if you are an entrepreneur or if you're self-employed
then you probably know that you can have very productive days
and very non-productive days.
So in this video I'm going to share with you guys
how to get the most out of your days.
This is coming from two years of experience working for myself
and there are a lot of very valuable tips in this video.
Hi everyone, I hope you're all having a great day today.
If you're new here my name is Greg
and I'd like to talk about online entrepreneurship
and sharing the resources and tips
that I wish I had along my journey.
So if you're interested in making money online
feel free to look around the channel
and you might find some stuff that you like.
In today's video, I'm going to be sharing with you guys
everything that I've learned over the last two years
to get the most out of your day
how to be productive when you're self-employed,
it takes a lot of self-discipline
and a lot of things you learn from trial and error,
so hopefully you can learn a lot from my past two years.
There are going to be a ton of tips in this video,
they're in no particular order so I recommend watching the whole video through
and if you do like this type of content,
I really appreciate the thumbs up on these videos,
it tells the YouTube algorithm that these videos are pretty good.
So with that being said let's get right into this video.
So about two years ago when I started out working for myself
I was learning how to make money online
and I went with the grind approach.
So this is something that you hear Gary Vee say all the time,
he's saying you have to work your face off
and all these things about working every single hour of every single day.
He says if you're not working 16-hour days
then are you even working.
So being in my 20s and seeing this,
I thought this was the way that you have to do it
and it made sense I had the drive and I had the ambition
so I was working, no kidding,
10 to 16 hour days almost every single day for a year.
Now with that being said I have a lot to report back to you
so if you are in this stage of grinding right now
or if you're thinking about getting into it
please listen for the next 30 seconds here.
The long story short of what happened here
over about a year's time frame
was I worked all day, every day.
I basically cut out everything that was social entertainment
and only worked on the computer,
the amount of screen time I spent behind the computer must have been astronomical over this time
and although I got a lot of things done
and I did a lot of things over this years time,
there's definitely better ways to do it.
One of the biggest drawbacks that comes with this grinding mentality
in this lifestyle that goes with grinding
is your health definitely suffers.
After about a year of doing this I had weird issues with my heart
where I was just getting heart pain,
and that was built up from tension and stress and anxiety
that I was always working and I was always thinking about things,
not taking days to just breathe and relax and come back to reality.
And the second part is looking back on this grind mode that I was in,
I would have done things way differently.
I was working so hard all day every day
but if I had stopped in the beginning and
planned on how to do this,
I could have been much more efficient.
The best comparison I can make here to try to put this in perspective
is as a new entrepreneur, you don't know the landscape
it's all pretty new to you.
This is like someone who is in water
and they need to get to a different place so
from island to island
let's give that as an example,
and they just start swimming, swimming as hard as they can to get to the other Island
Now that would be the grind mentality example.
You're just going full speed towards the end goal
and you're non-stop, and you haven't even planned or strategized about it
Now what I've learned from this is
if you take a step back in the beginning
and you ask mentors or you ask someone who's done it before
they've been to that other Island
and you might be able to find things out that make this process a lot easier
in the case of swimming to the other Island,
you might find out by asking the local people there the local fishermen there
if you wait a few more hours, the tide will go down
and then you can walk right across the sand straight to the other Island
effortlessly.
so that's the comparison I would give you is
don't just start swimming towards the other Island as fast as you can
rather get as much information,
ask mentors, ask people who have done it before,
and find the best way to do it.
That is the biggest thing that I've taken away from being in the grind mindset
of working all day every day.
so I know in the beginning you have to start making money
so you just want to keep working on things
but what is the more strategic way to do this?
Well, what I recommend doing is breaking it up into blocks.
Now typically for me personally blocks are one to three hours
of solid working and nothing else.
Usually I have a really effective one in the morning,
and then I have one in the afternoon,
and then another pretty effective one towards the end of the day.
Now the reason that this works so well is that
during these 1 to 3 hours of working,
you get your mind into what's called flow.
Flow is kind of like the technical term for your brain on max efficiency.
Think back to a time where you've been working on something
and then you look up and it's like 3 hours later
and you're like where did the time go?
That's when your brain was in flow
but if you actually manually try to do this yourself
you can get your brain into that mode kind of on-demand
so this can definitely be different for each person
on how you get into flow
but for me personally to give you an example,
it involves me going to a public place to work
just for some reason that works really well for me
and then putting in headphones and listening to the same song on loop
so it just keeps playing over and over again.
Now every couple weeks this song will change to a new song
but by putting the same song on repeat and headphones
it kind of takes you out of all the distracting noise,
you're not going to have to look down to
change the song to something different if you don't like the one that came on.
Now the last part of what gets me into flow is just some good coffee.
so that's what I do in the morning is I'll go to a Starbucks,
I'll put on my headphones and listen to the same song over and over again
and I'll get a coffee to drink.
When I do that about 8:00, 9:00 a.m.
I'm just instantly in flow
and I can work for 2 or 3 hours and get a ton of work done
This is obviously just what works for me
but I wanted to share that with you because
it took me at least a year to figure out how I can get into flow
and it's these three ,
so maybe they will work for you as well.
So I recommend at least trying them out
but like I said that's my morning 1 to 3 hour block,
that's my most effective one I get a ton of work done there
and then I'll typically take a break, I'll go outside get some Sun
and then I might come into an afternoon block
I'll go to a different Starbucks just to change up the location
and I'll work from there,
and then once I'm done there I'll take off there that's not a very crucial block
for me some days if I just don't feel like doing any more work
I'll just completely skip the second block
and sometimes I'll add in the third block
So my third block is also another very productive one for myself
and that's from homes, this is somewhere between 6, 7 o'clock
to about 9 o'clock at night
and again I get a ton of work knocked out then.
So all I'm trying to say here is work when you're the most effective
try to break it up into 1 to 3 hour blocks
and get into flow when you're in these blocks.
Now with that said even when I am doing these blocks
and working efficiently
when I'm actively working and growing something
every about 2 to 3 months, I hit a burnout phase
and this is something that I've learned that is normal.
Previously I would hit this burnout phase where my mind just needs a break
and I'm gonna force myself through it
but in time I found out when you hit this phase,
you just know it, you'll know your brain just doesn't want to do it,
it doesn't have the drive, it doesn't have the motivation.
What I recommend doing and this is what I currently do now
is just completely drop everything.
I know it sounds crazy but take two, three, four days days to yourself
sometimes I even take a week every couple months
just to completely unwind and relax and get out of working for a while.
just know that if you feel some type of burnout coming on
that is normal and respect it, take a step back
and just give your body a minute to breathe and come back
and trust me when I say when you come back from a couple of days
you will have so much fresh energy and creativity
that you will be powered for the next two to three months
just on that motivation.
so don't be afraid to take a step back
and not actively work on growing these things
even if it is in the beginning.
All right this is one of the really big things for myself
that I've learned has been so effective for me
and keeping me on track and keeping me efficient during these blocks
is having a prioritized to-do list.
This is not just a to-do list but it's a to-do list with priorities on it
You have to write down all the things that are floating around in your head
and get them out of your head onto a to-do list.
I keep mine on my computer
but you can write it on a post-it note in a journal
just get all the different ideas
and reminders that you have set for yourself
and all the things that you're thinking about you have to do
get them written down my biggest piece of advice is to
just get them out of your head
When they're in your head, you're spending brainpower
trying to remember what they are
and what kind of priority they're supposed to be in
When you write them down on a to-do list,
it frees up all that space and all that energy in your brain.
This to-do list is going to change from time to time.
You're going to have different goals and different projects
that you're working on
but as long as you can get it out of your head and get it onto a to-do list
and haven't prioritized on which goal you're working on
and what the most important steps are towards that goal
you're going to have a lot more productive days.
Now a couple tips that I wish I had known years ago
and you can probably benefit from
especially as an entrepreneur
is that sleep is so important.
You have to get a good seven, eight, nine hours of sleep every night.
Your brain can't be working at full power if you haven't slept the night before
and there's no way to make up for bad sleep.
If you get a bad night's sleep,
the next day is likely going to be short,
your brain is going to be fried, it's not going to be working at full power
and it's not like you can just take a nap and make up for that bad night's sleep,
it doesn't work like that.
So you really have to prioritize getting a good night's sleep
The next thing sounds cliche but that's exercise and meditation.
When you're working on your business a lot
especially behind a computer screen,
you're doing a lot of your work up here
and you're forgetting about the rest of your body.
So you have to go at least take walks, go to the gym, just do cardio
do something to keep the blood flowing through your body
keeping your whole body active.
Now the second part of that is meditation
now I personally am not good at meditation
I've been trying to get better at this
and I will continue to try to get better at this
but I cannot get my brain to just meditate,
so instead what I do is a breathing ladder.
So you breathe in for one second
and then you breathe out for one second
then you breathe in for two seconds,
then you breathe out for two seconds.
You do that up as high as you can go.
I can typically get up to twenty five seconds which is a pretty good goal
that's where I'm at personally,
see how high you can get up to
and by the time I get up to twenty or twenty five seconds,
I am so relaxed and that is my equivalent of meditation.
So you can do this while you're walking around,
you can do this really anywhere.
The only place that I don't recommend doing this is if
you are driving because you might get a little bit dizzy,
just probably not a good thing to do while you are driving
so do this somewhere where you're stationary
or you're walking around, somewhere safe
and that'll make sure that you're getting enough oxygen to your body.
Okay I've only got four more things for you guys
and these are really important things as well,
they're kind of scattered around but stick with me
because they're going to be really helpful.
Number one is that when you're making money online
it keeps us all truthful,
there's no way to fake it.
If you don't put in the work,
you're not going to make money and get the results.
Just know that whether you're doing a good job or you're doing a bad job,
if you're putting in work, you're still going to make money.
Now there's definitely better ways to do things
that you will learn from a beginner
to as you start doing them more often.
You'll find out if you do it this way it makes more money
it's just generally better ways.
Those are the types of things I try to share with you guys on this channel
but nonetheless if you are truly putting in the hard work,
you will make money.
If you are putting in work and not making money yet,
just keep it up be consistent
be honest with yourself and keep working hard,
and then you will start to see the rewards
If this stuff were easy everyone would do it.
The best example I can give for you here is with affiliate marketing.
It typically takes 35 weeks which is eight to nine months
until you start getting a lot of traffic on your posts.
Now when you write these posts you may make some dollars in the next coming months
but it is probably going to take you eight to nine months
until you start making considerable income
so it's kind of the barrier to entry.
If you really stick to it and you continue to put in all the work,
you will make money down the road
you just have to trust it and be honest with yourself.
Are you putting in the work?
If so you will be paid.
Now, the only reason I can say this is because I've been there
and I've done it,
and that's why I'm trying to share these things with you.
You kind of need someone who has been through it.
Like I said, that local from getting from island to island,
you need to ask someone who's been there already
and see what it really takes and how it actually works.
some things in theory sound good
but it's not the same as when it's applied in the real world.
So you have to know from real-world experience
what actually works and how it actually works
so just trust me when I say the amount of money that you make
is directly proportionate to how much value you're delivering
or how much work you're putting in.
Okay another one that I've just learned pretty recently is
that it is okay to say "NO"
There's a whole book that's basically about this
and it's called Essentialism
was recommended to me from a friend
and it is a very good read.
The moral of the story is when people are asking you to do different things
and you can say no to them,
they're not going to look at you any differently.
So if people are asking you to go out to the bar to hang out with them,
to do this, to do that, it's okay to say no.
Even if someone's asking you to do them a favor,
it is okay to say no
and they will respect that,
they will find a different way or a different person to do it for you.
It's not contingent on you doing that one thing
or their whole life is going to crumble,
so just get comfortable being able to say no to things.
If you say yes to everything
your plate will fill up so fast
and you'll have so many new things on your to-do list
that aren't towards your goals.
The things on your to-do list should be towards your goals,
what's going to get you closer to them.
If you have all these miscellaneous things that
are just kind of time-consuming things,
you're not going to get closer to your goals
because it could be more effective
if you were spending those one-two-three hour blocks
in flow working towards your goals .
So just play around with that concept of saying no
when you really don't want to do something
and then five seconds later you'll see in the conversation
they respect that and they move on to the next thing
like it never even happened.
Okay two more things that I have for you guys
One is just something that I've learned over the years
that has helped me so much
is getting my email inbox down to zero
So this is deleting a bunch of old messages that are just sitting there
and most importantly unsubscribing from all of these stores
or these newsletters or all this junk mail that you get
and you delete all of these things are going to be distractions.
It typically takes a couple weeks from when you unsubscribe
from their email newsletter to when you're actually removed from their emails.
but if you start unsubscribing from these messages instead of just deleting them
unsubscribe from it and then delete it,
and then a couple weeks later you won't get that junk mail anymore
and it saves you now all of that time that you would spend
being distracted and deleting these messages,
instead you won't have these time-consuming distractions popping up.
The worst thing that can happen is when you're in your one to three hour block
and you're in flow,
then you get an email pop-up and it just completely pushes you out of flow,
it'll take you another five to ten minutes just to get back into flow.
So the more of these emails that you can unsubscribe from
the better.
This is why I typically tell you guys if you need me reach me through a course,
send me a message through there or reach me in the comments on videos
That's how you find me the best,
those are my two biggest routes of communication;
Here on YouTube in the comments and in the courses
anything that goes through Instagram messenger or facebook Messenger
I don't even look at because they get flooded,
that's just a time sink for me
it's not an efficient way to communicate and help you guys
and then anything that comes into my email inbox
and is not a business inquiry,
if it's a question about a video, it just gets deleted
I can't respond to them because it's not an efficient way to respond.
So keep that in mind and look at your email inbox
a little bit differently now,
see how much time is consumed in your email
and checking your email on your phone.
If you can start unsubscribing from these things it'll free up a ton of time.
The last thing and the biggest thing I want to leave you guys with
is as you're working every day in your 1 to 3 hour blocks
and whatever you're working on your online business
You have to be fearless and you have to be optimistic.
These are two of the biggest problems that I see people having day to day.
They're reaching out saying it's not working,
I've been doing it for a month it doesn't work,
and I respond back you have to be consistent,
you have to keep doing it.
Remember you have to truly put in the hard work,
stay optimistic about it and be fearless.
What I mean by be fearless is don't even think about how it could fail.
If you start to think about what could go wrong,
you will come up with a million different things that could possibly go wrong
and you'll be able to talk yourself out of not putting in any more work
and you'll eventually just quit.
What I'm telling you to do is you have to be fearless,
don't even think about if it could fail,
different ways it could fail, don't even bring that into your mind.
Just consistently put in good quality work and get it out there.
In time you will succeed.
anything that I'm sharing with you guys on this channel or any of the courses
is from experience.
I wouldn't guide you guys in the wrong direction
so you can take my advice and you can put the strategies that I share with you guys
to work and then work hard on it.
They say you either control your mind or your mind controls you.
If you let your mind start talking you out of things
it'll control you.
If you control your mind, stay fearless, stay optimistic
and keep putting in good work, you will see the results.
So guys that's it for today.
If you enjoyed this video, I really appreciate the thumbs
up leave a comment if you have any questions
and if you are new to making money online
then I highly recommend this video.
It's a video that I made recently about the 10 different ways to make money online
that I stand behind.
I hope you guys enjoyed this video ,
if you have any questions let me know
otherwise I'll see you guys in the next video.