
top of the pyramid on a firmand strong foundation of business relationships, of
appropriate use of resources, of focusof attention. And you've balanced that with
the quiet times that are necessary forreflection to really know what you want.
You've balanced that with satisfaction, andnow you're ten times more productive, one
(14:05):
hundred times more productive than most peoplein your social group, or more valuably,
you've upgraded your social group. Andyou might be average with your social
group, but everybody's getting things done, worthy, things done, worthwhile,
goals accomplished, now, it doesn'tmatter how productive you are if you're doing
the wrong things. Okay, Soone of the things I help my clients
(14:28):
do is solve million dollar problems.I know, with inflation, it probably
should be zillion dollar problems. Butyou're going to have obstacles in your life,
and instead of looking for the newway to be productive, you sometimes
can benefit from stepping back and saying, Okay, am I doing the core
things that are necessary for my success? Did I accomplish today? Did I
(14:52):
accomplish this week the core things thatI determined in advance were necessary to reach
my point of success? Did Igive it enough time to see if I'm
on the right track? See?Too often the distractions will get us going
down one alley over here and goingto see you have the capability to get
the results that you're looking for.Unfortunately, a lot of us are are
(15:13):
distracted. And I will admit thereare times that I am distracted and I'm
not getting the right things done andI need to step away from the computer.
I need to step away from myoffice. I need to just go
to a quiet space, meditate andget refocused on what needs to be done.
And again that's why the paper isimportant. I can take my journal,
I can write about my frustration.I can flip through a few pages
(15:33):
and say, look now that that'son paper, that's behind me. Here
are the two or three things Ineed to do today to get the results
done. Let me look at thecalendar. What are we expected to deliver
to clients? And now it becomesmore project management and productivity is a natural
outcome of good organization of resources,good connections with business relationships, good identification
(15:58):
of opportunity. Need a new appon your phone, You don't need a
new productivity piece of software. Youdon't need half the stuff that people are
telling you. You can have anotepad in a pencil, because all you're
doing is creating a placeholder so thatthat activity is not in your brain,
and instead your brain is focused onincremental improvement after delivering a minimal, viable
(16:21):
product. It's focused on refining thebasics. It's focused on opportunities for delegation.
As you're doing the most important things, those other essential low skill activities
are still getting taken care of.It's about being clear about where you want
to be or what you want todo, and then again cultivating an environment
of productivity where when you file papers, you can actually find them, where
(16:42):
you are recycling old work and gettingleaps and bounds ahead of your competitors because
you're not starting from scratch every time. So, if you're a business owner
or an executive and you want tofind more ways to be productive, I
have a free email newsletter that helpsshould not only be more productive, but
position yourself as an expert in themarketplace so you're more in demand. To
(17:04):
position yourself as an authority in yourmarketplace, so people will do the things
that you ask them to do andthen ultimately build stronger business relationships. You
can get your copy of this newsletterat www dot inside Strategic relations dot com
slash newsletter. Now, what we'vebeen talking about today again is the five
(17:25):
observations I've had about being more productive. I'll admit upfront there are times that
I am not productive at all,but these five observations help me get back
on track, and I even willlook at my own self to say where
could I improve, rather than goingout there and saying what's the next tool.
The tools will not help you improveunless you've got the foundation straight.
(17:47):
So if you're distracted, if you'rechallenged. If you're frustrated, don't worry
about it. We could be moreproductive getting you back on track. If
you like my support and getting youon track. If you like my support
in the sense of the so,what do you want and how to get
it? Report? Just visit ourwebsite at www dot inside strategic relations dot
com. You can ask about ourpeak performance program, you can ask about
(18:10):
some of the books and reports thatwe have available, or simply ask a
question that I'll answer in another podcast. I want to thank you for listening.
I'm just in hit with Inside StrategicRelations and I'll see in the next podcast.
I've recently posted on YouTube a videoof my massive Obsidian library that's a note
taking application, and I showed thegraph and people started asking questions that show
me that they're actually not very productive. I'm justin hit with inside strategic relations.
If you want to be more productiveand you want to get better results,
you can't be distracted by tools.So folks were asking the question of
(00:24):
like what the settings were for thisgraph I produced? So you may not
know, I have a single repositoryfor all the articles, the podcasts,
the notes, the newsletter issues,all in one place so that it makes
it easier for me to develop andproduce special reports, consulting assignments and by
book of work. And there's somany opportunities to do note taking, the
(00:48):
second brain, to have apps organizeyour day, to work on your schedule,
and I just figure there's only oneme, So I'm going to put
all that in one place when itcomes to what I personally do each day.
Now, if you want to getmore things done, you can't be
so busy trying to be productive thatyou don't accomplish those important things in your
day. So I want to presentto you five simple observations that will help
(01:11):
you get back on track and accomplishmore. First, we have to understand
that today's world is so full ofdistractions. There's an unlimited supply of podcasts,
videos, courses, and other thingstrying to help you be more productive.
And when you get this information,in fact, I want my clients
to be more productive because when youget this information, you're able to accomplish
(01:33):
more with fewer resources. You're ableto overcome obstacles more easily. You're able
to build a stable base or foundationtowards whether it's a better career or more
clients for your professional business, morecustomers for your retail or service business.
These are worthy things that are worththat desire, and they feel that desire
(01:53):
to be more productive. But whenyou're worried about the setting someone else has
for a note taking application other thanyou know what you've tried yourself and asking
for feedback, then you are beingdistracted. And this distraction is now part
of the natural state of things thatis keeping you from getting work done.
(02:14):
So observation number one is that youneed to work in an environment of productivity.
So you're sitting on a computer andyou literally have an unlimited number of
boobs and butts on the Internet thatcan distract you. Now, it doesn't
matter what your boobs or butts are. It could be cat videos, it
could be the latest political drama,it could be a lot of different things.
(02:37):
But the Internet is full of ninetynine point nine nine nine percent things
that are not what you're supposed tobe doing right now. So what you've
got to do is reduce distractions.Now, that could mean working from a
computer, if you work on acomputer in an environment where you are not
connected to the Internet. I actuallylike corporate environments that block pretty much everything,
(03:00):
and that's what we do in thehome office here. And then anytime
I'm traveling, I have to geton a VPN in order to see the
actual Internet. Otherwise, content filteringthe way my systems set up security options
prevent so much access. I stillmanage to get in trouble. And by
the way, this is a challengethat I have from time to time,
(03:23):
believe it or not. Sometimes I'lldo podcasts when I should be doing something
else that would be more productive.But again, the reducing the distractions and
having a system for eliminating clutter willhelp you organize your environment so that you
can find things so that you getresults. So I do sometimes create podcasts
as procrastination, but I have aformula to create podcasts that produces an artifact
(03:49):
that provides additional leads and content andconnections that build my business. And so
even your distractions need to be productive. And you do this again, what
is your environment? Do you havean environment to do your bookkeeping that has
all your filing organized in one place? Do you have an environment to do
(04:09):
your writing or thinking? That's areally important thing. Sometimes doing less is
more productive because you're now clarifying andare we organized so that we can find
stuff? You know, everybody hasan organization system, but can you find
the important things you need so you'renot spending a lot of time looking for
stuff and instead doing things. Numbertwo focus on two to three deliverables a
(04:31):
day. Notice I didn't say focuson two or three to do items.
I said deliverables. So in thecase if I decide to do a podcast,
a podcast consists of show notes,the podcast audio itself, small promotion
descriptive, landing page or descriptions thatgo in the podcast. If I'm going
(04:53):
to commit to doing a podcast,I have a deliverable that's pre defined,
and it's my most important way whenit comes to serving my clients or delivering
work for prospective clients. What isyour three two to three deliverables. Now
you're gonna have low skill essentials everyday, you want to delegate those out
(05:14):
We talk about this as staffing arbitrage. If you're mowing your own grass,
doing your own laundry, washing yourown dishes, cooking your own meals,
you know, those types of thingscan be outsourced to other people, even
if it's just how you're teaching yourkids to be more responsible and have adult
skills, or as an agreement betweenpartners or a marriage arrangement that you're you
(05:36):
know, hey, I'm going togo out and work, and you're going
to go here and work, andthen together we're going to do these things.
This sounds antiquated in old fashioned,but really, unless you enjoy it
for the exercise, mowing your owngrass is a skill that someone else can
do. So I've read places andI've talked about this in the past.
(05:57):
If someone can do the work thatyou're doing at a sixty percent efficiency,
so maybe you're gonna do it onehundred percent and you're going to be completely
satisfied the way you do it.If somebody can do it sixty percent,
and you can go off and doa more valuable activity such as deliver something
to a client, such as finishinga piece of work that you'd started,
as such as doing something that hasit requires your skill set, then you
(06:18):
should go ahead and delegate that activity. So we're being more productive on purpose
by how we allocate resources. Andthen again we're not trying to do seven
things today, We're trying to dothree very important deliverables. Completing three very
important projects each day. Then youmight be saying, well why not four.
(06:41):
I say, if you can't completetwo, if you can't complete three,
then you won't complete four. Solet's just focus on three. And
then you can have a list somewhereof other deliverables, other outcomes that once
you complete these three you can pullfrom that list and just get started.
And again that builds on having anenvironment for productivity. You can one of
these items and just go to theenvironment. Going number three, you want
(07:03):
to be clear about what you wantand this goes beyond goal setting. This
goes into clear picture of what youwant your future life to look like.
What do you want your future experiencesto be? What do you want your
future opportunities to be? Now?I wrote a book called what do you
(07:24):
Want? And How Do You GetIt? And so I try to demonstrate
that you start accomplishing more of whatyou want by having a clear picture of
it. So you know you're manifestingin a sense because you've created a plan,
a written plan. But once youdecide what you want, you now
(07:46):
get a clear clarity that's not availableto a lot of other people where you
can start building a success as ahabit because you can see the path to
where you want to be. Now, a lot of folks will say I
want a million dollars, Well,great, what does a million dollars look
like to you? They start describinglavish cars and experiences and traveling, and
(08:07):
it's a little hard to get amillion dollars if you're spending, you know,
a million dollars. But some peoplewill say, hey, look,
I'd like a retirement account that canspend off forty thousand dollars a year,
or seventy thousand dollars a year,or one hundred thousand dollars a year.
See, the tangibility of your outcomescomes with the clarity of your focus.
And if you're going to make successa habit, and you know what success
(08:30):
looks like and you defined it onpaper. The reason we do it on
paper not to computer screen, becauseremember all those titties are out there,
all those distractions, all those youknow, cat videos. We put it
on paper so that you can openup your journal and you can read and
say, oh, this is whatI like to accomplish this month. Here's
where I'd like to be in threemonths. And you start building out these
(08:52):
written plans and then you can workwith them without distraction. Number four,
you want to be better with thebasics. There is no secret to success
that is magical. Now we havemagical thinking, and we have that dopamine
hit when you see something cool andwhen you learn the latest gimmick where you
find the latest app. But Iknow from observation in my own experience that
(09:16):
that wears off. But the onething that never changes is getting up and
showing getting up early, showing upon time, doing the most important work.
Focusing on proficiency with the tools thatyou have, so you don't need
better tools. You need to knowhow to use the tools you have.
Better delegation if you're not chasing secrets, you can take that energy and apply
(09:39):
it towards getting actual work done.But you're improving overall efficiency by having that
core element taking care of that.That what we call a minimal viable product.
That's number five, the minimal viableproduct. I have observed that people
will go out of their way tocreate the perfect article, to create the
(10:01):
perfect deliverable, to create the perfectyou design. Now. Now, there
is value in craftsmanship and creating artand creating these beautiful things. But very
often your customer doesn't know good fromgood. And so if you have a
good, better and best solution,and you define in advance what it means
(10:22):
to be good, and the customerbuys good and you deliver good, they
will be more than happy with whatyou're doing. Most people don't deliver half
of what they promise, and soif you promise something and you deliver it,
the customer will be happy. Now, it might feel better for you
if they bought good to give themexcellent, but they don't know what excellent
(10:43):
looks like and they now determine thatthat's good. And so what ends up
happening is you end up chasing anexpectation that cannot be met when you could
have defined expectations and deliver upon thosethings that you promised, And so it's
it's a kaizan after completion. Kaizanis Japanese for continual improvement. And so
(11:09):
you define what good is. Youdefine what now the customer could buy.
You know, we're talking about good, better, and best. The customer
may want best, so you definewhat best is in relationship to what good
is, and if the customer iswilling to pay for best, then you
deliver best. But you don't goand try to improve on best until you
(11:30):
have a new agreement with the nextcustomer, because you might be budgeted to
deliver best, and if you deliverexcellent, then you're over budget. You're
not making any money, and sonow you're working harder and getting less to
show for it. See, you'reif you have an incremental approach with a
minimal viable product, clearly defined tothe customer, clearly agreed upon in the
(11:52):
contract or agreement. You know,going the extra mile is useful, yes,
but after you've delivered and gotten paidfor the mile, you're on right
now. And that's really how Ilook at it when I talk about two
or three deliverables. If you can'tdo one deliverable to day, then don't
try to wear yourself out doing tooNow, what you'll find out when you're
(12:13):
working better in the basics is thatyou'll get five, six, seven deliverables
done. You'll start stacking deliverables intoprojects. Then you'll start assigning projects out
to individuals. You'll start building thisnetwork, and before you know it,
you'll be looking back on your lifeabout all the accomplishments you've had, not
looking forward about how could you bemore productive? How could you be better?
(12:33):
See, that's a self esteem issuemore than anything else. You know,
if I could just tweak one morelittle setting on this browser, maybe
it'll go faster. Maybe if Ijust do this, my internet would be
better. Those are not important things. You could have a slow internet,
which keeps you away from the distractions. You could have no social media,
which I've noticed a lot of wealthypeople don't have social media. They're not
(12:54):
even on LinkedIn. And that's nota criticism, is an observation that you
might be aware of because again they'refocusing on the basics. They're delivering every
day, they're clear about what theywant, They have an environment for productivity,
and so all these other distractions haveno place in their life. And
again, there is more progress togain incrementally than leaps and bounds. Now,
(13:20):
an outside observer, we'll see thatyou're leaping forward and you're climbing the
corporate ladder very quickly, and yousuddenly have all this wealth and success.
But it's not built on jumps.It's built on a stable foundation, a
firm foundation that's layered in over time, and so when you have setbacks,
you don't go back as far.You don't fall off the ladder, because
(13:41):
there is no ladder. You've builta pyramid, and you're sitting at the
top of the pyramid on a firmand strong foundation of business relationships, of
appropriate use of resources, of focusof attention. And you've balanced that with
the quiet times that are necessary forreflection to really know what you want.
You've balanced that with satisfaction, andnow you're ten times more productive, one
(14:05):
hundred times more productive than most peoplein your social group, or more valuably,
you've upgraded your social group. Andyou might be average with your social
group, but everybody's getting things done, worthy, things done, worthwhile,
goals accomplished, now, it doesn'tmatter how productive you are if you're doing
the wrong things. Okay, Soone of the things I help my clients
(14:28):
do is solve million dollar problems.I know, with inflation, it probably
should be zillion dollar problems. Butyou're going to have obstacles in your life,
and instead of looking for the newway to be productive, you sometimes
can benefit from stepping back and saying, Okay, am I doing the core
things that are necessary for my success? Did I accomplish today? Did I
(14:52):
accomplish this week the core things thatI determined in advance were necessary to reach
my point of success? Did Igive it enough time to see if I'm
on the right track? See?Too often the distractions will get us going
down one alley over here and goingto see you have the capability to get
the results that you're looking for.Unfortunately, a lot of us are are
(15:13):
distracted. And I will admit thereare times that I am distracted and I'm
not getting the right things done andI need to step away from the computer.
I need to step away from myoffice. I need to just go
to a quiet space, meditate andget refocused on what needs to be done.
And again that's why the paper isimportant. I can take my journal,
I can write about my frustration.I can flip through a few pages
(15:33):
and say, look now that that'son paper, that's behind me. Here
are the two or three things Ineed to do today to get the results
done. Let me look at thecalendar. What are we expected to deliver
to clients? And now it becomesmore project management and productivity is a natural
outcome of good organization of resources,good connections with business relationships, good identification
(15:58):
of opportunity. Need a new appon your phone, You don't need a
new productivity piece of software. Youdon't need half the stuff that people are
telling you. You can have anotepad in a pencil, because all you're
doing is creating a placeholder so thatthat activity is not in your brain,
and instead your brain is focused onincremental improvement after delivering a minimal, viable
(16:21):
product. It's focused on refining thebasics. It's focused on opportunities for delegation.
As you're doing the most important things, those other essential low skill activities
are still getting taken care of.It's about being clear about where you want
to be or what you want todo, and then again cultivating an environment
of productivity where when you file papers, you can actually find them, where
(16:42):
you are recycling old work and gettingleaps and bounds ahead of your competitors because
you're not starting from scratch every time. So, if you're a business owner
or an executive and you want tofind more ways to be productive, I
have a free email newsletter that helpsshould not only be more productive, but
position yourself as an expert in themarketplace so you're more in demand. To
(17:04):
position yourself as an authority in yourmarketplace, so people will do the things
that you ask them to do andthen ultimately build stronger business relationships. You
can get your copy of this newsletterat www dot inside Strategic relations dot com
slash newsletter. Now, what we'vebeen talking about today again is the five
(17:25):
observations I've had about being more productive. I'll admit upfront there are times that
I am not productive at all,but these five observations help me get back
on track, and I even willlook at my own self to say where
could I improve, rather than goingout there and saying what's the next tool.
The tools will not help you improveunless you've got the foundation straight.
(17:47):
So if you're distracted, if you'rechallenged. If you're frustrated, don't worry
about it. We could be moreproductive getting you back on track. If
you like my support and getting youon track. If you like my support
in the sense of the so,what do you want and how to get
it? Report? Just visit ourwebsite at www dot inside strategic relations dot
com. You can ask about ourpeak performance program, you can ask about
(18:10):
some of the books and reports thatwe have available, or simply ask a
question that I'll answer in another podcast. I want to thank you for listening.
I'm just in hit with Inside StrategicRelations and I'll see in the next podcast.
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