hey everyone welcome to another google
hangout I’m really excited to have Tom
back with me again today we started this
yesterday and had my internet crash in
california so i’m back here in toronto
and we’re going to continue or talk
about time management and one of the
biggest issues that entrepreneurs face
is how to manage your time manage your
schedule so tomm welcome back and all
right good instead of smoothie what you
have what you hold it on there on this
is a wawa coffee so wawa is very big on
the east coast so we’re big wawa guys so
while coffee it is cool man so let’s
let’s get into the calendar how do you
manage your calendar and what advice you
have for entrepreneurs we’re trying to
manage their calendar yeah absolutely so
for me the calendar is huge i use google
calendar that’s my app of choice syncs
with my phone and desktop and all those
things um and I work so a day wherever I
work with a lot of different peoples go
home constantly in and out of meetings
um which means that my counter gets
filled out very quickly so one of the
things that I like to do is I book
blocks of time just for myself what that
does is it it kind of prevents people
from stealing my time but also it keeps
me super focus so if there’s a test that
i know i need to complete all add a
calendar entry you know stay from three
to four p.m. i’ll label that counter
entry you know busy dash emails me know
or whatever it is and focus honk and
then I know and when three o’clock rolls
around that’s that’s my time that’s
we’re going to focus on it and I’m able
to you know enter into that task was
super purpose you know which is
fantastic um so that that would be my
number one suggestion if you’re looking
for an action tip you know just start
booking blocks and seeing how that works
out for you and my other item is so
google calendar and i’m sure a couple
other different apps have this is you
can sign up to get a daily digest of
what’s on your cal
so it gets sent at 5am it shows up in my
email inbox and I can do a quick audit
of all my my scheduled meetings all my
schedule time and that’s an opportunity
for me to really evaluate you know like
where what’s going to be most valuable
for me and my team in terms of where I’m
going to spend my time so if I see
something that’s a red flag and I see
something that maybe that’s not the best
use of my time today I’ll have
conversations with whoever set that
meeting or I’ll reevaluate and shift my
priorities cool but i love the calendar
idea one of the things that I found
really helpful when I was starting was
blocking off what I called CEO time
where I found that you know as an
entrepreneur we’re doing everything from
being the janitor to being the CEO and I
found that my day could get away from me
so quickly just responding to emails and
putting out fires and when I had this
chunk of time I usually tried to do in
the morning where I blocked off an hour
and a half two hours just to spend on
growing my business the big level stuff
that really helped me make major leaks
forward in my company and so I love the
way you’re talking about managing your
calendar you know making things that
priority and not letting things kind of
I think that the biggest part is you
know you can easily block off time but
then you gotta actually stick to it and
not let people encroach on that time
right not check email and not check your
social media and not let people call you
when you’re focusing on that time I
think a lot of people plan their time
but then their day quickly runs away on
them yeah you know the other thing that
people is I don’t personally do this but
I’ve read a bunch of people do this and
it’s perfect for entrepreneurs it’s it’s
booked your leisure time right so like
if you like to play video games you know
or if you like to browse social media or
if you like to read fiction like book
that time you know so like say from you
know 8pm to 10pm i’m going to play video
games you know and then you can play
video games guilt-free you know knowing
that like you’re
this isn’t going to fall apart during
that time but you’re not distracted by
that desire to have leisure time when
you’re in business mode when you’re a
book right so you can spend your whole
day knowing like you know I’m not going
to look at facebook and I’m not going to
browse TMZ or I’m not gonna watch an
episode of house of cards you know what
I mean because I booked that time the
way that you can look forward to draw
right yeah I think it’s especially
important for entrepreneurs because it’s
hard to have an off switch it’s art that
you know you don’t go home and say oh
I’m gonna stop thinking about my
business now like you might at a typical
job and that there’s a lot of scope
creep into our personal lives and so
booking your personal time whether it’s
just time for yourself but you talk
about watching TV or playing league of
legends or whatever it is but also time
with your wife or husband or time with
your kids like booking wolves and making
them just as important I not let
anything distract so much yeah huge fan
it’s a great suggestion oh um we’ve got
a bunch of questions but but I’m curious
first you wrote apps on the on your
screen there and you’ll like what behind
you what what apps are you using to help
manage your town of interested yeah so
apps are our kind of a double-edged
sword right because I think with
technology we can get so caught up with
wanting to use like the hottest new app
or like you know tons of different
suggestions right so if you have 50 app
suggestions and you go down with 50 ash
you’re gonna spend more time managing
your time than actually doing things
with your you know actually doing the
work so I always promote ask with kind
of like the word of caught a little bit
of caution you know like definitely
enter in with experimentation in mine
you know try it out and see what works
to be completely honest um this I have
on on the desk this is my favorite app
it’s a notebook it is low kak you know
like this isn’t us I know doesn’t do
anything crazy um this is a notebook of
hope well I’m a jiffy I carry them with
me at all times and if there’s some
I want to remember there’s something I
need to take care of I have a system for
getting in that notebook um and then
really managing it as as a task list the
master task list Alyssa that I can’t
really you know replace that with the
net but if I had to there is an app
called tikl move and it is the most
simple you know I’m gonna blow your
minds here first wait no it’s on
yourself okay lion yes any good and i’m
pretty sure if I automatic they build
WordPress are they work on wordpress so
if you’re looking for just a simple note
taking app simple known as number one I
know a lot of people they talk about
distractions and it’s so easy on the web
to get distracted there’s an application
called rescue time and it’s um it’s a
browser extension it just kind of runs
in the background and it tracks where
you go on the internet you know so at
the end of the day at the end of the
week you can say you know I really am
spending too much time on on facebook on
ready you know on these different
websites that kind of you know we think
we’re just taking a five minute break
but you have five minutes turns into 15
minutes and all of a sudden you’re on
Wikipedia learning all about who
directed home alone to you know like
where did I get here you know I counted
I get here you know I was working on
want to like this is crazy you know so
like you never know what’s going to
happen on the internet because you can
just go from page to page to page and
rescue x is a really great job tracking
that kind of stuff and giving you a good
rapport and I’m pretty sure you can also
block pages there are certain time
periods you know so like yeah sometimes
people really need that discipline be
able to say I’m not going to go on
facebook for you know eight hours and
i’m just going to focus on my business
and i think that that’s important us a
rescue time is another one i’ll put in
the notes a tomato timer you can google
that that’s a Pomodoro timer so we talk
about Pomodoro yesterday it’s a really
great web app that you can use
it’s very simple interface start your
timer work for 20 25 minutes and then
start your five minute break and that’s
that’s pretty fantastic um yeah those
are kind of my my my go-to my top three
in terms of productivity there’s another
app called Trella and Trello is is is it
kind of has its roots in a project
management a school of thought called an
agile so you know a lot of startups a
lot of entrepreneurs are probably
familiar with the advil methodology and
I don’t want to get into it because it’s
a little complicated right but basically
if you think of Trello in a physical
sense it’s writing all your to-do lists
a thumbs down in say look like write
them all down on an index card right and
then taking that index card and moving
them through different columns and those
columns will be you know here’s all the
things I need to do and then I move it
over to here’s the things I’m doing
right now and then when you’re done you
move it over to these things are done
and I love Trella because there’s kind
of this of this psychological pick me up
when you move something to done right
like when you complete a task like that
feels that should feel good right and I
think that there’s a difference between
just like doing something and actually
dragging and dropping it from like I’m
doing this to you know thankfully this
things done you know so i really like
Trella that’s another good get an option
to check out terms of managing your task
cool i love it my my my apps are uh i
think more basic um the two that i use
mostly are as simple as it sounds just
gmail i love that i can filter people
and so I’ve got a folder for my
important people my team for people my
family or my important customers and
media yeah and then everybody else goes
to the general folder and I used to have
a time in the day to check email and now
I eliminated that and I check email only
through my iPad when I have time so like
you’re standing in line at Starbucks or
you know the department of motor
vehicles or whatever it is that’s what
I’m
doing email and it’s just sinks offline
or I’m on the like yesterday was on the
flight back home from California and
checking email on the plane and
responding and whenever connects to the
internet it sends out again I find that
just super helpful and when I’m not
responding to email during the day I
find I can be a lot more productive and
proactive instead of being reactive to
what is coming in you’re the one I uses
Evernote I’m a huge Evernote fan that’s
where I store a lot of my notes and
ideas and it’s great because it stinks
between all your devices right so you
update something and you know when i’m
on the plane I updated my note and then
when I go home it’s on my desktop as
well and so especially if you’re
bouncing around going to meetings I just
have that as my sensual kind of
repository of information and email to
our use when if I never have an idea my
default is I send myself an email and
then I have a list of ISTAR all my
emails that i have to take action on and
I just find that I used to have I used
to do I used to do the notebook but then
I lost I lost my balance did I don’t
want to lose all my ideas yeah so that’s
cool yeah it’s interesting to see how
you work yeah that’s a good trick I
actually you know myself a lot too oh
and I have a filter set up in gmail to
take any email sent by me and it goes
into a special folder you know and
that’s where you quiet wake up at 13 in
the morning with like you know this
revelation this idea that i need a
capture no yeah I go to I pull out my
phone and my I just send a quick email
to myself this I like that I like you
have a priority filter for emails from
yourself it’s crazy I’ve ever you know
clears that I mean you know gmail is
awesome I mean gmail is is this if you
customized email um you can really get
into an email flow that that is really
going to change the way you can email so
it’s definitely a robust tool to check
out cool yeah I’m gonna paint too um so
we got we got some questions coming in I
thought we could start to drill down on
them I want to start my own company
through YouTube but at the same time
manage our relationship and studies and
be the president of my class any tips
wants to be an entrepreneur once have a
relationship wants to do well at school
as well what tips do you have to manage
all of that um well I mean definitely
scheduling and you know again it doesn’t
have to be so rigid or like you’re
creating a calendar entry right but
definitely compartmentalizing your day
so that when you are focusing on one of
those priorities you’re really focusing
on that priority right so like you can’t
be out too out to a meal like a nice
dinner with with your significant other
if your mind is over here you know
thinking about your business or thinking
about being president of your class or
you know getting a pub with youtube so i
think that’s really important in this
might be a super philosophical and
metaphysical but you know just in the
moment you know be present so like when
you working on your business or fun your
business when her what’s your
significant other be present with just
another i think that that’s really
important because what happens is i know
you’ll end up getting maybe even post
end there on 100 things but you you end
up getting a hundred percent there on
zero things you know so like you really
want to compartmentalize the focus i
think that that’s really important um
and the other thing I would recommend is
is you know you this question you know
you see mccaskill tangible goals write
down those goals and put them on a
sticky note or put them on a post-it
note and put them on your computer like
whatever ever you are most of your time
just visualize those goals and if you
can you know drill down and it’s kind of
weird with personal relationships but
you know drill down not like what the
metrics are that you’re going to
determine you know you were successful
meeting those goals so being president
of your class that’s a clear metric
right you either you are you aren’t
president of the class but you know in
terms of starting a YouTube business um
figuring out like how many subscribers
are you achieve trying to attain or how
many yeah how much revenue if you want
to make with your youtube business you
know so like being able to set tangible
goals make them visible and
simply refer back to them um you know to
keep yourself on track those would be my
right yeah I love it I i I’m on the same
page I think any any major thing that
you have in your life you want to
dedicate time to you have to block out
those chunks in your calendar and so if
it’s you know with your girlfriend then
maybe those are in the evenings and if
you have to study certain amounts of
time you know you blocked in your
calendar you want to focus on YouTube
you blocking your calendar it’s not in
your calendar you don’t dedicate the
time and chunks to it you’re probably
not going to do it because life has a
funny way of just getting in the way of
everything that you’re trying to do and
to the point on focus i really love that
and i think it’s easy as entrepreneurs
to get distracted I know for myself I’m
with my wife and with my son you know we
may be a plane in the park and like boom
I did hits right like I gotta go do this
and and it’s easier then get derailed
and want to think about that and not
actually be present with my wife and my
mind my son and what I find the easiest
way for me is I just said myself an
email like yeah as long as I can get it
out of my head and I know it can come
back to it that I feel safe and kind of
moving on but if I haven’t written it
down I haven’t sent myself that note
that i’m going to keep thinking about it
and I’m worried that I’m going to forget
it and then not be focused on being
present and being with my wife in my
sign so it’s a pretty load like so
sending email write it down i think i
would expect those things to happen
expect those kind of distractions that
happen and and have a plan around it so
that you don’t get to cut up and you
know leave it off the wrong path and
then not being able to spend time with
your with your family next one is a off
off the ball one but i want to i want to
kind of rotate it around to this topic
so the question is why don’t schools
teach us about money just really our
topic here but but i’m i’m wondering
about applying it to time management
because if I didn’t learn this stuff in
school and we kind of all figure out our
own paths and and maybe not the
philosophical way of why we don’t teach
you in schools but I’m curious for you
how you
learned about time management and
controlling your schedule to calendar
making it work for you I what was that
process like via where did you learn the
information so i think i learned at a
very young age if I wanted to be
productive and passionate um i would
have to surround myself with productive
and passionate people right like I think
you are to some extent and this is the
cliche but you are the company you know
you kind of are the company that you
keep so I think if you want to be a
certain person it’s important to
surround yourself around like-minded
people um and that doesn’t mean that you
have to you know make new friends it
doesn’t mean that you have to like you
know ostracized family members it just
means that you have to be around these
these types of people and for me that
was blogs books podcasts you know like
it didn’t mean going out and finding
people down the street that are
productive that I can hang out with from
the weekend yeah that’s a mastermind
group it really just meant finding the
blog posts that were really going to
inspire me to be more productive um you
know finding the books like I read on
Stephen Covey’s seven habits you know
how affected people at like a really odd
young age you know me I don’t think I
was like 13 you know for like
interesting hit just thinking like I
just I just loved it you know because
here’s like this like amazing time you
know like go read about Steve Jobs you
know and and and breathe about the
people who are doing the things that you
want to be doing for me it was being
productive you know for for your
audience it might be really all about
successful entrepreneurs right and then
surround yourself with YouTube channels
like every YouTube channel you know or
or you know surround yourself with RSS
feeds of a blog post where you’re going
to get that daily dose of tips tricks
life hacks um things that didn’t work
for people i mean like that’s really
important you know like hearing about
people’s failures is fantastic because
then you’re not going to make the same
mistake you know i mean yeah i love and
i totally agree that your product of
your environment and you
you’re hitting the core because I’ve
mentioned that a lot on my channel so I
know the audience would would appreciate
that I think for me the book that
started getting me thinking about time
management was the four or work week oh
yeah great book and and not that I won’t
only want it to work for hours because I
think if you love what you’re doing you
want to you want to do more like it you
get fuel from it it drives you but a lot
of the techniques he talks about on how
to eliminate the task you don’t need how
to automate a lot of the class how to
delegate it away and I open my eyes as
to things that I could be doing better
and made me focus a lot more
productivity and time management that
they kind of open up this world then I
started delving into other videos and
books oh but that’s interesting you read
seven habits that yeah routine I don’t
know how old it was when I read four
hour work week because whenever it
matter I’m a really big fanatic of
podcast right now so i definitely
recommend podcasts as a way to start
getting entrepreneur stories and tips
and tricks on how to be more productive
into your head because it’s something
that you can do passively while you’re
spending your time doing other things
like what i’m washing the dishes i’m
listening to a podcast you know about a
successful on north um what i’m driving
a work I’m listening to the productivity
is which is all about productivity where
you know they interview other
entrepreneurs solely about how they are
productive you know so it’s if you have
this I call a deadtime you know if you
drive to work every day for 40 minutes
and you’re just listening to talk radio
or you’re listening to you know top 40
hit songs um to me that’s not the best
use of that time when you could be
absorbing these little bit these little
gold nuggets of wisdom you know from
these people who study this kind of
thing every day you know they live the
success every day you can be you know
absorbing this during that 40 minutes
and then you show up for work you got
these little nuggets that
you’re ready to apply right away which i
think is fantastic so do things like
that you’re making good use of your idle
time so that this brings you the
interesting question because I think a
lot of people a lot of entrepreneur
multitask too much and then also miss
out on stuff and not get anything done
properly deserve their brain a split so
so it’s interesting you brought that up
as a suggestion so when can you
multitask and do that you mentioned dead
time when is it appropriate to look for
those opportunities and when is it like
I need to just shut off and focus and do
it I’m do it yeah I think for me it’s
it’s a you know focused on purpose yeah
I have it up here yeah right up top um
it’s it’s when you’re doing the tasks
that you know you can’t delegate right
like driving to work like you just can’t
delegate that all washing the dishes you
might be able to develop them delegate
that but most of us can’t you know like
dirty dishes need to wash so it’s when
you’re doing the things that are like
kind of mindless activities um that you
can you can kind of inject these other
these other things like whether it’s a
podcast or an audio book and I don’t
even consider that multitasking you know
I me because it’s just like it’s so
passive you know like I wouldn’t say
write your book while commuting because
that’s dangerous you know but like it’s
doing information so you don’t read a
blog post while you’re driving but if
you can listen to audio I mean that’s a
great way like I whenever you’re in a
position where you know you’re in the
waiting room somewhere yeah when you get
the doctor’s office you know you can
pick up the random Sports Illustrated
magazine you know maybe the magazine
that you haven’t read ten years you know
and you can read an article about sewing
stuff or you can carry headphones on you
I’ll pop them into your iPhone and
listen to an audiobook from Stephen
Covey you know so like it’s those
moments where like you can’t delegate
you can’t avoid them how are you going
to make the best out of those 5 10 15 20
minutes throughout your day where you’re
in these opportunities to learn this is
all about learning right so like if
you’re in
opportunities where you can just learn
something new um you’re you might not
learn it from Sports Illustrated
magazine sitting in the waiting room but
you know you can have you know in your
pocket your iphone you have this you
know wide range of places you can learn
from you know it was just fantastic one
of the things I like to differentiate is
between tasks with my mind and pass with
my body and whenever whenever my body is
being used on mine isn’t that’s an
opportunity to try to inject knowledge
in so running on the treadmill you know
mowing the lawn doing the dishes like
you’re active with your body but you’re
not active with your mind and so that’s
when you can eject it but if you’re at
least for me I found if I’m trying to do
something active with my mind if I’m
writing if I’m preparing for something
if I’m doing emails then it’s hard for
me to them try to also listen to
something else that’s coming in because
my mind is already active and so the the
dead time for sure sitting the doctor’s
office where you’re not doing anything
but then also I find when I have that
time wearing when my mind is idle but my
body is busy that I can I can inject
some more fuel into there yeah I’m
working out as great great example you
know it’s a lot of people they default
to listening to music when they work out
and that’s great because it gets
up and teach me on bond but it if you
can you know experiment how about
experimentation to keep experiment with
a hot castrum audiobook or you’re on the
treadmill working out I mean that’s a
that’s good good opportunity cool um so
next question is from amber and Tyler
and is about trying to catch up so he
feels rushed 29 years old married but
feeling behind on the goals you know
trying to pay the bills as well as reach
that new level of success but it’s
feeling like it’s always playing
catch-up and hasn’t gotten where he
wants to go yet and wants to kind of
rush his way to success yeah and manage
is scheduled to do that so what what
advice would you have for them again I
for me it’s all about visualizing the
angle right so I think it’s really
difficult to achieve your goal if you
haven’t defined it you know so to find
that goal um and at first it’s going to
be like really big and bro
you know so if your goal is the start of
business and you have a loose concept
for that business um that’s a really big
broad you know and if that’s all you
have I don’t want to say it’s
unattainable but it’s gonna be really
difficult to attain that goal so taking
that big concept and then start chunky
out into smaller milestones and then
taking those milestones and then
starting to chunk those out into actual
tasks that are going to get any closer
and closer to that goal right so if
you’re if you’re working full-time so I
mean I guess a good example for me is uh
so I’m really passionate about fiction
and I’m a writer so I’ve never written a
book I’ve never written a piece of
fiction but just this past year I
started writing my first book but I work
full-time as a project manager I have a
wife I have a son really difficult for
me to just like drop things and work on
this book um but I had my end goal in
mind and i chunked it out into the
chapters and then from the chapters i
chunked it out into the smaller outlines
and then I I’ve walked out time on my
schedule each day to hit a work account
so I had a tangible goal I want to write
you know a thousand words a day um or
750 words a day and then I really woke
up in the morning with that drive I
looked at my goal which I have on
post-it note which is sitting right by
my bed um you know and I woke up with
that passion in that drive and I
reminded myself how much I wanted it and
then I sat down and I just started doing
you know I started writing words and
maybe they’re not that great and i’ll
edit them later but just the fact that
like you just have to start doing you
know you can talk talk talk at the end
of day just visualize your goal check it
out into you know actual tasks set
metrics to to show that you’re making
progress and then just that’s cool I’m
looking forward to seeing the book too
man that’s excited I’m excited um one of
my favorite bits of advice is from
Michael Dell who talked about
understanding your point of leverage and
one of the things that I constantly try
to think about for myself is what’s the
best use of my time
I’m to drive the needle as far as I can
go where so you know even a task is of
100 things plus you’re behind you know
you feel in your life and you catch up
on your bills and want spend time with
your your wife there’s a lot of things
on your plate so you only have a certain
amount of time to be able to focus on
this new thing what activity or you
great at that you can really spend
energy on that’s really going to move it
forward so yes you have your goals you
have your vision you have your plan and
then look at that task list and which
one that if you attack today that’s
going to help really move your project
forward because it’s leveraging what
you’re passionate about what you’ve got
you know your great skills at I feel
like if people understood their point of
leverage a lot better than you be able
to make faster growth and catch up and
get to where you want to go a lot sooner
yeah next gold silver and diamonds
question how much does delegation play
in effective time management delegation
is outrageously important in effectively
managing your time especially at the
entrepreneur level because you’re going
to start doing everything you know like
you’re going to have to do everything
but as your business grows and as you
grow on you know you’re going to have to
be able to you know trust others to do
certain things to free you up for doing
the things that you’re really really
good at um but then also you know
admitting to yourself that there might
be things that other people are better
at than you are you know so like if
you’re a if you’re an entrepreneur that
has a vlog and you’re doing all the
graphic design for your blog posts um
you might not be a natural-born graphic
designer that might not be your strong
point so I there’s going to come a point
at juncture where you know you’re you’re
making enough to justify delegating that
task and paying someone who’s a
professional graphic designer that is
going to take that time away from you so
you’re going to have that time back
you’re going to be able to allocate it
in other parts of your business but on
top of that they’re probably going to do
a better job than you and that’s okay
you know so
being able to develop trust with other
people is important and then the other
thing which kind of goes back to the
last question is you know in terms of
getting ahead if if you’re spending a
lot of time doing menial tasks like
mowing the lawn for example and you know
there’s there’s a kid two houses down
who would love to mow your lawn for
twenty bucks a month um be okay with you
know if you can afford it relinquishing
that 20 bucks a month and you’re going
to get that time back and you’re going
to be able to allocate that time is
smarter than a so there’s there’s
there’s things with delegation where
it’s like um there’s the day-to-day you
know the task that absolutely has to get
done and they can be done by anybody be
prepared to delegate those and then
there’s the tasks that you’re doing that
you probably shouldn’t be doing be
prepared to admit that to yourself and
find the best person for the job and
start developing a relationship and
developing trust with that person to
know that they have you know your
business and your interest in line so
that you can pass that off and focus on
other aspects of your business yeah I
love it the order that I like to go in
is eliminate automate delegate so well
chances are there’s a lot of things that
you’re doing alright in your business
that that just shouldn’t be done so
there’s no point giving them of somebody
else because it’s not high value high
leverage it should be eliminated from
this is completely step two is automate
where if you can automate an important
task it’s way better to do that than to
give it to somebody else to do right
because you know it’ll get done faster
computers don’t make mistakes they don’t
take vacationers and and chances are
it’s a much more menial task you know
don’t listen to give to human being and
then the third is delegate so you
eliminate first automate second delegate
third and I think understanding that to
do something big you have to build
beyond yourself and a lot of
entrepreneurs have a hard time hi hareen
and especially with the first hires and
make mistakes and often feel like man I
can’t get the right person not so I’m
just going to do it all myself retreat
in words but to do something big to
really have an empire you have to be
able to build a team out because you
can’t do everything yourself and there
standing again back to the understand
your point of leverage you are great at
something you want to focus on that and
what you
and then use people who are better than
you like you said at other skills to
help round out those weaknesses to help
you get to where you want to go so yeah
I mean I agree it’s a huge factor in
effective time management for your
business yeah automate and you know it’s
just their gravy of automation is cute I
personally don’t pay any vanilla tea you
know like obviously I pay my bills but
like I don’t physically pay any bills
they’re all set up the automatic and I
know for me personally if I had to
hopefully you know go and write a check
or you know manually you know read my
credit card down and nail something in
mom those are the types of things for me
personally that slip through the cracks
or they just sit there at the back of my
mind and they prevent me from focus on
the bigger things so yeah either an
opportunity to automate um obviously a
weather com work email automation you
know that’s what we do is we’re excited
you know that’s what gets us amped but
yeah automate as much as you can
absolutely yeah I mean I was about to
bring up a lever to uh I run all my
newsletters away but Weber and I could
imagine trying to do that myself or
delegate it to somebody to manage you
know send an email down on different
days to this humongous list and who
wants unsubscribe and what’s the
likelihood of a feeling caught by spam
filters and all of the templates and
tools like to do that manually it’s just
insane it’s more than a full-time job
yeah and i can use software like aweber
for you know I forget what I’m paying
not a lot of money to handle all that
for me it’s just insane value that lets
me focus on doing the things that I’m
great and want to build my business
instead of worried about the tack of
sending out emails yeah another question
about tech has technology allowed us
better options to manage time or has it
made it tougher it depends on the person
you know technology can be the
distraction that keeps you from getting
the things done or to be the tool that
helps you get from point A to point B on
so it’s it’s the elephant in the room
you know it’s the thin and you have to
be mindful of at all times so if you’re
if you use a certain word processor
if you use a certain you know finance
financial software for bookkeeping well
if it’s painful odds are there’s
something better out there that you
could be using right so like that that’s
kind of my gauge it’s like if if you’re
fighting with technology um then you
need to reconsider that piece of
technology right so it should be the
tool that helps you get things done on
it shouldn’t be you wrestling with the
tool um so I absolutely think it depends
on who you are what you use um but yeah
I mean it’s it’s it’s done wonders for
for me personally I mean email filters
are a great example of that you know
like before I set up all my gmail
filters my inbox was a mess and now it’s
the super manageable thing where I can
spend five minutes and have a good
handle on all my incoming messages um
but again you know to go back to my
notebook like for me like really at the
end of the day you know this is like one
of the only things I need to keep saying
and this is as low tech as it gets you
know so it depends um but I think you
need to mastery you know and you really
need to experiment with it and get it to
a point where technology is working for
you not you you’re working for
technology oh that’s for a lot of
different stuff yeah I mean in my mind
there’s no question technology has
helped us helps you do way more that’s
it that’s the entire point of technology
right if I needed to reach the hundred
thousand people on my newsletter list
how would I do that without technology
would I be sending out a hundred
thousand handwritten notes and doing
that like it’s not possible so you know
of course technology has helped make our
lives easier and do more but I think the
challenge is understanding how to master
it and again we don’t learn this in
school so so you’re on your own
afterwards to try to figure out maybe
watching hanging us like this or reading
blogs or watching videos to find out
what works for you and I mean that’s why
I want to have Tom come on is to share
his way of doing things I’m sharing my
way of doing things and neither of us
are gonna be perfect for you but you
want to build the perfect version for
yourself and so you might might look at
pomodoro and say oh that’s really cool
long and steal that from Tom and you
steal something for me and you have to
find the best way to to make technology
work for you
your life um Elias asking do you have
any tips for people like me who have a
short concentration span and get
distracted easily yeah i mean my tip for
you would be to eliminate those
distractions like just just get them out
of the way so if you’re distracted by
certain websites install a website
blocker that’s going to block it during
certain times and like physically make
it impossible for you to visit those
websites if you’re distracted by um you
know your environment I’ll clean up your
environment so if you’re cluttered desk
is distracting you then you know just
book that 25 minutes to clean up that
desk you know get where it needs to be
um I absolutely recommend so if you’re
kind of a a solopreneur you work from
home um if you have the ability to work
in an office or in a room with a closed
door I think that’s really helpful um i
think for me personally and again you
know this is going to vary person by
person but if i’m working out my couch
you know because I on occasion I work
from home if I’m working on my couch I’m
distracted by everything you know like
my my wife is home with my son
distracted by that on the TV is right
there even if I want to have it on for
white noise that’s a distraction on
music can be a blessing or a curse when
you’re trying to be productive so really
just like creating the perfect
environment where you can’t physically
be distracted because you’ve done your
best to to get them out of your your
view right your preferable for you on
that would be my absolute number one
suggestion and my other suggestion is if
you physically can’t do that um see if
you can change your environment all
together right so like for a lot of
people going to the local coffee shop
for the local library that forces them
to get in the zone you know like you’re
going to that place with focus and
purpose you’re going to that location to
get things done so when you get there
you know provide you’re not distracted
by all the people walking by which is
again Hospital possibility for some
people you will get things done I love
it um the things that helped me early in
my career which
closing down email yeah and having set
times to open it up that alone save me
massive amounts of distraction you
already mentioned some of the app so you
can use about rescue time where it’s
blocking pages so that you can’t load
facebook for the next X number of
minutes so I love I don’t agree with
everything Tom said about the
environment the thing I would add to it
is I I’m a big believer in trying to
create a schedule that supports who you
are instead of trying to fight it and
especially as an entrepreneur you have
the ability to create your own schedule
you’re not being told need to show up by
this amount of time so if you find that
you you have you know maybe a baby D and
you can’t focus for long periods of time
don’t try to create a schedule where you
book yourself to like three hour chunks
that may be too long for you to get
something done in I would instead try to
split up my day so I’m doing if it’s
using the Promotora technique and I’m
doing you know an hour at a time with
breaks in between and I know like I’m a
guy now who is like allies if you are
super distracted and have a TD and you
can’t focus then run with that and do
our chunks hour and then break an hour
in a break and then you know that you’re
setting up a schedule that’s kind of
designed around who you are your
personality that’s going to work for you
as entrence we have that ability and you
should like some people are night owls
work at night some people love the work
in the morning work first thing in the
morning I create a schedule that
supports you just as a general like
happiness rule but it also make you a
lot more productive and get you closer
to your goals faster next up Jay Reise
fonseka he’s a he’s a usual on the
channel always ask some great questions
hi Evan and Tom could you guys dig a bit
deeper into opportunity costs and task
switching yeah so I mean task switching
i call it context switching yeah because
you’re changing your contacts from one
one thing to another and that is so
dangerous and that’s why i love Pomodoro
right because like when you’re in that
twenty five minute period and you said
your specific tasks if you stick to that
on you’re really going to benefit
because like with context switching its
people don’t realize the opportunity
cost of your energy kind of fluctuating
as you ramp up and rent down on certain
things right so when you you know move
from point the task a to task p you need
to push everything aside you need to you
know get get situated with where your
starting point is you need to figure out
what your objective is um and it’s even
something simple like having your email
open when you’re focused on one thing
and email comes through and you have to
stop and read it and then you you know
you’re making these micro decisions of
like you know do I want to think about
this now or later ok I think about it
now well you know how do I feel about
this do i need to respond now or should
I wait till later and you’re making all
these little micro decisions meanwhile
task a is just sitting there you know
waiting for you to get to it and then
when you finally get back you need to
like ran back up on where you were so i
absolutely think that there’s a huge
opportunity cost with context switching
on planning for your leisure time
planning for your distractions and
booking that time is a real good way to
avoid that on the pomodoro technique is
a great way to do that and i think and
this is something that a lot of people
struggle with entrepreneur struggle with
it sometimes you just have to put polite
you know in a polite way tactfully say
no I mean yeah sometimes but you get
distracted and somebody wants to force
you do context which it’s important as
an entrepreneur you know to respect your
time and kind of force that other people
respect it and and say you know not
necessarily know but not right now at
this median second unless it’s a CodeRed
issue that you have to address those
things happen you know where you got it
you have to drop everything fixed
something but if you can you know oppose
we say I’m going to get to that you know
I’ll be an address your issue at a 2
p.m. today you know I’ve made so that
you can avoid that context regime and
stay focused yeah I love it I agree with
everything you’re saying I think in
terms of opportunity costs a lot of
people a lot of on turns have a list of
ideas right here the hundred things I
want to work on all these different ways
I could grow my business and we tend to
not finish much right we start off of
one in the next day we do something else
and we’re always kind of being pulled in
multiple directions where I think you’re
almost defined by what you say no to and
you want to you want to explore to find
out what you’re passionate about where
your heart lies and where you get the
most value to the world and make money
as a business when you figure that out
you got it you gotta stay on track and
and say nodes are the things that you
know if it’s not maybe it’s not totally
know forever but no for right now
because I’m focused on wanting to do
this um you know I think in my business
I’m doing a lot on YouTube right now I’m
kind of all in on YouTube and that means
I’m seeing no other opportunities like
yes these can be great things to grow my
business but I’d rather do one or two
things really really well then try to do
a hundred things and being mediocre and
everything and not make an impact and so
understanding what you’re passionate
about and where the opportunity is for
you and then saying no to almost
everything else to let you focus
task-switching I feel uh it depends on
on the task I know for example when I’m
right in my book I need the whole thing
like I block off tuesdays I’m writing my
book I don’t answer email I don’t like
my team knows I’m not accessible you
know I don’t have a cell phone so you
can’t there is no code red you can’t
reach me it’s not possible because
explode you know I mean I think people
need to think about that and accept that
you kind of like your business isn’t
going to go from you know X amount of
dollars to zero because you turn off
your cell phone for a three hours long
you know I think that that’s difficult
for a lot of course like oh yeah when we
all survived before cell phones were
here so we can continue as a species uh
I find like if I’m when I start writing
my book it takes me 30 to 60 minutes
just to get back to where I was last
time or I left off and every time I get
distracted by something fix me another
half an hour just to remember and even
if i don’t answer that’s the thing like
if I see an email come in or if you see
something on your phone you look down at
it and you say oh hmm Shirley’s calling
me yeah I wonder what she wants I forget
I’m gonna hang up even just that pulls
you away from you being in the zone
and continuing other 20 minutes to get
back into it so as much as possible you
want to avoid the task switching when
it’s when you’re doing little tasks it’s
not as big a deal but when you’re doing
heavy thinking create a pass when you
get distracted it’s really really hard
to get back into the zone um Doug’s
writing in I just saw an awesome webinar
from Aweber a few days ago now there’s
yet another there you go props to you
guys’ve and weber delivering the value
to entrepreneurs yeah we love whether I
love it mohit how do i improve focus and
concentration while working in my
allotted time focus and concentration
yeah I don’t want to continue to repeat
myself but again eliminating those
distractions is is really really going
to be effective you know to improve your
focus and again hate to repeat myself
but writing down that tangible goal on a
post-it note and just plopping it right
in front of you really helps you you
know just sent her back so if your mind
starts wandering um you know or if you
do it yourself phone out and you do get
that that that buzz you know and you
look down at your phone and you’re
taking away creatively for a split
second you’re constantly just referring
back to like what is my goal right now
you know a 325 minute Pomodoro it’s what
is my focus during this Pomodoro or if
it’s book writing gay you know it’s it’s
getting back to you know like centering
yourself and getting back to that point
and it’s very visual you know so like
for me it’s visual it’s you know how
your to do is written out right in front
of you so that you can get right back
into it or having posted note or
something like that you know or
inspirational quote you know like a lot
of people love inspirational quotes I do
too um if you find the right one like
that can do wonders you know because it
really like a good inspirational quote
as cheesy as they might be on Twitter
sometimes and overused if you find the
right one that works for you just put it
up on your desk or put it up in your
workspace and and you can constantly
look to that and it’s going to it’s
going to remind you why you do what we
do and sometimes like that sounds really
big and grand
that’s what you need to stay focused on
the task at hand because you know that
all those tasks are going to add up to
you getting your goals and being
successful yeah i think is a great point
remembering your big wine your little
wide for me the big why is like why am I
doing this what’s the big goal i’m
trying to do you know I want to help a
billion entrepreneurs why is that
important to me and keeping that like
big picture in mind can be hard when you
are like stuck in the trees and in with
all of the crap of running the business
like am I actually doing something
important and so in having that big why
I find super helpful and then I also
find a little why is it important and I
see those as the the day-to-day activity
engagement and understanding that you
have an impact so sometimes that big why
that big ol can seem too lofty too far
away to impossible to reach the little
wise for me are for example looking at
my youtube comments and seeing that oh
like somebody was really helped and
really moved by what I made and
understand that the work that I’m doing
is having an impact right now in a
little way just on one person’s life at
a time so look at your customer feedback
and knowing that you’re helping them
improve their lives can can help you
refocus and understand that hey the work
I’m doing is important I need to keep
fighting to keep doing this and make it
physical print that stuff out you know
so if you get a tweet you know from a
customer or from one someone from your
audience or they really did benefit and
it’s a snapshot of your big lie you know
put that out with that somewhere then
you can see it because I think those
little reminders are super important to
keep it live but there’s a lot of fun
happening in a chat and out one person
Tamera’s right Nancy I like the chat and
she liked it so much she can’t listen to
us talking and chat at the same time so
you’re going to have to pick Tamara
there’s a lot of people asking about
trellis we will download it they haven’t
used it don’t fully understand it and
this they said it sounds pretty cool and
interesting can you maybe just dive a
little deeper into that it seems to have
picked up a storm in the chat yeah
totally so I’ll try to illustrate it but
with the glare I don’t know how it’s
gonna come out but like basically the
origin is from you know agile
development and I’m pretty
sure these big school of Admiral is con
bond on it comes from it actually comes
from Japanese auto manufacturer where
they were optimizing the production of
automobiles so fantastically that this
whole school of different community out
right um if we have what’s called swim
lanes miss Rella um you’ll have a couple
difference in land where you can you can
label them whatever you want to label
them so for me it’s really just you know
to do and again you can customize this
it’s planning doing and done so you can
do this with Trella but you could really
do this with any poster board or any
white board that you have you know it’s
really just taking post-it notes on
physically and just putting all your to
do’s and it’s separate posted Notre an
index card and stacking them otha to do
side um and then you’re going to take
one then you’re ready to start you’re
going to move it over to planning
because you want to make sure that you
know what you’re doing before you do it
so you’re going to plan it and make sure
that you have all the specifics and
details ready to go and then you’re
going to move it into doing and then
you’re going to move it into done when
you’re finished so really it’s just it’s
visualizing your workflow so if you’re a
blogger on you’re running a blog post
you can label these blog post ideas
drafts editing published right so you
can really customize your visual
workflow and then pull things along and
it’s really just a nice driving drop
interface for doing that and one of the
concepts that I think is important in
this and in Trello is uh you don’t want
to do too many things at once right you
really want to focus on just one or two
or three things and get them to done
because they you said earlier Evan a lot
of entrepreneurs and a lot of people
they have a habit of feeling the doing
column but never getting the actual big
things done like yeah yeahs is limit the
work in progress so if you’re working on
100 things at eighty percent you’re
going to
zero things to one hundred percent you
know so work on the few things give it a
hundred percent of your energy and your
time and no with the angles and then
pull it through this visual workflow and
I find that troll does a really good job
you know having you set this up you can
add other users so if you collaborate
with the team they can have access to
your boards and we can all kind of work
together on whatever your flow is it’s
so cool you can customize you know based
on whatever you do very cool helps me
and I think it definitely helps people
who are watching as well I know we’re
bumping up the clock when time flies
this is great uh maybe maybe last
question here King king j does your mind
ever feel drained or not wanting to do
something what are some ways to flip
that yeah so I think for me to answer
that question my mind does feel drained
at certain times and when I stop and
think about it it usually comes down to
it like the last thing I have got here
which like is probably last because it’s
so foundational you know all the other
things are supported by this is health
right so like for me personally when my
mind is trained but I row stop to think
about it it’s because I didn’t get as
much sleep as I need to you this week or
I haven’t eaten junk food you know or I
didn’t go out with my buddies for couple
drinks tonight before you know I mean
it’s so like there’s always going to be
this physical component to how your mind
functions right so making sure you’re
taking good care of yourself and
sleeping and working at the right hours
so like if you’re a night owl that’s
great um but like if you’re not a night
out then working at the I towers aren’t
going to help you if they’re not going
to help your mind station or as for
finding the right time work um and being
okay with like this is something as a
writer this is something I’ve struggled
with you know it’s being okay with like
writers block or creativity block you
know like just now don’t get frustrated
with it you know like if you sit down to
write a blog post or do something
creative beretta script for a video or
shoot something whatever your business
is you know like if you’re sitting down
with a you schedule your time you did
all the tips that
talking about today you did it all
perfectly the hour comes up you sit down
to do the task and you just don’t have
the mental creativity and capacity to do
it being okay and don’t get frustrated
and just go for a walk get some fresh
air you know do take a break do
something you love and be a human being
you know because we’re human beings and
at the end okay we’re gonna have those
moments where our minds just aren’t what
we want them to be um but but it’s not
forever and it’s not all the time so
just accept when it happens if it’s
health related because you’re not
getting enough sleep try to work on that
try to fix that kind of thing if it’s
because you have too much or too little
coffee you know adjust your coffee
intake you know so think about the
reasons why but at the end of the day
just be okay was shut it off yeah i got
mine right here just be okay lemme other
they get an ice block or spending time
with family or doing like something
that’s going to make you feel really
good and don’t get frustrated yeah I
agree and I think a lot of entrepreneurs
about to help these people because we
are running ourselves you know we’re
stressed out we’ve got a lot of things
on my plate working crazy hours and so
taking care of yourself is super
important the curveball would kind of
throw out here for this question is uh
maybe you shouldn’t be doing those tasks
you know one of the things I i see that
is if I’m doing something that I don’t
like for too long you can only force
yourself to do something you don’t enjoy
doing for a certain amount of time and
at some point you have to ask yourself
like should I even be doing this or not
and there might be something health
reason there might be something
something you just got to get through
but if it’s happening for too many days
in a row maybe you need to examine
whether you should be doing this TAS or
not in the first place um that may not
be the answer lady for king j but that’s
just kind of an honest opinion you know
for me I love helping entrepreneurs I
can help entrepreneurs all day long I
could like not go to the bathroom I
could miss meals and then realize like I
haven’t eaten all day because I’m
sitting here talking out to like I just
I love it it’s my passion I get excited
by it I’m talking faster and with more
energy now because I’m thinking about it
yeah and so you know i would try to
encourage everybody listening to find
what makes you come alive and try to do
more of that and if you’re being drained
by things that that are sucking life
from you maybe you shouldn’t be doing
those things anymore and you can only
force yourself for so long to do those
kinds of things yeah i agree that um
cool we’re bumping up against the clock
for those of you watching thank you so
much I know we had kind of scheduling
issues and internet issues some people
want to learn more about a weber you can
check out a weber calm the next hangout
we’re going to do is next month and and
for Tom for people who want to find you
I know you like your twitter handle up
there on the top is it there tat yeah so
a lot of my twitter handle is at T in RT
four letters T NRT um and every time I
read a good blog post or watching a
video or anything on productivity on
email marketing on team management
project management I share right on
Twitter like that’s my go-to you so if
you want to check me on Twitter or
follow me I’m gonna it’s a constant fee
of just great stuff like I’ve already
read I love it and I just want everyone
to read it so it’s definitely a good
place to keep keep in mind going after
this hangout I love it so thank you guys
again the chats been amazing the
questions have been awesome we’re at an
hour and there’s still tons of questions
left Tom’s going to maybe leave a
comment with all the links to the apps
and resources that we talked about or
we’ll put it in description will figure
that out and check out Aweber if you
need some awesome email software it
drives my business and I think it really
helped you guys and we’ll see you next
month for the next hangout so thank you
Tom I really appreciate the time as well
yeah this is awesome so yeah leave as
many comments as you want to try to get
as many as I can yeah awesome thanks
everybody appreciate it thank you see ya
hangout I’m really excited to have Tom
back with me again today we started this
yesterday and had my internet crash in
california so i’m back here in toronto
and we’re going to continue or talk
about time management and one of the
biggest issues that entrepreneurs face
is how to manage your time manage your
schedule so tomm welcome back and all
right good instead of smoothie what you
have what you hold it on there on this
is a wawa coffee so wawa is very big on
the east coast so we’re big wawa guys so
while coffee it is cool man so let’s
let’s get into the calendar how do you
manage your calendar and what advice you
have for entrepreneurs we’re trying to
manage their calendar yeah absolutely so
for me the calendar is huge i use google
calendar that’s my app of choice syncs
with my phone and desktop and all those
things um and I work so a day wherever I
work with a lot of different peoples go
home constantly in and out of meetings
um which means that my counter gets
filled out very quickly so one of the
things that I like to do is I book
blocks of time just for myself what that
does is it it kind of prevents people
from stealing my time but also it keeps
me super focus so if there’s a test that
i know i need to complete all add a
calendar entry you know stay from three
to four p.m. i’ll label that counter
entry you know busy dash emails me know
or whatever it is and focus honk and
then I know and when three o’clock rolls
around that’s that’s my time that’s
we’re going to focus on it and I’m able
to you know enter into that task was
super purpose you know which is
fantastic um so that that would be my
number one suggestion if you’re looking
for an action tip you know just start
booking blocks and seeing how that works
out for you and my other item is so
google calendar and i’m sure a couple
other different apps have this is you
can sign up to get a daily digest of
what’s on your cal
so it gets sent at 5am it shows up in my
email inbox and I can do a quick audit
of all my my scheduled meetings all my
schedule time and that’s an opportunity
for me to really evaluate you know like
where what’s going to be most valuable
for me and my team in terms of where I’m
going to spend my time so if I see
something that’s a red flag and I see
something that maybe that’s not the best
use of my time today I’ll have
conversations with whoever set that
meeting or I’ll reevaluate and shift my
priorities cool but i love the calendar
idea one of the things that I found
really helpful when I was starting was
blocking off what I called CEO time
where I found that you know as an
entrepreneur we’re doing everything from
being the janitor to being the CEO and I
found that my day could get away from me
so quickly just responding to emails and
putting out fires and when I had this
chunk of time I usually tried to do in
the morning where I blocked off an hour
and a half two hours just to spend on
growing my business the big level stuff
that really helped me make major leaks
forward in my company and so I love the
way you’re talking about managing your
calendar you know making things that
priority and not letting things kind of
I think that the biggest part is you
know you can easily block off time but
then you gotta actually stick to it and
not let people encroach on that time
right not check email and not check your
social media and not let people call you
when you’re focusing on that time I
think a lot of people plan their time
but then their day quickly runs away on
them yeah you know the other thing that
people is I don’t personally do this but
I’ve read a bunch of people do this and
it’s perfect for entrepreneurs it’s it’s
booked your leisure time right so like
if you like to play video games you know
or if you like to browse social media or
if you like to read fiction like book
that time you know so like say from you
know 8pm to 10pm i’m going to play video
games you know and then you can play
video games guilt-free you know knowing
that like you’re
this isn’t going to fall apart during
that time but you’re not distracted by
that desire to have leisure time when
you’re in business mode when you’re a
book right so you can spend your whole
day knowing like you know I’m not going
to look at facebook and I’m not going to
browse TMZ or I’m not gonna watch an
episode of house of cards you know what
I mean because I booked that time the
way that you can look forward to draw
right yeah I think it’s especially
important for entrepreneurs because it’s
hard to have an off switch it’s art that
you know you don’t go home and say oh
I’m gonna stop thinking about my
business now like you might at a typical
job and that there’s a lot of scope
creep into our personal lives and so
booking your personal time whether it’s
just time for yourself but you talk
about watching TV or playing league of
legends or whatever it is but also time
with your wife or husband or time with
your kids like booking wolves and making
them just as important I not let
anything distract so much yeah huge fan
it’s a great suggestion oh um we’ve got
a bunch of questions but but I’m curious
first you wrote apps on the on your
screen there and you’ll like what behind
you what what apps are you using to help
manage your town of interested yeah so
apps are our kind of a double-edged
sword right because I think with
technology we can get so caught up with
wanting to use like the hottest new app
or like you know tons of different
suggestions right so if you have 50 app
suggestions and you go down with 50 ash
you’re gonna spend more time managing
your time than actually doing things
with your you know actually doing the
work so I always promote ask with kind
of like the word of caught a little bit
of caution you know like definitely
enter in with experimentation in mine
you know try it out and see what works
to be completely honest um this I have
on on the desk this is my favorite app
it’s a notebook it is low kak you know
like this isn’t us I know doesn’t do
anything crazy um this is a notebook of
hope well I’m a jiffy I carry them with
me at all times and if there’s some
I want to remember there’s something I
need to take care of I have a system for
getting in that notebook um and then
really managing it as as a task list the
master task list Alyssa that I can’t
really you know replace that with the
net but if I had to there is an app
called tikl move and it is the most
simple you know I’m gonna blow your
minds here first wait no it’s on
yourself okay lion yes any good and i’m
pretty sure if I automatic they build
WordPress are they work on wordpress so
if you’re looking for just a simple note
taking app simple known as number one I
know a lot of people they talk about
distractions and it’s so easy on the web
to get distracted there’s an application
called rescue time and it’s um it’s a
browser extension it just kind of runs
in the background and it tracks where
you go on the internet you know so at
the end of the day at the end of the
week you can say you know I really am
spending too much time on on facebook on
ready you know on these different
websites that kind of you know we think
we’re just taking a five minute break
but you have five minutes turns into 15
minutes and all of a sudden you’re on
Wikipedia learning all about who
directed home alone to you know like
where did I get here you know I counted
I get here you know I was working on
want to like this is crazy you know so
like you never know what’s going to
happen on the internet because you can
just go from page to page to page and
rescue x is a really great job tracking
that kind of stuff and giving you a good
rapport and I’m pretty sure you can also
block pages there are certain time
periods you know so like yeah sometimes
people really need that discipline be
able to say I’m not going to go on
facebook for you know eight hours and
i’m just going to focus on my business
and i think that that’s important us a
rescue time is another one i’ll put in
the notes a tomato timer you can google
that that’s a Pomodoro timer so we talk
about Pomodoro yesterday it’s a really
great web app that you can use
it’s very simple interface start your
timer work for 20 25 minutes and then
start your five minute break and that’s
that’s pretty fantastic um yeah those
are kind of my my my go-to my top three
in terms of productivity there’s another
app called Trella and Trello is is is it
kind of has its roots in a project
management a school of thought called an
agile so you know a lot of startups a
lot of entrepreneurs are probably
familiar with the advil methodology and
I don’t want to get into it because it’s
a little complicated right but basically
if you think of Trello in a physical
sense it’s writing all your to-do lists
a thumbs down in say look like write
them all down on an index card right and
then taking that index card and moving
them through different columns and those
columns will be you know here’s all the
things I need to do and then I move it
over to here’s the things I’m doing
right now and then when you’re done you
move it over to these things are done
and I love Trella because there’s kind
of this of this psychological pick me up
when you move something to done right
like when you complete a task like that
feels that should feel good right and I
think that there’s a difference between
just like doing something and actually
dragging and dropping it from like I’m
doing this to you know thankfully this
things done you know so i really like
Trella that’s another good get an option
to check out terms of managing your task
cool i love it my my my apps are uh i
think more basic um the two that i use
mostly are as simple as it sounds just
gmail i love that i can filter people
and so I’ve got a folder for my
important people my team for people my
family or my important customers and
media yeah and then everybody else goes
to the general folder and I used to have
a time in the day to check email and now
I eliminated that and I check email only
through my iPad when I have time so like
you’re standing in line at Starbucks or
you know the department of motor
vehicles or whatever it is that’s what
I’m
doing email and it’s just sinks offline
or I’m on the like yesterday was on the
flight back home from California and
checking email on the plane and
responding and whenever connects to the
internet it sends out again I find that
just super helpful and when I’m not
responding to email during the day I
find I can be a lot more productive and
proactive instead of being reactive to
what is coming in you’re the one I uses
Evernote I’m a huge Evernote fan that’s
where I store a lot of my notes and
ideas and it’s great because it stinks
between all your devices right so you
update something and you know when i’m
on the plane I updated my note and then
when I go home it’s on my desktop as
well and so especially if you’re
bouncing around going to meetings I just
have that as my sensual kind of
repository of information and email to
our use when if I never have an idea my
default is I send myself an email and
then I have a list of ISTAR all my
emails that i have to take action on and
I just find that I used to have I used
to do I used to do the notebook but then
I lost I lost my balance did I don’t
want to lose all my ideas yeah so that’s
cool yeah it’s interesting to see how
you work yeah that’s a good trick I
actually you know myself a lot too oh
and I have a filter set up in gmail to
take any email sent by me and it goes
into a special folder you know and
that’s where you quiet wake up at 13 in
the morning with like you know this
revelation this idea that i need a
capture no yeah I go to I pull out my
phone and my I just send a quick email
to myself this I like that I like you
have a priority filter for emails from
yourself it’s crazy I’ve ever you know
clears that I mean you know gmail is
awesome I mean gmail is is this if you
customized email um you can really get
into an email flow that that is really
going to change the way you can email so
it’s definitely a robust tool to check
out cool yeah I’m gonna paint too um so
we got we got some questions coming in I
thought we could start to drill down on
them I want to start my own company
through YouTube but at the same time
manage our relationship and studies and
be the president of my class any tips
wants to be an entrepreneur once have a
relationship wants to do well at school
as well what tips do you have to manage
all of that um well I mean definitely
scheduling and you know again it doesn’t
have to be so rigid or like you’re
creating a calendar entry right but
definitely compartmentalizing your day
so that when you are focusing on one of
those priorities you’re really focusing
on that priority right so like you can’t
be out too out to a meal like a nice
dinner with with your significant other
if your mind is over here you know
thinking about your business or thinking
about being president of your class or
you know getting a pub with youtube so i
think that’s really important in this
might be a super philosophical and
metaphysical but you know just in the
moment you know be present so like when
you working on your business or fun your
business when her what’s your
significant other be present with just
another i think that that’s really
important because what happens is i know
you’ll end up getting maybe even post
end there on 100 things but you you end
up getting a hundred percent there on
zero things you know so like you really
want to compartmentalize the focus i
think that that’s really important um
and the other thing I would recommend is
is you know you this question you know
you see mccaskill tangible goals write
down those goals and put them on a
sticky note or put them on a post-it
note and put them on your computer like
whatever ever you are most of your time
just visualize those goals and if you
can you know drill down and it’s kind of
weird with personal relationships but
you know drill down not like what the
metrics are that you’re going to
determine you know you were successful
meeting those goals so being president
of your class that’s a clear metric
right you either you are you aren’t
president of the class but you know in
terms of starting a YouTube business um
figuring out like how many subscribers
are you achieve trying to attain or how
many yeah how much revenue if you want
to make with your youtube business you
know so like being able to set tangible
goals make them visible and
simply refer back to them um you know to
keep yourself on track those would be my
right yeah I love it I i I’m on the same
page I think any any major thing that
you have in your life you want to
dedicate time to you have to block out
those chunks in your calendar and so if
it’s you know with your girlfriend then
maybe those are in the evenings and if
you have to study certain amounts of
time you know you blocked in your
calendar you want to focus on YouTube
you blocking your calendar it’s not in
your calendar you don’t dedicate the
time and chunks to it you’re probably
not going to do it because life has a
funny way of just getting in the way of
everything that you’re trying to do and
to the point on focus i really love that
and i think it’s easy as entrepreneurs
to get distracted I know for myself I’m
with my wife and with my son you know we
may be a plane in the park and like boom
I did hits right like I gotta go do this
and and it’s easier then get derailed
and want to think about that and not
actually be present with my wife and my
mind my son and what I find the easiest
way for me is I just said myself an
email like yeah as long as I can get it
out of my head and I know it can come
back to it that I feel safe and kind of
moving on but if I haven’t written it
down I haven’t sent myself that note
that i’m going to keep thinking about it
and I’m worried that I’m going to forget
it and then not be focused on being
present and being with my wife in my
sign so it’s a pretty load like so
sending email write it down i think i
would expect those things to happen
expect those kind of distractions that
happen and and have a plan around it so
that you don’t get to cut up and you
know leave it off the wrong path and
then not being able to spend time with
your with your family next one is a off
off the ball one but i want to i want to
kind of rotate it around to this topic
so the question is why don’t schools
teach us about money just really our
topic here but but i’m i’m wondering
about applying it to time management
because if I didn’t learn this stuff in
school and we kind of all figure out our
own paths and and maybe not the
philosophical way of why we don’t teach
you in schools but I’m curious for you
how you
learned about time management and
controlling your schedule to calendar
making it work for you I what was that
process like via where did you learn the
information so i think i learned at a
very young age if I wanted to be
productive and passionate um i would
have to surround myself with productive
and passionate people right like I think
you are to some extent and this is the
cliche but you are the company you know
you kind of are the company that you
keep so I think if you want to be a
certain person it’s important to
surround yourself around like-minded
people um and that doesn’t mean that you
have to you know make new friends it
doesn’t mean that you have to like you
know ostracized family members it just
means that you have to be around these
these types of people and for me that
was blogs books podcasts you know like
it didn’t mean going out and finding
people down the street that are
productive that I can hang out with from
the weekend yeah that’s a mastermind
group it really just meant finding the
blog posts that were really going to
inspire me to be more productive um you
know finding the books like I read on
Stephen Covey’s seven habits you know
how affected people at like a really odd
young age you know me I don’t think I
was like 13 you know for like
interesting hit just thinking like I
just I just loved it you know because
here’s like this like amazing time you
know like go read about Steve Jobs you
know and and and breathe about the
people who are doing the things that you
want to be doing for me it was being
productive you know for for your
audience it might be really all about
successful entrepreneurs right and then
surround yourself with YouTube channels
like every YouTube channel you know or
or you know surround yourself with RSS
feeds of a blog post where you’re going
to get that daily dose of tips tricks
life hacks um things that didn’t work
for people i mean like that’s really
important you know like hearing about
people’s failures is fantastic because
then you’re not going to make the same
mistake you know i mean yeah i love and
i totally agree that your product of
your environment and you
you’re hitting the core because I’ve
mentioned that a lot on my channel so I
know the audience would would appreciate
that I think for me the book that
started getting me thinking about time
management was the four or work week oh
yeah great book and and not that I won’t
only want it to work for hours because I
think if you love what you’re doing you
want to you want to do more like it you
get fuel from it it drives you but a lot
of the techniques he talks about on how
to eliminate the task you don’t need how
to automate a lot of the class how to
delegate it away and I open my eyes as
to things that I could be doing better
and made me focus a lot more
productivity and time management that
they kind of open up this world then I
started delving into other videos and
books oh but that’s interesting you read
seven habits that yeah routine I don’t
know how old it was when I read four
hour work week because whenever it
matter I’m a really big fanatic of
podcast right now so i definitely
recommend podcasts as a way to start
getting entrepreneur stories and tips
and tricks on how to be more productive
into your head because it’s something
that you can do passively while you’re
spending your time doing other things
like what i’m washing the dishes i’m
listening to a podcast you know about a
successful on north um what i’m driving
a work I’m listening to the productivity
is which is all about productivity where
you know they interview other
entrepreneurs solely about how they are
productive you know so it’s if you have
this I call a deadtime you know if you
drive to work every day for 40 minutes
and you’re just listening to talk radio
or you’re listening to you know top 40
hit songs um to me that’s not the best
use of that time when you could be
absorbing these little bit these little
gold nuggets of wisdom you know from
these people who study this kind of
thing every day you know they live the
success every day you can be you know
absorbing this during that 40 minutes
and then you show up for work you got
these little nuggets that
you’re ready to apply right away which i
think is fantastic so do things like
that you’re making good use of your idle
time so that this brings you the
interesting question because I think a
lot of people a lot of entrepreneur
multitask too much and then also miss
out on stuff and not get anything done
properly deserve their brain a split so
so it’s interesting you brought that up
as a suggestion so when can you
multitask and do that you mentioned dead
time when is it appropriate to look for
those opportunities and when is it like
I need to just shut off and focus and do
it I’m do it yeah I think for me it’s
it’s a you know focused on purpose yeah
I have it up here yeah right up top um
it’s it’s when you’re doing the tasks
that you know you can’t delegate right
like driving to work like you just can’t
delegate that all washing the dishes you
might be able to develop them delegate
that but most of us can’t you know like
dirty dishes need to wash so it’s when
you’re doing the things that are like
kind of mindless activities um that you
can you can kind of inject these other
these other things like whether it’s a
podcast or an audio book and I don’t
even consider that multitasking you know
I me because it’s just like it’s so
passive you know like I wouldn’t say
write your book while commuting because
that’s dangerous you know but like it’s
doing information so you don’t read a
blog post while you’re driving but if
you can listen to audio I mean that’s a
great way like I whenever you’re in a
position where you know you’re in the
waiting room somewhere yeah when you get
the doctor’s office you know you can
pick up the random Sports Illustrated
magazine you know maybe the magazine
that you haven’t read ten years you know
and you can read an article about sewing
stuff or you can carry headphones on you
I’ll pop them into your iPhone and
listen to an audiobook from Stephen
Covey you know so like it’s those
moments where like you can’t delegate
you can’t avoid them how are you going
to make the best out of those 5 10 15 20
minutes throughout your day where you’re
in these opportunities to learn this is
all about learning right so like if
you’re in
opportunities where you can just learn
something new um you’re you might not
learn it from Sports Illustrated
magazine sitting in the waiting room but
you know you can have you know in your
pocket your iphone you have this you
know wide range of places you can learn
from you know it was just fantastic one
of the things I like to differentiate is
between tasks with my mind and pass with
my body and whenever whenever my body is
being used on mine isn’t that’s an
opportunity to try to inject knowledge
in so running on the treadmill you know
mowing the lawn doing the dishes like
you’re active with your body but you’re
not active with your mind and so that’s
when you can eject it but if you’re at
least for me I found if I’m trying to do
something active with my mind if I’m
writing if I’m preparing for something
if I’m doing emails then it’s hard for
me to them try to also listen to
something else that’s coming in because
my mind is already active and so the the
dead time for sure sitting the doctor’s
office where you’re not doing anything
but then also I find when I have that
time wearing when my mind is idle but my
body is busy that I can I can inject
some more fuel into there yeah I’m
working out as great great example you
know it’s a lot of people they default
to listening to music when they work out
and that’s great because it gets
up and teach me on bond but it if you
can you know experiment how about
experimentation to keep experiment with
a hot castrum audiobook or you’re on the
treadmill working out I mean that’s a
that’s good good opportunity cool um so
next question is from amber and Tyler
and is about trying to catch up so he
feels rushed 29 years old married but
feeling behind on the goals you know
trying to pay the bills as well as reach
that new level of success but it’s
feeling like it’s always playing
catch-up and hasn’t gotten where he
wants to go yet and wants to kind of
rush his way to success yeah and manage
is scheduled to do that so what what
advice would you have for them again I
for me it’s all about visualizing the
angle right so I think it’s really
difficult to achieve your goal if you
haven’t defined it you know so to find
that goal um and at first it’s going to
be like really big and bro
you know so if your goal is the start of
business and you have a loose concept
for that business um that’s a really big
broad you know and if that’s all you
have I don’t want to say it’s
unattainable but it’s gonna be really
difficult to attain that goal so taking
that big concept and then start chunky
out into smaller milestones and then
taking those milestones and then
starting to chunk those out into actual
tasks that are going to get any closer
and closer to that goal right so if
you’re if you’re working full-time so I
mean I guess a good example for me is uh
so I’m really passionate about fiction
and I’m a writer so I’ve never written a
book I’ve never written a piece of
fiction but just this past year I
started writing my first book but I work
full-time as a project manager I have a
wife I have a son really difficult for
me to just like drop things and work on
this book um but I had my end goal in
mind and i chunked it out into the
chapters and then from the chapters i
chunked it out into the smaller outlines
and then I I’ve walked out time on my
schedule each day to hit a work account
so I had a tangible goal I want to write
you know a thousand words a day um or
750 words a day and then I really woke
up in the morning with that drive I
looked at my goal which I have on
post-it note which is sitting right by
my bed um you know and I woke up with
that passion in that drive and I
reminded myself how much I wanted it and
then I sat down and I just started doing
you know I started writing words and
maybe they’re not that great and i’ll
edit them later but just the fact that
like you just have to start doing you
know you can talk talk talk at the end
of day just visualize your goal check it
out into you know actual tasks set
metrics to to show that you’re making
progress and then just that’s cool I’m
looking forward to seeing the book too
man that’s excited I’m excited um one of
my favorite bits of advice is from
Michael Dell who talked about
understanding your point of leverage and
one of the things that I constantly try
to think about for myself is what’s the
best use of my time
I’m to drive the needle as far as I can
go where so you know even a task is of
100 things plus you’re behind you know
you feel in your life and you catch up
on your bills and want spend time with
your your wife there’s a lot of things
on your plate so you only have a certain
amount of time to be able to focus on
this new thing what activity or you
great at that you can really spend
energy on that’s really going to move it
forward so yes you have your goals you
have your vision you have your plan and
then look at that task list and which
one that if you attack today that’s
going to help really move your project
forward because it’s leveraging what
you’re passionate about what you’ve got
you know your great skills at I feel
like if people understood their point of
leverage a lot better than you be able
to make faster growth and catch up and
get to where you want to go a lot sooner
yeah next gold silver and diamonds
question how much does delegation play
in effective time management delegation
is outrageously important in effectively
managing your time especially at the
entrepreneur level because you’re going
to start doing everything you know like
you’re going to have to do everything
but as your business grows and as you
grow on you know you’re going to have to
be able to you know trust others to do
certain things to free you up for doing
the things that you’re really really
good at um but then also you know
admitting to yourself that there might
be things that other people are better
at than you are you know so like if
you’re a if you’re an entrepreneur that
has a vlog and you’re doing all the
graphic design for your blog posts um
you might not be a natural-born graphic
designer that might not be your strong
point so I there’s going to come a point
at juncture where you know you’re you’re
making enough to justify delegating that
task and paying someone who’s a
professional graphic designer that is
going to take that time away from you so
you’re going to have that time back
you’re going to be able to allocate it
in other parts of your business but on
top of that they’re probably going to do
a better job than you and that’s okay
you know so
being able to develop trust with other
people is important and then the other
thing which kind of goes back to the
last question is you know in terms of
getting ahead if if you’re spending a
lot of time doing menial tasks like
mowing the lawn for example and you know
there’s there’s a kid two houses down
who would love to mow your lawn for
twenty bucks a month um be okay with you
know if you can afford it relinquishing
that 20 bucks a month and you’re going
to get that time back and you’re going
to be able to allocate that time is
smarter than a so there’s there’s
there’s things with delegation where
it’s like um there’s the day-to-day you
know the task that absolutely has to get
done and they can be done by anybody be
prepared to delegate those and then
there’s the tasks that you’re doing that
you probably shouldn’t be doing be
prepared to admit that to yourself and
find the best person for the job and
start developing a relationship and
developing trust with that person to
know that they have you know your
business and your interest in line so
that you can pass that off and focus on
other aspects of your business yeah I
love it the order that I like to go in
is eliminate automate delegate so well
chances are there’s a lot of things that
you’re doing alright in your business
that that just shouldn’t be done so
there’s no point giving them of somebody
else because it’s not high value high
leverage it should be eliminated from
this is completely step two is automate
where if you can automate an important
task it’s way better to do that than to
give it to somebody else to do right
because you know it’ll get done faster
computers don’t make mistakes they don’t
take vacationers and and chances are
it’s a much more menial task you know
don’t listen to give to human being and
then the third is delegate so you
eliminate first automate second delegate
third and I think understanding that to
do something big you have to build
beyond yourself and a lot of
entrepreneurs have a hard time hi hareen
and especially with the first hires and
make mistakes and often feel like man I
can’t get the right person not so I’m
just going to do it all myself retreat
in words but to do something big to
really have an empire you have to be
able to build a team out because you
can’t do everything yourself and there
standing again back to the understand
your point of leverage you are great at
something you want to focus on that and
what you
and then use people who are better than
you like you said at other skills to
help round out those weaknesses to help
you get to where you want to go so yeah
I mean I agree it’s a huge factor in
effective time management for your
business yeah automate and you know it’s
just their gravy of automation is cute I
personally don’t pay any vanilla tea you
know like obviously I pay my bills but
like I don’t physically pay any bills
they’re all set up the automatic and I
know for me personally if I had to
hopefully you know go and write a check
or you know manually you know read my
credit card down and nail something in
mom those are the types of things for me
personally that slip through the cracks
or they just sit there at the back of my
mind and they prevent me from focus on
the bigger things so yeah either an
opportunity to automate um obviously a
weather com work email automation you
know that’s what we do is we’re excited
you know that’s what gets us amped but
yeah automate as much as you can
absolutely yeah I mean I was about to
bring up a lever to uh I run all my
newsletters away but Weber and I could
imagine trying to do that myself or
delegate it to somebody to manage you
know send an email down on different
days to this humongous list and who
wants unsubscribe and what’s the
likelihood of a feeling caught by spam
filters and all of the templates and
tools like to do that manually it’s just
insane it’s more than a full-time job
yeah and i can use software like aweber
for you know I forget what I’m paying
not a lot of money to handle all that
for me it’s just insane value that lets
me focus on doing the things that I’m
great and want to build my business
instead of worried about the tack of
sending out emails yeah another question
about tech has technology allowed us
better options to manage time or has it
made it tougher it depends on the person
you know technology can be the
distraction that keeps you from getting
the things done or to be the tool that
helps you get from point A to point B on
so it’s it’s the elephant in the room
you know it’s the thin and you have to
be mindful of at all times so if you’re
if you use a certain word processor
if you use a certain you know finance
financial software for bookkeeping well
if it’s painful odds are there’s
something better out there that you
could be using right so like that that’s
kind of my gauge it’s like if if you’re
fighting with technology um then you
need to reconsider that piece of
technology right so it should be the
tool that helps you get things done on
it shouldn’t be you wrestling with the
tool um so I absolutely think it depends
on who you are what you use um but yeah
I mean it’s it’s it’s done wonders for
for me personally I mean email filters
are a great example of that you know
like before I set up all my gmail
filters my inbox was a mess and now it’s
the super manageable thing where I can
spend five minutes and have a good
handle on all my incoming messages um
but again you know to go back to my
notebook like for me like really at the
end of the day you know this is like one
of the only things I need to keep saying
and this is as low tech as it gets you
know so it depends um but I think you
need to mastery you know and you really
need to experiment with it and get it to
a point where technology is working for
you not you you’re working for
technology oh that’s for a lot of
different stuff yeah I mean in my mind
there’s no question technology has
helped us helps you do way more that’s
it that’s the entire point of technology
right if I needed to reach the hundred
thousand people on my newsletter list
how would I do that without technology
would I be sending out a hundred
thousand handwritten notes and doing
that like it’s not possible so you know
of course technology has helped make our
lives easier and do more but I think the
challenge is understanding how to master
it and again we don’t learn this in
school so so you’re on your own
afterwards to try to figure out maybe
watching hanging us like this or reading
blogs or watching videos to find out
what works for you and I mean that’s why
I want to have Tom come on is to share
his way of doing things I’m sharing my
way of doing things and neither of us
are gonna be perfect for you but you
want to build the perfect version for
yourself and so you might might look at
pomodoro and say oh that’s really cool
long and steal that from Tom and you
steal something for me and you have to
find the best way to to make technology
work for you
your life um Elias asking do you have
any tips for people like me who have a
short concentration span and get
distracted easily yeah i mean my tip for
you would be to eliminate those
distractions like just just get them out
of the way so if you’re distracted by
certain websites install a website
blocker that’s going to block it during
certain times and like physically make
it impossible for you to visit those
websites if you’re distracted by um you
know your environment I’ll clean up your
environment so if you’re cluttered desk
is distracting you then you know just
book that 25 minutes to clean up that
desk you know get where it needs to be
um I absolutely recommend so if you’re
kind of a a solopreneur you work from
home um if you have the ability to work
in an office or in a room with a closed
door I think that’s really helpful um i
think for me personally and again you
know this is going to vary person by
person but if i’m working out my couch
you know because I on occasion I work
from home if I’m working on my couch I’m
distracted by everything you know like
my my wife is home with my son
distracted by that on the TV is right
there even if I want to have it on for
white noise that’s a distraction on
music can be a blessing or a curse when
you’re trying to be productive so really
just like creating the perfect
environment where you can’t physically
be distracted because you’ve done your
best to to get them out of your your
view right your preferable for you on
that would be my absolute number one
suggestion and my other suggestion is if
you physically can’t do that um see if
you can change your environment all
together right so like for a lot of
people going to the local coffee shop
for the local library that forces them
to get in the zone you know like you’re
going to that place with focus and
purpose you’re going to that location to
get things done so when you get there
you know provide you’re not distracted
by all the people walking by which is
again Hospital possibility for some
people you will get things done I love
it um the things that helped me early in
my career which
closing down email yeah and having set
times to open it up that alone save me
massive amounts of distraction you
already mentioned some of the app so you
can use about rescue time where it’s
blocking pages so that you can’t load
facebook for the next X number of
minutes so I love I don’t agree with
everything Tom said about the
environment the thing I would add to it
is I I’m a big believer in trying to
create a schedule that supports who you
are instead of trying to fight it and
especially as an entrepreneur you have
the ability to create your own schedule
you’re not being told need to show up by
this amount of time so if you find that
you you have you know maybe a baby D and
you can’t focus for long periods of time
don’t try to create a schedule where you
book yourself to like three hour chunks
that may be too long for you to get
something done in I would instead try to
split up my day so I’m doing if it’s
using the Promotora technique and I’m
doing you know an hour at a time with
breaks in between and I know like I’m a
guy now who is like allies if you are
super distracted and have a TD and you
can’t focus then run with that and do
our chunks hour and then break an hour
in a break and then you know that you’re
setting up a schedule that’s kind of
designed around who you are your
personality that’s going to work for you
as entrence we have that ability and you
should like some people are night owls
work at night some people love the work
in the morning work first thing in the
morning I create a schedule that
supports you just as a general like
happiness rule but it also make you a
lot more productive and get you closer
to your goals faster next up Jay Reise
fonseka he’s a he’s a usual on the
channel always ask some great questions
hi Evan and Tom could you guys dig a bit
deeper into opportunity costs and task
switching yeah so I mean task switching
i call it context switching yeah because
you’re changing your contacts from one
one thing to another and that is so
dangerous and that’s why i love Pomodoro
right because like when you’re in that
twenty five minute period and you said
your specific tasks if you stick to that
on you’re really going to benefit
because like with context switching its
people don’t realize the opportunity
cost of your energy kind of fluctuating
as you ramp up and rent down on certain
things right so when you you know move
from point the task a to task p you need
to push everything aside you need to you
know get get situated with where your
starting point is you need to figure out
what your objective is um and it’s even
something simple like having your email
open when you’re focused on one thing
and email comes through and you have to
stop and read it and then you you know
you’re making these micro decisions of
like you know do I want to think about
this now or later ok I think about it
now well you know how do I feel about
this do i need to respond now or should
I wait till later and you’re making all
these little micro decisions meanwhile
task a is just sitting there you know
waiting for you to get to it and then
when you finally get back you need to
like ran back up on where you were so i
absolutely think that there’s a huge
opportunity cost with context switching
on planning for your leisure time
planning for your distractions and
booking that time is a real good way to
avoid that on the pomodoro technique is
a great way to do that and i think and
this is something that a lot of people
struggle with entrepreneur struggle with
it sometimes you just have to put polite
you know in a polite way tactfully say
no I mean yeah sometimes but you get
distracted and somebody wants to force
you do context which it’s important as
an entrepreneur you know to respect your
time and kind of force that other people
respect it and and say you know not
necessarily know but not right now at
this median second unless it’s a CodeRed
issue that you have to address those
things happen you know where you got it
you have to drop everything fixed
something but if you can you know oppose
we say I’m going to get to that you know
I’ll be an address your issue at a 2
p.m. today you know I’ve made so that
you can avoid that context regime and
stay focused yeah I love it I agree with
everything you’re saying I think in
terms of opportunity costs a lot of
people a lot of on turns have a list of
ideas right here the hundred things I
want to work on all these different ways
I could grow my business and we tend to
not finish much right we start off of
one in the next day we do something else
and we’re always kind of being pulled in
multiple directions where I think you’re
almost defined by what you say no to and
you want to you want to explore to find
out what you’re passionate about where
your heart lies and where you get the
most value to the world and make money
as a business when you figure that out
you got it you gotta stay on track and
and say nodes are the things that you
know if it’s not maybe it’s not totally
know forever but no for right now
because I’m focused on wanting to do
this um you know I think in my business
I’m doing a lot on YouTube right now I’m
kind of all in on YouTube and that means
I’m seeing no other opportunities like
yes these can be great things to grow my
business but I’d rather do one or two
things really really well then try to do
a hundred things and being mediocre and
everything and not make an impact and so
understanding what you’re passionate
about and where the opportunity is for
you and then saying no to almost
everything else to let you focus
task-switching I feel uh it depends on
on the task I know for example when I’m
right in my book I need the whole thing
like I block off tuesdays I’m writing my
book I don’t answer email I don’t like
my team knows I’m not accessible you
know I don’t have a cell phone so you
can’t there is no code red you can’t
reach me it’s not possible because
explode you know I mean I think people
need to think about that and accept that
you kind of like your business isn’t
going to go from you know X amount of
dollars to zero because you turn off
your cell phone for a three hours long
you know I think that that’s difficult
for a lot of course like oh yeah when we
all survived before cell phones were
here so we can continue as a species uh
I find like if I’m when I start writing
my book it takes me 30 to 60 minutes
just to get back to where I was last
time or I left off and every time I get
distracted by something fix me another
half an hour just to remember and even
if i don’t answer that’s the thing like
if I see an email come in or if you see
something on your phone you look down at
it and you say oh hmm Shirley’s calling
me yeah I wonder what she wants I forget
I’m gonna hang up even just that pulls
you away from you being in the zone
and continuing other 20 minutes to get
back into it so as much as possible you
want to avoid the task switching when
it’s when you’re doing little tasks it’s
not as big a deal but when you’re doing
heavy thinking create a pass when you
get distracted it’s really really hard
to get back into the zone um Doug’s
writing in I just saw an awesome webinar
from Aweber a few days ago now there’s
yet another there you go props to you
guys’ve and weber delivering the value
to entrepreneurs yeah we love whether I
love it mohit how do i improve focus and
concentration while working in my
allotted time focus and concentration
yeah I don’t want to continue to repeat
myself but again eliminating those
distractions is is really really going
to be effective you know to improve your
focus and again hate to repeat myself
but writing down that tangible goal on a
post-it note and just plopping it right
in front of you really helps you you
know just sent her back so if your mind
starts wandering um you know or if you
do it yourself phone out and you do get
that that that buzz you know and you
look down at your phone and you’re
taking away creatively for a split
second you’re constantly just referring
back to like what is my goal right now
you know a 325 minute Pomodoro it’s what
is my focus during this Pomodoro or if
it’s book writing gay you know it’s it’s
getting back to you know like centering
yourself and getting back to that point
and it’s very visual you know so like
for me it’s visual it’s you know how
your to do is written out right in front
of you so that you can get right back
into it or having posted note or
something like that you know or
inspirational quote you know like a lot
of people love inspirational quotes I do
too um if you find the right one like
that can do wonders you know because it
really like a good inspirational quote
as cheesy as they might be on Twitter
sometimes and overused if you find the
right one that works for you just put it
up on your desk or put it up in your
workspace and and you can constantly
look to that and it’s going to it’s
going to remind you why you do what we
do and sometimes like that sounds really
big and grand
that’s what you need to stay focused on
the task at hand because you know that
all those tasks are going to add up to
you getting your goals and being
successful yeah i think is a great point
remembering your big wine your little
wide for me the big why is like why am I
doing this what’s the big goal i’m
trying to do you know I want to help a
billion entrepreneurs why is that
important to me and keeping that like
big picture in mind can be hard when you
are like stuck in the trees and in with
all of the crap of running the business
like am I actually doing something
important and so in having that big why
I find super helpful and then I also
find a little why is it important and I
see those as the the day-to-day activity
engagement and understanding that you
have an impact so sometimes that big why
that big ol can seem too lofty too far
away to impossible to reach the little
wise for me are for example looking at
my youtube comments and seeing that oh
like somebody was really helped and
really moved by what I made and
understand that the work that I’m doing
is having an impact right now in a
little way just on one person’s life at
a time so look at your customer feedback
and knowing that you’re helping them
improve their lives can can help you
refocus and understand that hey the work
I’m doing is important I need to keep
fighting to keep doing this and make it
physical print that stuff out you know
so if you get a tweet you know from a
customer or from one someone from your
audience or they really did benefit and
it’s a snapshot of your big lie you know
put that out with that somewhere then
you can see it because I think those
little reminders are super important to
keep it live but there’s a lot of fun
happening in a chat and out one person
Tamera’s right Nancy I like the chat and
she liked it so much she can’t listen to
us talking and chat at the same time so
you’re going to have to pick Tamara
there’s a lot of people asking about
trellis we will download it they haven’t
used it don’t fully understand it and
this they said it sounds pretty cool and
interesting can you maybe just dive a
little deeper into that it seems to have
picked up a storm in the chat yeah
totally so I’ll try to illustrate it but
with the glare I don’t know how it’s
gonna come out but like basically the
origin is from you know agile
development and I’m pretty
sure these big school of Admiral is con
bond on it comes from it actually comes
from Japanese auto manufacturer where
they were optimizing the production of
automobiles so fantastically that this
whole school of different community out
right um if we have what’s called swim
lanes miss Rella um you’ll have a couple
difference in land where you can you can
label them whatever you want to label
them so for me it’s really just you know
to do and again you can customize this
it’s planning doing and done so you can
do this with Trella but you could really
do this with any poster board or any
white board that you have you know it’s
really just taking post-it notes on
physically and just putting all your to
do’s and it’s separate posted Notre an
index card and stacking them otha to do
side um and then you’re going to take
one then you’re ready to start you’re
going to move it over to planning
because you want to make sure that you
know what you’re doing before you do it
so you’re going to plan it and make sure
that you have all the specifics and
details ready to go and then you’re
going to move it into doing and then
you’re going to move it into done when
you’re finished so really it’s just it’s
visualizing your workflow so if you’re a
blogger on you’re running a blog post
you can label these blog post ideas
drafts editing published right so you
can really customize your visual
workflow and then pull things along and
it’s really just a nice driving drop
interface for doing that and one of the
concepts that I think is important in
this and in Trello is uh you don’t want
to do too many things at once right you
really want to focus on just one or two
or three things and get them to done
because they you said earlier Evan a lot
of entrepreneurs and a lot of people
they have a habit of feeling the doing
column but never getting the actual big
things done like yeah yeahs is limit the
work in progress so if you’re working on
100 things at eighty percent you’re
going to
zero things to one hundred percent you
know so work on the few things give it a
hundred percent of your energy and your
time and no with the angles and then
pull it through this visual workflow and
I find that troll does a really good job
you know having you set this up you can
add other users so if you collaborate
with the team they can have access to
your boards and we can all kind of work
together on whatever your flow is it’s
so cool you can customize you know based
on whatever you do very cool helps me
and I think it definitely helps people
who are watching as well I know we’re
bumping up the clock when time flies
this is great uh maybe maybe last
question here King king j does your mind
ever feel drained or not wanting to do
something what are some ways to flip
that yeah so I think for me to answer
that question my mind does feel drained
at certain times and when I stop and
think about it it usually comes down to
it like the last thing I have got here
which like is probably last because it’s
so foundational you know all the other
things are supported by this is health
right so like for me personally when my
mind is trained but I row stop to think
about it it’s because I didn’t get as
much sleep as I need to you this week or
I haven’t eaten junk food you know or I
didn’t go out with my buddies for couple
drinks tonight before you know I mean
it’s so like there’s always going to be
this physical component to how your mind
functions right so making sure you’re
taking good care of yourself and
sleeping and working at the right hours
so like if you’re a night owl that’s
great um but like if you’re not a night
out then working at the I towers aren’t
going to help you if they’re not going
to help your mind station or as for
finding the right time work um and being
okay with like this is something as a
writer this is something I’ve struggled
with you know it’s being okay with like
writers block or creativity block you
know like just now don’t get frustrated
with it you know like if you sit down to
write a blog post or do something
creative beretta script for a video or
shoot something whatever your business
is you know like if you’re sitting down
with a you schedule your time you did
all the tips that
talking about today you did it all
perfectly the hour comes up you sit down
to do the task and you just don’t have
the mental creativity and capacity to do
it being okay and don’t get frustrated
and just go for a walk get some fresh
air you know do take a break do
something you love and be a human being
you know because we’re human beings and
at the end okay we’re gonna have those
moments where our minds just aren’t what
we want them to be um but but it’s not
forever and it’s not all the time so
just accept when it happens if it’s
health related because you’re not
getting enough sleep try to work on that
try to fix that kind of thing if it’s
because you have too much or too little
coffee you know adjust your coffee
intake you know so think about the
reasons why but at the end of the day
just be okay was shut it off yeah i got
mine right here just be okay lemme other
they get an ice block or spending time
with family or doing like something
that’s going to make you feel really
good and don’t get frustrated yeah I
agree and I think a lot of entrepreneurs
about to help these people because we
are running ourselves you know we’re
stressed out we’ve got a lot of things
on my plate working crazy hours and so
taking care of yourself is super
important the curveball would kind of
throw out here for this question is uh
maybe you shouldn’t be doing those tasks
you know one of the things I i see that
is if I’m doing something that I don’t
like for too long you can only force
yourself to do something you don’t enjoy
doing for a certain amount of time and
at some point you have to ask yourself
like should I even be doing this or not
and there might be something health
reason there might be something
something you just got to get through
but if it’s happening for too many days
in a row maybe you need to examine
whether you should be doing this TAS or
not in the first place um that may not
be the answer lady for king j but that’s
just kind of an honest opinion you know
for me I love helping entrepreneurs I
can help entrepreneurs all day long I
could like not go to the bathroom I
could miss meals and then realize like I
haven’t eaten all day because I’m
sitting here talking out to like I just
I love it it’s my passion I get excited
by it I’m talking faster and with more
energy now because I’m thinking about it
yeah and so you know i would try to
encourage everybody listening to find
what makes you come alive and try to do
more of that and if you’re being drained
by things that that are sucking life
from you maybe you shouldn’t be doing
those things anymore and you can only
force yourself for so long to do those
kinds of things yeah i agree that um
cool we’re bumping up against the clock
for those of you watching thank you so
much I know we had kind of scheduling
issues and internet issues some people
want to learn more about a weber you can
check out a weber calm the next hangout
we’re going to do is next month and and
for Tom for people who want to find you
I know you like your twitter handle up
there on the top is it there tat yeah so
a lot of my twitter handle is at T in RT
four letters T NRT um and every time I
read a good blog post or watching a
video or anything on productivity on
email marketing on team management
project management I share right on
Twitter like that’s my go-to you so if
you want to check me on Twitter or
follow me I’m gonna it’s a constant fee
of just great stuff like I’ve already
read I love it and I just want everyone
to read it so it’s definitely a good
place to keep keep in mind going after
this hangout I love it so thank you guys
again the chats been amazing the
questions have been awesome we’re at an
hour and there’s still tons of questions
left Tom’s going to maybe leave a
comment with all the links to the apps
and resources that we talked about or
we’ll put it in description will figure
that out and check out Aweber if you
need some awesome email software it
drives my business and I think it really
helped you guys and we’ll see you next
month for the next hangout so thank you
Tom I really appreciate the time as well
yeah this is awesome so yeah leave as
many comments as you want to try to get
as many as I can yeah awesome thanks
everybody appreciate it thank you see ya
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