5 Productivity Hacks To Get Shit Done [0:00:00]
Antonio: Gentlemen, five productivity hacks that are going to help you get shit done.
[Music]
All right, guys, today as you can see I’ve got my good friend, Thomas Frank in the house
and he’s going to be helping us out with productivity hacks.
And, Thomas, you’ve got a channel I hear?
Thomas: I do.
It’s just called Thomas Frank.
Antonio: Thomas Frank, we’re linking to it down in the description.
So, if you’re a student, if you are looking to study better, if you are looking to basically
improve your productivity, improve – what else?
Thomas: I talk about sleep, I talk about...
Antonio: Sleep.
Thomas: Nutrition sometimes.
Antonio: Yeah.
Thomas: A lot of productivity, a lot of... Antonio: And what I love is you do a lot of
research.
Antonio: But, guys, let’s jump right into the hacks.
What do we got?
Number one.
Thomas: Let’s do it.
So, the main hack that I had for you today was the Pomodoro Technique.
So, basically...
Antonio: Okay.
How is it – how do you pronounce it?
Thomas: Pomodoro.
So, it’s like the Italian word for tomato.
Antonio: Okay.
Thomas: This is something that I do every single day because I’m a writer and I need
to...
Antonio: Eat tomatoes?
Antonio: This is my understanding is you set a timer.
Thomas: Yes.
Antonio: And you give yourself kind of like a sprint somewhere how the program works.
So, you have a set amount of time that you’re going to get something done, an artificial
in a sense time limit, right?
Thomas: It’s an artificial time limit.
So, the way that I use the Pomodoro Technique is to get writing done every single day and
I set twenty five minutes and I usually end up working for longer than twenty five minutes.
Antonio: Yeah.
Thomas: You get in the flow state.
Antonio: Yeah.
Thomas: Because initially before you started there’s that resistance and you don’t
want to do it, right?
Antonio: Yeah.
Thomas: But then, you start doing it and you start getting into it.
Antonio: Yeah.
Thomas: And then, you don’t have to take that break actually.
Antonio: Nothing motivates like actually getting something done in progress.
Thomas: Absolutely.
Antonio: So, let’s get into hack number two.
Thomas: All right.
So, number two is to order your days you’re doing the most difficult thing first.
Antonio: Now, I’ve heard this called Eat the Frog basically.
Thomas: Eat the Frog.
Yeah.
Antonio: Yeah.
And so, how do you even like – yeah, how do you do this?
Thomas: Ask yourself what do I really not want to do.
Antonio: Okay.
Thomas: What am I avoiding and do that first.
Thomas: Yeah.
That’s basically how I order my day.
Writing is the hardest thing that I do.
Antonio: Okay.
Thomas: So, I wake up and I do that actually before I workout.
So my day is basically go to the coffee shop, write for my Pomodoro, sometimes that’s
just twenty five minutes, sometimes that might be an hour and then go workout, then do the
rest of the...
Antonio: I find that for me it’s not always the hardest, but the things that’s going
to bring you the biggest return and if I do it, the rest of my day I just feel good.
Thomas: Yeah.
Antonio: So, for me I -- like filming a video, if I get a video done and sometimes I leave
at the end of the day and then I feel pressured, but if I do it right at the beginning I feel
great the entire day.
Thomas: Yeah.
And the other thing that that helps you avoid is if you start your day and you do a bunch
of easy stuff...
Antonio: Yeah.
Thomas: You feel artificially accomplished and then you don’t feel like you need to
do the important thing.
Antonio: Yeah.
Thomas: But, you didn’t actually get that much done.
Antonio: No, no, you got – some things are just worth a lot more than others.
All right.
So, hack number three.
Thomas: All right.
So, hack number three.
Have a daily task list that you look at instead of your weekly task list.
So, I don’t know what yours looks like, but I’ve got a huge list of tasks for the
entire week and it’s basically all planned out, but it’s...
Antonio: Okay.
Thomas: Super overwhelming if I look at it on a daily basis.
So, either the night before or the morning I’ll write it out here are the three things
I like get done just today...
Antonio: And I like how you said it actually because that’s what I was thinking, three
things.
Thomas: Yeah.
Antonio: And, in fact for some people maybe just one thing.
Thomas: Yeah.
Antonio: You can start with one and if you get that done, yeah, so putting out the night
before.
It’s funny, I talk about that in men style how actually guys can lay out their clothing
the night before.
Thomas: Yeah.
Antonio: Put out your outfits.
Thomas: And, yeah, and you can kind of apply that to really anything.
So, if you want to improve your style and you’re starting from ground zero and you
look at somebody like Antonio who’s got all these things going on.
Antonio: Oh, yeah.
Thomas: Pocket square, watches, everything.
Start with just two or three, right?
Get a nice suit coat, that’s all you need to worry about.
Antonio: Okay.
Hack number four.
Thomas: So, this is called Clear to Neutral and essentially the idea is once you are done
with your work, clear your workspace back to its completely neutral state.
Antonio: Okay.
Thomas: A lot of chefs will call this mis-en-place.
Antonio: Okay.
Thomas: Which means everything in its place.
So, this is something that you do before you start cooking and at the end of a shift or
at the end of service, clear everything back, put it away, clean everything up, that way
when you come back the next day, there’s nothing to do, there’s no resistance because
it’s ready.
[0:03:47] Antonio: It’s funny, I, again, another I
apply this to my style techniques and in the classes that I teach I’m always saying shine
your shoes at the end of the day after you finished wearing them before you put them
back.
So when you wake up in the morning, don’t – if you’re in a hurry you don’t have
to worry about shining your shoes.
Antonio: Iron shirts before you need them.
So, good.
Hack number five.
Thomas: So, this is called the 20-Second Rule and the idea is that there is this amount
of activation energy it’s called to do anything.
So, if you want to do something more often reduce that active – activation energy.
So, the 20-Second Rule means make it less than twenty seconds to get into what you’re
doing.
Antonio: Okay.
Thomas: So, for me I want to practice guitar way more often.
Antonio: Okay.
Thomas: The guitar is on the stand right next to my chair.
I walk in the living room, I can grab it in three seconds, I want to play it much more
often.
Antonio: So, by – I actually sometimes sleep in my workout clothes.
Thomas: Yeah, there it is.
Antonio: And, you know, I wake up because it’s cold, during the winter in Wisconsin.
I can basically get dressed under the covers and then get out.
Thomas: Yeah.
Antonio: And, yeah, I, you know, so that’s, oh, wow, I was already doing some of these.
Thomas: Yeah.
Antonio: Guys, these are powerful especially if you apply them together, right?
Thomas: Yeah.
Antonio: They all work together.
Thomas: But, again, start small.
Antonio: Start small.
Thomas: Don’t try to do everything at once.
Antonio: Where can they find you again?
Thomas: My YouTube channel is Thomas Frank.
So, just throw that into YouTube.
Antonio: Very easy to find.
Guys, I’m linking to some of my favorite video of Thomas’ down in the description
of this video.
Go check them out, an amazing channel.
And, thank you by the way for coming out to Menfluential.
Thomas: Absolutely.
Yeah.
Antonio: Really appreciate it.
And, you gave actually one of the best presentations in my event.
Thomas: Thank you.
Antonio: So, guys, I’m going to also link to Menfluential because I can tell you that
event is life-changing.
Thomas: Yeah.
Antonio: And I know it’s almost a year away, but, guys, we sold out this last year and
we will sell out a lot sooner and I’m excited.
So, thank you.
Thomas...
Thomas: Thank you, Antonio.
Antonio: And I’ll link to your channel down below.
Take care, guys.
I’ll see you in the next video.
[0:05:46] End of Audio