Simple Ways To Stop Procrastination, Laziness & Increase Motivation | Cal Newport

00:53:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dAcbbx1vms

Resumo

TLDRIn this instructional video, the speaker outlines a five-step process for moving from disorganization to organization, especially on the first day. The first task is to confront psychological misconceptions about one's workload and prepare to face the "productivity dragon." The next step involves setting up a digital system to manage tasks as most tasks today are digital, and physical systems are inefficient. This involves creating six categories of lists - ready, back burner, waiting, to discuss, clarify, and scheduled. The third step is an exhaustive task collection process, transferring every obligation into this system, which can take several hours. Following this, there's a configuration phase where items are clarified and prioritized. The final step focuses on maintaining this system with daily reviews and weekly comprehensive checks to ensure its ongoing relevance and effectiveness. Emphasis is placed on regularly interacting with the system to build trust and integrating it into daily planning routines.

Conclusões

  • 💡 A five-step organizational plan helps transition from chaos to calm.
  • 🧠 Psychological readiness is crucial to face overwhelming tasks.
  • 📋 Set up a digital task management system with specific lists.
  • 📤 Collect and organize all tasks and responsibilities into the system.
  • 🛠️ Regularly configure and update your task lists to make sense of obligations.
  • 📅 Conduct daily and weekly reviews to maintain the system's effectiveness.
  • 🗂️ Use tools like Trello or Notion to manage tasks digitally.
  • 📝 Lists include ready, back burner, waiting, to discuss, clarify, and scheduled.
  • 🔍 Focus on pending tasks by placing them in the clarify list.
  • ⏰ Allocate a full day to thoroughly set up the organizational system.

Linha do tempo

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    The video is about starting the journey from being disorganized to organized, detailing a five-step plan to follow. The first four steps cover what to do in the initial hours of reorganizing, while the fifth step is about maintaining these changes over the next 30 days.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    The speaker introduces the concept of facing psychological obstacles, particularly the common misperception about workload. People often underestimate the disorganization in their tasks, which hinders their progress towards becoming organized.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    The idea of 'facing the productivity dragon' is introduced, urging viewers to confront the overwhelming reality of their workload rather than deny it. This confrontation is fundamental to beginning the organizational journey.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    The first step of becoming organized involves dedicating a full day to face and organize your tasks, highlighting the importance of setting aside time to tackle all aspects at once.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    In the second step, a digital storage system is recommended for organizing tasks, reflecting modern work habits where most obligations are digital rather than physical.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:30:00

    Three types of digital task management systems are suggested ranging from simple text files to more complex systems like Trello and Notion, emphasizing starting with a system that suits your current expertise level.

  • 00:30:00 - 00:35:00

    Six specific lists to organize tasks are recommended: Ready, Back Burner, Waiting, To Discuss, Clarify, and Scheduled. Each list serves a specific task status, helping to categorize and prioritize.

  • 00:35:00 - 00:40:00

    Step three involves dumping all tasks into these lists to clear mental space and organize obligations, using a working memory file as an intermediary to capture everything initially.

  • 00:40:00 - 00:45:00

    The fourth step is initial configuration - moving and clarifying tasks across lists, removing redundancies, and batching similar tasks to streamline productivity.

  • 00:45:00 - 00:53:00

    The final step emphasizes maintaining the system with daily reviews and weekly configurations, integrating the organized system into one's daily workflow and building trust in it to prevent future disorganization.

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Mapa mental

Mind Map

Perguntas frequentes

  • What are the first steps in becoming organized?

    The first steps include psychological preparation, setting up a digital system, collecting all tasks into this system, and configuring it to suit your needs.

  • How much time should I allocate for the initial organization process?

    It is recommended to set aside a full day to complete the initial steps of becoming organized.

  • What digital tools can help with task management?

    Tools such as Trello, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or more complex systems like Notion can be used for task management.

  • What are the categories of lists suggested for organizing tasks?

    The suggested lists include ready, back burner, waiting, to discuss, clarify, and scheduled.

  • How can you maintain an organized system after the initial setup?

    Maintain the system by reviewing it daily and conducting a more thorough configuration weekly.

  • Why is confronting the "productivity dragon" important?

    Confronting it is crucial because it involves acknowledging all your obligations and responsibilities, even if it seems overwhelming.

  • How should you handle tasks that are unclear or need more information?

    Place them on the clarify list until you can obtain more details or decide on the next steps.

  • Is it necessary to digitize all tasks from emails and calendars?

    Yes, all tasks should be transferred to the digital organization system to keep everything in one place.

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  • 00:00:00
    what to do on the very first
  • 00:00:03
    day on your journey from
  • 00:00:06
    disorganized to organized so it's the
  • 00:00:10
    day one steps I want to focus on today
  • 00:00:12
    my plan is uh I have five steps to go
  • 00:00:14
    through the first four steps are highly
  • 00:00:16
    technical what to do in the first four
  • 00:00:18
    to six hours on the quest to become a
  • 00:00:22
    more organized person the fifth step
  • 00:00:24
    will then give you the maintenance
  • 00:00:25
    activities to do for the 30 days to
  • 00:00:27
    follow to make sure that everything you
  • 00:00:28
    do this first day actually sticks so
  • 00:00:32
    this is not about having the most
  • 00:00:33
    advanced ongoing system but instead
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    taking the biggest possible steps on the
  • 00:00:39
    very first
  • 00:00:41
    day before we get into those details
  • 00:00:44
    though let's start by briefly discussing
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    the
  • 00:00:48
    psychological obstacle that we have to
  • 00:00:51
    get past before we can hope to
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    succeed in this quest to become more
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    organized here is what I think the the
  • 00:01:00
    main problem is that people have is a
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    misperception about the
  • 00:01:04
    reality of their workload so I'm
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    actually again with great trepidation
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    going to draw a picture here for those
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    who are watching instead of just
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    listening um I want to draw a picture
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    about how most people think about their
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    workday this is just sort of implicitly
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    in their mind so we have here a a very
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    happy stick figure and he's sitting I
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    don't know he's sitting at his desk and
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    there we go you know you know he's
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    sitting here at his computer expertly
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    drawn so let's draw a little computer
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    here perfect perspective all right so
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    there he is happy at his computer uh
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    because in the in the world of the way
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    most people just sort of Imagine their
  • 00:01:44
    work is what's going on well there's uh
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    maybe a
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    couple couple phone messages to return I
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    have three little phone messages uh over
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    here and there's you know two projects
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    may choose one of these projects to make
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    prog ress on and there's like a few
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    phone messages that you might want to
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    return and in fact our our happy person
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    here I'm going to give them a a
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    notebook and in this notebook they they
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    with colored pencils kind of have this
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    like nice little plan for the day I'll
  • 00:02:14
    work on Project a and then return these
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    calls and go for a nice walk and then uh
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    take lunch like this is sort of the the
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    implicit assumption people have about
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    what their work life is like I have some
  • 00:02:26
    stuff I'm working on some things and I
  • 00:02:27
    have to get back to people
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    right what's the
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    reality well I'm going to draw a picture
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    of what I imagine uh this is what I
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    think the reality is for most
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    people so what I have
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    here
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    is our same person now very
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    unhappy
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    running uh as fast as he or she can
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    because there is a giant cloud of an
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    overwhelming quantity of projects and
  • 00:02:57
    requests and tasks and things that
  • 00:02:59
    people people need from them and it's
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    chasing him or her uh I'm going to say
  • 00:03:07
    we you know let's do for whatever reason
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    it's shooting lightning bolts at this
  • 00:03:14
    person huge Cloud chasing after the
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    running person there's lightning bolts
  • 00:03:19
    uh for some reason things are on fire
  • 00:03:21
    because I don't know that's kind of what
  • 00:03:22
    it feels like so there's this Flames
  • 00:03:24
    everywhere this is the
  • 00:03:27
    reality right what people think oh I Ed
  • 00:03:31
    my color pencil so that I can
  • 00:03:34
    differentiate my phone call from when I
  • 00:03:36
    work with a nice cup of te on Project a
  • 00:03:39
    reality running from fire as there's
  • 00:03:42
    this giant swarm chases after you firing
  • 00:03:44
    lightning bolts at you all right why is
  • 00:03:46
    it important that we have this
  • 00:03:48
    misconception is because um when you
  • 00:03:50
    think it works not so bad two things
  • 00:03:53
    happen
  • 00:03:54
    one you don't think you really need to
  • 00:03:57
    do much to get more organized like work
  • 00:03:58
    is not that hard
  • 00:04:00
    I just need to you know maybe draw out a
  • 00:04:02
    to-do list in a nice format uh be a
  • 00:04:05
    little bit careful or just buy like I
  • 00:04:07
    bought this nice this nice looking you
  • 00:04:09
    know Japanese paper planner online and
  • 00:04:11
    just we'll just we'll ride in it's going
  • 00:04:12
    to make our lives a little B easier you
  • 00:04:13
    don't you don't see the urgency of
  • 00:04:15
    actually taking major action the second
  • 00:04:17
    issue that's generated by this
  • 00:04:18
    misconception is that if you do begin
  • 00:04:21
    wandering towards some more systematic
  • 00:04:24
    organization it's you open the door to
  • 00:04:26
    this reality and my God it's so terrible
  • 00:04:29
    that you just slam that door shut and
  • 00:04:30
    say let's just let's just pretend that
  • 00:04:32
    doesn't exist denial I don't want to
  • 00:04:34
    confront the reality of how much stuff
  • 00:04:37
    is going on uh here's the thing though
  • 00:04:39
    and this is the first step of the five
  • 00:04:41
    steps I want to talk about today the
  • 00:04:43
    very first step on your very first day
  • 00:04:46
    of becoming organized is preparing
  • 00:04:48
    yourself to face this reality so it is a
  • 00:04:51
    psychological preparation step there is
  • 00:04:54
    a term of art that I used to use in the
  • 00:04:56
    early days of this show and that was
  • 00:04:57
    called facing the productivity
  • 00:05:01
    dragon and the the idea behind facing
  • 00:05:04
    the productivity dragon is that you
  • 00:05:06
    confront the reality of everything that
  • 00:05:08
    is on your plate even if it is
  • 00:05:10
    terrifying and overwhelming and shooting
  • 00:05:11
    lightning bolts at you and lighting the
  • 00:05:13
    world around you on fire it is better to
  • 00:05:15
    confront the reality than to pretend it
  • 00:05:17
    doesn't exist so step one is to prepare
  • 00:05:21
    to face this productivity
  • 00:05:24
    dragon now this is not a new idea if we
  • 00:05:28
    go back to the sort of OG of digital age
  • 00:05:30
    productivity that is David Allen he
  • 00:05:33
    wrote
  • 00:05:34
    about what was involved in trying to get
  • 00:05:37
    your arms around for the first time the
  • 00:05:40
    step of getting uh started on being
  • 00:05:42
    organized he wrote very clearly in his
  • 00:05:44
    2001 classic getting things done uh how
  • 00:05:47
    much is involved in taking that first
  • 00:05:50
    step from chaos towards calm I'm going
  • 00:05:52
    to reach you from chapter five of his
  • 00:05:53
    book here here's a short
  • 00:05:55
    excerpt just Gathering a few more things
  • 00:05:58
    than you currently have will proba
  • 00:05:59
    create positive feelings for you but if
  • 00:06:02
    you can hang in there and really do the
  • 00:06:03
    whole collection process 100% it will
  • 00:06:06
    change your experience dramatically and
  • 00:06:08
    give you an important new reference
  • 00:06:09
    point for being on top of your
  • 00:06:11
    work when I coach a client through this
  • 00:06:13
    process the collection phase usually
  • 00:06:15
    takes between 1 and six hours though it
  • 00:06:18
    did once take all of 20 hours with one
  • 00:06:22
    person all right so what Allan is
  • 00:06:24
    teaching us here is this very first step
  • 00:06:27
    of confronting the productivity Dragon
  • 00:06:29
    Tak time it takes hours because there is
  • 00:06:32
    more in there than you probably want to
  • 00:06:34
    admit so the concrete advice that comes
  • 00:06:37
    out of this first step is that you need
  • 00:06:38
    to put aside a full
  • 00:06:41
    day for this day right when I say what
  • 00:06:43
    do you do the first day of becoming more
  • 00:06:45
    organized I don't mean here's something
  • 00:06:46
    you can do for 30 minutes in the morning
  • 00:06:49
    and then you'll be more organized you
  • 00:06:50
    actually are going to need a full day to
  • 00:06:53
    do this right so you could take uh put
  • 00:06:55
    aside a day that was otherwise quiet or
  • 00:06:57
    put aside a weekend day or a vacation
  • 00:06:59
    day if you need to we have plenty of
  • 00:07:00
    those coming up but you need to prepare
  • 00:07:03
    yourself that you're going to need
  • 00:07:03
    something like a full day to actually
  • 00:07:05
    make the transition I'm going to talk
  • 00:07:07
    about right now from chaos to calm all
  • 00:07:10
    right step two let's get
  • 00:07:13
    technical you need to set up your first
  • 00:07:16
    storage system the place that is going
  • 00:07:19
    to gather and make sense of all of these
  • 00:07:22
    things that you actually have to do now
  • 00:07:25
    if you go back and read David Allen one
  • 00:07:26
    of the things you're going to notice is
  • 00:07:27
    that he relies a lot on a a uh embodied
  • 00:07:32
    physicality in the obligations in
  • 00:07:34
    people's lives so he sort of imagines
  • 00:07:36
    that many of the obligations in people's
  • 00:07:38
    lives have a physical embodiment there's
  • 00:07:40
    a receipt that has to be submitted
  • 00:07:42
    there's a phone slip for a call that has
  • 00:07:44
    to be returned there's a printed report
  • 00:07:47
    that was given to you that you have to
  • 00:07:48
    do your revisions on and so his process
  • 00:07:51
    of collection from getting things done
  • 00:07:52
    is all about having these physical
  • 00:07:54
    inboxes literal boxes and you're going
  • 00:07:57
    around your space and collecting these
  • 00:07:59
    artifacts and putting them into these
  • 00:08:01
    inboxes You're Building piles of your
  • 00:08:04
    stuff and for the small number of things
  • 00:08:06
    that don't actually exists in the real
  • 00:08:08
    world he says you write down a a pointer
  • 00:08:10
    to it and put that piece of paper in the
  • 00:08:12
    physical box so it's a very physical
  • 00:08:14
    process I'm going to suggest something
  • 00:08:16
    different I think the the difference
  • 00:08:18
    between the late 90s and early 2000s
  • 00:08:21
    when Allan was putting together this
  • 00:08:22
    methodology and now in the 2020s is that
  • 00:08:24
    the vast majority of professional
  • 00:08:27
    obligations in your life as a knowledge
  • 00:08:28
    worker are
  • 00:08:30
    digital very few of them are embodied
  • 00:08:32
    maybe you printed something but the
  • 00:08:33
    thing you printed has a digital
  • 00:08:36
    counterpart for which it began most
  • 00:08:38
    stuff is actually implicitly in an email
  • 00:08:41
    somewhere it's a request that was in a
  • 00:08:43
    slack it's a it's a an appointment
  • 00:08:45
    that's lurking on your digital calendar
  • 00:08:47
    for which work has to be done so to try
  • 00:08:50
    to translate now that the vast majority
  • 00:08:52
    of our obligations are digital to try to
  • 00:08:54
    somehow translate those into the
  • 00:08:55
    physical world the gather and back into
  • 00:08:57
    the digital would be inefficient so our
  • 00:08:59
    storage systems is going to we're going
  • 00:09:01
    to start digital and we're going to
  • 00:09:03
    remain digital all right so no physical
  • 00:09:06
    inboxes um what is going to be the
  • 00:09:09
    digital system in which we're going to
  • 00:09:11
    store everything it's going to require
  • 00:09:13
    three things a collection of
  • 00:09:16
    list the ability to rapidly add update
  • 00:09:19
    or move items between these list and the
  • 00:09:22
    ability to efficiently appin information
  • 00:09:25
    such as links or notes or texts copied
  • 00:09:27
    out of emails to individual items on
  • 00:09:29
    these list these are the three
  • 00:09:30
    capabilities we're going to need in our
  • 00:09:32
    storage system uh this clearly is going
  • 00:09:34
    to have to be digital you're not going
  • 00:09:36
    to be able to get all of those features
  • 00:09:38
    in a purely analog system that quickly
  • 00:09:40
    moving things with back and forth
  • 00:09:42
    appending information to things so we're
  • 00:09:44
    going to need a digital system here that
  • 00:09:45
    can satisfy those three things I'm going
  • 00:09:48
    to give you three options here from
  • 00:09:49
    simple to most complex the simplest way
  • 00:09:52
    to implement uh A system that has those
  • 00:09:54
    three properties would just be with word
  • 00:09:56
    processing or text files so just imagine
  • 00:09:59
    you have a text file you can just have a
  • 00:10:01
    bold header for each of the lists that
  • 00:10:03
    we're going to Define and then just
  • 00:10:05
    write below it separated by whitespace
  • 00:10:08
    different items of the list if you want
  • 00:10:10
    to append information to an item in this
  • 00:10:12
    particular implementation you can just
  • 00:10:14
    put a bullet point or a collection of
  • 00:10:16
    bullet points under the item and just
  • 00:10:17
    copy and paste whatever information you
  • 00:10:19
    need it doesn't have to be neat so you
  • 00:10:22
    could just get going with Microsoft Word
  • 00:10:24
    or Google Docs any number of online task
  • 00:10:27
    programs let you do this easily as well
  • 00:10:29
    a favorite of mine is work flowy all it
  • 00:10:32
    is is list that you can indent press
  • 00:10:35
    enter you get another item press tab it
  • 00:10:37
    uh indents over what's nice about this
  • 00:10:40
    is you can hide indentations so if you
  • 00:10:42
    have a bunch of things uh extra
  • 00:10:44
    information or a task you can click aign
  • 00:10:46
    to have it all collapse and then you can
  • 00:10:48
    just open it again um when you want that
  • 00:10:50
    information so for our three properties
  • 00:10:52
    text files will be fine next more
  • 00:10:54
    complicated solution for implementing
  • 00:10:56
    this system is going to be something
  • 00:10:58
    like Trello
  • 00:11:00
    this is what I use uh it's just very
  • 00:11:03
    well set up for what we're talking about
  • 00:11:04
    here your each list can be a column on a
  • 00:11:06
    Trello board each item can be a card on
  • 00:11:08
    a Trello board extra information can be
  • 00:11:10
    appended to the back of the cards and
  • 00:11:13
    the cards are easy to move back and
  • 00:11:14
    forth between different columns the more
  • 00:11:17
    advanced solution would be to build
  • 00:11:18
    something more custom perhaps using a
  • 00:11:21
    task view database system like notion I
  • 00:11:24
    would not start here for your very first
  • 00:11:27
    day becoming organized unless you're
  • 00:11:29
    already a pro at one of these systems
  • 00:11:31
    and it's as easy for you to put together
  • 00:11:32
    as it is for someone else to set up
  • 00:11:34
    WorkFlowy this is the type of thing you
  • 00:11:36
    can think about down the line once we've
  • 00:11:39
    made this initial leap from chaos to
  • 00:11:42
    control chaos to column down the line
  • 00:11:44
    you might think about if you're more
  • 00:11:45
    Tech oriented building a more advanced
  • 00:11:47
    system but I want it start
  • 00:11:49
    there okay so we now know what a system
  • 00:11:52
    broadly speaking needs these lists that
  • 00:11:54
    you can update and move stuff behind
  • 00:11:56
    between and appended information we know
  • 00:11:58
    what tech tools you can use to actually
  • 00:12:00
    store these list what are the actual
  • 00:12:03
    list we
  • 00:12:04
    need in our initial system uh I'm going
  • 00:12:08
    to suggest six for your starter system
  • 00:12:11
    again whether this is in docs Trello or
  • 00:12:13
    Doan
  • 00:12:16
    ready back
  • 00:12:18
    burner
  • 00:12:20
    waiting to
  • 00:12:22
    discuss
  • 00:12:24
    clarify and
  • 00:12:26
    scheduled so in fact I'll even write
  • 00:12:28
    these
  • 00:12:30
    on the screen so we can be uh on the
  • 00:12:32
    same page I want to talk a little bit
  • 00:12:34
    about each of
  • 00:12:38
    these I always try to type on here Jesse
  • 00:12:40
    but it always just creates makes the
  • 00:12:42
    world just fall apart by the way see
  • 00:12:45
    that issue with the trying to type on
  • 00:12:46
    here that's why I had to stop using this
  • 00:12:48
    in my classroom when you're in
  • 00:12:49
    projection or screen sharing mode in
  • 00:12:52
    notability the uh the text does the
  • 00:12:54
    typing doesn't work very well all right
  • 00:12:55
    I can just write though I got beautiful
  • 00:12:56
    handwriting all right so what are these
  • 00:12:58
    things ready was number one what we mean
  • 00:13:00
    by ready is going to be uh think of it
  • 00:13:03
    as like ready for action these are
  • 00:13:05
    things uh items that were that need to
  • 00:13:07
    be worked on as soon as we can get to
  • 00:13:08
    them I typically think about something
  • 00:13:10
    under a ready list as something that I
  • 00:13:12
    want to try to complete in the given
  • 00:13:14
    week different people do that slightly
  • 00:13:16
    different
  • 00:13:17
    ways next we had back
  • 00:13:20
    burner these are things they need to get
  • 00:13:23
    done you've committed to them but you're
  • 00:13:25
    not working on them right now so we have
  • 00:13:28
    on the back burner
  • 00:13:29
    so we're not going to forget about them
  • 00:13:31
    we have a place and you know here it is
  • 00:13:33
    on this list if we get more information
  • 00:13:35
    about this thing that we've committed to
  • 00:13:37
    but not coming up yet we have a place to
  • 00:13:39
    put that information someone emails us
  • 00:13:41
    more details about the workshop we've
  • 00:13:44
    agreed to set up and we're not really
  • 00:13:45
    working on that yet we can copy that
  • 00:13:47
    text from the email and put it on the
  • 00:13:48
    back of this Trello card or indentation
  • 00:13:50
    under this item so that's what's going
  • 00:13:51
    on the back
  • 00:13:53
    burner
  • 00:13:55
    waiting this is critical I think this is
  • 00:13:57
    the most important type of list that
  • 00:13:59
    people uh do not typically keep this is
  • 00:14:03
    things that you are waiting to hear back
  • 00:14:05
    about all right so this is I'm working
  • 00:14:07
    on this
  • 00:14:08
    Workshop uh I sent an email to the
  • 00:14:11
    administrator about trying to get a room
  • 00:14:13
    reservation I am waiting to hear back
  • 00:14:15
    from that person about whether or not we
  • 00:14:17
    can get that room that item can be now
  • 00:14:19
    under the waiting list so it's waiting
  • 00:14:21
    as in waiting to hear
  • 00:14:24
    back other critical list that most
  • 00:14:27
    people don't use in their systems but is
  • 00:14:30
    very efficient is to
  • 00:14:33
    discuss so it's where you keep track of
  • 00:14:35
    things where I'm going to be meeting
  • 00:14:37
    with this person or team at some point
  • 00:14:39
    in the near future what do I want to
  • 00:14:42
    discuss with them at that next meeting
  • 00:14:44
    now you have two options here you can
  • 00:14:47
    just have one list to discuss and every
  • 00:14:50
    item on it the very first thing in the
  • 00:14:51
    title of the item in bold is you know to
  • 00:14:54
    discuss with Jesse so like you can just
  • 00:14:57
    you can clarify for each item who is
  • 00:14:59
    this for so it's for people or teams you
  • 00:15:01
    meet with on a regular basis and the
  • 00:15:02
    idea here is if you if you have things
  • 00:15:04
    you need more information on instead of
  • 00:15:05
    just throwing an email into The Ether
  • 00:15:07
    you can kind of collect list of okay
  • 00:15:08
    next time I talk to Jesse I have four
  • 00:15:10
    things on here to go through um if
  • 00:15:12
    there's people you have a lot of things
  • 00:15:13
    to discuss things with and you talk to
  • 00:15:15
    them on a regular basis they can get
  • 00:15:17
    their own to discuss list you might have
  • 00:15:19
    multiple to discuss lists with team with
  • 00:15:22
    boss with department chair that's fine
  • 00:15:24
    as well
  • 00:15:27
    clarify these are
  • 00:15:29
    placeholders all right I have this
  • 00:15:31
    obligation something I'm supposed to do
  • 00:15:33
    something about this I don't yet know
  • 00:15:36
    what that means in other words like I
  • 00:15:37
    don't know what I should do right now to
  • 00:15:40
    make progress on this thing I just know
  • 00:15:42
    I'm committed to it I need to think
  • 00:15:43
    through or learn more about what this
  • 00:15:45
    actually means you know I said uh yeah
  • 00:15:47
    yeah yeah I'll handle the secret Santa
  • 00:15:49
    in the office this week or or this month
  • 00:15:52
    and I don't I don't really know what
  • 00:15:53
    that means like I don't know how that
  • 00:15:55
    works or what I need to do but I just
  • 00:15:56
    committed to it I don't want to forget
  • 00:15:57
    it it can go to the clarify list so it
  • 00:15:59
    means this is an obligation that is
  • 00:16:01
    pending more clarification on what it
  • 00:16:03
    actually is going to require us to do so
  • 00:16:05
    we have a place for it and then
  • 00:16:09
    scheduled so if there's a uh non-simple
  • 00:16:13
    task that is scheduled on your calendar
  • 00:16:16
    so it's a task that requires some
  • 00:16:17
    explanation or maybe has some
  • 00:16:19
    information that gets appended to it
  • 00:16:21
    here's what people emailed me here's the
  • 00:16:23
    list of steps I need to do on this I'm
  • 00:16:25
    supposed to file this report I put aside
  • 00:16:27
    time to do this on Friday morning but
  • 00:16:29
    here's the step someone told me about
  • 00:16:30
    how to do this or how to submit it this
  • 00:16:33
    gives you a place for that item to live
  • 00:16:35
    in your system so all that information
  • 00:16:36
    can live somewhere so a a uh item under
  • 00:16:40
    scheduled is also on your calendar
  • 00:16:43
    somewhere but the item on your list can
  • 00:16:45
    hold all the extra information you need
  • 00:16:47
    not everything on your calendar needs to
  • 00:16:49
    be under the scheduled item you don't
  • 00:16:51
    need appointments for the most part
  • 00:16:52
    under there you don't need uh small
  • 00:16:54
    things under there you know pick up
  • 00:16:56
    whatever some someone from the Train
  • 00:16:59
    station you know you probably don't need
  • 00:17:01
    uh an item there but if it's complex
  • 00:17:03
    there's information you need to remember
  • 00:17:05
    about it then you can live there uh
  • 00:17:08
    under the schedule item all right so you
  • 00:17:10
    have six
  • 00:17:11
    list and that's your initial collection
  • 00:17:13
    system so we've set up six list in some
  • 00:17:16
    sort of digital system all right step
  • 00:17:18
    three here's the facing the productivity
  • 00:17:20
    Dragon part made real dump
  • 00:17:24
    everything on your mind in your inbox in
  • 00:17:28
    the everything that you are obligated to
  • 00:17:30
    do gets on these lists all right so what
  • 00:17:33
    does this mean uh everything you can
  • 00:17:36
    think of so just start like what can I
  • 00:17:38
    think of that I'm I'm supposed to be
  • 00:17:40
    working on or I should be doing uh maybe
  • 00:17:42
    I told someone I would do it or I've
  • 00:17:44
    just been thinking to myself this is
  • 00:17:45
    something I should I should make
  • 00:17:46
    progress on I should update the website
  • 00:17:48
    get everything you can out of your head
  • 00:17:50
    get it onto an item in these list go
  • 00:17:54
    through your inbox and process every
  • 00:17:57
    single email
  • 00:17:59
    get the inbox
  • 00:18:01
    empty this doesn't mean reply to every
  • 00:18:03
    email this doesn't mean take care of
  • 00:18:05
    every email you're translating these
  • 00:18:08
    emails into task items that go into your
  • 00:18:10
    system so for this initial collection
  • 00:18:12
    phase you want to clear everything out
  • 00:18:13
    of your inbox and it might mean you you
  • 00:18:16
    know you might have things showing up on
  • 00:18:18
    your list it's just like reply to uh
  • 00:18:21
    send Jesse the information you know he
  • 00:18:23
    requested about um skeleton
  • 00:18:26
    manufacturing right like just whatever
  • 00:18:28
    it is you're you're just translating
  • 00:18:30
    emails and items on this list but you're
  • 00:18:31
    you're you are uh denying your email
  • 00:18:34
    inbox to be a secondary test management
  • 00:18:37
    system at this point you're putting all
  • 00:18:39
    your faith into this collection system
  • 00:18:41
    look through your calendar they
  • 00:18:43
    complicated things on there reminders
  • 00:18:45
    that should be translated in the tasks
  • 00:18:46
    that are on this list then go back and
  • 00:18:48
    think some more about what else am I
  • 00:18:49
    forgetting what else is just in my head
  • 00:18:51
    let me give you a couple Advanced tips
  • 00:18:53
    for going through this collection
  • 00:18:55
    process number one it does help
  • 00:18:57
    sometimes to use a working m .txt file
  • 00:19:00
    as an intermediary in this process so
  • 00:19:02
    just have a plain unformatted text file
  • 00:19:05
    on your computer as you're going through
  • 00:19:07
    one of these categories you can just
  • 00:19:09
    dump things into that text file and then
  • 00:19:11
    go from that text file into your
  • 00:19:14
    system it helps right it it it feels
  • 00:19:17
    like this is an extra step but it
  • 00:19:19
    actually helps especially if you're
  • 00:19:20
    cleaning out an inbox because you can
  • 00:19:23
    type really quickly into a text file and
  • 00:19:25
    you don't have to be organized or really
  • 00:19:26
    think it through like reply to Jesse
  • 00:19:28
    about this this uh send back dates to so
  • 00:19:30
    and so you can just type really really
  • 00:19:32
    fast and just fill in this text file
  • 00:19:34
    really fast I call it working memory.
  • 00:19:36
    txt because this text file is like an
  • 00:19:38
    extension of your working memory our
  • 00:19:39
    brain can hold five or six things at a
  • 00:19:41
    time with a a working memory. txt file
  • 00:19:45
    you can have 20 or 30 things it's like
  • 00:19:46
    you're extending your working memory and
  • 00:19:48
    then you go from that text file into
  • 00:19:50
    your system it takes a little bit more
  • 00:19:51
    time to put things into your system you
  • 00:19:53
    have to choose the list you have to
  • 00:19:54
    create the card or do the font
  • 00:19:57
    formatting if you're using something
  • 00:19:58
    like
  • 00:19:59
    Microsoft Word more importantly as you
  • 00:20:02
    go from this very fast to fill in plain
  • 00:20:04
    text file to your system you see things
  • 00:20:07
    to consolidate or to
  • 00:20:09
    simplify H actually I don't really need
  • 00:20:11
    to respond to these people or now that I
  • 00:20:13
    look at this I have eight different
  • 00:20:15
    emails on here from Jesse about
  • 00:20:18
    merchandising Jesse skeleton I could
  • 00:20:20
    just combine this into one item on my
  • 00:20:24
    list which is you know setup
  • 00:20:27
    intervention to talk to Jesse about his
  • 00:20:29
    obsession with Jesse skeleton right so
  • 00:20:31
    you you actually get some uh on the-fly
  • 00:20:33
    organization and consolidation
  • 00:20:35
    simplification as you go to this
  • 00:20:37
    extended working memory and then into
  • 00:20:39
    your system Advance tip number two when
  • 00:20:42
    you're going through this initial
  • 00:20:43
    dumping of everything in your life into
  • 00:20:45
    this system lean heavily into the
  • 00:20:47
    clarify list don't try to work
  • 00:20:50
    everything out during this process
  • 00:20:52
    there's too many things don't try for
  • 00:20:54
    everything you come up with like well
  • 00:20:56
    what what's going on with this project
  • 00:20:58
    well let me follow up with so and so
  • 00:21:00
    about this and and let me go let me look
  • 00:21:03
    at this a little bit and when might I be
  • 00:21:04
    able to do this you don't have the time
  • 00:21:05
    or energy to actually clarify all of the
  • 00:21:08
    ambiguous obligations that are on your
  • 00:21:10
    plate right now we're just trying to get
  • 00:21:11
    everything into our system so at first
  • 00:21:14
    your clarify list might be really long
  • 00:21:16
    you just don't want to forget it so you
  • 00:21:19
    just have you know Workshop plan like
  • 00:21:21
    God I don't even know what that means
  • 00:21:22
    but I'm not forgetting it I let me just
  • 00:21:23
    throw it in the clarify list for now
  • 00:21:25
    we'll deal with this in the next step so
  • 00:21:26
    don't worry about that uh the key rule
  • 00:21:29
    to maintain as you're initially
  • 00:21:31
    populating your list in your system and
  • 00:21:33
    this is the rule that you should
  • 00:21:34
    maintain going forward is that every
  • 00:21:37
    obligation gets one item in the system
  • 00:21:41
    it can move between list it cannot exist
  • 00:21:43
    on multiple lists you do not have Okay
  • 00:21:46
    under
  • 00:21:48
    ready Workshop you know next steps for
  • 00:21:51
    this Workshop project and then if that
  • 00:21:52
    generates an email to an administrator
  • 00:21:54
    you don't keep that item under the ready
  • 00:21:56
    list and add a new item to the waiting
  • 00:21:58
    to hear back list you move that full
  • 00:22:01
    item over to the ready to waiting to
  • 00:22:03
    hear back from list and just update the
  • 00:22:04
    status up top I'm waiting to hear back
  • 00:22:06
    from so and so about this all of the
  • 00:22:08
    information about a given obligation
  • 00:22:11
    lives in the system but it moves around
  • 00:22:14
    to what is the status of this obligation
  • 00:22:16
    right now so think about these list as
  • 00:22:19
    the statuses of various
  • 00:22:21
    obligations um if you are actually
  • 00:22:23
    building a notion based system to keep
  • 00:22:26
    track of this stuff this would be a lot
  • 00:22:27
    more explicit because it's these are
  • 00:22:29
    database entries that can have a single
  • 00:22:31
    status it's here then it's there then
  • 00:22:33
    it's here so everything just lives in
  • 00:22:36
    one
  • 00:22:37
    place all right this will take a
  • 00:22:40
    while one to three hours probably so
  • 00:22:43
    we've really spent a lot of our day here
  • 00:22:45
    uh getting everything into this list but
  • 00:22:47
    now symbolically when you're done
  • 00:22:49
    everything is captured your inbox is
  • 00:22:51
    empty there's nothing in your head
  • 00:22:53
    there's nothing just sitting there in
  • 00:22:54
    your calendar you don't know what it
  • 00:22:55
    means it's all in this one place this
  • 00:22:57
    collection of list this system of yours
  • 00:23:00
    that brings us to step four to do your
  • 00:23:04
    initial
  • 00:23:06
    configuring moving forward configuration
  • 00:23:09
    of your list of your system is something
  • 00:23:11
    you're going to do on a semi-regular
  • 00:23:12
    basis we'll get to that soon but we're
  • 00:23:14
    going to do our very first configuration
  • 00:23:16
    step during this very first day that
  • 00:23:18
    you're making your leap from chaos to
  • 00:23:21
    calm this is a big thing that was always
  • 00:23:23
    missing from David Allen's methodology
  • 00:23:25
    but I think is really important this is
  • 00:23:27
    where you make sense of all of the
  • 00:23:28
    things in your system and you clarify
  • 00:23:31
    and optimize remove redundancies it's
  • 00:23:33
    where you you you sit and move and work
  • 00:23:35
    around and make more sense of this huge
  • 00:23:38
    mess of stuff that's on your plate so
  • 00:23:41
    this means a few things one start going
  • 00:23:44
    through your clarifying uh the items
  • 00:23:46
    under the clarify list and try to
  • 00:23:47
    clarify as many as you
  • 00:23:49
    can the stuff that's not particularly
  • 00:23:52
    urgent you can skip for now but the
  • 00:23:53
    things you you you think like I need to
  • 00:23:55
    do something about this try now you can
  • 00:23:57
    clarify it
  • 00:23:59
    so you don't want to clarify as you're
  • 00:24:00
    filling in your list and doing your
  • 00:24:02
    dumping of everything in your life
  • 00:24:03
    because that's too much friction but now
  • 00:24:05
    that you've done that now we can focus
  • 00:24:06
    just on moving through this clarify list
  • 00:24:08
    and see what are the things that really
  • 00:24:10
    I I should be making progress on and
  • 00:24:12
    start doing the clarification now this
  • 00:24:13
    might mean you just guard it I don't
  • 00:24:15
    really need to do this or it might mean
  • 00:24:17
    you're sending a clarification email
  • 00:24:19
    this is often the case with stuff that
  • 00:24:21
    ends up on clarifying when you go
  • 00:24:22
    through a configuration step often the
  • 00:24:24
    reaction is I got to write to someone to
  • 00:24:27
    say what the hell is this me like how do
  • 00:24:29
    I set up the Secret Santa you did it
  • 00:24:31
    last year can you tell me about it
  • 00:24:33
    that's fine so those things just get
  • 00:24:34
    moved over to the waiting to hear back
  • 00:24:36
    from
  • 00:24:37
    list other things it might be obvious ah
  • 00:24:39
    now that I think about it what I need to
  • 00:24:40
    do is set up a meeting with my team and
  • 00:24:42
    we need to make a plan um so either I
  • 00:24:45
    can send that doodle pool now to do that
  • 00:24:49
    or move this over to the ready list and
  • 00:24:52
    change the actual description of the
  • 00:24:53
    item to uh setup meeting with Team to
  • 00:24:57
    discuss this project at all the
  • 00:24:58
    information about is attached to this
  • 00:25:00
    card uh this is what I mean by clarify
  • 00:25:04
    so it's moving things off of that
  • 00:25:05
    clarify list to where they should go
  • 00:25:08
    this is also a good time to Triage go
  • 00:25:11
    through and triage the back
  • 00:25:13
    burner H do I really need to do this I I
  • 00:25:16
    I was excited about this but I'm
  • 00:25:18
    thinking now I don't need to do that
  • 00:25:19
    right so you can kind of go through like
  • 00:25:21
    what's on the back burner let me triage
  • 00:25:22
    things out of this what do I really want
  • 00:25:24
    to stick with this is where you might
  • 00:25:26
    send some sorry triage messages hey you
  • 00:25:29
    know sorry I know I said before like I
  • 00:25:31
    was uh I could help you with this but
  • 00:25:33
    actually I think my schedule's too
  • 00:25:34
    crowded that creates like 7 Seconds of
  • 00:25:37
    annoyance on the recipient in but for
  • 00:25:39
    the sender that email it can create
  • 00:25:40
    seven hours of Freedom so those are very
  • 00:25:43
    powerful whenever I get those type of
  • 00:25:45
    messages from someone uh not right
  • 00:25:47
    before something is due or after it's
  • 00:25:49
    due hey I didn't do this I can't really
  • 00:25:50
    get to this but like three weeks in
  • 00:25:52
    advance hey you know how I said we
  • 00:25:53
    should record this thing uh I honestly
  • 00:25:56
    like I don't I I was misreading my
  • 00:25:57
    schedule this is probably not the right
  • 00:25:59
    time for it I know that's someone who
  • 00:26:00
    has their act together that's someone
  • 00:26:03
    who's looking and configuring their
  • 00:26:05
    whole schedule and seeing what makes
  • 00:26:06
    sense and what doesn't you'll actually
  • 00:26:08
    earn respect if in advance you're
  • 00:26:10
    stepping back from things now if you
  • 00:26:12
    wait till it's due and just don't do it
  • 00:26:13
    and then step back that's a different
  • 00:26:15
    thing than you look out of control uh
  • 00:26:17
    another part of configuring is adding
  • 00:26:18
    things to calendars that need to be on
  • 00:26:20
    calendars okay this is pretty urgent let
  • 00:26:22
    me find time for this and get that on my
  • 00:26:24
    calendar and if there's information
  • 00:26:26
    associated with this task I'll move this
  • 00:26:27
    over to scheduled if it's a one-time
  • 00:26:30
    thing like set up doc dentist
  • 00:26:31
    appointment and I get it on my calendar
  • 00:26:32
    then you know I just delete the item
  • 00:26:34
    from my list I don't need it there um
  • 00:26:36
    it's also a good time and this is a
  • 00:26:38
    advanced tip to look for batching
  • 00:26:42
    opportunities I have this this this and
  • 00:26:44
    this all of these things I could really
  • 00:26:46
    make progress on if I talked to Jesse
  • 00:26:49
    about them so what I really want to do
  • 00:26:51
    is take all of these five things and put
  • 00:26:53
    them all on the back of my Trello card
  • 00:26:55
    for the item of setup meeting with
  • 00:26:59
    Jesse to discuss many things and you
  • 00:27:01
    kind of have these things um below and
  • 00:27:04
    then I send the email to Jesse saying
  • 00:27:06
    let's do this meeting and that whole
  • 00:27:07
    card gets moved they waiting to hear
  • 00:27:08
    back from or i' like oh we we meet every
  • 00:27:11
    week when we record our podcast so let
  • 00:27:13
    me batch a bunch of these things and put
  • 00:27:15
    it under the to discuss list Jesse's to
  • 00:27:17
    discuss list right so it's in this
  • 00:27:19
    configuring step you get all these great
  • 00:27:20
    batching opportunities let's wait to do
  • 00:27:23
    this here let's do all these things at
  • 00:27:24
    the same time let's uh I'm going into
  • 00:27:27
    work on Friday and so like let's put
  • 00:27:28
    aside a big group of time and we're
  • 00:27:30
    going to like squash through 20 things
  • 00:27:31
    that need to get done this is really
  • 00:27:34
    productivity ninja stuff when you begin
  • 00:27:36
    to do these batching opportunities
  • 00:27:39
    something that really doesn't happen
  • 00:27:40
    when you're just reactive and chaotic oh
  • 00:27:42
    my God what do I need to do next my
  • 00:27:44
    inbox is on fire oh my God this thing is
  • 00:27:46
    due you're never going to see those type
  • 00:27:47
    of
  • 00:27:49
    opportunities all right so at this point
  • 00:27:51
    you have your system fully set up we're
  • 00:27:53
    about four or five hours into your first
  • 00:27:55
    day of trying to be more organized and
  • 00:27:57
    you have everything thing in a
  • 00:27:59
    intelligently designed digital system in
  • 00:28:01
    these six optimal list and you've done
  • 00:28:04
    your initial configuring so stuff that's
  • 00:28:06
    important has been clarified you've bat
  • 00:28:08
    stuff you removed stuff you've moved
  • 00:28:09
    things where it needs to go some things
  • 00:28:10
    are on the calendar so you kind of have
  • 00:28:12
    your arms around what's on your plate
  • 00:28:16
    the fifth and final step is how do we
  • 00:28:17
    then make the use of this system
  • 00:28:21
    stick if you stop trusting this
  • 00:28:25
    system it will fall apart if you find
  • 00:28:28
    yourself unwilling for example to move
  • 00:28:31
    something out of your inbox and onto an
  • 00:28:33
    item in these lists that means you don't
  • 00:28:35
    trust yourself for this system it means
  • 00:28:36
    you say I know I'll check my inbox
  • 00:28:39
    because I get yelled at if I don't I
  • 00:28:40
    don't trust myself to look at this
  • 00:28:41
    system so let me just keep this in here
  • 00:28:43
    if you're writing notes to yourself
  • 00:28:45
    you're not trusting your system so how
  • 00:28:46
    do we actually get your uh get you into
  • 00:28:48
    the habit now of actually making the
  • 00:28:50
    system part of your workflow well I'm
  • 00:28:53
    going to suggest two things you do daily
  • 00:28:55
    and one thing you do weekly for the next
  • 00:28:56
    four weeks after this very first day of
  • 00:28:59
    getting
  • 00:28:59
    organized so the first daily thing
  • 00:29:02
    review this system every morning when
  • 00:29:04
    you look at your calendar use it to help
  • 00:29:06
    make your plan for the
  • 00:29:08
    day I won't even get into now how you're
  • 00:29:10
    making your plan for the day this is
  • 00:29:12
    more advanced stuff but however you make
  • 00:29:13
    your plan for the day and you know again
  • 00:29:15
    you the brightly colored pencils on your
  • 00:29:17
    fancy planner or you just dot jotting
  • 00:29:20
    stuff down on a text file I don't care
  • 00:29:21
    for now I look at my my system every day
  • 00:29:24
    before I make this plan I see what's on
  • 00:29:26
    that ready list I remind myself who am I
  • 00:29:28
    waiting to hear back from I remind
  • 00:29:30
    myself on the two discuss list hey do I
  • 00:29:32
    have a meeting coming up today that I
  • 00:29:34
    need to uh discuss things on a two
  • 00:29:36
    discuss list we're talking five minutes
  • 00:29:39
    but you see it all you see the mess of
  • 00:29:42
    stuff and clarify that you haven't got
  • 00:29:43
    to you see the big back burner you see
  • 00:29:47
    everything number two at the end of
  • 00:29:49
    every day when you're finishing and
  • 00:29:52
    shutting down your work you have to go
  • 00:29:54
    back and review the system again here
  • 00:29:56
    the goal is to make sure that anything
  • 00:29:57
    that is floating gets nailed down back
  • 00:30:00
    into the
  • 00:30:01
    system oh yeah you know I said in this
  • 00:30:03
    meeting I would do this let me make sure
  • 00:30:05
    that's written down in my
  • 00:30:06
    system uh this thing came in this
  • 00:30:09
    request in a slack let me get that into
  • 00:30:12
    my system you're you're you're closing
  • 00:30:13
    the Loops making sure that there's
  • 00:30:15
    nothing just in your
  • 00:30:17
    head should you at this point empty
  • 00:30:19
    everything in your inbox into your
  • 00:30:21
    system like we did on the day one it's
  • 00:30:23
    probably not practical because it just
  • 00:30:25
    say too timec consuming you might not
  • 00:30:26
    always have that time so let's put sa
  • 00:30:28
    side for now but otherwise anything else
  • 00:30:30
    that's loose or urgent you want it in
  • 00:30:32
    your system you look at your system make
  • 00:30:34
    sure there's no obvious changes or
  • 00:30:36
    updates to do um typically if the day
  • 00:30:38
    moves fast there's updates you need to
  • 00:30:39
    make to your system you haven't gotten
  • 00:30:41
    around to oh I sent that email about
  • 00:30:43
    this I need to move that over to waiting
  • 00:30:45
    to hear back or I heard back from this
  • 00:30:46
    thing so I need to move this back from
  • 00:30:48
    waiting to hear back to over here and
  • 00:30:50
    then copying what I heard about it so
  • 00:30:52
    it's just do that final cleanup so your
  • 00:30:53
    system everything is back in it and the
  • 00:30:55
    system is up to date do that every day
  • 00:30:58
    first four
  • 00:30:59
    weeks the weekly thing I want you to do
  • 00:31:02
    for the first four weeks is return to
  • 00:31:04
    that step four configure Step At the
  • 00:31:07
    beginning of each week for the next four
  • 00:31:09
    weeks do it Monday morning you can do it
  • 00:31:11
    Sunday some people do it at the end of
  • 00:31:13
    the day Friday so they can go into their
  • 00:31:14
    weekend less stressed I don't care when
  • 00:31:17
    you do it but go back and do something
  • 00:31:19
    like that configure step which you
  • 00:31:20
    remember me you're going through the
  • 00:31:21
    clarify items and trying to like okay
  • 00:31:23
    which ones can I actually make progress
  • 00:31:24
    on you're triaging you're batching
  • 00:31:27
    you're moving things you're calendar are
  • 00:31:28
    off this is like a 30 minute process of
  • 00:31:30
    just getting the system uh fully up to
  • 00:31:33
    speed critically when you do that
  • 00:31:34
    configure process this is a time to
  • 00:31:36
    return to your inbox and empty it that's
  • 00:31:39
    why it's good to do on the weekend or
  • 00:31:40
    before the week really gets going the
  • 00:31:42
    stuff that's piled up to my inbox that I
  • 00:31:44
    didn't really have time during the days
  • 00:31:46
    or my my daily reviews to get to I want
  • 00:31:48
    to get that back down the zero and
  • 00:31:49
    everything back into my system so it's a
  • 00:31:51
    more thorough configuring than what
  • 00:31:53
    you're doing at the end of each day so
  • 00:31:55
    the book has four myths of attention
  • 00:31:58
    span so four things that we think is
  • 00:32:00
    true about attention but are not that's
  • 00:32:03
    what Jason's asking about so let's go
  • 00:32:05
    through these one by one and then I'll
  • 00:32:07
    tell you whether or not I agree or not
  • 00:32:09
    that this is a myth all right glorious
  • 00:32:12
    first myth we should always strive to be
  • 00:32:15
    focused and should feel guilty if we
  • 00:32:17
    can't or can't
  • 00:32:19
    be yeah I completely agree with that
  • 00:32:21
    that's a myth to strive to always be
  • 00:32:25
    focused uh is absurd
  • 00:32:28
    it's like talking to someone who wants
  • 00:32:30
    to get stronger or an athlete and be
  • 00:32:32
    like you should strive to always have
  • 00:32:35
    your muscles like in a state of
  • 00:32:37
    loadbearing
  • 00:32:38
    strain that's crazy right there's only
  • 00:32:40
    so much loadbearing strain you can do
  • 00:32:43
    like modern bodybuilding Orthodoxy says
  • 00:32:45
    really you want to have 8 to 10 sets per
  • 00:32:48
    week per muscle group right like
  • 00:32:49
    otherwise it's overload so just because
  • 00:32:52
    you need to know how to put hard strain
  • 00:32:54
    on your muscle and do it on a regular
  • 00:32:56
    basis to get stronger
  • 00:32:58
    it is obviously a reducto ad absurdum to
  • 00:33:01
    then say therefore it is good to always
  • 00:33:03
    have your muscles under strain same
  • 00:33:05
    thing with attention focus is important
  • 00:33:07
    you need the focus to produce things of
  • 00:33:09
    True Value using your brain but to then
  • 00:33:13
    extrapolate from that to say you should
  • 00:33:15
    always be in a state of focus is absurd
  • 00:33:16
    because that's impossible so I agree
  • 00:33:18
    that's definitely a myth all right
  • 00:33:20
    Gloria second myth mindless activity
  • 00:33:24
    that we do on our computers and phones
  • 00:33:26
    is wasteful our
  • 00:33:28
    time now I agree here as well I'm going
  • 00:33:31
    to draw from my book digital minimalism
  • 00:33:33
    to tell you what I believe so the whole
  • 00:33:35
    premise of that book like why did I
  • 00:33:38
    write that book not because I believed
  • 00:33:41
    there is some intrinsic evil in
  • 00:33:44
    particular
  • 00:33:45
    activities but because my readers and
  • 00:33:47
    listeners were reporting to me I am
  • 00:33:50
    spending more time on these activities
  • 00:33:52
    that I know is useful or
  • 00:33:56
    healthy this is when
  • 00:33:58
    distractions become a
  • 00:34:00
    problem when you know they are keeping
  • 00:34:02
    you away from things that are more
  • 00:34:03
    important that they are lowering the
  • 00:34:05
    quality of your life that's when you say
  • 00:34:07
    this is a problem and that was the
  • 00:34:09
    problem people began feeling around 2016
  • 00:34:11
    2017 this Tipping Point where more and
  • 00:34:14
    more people who bought their iPhone in
  • 00:34:16
    2010 because they saw the Steve Jobs
  • 00:34:18
    speech about having your iPod and your
  • 00:34:20
    phone combined like that's
  • 00:34:22
    awesome woke up 7 years later and said I
  • 00:34:25
    Chuck this 150 times a day I'm not
  • 00:34:26
    paying attention to my kids I'm not
  • 00:34:28
    socializing anymore I feel strung out
  • 00:34:31
    and anxious I'm not doing the activities
  • 00:34:32
    that used to matter that's the
  • 00:34:35
    problem so there's nothing intrinsic
  • 00:34:38
    this is evil to look at it it's I can't
  • 00:34:40
    help but look at this when I'm trying to
  • 00:34:42
    do bath time with my kids that's when it
  • 00:34:44
    becomes a
  • 00:34:45
    problem good analogy here would be
  • 00:34:47
    something like alcohol right same thing
  • 00:34:50
    it's not hey you should never touch
  • 00:34:51
    alcohol that's bad but what's the cliche
  • 00:34:54
    about it when does it become a problem
  • 00:34:56
    when it's messing up your life and I
  • 00:34:58
    think that's what happened for a lot of
  • 00:34:59
    people with their relationship with
  • 00:35:01
    their phone so yes you want to measure
  • 00:35:04
    technology from your values is it
  • 00:35:06
    helping or preventing me from doing the
  • 00:35:08
    things I care about so it's perfectly
  • 00:35:10
    fine to have perfectly distracting
  • 00:35:13
    lowquality things in your life as long
  • 00:35:15
    as it's not having a footprint that
  • 00:35:17
    keeps you away from things the things
  • 00:35:18
    that you value problem is for a lot of
  • 00:35:20
    people they do and then the real problem
  • 00:35:22
    becomes when we look at kids because
  • 00:35:25
    they can't help it I'm yet the find a
  • 00:35:28
    13-year-old who you give unrestricted
  • 00:35:30
    access to the internet with on their
  • 00:35:31
    phone and they're like yeah use this a
  • 00:35:33
    little bit you know I want to go outside
  • 00:35:36
    and play nah you're a kid that thing is
  • 00:35:39
    going to brain warm in a so we got it
  • 00:35:41
    there we have to have some more
  • 00:35:42
    protection all right but so far I'm on
  • 00:35:43
    I'm on track here with Gloria all right
  • 00:35:46
    myth number
  • 00:35:47
    three the inability to focus on our
  • 00:35:50
    devices are due primarily to
  • 00:35:52
    notifications and our lack of
  • 00:35:55
    discipline that's an interesting one uh
  • 00:35:58
    I agree with the notifications piece
  • 00:36:00
    that's like 2003 thinking notifications
  • 00:36:04
    are the problem uh I get the
  • 00:36:07
    notification uh that I have a new email
  • 00:36:09
    and that's the problem and if I just
  • 00:36:11
    turn off my notifications I'll be fine
  • 00:36:13
    no um that's
  • 00:36:15
    crazy we come back to these things again
  • 00:36:17
    and again not because we were notified
  • 00:36:20
    but because what they're offering us
  • 00:36:22
    whether we were notified or not and it
  • 00:36:24
    is a complicated
  • 00:36:25
    picture when it comes to work
  • 00:36:28
    you can turn off your email
  • 00:36:29
    notifications but you're still going to
  • 00:36:30
    check that inbox once every six minutes
  • 00:36:32
    why because of the hyperactive hive mind
  • 00:36:35
    mode of collaboration this is the core
  • 00:36:37
    of my book a worlded without email we
  • 00:36:39
    work out so much of our collaboration
  • 00:36:41
    through asynchronous back and forth
  • 00:36:43
    messaging these conversations required
  • 00:36:45
    many back and forth messages they're
  • 00:36:48
    timely so now I have to keep checking my
  • 00:36:50
    inbox so that I can see your most recent
  • 00:36:53
    message and bounce it back to you so you
  • 00:36:54
    can bounce it back to me and I can
  • 00:36:55
    bounce it back to you we get answer
  • 00:36:57
    before lunch
  • 00:36:58
    time so we check our work email all the
  • 00:37:00
    time in this example not because of
  • 00:37:02
    notifications but because we have a
  • 00:37:03
    collaboration method that requires us to
  • 00:37:05
    constantly check this work email because
  • 00:37:07
    that's how we keep these asynchronous
  • 00:37:08
    conversations going on our phones it's
  • 00:37:11
    more
  • 00:37:12
    complicated I don't go back to Twitter
  • 00:37:15
    compulsively if I have a problem with
  • 00:37:16
    Twitter because of
  • 00:37:18
    notification but because of what it
  • 00:37:20
    gives me it presses these emotional
  • 00:37:23
    buttons there's an addictive design
  • 00:37:24
    element to it I don't need a
  • 00:37:26
    notification to grab a cigarette if I'm
  • 00:37:27
    addicted to
  • 00:37:28
    smoking it's already wormed its way into
  • 00:37:31
    my rhythms of the day so yeah
  • 00:37:34
    notifications have nothing to do with it
  • 00:37:36
    discipline is
  • 00:37:38
    complicated often directly speaking it's
  • 00:37:40
    not disciplined I can't just fix my
  • 00:37:42
    email problem by being disciplined I'm
  • 00:37:43
    not going to check my email the whole
  • 00:37:45
    structure of my work requires me to do
  • 00:37:46
    it so I have to put in place an
  • 00:37:48
    alternative structure collaboration that
  • 00:37:50
    does not require email a little bit
  • 00:37:52
    harder when it comes to your phone in
  • 00:37:53
    some ways a little bit easier yes I
  • 00:37:55
    agree just white knuckling it I don't
  • 00:37:57
    want to look at these uh digital
  • 00:37:58
    cigarettes is hard because they they're
  • 00:38:00
    helping you paper over voidage in your
  • 00:38:02
    life they're giving you emotional
  • 00:38:03
    stimulation they're scratching deeply
  • 00:38:05
    human urges you have in a very
  • 00:38:07
    superficial way but you need to scratch
  • 00:38:08
    those urges and it's
  • 00:38:10
    easier to be seeing something on social
  • 00:38:12
    media or like pornography than it is to
  • 00:38:15
    actually uh fulfill those human nures
  • 00:38:17
    with like real relationships with real
  • 00:38:20
    people but there is a discipline aspect
  • 00:38:23
    to that as well but it's just
  • 00:38:25
    indirect it's the dis iined construction
  • 00:38:28
    of a more intentional cultivated deep
  • 00:38:30
    life that begins to make the superficial
  • 00:38:33
    pleasures of the attention economy
  • 00:38:36
    superficial and optional it's that
  • 00:38:39
    disciplined effort to actually build
  • 00:38:41
    into your life what really matters to
  • 00:38:43
    get a taste for it that makes the
  • 00:38:45
    digitized junk food no longer appealing
  • 00:38:48
    so ultimately discipline will be
  • 00:38:51
    involved especially with the
  • 00:38:53
    nonwork digital life but it's not the
  • 00:38:56
    obvious discipline of just just avert my
  • 00:38:58
    eyes and grip my Knuckles it's a more
  • 00:39:01
    indirectly subtle relentlessly applied
  • 00:39:04
    discipline to build a life where you
  • 00:39:06
    don't just avoid those things but you
  • 00:39:08
    find them increasingly
  • 00:39:10
    intolerable so look at that like I 80%
  • 00:39:13
    agree number four fourth myth flow is
  • 00:39:17
    the ideal State We should strive for
  • 00:39:18
    when using our Technologies yeah I agree
  • 00:39:20
    Flow
  • 00:39:21
    State be wary it's overrated um we have
  • 00:39:24
    this argument a lot Flow State feels
  • 00:39:26
    great uh and there's certain times in
  • 00:39:28
    work where a flow State feels great for
  • 00:39:30
    example but also there's a lot of
  • 00:39:32
    important work activities that are not a
  • 00:39:33
    flow State it's pulling teeth why
  • 00:39:35
    because you're straining your brain to
  • 00:39:37
    do something that is past your
  • 00:39:39
    comfortable ability which is critical if
  • 00:39:41
    you want to get better produce your best
  • 00:39:43
    work Flow State requires that you get
  • 00:39:46
    you fall into a Zone which requires that
  • 00:39:47
    you're like right in this sweet spot of
  • 00:39:49
    like I have to focus but I can do this
  • 00:39:51
    pretty
  • 00:39:52
    well for the guitar player flow state is
  • 00:39:54
    when you're playing a hard song you can
  • 00:39:56
    play well it's great you get lost in it
  • 00:39:58
    your fingers are doing it deliberate
  • 00:40:00
    practice is when you were learning that
  • 00:40:01
    song in the first place and you couldn't
  • 00:40:03
    play it fast enough and that feels like
  • 00:40:05
    the opposite of flow you feel every
  • 00:40:07
    second when you're trying to with your
  • 00:40:09
    full concentration do something you
  • 00:40:12
    cannot yet do comfortably so flow
  • 00:40:14
    State's great but it's not the be all
  • 00:40:16
    inall goal when it comes to Technologies
  • 00:40:18
    Gloria is right be very wary especially
  • 00:40:21
    addictive video games want you to get
  • 00:40:24
    into a flow State because you look up
  • 00:40:26
    seven hours later
  • 00:40:27
    and uh you've been focusing on that
  • 00:40:29
    thing all day long they want to just
  • 00:40:31
    pull you from one experience to another
  • 00:40:33
    there's no more purified example of a
  • 00:40:35
    flow State than the Tik Tock interface
  • 00:40:38
    swipe swipe swipe swipe you know just oh
  • 00:40:40
    here's something here's something that's
  • 00:40:42
    not good oh that was really good this
  • 00:40:44
    one wasn't but if I swipe some more I
  • 00:40:45
    should get some more they get you lost
  • 00:40:47
    in this Flow State so there you go
  • 00:40:48
    they've just gathered three hours of
  • 00:40:49
    data on you um so Gloria is right in
  • 00:40:53
    technology use flow States not the goal
  • 00:40:55
    in work in general flow states are great
  • 00:40:56
    but they're not the only thing that's
  • 00:40:58
    good so I I think we sometimes we
  • 00:41:01
    probably sometimes put too much popular
  • 00:41:03
    emphasis on them and by the way mahale
  • 00:41:06
    chinmi would agree with this right I
  • 00:41:08
    mean he he he studied these very
  • 00:41:10
    specifically the context of
  • 00:41:13
    psychology he wasn't saying you should
  • 00:41:15
    be in a flow State all the time he he
  • 00:41:16
    said there's a very observable thing
  • 00:41:18
    that's important and we can measure it
  • 00:41:19
    and we should understand it but people
  • 00:41:20
    took it and said flow State's all that
  • 00:41:22
    matters so some wisdom in those so thank
  • 00:41:26
    you who asked this question
  • 00:41:28
    Jason Good Question there's a chance to
  • 00:41:30
    go over Gloria's four myths and I
  • 00:41:32
    recommend that book attention span uh if
  • 00:41:35
    you read my book world without email I
  • 00:41:37
    have a whole long section on Gloria Mark
  • 00:41:39
    I talked about her her whole story I've
  • 00:41:41
    interviewed her on multiple occasions
  • 00:41:43
    really one of the top thinkers on
  • 00:41:45
    attention and distraction so definitely
  • 00:41:46
    check out that book if you're a fan of
  • 00:41:49
    what we talk about here I work in data
  • 00:41:51
    analysis and I regularly bored in my
  • 00:41:53
    day-to-day tasks at the same time my
  • 00:41:55
    side hustle has gotten to the point
  • 00:41:56
    where I can can spend the whole day in
  • 00:41:58
    deep work without distraction what
  • 00:42:00
    should I do in the intern to maintain my
  • 00:42:02
    deep work muscle while also getting
  • 00:42:05
    through the
  • 00:42:06
    day so Jesse have you gotten used to
  • 00:42:08
    this type of question we get the uh I
  • 00:42:10
    call it the leading the witness question
  • 00:42:13
    right where it's like well my work is
  • 00:42:16
    bad and it's really boring and it's
  • 00:42:18
    stupid and but this other thing is
  • 00:42:20
    really great and it's awesome and I
  • 00:42:22
    could do it all day long and it gives me
  • 00:42:24
    meaning in life um what should I do yeah
  • 00:42:28
    leading leading the question yeah so I
  • 00:42:30
    want you to be careful here this is
  • 00:42:32
    Maggie I want you to be wary of grass's
  • 00:42:34
    Greener
  • 00:42:36
    syndrome so when you're just sort of
  • 00:42:38
    going through your professional life
  • 00:42:41
    with what in my book so good they can't
  • 00:42:43
    ignore you I call the passion mindset
  • 00:42:45
    which is what is this job offering me
  • 00:42:47
    you're very susceptible to The grass's
  • 00:42:49
    Greener uh syndrome which is like I
  • 00:42:51
    don't love like what I'm doing dayto day
  • 00:42:53
    right now maybe there's something where
  • 00:42:55
    I would love what I'm doing day to-day
  • 00:42:57
    more and when you start messing around
  • 00:42:58
    with side hustles this gets even more
  • 00:43:00
    dangerous because it is easy to create a
  • 00:43:04
    quote unquote side hustle that just like
  • 00:43:07
    lets you do the thing you think is fun
  • 00:43:09
    in the moment right because when you
  • 00:43:10
    don't have to depend on that side hustle
  • 00:43:12
    for all of your income when you don't
  • 00:43:14
    have to you know depend on that side
  • 00:43:16
    hustle to actually uh create an impact
  • 00:43:19
    in the world or support people you can
  • 00:43:21
    just make it whatever you want and then
  • 00:43:23
    you tell yourself this story that like
  • 00:43:24
    there's jobs like this out here I could
  • 00:43:26
    just be doing this really fun thing but
  • 00:43:28
    over here on this other world in this
  • 00:43:29
    non you know data analysis there's you
  • 00:43:31
    know I have to fill out memos and it's
  • 00:43:33
    not always like that my boss is kind of
  • 00:43:34
    annoying and uh it's not always
  • 00:43:37
    interesting what I'm doing but in my
  • 00:43:39
    side hustle I'm writing a novel and it's
  • 00:43:40
    like fun I'm just writing all day but
  • 00:43:43
    the issue is that side hustle could just
  • 00:43:44
    be you cosplaying some sort of imaginary
  • 00:43:48
    ideal of what work could be it's a
  • 00:43:50
    dangerous thing to have pulling you so
  • 00:43:52
    how do we get out of this situation it's
  • 00:43:54
    not just we say well just grin and bear
  • 00:43:56
    whatever your job is because maybe your
  • 00:43:57
    job isn't in its current state what it
  • 00:43:59
    should be the way you get out of this
  • 00:44:02
    situation is lifestyle Cent your career
  • 00:44:05
    planning I have an ideal vision of where
  • 00:44:07
    I want my life to be and here's my sort
  • 00:44:09
    of Target in the next few years all the
  • 00:44:11
    aspects of my life where I live what I
  • 00:44:13
    do what my days are like my engagement
  • 00:44:15
    with community and the rest of the world
  • 00:44:17
    all these things are really clear and as
  • 00:44:19
    part of this you then look back and say
  • 00:44:21
    how does I use my working life to get me
  • 00:44:24
    closer there then what you were doing in
  • 00:44:26
    your working life is part of a
  • 00:44:28
    intentional plan to get you closer to a
  • 00:44:29
    more idealized version of your lifestyle
  • 00:44:32
    that is much more effective than just
  • 00:44:33
    the passion mindset of do I like what
  • 00:44:35
    I'm doing is there another thing I could
  • 00:44:36
    be doing that I would like
  • 00:44:38
    more maybe I should just be a novelist
  • 00:44:40
    because this is fun like Cal I bought uh
  • 00:44:44
    my a hipster keyboard and it clickey
  • 00:44:46
    Clacks and and I'm drinking coffee and
  • 00:44:49
    clicky
  • 00:44:50
    clacky Brad stalberg by the way Jesse
  • 00:44:53
    called my new keyboard a hipster
  • 00:44:54
    keyboard oh really yeah he's like a so
  • 00:44:56
    you got one of those hipster keyboards
  • 00:44:57
    does he see him a lot in coffee shops I
  • 00:44:59
    don't know I don't know he lives in
  • 00:45:01
    Asheville I there's probably a lot of
  • 00:45:02
    hipsters there right that's what I
  • 00:45:04
    understand but yeah so he calls it a
  • 00:45:05
    hipster keyboard which it is so you're
  • 00:45:07
    like this is fun I clicky clack and wear
  • 00:45:09
    a beret and a pipe in Starbucks which is
  • 00:45:12
    exactly what I do I'm just like haa
  • 00:45:14
    right right right and like this is fun
  • 00:45:16
    and data now this is the other stuff is
  • 00:45:17
    kind you know it's annoying right uh
  • 00:45:19
    you're just going to get drawn into that
  • 00:45:21
    but if you're like no no no this data
  • 00:45:22
    analysis job is part of like the money
  • 00:45:25
    it generates uh what I'm doing now but
  • 00:45:28
    where I want to shift my position here
  • 00:45:30
    eventually as I get to this level I'm
  • 00:45:31
    going to shift this to a consultant
  • 00:45:33
    because I've saved this much money and
  • 00:45:35
    then it's going to be six months on six
  • 00:45:36
    months off which is going to allow us
  • 00:45:37
    like you have this plan worked out that
  • 00:45:40
    the work you're doing now and what
  • 00:45:41
    you're working towards with your work is
  • 00:45:43
    part of a plan that connects to deeply
  • 00:45:45
    with what resonates that's where you
  • 00:45:46
    want to be not just analyzing does your
  • 00:45:48
    day-to-day activity something you enjoy
  • 00:45:50
    or not and then inventing uh you know
  • 00:45:53
    this ideal job cosplay like well I'm
  • 00:45:54
    comparing it to that
  • 00:45:57
    you know couldn't be that it's the
  • 00:45:58
    equivalent of like you're looking at
  • 00:45:59
    your romantic partner um and then you're
  • 00:46:02
    watching a Ryan Reynolds movie and
  • 00:46:06
    you're like Ryan Reynold seems kind of
  • 00:46:07
    better I mean he's funny he's like
  • 00:46:10
    pretty good shape you know he's like the
  • 00:46:13
    handyman in this small town in this
  • 00:46:14
    Christmas movie that like I didn't
  • 00:46:16
    realize would teach me the meaning of
  • 00:46:19
    Christmas and then you know you look
  • 00:46:21
    over at at your romantic partner like I
  • 00:46:23
    don't know I mean maybe it's probably
  • 00:46:25
    Ryan Reynolds it's kind of the same
  • 00:46:26
    thing
  • 00:46:27
    when you're you know cosplaying on your
  • 00:46:28
    hipster keyboard like well this is more
  • 00:46:30
    fun than than you know my job that's
  • 00:46:32
    sending my kids to private school so I
  • 00:46:34
    think working backwards and I know I'm a
  • 00:46:36
    broken record on this but Lifestyle
  • 00:46:37
    Center Career planning gives you focus
  • 00:46:40
    on what you're doing and why which is
  • 00:46:42
    what you need to keep moving your
  • 00:46:44
    motivational system needs an
  • 00:46:47
    understanding of what you're doing and
  • 00:46:48
    how it leads to something important so
  • 00:46:50
    that your episodic future thinking can
  • 00:46:51
    see something that really resonates
  • 00:46:53
    that's what it needs it doesn't need to
  • 00:46:55
    enjoy every minute of what you're doing
  • 00:46:57
    that's the wrong metric the athlete who
  • 00:47:00
    really wants to be the best in their
  • 00:47:02
    field does not enjoy all the time they
  • 00:47:05
    spend in the weight room but they're
  • 00:47:06
    motivated to do it because it's part of
  • 00:47:08
    their vision of being number
  • 00:47:09
    one so that would be my advice there be
  • 00:47:12
    careful at grass is greener
  • 00:47:13
    syndrome all right what's our next
  • 00:47:15
    question Jesse all right this is the
  • 00:47:17
    Moment of Truth too is this slow
  • 00:47:19
    productivity Corner y all right let's
  • 00:47:20
    get some theme music
  • 00:47:23
    [Music]
  • 00:47:30
    all right what is our slow productivity
  • 00:47:31
    Corner question of the day Jesse that
  • 00:47:34
    came from Kiron thank you kieron uh I'm
  • 00:47:37
    a slow thinker but at times my employee
  • 00:47:39
    wants complicated answers quickly I
  • 00:47:42
    struggle at times to gather my thoughts
  • 00:47:44
    and to concise answers to appease
  • 00:47:45
    management how should I
  • 00:47:48
    compensate well I'm going to give you a
  • 00:47:50
    couple ideas here one of them will be
  • 00:47:53
    concrete and one of them is going to be
  • 00:47:54
    a little bit more psychological let me
  • 00:47:56
    start with the concrete
  • 00:47:58
    lean into your slowness here by
  • 00:48:02
    cultivating this could to be like a a
  • 00:48:04
    quirky idiosyncratic trait of yours you
  • 00:48:07
    get that email uh Hey Dante what about
  • 00:48:10
    like whatever you say interesting
  • 00:48:13
    question um Let me give this a let me
  • 00:48:15
    give this a thought I'll get back to you
  • 00:48:17
    uh after lunch you you have a specific
  • 00:48:20
    time that then gives you enough time to
  • 00:48:22
    sit down and say okay let me take a
  • 00:48:24
    break Let Me Take A Beat
  • 00:48:27
    and let me think through like what do I
  • 00:48:28
    really want to say here and let me
  • 00:48:31
    gather some points here and actually
  • 00:48:33
    make this pretty thoughtful and then
  • 00:48:35
    send it back by the time I said it was
  • 00:48:36
    going to send it back so then people
  • 00:48:39
    think like well Dante yeah he's a very
  • 00:48:41
    thoughtful guy like he never responds
  • 00:48:43
    right off the cuff in the meetings he
  • 00:48:44
    says let me get back to you and then he
  • 00:48:46
    does and he gets back to us in the time
  • 00:48:47
    he says and it's always really
  • 00:48:48
    thoughtful stuff and now you're leaning
  • 00:48:50
    into the slowness instead of losing
  • 00:48:52
    opportunities like ah like Dante doesn't
  • 00:48:55
    he gives us doesn't get back to us or
  • 00:48:57
    it's it's it's incomplete they're like
  • 00:48:58
    this is just the way this guy
  • 00:49:00
    operates that's actually kind of cool
  • 00:49:02
    he's careful so we can kind of trust him
  • 00:49:04
    on careful stuff and here's the bonus
  • 00:49:06
    Dante they will maybe start leaving you
  • 00:49:08
    out of the sort of Knucklehead like back
  • 00:49:10
    and forth hyperactive hive mind like
  • 00:49:12
    let's just like go back and forth 70
  • 00:49:13
    emails right now and try to like get
  • 00:49:15
    some answer you don't really want to be
  • 00:49:16
    a part of that anyways like I'm slower
  • 00:49:19
    so no I can't do the less than 70 emails
  • 00:49:21
    next 30 minutes but I can really help
  • 00:49:23
    think what's really going to be best for
  • 00:49:24
    this client to do this you really have
  • 00:49:26
    to deliver though really do think
  • 00:49:29
    through and be
  • 00:49:30
    deliberate here's my psychological
  • 00:49:32
    answer so that's like what you could do
  • 00:49:33
    positively there could be a negative
  • 00:49:35
    aspect here as well there could be some
  • 00:49:37
    combination of perfectionism and
  • 00:49:39
    impostor syndrome self-confidence issues
  • 00:49:41
    going on here right so the other thing
  • 00:49:44
    that might be happening is you're just
  • 00:49:45
    worried about shooting off a response
  • 00:49:47
    because you worry I'm
  • 00:49:50
    insufficient like this might not be
  • 00:49:52
    smart this might not make sense if I
  • 00:49:54
    send off this response too quick and I
  • 00:49:56
    really haven't thought about it the boss
  • 00:49:58
    is going to be like aha I knew it you're
  • 00:50:01
    not smart you're an impostor pack up and
  • 00:50:03
    get out of here and so you're crippled
  • 00:50:05
    by this idea
  • 00:50:08
    of you know I just I do I really belong
  • 00:50:11
    here can you know are people going to
  • 00:50:13
    think I'm dumb it's sort sort of like a
  • 00:50:14
    perfectionism impostor syndrome that's
  • 00:50:16
    also very common in these sort of work
  • 00:50:19
    scenarios and there you have to just
  • 00:50:21
    basically this is psychological you have
  • 00:50:23
    to harness your sort of inner American
  • 00:50:26
    white maess of just I will be very
  • 00:50:28
    confident like yeah I know about this
  • 00:50:31
    there you know and just be like it'll
  • 00:50:32
    work out you got to have to kind of get
  • 00:50:35
    that mindset a little bit it's going to
  • 00:50:37
    feel artificial at first that's sort of
  • 00:50:40
    like yeah of course uh do this of course
  • 00:50:43
    you know then high five people because
  • 00:50:45
    that's what American white males do I
  • 00:50:46
    suppose we high five each other yeah
  • 00:50:48
    they type on hipster keyboard we're just
  • 00:50:51
    like let me just knock this out on my
  • 00:50:53
    hipster keyboard give it up just round
  • 00:50:55
    of high fives everyone in the room is
  • 00:50:57
    just high-fiving um so you got some of
  • 00:50:59
    that's just mindset people here's the
  • 00:51:02
    thing people are not scouring over your
  • 00:51:05
    responses they're not looking at them in
  • 00:51:07
    detail there's not a committee that's
  • 00:51:09
    like okay here comes Dante let's put it
  • 00:51:11
    up project IT project it on the board
  • 00:51:14
    for some reason they have it on a a 1980
  • 00:51:16
    style plastic film on the overhead
  • 00:51:18
    projector and they're all staring at it
  • 00:51:20
    and thinking about it and then finally
  • 00:51:22
    like someone in a tweed jacket shakes
  • 00:51:24
    their head and says n this is not good
  • 00:51:26
    this is not good at all and then the
  • 00:51:28
    other guy is like so we're going to
  • 00:51:30
    murder him like yeah let's do it and
  • 00:51:32
    they all just run out of the room to
  • 00:51:32
    come get you that's not what happens
  • 00:51:34
    when you send a quick email it's mainly
  • 00:51:36
    just people who are really busy and
  • 00:51:37
    overwhelmed and just trying to throw
  • 00:51:38
    things I need an answer to this because
  • 00:51:40
    I have so many things going on I'm super
  • 00:51:41
    stressed they don't really care if you
  • 00:51:44
    read most people's emails in a
  • 00:51:46
    hyperactive Hive M uh situation they
  • 00:51:49
    often sound like you have a you know a
  • 00:51:51
    caveman who's dealing with a brain
  • 00:51:53
    injury responding you know like like uh
  • 00:51:56
    me client meeting bad 4 P.M question
  • 00:51:59
    mark Emoji right like people are just
  • 00:52:01
    throwing junk around so the
  • 00:52:03
    psychological answer is like you go a
  • 00:52:04
    little easier on yourself just be like
  • 00:52:07
    yeah it's fine they're not people just
  • 00:52:09
    the conversation needs to move forward
  • 00:52:10
    so you have some combination of these
  • 00:52:12
    two
  • 00:52:13
    options don't be so worried about people
  • 00:52:15
    scrutinizing your responses or and this
  • 00:52:18
    could be complimentary lean into being a
  • 00:52:19
    slow thinker like this is my thing I
  • 00:52:21
    take my time but then I give you good
  • 00:52:23
    responses I like this this second this
  • 00:52:26
    lad response just because I think it
  • 00:52:28
    might free you from a lot of the back
  • 00:52:31
    and forth hyperactive nonsense and in a
  • 00:52:33
    way that's not costing you we don't
  • 00:52:36
    involve Dante in like a lot some of the
  • 00:52:38
    back and forth nonsense because not
  • 00:52:40
    because he's not reliable but because
  • 00:52:42
    he's a slower more careful thinker uh so
  • 00:52:45
    he probably won't respond on this right
  • 00:52:46
    away in fact the fact that you are you
  • 00:52:48
    will respond on this right away makes me
  • 00:52:49
    think why aren't you more like Dante so
  • 00:52:50
    it's like a positive way to actually uh
  • 00:52:53
    get get away from some knucklehead stuff
  • 00:52:55
    hey if you like this video I think
  • 00:52:56
    you'll really like this one as well
  • 00:52:59
    check it out
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