The 5 Productivity Systems That Separate Winners From Everyone Else

Give me 25 minutes, and you’ll get more done than 97% of people
https://www.youtube.com/watch/iQX_Cc0aHhg

00:00:00.080 If you’re the kind of person who wants
00:00:01.439 to get more done in less time, then
00:00:03.120 you’ve clicked on the right video.
00:00:04.480 Because if you give me just a few
00:00:06.160 minutes, I’ll give you decades of
00:00:07.919 productivity advice in return. Because
00:00:09.679 the most successful people, they don’t
00:00:11.440 rely on discipline or willpower to be
00:00:13.599 productive. They rewire their brain to
00:00:15.920 make it impossible to fail. I’ve got
00:00:18.480 intense ADHD, but the systems I’ve built
00:00:21.920 turn that from a weakness into a weapon.
00:00:24.640 And those systems is what helped me
00:00:26.400 build several multi-million dollar
00:00:27.920 businesses. And through it all, I’ve
00:00:30.000 learned there are only five things that
00:00:31.519 make productivity simple and life a
00:00:34.160 whole lot easier. Starting with the
00:00:36.079 two-minute rule. I first learned this
00:00:37.840 from a guy named David Allen. He wrote
00:00:39.280 an incredible book called Getting Things
00:00:40.719 Done. And a long time ago, I went to an
00:00:43.200 event in New York City where he was
00:00:44.719 speaking and he shared this wisdom that
00:00:47.039 was so simple yet so profound. A rule
00:00:50.079 that applies to everything that I’ll
00:00:52.719 talk about today. If something takes
00:00:54.559 less than 2 minutes, just do it. Don’t
00:00:57.440 think it, don’t plan it, just act. Most
00:01:00.399 people spend more time writing down,
00:01:02.480 tracking, put it in their project
00:01:03.840 management software than the actual work
00:01:06.159 to just do it. The longer you hesitate,
00:01:08.880 the heavier the task actually gets and
00:01:10.880 the longer the list of the task get. I
00:01:13.439 like to say JFDI, just do it. Send the
00:01:16.799 email, book the meeting, shoot the
00:01:18.560 video, respond to the text, just do it
00:01:20.720 now. Less than 2 minutes, don’t even
00:01:22.640 write it down. Those tiny actions
00:01:24.960 actually build massive momentum. It
00:01:27.200 reminds me of this quote by Jeff Bezos,
00:01:28.960 which I love. He says, "Stress doesn’t
00:01:30.799 come from hard work. It comes from
00:01:32.640 ignoring things that you shouldn’t be
00:01:34.240 ignoring." It’s true. Some people create
00:01:36.960 more pain in their life from the
00:01:38.799 decision they got to make than the
00:01:40.400 downside that might happen if they just
00:01:42.079 make the decision. Now, not every task
00:01:44.240 takes 2 minutes. So, what do you do when
00:01:45.840 you’ve got real work that demands focus,
00:01:47.600 energy, and time? You need to fix your
00:01:50.159 focus. Here’s a wild idea. You can’t be
00:01:53.920 productive if you have no idea what to
00:01:56.479 focus on. Clarity creates acceleration.
00:01:59.040 If I have a clear direction of where I’m
00:02:01.200 going, I can sprint. Most people wake up
00:02:04.159 wanting to be productive, but they can’t
00:02:05.920 be productive because they don’t know
00:02:07.119 what they’re trying to produce. In many
00:02:09.199 ways, I think about it like a target.
00:02:10.878 How can I hit a target if I can’t see
00:02:13.200 it? But once I see it, then it’s about
00:02:15.760 focus. Follow one course until
00:02:18.160 successful. That’s what the best of the
00:02:19.920 best do. As a nerd, I think of it like a
00:02:22.560 vector. And if you don’t know what that
00:02:23.760 is, it’s an easy thing to understand. A
00:02:25.680 vector is essentially an arrow. The
00:02:27.599 arrow has a direction and it has a
00:02:29.760 force. If it’s got a lot of power behind
00:02:32.080 it, then that vector is strong in a
00:02:34.080 direction. It means that it’s not about
00:02:35.840 just how hard you work, it’s about
00:02:37.840 working in the right direction. This
00:02:39.920 first got introduced to me through a guy
00:02:41.360 named Sean Ellis, who’s like the
00:02:43.040 original growth hacker, if you’ve ever
00:02:44.560 heard that term. And he shared me this
00:02:46.879 concept called Northstar metrics.
00:02:48.800 Essentially, he said if you could
00:02:50.720 distill everything you’re trying to
00:02:52.480 accomplish in your business into one
00:02:54.560 number, then it gets everybody focused
00:02:57.200 on the right thing. So, as building his
00:02:59.120 company, Clarity, and when we sat down
00:03:00.879 as a team and looked at it, we realized
00:03:02.480 there’s this thing called expertdriven
00:03:04.480 signups. To the degree we could convince
00:03:06.879 people that were using our platform to
00:03:08.720 share it with other people and they
00:03:10.800 would drive signups to use our product,
00:03:13.120 that that was our northstar metric. That
00:03:15.280 became our focus. that became our
00:03:17.040 guiding light for all things. Our
00:03:18.640 sprints, our developments, our
00:03:19.920 marketing, everything. That one decision
00:03:22.319 to get everybody focused on our
00:03:23.840 northstar metric is the reason why we
00:03:25.680 sold the company 2 years later. Real
00:03:27.599 productivity isn’t managing time, it’s
00:03:29.920 managing focus. So, here’s two steps you
00:03:32.640 can follow to fix your focus. The first,
00:03:35.440 we have to define your 12 power goals.
00:03:37.920 At the beginning of the year, I always
00:03:40.400 sit down and I go for a walk and I get
00:03:42.799 quiet and I sit down with my heart in
00:03:45.120 the trees. is I literally like to go to
00:03:46.640 nature and I ask myself what do I want
00:03:50.239 to accomplish this year in all aspects
00:03:52.720 of my life from the business side to the
00:03:55.120 family side to the adventure side to
00:03:57.120 just creating in the world and I just do
00:03:59.439 a flood of consciousness. I just write
00:04:01.360 down a bunch of things. And then what I
00:04:03.680 do is I take that list and I look at
00:04:05.439 them and I always take the one thing
00:04:07.840 that goes to the top that if I
00:04:09.439 accomplish that one, it makes everything
00:04:10.959 else easier. But then I backfill it with
00:04:13.599 the other 11 that are aligned, that feel
00:04:15.920 good, that I mean that are crazy. A
00:04:18.478 couple years ago, I had this wild idea
00:04:20.798 to donate 10,000 copies of Think and
00:04:23.440 Grow Rich to every kid in my hometown as
00:04:26.320 almost like an economic experiment in
00:04:28.400 our city. That process of having those
00:04:30.720 12 goals is the first step because
00:04:32.880 that’ll give you your north star. Where
00:04:35.360 most people miss the opportunity is I
00:04:37.840 then set up a habit to review that list
00:04:40.720 three times a day. Think about it. Most
00:04:42.720 people write a business plan or a life
00:04:44.080 plan and then after the first few weeks
00:04:45.759 they put it in a drawer and they never
00:04:47.120 revisit it because I sit down and I have
00:04:49.280 triggers set up in my life when I sit in
00:04:50.880 my car, when I’m at my office, when I
00:04:52.479 read in the morning or I pull out my
00:04:54.160 phone and it’s in a note file and it’s
00:04:55.840 literally pinned at the top of my phone
00:04:57.759 and I just review. And that allows me to
00:05:00.320 ask myself how aligned is my calendar?
00:05:02.880 What do I got going on today? When’s the
00:05:04.479 last time I did anything on that? It
00:05:06.479 reminds me of a quote by Steven Cvy
00:05:08.240 which he says the main thing is to keep
00:05:09.919 the main thing the main thing.
00:05:11.280 Essentially, if these are your goals,
00:05:13.280 look at them and make sure your calendar
00:05:15.039 reflects your goal. If you do that, you
00:05:17.039 will be a freaking weapon. Then we have
00:05:19.120 to choose our top three daily wins.
00:05:21.280 Essentially, we have to ask ourselves,
00:05:22.880 what are the projects that we move
00:05:24.240 forward that if we win around, we’ll get
00:05:26.479 these things done. You know, a lot of
00:05:28.080 these are projects, but I actually need
00:05:29.680 to break it down into something tactical
00:05:31.440 and tangible. So, it has to be aligned
00:05:33.600 with your goals. That’s why they’re
00:05:35.199 three daily wins. If all I do is get
00:05:37.840 those three things done for the day, I
00:05:39.919 consider the day absolutely a winning
00:05:41.919 day. And my mission every morning is to
00:05:44.560 create what I call a winning streak.
00:05:46.720 Start with a focus, get those things
00:05:49.039 done, and everything else would
00:05:50.720 backfill. All the got a second meetings,
00:05:53.440 the conversation, the Tik Tok feed, the
00:05:55.919 tweets, the requests, the text messages,
00:05:58.720 the all that, all that will fill in.
00:06:02.320 These are the big rocks. Three things,
00:06:04.479 three projects. I get them done usually
00:06:06.240 first thing in the morning and
00:06:07.520 everything else feels like gravy. And
00:06:09.440 look, if you’re a highle entrepreneur
00:06:11.280 juggling employees, meetings, travel,
00:06:13.840 clients, a family that really wants you
00:06:16.080 to be present at dinner, you know, focus
00:06:18.240 isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity. That’s
00:06:20.720 why I created the perfect week template.
00:06:22.720 It’s the system I use to protect my deep
00:06:25.360 work and ensure that my team has the
00:06:27.600 rhythms, that I have the health, and the
00:06:29.600 relationships are maintained so I can be
00:06:31.520 successful. I created this specifically
00:06:33.840 for founders and operators with real
00:06:35.759 responsibilities. So, if that’s you and
00:06:37.759 you want me to send it over to you for
00:06:39.199 free, DM me the word YouTube week on
00:06:41.759 Instagram at Dar Martell or click the
00:06:43.759 link below in the description. I’ll send
00:06:45.039 you over a copy. Now you know exactly
00:06:47.199 what matters. But if you really want to
00:06:49.440 be productive with your time, the next
00:06:51.120 step is cutting [music] everything that
00:06:52.880 doesn’t. Cut the crap. You don’t need
00:06:56.639 more to win. You need to do less. Most
00:07:00.639 people fail in life from indigestion,
00:07:03.759 not starvation. Meaning they say yes to
00:07:06.160 too many things at once. They get
00:07:08.319 overwhelmed. And through that
00:07:09.599 overwhelmed, they don’t feel productive.
00:07:11.680 They get anxiety. [music] They get
00:07:13.280 stressed out. They got to take
00:07:14.880 medication. It’s wild what people will
00:07:17.120 do to themselves. [music]
00:07:18.400 So instead of saying yes to everything
00:07:20.400 because we think it’s a game of
00:07:21.759 addition, it’s actually a game of
00:07:23.599 subtraction. It’s removing things out of
00:07:26.080 your life so you can focus on the things
00:07:27.919 that are actually going to move it
00:07:29.120 forward. The skill I would invite you to
00:07:31.360 consider is a very deep scientific
00:07:33.920 [music]
00:07:34.560 and powerful skill called the art of
00:07:36.800 saying no. No is a complete sentence and
00:07:39.120 it ends with a period. You don’t have to
00:07:41.280 give a reason. You can just check in
00:07:42.880 with your heart and say if it doesn’t
00:07:44.720 resonate, it’s a no. My wife and I have
00:07:47.280 this very simple rule. If it isn’t a
00:07:49.919 heck yeah, it’s a hell no. If somebody’s
00:07:52.960 asking you to do something and that
00:07:54.639 thing would be today or tonight and the
00:07:57.120 answer would be no, then I don’t care if
00:07:59.120 it’s in 6 months, make it a hard no.
00:08:01.599 It’s better to close the loops by making
00:08:03.199 a decision, not leaving them open. See
00:08:04.800 that 2-minute rule coming into play?
00:08:06.639 Than to leave it as a maybe. You will
00:08:09.199 stress yourself out around may. If you
00:08:12.080 would jump out of bed to go do the thing
00:08:13.919 that you’re being asked to do, then
00:08:15.840 yeah, do it. If it’s a no, just say no.
00:08:20.560 Put yourself first. So, here are three
00:08:23.120 ways to cut the crap out of your life
00:08:24.800 and become more productive immediately.
00:08:27.120 The first one, say no by default. It’s a
00:08:30.479 wild concept to consider that no matter
00:08:32.880 what you’re asked to do by other people,
00:08:35.200 just say no. Now, I know you have if you
00:08:37.919 have a boss or you have clients, you
00:08:39.279 might not want to do this because you’ll
00:08:40.399 probably get fired. But protect your
00:08:42.399 calendar. Treat it like a bank account
00:08:44.880 that every time somebody asks you to do
00:08:46.720 something, they’re essentially asking
00:08:48.480 for you to give them money because they
00:08:50.720 are. It’s your time. You just don’t
00:08:52.560 realize it. Every day has 86,400
00:08:56.959 seconds. Think about that is in dollar
00:08:59.120 bills. Every time somebody asks, "Hey,
00:09:01.200 you got a second?" They’re not asking
00:09:02.720 for a second. They’re asking for maybe
00:09:04.800 $17, maybe [music] uh $60. Like, what
00:09:08.640 are they asking for? And if you wouldn’t
00:09:10.959 give them that, protect it. Which then
00:09:13.680 allows you to choose how you use your
00:09:15.440 time, which I’m going to get into in a
00:09:16.880 second. If it aligns with your goals,
00:09:19.440 then it’s an easy yes. If it doesn’t,
00:09:22.320 then you say no. But be careful cuz
00:09:24.800 there’s this middle ground of things
00:09:26.240 that will stretch you, that will scare
00:09:28.640 you, that will put you outside of your
00:09:30.160 comfort zone. And I don’t want you to
00:09:31.360 get too quick to say no. If it aligns
00:09:33.680 with your goal and it pushes you outside
00:09:35.760 of your comfort zone, those are the ones
00:09:37.600 that are ass. So next we have to audit
00:09:40.640 your time weekly. Every Sunday I want
00:09:43.120 you to take some time to look at the
00:09:45.279 previous week and ask yourself what
00:09:47.200 worked and what didn’t. The stuff that
00:09:49.279 worked, run the play. The stuff that
00:09:51.519 didn’t, cancel, cut, clear it, fix
00:09:54.091 [music] it. And then on a monthly basis,
00:09:56.240 look at your previous month and then
00:09:58.560 create a thing called the kill list.
00:10:00.720 Essentially eliminate any task, any
00:10:03.279 reoccurring stuff that don’t support
00:10:05.360 your dreams. Have no mercy. If you
00:10:08.000 don’t, you won’t create the space to do
00:10:10.480 the work that’s going to push your life
00:10:11.920 forward. And you do that by either
00:10:13.920 deleting, delegating, automating, or
00:10:17.040 just doing the work. And last, one of my
00:10:19.839 favorite, simplest, easiest, and easily
00:10:22.079 the most productive is [music] pretty
00:10:24.000 much live in DND mode. DND mode is yes,
00:10:27.120 on your phone. Right now, my phone is do
00:10:28.800 not disturb, but by default, you should
00:10:31.600 literally get rid of all your
00:10:33.040 distractions. For those that are willing
00:10:35.200 to follow along, and I want you to leave
00:10:36.720 a comment below and let me know if you
00:10:38.000 did it. [music] Go into your
00:10:39.600 notifications and turn them all off. Oh,
00:10:43.519 I know you’re going, [music] I can’t.
00:10:46.399 What about my calendar? What about my
00:10:48.720 messages from my friends? What? I know.
00:10:51.680 Here’s what I’ve discovered. We allow
00:10:54.160 these tools to take away from our life,
00:10:57.040 our distractions, our focus. And all I
00:10:59.440 would say is schedule time to plug in.
00:11:02.000 either for me 11:30 or 4:30, but I also
00:11:04.959 even use the time when I’m doing my
00:11:06.560 fastid cardio in the morning to do all
00:11:08.399 my Slack messages. I’ve blocked these
00:11:10.560 times to plug in. I don’t let the apps
00:11:12.880 distract me. I’m so easily distracted
00:11:15.839 with my ADHD that, like I said, I had to
00:11:18.399 create these systems so that I could
00:11:20.079 just be productive. It turned into be a
00:11:23.200 massive level up. Turn it off. I dare
00:11:26.399 you turn it off and then you decide when
00:11:28.800 you want to plug into an app.
00:11:30.480 Notifications add so much crap into our
00:11:33.200 life that we need to learn how to cut
00:11:35.120 it. If you do this, you’ll be way more
00:11:37.760 focused on what matters most. All right,
00:11:40.160 so once you’ve cleared all that noise,
00:11:42.160 all over the place, it’s time to
00:11:44.079 optimize your productivity for your most
00:11:46.240 important resource. Protect your peaks.
00:11:49.519 Believe it or not, time is technically
00:11:52.240 not your most valuable resource. It’s
00:11:54.560 your energy. I don’t care how productive
00:11:57.519 you want to be. If your body is like
00:12:00.640 shutting down, your brain is fried, you
00:12:03.760 will not create your best work. That is
00:12:06.639 energy. Every person has natural energy
00:12:10.079 peaks. So, you got to protect it like
00:12:12.240 it’s sacred ground. When you line up
00:12:14.399 your toughest work, your most creative
00:12:16.320 work, your most challenging work with
00:12:18.560 your peak hours of productivity, you get
00:12:21.279 way more done with way less effort. For
00:12:23.839 me, it’s mornings. It’s my deep work. Do
00:12:26.639 not allow just anybody to come in during
00:12:29.120 your peak time, your peak energy to
00:12:31.200 create and distract you. The way I think
00:12:33.519 about it is the energy that I put into
00:12:35.920 something is felt out of it by the
00:12:37.760 people consuming it. So, my energy flows
00:12:40.399 where my attention goes. I can’t be
00:12:42.959 distracted if I’m trying to do big
00:12:44.720 things. Here’s a wild thought that I had
00:12:46.720 one day is that early in the morning or
00:12:49.040 late at night, if you think about it,
00:12:50.880 everybody else in the world, they’re
00:12:52.480 actually horizontal. They’re sleeping.
00:12:54.959 They’re dreaming. And I think the reason
00:12:57.120 why most people do the most creative
00:12:58.720 work then is because the connection to
00:13:01.680 their creator is thin, right? Everybody
00:13:03.680 else is sleeping and they’re dreaming so
00:13:05.440 that you can tap into that energy. I
00:13:07.360 know it’s wild. There may not be any
00:13:08.800 science to back it up, but I will tell
00:13:10.639 you when I create in the morning
00:13:12.079 connected to my creator, I come up with
00:13:13.920 the most amazing and beautiful and
00:13:16.320 elegant solutions to my biggest
00:13:18.079 problems. So, here are two simple and
00:13:20.079 powerful ways to maximize your energy
00:13:22.000 and protect your peaks. The first is we
00:13:24.399 have to do an energy audit. We talked
00:13:26.079 about doing a time audit. Now, we got to
00:13:28.079 look at energy. We have to look
00:13:29.519 throughout our week and our day. What
00:13:31.920 are the things that take our energy? And
00:13:34.399 what I’ve discovered is that most people
00:13:36.399 already have these natural flows. Like
00:13:38.320 maybe in the morning it’s really
00:13:39.440 productive and in the afternoon is when
00:13:41.120 you’d prefer to be talking to people.
00:13:42.800 That’s what I do. I don’t do any
00:13:44.320 meetings before 11:00 a.m. Why? Because
00:13:46.800 that work is for me. Once I invest in
00:13:49.680 me, then the rest of the world can get
00:13:51.680 me. But guess what? They’ll get a better
00:13:53.440 version of me because I know that that
00:13:55.360 morning was spent doing things that are
00:13:57.040 going to move my dreams forward, my
00:13:58.880 goals forward, my tasks forward. And
00:14:01.120 then when I show up, I’m present with
00:14:03.040 them. I’m not thinking about stuff that
00:14:05.120 I should be doing later on. I’m not
00:14:06.959 giving myself an out in the morning
00:14:08.399 because I know I’m going to get back on
00:14:09.680 my laptop after I put the kids to bed.
00:14:11.839 And if you do that and you honor those
00:14:13.920 energy flows, then it creates a rhythm.
00:14:16.560 I know you’ve had these moments. They’re
00:14:18.240 usually the day before you have to go on
00:14:20.079 vacation where you wake up cuz you have
00:14:22.480 all this stuff you got to do and you
00:14:24.079 honor that task list. You honor that
00:14:26.000 calendar and you’re just like, "Oh my
00:14:27.440 god, I got so much done today. Why can’t
00:14:29.440 every day be like this?" It can be. Look
00:14:33.120 at what happened. Look at your energy
00:14:35.440 levels and try to replicate it. The
00:14:38.000 other one is exhaust the body, tame the
00:14:40.880 mind. I believe most people have to take
00:14:44.240 medication or self-medicate or [music]
00:14:47.519 do whatever they can to try to be
00:14:49.279 focused because they don’t get their
00:14:51.839 body moving. I got this concept from an
00:14:54.240 old stoic quote that said that we treat
00:14:56.240 the body rigorously so that it won’t be
00:14:58.800 disobedient to the [music] mind. As
00:15:01.040 somebody who suffers with ADHD, I have
00:15:04.000 to move my body every day. Like I work
00:15:06.880 out first thing in the morning and when
00:15:08.880 I work out, I push to the point past
00:15:11.760 pain because there’s something that
00:15:13.680 happens in that pump. It actually clears
00:15:17.120 my brain. It’s the weirdest thing. It’s
00:15:18.639 almost like a chiropractic alignment of
00:15:21.120 my mind at the gym. So, if you’ve never
00:15:24.320 tried it, do it. Most people go like,
00:15:26.000 "Oh, I’m going to be so tired after the
00:15:27.519 gym." Opposite. It’s the funniest thing.
00:15:29.760 It’s like I’ve never left the gym
00:15:31.440 feeling tired more so than how I felt
00:15:34.000 going in. I like to put my most
00:15:35.839 difficult tasks right after the gym. My
00:15:38.000 most creative tasks like this right
00:15:40.160 after the gym. Why? [music] Because
00:15:42.399 that’s when it’s going to get my best
00:15:44.240 work. My mind is primed after I work out
00:15:47.360 because I exhaust the body, tame the
00:15:49.279 mind. And your gym could be as simple as
00:15:51.519 putting a weighted vest and going for a
00:15:53.040 walk. It could be as simple as doing 100
00:15:54.800 air squats. It doesn’t have to be
00:15:56.320 complicated. You’ll be surprised how
00:15:58.320 much more productive you’ll be. So now
00:15:59.920 we got our body and our energy and our
00:16:02.000 mind right. But none of that will
00:16:04.000 actually make you more productive if you
00:16:05.920 don’t follow this next step, which is
00:16:07.920 setting up simple systems. This is a
00:16:10.480 universal truth. Systems beat
00:16:13.120 motivations every single day of the
00:16:15.680 week. A lot of people ask me like, "I
00:16:17.519 don’t know how you stay so motivated."
00:16:19.360 I’m not. I just follow the system. I
00:16:22.079 make it easy for me to win. I just have
00:16:24.560 checklists that I have a little bit of
00:16:26.160 discipline to start with and review it.
00:16:28.320 And the best part, the more you build
00:16:30.240 your life, the more people you’ll have
00:16:31.839 in your life, the more you’ll coordinate
00:16:33.600 with other people to do life. And they
00:16:36.000 will keep you accountable to the system.
00:16:38.079 Like my whole team works out. When we
00:16:39.600 travel, we work out. I literally think
00:16:41.519 they would probably be like, "Uh-oh,
00:16:42.720 something’s wrong with Dan." If they
00:16:44.160 texted me or I texted them and said,
00:16:45.519 "I’m not going to the gym tomorrow." So
00:16:47.360 that’s the whole point is that everybody
00:16:50.079 has goals, you know, as James Clear
00:16:52.079 says. But it’s the systems that create
00:16:55.279 the winners, not the size of the goal
00:16:57.279 you wrote down on a paper. It’s almost
00:16:59.600 gotten to the point where I just make it
00:17:01.600 hard on myself to fail. For example,
00:17:04.079 when I was writing my book, Buy Back
00:17:05.439 Your Time, I said to myself, I will sit
00:17:08.000 down and I will write every day. And I
00:17:10.079 sat there and I wrote every day. I think
00:17:11.679 I made it to like 22 days. And then I
00:17:14.799 realized I hated it and I didn’t want to
00:17:16.799 do it. And then I missed one day and one
00:17:18.319 day turned into three days and then I
00:17:19.679 wrote a little bit and then I didn’t
00:17:20.720 touch it for weeks. That was not a
00:17:22.319 winning system. What I then changed was
00:17:24.640 that I hired somebody, his name is Ron,
00:17:26.880 and I said, "You be the book CEO. You
00:17:29.840 hold me accountable. You’re the expert.
00:17:32.400 I will work for you." So, I created a
00:17:34.880 system with Ron where we actually
00:17:36.799 co-created this project called Buy Back
00:17:39.120 Your Time. This beautiful blue book
00:17:40.799 that’s helped millions of people. I had
00:17:42.960 to create a system that I couldn’t fail
00:17:44.880 at by making it other people’s dreams
00:17:47.280 and goals for me to support. Because I
00:17:49.280 learned a long time ago, and I don’t
00:17:50.559 know if this is true for you, I will do
00:17:52.640 way more for somebody else than I will
00:17:54.559 ever do for myself. I mean, it’s a
00:17:56.880 challenge as you have more success in
00:17:58.799 life to keep the hunger going when you
00:18:01.280 don’t need anything. And the way I do it
00:18:04.240 is I make commitments to other people.
00:18:06.960 And that cheat code has gotten me
00:18:08.720 incredibly productive. Systems, it’s a
00:18:10.880 fun acronym. It stands for save yourself
00:18:14.559 time, energy, money, and stress. So,
00:18:17.280 here are a few strategies that you can
00:18:19.039 use today to build systems that
00:18:21.200 literally buy back your time. The first
00:18:23.440 one is we have to batch our work.
00:18:25.360 There’s no world where the same work
00:18:27.760 sprinkled out throughout your week makes
00:18:29.840 sense when the ramp up time in your
00:18:31.760 brain has to be focused. I call this
00:18:34.160 batch work. So, for example, if I’m
00:18:37.039 doing sales calls, put all your sales
00:18:38.720 calls together. If you’re doing content,
00:18:40.799 put all your content together. If you’re
00:18:42.400 doing operational meetings, put all your
00:18:44.640 operational meetings together. Think of
00:18:46.400 it this way because everybody thinks you
00:18:47.919 can multitask. You can’t. It’s an
00:18:50.240 illusion. I don’t care who you are. I
00:18:52.400 will prove it to you. If I asked you to
00:18:54.320 count to 1 2 3 4 5 6 all the way to 26.
00:18:57.039 How fast could you do it? A lot of
00:18:58.480 people pretty quick. What about ABC D
00:19:00.240 FG? Really quick. Most people if you do
00:19:02.480 those back to back it’d be like 23 26
00:19:05.360 seconds. If I then ask you to go 1 A 2 B
00:19:09.600 3 C and onward. [music]
00:19:11.760 Not only will it take you a minute and a
00:19:13.919 half to 2 minutes, most people can’t do
00:19:16.160 it cuz their brain can’t switch. If you
00:19:18.640 can just focus on one task and get them
00:19:20.960 all done and stack those as batch
00:19:23.200 meetings, it will make you lethally
00:19:25.360 productive. And it’s because of the
00:19:26.960 neuroscience behind it, it’s actually
00:19:28.640 called cognitive switching. And when
00:19:30.480 you’re doing tasks that cause you to go
00:19:32.080 from different sides of the brain,
00:19:33.600 analytical versus creative, it’s just
00:19:35.760 not a winning strategy. The second is
00:19:38.000 dry. And it’s an acronym. It stands for
00:19:39.919 don’t repeat yourself. As a programmer,
00:19:43.360 I learned this when I was 17 that if I’m
00:19:46.000 going to write some code, put it in a
00:19:47.760 place where I don’t have to repeat
00:19:48.880 myself and then I can reference it every
00:19:50.799 other time I need it. Simple concept
00:19:53.440 changed my life. Every time you make a
00:19:56.160 decision about a preference, is that
00:19:58.240 saved in a preference file? Now, I know
00:20:00.240 you may not need somebody to help you
00:20:01.840 today, but what about in the future when
00:20:03.600 you want somebody else to do something
00:20:04.720 for you? If you have all your
00:20:05.919 preferences in a file, you can give them
00:20:07.919 the preference file. On the other end of
00:20:09.919 the spectrum, I have a document called
00:20:11.840 working with Dan. What is that? Exactly
00:20:14.640 what it sounds like. I have a document
00:20:16.400 that introduces what it’s like to work
00:20:18.160 with me. Why? I work differently. Think
00:20:21.360 about everything I just shared with you.
00:20:22.880 So, when new people get put on my team,
00:20:25.200 I give them the document. And then that
00:20:27.200 way, I don’t have to repeat myself. I
00:20:28.720 don’t have to tell them how I like to
00:20:29.919 talk or meetings or structure or
00:20:31.440 anything. It’s all in the document. That
00:20:33.280 to me is the concept of don’t repeat
00:20:35.520 yourself. So create checklists, create
00:20:38.480 systems, follow them because the more
00:20:40.720 you do it, then you’ll have the playbook
00:20:42.480 to have somebody else do it for you.
00:20:44.240 That’s called proper delegation. Imagine
00:20:46.480 how much time you would save if you
00:20:48.080 never had to repeat yourself. The third
00:20:49.840 is the 108010 rule. And this one will
00:20:52.240 change your life cuz a lot of people
00:20:53.679 have a hard time letting go because
00:20:55.520 they’re very creative and they feel that
00:20:57.760 their unique vision and approach to
00:20:59.919 stuff is their fingerprint which I get
00:21:02.640 but I know that at scale across all
00:21:05.200 these different creative industries from
00:21:07.039 bookw writing to software development to
00:21:09.520 branding there are people that have
00:21:11.840 built massive companies by not being
00:21:14.080 involved in every project but influence
00:21:16.880 every project. Did you know Tom Clancy,
00:21:19.360 if you ever seen his books or video
00:21:20.880 games, he’s been dead for like 15 years
00:21:23.919 and he’s a best-selling author last week
00:21:26.799 and the month before and the month
00:21:28.080 before and the month before. Why? He
00:21:30.159 used the 108010 rule to have other
00:21:32.799 people write like him. This is available
00:21:36.080 to every mom, to every leader, to every
00:21:39.039 CEO. The way it works is very simple.
00:21:41.440 You want to be involved when you’re
00:21:43.039 delegating any project in the first 10%.
00:21:45.600 I call that the ideation phase. That’s
00:21:47.600 where you sit down, you say
00:21:48.799 directionally speaking, consider this,
00:21:50.720 consider this. Here’s the outcome we
00:21:52.400 want to achieve. And give all of your
00:21:54.799 inputs, resources, relationship,
00:21:56.720 connections, and encourage the team or
00:21:58.400 the people to use those to move forward
00:22:00.480 on the project. The other 80% is the
00:22:03.200 execution. This is where the team does
00:22:06.640 80% of the work. They actually go all
00:22:09.120 the way to the end. Think about like
00:22:10.480 Steve Jobs with Johnny Eyes. He used to
00:22:12.799 come into the design studio, talk to
00:22:14.960 Johnny about the vision he had for a
00:22:16.720 product. Then Johnny would sit down with
00:22:18.400 his team and take all that time to build
00:22:20.559 prototypes [music] and get it to a place
00:22:22.640 where there’s a real product. And then
00:22:24.480 the last 10% is actually integration.
00:22:27.520 And that’s where you can come back at
00:22:29.120 the end and you go, okay, let’s make
00:22:31.120 these little tweaks here and then I’m
00:22:33.520 going to be involved in making sure that
00:22:35.120 it reaches the market the way I feel
00:22:37.120 like it. So that could be doing the
00:22:39.360 press tour if you’re an author. That
00:22:40.960 could be doing the podcast tour. That
00:22:42.640 could be Steve Jobs on stage [music] at
00:22:45.120 the event announcing a new product. And
00:22:48.159 finally, number four, standardize your
00:22:50.559 meetings. I can’t tell you how valuable
00:22:52.960 this is if that you create rhythms in
00:22:55.280 your life from work to personal that
00:22:58.159 allows you to stay on track so
00:23:00.080 everything is moving towards achieving
00:23:01.919 the life you want to live. I do this for
00:23:04.240 every meeting. I don’t go to a meeting
00:23:05.760 unless it has an agenda. My reoccurring
00:23:08.000 meetings are few but very powerful. I’m
00:23:10.880 very clear about what my expectations
00:23:12.720 are and I even do it for my personal
00:23:14.400 life. Today actually we have our family
00:23:16.400 meeting where we sit down and we have a
00:23:18.159 structure to that meeting that’s written
00:23:19.679 out the agenda and we go over every
00:23:21.679 aspect of our life every week. Why? Cuz
00:23:25.200 I want to make sure we’re always
00:23:26.320 aligned. It’s one-on-one time because
00:23:29.120 busy families sometimes forget that that
00:23:31.120 one-on-one time is where you have these
00:23:32.799 beautiful conversations and moments that
00:23:34.880 otherwise might get missed.
00:23:36.720 Standardizing my meetings because I
00:23:38.960 already have the rhythm from doing my
00:23:40.320 time and energy audit from before is a
00:23:42.799 gamecher for productivity. Every meeting
00:23:45.039 should have these five things. First,
00:23:46.559 you should have an agenda. The other is
00:23:48.240 you have a project owner, what I call a
00:23:49.760 DRRi, direct responsible individual like
00:23:52.159 who owns a meeting and guess what is
00:23:54.159 rarely me. Three, what are the decisions
00:23:56.880 we want to make in this meeting? Fourth
00:23:59.039 is what are the next steps? Do we have
00:24:01.200 them? And then when are the deadlines
00:24:02.799 for those decisions? If you make sure
00:24:04.559 every meeting has this, you will become
00:24:06.400 incredibly productive. And if you don’t,
00:24:08.960 it’s just noise. If you build these into
00:24:11.440 your daily, monthly, and yearly systems,
00:24:14.799 you’ll see yourself get way more
00:24:16.720 productive way faster. Now, I know when
00:24:19.760 I share these strategies with people,
00:24:21.919 they usually push back, especially if
00:24:24.000 they’re creative, especially if they’re
00:24:25.600 people that they just want to like be a
00:24:28.320 little bit more free in life because it
00:24:30.320 can sound like a lot of systems. It can
00:24:32.000 sound like a lot of structure. And a lot
00:24:34.080 of people don’t like structure. What you
00:24:36.240 may not realize is that if you want to
00:24:39.039 be creative, then you have to have
00:24:40.799 constraints. It’s always been that way.
00:24:42.640 The more you have constraints, the more
00:24:44.320 creative you can be because it allows
00:24:46.799 you to be present. [music]
00:24:48.720 If you actually want to be freer and
00:24:51.360 have more time to feel creative, then
00:24:54.320 having structure is the way. And
00:24:56.480 remember, if you want to download my
00:24:58.080 exact structure for designing my perfect
00:25:00.080 week that has helped me buy back like 30
00:25:02.480 hours a week, [music] just DM me the
00:25:04.159 word YouTube week on Instagram or just
00:25:06.320 click the link below in the description
00:25:07.600 and I’ll send that over to you. Next up,
00:25:09.679 if you want to learn how to get rich
00:25:11.120 without luck, talent, or a freaking
00:25:12.960 trust fund, click here and I’ll see you
00:25:14.480 on the other