00:00:00
okay here's the case that we're going to
00:00:01
be talking about today
00:00:03
see if this is relevant to you so you're
00:00:06
working really hard and you feel like
00:00:08
you're always busy
00:00:10
and things are always turning you've
00:00:12
always got tasks and your task list is
00:00:14
potentially
00:00:15
really large however however
00:00:19
you feel like you're not really getting
00:00:21
anything done at the end of the day
00:00:22
like at the end of the week at the end
00:00:24
of the month you feel like how have i
00:00:26
worked
00:00:26
so hard for so long
00:00:29
and yet for some reason my task list is
00:00:33
not reduced
00:00:34
and i i feel like some of the most
00:00:35
important things that i needed to do
00:00:37
still were not done like how have i
00:00:39
managed to simultaneously be incredibly
00:00:41
productive
00:00:42
yet also procrastinate or just
00:00:45
you know just like not achieve anything
00:00:47
meaningful
00:00:49
how is that possible that's the case
00:00:50
that we're going to be talking about and
00:00:51
it's a super
00:00:52
super uh common type of issue and i
00:00:56
think
00:00:56
this might change the way that you think
00:00:59
about the way that you manage your tasks
00:01:00
and your projects because it certainly
00:01:02
did for me so cue that intro music
00:01:15
[Music]
00:01:17
welcome to bigger plate my name is dr
00:01:19
justin sung i'm going to be your host
00:01:21
and we are talking about the concept of
00:01:26
well the problem of doing a lot without
00:01:28
actually having
00:01:29
gotten much real meaningful work
00:01:33
done how is that even possible it just
00:01:36
the math doesn't seem to compute right
00:01:38
how can you be actually doing tasks and
00:01:39
taking things off and and being busy all
00:01:41
the time like
00:01:42
you might come home from work or from
00:01:44
university and
00:01:45
you're just like constantly busy you're
00:01:47
like always doing stuff
00:01:48
and then you get to the end of the day
00:01:50
and it's like okay what's time to sleep
00:01:51
and then i
00:01:52
have to wake up and then it just repeats
00:01:53
itself like where do i get the time
00:01:56
to actually start making a dent
00:01:59
on this enormous list of tasks and
00:02:02
projects
00:02:03
i felt this for a long time at the
00:02:07
beginning of my kind of efficiency
00:02:09
journey you know when i was in my sort
00:02:10
of second and third year of university
00:02:12
when i was starting to
00:02:13
load my plate so to speak right for the
00:02:15
very first time
00:02:16
i already felt this and i went
00:02:19
completely down the wrong track
00:02:21
initially
00:02:22
so the the track that i kind of went
00:02:24
down originally was
00:02:26
i thought okay well the issue is that
00:02:28
it's taking me too long to do each of my
00:02:30
tasks like if i'm studying it's taking
00:02:32
me too long to study
00:02:33
and if you're a student then okay
00:02:36
chances are that's probably going to be
00:02:37
a big contributing factor and reducing
00:02:39
the amount of time that i needed to
00:02:41
study made a big difference so if you're
00:02:44
if you're a professional or a student
00:02:45
and
00:02:46
you're thinking like i actually need to
00:02:48
learn how to
00:02:49
learn much more effectively then that's
00:02:53
that's a separate thing that's probably
00:02:55
true and you should do that
00:02:57
but even if you do that it doesn't
00:03:00
always solve everything
00:03:02
it does make a big difference because
00:03:03
like the thing that's taking the longest
00:03:04
amount of time out of your day
00:03:06
you're being able to do that faster but
00:03:08
it's not like a long-term solution
00:03:10
because for example when you're working
00:03:11
as a professional
00:03:12
you don't always that's not always the
00:03:13
issue like the issue isn't always that
00:03:15
you
00:03:16
like can get faster because sometimes
00:03:18
it's just a time you clock out and you
00:03:21
you can't
00:03:21
leave before that and it's not always
00:03:24
possible for you to fit in other work
00:03:27
during
00:03:28
your day and if you do it might make a
00:03:30
small difference but it often
00:03:32
isn't like a game changer
00:03:35
like doing a few admin things here and
00:03:37
there during your lunch breaks it's like
00:03:39
yeah it helps kind of lubricate the day
00:03:41
along and just get things going but
00:03:44
overall it doesn't really make that big
00:03:45
of a difference
00:03:47
so the thing that changed for me the big
00:03:50
perspective change
00:03:51
was that it wasn't really about the
00:03:53
speed or the rate or the efficiency at
00:03:56
which i was using my energy it was
00:03:57
actually the
00:03:59
decision on what i would use my energy
00:04:01
on at any given time
00:04:04
and so we're talking about big picture
00:04:06
here we're talking about
00:04:08
prioritization and if you're listening
00:04:12
you might think okay prioritization i
00:04:13
get that
00:04:14
and you might get it the you know
00:04:17
prioritization is a concept and that you
00:04:19
need to
00:04:19
set clear priorities but that's not
00:04:21
really what i'm talking about i'm
00:04:23
talking about not just setting clear
00:04:24
priorities
00:04:24
but making really active conscious
00:04:27
sometimes very difficult
00:04:28
decisions about what is going to be a
00:04:29
priority at any given time
00:04:31
so let's talk about the eisenhower
00:04:33
matrix one of the most
00:04:35
important and effective and i guess as a
00:04:38
result
00:04:39
famous and well-known prioritization
00:04:41
frameworks out there created by the dude
00:04:43
eisenhower
00:04:44
himself who breaks up a project or
00:04:48
series of projects into four different
00:04:49
quadrants so if you kind of imagine an
00:04:52
axis right on the on one axis
00:04:55
you have the urgency and on the other
00:04:57
axis you have the importance
00:04:59
right so you'd have four different
00:05:01
quadrants
00:05:02
here and on one hand you'd have the
00:05:05
things that are urgent and important and
00:05:07
then you've got the things that are
00:05:08
urgent but not important and then you've
00:05:10
got the things that are important but
00:05:12
not urgent and then you've got the
00:05:13
things that are neither
00:05:14
important nor are they urgent and this
00:05:17
is the way that you
00:05:19
break it up so let me just talk about
00:05:20
the framework first
00:05:22
and i'll keep it brief because it's it's
00:05:24
relatively simple to understand what i
00:05:25
want to talk about more as a nuance
00:05:27
around how to apply because a lot of you
00:05:28
listening to it you will already have
00:05:29
heard about this eisenhower matrix
00:05:32
so if it's if it's a project or a task
00:05:34
that belongs in that urgent and
00:05:36
important category we call that the
00:05:37
focus category this is what you want to
00:05:38
be spending your time on because it's
00:05:40
you need to get it done and if you don't
00:05:41
get it done there are significant
00:05:43
consequences to it because of the fact
00:05:45
that it's important
00:05:46
so that's fine you do it you execute you
00:05:49
do that stuff
00:05:50
the stuff that's important but not
00:05:52
urgent these are things that will move
00:05:55
the needle
00:05:56
long term you know this might be like
00:05:58
okay it's not important for me to
00:06:00
necessarily do my taxes
00:06:02
now but it is important for me to do it
00:06:05
at a certain point it will have become
00:06:07
urgent
00:06:09
and sometimes it's by the time it's
00:06:11
urgent it's almost too late like you
00:06:13
needed to have worked on it
00:06:14
from earlier so like learning a new
00:06:17
language for example let's say that
00:06:18
you're going to pick up a new job in
00:06:20
another country and you need to learn
00:06:21
how to speak mandarin
00:06:24
when it's urgent that's probably when
00:06:26
you're about to start work imminently
00:06:29
and now it's too late and so you've
00:06:31
missed that boat the opportunity is gone
00:06:33
and now your life takes tangent because
00:06:35
now you can't really work that job
00:06:36
properly
00:06:37
your performance will suffer or you'll
00:06:38
lose your job or you know whatever there
00:06:39
are there are significant consequences
00:06:41
as well
00:06:42
because of the fact that it was
00:06:43
important uh but it wasn't urgent at the
00:06:46
time so things that are in the important
00:06:48
but not
00:06:49
urgent category we want to schedule that
00:06:50
and we want to plan it
00:06:52
in and so we want to dedicate an hour or
00:06:54
a week or an hour a day or
00:06:56
whatever some meaningful amount of time
00:06:59
towards doing these things that are
00:07:00
important but not urgent and
00:07:02
the ability to do that is an indicator
00:07:05
of whether you get these high priority
00:07:06
value things done
00:07:09
then you've got the things that are
00:07:11
urgent but not
00:07:12
important so these are often like very
00:07:14
life admin miscellaneous
00:07:16
tasks things that kind of pop up during
00:07:18
the day
00:07:19
these are the things that because
00:07:20
they're urgent you need to be able to
00:07:22
get them done
00:07:23
but you're not necessarily the one that
00:07:25
needs to do it because it's um
00:07:27
it's something that's just not important
00:07:30
so this is the stuff that if you've got
00:07:32
a team you should delegate but we're
00:07:34
talking about personal efficiency here
00:07:35
and i don't know about you but i don't
00:07:36
really have
00:07:37
i don't really have a team that i can
00:07:38
delegate my personal tasks to they're
00:07:40
still going to be for me to do
00:07:42
so the ability to delegate doesn't
00:07:44
really become relevant unless you can
00:07:46
find a way to make that happen you know
00:07:47
give it to a friend or turf your
00:07:48
responsibility elsewhere
00:07:50
or something like that but a lot of the
00:07:53
time the urgent stuff that's not
00:07:55
important you still need to get it done
00:07:57
and you still need to be the one that
00:07:58
does it
00:08:00
but you don't want to spend much time on
00:08:02
it because it's time taken away from
00:08:03
every other priority
00:08:05
so you need to get it done and the
00:08:06
better ways to get it done is that you
00:08:08
put them in batch
00:08:09
so all your urgent but not important
00:08:12
tasks you get them done like you give
00:08:13
yourself a block of time
00:08:15
every day to just get through all of
00:08:17
those tasks and just smash them out
00:08:20
and you do them in batch back to back to
00:08:21
back because a lot a lot of these tasks
00:08:23
often don't take too long in themselves
00:08:26
and the ones that are potentially less
00:08:29
urgent you just keep delaying it and you
00:08:31
keep putting it off
00:08:33
so there's a there's a bit of sort of
00:08:34
like armchair wisdom that gets thrown
00:08:36
down right is that you know you
00:08:37
shouldn't put things off you shouldn't
00:08:39
delay them and
00:08:40
that's true to an extent in that
00:08:43
you shouldn't because of the fact that
00:08:46
you
00:08:46
you want to have that mindset of being
00:08:48
able to execute on things and execute on
00:08:50
tasks and that's a really important
00:08:51
characteristic and
00:08:52
ability to have but on the other hand
00:08:55
you do want to delay tasks if they're
00:08:59
not
00:08:59
important because there's something
00:09:01
that's going to be more important to
00:09:02
fill that time
00:09:03
so even if something is urgent if it's
00:09:05
not important
00:09:07
if it's possible to delay it and
00:09:09
actually still get it done
00:09:11
later then it's better to replace that
00:09:14
with a task that's not urgent
00:09:16
but also important right so for example
00:09:19
if you've got the option between
00:09:20
spending 20 minutes to
00:09:22
do some meditation and journaling which
00:09:24
is an important yet not urgent thing
00:09:26
that's going to make a big difference
00:09:27
for you in terms of your ability to
00:09:28
develop skills and manage yourself
00:09:30
and remain optimized medium to long term
00:09:33
or maybe even short term
00:09:35
that's really important but it's not
00:09:36
going to be imminent and urgent versus
00:09:38
let's say sending out an email
00:09:40
that is urgent you need to send it out
00:09:42
today but if you don't send it out
00:09:44
what's the consequence of it happen like
00:09:46
of an issue there it's relatively minor
00:09:48
then you should pick the other thing you
00:09:50
should pick the meditation and the
00:09:52
journaling
00:09:53
now if the consequences is important
00:09:55
enough that you're like okay i really
00:09:56
actually
00:09:56
should do this then
00:10:00
you should see can i delay this more can
00:10:01
i potentially send this out tomorrow
00:10:03
morning can i send this out you know
00:10:05
tomorrow evening
00:10:06
if you can just delay it till then so
00:10:08
you want to wait for it to be as urgent
00:10:10
as possible because there's no benefit
00:10:12
to doing it
00:10:13
any earlier and taking time away from
00:10:15
from an important task
00:10:16
because in the future you may not have
00:10:18
time to do the important task in which
00:10:20
case you've spent
00:10:21
double the amount of time doing
00:10:23
something that was not important
00:10:25
right so if you've got the opportunity
00:10:27
to do something that's important for you
00:10:30
always pick that as long as it's viable
00:10:32
if it means delaying a task till later
00:10:34
then delay it and be happy
00:10:36
that you delay it because that in itself
00:10:37
is a strategy
00:10:39
you don't have to feel guilty about
00:10:40
delaying that task and i i delay
00:10:42
a lot of things on my list like i at any
00:10:45
given
00:10:46
moment on my to-do list will have
00:10:50
dozens uh you know if not triple digit
00:10:54
tasks that are waiting for me some of
00:10:55
those have been delayed by such a long
00:10:57
period of time
00:10:58
that it's getting to the point where
00:11:00
like i just don't even care about it
00:11:01
anymore
00:11:02
and eventually i'm going to end up
00:11:04
chucking them into the
00:11:05
non-urgent not important task list which
00:11:08
is the final quadrant
00:11:10
not important not urgent what do you do
00:11:12
with these tasks you bend them
00:11:14
you just don't do them simple as that
00:11:16
and this is a
00:11:17
mentality shift that i notice that a lot
00:11:18
of the clients and students that i work
00:11:20
with
00:11:21
um struggle with is that
00:11:25
the idea that you might have a task
00:11:28
and you could potentially just kind of
00:11:30
delete that from your inventory and not
00:11:32
do that
00:11:33
that being a legitimate not not just a
00:11:35
legitimate like but
00:11:36
actually recommended and encouraged
00:11:38
strategy for dealing with
00:11:40
this type of stuff that's something that
00:11:43
a lot of people struggle with
00:11:44
just the ability to say hey i've got a
00:11:46
task that i need to do and i'm not going
00:11:48
to do it
00:11:49
because you don't actually need to do it
00:11:52
so
00:11:53
the the four quadrants are a great way
00:11:55
of being able to manage your tasks and
00:11:56
manage your projects
00:11:58
here's where i see a lot of the issues
00:12:00
come from and there's really three main
00:12:02
issues that i've seen
00:12:03
so i work with students and i work with
00:12:05
professionals to help them become more
00:12:07
efficient right that's kind of my job
00:12:08
now
00:12:10
and there are a lot of different little
00:12:12
mistakes that people make but
00:12:13
a lot of the time as long as you stay
00:12:15
consistent and you keep trying to apply
00:12:16
this framework to your
00:12:18
daily life things tend to turn out
00:12:21
reasonably well
00:12:22
but there are sort of three main issues
00:12:24
that i find that people face that would
00:12:26
stop them from being able to achieve
00:12:27
this
00:12:29
by far the first most important one is
00:12:31
that people are not strict enough with
00:12:33
their prioritization
00:12:35
they put too many things as important or
00:12:37
too many things as urgent
00:12:39
and here's something i learned while
00:12:40
working as a doctor right
00:12:42
urgent is urgent like urgent urgent
00:12:46
so here's the difference right like if
00:12:48
you're if you're working as a doctor
00:12:50
what's urgent is that i need to get to
00:12:52
this person and i need to solve this
00:12:54
issue
00:12:55
within roughly the next hour or so or
00:12:58
they're probably going to die or lose a
00:12:59
limb
00:13:01
that's urgent
00:13:04
saying that hey i need to really um pay
00:13:07
my fine
00:13:08
today because if i don't pay my fine
00:13:11
they're gonna send me a letter to remind
00:13:13
me to pay my fine in the next week
00:13:15
that's not urgent okay that's not urgent
00:13:18
there's no serious consequence there and
00:13:20
the time urgency is so delayed that's
00:13:22
not urgent
00:13:23
so be really clear about what you mean
00:13:26
by important
00:13:26
and urgent set very clear criteria and
00:13:30
follow that criteria don't let yourself
00:13:32
just be emotionally bought into the idea
00:13:34
of a task purely because you are just
00:13:36
committed to the concept like you're
00:13:38
infatuated with the idea of a task
00:13:40
so here's a criteria that i set for
00:13:42
myself and i advise all my clients and
00:13:44
students to sit for themselves as well
00:13:45
and it works okay
00:13:48
if something is important there is a
00:13:51
serious and significant
00:13:52
consequence and a negative detriment to
00:13:55
your life
00:13:56
if it is not completed okay
00:13:59
and often it is irreversible
00:14:03
so let that sink for a moment so let's
00:14:05
say that you
00:14:06
are thinking okay i should spend more
00:14:09
time with my family
00:14:11
great okay you probably should okay you
00:14:14
can spend more time with your family
00:14:15
there's absolutely nothing wrong with
00:14:17
spending time with your family in fact
00:14:18
spending time with your family is a
00:14:19
fantastic priority to have
00:14:21
good on you for having that as a
00:14:23
priority and finding that valuable and
00:14:24
important
00:14:27
is that something that is at the daily
00:14:31
basis
00:14:32
for example let's say you're saying the
00:14:33
priorities for the next couple
00:14:35
couple days is that today
00:14:38
the most important thing for you to do
00:14:40
what is the serious and significant
00:14:42
consequence for not spending time with
00:14:45
your family today
00:14:47
versus what is a serious and significant
00:14:49
negative consequence
00:14:50
for i don't know not um getting on top
00:14:54
of this other project that you had due
00:14:56
you know like getting on top of certain
00:14:57
other work or what is a serious
00:14:59
consequence of not taking time out for
00:15:01
yourself
00:15:02
let's say that your borderline burning
00:15:03
out
00:15:05
you know the worst type of jug to pour
00:15:08
out of
00:15:08
is one that is just cracked and broken
00:15:11
you don't pour anything out of that it
00:15:12
holds no water
00:15:14
so if you're getting to the point where
00:15:16
you're burning out
00:15:17
and you need time for yourself and
00:15:20
you're thinking no no i need to give
00:15:21
time for my loved one or my family or
00:15:23
partner or whoever it is that's great
00:15:26
i'm very noble of you
00:15:28
but it's also wrong because
00:15:31
not spending time with that person today
00:15:35
in this case is not going to have as
00:15:38
negative of a consequence
00:15:40
as you taking time for yourself and that
00:15:42
doesn't mean that you do
00:15:44
no longer value this other person or
00:15:46
entity
00:15:47
it just means that today you yourself
00:15:50
are more important least of all because
00:15:53
you need to take care of yourself before
00:15:54
you can take care of other people
00:15:56
okay and in fact you become more of a
00:15:59
burden to the ones that you love if you
00:16:01
are like completely burnt out
00:16:03
and you just you know can't handle
00:16:04
yourself at all and you need to offload
00:16:06
all of your life admin
00:16:08
and miscellaneous tasks to someone else
00:16:10
because you just can't handle and deal
00:16:11
with it anymore
00:16:12
right that's like the ultimate like not
00:16:15
only have you not gotten a bigger plate
00:16:17
the plate you've already gotten it's
00:16:18
like sign a crack
00:16:20
so when you're setting the priorities
00:16:23
set them with the time scale
00:16:25
that is relevant so i think about this
00:16:28
uh
00:16:28
concept called a heartbeat or a pulse
00:16:30
and
00:16:31
when i was a junior doctor in my first
00:16:34
ever
00:16:34
run professionally you know not as a not
00:16:37
as a student where i'm going through
00:16:38
clinical attachments in hospitals but
00:16:40
the run that i you know you're actually
00:16:44
a doctor you know you have you have some
00:16:46
level of real responsibility
00:16:47
albeit small because you're a junior
00:16:48
doctor my
00:16:51
supervising senior my consultant is what
00:16:54
it's called
00:16:55
he told me that i i need to have my
00:16:58
finger on the pulse
00:17:00
and that's because i there was a blood
00:17:02
test that had come through
00:17:04
and it was halfway through the day and
00:17:06
we were busy throughout the morning and
00:17:08
then we missed the blood test and he
00:17:09
said
00:17:10
like look you're busy but you need to
00:17:12
have your finger on the post you can't
00:17:13
have this blood test that doesn't
00:17:15
go seen like i i as your senior
00:17:18
shouldn't be the first one that sees it
00:17:20
and for me i thought okay look like i
00:17:22
had a busy ass morning you know i was
00:17:24
i had a lot of stuff to do i just didn't
00:17:26
have time to sit down
00:17:28
and check the blood test but the point
00:17:30
is i needed to have
00:17:32
made time because i need to have my
00:17:34
finger on the post that's a
00:17:36
non-negotiable
00:17:38
and uh he probably doesn't realize this
00:17:40
but that
00:17:41
statement actually had a big impact on
00:17:42
me because
00:17:44
it made me realize that there are these
00:17:45
non-negotiables that even if you don't
00:17:47
have time you need to make time
00:17:49
and when you think about the pulse
00:17:52
it depends on you know the ability to
00:17:55
make time depends on when you expect the
00:17:57
pulse to come through if i don't miss a
00:17:58
pulse
00:17:59
then let's say that your post is
00:18:01
happening every second
00:18:02
right well then there's no real time for
00:18:05
me to sort of take my finger off the
00:18:06
wrist because i'm going to miss a pulse
00:18:09
but let's say that the pulse that we're
00:18:10
talking about right now the heartbeat
00:18:12
the frequency is only coming through
00:18:14
once a day okay once a day
00:18:17
is the frequency at which things might
00:18:19
meaningfully actually
00:18:20
change in that case
00:18:23
i don't have to be checking things six
00:18:26
times a day because nothing is going to
00:18:27
really change
00:18:29
six times a day it's going to change on
00:18:30
a daily basis
00:18:32
likewise if things are changing on a
00:18:34
daily basis
00:18:35
but i'm checking it on a weekly basis
00:18:38
i'm missing the post
00:18:39
multiple times so
00:18:43
when you're doing this prioritization
00:18:44
think about what's your heart rate
00:18:46
here what's the what's the frequency of
00:18:48
your heartbeat
00:18:50
and how often do you need to check it so
00:18:51
that you don't miss the pulse
00:18:53
so for me on a daily basis things for me
00:18:56
tend to change priority wise once every
00:18:59
day or two
00:19:00
so i make sure to re-prioritize every
00:19:03
day or two
00:19:04
so i don't miss the pulse so my priority
00:19:06
for the next couple days
00:19:08
might be okay i really need to do this
00:19:10
this is my number one priority this is
00:19:11
my number two priority this is my urgent
00:19:12
and important this is my
00:19:14
this is the urgent stuff that i'm gonna
00:19:15
batch and schedule into my day and these
00:19:17
are the important things that i need to
00:19:18
schedule in
00:19:19
to make sure that even though they're
00:19:21
not urgent i'm still able to get it done
00:19:23
i set out all my projects and and wrap
00:19:25
it up like that
00:19:26
and then i do that and the important
00:19:29
thing here is that you know you want to
00:19:30
make sure that you put all of your tasks
00:19:32
into projects as much as possible so
00:19:34
that you can
00:19:34
prioritize projects instead of
00:19:36
prioritizing necessarily individual
00:19:38
tasks because that can be a very time
00:19:39
consuming process so
00:19:41
have all your tasks available and then
00:19:43
once every day or two
00:19:45
arrange them into projects this is
00:19:47
another reason why i'm a huge proponent
00:19:49
of using actual like digital
00:19:51
um ways of prioritizing like having
00:19:54
digital
00:19:54
task managers and things like that
00:19:56
because you want to be able to like
00:19:58
be on the toilet and think oh like i
00:20:00
need to do this
00:20:02
thing i forgot about doing this you can
00:20:03
just chuck it on your task list and not
00:20:04
really worry about it you kind of put it
00:20:06
in your inbox as an unread
00:20:07
and then later that day or evening or
00:20:09
whatever you you look at it again
00:20:11
and then you can you know you can then
00:20:13
re-prioritize it
00:20:15
so that's really important to be able to
00:20:17
collect all of the tasks and then just
00:20:19
batch
00:20:20
organize them into projects later in the
00:20:21
day and then you take those projects and
00:20:23
you arrange them into your priorities
00:20:24
and then based on those priorities you
00:20:26
create a schedule
00:20:27
that fulfills the kind of fundamental
00:20:29
requirements of how to use the eisner
00:20:30
matrix so
00:20:31
you do that and you follow the criteria
00:20:33
really strictly so the important
00:20:35
criteria was
00:20:36
super significant consequence and the
00:20:38
urgent criteria
00:20:39
is like it needs to get done like within
00:20:41
whatever that heartbeat frequency is
00:20:43
like it needs to be done today or it
00:20:44
needs to be done in the next hour or
00:20:46
whatever it is
00:20:48
so think about that hot b frequency
00:20:51
think about how often you need to
00:20:52
prioritize
00:20:53
and then that be aware of the fact that
00:20:55
the priorities change
00:20:57
every heartbeat frequency and that's the
00:20:59
reason why the heartbeat is
00:21:00
at that frequency is because that's when
00:21:02
things change so for the next couple
00:21:04
days
00:21:04
work might be really important for me
00:21:07
more important than family or friends
00:21:09
and that's you know okay because you
00:21:11
know like maybe it's so important that
00:21:13
if you don't get this work done there
00:21:14
there's a
00:21:15
serious significant consequence like
00:21:17
there's nothing wrong with saying that
00:21:20
and in the next couple weeks maybe you
00:21:23
know spending time with family or just
00:21:24
relaxing and time for yourself maybe
00:21:26
that's the priority when you're on
00:21:27
vacation and you just need a break
00:21:29
maybe the most important thing for you
00:21:30
then is the number one priority is just
00:21:32
to relax and not think about stuff maybe
00:21:34
that's the most important priority but
00:21:35
it's about being explicit and about
00:21:37
being clear and being really in tune to
00:21:38
what it is that you need
00:21:40
at any given time and if you try to do
00:21:43
everything
00:21:44
if everything is high priority all the
00:21:46
time
00:21:47
you never really get anything done it
00:21:48
just doesn't that is when the maths
00:21:50
truly does not add up and it's when it
00:21:52
just truly does not compute
00:21:54
right so that's the first main mistake
00:21:57
or
00:21:58
issue that i notice is that people are
00:22:00
very lacks often about the way they
00:22:02
prioritize when they start first
00:22:03
using this and that it just doesn't go
00:22:06
in it just completely defeats the
00:22:08
purpose
00:22:08
right and the other the other um thing
00:22:12
is that if something is considered like
00:22:15
i don't know if this is important or not
00:22:17
just think about
00:22:19
how it contributes to the things that
00:22:20
are actually important in your life so
00:22:22
for example there might be a certain
00:22:23
task or task that doesn't belong to like
00:22:25
a wider project
00:22:26
but the task in itself seems like it's
00:22:28
relatively important for you to get done
00:22:32
does that align with the other values
00:22:34
and things that are in your life like
00:22:36
the way that you want to live right like
00:22:38
or is it just a task that seems
00:22:39
important
00:22:40
but actually you don't really care about
00:22:41
that in your life in general like for
00:22:43
example
00:22:44
i really need to like do some research
00:22:47
on which car i'm going to buy
00:22:50
but then think like do i really need to
00:22:52
buy the car like is that something that
00:22:54
i really
00:22:54
do want and so there's a sort of a level
00:22:57
even before that a bit more meta
00:22:59
we have to take a step back and think is
00:23:02
this actually
00:23:03
important for me in the first place
00:23:06
before i even assign it a priority
00:23:08
because
00:23:08
your view of how important it is might
00:23:10
already be framed
00:23:12
um to be skewed towards thinking it's
00:23:14
more important than it actually is
00:23:15
purely by virtue of the fact that it's
00:23:17
on your task list so don't be afraid of
00:23:19
kind of
00:23:20
just taking things out that you thought
00:23:21
were important because of the fact that
00:23:22
you just no longer think that it's
00:23:23
important you know that's perfectly okay
00:23:26
so that's the that was the first thing
00:23:27
the second thing is
00:23:30
that people are very unwilling often to
00:23:33
bin tasks and delete them
00:23:36
the only thing i can say to that is you
00:23:38
just have to do it
00:23:40
the safe back the fallback the safety on
00:23:44
this is that
00:23:46
even if you delete a task because of the
00:23:48
fact that you thought it wasn't
00:23:49
important
00:23:50
if you're feeling a bit anxious about
00:23:52
deleting a task like maybe it is
00:23:53
important or
00:23:54
maybe i do need to do it don't worry
00:23:56
just delete it
00:23:57
and the reason is because if it truly if
00:24:00
it's on that borderline of whether it's
00:24:02
important or not
00:24:03
it's at least not going to be really
00:24:05
important right and
00:24:07
remember the criteria that we set for
00:24:08
something being important or not is
00:24:10
actually
00:24:10
already pretty high so if something is
00:24:14
borderline on that importance
00:24:16
you know like it's it's hard for
00:24:19
something to be that
00:24:20
you know that borderline where it's like
00:24:22
is this going to have a
00:24:23
serious and significant negative
00:24:25
consequence if i don't do it
00:24:27
often you kind of know whether a will or
00:24:28
not it's like a hell yeah hell no kind
00:24:30
of division that we're making
00:24:33
so if there are tasks that you're
00:24:34
thinking okay this is not super
00:24:37
important
00:24:38
but i'm also not sure if it will become
00:24:40
more important or maybe i'm not seeing
00:24:42
it correctly
00:24:42
just bin it because
00:24:46
if it's truly something that ends up
00:24:48
being important it will somehow find a
00:24:50
way to make its way back onto your task
00:24:52
list
00:24:52
trust me on this one tasks are resilient
00:24:56
and if something really was important it
00:24:57
will come back on your list a week later
00:24:59
or
00:25:00
a month later or an hour later and
00:25:03
you're gonna then re-prioritize it so
00:25:04
don't worry about that okay the truly
00:25:06
important task they will end up finding
00:25:08
a way back on your list
00:25:09
and when it does find a way back on your
00:25:11
list maybe it will come back on as both
00:25:13
urgent and
00:25:14
important but that's fine because that's
00:25:16
you know
00:25:17
there's an area of your day there's an
00:25:19
area of your priority that's dedicated
00:25:20
for that
00:25:21
that you schedule and make time for
00:25:23
which is your focus list
00:25:25
so you can do that that's fine
00:25:29
it's better to over delete rather than
00:25:31
overcommit
00:25:33
so that's a that's the second issue and
00:25:35
the third issue
00:25:37
i kind of already mentioned it before
00:25:38
but it's trying to tackle every priority
00:25:41
all the time
00:25:44
and i guess the vice versa which is not
00:25:47
tackling the
00:25:48
the priorities that you're meant to and
00:25:49
it kind of goes hand in hand
00:25:51
you need to actually schedule your day
00:25:54
in a way that allows you to tackle
00:25:57
the focus tasks that are important and
00:25:59
urgent
00:26:00
and gives yourself time for the not
00:26:03
the not urgent and important tasks as
00:26:06
well as giving yourself time to
00:26:07
batch out the urgent and not important
00:26:09
tasks your schedule
00:26:11
needs to have time that allows for this
00:26:14
obviously the tasks that are urgent and
00:26:16
important take priority over everything
00:26:18
else
00:26:19
but what if you have so many tasks that
00:26:21
are urgent and important
00:26:23
that you never have time for your urgent
00:26:25
or not important
00:26:27
and you never have time for your not
00:26:29
urgent
00:26:30
not important tasks in this case you
00:26:33
have either over committed to
00:26:35
your like tasks in general
00:26:39
or you do have an efficiency on a micro
00:26:42
level
00:26:43
so it's now looking at a different
00:26:44
problem right
00:26:46
so you should always be able to set
00:26:50
time for the relevant quadrants and
00:26:53
if you are like doing every single task
00:26:56
every single day
00:26:57
and it's completely widely spread just
00:26:59
take a moment to think like is the time
00:27:01
i'm spending actually
00:27:02
you know aligned with my priorities
00:27:05
hierarchy
00:27:06
and if it's not have a closer look at
00:27:10
the time that you are spending
00:27:11
if you're spending a lot of time like
00:27:14
on the bus like in commute or you get
00:27:18
home and you're like i just never have
00:27:19
time when i get home because i get home
00:27:21
at like
00:27:21
5 p.m and i have to make dinner and i
00:27:23
wash up and everything and by then it's
00:27:25
like 7 30 and it's like whoa hold on a
00:27:26
second wait you're telling me it takes
00:27:28
you
00:27:28
two and a half hours to make dinner and
00:27:31
wash up
00:27:32
no that's probably unlikely there's
00:27:33
probably some time there you're probably
00:27:35
getting home five o'clock and then 5 20
00:27:38
you start making dinner and then after
00:27:40
you've made dinner you sit there
00:27:42
for like four you know 15 minutes and
00:27:44
then you
00:27:45
doing the dishes really slowly or
00:27:47
whatever and then like
00:27:48
you relax or scroll on your facebook for
00:27:51
like three minutes here
00:27:52
like so there's gonna be times and gaps
00:27:55
where
00:27:55
you it's going unnoticed because of the
00:27:57
fact that it's always pinned between
00:27:59
other activities and it goes unnoticed
00:28:01
so if you're spending 30 minutes on the
00:28:03
bus it's like what are you doing on the
00:28:04
bus
00:28:04
like what are you doing during that time
00:28:07
um or like i don't have time for
00:28:08
personal development you know i don't
00:28:09
have time to learn and upskill things
00:28:11
it's like oh do
00:28:12
you know like do you not ever like walk
00:28:14
anywhere do you never have like two or
00:28:15
three
00:28:16
minutes that you can just spend
00:28:17
listening to a podcast like this or
00:28:19
thinking about things or carrying a
00:28:21
notebook around like i used to make
00:28:23
phone calls to clients in the stairwell
00:28:26
moving between wards while i was working
00:28:28
as a doctor
00:28:29
just to try to fit in those things and
00:28:31
it made a difference
00:28:33
um so there are you know if
00:28:37
you're finding that you're really really
00:28:40
bustling and you just don't have any
00:28:41
time to spare
00:28:42
think again think a little bit about
00:28:43
really inspect your day and think are
00:28:45
there actually gaps
00:28:46
of time that i can be utilizing more
00:28:48
effectively
00:28:49
um am i kind of chunking my time into
00:28:52
too large of a block and not realizing
00:28:54
that there's actually
00:28:55
a lot of different points throughout the
00:28:56
day that i could be utilizing not to say
00:28:58
that you should never ever relax but i'm
00:29:00
saying that
00:29:00
relaxation should be intentional right
00:29:02
it shouldn't be like i come home at five
00:29:04
and then i start
00:29:05
cooking dinner at 5 30 it's like what
00:29:07
happened in the 30 minutes like were you
00:29:08
intentionally really relaxing and
00:29:10
therefore feel great in the evening
00:29:12
or was it just kind of like time wasted
00:29:13
just like potatoing around
00:29:17
and then if there really is no available
00:29:19
time that you can use
00:29:20
then it's going to be a micro efficiency
00:29:22
problem the ability to execute on tasks
00:29:25
and do them faster and more effectively
00:29:27
and again
00:29:28
this is a topic that we'll talk about in
00:29:29
a future episode as well
00:29:31
but anyway this is the most important i
00:29:34
think
00:29:35
time management task management life
00:29:38
hack that i've picked up over the last
00:29:40
like almost decade of working on this
00:29:42
was
00:29:43
really really be attentive to your
00:29:46
priorities
00:29:47
priorities come first then then comes
00:29:51
time management and task management not
00:29:53
the other way around
00:29:54
and if your priorities are done well
00:29:56
then a lot of the other issues will
00:29:59
in a way almost work themselves out
00:30:02
because
00:30:04
the energy that you are spending is
00:30:06
spent in the right direction it's spent
00:30:08
on the things that it's meant to be
00:30:09
spent on and you're not going to run
00:30:11
into that issue where you
00:30:13
worked super super hard and nothing
00:30:16
meaningful you ever got done because
00:30:17
maybe you spent all of that time on
00:30:19
stuff that wasn't
00:30:20
important potentially so hope that
00:30:24
helped
00:30:25
and i'll see you in the next one till
00:30:27
then stay efficient
00:30:40
[Music]
00:30:42
you
