- When usually people are distracted,
and they say,
well I can't stay focused,
what they really mean is,
they're getting a lot of stuff done,
but they're not so sure
if they are actually doing things,
that actually produce any results.
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're 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 laziness.
Just because you're busy,
it doesn't mean you're productive.
Just because you fill up your calendar,
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,
will it even make a difference?
Will people notice?
How will this contribute to my life?
Or to my bottom line as a business?
When you are very clear,
and you are ruthless about the outcome,
now guess what?
You're more productive.
And what you notice is,
doesn't matter what is it that you wanna do,
whatever result you wanna create,
the 80 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 that 80% that's actually doesn't matter that much.
So time management ultimately is self-management.
Time management ultimately is self-management.
It's not about managing time,
it's about managing ourselves.
Managing our priorities.
Managing our emotions.
Put up your hand,
how many of you have a task,
or something in your business,
that you know you're supposed to do,
but you've been putting it off.
Be honest.
And you know exactly what to do.
You know exactly what needs to be done.
It's not time.
We all have the time.
We just can't get ourselves off our ass,
and get it done.
So it's not time management.
It's self management.
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 want to maximize your productivity.
It's maximum results 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 Ink website.
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 an hour.
I'm gonna write this article.
I'm gonna finish it in an hour.
You're training your brain,
to finish things in a certain time.
Certain frame of time.
Versus let it go on and on and on and drag on,
and then guess what?
You don't finish,
and you procrastinate.
Okay fine I'll finish tomorrow.
That procrastination kicks in,
and then drag on another day
and another day and 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.
You question your to-do-list.
Not like,
get up in the morning,
what do I need to do?
How many ask this question,
what do I need to do today?
What do I need to do?
I'm saying,
why the hell are you even doing it at all?
You look at it and it's like,
why am I even doing this?
And you question,
well actually I don't need to do this.
It's just an obligation.
Maybe it's not that important.
Na, let me cross that out.
Or, na that's just distraction,
no I don't need to do that.
And out of that you cut it back.
Maybe all you have to do is this.
Instead of that.
Again not by managing time,
by managing ourselves.
We have to question.
Question number one,
what is the highest and best use of my time right now?
Please repeat after me as loud as you can.
What's the question?
- [Everyone] What is the highest
and best use of my time right now?
- Number two.
Why am I doing this?
- [Audience] Why am I doing this?
- Say it again.
- [Audience] Why am I doing this?
- Why am I even doing this?
Number three.
What is the payoff of this activity?
- [Audience] What is the payoff of this activity?
- What is the payoff?
So when I say,
okay I'm spend time with my family,
what the payoff is,
I get to spend quality time with my family.
I get joy and happiness out of that.
Great, awesome.
That's the payoff of that activity.
I go watch a movie.
Let me escape from the day-to-day,
so that I can go into a different world
and recharge my battery,
that's the payoff of that activity.
I go workout one hour.
You know what?
I'm stronger, I get less sick,
I am more energetic,
that's the payoff of that activity.
Many years ago,
I have a to-do-list.
I have a what?
- [Audience] A to-do-list.
- And it's long.
'Cause I'm this control freak,
and a perfectionist.
My to-do-list at a time
was probably five, seven pages,
Word document kind of items,
and it would feel good,
and I would have a to-do thing,
and then cross it out,
cross it out.
How many of you feel good
when your crossing out item from your to-do-list?
Okay, and that's what I had.
I was making decent money.
About six figure a year.
Bu also that's the problem.
Then I evolved,
then I learned,
that I don't just want to have my to-do-list,
I want to have an other people's to-do-list.
What is is?
Other people's to-do-list.
So I would have an other people's to-do-list,
and started developing that,
and that thing gets thicker and thicker
and thicker and thicker.
And actually my to-do-list gets shorter
and shorter and shorter.
Shorter.
So everyday, now,
the way I operate is,
if I invite you to my office,
I work from home,
and you see on my wall,
I would have what I call,
the big five.
Every day I have five big things,
I must accomplish everyday.
Big stuff.
Everyday.
And usually in the morning I will,
okay today I got to call this partner.
Or I got to set up this.
Or I got to map out a strategy for that company.
Or whatever it might be.
So five things.
Very simple.
Not a ton of stuff.
And everyday I wanna make sure,
I don't get off work,
until I finish these five things.
Now what's interesting is,
sometimes it will take me hours to do these.
I will take me a good day to do it.
Sometimes it only takes me an hour,
to finish the whole thing.
Now let me ask you a question,
If I've got five things on my list,
the big five in the morning,
and let's say I got it done by 12.
Noontime.
What do I do for the rest of the day?
- [Man] Celebrate.
- Celebrate, good, yes.
Everybody say celebrate.
- [Audience] Celebrate.
- Yep, but what else do I do?
- [Man] Plan for tomorrow.
- Plan for tomorrow's to-do-list,
which takes about five minutes or so.
But seriously, what else do I do?
- [Woman] Read.
- Read, maybe learn, yes.
But not the right answer yet.
What do I do with the rest of the time?
- [Man] Self-development.
- Self-develop, maybe, maybe.
- [Man] Golf.
- Hm, I don't golf golf by the way.
(laughs)
I don't golf.
- [Woman] Help other people.
- Help other people,
but it's too vague, too vague.
If you were me,
what would you do?
- [Woman] Have lunch.
Have lunch, relax, right.
But what would you do?
You're done, for that day.
What would you do?
- [Man] I would continue working.
- Continue, how many of you continue working.
Find more stuff to do?
Okay.
That's the fucking problem.
(laughs)
Not the answer.
But that's a habit right now, right.
Not the answer.
What else?
What do you do?
- [Woman] Spend time with family.
- Spend time with family maybe, maybe.
- Woman] Sleep.
- Sleep.
I sleep a lot already,
so that's not quite it.
Here's what it is.
I would think, think.
Most entrepreneurs are not taking enough time to think.
'Cause when you're running like this,
can you think?
No, you can only, when you get off the hamster wheel,
then you think.
Now with me,
I usually think with a notepad, like this, right.
And then a pen.
I just sit there,
and I think.
And it's almost like,
if you observe it's almost like
I'm daydreaming a little bit.
But I just think.
(upbeat music)
How do you get shit done?
I probably get more done in a day
than what most people get done in a month.
People ask me all the time,
well Dan, how do you get so much done.
Oh I don't have time, Dan.
Well the question is,
it's not that you don't have the time,
you and I have the same amount of time
as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jack Ma.
24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
What's the difference?
The question you should be asking yourself is,
how can I give more of my time,
to something important.
How can I give more of my time,
to something that will be closer to my goals.
That's what you want to focus on.
Because anything that you do,
you have so much tasks.
I have so much to do every single fucking day,
but what do you focus on?
Ask yourself,
is this moving me closer to my goals?
Is this moving me closer to what I want?
Is it gonna make me money?
Is it gonna benefit my family?
Is it going to make me richer?
Is it going to make me happier?
Sometimes I believe,
laziness
or busyness is a form of laziness.
People get so busy,
they're like,
oh I'm so fucking busy,
I'm doing so many things.
Are you producing results?
Are you actually producing results?
That's the most important thing.
That's what I'm talking about.
You have to make that choice.