Gaining More Time - A Better Daily And Weekly To Do System

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We believe life is precious. This is it. We've got

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one shot at this. It's on us to live life to the fullest to

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maximize what we've been given and play the game of life at our

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full potential. Are you living up to your potential? Are you

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frustrated that despite your best intentions, you just can't

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seem to make the changes needed to take things to the next

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level. So you can impact your career relationships and health.

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If this is hitting home, you're in the right place. Our mission

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is to open the door to the exceptional life by showing you

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how to play the game of life at a higher level. So you're

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playing at your full potential, rather than at a fraction as

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most people do. We'll share the one thing that once we learned

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it, our lives were transformed. And once you learn it, watch

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what happens.

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Welcome to think it be the podcast. I'm Kelly Hatfield.

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Hey. And I'm John Michell. So the topic today is getting more

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time by being highly organized. That's probably a good idea.

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Don't you think? Kelly for time? Hello? Yeah.

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That's a good thing. Good thing. I mean, really, the time is our

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most precious commodity, right? Yep, absolutely. You know, I

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tell you, one thing I've learned is, is to be highly organized

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boy, you have got to have a great system. The system is the

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key. And, and so often, I see that people are not very

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organized, and they admit it. And

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but I see when you have a great system, literally, you can

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create time. And if you don't have a good system, you flush

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time down the toilet. And so

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this in in today's visit, I just want to talk about the

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organizational system, we created this been so powerful.

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And when I talk about an organizational system, I'm

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really talking about daily and weekly to dues. And our system

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basically comes down to three things. You plan your day, the

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night before you time, block your day, and you identify your

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top three priorities each day.

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And it's I mean, it's amazingly simple. And the reason it's

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important to prioritize those and highlight those top three

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priorities is in case your day gets off kilter, which is

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sometimes do does, you can just go and focus on what's

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highlighted as your top three priorities and the power of, of

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always getting your top three priorities is so amazingly

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powerful. And so I tell us your thoughts on this whole concept

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of, of organization and and the system we have, I think, you

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know, the one thing that I'd like to add, you know, well,

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first of all, the amount of stress, like we all have a ton

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of stress in our lives, right? You know, just there's so much

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for us to do, and so many competing interests, we have

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full lives that aren't just about our careers, they're about

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our families, and all of those things. And so the thing I want

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to say about this organizational system is,

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is the mind thrives on order. We talk about that. And so what

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happens when you're organized, and you're focused on the things

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that move the needle, and you plan your day, the night before,

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is that it's, it's freeing. When you do this and get into the

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habit of doing this, it's freeing and there's one other

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thing I want to emphasize here too, is that we're talking about

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time right now time is finite.

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This also changes the quality of your time. Does that make sense?

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Absolutely. So you can not only get more done with less, but

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you're going to be thinking about how you're spending this

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time and how you're going to show up during this time and it

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shifts your entire this organizational system shifts

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your entire perspective on time. And so anyway oh I know you're

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gonna get more into it John, but I get so excited about this

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because time is finite. We've This is it. So the question you

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want to be able to ask yourself at the end of the day is like

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hey, did I win the day to day? Yeah, did I did it this was it

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and I hate to be morbid you know, but I am motivated by you

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know by morbidity I am you know if this is for me.

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What am I happy with how I with what this day looks like? What I

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can't

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lished how I showed up in all of the different areas of my life,

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I want to know the answer yes to that the majority of the time,

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and this organizational system helps you do that. Right? Well,

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and I'll describe the organizational system in a

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little more detail. So the first step is, like we said, plan your

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day, the night before. Boy, I can't say enough about this, you

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know, basically, the way we do it, is at the end of the day, we

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sit down and plan what we're going to do tomorrow. Exactly.

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When and, and there's so much power in creating again, to your

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point, that order of now you've got order for tomorrow, as

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you're wrapping up today. And you know, as your as your put

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your little head on the pillow, and you you know that tomorrow

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is plan, that's a great feeling. It also sort of frees your mind

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to think of other things, maybe that you can do tomorrow that

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you wouldn't otherwise be able to get to, because you hadn't

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planned the day. So that that first step of of planning your

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day, the night before, absolutely powerful. Then the

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second thing is you're going to time block your day. So on the

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daily to do sheet, you'll have all the day, all the hours of

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the day in and 30 minute segments sort of lined out. And,

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and as you as you plan your day, you basically also list what are

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your top three priorities each day. And so as you you, first of

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all, take those top three priorities and time, block them

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into your day, then if you got that done, you highlight them in

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yellow, so they they stick out. And then the next step is you go

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in and fill out the rest of the time on your day with the things

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that aren't your top three priorities. And so once you

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finish that, and you're looking at that sheet of paper, now,

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every thing you're going to do that day is planned out, you

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know what time, and the top three priorities are staring you

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in the face and with in, in red in yellow highlights. And so

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it's just a powerful way to, to do your day. And then then as

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you start your day, and you start crossing off things,

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you're getting this continual dopamine hit from the the

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psychic energy of getting things accomplished. And so

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that's, that's how the system works. And it's,

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it's interesting, when I, when I

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put this into my life, and it, it moved me from probably a six

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or seven on an organization to attend on a scale of one to 10.

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And I thought, man, if it has such a big impact on me, I bet

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you'd have a big impact on my employees. And I had like 175

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employees. So I started going into the managers, and I asked

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him, you know, on a scale of one to 10, how organized Are you?

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And, and they would generally say about a sixth. And I'm like,

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Wow, what a what a difference we can make if we as a company, all

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do this. And I thought I'm going to teach some managers first and

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then then the managers will teach the rest of the team. And

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so off we go. And it was such a game changer. And we got so much

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more done when, when it expanded beyond just me. Have you seen

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that with your team? Oh, in terms of organization?

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Absolutely. You know, for all of the same reasons. And I think

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there's there's so much research on the fact that our brains

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aren't designed to multitask, you know, so when you got a

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plan, you know, any place for the different activities on your

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calendar, those were things that move the needle that are that,

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you know, are the top priorities for the day.

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You know, then you're again, creating that order and creating

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a space to do just that activity. So you speed up, that

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activity is your protected time. And it is for that activity and

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that activity alone. So what we have found with our team, is

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when you're given a certain amount of time to do something,

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guess what? It gets done. And you know, and they're focused on

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it. They're not switching gears a million times. So at the end

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of the day, feeling like they've got a bunch of unfinished

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things. They've got those those key priorities done. And that

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sends that feedback loop to where it's like, oh, you know,

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these little victories that you're celebrating throughout

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the day for things that actually you've accomplished and you've

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moved the ball

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A little further forward. And I think that's where so much of

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our momentum as a team has come from, is from feeling like

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you're actually accomplishing things, right? And then right,

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because, you know, because we are, and then we went up to it

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too, and, you know, kind of took it to the next level,

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organization, you know, the the AP of organization, which is,

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you know, so if you've got a meeting, let's say you've got a,

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you know, a meeting with, with someone where you're thinking,

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you're looking at that spot on your daily calendar, where that

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meeting is, and you're like, how do I want to show up?

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You know, what do I need to be prepared with? Am I prepared for

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that meeting? And how do I want to show up, who's going to be at

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that meeting, what it where you're really, so that you can

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show up, be very present, engaged. And so we're also

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finding that the outcome of those meetings, whether they're

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sales meetings, whether they're level 10 meetings, where there's

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so much more productive, the meetings themselves are, because

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people are really thinking through how they're going to

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show up in that block of time for that particular activity,

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whether it's a meeting, whether it's a, you know, one of their

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time blocks for a priority that they need to take care of. So

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there's an intentionality around how you're showing up in that

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time. Does that make sense? Absolutely, you know, I see with

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with me, I will time block my planning of the meeting, you

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know, if I have a meeting at three o'clock, I might time

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block for 15 minutes, how am I going to run this meeting? What

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do I want to accomplish? How do I want to show up, and so I'm

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not only time blocking the meeting, I'm time blocking the

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preparation for the meeting. And you know, another thing that

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that's, I think critical, is, people are so distracted today

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with emails and text messages. I mean, it's just phenomenal how

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distracted people are. And

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in our organizational system, we teach people to look at your

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email, at the start of the day to see if there's anything

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that's just critical. But basically, our plan is you don't

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return the emails in the morning. And you designate a

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time like maybe three o'clock in the afternoon, to return your

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emails and to return your phone calls. And before that time, you

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know, you're rolling and with the also the idea that the

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morning is for your agenda. And the afternoon is to be

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responsive to other people. And, and I found that philosophy to

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be really powerful, because again, you got to get your stuff

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done. And you had to be responsive to other people. And,

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but but designating the morning for your priorities is so

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empowering. And and it's just a great way to do it. And it just

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allows you to focus and and I assume that's essentially how

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you do it as well, right? Yes, absolutely. And I think there's

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one thing I want to add to this is, you may be thinking, Oh,

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that's easy for you to say, You know what I mean? Like, I've got

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employees, you know, meeting stuff all day long. And I've got

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clients that are counting on me and all of this.

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What I would encourage you to do, and that it's so easy, your

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brain automatically wants to go there, because you've organized

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and you've managed your email that way, you've managed it

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forever, you know, so your brain is kind of trained to be plugged

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into it all day long. But what is a game changer is when you

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communicate clearly to your team, to your clients, to

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whoever would be emailing you that this is how I work. So I'm

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going to check into my email, I look at it first thing in the

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morning, maybe I usually do a half day like as soon as I'm

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done eating lunch, I'll check in to see if any of the people that

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are on my priority that had to do with my priority list or

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moving project forward. got back to me real quick to see if

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there's anything there that that connects to my priorities at

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all. If there isn't, then it doesn't get addressed. It goes

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to the you know, it goes to my last check in at the end of the

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day. But my team knows that they know they're not going to get an

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email back from me at 10am on something that it won't be

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coming until the afternoon. That if it's an emergent situation

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like there's blood or smoke involved that they can get in

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touch with is that your rule of thumb it is blood or bone that's

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that's the

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No I know that they can call me we've got the you know direct

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message. There's a way that they can get in touch with me if they

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need to, but that so my point is be clear about

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How you manage your inbox with the people in your life so that

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they are very clear about and have very clear expectations of

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what they're going to get from you. And when you're going to

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respond, that takes a lot of the pressure and stress off. Because

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when I first started doing this, I was like, Yeah, but like, if

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I, if I don't get back to a client right away, they're going

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to, you know, or if I don't get back to a team member, maybe

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they're going to, you know, whatever the case may be, that's

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just old programming, those are stories, myself. So it just

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requires very clear communication.

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And that immediately relieves stress. It trained them, they, I

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needed to train myself and I needed to train other people.

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Right, right, how I was going to be using my email and replying

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to them. Right? Well, and, you know, it sort of goes back to

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this thing that we've often talked about, about identifying

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what moves the needle, you know, the vast majority of stuff does

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not move the needle. And, and always looked at, I'm saving the

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morning for what moves the needle, that's gonna be my

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agenda. And I'm not distracted by texts or emails, and what a

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what a much better way to live and operate than how most people

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are operating where, where they're always checking their

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emails and checking text messages. And, you know, it's

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just it's, it's a much more powerful way to operate. And

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like you said earlier, the mind thrives on order. So and I think

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the way that you apply this using our 12 minute a day,

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technique is, is you basically reaffirm that you plan your day,

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the night before your time, block your day, and you

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highlight your top three priorities. And as you're using

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that system,

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again, the system is a key because that's, that sort of

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causes you to do those, those things. And I would say to our

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audience, if anybody actually wants to see this system, again,

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it's a daily

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to do sheet and a weekly to do sheet on the weekly to do sheet,

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where identifying, you know, different categories in your

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life. And it's sort of customized, the weekly sheet is

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customized to your life in six or seven categories, which is

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another powerful thing in the process of planning your week,

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makes it easy to plan it. And so it's powerful, but if anybody

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wants a example of this, we'll be glad to provide it to them.

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So just email, either myself or Kelly, think a bit.com. John,

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thank you. via.com. Kelly, ah, that thing could be att.com. So

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anything else, I you know, I one other little quick thing that

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you just brought up in those key categories of your life, like,

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this isn't just about being more productive in your work life or

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your career. This is about being productive and showing up in the

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different areas of your life. So as a parent, as a significant

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other, like you literally are putting the things on your

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calendar, like maybe it's a soccer game that you're

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attending for your kid, well, you are thinking about how do I

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want to show up? Like, how do I want my child to know that I'm

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there for them? Well, here's a clue for everybody put your

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frickin phone away, you know what I mean? And be present and

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watch the game. Instead of being I sit, you know, in the stands

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at my nephew's game. And I'm just like, watching all these

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parents with their heads in their phones and like, come on,

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you know, like this, you know, and show your. So I mean, it's

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those kinds of things. But I wanted to point that out. We're

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talking right now about career and but you just brought up a

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really good point about the different areas of your life.

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And there's a place where all of this lives on your calendar. So

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right, right. Okay. Well Until next time, we'll see you.

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Thanks for listening today. If you've had your own aha moment

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from today's episode, send me or John an email. We'd love to

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share your epiphany with our audience. So email us at

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Kelly@thinkitbeit.com or John@thinkitbeit.com. In the

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meantime, live the exceptional life