- I've gotten a few very good questions
from fans of my work, asking,
"Dan, how do you stay focused?
"How could you be so focused and so consistent?"
(energetic music)
How do you maintain that?
How do you sustain that?
What are the keys to extreme productivity?
Well first of all, let's define productivity, first.
I believe the definition of productivity is simple.
It's five words.
Maximum results in minimum time, that's it.
Results, minimum time.
So, today I'm gonna give you three keys
to help you stay focused.
Number one, when usually people are distracted,
and they say "Well, I can't stay focused."
What they really mean is
they are getting a lot of stuff done,
but they are not so sure if
they are actually doing things that
actually produce any result.
Does not make a difference.
So the key number one to extreme productivity
is you need to be absolutely ruthless,
when it comes to the outcome.
What is it you are trying to do?
What is it you're trying to create?
What's the outcome that you want?
Instead of just getting busy, busy, busy, busy,
because I believe busyness is also a form of lazyness.
Just because you're busy,
it doesn't mean you're productive.
Just because you fill up your calender
with all kinds of stuff to do,
it doesn't mean you're producing any results, right?
Just because you're splashing in the water,
it doesn't mean you're swimming, right?
So that's what you wanna do.
Be absolutely ruthless.
Don't just ask "Okay, what do I need to do?
"What do I need to do?"
How can I do this better?
Why am I even doing this at all?
Is this important?
Can I eliminate this?
If I don't do this, would it even make a difference?
Would people notice?
How would this contribute to my life
or to my bottom lines of business?
When you are very clear,
and you are ruthless about the outcome,
now guess what, you're more productive.
And what you'll notice is,
doesn't matter what is it that you wanna do,
whatever result you wanna create,
the 80 to 20 rule always applies.
Only 20% of what you do
contributes to 80% of results.
So you constantly wanna be thinking about,
okay, am I doing the important 20%?
Or am I just wasting time with the 80%
that actually doesn't matter that much.
So that's key number one.
Key number two, you want to eliminate distraction,
and interruptions in your life.
So how can you be productive,
in any given time during the day,
if you're interrupted all the time?
I think even entrepreneurs, CEOs,
they have this open door policy,
where, "Hey, you know what, my door is open.
"Come talk to me anytime."
I think it was one of the dumbest ideas,
because it means you get interrupted
many, many, many times, every single day.
And every time you get interrupted,
it takes you certain mental bandwidth
to stay and get back on track.
So when I am working, I unplug the phone.
I create an environment that people cannot reach to me.
If I wanna check messages or I wanna check email,
or to get back to my team, that's fine.
But if I am, what I call the Batcave moment,
I unplug all communication.
My cellphone, none, zero.
There's all my thinking time, my planning time,
my strategy time, that's it.
So when they cannot find you, they cannot interrupt you.
When they cannot find you, they cannot distract you.
So, communicate with your team,
and tip it around, and say
"Hey, I'm working on my business.
"I'm building something here.
"I'm working on some very, very important task.
"I need to get those done.
"Please, give me the space.
"During that time, don't bother me."
Same thing in the office,
when I'm working, sometimes from home,
when I close the door, then Jenny knows
that she doesn't come in and interrupt me.
Alright, my wife knows that,
nope, that's Dan's working time.
He needs to stay focused.
So, put yourself in an environment
that you cannot be distracted.
That's key number two.
Key number three is make sure you give yourself a time.
A finish time.
So whenever you're working on a task,
instead of saying, "Hey, you know what?
"Today I'm gonna work on this particular task
"and I won't stop until I finish it."
It is okay, but I found that that's not a very good idea
if you wanna maximize your productivity.
It's maximum result in minimum time.
I find that you can train yourself
to work faster and get stuff done faster.
So let's say I'm going to write an article for Inc website,
but instead of me sitting down
and just spending hours and hours and hours on it,
I would say, okay, I'm gonna write this article.
I'm gonna block out an hour.
I'm gonna write this article.
I'm gonna finish it in an hour.
You are training your brain
to finish things in a certain time,
certain frame of time,
versus to let it go on and on and on,
and drag on, and then guess what,
you don't finish, and then you kind of,
you procrastinate, "Okay fine I will finish tomorrow."
That procrastination kicks in,
and then you drag on another day, another day, another day,
versus "You know what, today I'm gonna get this done."
So give it a time frame.
Give it a deadline and you could see,
you could actually get way more done in a day,
than what most people think.
So there you go, that's how you stay focused.
Have that clarity, be absolutely ruthless,
when it comes to the outcome that you want, right.
Eliminate interruptions, don't let people interrupt you.
Unplug the phone.
Turn on the computer.
Turn off the computer.
Just work.
Whatever it takes, just do that.
Number three, yes, give yourself a time frame
when you work, and finish, and you try to push.
This usually takes you an hour.
Next time, can you do it in 55 minutes?
50 minutes.
45 minutes.
You can work a lot faster than you think.
By the way, a lot of people are asking me
to make videos on how to become
a social media influencer.
How do you promote yourself with your brand
or your business on social media?
If that's what you want to know,
click in the I button above, and let me know.
Do you wanna learn more about YouTube?
Do you wanna learn how I grow my Instagram,
or how they grow my Facebook?
Which topic interests you the most?
Until next time, I'll see you in my Bentley.