POPULARITY
Today's episode dives into Parkinson's Law and its two main components. Firstly, work expands to fill the time allotted, meaning that if you give yourself a certain amount of time to work on a given task, you're going to use up all that time to get it done. For example, if you tell yourself you need to make a phone call by the end of the week, you'll switch back and forth between tasks until you finally arrive at the end of the week and rush to get it done. The second piece of Parkinson's law states that time will be spent inversely proportional to the importance of an activity. In other words, we typically spend less time on important tasks, like creating a business plan, than we do on unimportant tasks, like scrolling through social media. Matt and Garrett explain why Parkinson's Law is primed to be broken, and how Ninjas can go against it by making the absolute best use of their time and spending it in a highly productive, highly focused, highly motivated frame of mind. Top agents look at which tasks are going to produce the biggest and best returns, and make those first priority with no negotiation. Our hosts also discuss the importance of using a schedule to give yourself set times to work on certain goals, rather than leaving your calendar open-ended and allowing for distractions. This way you're setting yourself up to work with maximum efficiency within that devoted time block, and you'll be able to fully concentrate on your other Ninja Systems later on, or even enjoy events in your personal life, without having unfinished projects looming over your head. Accountability partners can also help you stay on task and be on purpose with your hours. And most importantly, being aware of Parkinson's Law is the first step to overcoming it. Join the Ninja Selling Podcast group on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/theninjasellingpodcast. There you can also ask questions, give advice, and connect with other Ninjas. If you have not been accepted to the group yet, please check your messages for a follow-up from Matt. You can also leave a voicemail with your direct feedback at 208 MY-NINJA. And visit NinjaSelling.com/events for more information about upcoming open installations. Episode Highlights: A reminder to submit your topic requests and suggestions on the Ninja Selling Podcast Facebook group Today's topic is about Parkinson's Law and how to maximize the way you manage your schedule and time The first part of Parkinson's Law is, “Work expands to fill the time allotted” If you give yourself a certain amount of time to work on something, you're going to use up all that time You're spending mental time and energy thinking about a given task up until the moment you get started If we had just hammered it out and completed the job right away, we wouldn't have spent all that time with it looming over us and taking up mental space Then we can actually be more efficient as we tackle other tasks as well Real estate review is a great example of this Switching between tasks also wastes time Give yourself a set time to work on something instead of leaving it open-ended and allowing for distractions (e.g., allotting 45 minutes to complete your Monday morning agenda rather than letting it drag out for a day and a half) You incur an Opportunity Cost when you allow things to take up more time than is necessary Put goals on your calendar and schedule time to work on them instead of leaving the completion date vague (e.g., “I've got to get that done this summer”), otherwise it will keep getting pushed off over and over again Be reasonable and give yourself enough time to complete a task, but Garrett is also up for the challenge to see if you can actually get things done faster than you think Part Two of Parkinson's Law is that time will be spent inversely proportioned to the importance of the activity Business plan is a good example of this - we often spend more time scrolling through Facebook than we do focusing on developing a business plan that will create direction and growth Another example is that we often choose to spend our time and energy picking up fast food instead of cooking healthy meals at home that will nourish our bodies Prioritize the Ninja Nine, run the system of a weekly routine, and you'll see incredible results Top producers go against Parkinson's Law as they make the absolute best use of their time and spend it in a highly productive, highly focused, highly motivated frame of mind They look at which tasks are going to produce the biggest and best returns, and that's what gets their time with no negotiation If you don't focus on the most important tasks, they'll quickly find themselves in equilibrium with unimportant tasks, and you definitely do not want that This ties back to our episode about Extreme Ownership and having discipline in your life Ask yourself if you had integrity today and showed up for the things you said you were going to do Try to practice this and make sure you schedule time for important activities If you take care of these first, it leaves plenty of time for your Hour of Power, customer service calls, etc. Accountability partners can be incredibly helpful (unless they let you off the hook) If you tell yourself you are finished at 6 o'clock, you'll be more efficient with the time you've given yourself instead of letting it spill over into all hours of the night Having a detailed schedule will help you do this - don't just write “Ninja Activities” between 8 and 10 o'clock This is called not being on purpose with those hours The first step is to experiment with your calendar and analyze what works for you Remember that it will constantly change and evolve based on what's going on in your life But making sure you're scheduling enough time to get everything done means that you can focus and be present in other areas of your life, rather than being distracted by everything you need to do later Be aware of Parkinson's Law and know that you can overcome it Quotes: “If you have enough time to do something, naturally that's just what we do.” “Your brain is actually burdened with it not being done, which stops you from being able to run at the highest efficiency with the other tasks.” “You need to set time aside, you need to focus on it, schedule it and get it done, get it completed. Because as of right now, we've got no deadline on it, we have dreams of this thing we want to do. And the reality is it's just taking time and energy and effort to be successful moving forward. Because again, it will expand, it will keep expanding and keep expanding until it has to be done.” “I think there are things we can get done way faster than we ever imagined.” “So we'll spend less time on important tasks and more time on unimportant tasks.” “It's funny how we interpret things of what I have time for and what I don't have time for.” “I think you can also make sure that those 30 minutes are in a high productive zone of doing that important task, versus, let's say, 25 of minutes of that being done doing unimportant things.” “I think the law is primed to be broken. And I think that if you're running without focus, this is how everything just kind of equalizes out. This is how the majority of the population runs their life, is time being spent inversely proportionate to the importance of the activity.” “I do think highly focused, highly motivated, top producers in anything that you're setting your heart into, they go against this law. Because they are going and starting their days and saying, Okay, what are the things that are going to produce me the biggest and best returns that I have for the future here? And that's what gets their time with no negotiation.” “They're approaching it along the lines of, Nope, this gets my time, first and foremost, upfront. And if I have time for the unimportant activities, I will let them kind of fill the void.” “[The Monday morning agenda] is a very important activity. And it gets so little time, particularly when you let that time just expand. And man, if you contracted that, and just took care of that...it's going to help you take care of showing up for an Hour of Power, customer service calls.” “Now it's not just you letting yourself down, it's letting somebody else down, which is way more powerful. We are way more inclined to let ourselves down before we let somebody else down. And that's why accountability partners work so incredibly well.” “If you can help yourself get to that level of intensity internally, where you're not condemning yourself, but you're being honest with yourself, you're going to be able to control this a lot more.” “What's so interesting about that person that gives themselves 24 hours, and if I need to, I'll be up till three in the morning - some of the most efficient people I know, that are cranking out really high levels of business, are done by 6 o'clock.” “This is not available time to work, which means you become more efficient with the time that you've given yourself.” “When you watch somebody who's struggling with the Ninja Nine, I'll be like, Show me your schedule. And we'll get into their schedule. And their schedule says from 8 to 10 o'clock, it just says Ninja Activities - just wide open Ninja Activities between this time.” “This is called not being on purpose with those hours.” “It needs to be scheduled out so you have a start time and a finish time. You can complete it rather than this, I'm just going to fill the Ninja stuff in this time. And you wonder why you're not getting it all done. You wonder why you're floundering. You wonder why you're stressed out and last minute trying to cram stuff in. That simple thing will change your calendar.” “Acknowledge that this law exists, and then acknowledge that you can break it. You can overcome this one… Having awareness of [Parkinson's Law] helps you recalibrate.” Links: www.TheNinjaSellingPodcast.com Email us at TSW@TheNinjaSellingPodcast.com Leave a voicemail at (208) MY-NINJA Ninja Selling www.NinjaSelling.com @ninjasellingofficial Ninja Coaching: www.NinjaCoaching.com @ninja.coaching Ninja Events www.NinjaSelling.com/Events Garrett garrett@ninjacoaching.com @ninjaredding Matt matt@ninjacoaching.com @matthewjbonelli The Ninja Selling Podcast Facebook Group
In today's podcast we talk about time! Why there never seems to be enough, and, how YOU can make more of it!!!
We've been talking all about time management this week, and you can't talk about time management without bringing up Parkinson's Law. Parkinson's Law states that tasks take as long as you allow them to, which is why writing a social media post will take all day if you let it. So what if you used this knowledge to give yourself a competitive advantage instead? Join me in this episode to discuss ways to improve your workflow and efficiency using Parkinson's law! Book a free coaching consultation call to chat about how I can support you in growing your business and making more money doing work you love: https://orlywachter.satoriapp.com/offers/160990-coaching-consultation-call Join the FREE Health Pro to CEO Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HealthPro2CEO/
Piano Parent Podcast: helping teachers, parents, and students get the most of their piano lessons.
Parkinson's law is that work will expand to fill the time given to its completion. But the principle can be applied to so much else. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rucksack-entrepreneur/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rucksack-entrepreneur/support
Parkinson's Law: "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."
The saying goes if you give yourself 1 hour to complete a task then it's going to take 1 hour and if you give it 1 month then it's going to take 1 month but with the Parkinson's Law you can reduce the time you set for your goals and projects significantly. Listen to this episode of the Growthwins podcast to learn How To Cut Your Goals/Project Time In Half By Applying The Parkinson's Law. Hit me up on IG @Devonwinz
Good morning everyone! Welcome back to the podcast. Today we are talking about Parkinson's Law. Parkinson's Law is the old adage that work expands to fill the time allotted. Put simply, the amount of work required adjusts to the time available for its completion. Please give it a listen. Listen on Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/39TYebQ Motivated Entrepreneurs Website: https://motivatedentrepreneurs.co.uk/ Please Like, Share and Subscribe to Motivated Entrepreneurs Youtube Channel: https://bit.ly/3eA64u5 Have a great day, Dean
Ever wondered why your work always fits the deadline at the last moment? In this episode, we talk about Parkinson's Law which says "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion". Cyril Northcote Parkinson first wrote about it in 1955 and if you understand how this law works, you can change how you work and have better outcomes. Design by 3 Hosts Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/ Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/ #design #productdesign #designinspiration #designsprints #uxdesign #uxdesignprocess #uxcareers #uxdesigner #designduo #designduovlog
Cyril Northcote Parkinson may have trained as a naval historian, but it was his succinct humorous essay for the Economist magazine in 1955 that was to overshadow much of his career. In it, he laid out his fundamental law of bureaucracy - "work expands to fill the time available" - and he went on to explain how organisations become bloated regardless of the work in hand. It was instantly recognised by subordinates, and made for uncomfortable reading for those near the top of any institutional hierarchy. Robin Ince explores how the law and its corollaries have taken on a life of their own, and are now being reinterpreted as remote working becomes the new normal for many. Produced by Adrian Washbourne. First broadcast on Thursday 20 August 2020.
Wondering why you suck with money? "Profit First" author Mike Michalowicz explains the human psychology behind why we're so bad with money. Your business suffers when you don't know this! Watch the full presentation here: https://youtu.be/X_ewZ-Ni3EA Try Printavo: https://www.printavo.com Check out Printavo Merch: https://www.printavo.com/merch Follow us on Instagram for all of the latest updates: https://www.instagram.com/printavo
On today's episode we dive into Parkinson's Law which states that work expands to fill the available time until completion and how to throw out your to-do list and replace it with your calendar.
Although you may be thinking about the typical Parkinson's disease that affect people's cognitive function and physical capability, that is not the Parkinson's we are talking about! Rather, we are discussing the ability to get tasks done! In this episode, dave and Brian discuss how to use Parkinsons to your benefit and towards your personal finances! After, Dave and Brian discuss emails. To submit a question to DAve or TFWP, go to Thefinancialwellnesspodcast.com
OMC 363 Parkinson's Law by Jaemin Frazer
#046-Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. The elegantly simple phrase was the opening line in an article written for The Economist in 1955. Parkinson, a well-known British historian, and author, correctly put into words what we intuitively know about work and life. The failure of using Parkinson's Law has been the impetus for many of us in medicine. The constant feeling of "rat on a wheel" leads to burnout in our professional and personal lives. But, if we take a hard look at how we spend our time and the amount of time we allot to certain tasks and commitments, it will become clear that we can improve. Learn the skills need to use Parkinson's Law to Gain More with Less TODAY! Click here to join the private Medicine Revived Facebook Group. Ready to learn more? If you had the tools to beat physician burnout... how would your work and home life change? Click here and get my FREE 3 Video Series to start TODAY!
In this episode, I explain how you can have more financial certainty and peace of mind while working less. What's the trick? You have to avoid the trap of Mainstream Finance, understand a few key truths about the world, and use those truths to your advantage. Today we will discuss Parkinson's Law, Willie Sutton's Law, and the Second Golden Rule. It's time to look in the mirror, face the facts head on, and take this next step on your journey with me, Tony LaPrino. Send me a direct message on Facebook: http://bit.ly/MessageMeDirect Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-laprino-6861b550 Get my free e-book on the LaPrino Method to Financial Freedom: http://bit.ly/laprinomethod
For all the links, references, and resources head over to www.sharpenedartist.com/podcast
Keeping Your Business Sane With Brad Bulow Josh: G’day everyone out there in podcast land. I've got Brad Bulow here and he's an account advisor from Summit Villa and he's here to talk to us about some of the cool things that you can be doing with your books to make sure that you're keeping your mind sane. The last thing I'm going be doing is going insane in the membrane. There's lots of ways to do that with all these different things that are punching out with the government with job keep, the job seeker, all these other different things that are going on it can be lost in in translation, absolutely without having someone there to translate it for you. Learn more on keeping your business sane at dorksdelivered.com.au So Brad, tell me what have you found to be the biggest nightmare when it comes to this COVID crisis? Brad: Josh, what I have found, and thanks for that introduction and trying to make a camping thing sexy might. What I have found with the COVID-19 crisis, Josh is that clients live in Today, they're not living for the future. They're lacking some planes. They're lacking some clarity. They don't have that board chair. So there is panic. It is a tough time for business, but those that are resilient and those that have the foresight and can move and be agile, will survive and will thrive. But I think it's the also the way the government has been, it's been great the government have released some stimulus packages that are there, an asset to help businesses, but I think it's just the understanding of these packages, what's the eligibility criteria. Am I in, am I out, will be eligible in a few months time, I think that's what's created the most, the biggest uncertainty and for our clients, it's just, I suppose, leaning on someone to trust and hopefully, at some of the other that's been our function, we have developed a package and a probably to help clients through the job keeping process. and I suppose it's for a client, it's for a small fee. It's a massive value add that they can receive. So I think it's just all the information, all the propaganda, all the noise, all the noise is really just creating a massive disruption for businesses. But stimulus is there, it's there for short term bridging gap. It's something that we can't rely on forever. And I think the good businesses will still thrive and come and still be around post COVID. Those that probably were precarious pre COVID-19 one, maybe see it through, which is sad, but which is reality. Brad: It's about three weeks of saving Josh, and that's the average Australian I suppose if you're a wage employee or whether you do run your business, it is quite scary. And I think, you know, there's a lot of … I think the first industry to really be hit with, so the hospitality, accommodation, restaurant type businesses and who do employ the tourists, a lot of casual workers, I think within days there were a lot of screams in that sector of people that would not be able to pay rent, would not be able to feed their kids. That is scary. But I think that comes down to sort of the financial literacy education that we probably need to be diving more into at schools and even at adult level as well. But it is quite scary and businesses don't have the ability to sort of see it through if the client doesn't pay the bill, or something bad happens. Josh: We don't know, you don't know. What you said there about learning things at school. Oh, my God, if I'd learnt half of what I learned at school, but swap that out for half of what I've learned after school, I would have been in a significantly better spot. People aren't taught anything about money, economics, how things work, the fractional reserve, how and why banks exists, how and why debt exists, how and how things work, what inflation is, no one knows anything. All I know is that thing over there is nice and shiny. It's got a iPhone with a new number, the other end of it, so let's grab that. Even the other ones kind of maybe nearly working, let's just grab that Brad: Definitely Justin, I can't recall too much of those triggered normal trail calculus sessions I had in grade 12. And I don’t think I deal well in all of them but yeah, right. It's about a textbook and I they don’t tell you so much, a little bit loaded the stuff you get to sort of went on the run. And I think the fundamentals of accounting, and debits and credits, I think it is lost than children and even young adults in business today, you know, the foundations of what makes a good business, what makes a bad business and not living just today, but living for tomorrow as well it’s important. My brother has a business called umbilical tronic college, which is an RTO, which offers program cert twos and threes for in schools in business. And he's got he has his programs running in about 100 schools in Queensland. And I think a lot of those more of those type of courses, a lot of those sort of practical skills. And I think even going back to the Masters I think is the people doing masters, I think which was notoriously known as the veggie mess as opposed to being messy, they probably learned more. So we're dealing in basic maths and dealing currency and money and stuff. Those are people that have the common sense and are probably doing okay. But yeah, understanding in numbers is really important because I can tell a story about your finances and about you how you're tracking. Josh: I was one of those suckers that did math to be messy. So I can tell you all about it as the same parabolic equation matrices and, and shit that no one cares about. Brad: Exactly, not not a few bad. Yeah, bad results in those days as well. Josh: We deal with businesses from all from all walks of life, and we deal with some really, really smart, poor people, and some really, really stupid rich people. And now I've said that I can't say anything about what they do. But know that it comes down to your drive and action to whatever the carrot is at the end. I didn't do well at school either, I get Op 19 so anyone that's listening outside of Australia, that's 19 out of 25, one being the best. Not great. A couple of years later though, I did one of those after education material entry point, uni exam things I came up with OP two. It's a good improvement. huge improvement. Right? So, that's, that's great, but you can't always like hold on to those numbers for any of our younger listeners and shit, okay, I didn't do what I wanted to do and now where I'm at. But what I've learned being in businesses, you need to know where you're if you're a high risk or a low risk investor and how you sit with your finances. Make sure you're very very in love with your cash flow is really important. Make sure you understand your numbers, your forecasts, how long do you have until the day when you're selling something of your own or something like that just to keep your business alive? If your business isn't … you're not meant to be feeding your business your business is meant to be feeding you, and I think it's going to be a big wake up call to the COVID thing with heaps people that are going to be going shit okay we we had a great business and now it's just turn to shit either because the industry's changed because commercial real estate stropping or will be significantly older remote workers. I think it's going to be a lot of people waking up to situation Brad: Yeah, I think you're spot on there, Josh. To me, I think it with businesses and it's often not what this is as far as often an opposite bad businesses, it's cause the people running them and I have you know, we will have clients that might be in maybe lower sort of socio economic jobs right now they might be gardeners or have a lawn mowing business where their earning capacity is probably a lot lower than someone who might be a medical specialists or someone who sells properties on the coast. It comes down I think a lot of the times is personal budgeting as well. You know, I could see and working out what is success and what is wealth to the individual. Is it more time with a family? Is it more money in their pocket, is it more time to exercise? Is it you know, having a having a fleet having a having a bit of bulge in the stomach. But it comes in how you define success obviously some of the happiest people aren't the most wealthiest people but they feel fulfilled because the kids are they've sending the kids to school the kids are doing well sportingly they're living happy lives and I do see some of the more some of the sometimes more miserable people or those that are earning great money but not in careers that they like. Yeah, so I think it's really comes down to fundamentally gone back to those pieces that fall is know your limits. Know your earning capacity. If you if you want to if you need to earn 200 grand a year, don’t buy franchise that cleans windows or scrubs carpet, don't buy into the drinks it's not going to work out for you. But also going back to your point to Josh it's about not throwing all your eggs in one basket as well. It's about diversifying, If you're in a business have a backup plane, if something goes wrong with your core function. Similarly our business we do have a similar accounting and taxation is like bread and butter, but there will be there is the threat of offshoring. There is the automation, there is sort of the risk of AML Compliance fees reducing but it's about having a back up plan. For us that was Yeah, we can help clients more holistically and other consultancy services. We have an HR company, we have a well planning business. It's about if something goes wrong with something I've got a backup plan and the same thing comes to those people invest. If you've got a million dollars to invest, don’t throw it all into stocks. Yeah, yeah. When maybe you bought a property, maybe you diversify your share before it cross 2025 blue chip stocks. Don't put your house that you've worked your whole life to own outright, don't put it on the line to buy that restaurant. Because it feels like a good idea. Josh: Don’t do anything on feelings. Brad: Exactly. And also the gut tells you can't can tell you whether something is right or wrong. But yeah, seek advice and know who to trust about these things. But don't Yeah, I think it just comes down to one know your limitations from a skills and qualifications perspective. And from a financial perspective and to disdain for on the line for one little idea that you think might workout. I agree with you Josh as you said earlier you worked hard when you're young you built some discipline, you've bought a few properties at a young age which gave you a good base to grow and take opportunities and risk when they come. I think that's the same in life today. Don't leave it all to luck. Don't stop focusing on your wealth when your days are numbered when you can't work as hard or as as agile as you once did. I think it's all about planning and it's all about having a back up plan and that's the biggest thing about this COVID-19, which I think it's rise today. Have a back up plan that had that war chest had that ability to to change direction Josh: T he time is now absolutely if you want to action something action and now like you have Ray Kroc started investing and really turned over some dollars when he was 55 that doesn't mean waiting for your 55 and be like something awesome is going to happen. But are you familiar with Parkinson's Law. Brad: Not hundred percent but if give me a 15 second Crash Course. Josh: So Parkinson's Law is the amount of time and I'm probably quoting this terribly now. But the amount of time you have available will pretty much become elastic with the amount of work that you absolutely have to complete. So if you have the assignment due the day before, and you've been used to being been sitting on the desk for six weeks, and you go, shit, I'm going to create this in, you're guaranteed to get it done with the time that you've got available. But if you started six weeks ago, it would have also taken you six weeks. So it's just fills up your valuable time. And I think when you look at time, what I like to the way I look at money, and my time is I look at whatever the action is about to take, is it saving money? Is it creating money? Or is it saving time? And if it doesn't tick any of those boxes, it's not a task that I do. There's a caveat there. Brad: 100%. You got to look at yourself and your own well being. And that's one of those things my bill I think the old saying is they're busy people get things done It's 100% you’re right. And then you write if you sent yourself an hour to, to do that one thing you will take it for later. But if you gotta get four things down now you'll fit it all in. Yep. I think planning is important on one Oh, yeah, go to my desk and there are the post it notes there is the paper frittering all over the place, doesn't mean I'm not playing and I don't know where things are, but it's still not obviously a great safety bloke. But I think have you three things that you want to do on a day in take them off. Everyone loves a sense of accomplishment now that they've gone to work and they've got a few things off the desk even if only takes an hour You know, it's done. Josh: And I think literally taking or putting a line through it is more important than having it written on your computer Notepad or wherever else and then deleting it. Seeing that you had some progress I'll go through books that I like a business plans from like that every two years. I've revisit the business plan like every business owner, yeah. Brad: Yeah, hundred percent is basically one page but have it Josh: Yeah, exactly. You just have a SWOT analysis, your mission statement, it's enough. And I looked through, I achieved all those goals. I've achieved all those goals and I have a look Regional goals are like far out they've morphed and that's what it's about like again talking before we jumped on onto the podcast about setting your plans and knowing that you needed sort of just hit the ground running, don't wait until it's perfect. Brad: If you sit around and wait for the perfect you'll never it'll never get off the ground you know and it is about me in business myself I will sign earlier Josh that you know, I know I've made plenty mistakes or have learned from them. I've made some of those mistakes a couple times but yeah, my biggest priority is probably you know, having a great idea or having a what I think is a good plan but not having the right people steering that ship or working with you to achieve that ultimate goals and it's about communicating to the people that matter what those got that goal is as well so they can all go on the journey with you but everything, you need to plan for anything in life, you know, when you wake up tomorrow and go this I've got to take on a hot stock, it might go okay, but it may well not. Like most things that work out well, you got a long term perspective, a long term plan, anything that seems nice and shiny and apparently guaranteed quick win often doesn't work out. So 100% right, Josh, it's about planning. It's about giving yourself time. But it's not waiting for that perfect day, that perfect storm because opportunity presents itself and you've, you know, sometimes you got to think on your feet and take it. Josh: Anyone in business that's getting out in business today and goes, I'm going to be a millionaire in 12 months. Just stop what you're doing right now. And don't quit your job. Don't quit your job. That's something I've seen so many times that comes to us. Okay, we need to get website, online presence. I want 200 leads coming in a week Brad: And I want to see another cryptocurrency overnight success as well, because that's where I've sort of fallen low false, doing that. Yeah, it can't be easy ways to make to make money. And look, some people are fortunate that there's a lot of people that fall into that trap. Josh: Absolutely. Oh, what I was saying about the Parkinson's Law just circling back a little bit. You have this amount of time. So Parkinson's Law is more about time, but I think it applies just the same to money. I think that people that have more money that comes in somehow find a way to spend more money. And people that are living on a lower income, somehow managed to still get by and sometimes have nicer things than that's a higher income. So if you have someone down the coast property developer that's bringing in $200,000, $400,000 a year for themselves, and then they've got this car and it seems like they seem to somehow have nearly the same parity in expenses. And then if something goes wrong with them, they fall hard as opposed to someone who's like owning, I don't know, 50,000? Brad: Yeah, I think early 60,000 is the average median. Josh: Yeah. So early, early 60s to the early 60s. Seems like those people are still getting along. Still going fine enough. You know, I'm saying from no evidence, no citations perspective, just he said the pub talk but you see people's books and you see what people do. Would you say that that kind of correlates Brad: I think it 100% does, Josh. Now when it comes down to people's personalities and their profiles, how they are raises children, but I think the younger populace of today are a lot more into the consumable spin. They want that first house to be the house that their parents have worked their whole life in to retire in. I think people visit and we do have constant you know that modern collectively a couple modern $300,000 $400,000 a year and have no savings have no have nothing to really show for show for their hard work and their toil because they are living in the moment. I think a lot of it comes down to discipline. Maybe it might need yet man you gotta have multiple bank accounts or different investments where a percentage of pay falls into each week. Brad: But you're right earlier Josh said you gotta hold don't leave things to light when it comes to investing. The whole power of compounding, you have does work out that direction. $10 in you know, $10 invested today reinvested over, you know, over the next you know, 30, 40 years. I'm not smart enough to work it well that will be but more than $10 it will. It's about discipline. It's about making that little bit of sacrifice, and I think people can quite easily do that. Whether they sell a shock, forcing into superannuation, any discipline is better than a discipline, even if, yeah, worst case scenario, we're putting that X amount of dollars into that term deposit. Wanna do 1.6% right now. And yeah, which might only sort of match inflation. So I'm not saying that's an investment strategy worth adopting, but it's better than doing nothing. And in time, that might mean it might turn into a managed fund, it might turn into a deposit or a property, it might turn into a chair portfolio might turn into an investment in the business. It's about discipline, and if you get it right, yeah, I mean, if you can, that in any set 10% you save can become 15%, can become 20% that you actually recycling and putting into investments your return will be a lot much better. Yeah. When you get to that age, and if you sort of leaving in the last five years to make things work Josh: A couple of things actually on that, what do you think about the government's super pullout scheme? Brad: I'm not obviously not a fan. I think you're just stealing for yourself, I think it should be a last resort, superannuation is there for retirement I think they had made some of the conditions to loosen easy for people and tempting for people to take. But the flip side of that from a social conscious perspective understand there are people out there who can't feed their children or really don't know where the next dollar is coming from. Well, I get that from a hardship provision it's better than taking that money than the nasty fallout which could happen on that side. I'm not a fan. I would much rather see our clients in particular use other sort of stimulus measures that are out there whether it be job sake, a job keeper. The cash flow boost is a lot. There's a lot of stuff out there, which hasn't hit every button but I'm hoping most people have had some sort of financial support, but I am, I think the superannuation one was a necessity, but I'm not obviously a fan of that because that's somebody that you’ve worked for, and you're going to be paying and you are technically paying for Josh: That's completely fair enough. I agree completely unless you absolutely have to. It's better just to sort of keep doing thing. Brad: And I don't think it's also just to it's an education around super, I think not many people look at their superannuation funds as a real investment until they do get closer to that retirement age as well. And I, you know, obviously, I do have a wealth planning business, I will not declare conflict here, but I think it's about acknowledging supers for a lot of people. superannuation will be the biggest asset that they will build outside of their house and it sort of their personal successes and triumphs. So something we spoke about compounding before and the difference that you might get from a standard fund that might give you a 6% return of a life. Yeah, well for the investment as opposed to maybe the average IC return which is either 9% it will make a difference in retirement as well. So I think there needs to be better education around superannuation. It's not just something that employers putting on habits in doing and not care about, yeah, it is an actual real asset and you're only taxed 15% on money that is invested in superannuation, contributions, early tax of 15% going in as well. It's a good low tax environment and it's something we shouldn't be playing with because it is it is that that is your rainy day investments. And when you do retire, we don't want to be living on a $400 a week government pension. So if it's still around, jury's out on that, if you want that goal of being self funded bowl, yeah, treat that super as a real asset and try not to touch it Josh: Will government give me like advantages to chucking additional coin in there you could put 1000 in a match 500 or something like that? Brad: There is the government co contribution it has it used to be 1000 4000 entities, it is probably phasing and in terms of the monetary benefit, and it does only apply to people who will sort of allow middle income salary but yeah, the government is obviously has made superannuation enticing investment vehicle due to the low tax rates and, and I you know, when in saying that I have been disappointed in a lot of us that they have sort of reduced the concessional contributions capped at $25,000, where it used to be a hell of a lot more. So it is harder to get money into super so you haven't, once again, I sort of get into back into that argument that yeah, if you can avoid dragging money at a super please do so. I'd much rather someone borrow some money from a family member to get them through this little crisis than draw money in which they had no intention of contributing into. Josh: This is this is a different problem. This is this is a money problem than a business problem. The problem that I've had for many, many, many years is I've looked at what I've been earning and I've been benchmarking what I've been earning against what I had been earning, or what I've been saving against what I had been saving, not knowing at all if I was sitting in a good position because I'm cashflow positive, or what the average spreaker is doing around the place. Is it sensible for a business to be sitting cashflow positive? Sounds like a stupid question, but I'm sure many businesses out there are not. And is it sensible for a business to be borrowing money or investing your own money and is it, I guess that comes down to the risk assessment? What are you what you're investing into? Brad: Josh, it comes down to borrowing, borrowing can be a powerful tool, if you're obviously using that borrowed money to invest in the right type of asset. Also, you don't want to have high interest bearing debt, things like credit cards, pawnbroking lines. Withdrawals once again, can work. But once again, it depends on what you're using that withdrawal for. If you're going to get a return on that investment, whether it be bought, you know, use net redraw to buy a property comes into that investment. Positively good, can be good, and generally it’s good I'd rather possibly deed property than negatively geared property, even though your tax benefits might be less, you're hopefully still going to be ahead but also comes down to what is that asset as well. You might have a positive geared property that you might be getting a 5% return on investment on and have minimal debt on that is actually ground value as well. That comes down to what is the income return? Yes. But is there a capital growth return on that investment as well? And some people might tell me the last 10 to 12 years Depending where you're investing your money in terms of property, there probably has been a flat property market. Brad: I think we're talking earlier, Josh about our first properties that we bought and I bought my first property when I was 21 in the sleepy town of Brasil, Ipswich and paid 83 grand for my parents … my wife. Now Carly and I were crazy. doing such a thing. Yeah, like spending that hundred $50 a week on the loan repayment. We were out in probably earning, I don't know, $100 could bond but it was the best decision we ever made because what it created and the property market moved. We've built some equity and build a good foundation where we can sort of continue our investment journey as well. So I think although we're not going to get the massive jumps in property prices once again, it comes down to discipline, but it comes down to using debt for the right reasons. And the end of the day, Josh using redrawn on your timeline to keep pouring money into a business which isn't growing, which is stagnating is going backwards. I don't think it's a sensible thing to do. Speak to your advisor and work out well. Is it worth putting good money after bad as well? Sometimes borrowing can be good, but it's a case by case scenario. Josh: So if you if you're in a position where you had a business and it's a no we're talking about low margin businesses stuff if you're turning over 100K and you see it's good and it's after all your expenses, maintenance and all your equipment. And I'm just using this is a nice simple example. But if you have $100,000 business and you Okay, cool, it's sitting there positive everything's good. You're more than capable to go to the bank and go and grab five more lawn mowers, five more right on zero 10s hedge, yep whippersnappers, whatever you whatever you got to get, and you could then have stopped with five and then you have the debt but you got your short term debt to then grow the business obviously you do it more organically and just smash on 500% increase in your business. But if you go okay, it's already working. It's already good. Does that come down to like the risk per se Brad: Yeah. And I'm speaking to earlier today, just before we got caught up and I'm a massive advocate for behaviour profiling. We as a business off of that too. Well, cons as well and I think it's worked amazingly well for me as a decided and I myself personally what my behaviours and my personality profile is what things motivate me, what things stress me. I think it does come down to the individual but it also comes down to what you want and aspirations are as well. But for some people not employing staff and working to your own you know working to your own accord not having any risk in life. You can still be happy and earn hundred thousand dollars a year and you know me obviously hopefully they structured in a company or somewhere where they're paying minimal tax on that hundred thousand dollars, Josh, but at the same time they people do want to grow they've got an expanding family they want to you know, get the kids into a job or a business they and their wife might not work so they need to sort of put some additional funds into the family budget, maybe on another you know, on another round or on another machine might be a smart thing to do but I think a lot of it comes down to as I said before an area where I've sort of you know probably have fallen in the past is putting too much faith in people. Or not telling me to put in pretty much faith or trust in people's is picking the wrong person for the job, you know. Brad: So there might be another area you want to invest in, there might be another sideline component you want to add to the business, but have the right person, have a person who has a complementary style to you, has the same ethics and morals as you and someone who's not going to create just more headaches and more problems as well. So I think a lot of it comes down to having the investment. Is it the right investment for me, is it part of my values? Is it part of my overarching plan, but secondly, is that person someone of credibility and someone I can work with, and trust. Most often, I've seen people expand a business and the business goes south pretty quickly, because we've got people who don't have the same values as them and people who are, I suppose, not loyal and not sticking to the business but sticking to themselves and just, yeah, and then let that business down. So it often depends on the person depends on what their goals are. But often there's someone in as you mentioned before someone's earning 100 grand a year with minimal fuss and minimal complications. Feels a bit wrong to say but often they'll probably be better off sticking to that, sticking to that plan and, and a country is full of successful self employed people or people might only have one extra additional employee. why have the stress? Why complicate it Josh: I completely agree I learned many, many years ago, they're all going have the biggest IT company in Australia. I don't want that. I don't want that. Cool to say to pub, I guess. Brad: Yeah, it feels good for a minute, but not good for your blood pressure. Probably not good for any relationship you're in as well. But we define success differently. A number of great businesses that have grand or normal size and normal scale and almost reputation, but often they've had good people. And you can't get there just on your own. Josh: No, and even if you've got good people I think that you can have if you're really great at mowing lawns, it does not mean that you're really great at managing people. You could have a high IQ and a terrible EQ, and then you're not going to get a mission understand people's problems, and that then means that you might have the best business but not the best person Brad: Hundred percent Josh like said it's often use the old trading scenario they do even a fourth year finish they tried ploy works out there. Yeah, they're too expensive so they got to go around and become a contractor and then they got to around GST registration, they got to start watching their own bears, you got to start keeping an accounting file. They got to start sourcing their own insurance, they need to need to work out what's the best mobile phone deal? What software do I need to run my database? It’s all these conversations come to us and you start to think about technology. You start to think about mobile phone technicians you start to think about bookkeeping support, accountants, insurance companies, it's messy and who do you trust? Who do you turn to? What referrals do you take on board? You can complicate your life pretty quickly and look, anyone is a massively successful and created a huge wealth has probably gone through these complications and thrive, but some people just haven't got it and they make up and they set up. And I think it's important that one, know yourself and know your limitations before you sort of go on a journey that could end in tears Josh: Think of that way you're going to be and you're going to enjoy that work. And if you're not, probably don't walk that road. Brad: Know yourself, know your limitations, know what type what it takes for you to burn out, and we will have our limits and we're all wired differently, doesn't mean you're a failure it just means that you're better at other things than the person next to you. Josh: Albert Einstein said if you measure the success of a fish's ability to climb a tree, you'll think fish is stupid forever. It's been great talking with you. And yeah, it's been it's been great having on the show, and if anyone is interested in talking to Brad, we'll Chuck a link in here to his website so that you can see a bit more information, maybe get your books, and maybe make sure that you're doing the video that you should be doing. And the last question I've got for you is if they had to read something to put them in business stance after they've just had this whiplash from COVID, what would you say they should be reading? Doesn't have to be an exact book, but what should they, what resources should they be utilising? Brad: There's a lot of resources out there, Josh, and I'm not I'm not going to stick into one book in particular. But for me, it's about anything that makes you unique or different. And I know as an accountant, I'm not going to go and read textbooks on accounting or tax but I'm going to read other books that might help me in other areas that I think might be beneficial clients and give me a competitive edge. So might be around things like leadership, how to influence people, different types of selling strategies. So I'm not a massive reader, or do you like yeah, my little quote, so little bursts of inspiration. So I think it's just about knowing you as a person and just being an interesting person to converse with and just learn about the world. Read the paper, buy the fin review, just read different this read different things on myself if I'm like three kids at home and I work long hours, so it's often fall asleep after five minutes. Well, so I think, right things that inspire you, read things that motivate you. But yeah, I think just be aware, just be aware, just be aware of what's going on in the world. Josh: But just don't use Facebook as a source. Brad: No, exactly right and just yet, just be someone who's buried and has multiple interests on it. It just means you're going be able to relate to a lot more people and make life a lot more interesting. Josh: So well, Brad, it's been great talking to you. And if anyone out there would like to jump across to iTunes, leave us some love. Give us a review and any feedback you have. That'd be great. Otherwise, stay healthy out there in the COVID crisis and look forward to tuning in soon. Brad: Thanks Josh.
Parkinson's Law is the idea of a task or agenda expanding to fit a scheduled time slot. Learn how Parkinson's Law affects the workday and how you can use it to shape your performance. Music from https://filmmusic.io "Acid Trumpet" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Have you ever been scheduled to leave for vacation and you found yourself more productive then you have ever been? I have, check out why in this episode and how you can use that to your advantage.
I go over two more chapters in Becoming Your Own Banker. I discuss Parkinson's Law and Willie Sutton's Law. You'll hear how human nature keeps us in slavery to material things and luxury and how the IRS is the biggest thief we have to contend with. Audio Production by Podsworth Media.
What can you do to be more productive, efficient, effective, and get stuff done while working from home during the COVID-19 crisis? No matter how much work you do or get done, there’s always more to do. Today’s guest is Thanh Pham from Asian Efficiency, which has helped more than 15,000 clients worldwide. Also, Thanh hosts a growing and flourishing podcast called, The Productivity Show. You’ll Learn... [01:53] Asian Efficiency: Positive stereotype and memorable name for company. [02:55] Thanh turns hobby of documenting productivity processes into a business. [03:47] Groundhog Day: Businesses operating from home lose time and progress. [05:06] Work/Life Balance: Nothing going on, no way to work, long days, and no variety. [06:33] Planning: Take it to the next level via different dimensions, contingency options. [07:23] Productive vs. Interruptive: Seek clarity to set one goal a day to accomplish. [09:10] Sense of Momentum: What you want and why it matters should drive your life. [12:15] Structure/Strategy: Create own schedule, design ideal day, and set cutoff time. [14:57] Five Whys: Identify root cause and motivation. Money, freedom, flexibility? [17:55] Energy vs. Time: Don’t do everything, do what you like and others do the rest. [25:44] Ideal Day: Map it out the night before to start the next day right away. [27:08] Do’s and Don’ts: Don't eat at your desk; do step away from your office or home. [32:05] What keeps you up at night? Entrepreneurs are known for worrying too much. [34:40] Chinese Proverb: The palest ink is better than the best memory. [35:41] Analog vs. Digital: What’s the difference? Depends on personal preference. Tweetables Restore order in your life to gain a sense of relief and energy to help you recover. “Whenever we're working from home, one of the most important things is to plan our day. That's such a simple thing that we can do, but most of us kind of skip that process.” “Set one goal a day. If you accomplish just one goal a day, no matter how big or small, you had a productive day.” “If we don't have energy, if we don't have any of that when we're starting our day, it's just so much more challenging to be productive.” Resources Asian Efficiency The Productivity Show The ONE Thing by Gary Keller Oura Ring Evernote OmniFocus Jira Mont Blanc Pens DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive DoorGrow Website Score Quiz DoorGrow Cold Leads Calculator Transcript Jason: Welcome, DoorGrow Hackers, to the DoorGrow Show. If you are a property management entrepreneur that wants to add doors, make a difference, increase revenue, help others, impact lives, and you are interested in growing your business and life, and you are open to doing things a bit differently, then you are a DoorGrow Hacker. DoorGrow Hackers love the opportunities, daily variety, unique challenges, and freedom that property management brings. Many in real estate think you’re crazy for doing it, you think they’re crazy for not because you realize that property management is the ultimate high-trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management businesses and their owners. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. I’m your host, property management growth expert, Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow. Now, let’s get into the show. I have a special guest with me today. Just down the street in Austin hanging out. This is Thanh Pham. What's up, Thanh? Thanh: Hey, Jason. Good to be here. Thanks for having me and I'm super excited to chat with you here today about productivity and anything that we can do to be more productive. Jason: All right. Did I say your name right? Thanh: Yeah, you did. First time, first attempt, 100% correct. Jason: I thought I did, but I thought I would make sure. I'm really excited to have you. You have a great sense of humor. We're chatting it up before the show and your company is called Asian Efficiency, right? Is this correct? Asian Efficiency? Thanh: That is correct. That is a positive stereotype that we have going on here in most of America and the Western world so I thought, “You know what? That's such a funny name. Such a name that sticks out and is memorable.” So we started off as a joke in a way because I just want to document my journey of being more productive. I remember one time I was staying at a house in Miami with some friends, all fellow entrepreneurs. We went out for one night, then we had a few drinks. We had a great time, then the next morning I was being productive in getting stuff done; waking up really early. By the time it was noon, I was done with my day and everyone else was waking up really late. I said, “Oh my gosh, Thanh. You're so productive. That's some Asian efficiency right there,” and that's when the name was born. Jason: So this almost became a theme around you or a nickname attached to you before it was a business. Thanh: Yeah. Honestly, it just started as a hobby. I just wanted to document how I did things as I was learning about productivity and how to be efficient, be effective, managing my time better, and I just started to blog about this back in the day in 2011. After a while, it just started to grow and took a life of its own after about six months. Then people kept asking me, “Thanh, this is so helpful. I'm learning so much. I would love to hire you. Do you have any courses or products?” And I said, “Actually I don't. But that's a great idea.” I accidentally turned this into a business, and now, almost nine years later, we helped over 15,000 clients all over the world. We have a podcast that's growing and flourishing, and just continuously impacting people, people that are listening here today as well. Jason: Awesome. Our topic today is productivity while working from home, which a lot of people are doing right now. Due to the Coronavirus, COVID-19, a lot of people are on lockdown. A lot of people have been stuck at home. Businesses are operating, some are still operating, but they're doing it from home, and a lot of people are joking right now. The big joke is it's all one big day that's been running forever. Everybody feels like there's no difference between one week to the next. The month has gone on for three months now. We're kind of losing a sense of time, it seems to be the theme, and things just keep repeating so we lose a sense of because everything seems so similar each day and we're lacking variety in our day to day, it feels like we're not making any progress I think, maybe subconsciously as well. What are you doing to stay out of that Groundhog’s Day sort of movie type of scenario in your own mind, cognitively? Thanh: I think one of the interesting things that are happening now is some of those are working more than others and some of those are going the complete opposite route. We don't have a job. There's nothing going on and there's no way for us to work. In either spectrum, it feels like days are so long as a result because as you said there's no variety. It's nice to be able to go to work and then come home relax and do nothing. When we miss one or the other, it feels like we're completely out of balance or some of us are just working all the time. If you've been working from home for a while, then you're just working more now because there's nothing else to do. You can't leave your home. You can't go anywhere so you just work more. For those who don't have a job right now, or not working as much, or can't work, you are stuck as well. You can't do anything else but stay at home and relax and do relaxing activities. Jason: And binge Netflix. Thanh: And binge Netflix, yeah. I've watched so many shows. Money Heist was one of my favorite ones that I just finished. A great show, watch that one. Jason: I just went through that too. My girlfriend and I were watching that one and it was good. Thanh: Oh my gosh. Season Four, that really got me. But that's a whole completely different podcast. Jason: I wasn’t mad at the cliff hanger left at the ending though. My girlfriend was upset and I was like, “No, that makes me excited about the next season.” Thanh: [...], you just have to watch it whenever you have time. Jason: I'm sure the character, the professor, you'll get excited about. He's got everything planned out. He's incredibly efficient and he always finds a way to make things work. It seems like when nothing else seems like it'll be possible, he finds some [...] Thanh: I thought I was a planner until I saw this character. Then this guy takes planning to a whole nother level because I thought planning a vacation was great, fun, and easy, then this guy takes planning of the robbery to five different dimensions, so you go whoa, this is crazy. Jason: Right. He's got all the contingency plans. He's got names for all of them and something happens, he's like, “No problem. We're just going to bust out plan C,” and they just pop it out and everybody knows what to do. Thanh: That's a beautiful thing and when we're working from home we can take the same approach. Whenever we're working from home, one of the most important things is to plan our day. That's such a simple thing that we can do, but most of us kind of skip that process. If you're listening to this and you feel like most of your days are unstructured or you go about your day and you feel like, “Man, I wish I was more productive,” or, “I wish I had that one particular thing done.” I know many of you who are listening probably find it very challenging to schedule stuff. You want to say, “You know what? I want to work on this particular task, or call this particular tenant or client at 11,” and then something comes up. A fire, someone calls you, you got an important email, you're on call the whole time, you have an email client open, interruptions coming all the time, you feel like you're on edge, and it makes it very difficult to focus. It makes it very difficult to concentrate and have focus blocks where you're actually working and doing stuff. When you're in that kind of situation, one thing I've found is when you're trying to work with people who have that interrupt-driven day, one of the best ways you can approach that is to set one goal a day. If you accomplish just one goal a day, no matter how big or small, you had a productive day because the rest of your day is typically driven by interruptions and things you have to deal with anyway. But if you can make progress on one goal, or one big outcome, or one big task, that's a really productive day, so let's aim for that. Jason: That reminds me of Gary Keller's The ONE Thing. He's got his one thing question which is, “What's the one thing that, by doing it, everything else will become irrelevant or easier?” That one thing question, so maybe that's something the listeners can ask themselves. What's that one thing that if I do this, it's going to get me a sense of momentum today? It's going to make me feel like I've done something. I've accomplished something. I moved the needle just slightly on my goals. Thanh: I think a great reframe to add on top of that to help people because one of the things I see people struggle with is, “Jason, I have five million things I have to do and they all have to be done. How do I pick one thing to work on?” Oftentimes, we ask ourselves that question. It's a sign that you don't have any clarity about your goal or the destination you want to go towards. So, when you don't have that, everything feels equally important and whenever you get that sense when everything is equally important, that's a sure sign that you don't have clarity about what your goal is or what your destination is. I want to challenge you as a listener to say, “Hey, what is the goal that I'm trying to accomplish?” Because once you know what that is, prioritizing or finding the one thing or the few things you have to do becomes so much easier. As an example, if you're publishing a book, that is your big goal for the year, then if you have a to-do list that says I need to redo my finances, organize my closet and write chapter two. One of those three sounds more appealing because it's aligned to a goal which is just writing chapter two. That doesn't mean redoing your finances and organizing the closet is not important, they are important, but they're not, in relationship to the goal, important enough for you to prioritize over something else. Once you have absolute clarity about the goal, this is what I'm trying to accomplish, you start to notice that certain tasks on your to-do list stand out because they will help you get you closer to your goal. That makes prioritizing them really easy and that makes it easy for you to say, “Okay, this is the one thing or maybe the two things I have to do today, and if I do that then I had a really productive day.” Jason: I love that. I think some of the coaches I've worked with in the past, one of their big questions would always be to ask what do you want? What do you want? That first gut reaction deep down that we're going to respond to that. What do you want in your business? What do you want I think is really important because it's very easy I think for us to just end up becoming a slave to our business or doing things for other people. I think a simple question of what do you want, then the follow-up question was always why does that matter? Because if it doesn't matter, we're not really going to do it. There has to be a why behind it especially if that’s work, if it's painful, if it's difficult. So what do you want and why does it matter. Really, that ultimately should be driving our business. It should be driving our life. All these things are vehicles to serve as. They're all vehicles to make us happier, or more fulfilled, or give us a sense of momentum. Let's get into some specifics. People are listening and are like, “Thanh, I've got my one goal but how do I create this structure for my day that you've talked about? How do I do this?” Thanh: If you're working from home, one of the best things you can do is to create a schedule for yourself because after working from home since 2009, I've consulted so many clients over the years. There's a lot of different strategies out there when it comes to being productive and trying to be efficient working from home, but the one strategy that I see that is most effective for most people is creating your own schedule. You want to design your ideal day and one of the biggest things that you want to pay attention to is that again, one, you want to have one big goal for today especially for people who are listening to this who are interrupt-driven schedule, you want to create that. Then the second thing is you want to make sure that you have the cutoff time for when you stop working as well. I know that's going to sound crazy for a lot of property managers and you go, “Thanh, I can't do that. I'm on call 24/7 and I need to be reachable whenever people contact me.” I totally get that, but if you want to have some sense of balance in your life or if you feel like you're always on call, you're tired of being that way, you want to then start creating some systematic solution around that so that if people do call you after a certain time, it's still being handled. When I'm working with a lot of owners and operators, their main fear is, “Man, if I stop working after six. I'm going to lose a lot of business. I'm going to get a lot of complaints.” Those are rightfully so in the beginning, I would say, but what if you could hire someone to be able to work even part-time to deal with stuff outside of your normal office hours? To be able to handle that request and things that people need so that you don't have to do that. You can pay someone else to be able to do the things that need to be done while you have time for yourself. As you're growing your business and have specific boundaries for yourself, it makes it easier for you to have that work-life balance because most of us who are entrepreneurs and are working all the time, after a while we get so tired. One of the main reasons businesses stop existing or quit is because the owner is tired. They're just like, I'm so done with— Jason: They’re burned out. Thanh: Yeah, they have this burnout. So we want to create boundaries. We want to create systems in place so that we don't have to work all the time. When we do work, we can work on the things we have passion about or we're really good about, that are in alignment with what you were talking about earlier which I love is the whole why thing. If you've never done that exercise, it's called the five whys. Basically you ask yourself why five times, you start to come down to the root cause, the root motivation for you why you started this business. Oftentimes it's not because you wanted to make more money even though that was I'm sure a strong motivator for a lot of people. Oftentimes, it comes down to having your own freedom in your life. Having a flexible schedule. Having quality time with your family and friends. Once you really connect with that, you start to realize I don't have to work 18 hours a day. I can accomplish everything I need in six, or seven, or eight, and the rest of the time I can spend it with my family because that's why I started my business. To be able to spend time with them, not necessarily work more until midnight fixing stuff or trying to attend to tenants, even though that is important. Someone else can do that as well and get paid for it. You employ someone and that's a beautiful thing too. Jason: I think ultimately when we boil anything down, it comes down to usually a feeling that we want to have. Somebody just says I really want a Tesla, or I want to drive. I want this car. When you really boil it down, people always want what we think we will feel when we have that. How would it feel to have a business that runs itself or I had the freedom, the time? Ultimately, it boils down to some sort of feeling that we want to have. Then if you work it backward, once you figure it out, once you get to that bedrock why, then the question is can I have this why without that? Or is there a faster vehicle or a way to get to that in that? If I just want to feel powerful, are there other things I can do to feel powerful besides what I was thinking about how to look this one certain way? One coaching or program that I went through, this phrase they always drove into us was, “It doesn't have to look a certain way.” They recognize it. Everybody always gets so attached to things looking a certain way. We want a specific outcome and we want to get there in a specific way. It has to look this way. No, no, no. It has to be like this. Sometimes we end up becoming control freaks and I'm sure sometimes productivity can become a control freakish mode for people to get into. They're micromanaging every second. They're doing too much. Planning everything out in so much detail that they kill all the life and spirit of their life, fun. Ultimately, that could lead the burnout, unless people really just thrive on that situation. I'm a big fan of energy management over time management. Spending your time doing the things you really enjoy like you're talking about and that's going to help you avoid getting burnout because if I'm doing the things that I love, I can work crazy amounts of hours in a week because I love it. I'm not getting burned out on it. I'm far less likely to get tired. People aren't going to annoy me or frustrate me in those situations because I feel alive. I feel like I'm doing something that brings me joy, life, and momentum. I think ultimately everybody needs to find that in their business because I think the great secret that nobody talks about is that as a business owner, you don't have to do all the stuff people say a business owner has to do. You can do whatever you want. If you want to be the receptionist in your company, you can be the receptionist. It's your choice. It's your company. If you want to do accounting and you love that, you can do the accounting. If you want to do customer service, you can do that being the business owner. Let's go to the cutoff time. I really like this idea. I like this idea because there are so many beliefs that prevent us from stopping and cutting it off. I had a job working for an internet service provider and I started managing their support department after being there for a short period of time, then I was moving up and then I was just underneath the two owners. I was working really crazy long hours. I had to commute sometimes during that job, like two hours because I was driving into LA (Los Angeles), and traffic was crazy. And then driving out. S.o I would just stay even later and I was working, working, working. The thing I realized is that no matter how much work I did there was always more. There's never an end to finishing all work that could or possibly will be done. There's no exact stopping point that you'll eventually find that all the work you need to do as a business owner or even just as an employee is done. But creating a healthy stopping point when it hits this time, I'm going to stop my day and pick it up again tomorrow. It's always going to be there waiting for you. It's still there and what I find is, is it the Pareto principle? It is the idea that if you constraint your time to a certain limit, “I'm going to be done by five o'clock. Five o'clock I'm cutting it off.” What happens is you start to become more productive because you start to innovate. You start to be creative. You're forced to constraint and because of that constraint, you have now to innovate. Without a constraint, it could be endless. You give somebody in your team an endless amount of time to do something, they can take weeks. You're like, “No, I need this done by Friday.” Then they start to innovate. “It's not possible the way I currently do it to get done by Friday. Okay, what can we do to change that?” Every week you can have this done. Then, you start to get innovative. I think there are secret benefits to doing that cutoff time that psychologically feel backward but we're going to become more productive as a result of creating that cutoff time. Do you agree? Thanh: I one hundred percent agree because there are actually multiple benefits to setting that cutoff time. You mentioned one [...] of them right there which is like setting a deadline first. We know that there's nothing better than having a really good deadline that forces you to get a lot of things done in a shorter period of time. Having that cutoff time every single day is like having a deadline every day for yourself to say, “Okay, I need to get all of these work done before a specific time,” and if we don't have that, then we take up the whole day and even more than that to get the things done that we need to get done. That goes back to what you're saying early like Parkinson's Law. Something takes up as much time as we give it to. If we say, “I want to have this done in two weeks,” it can be done and if you tell yourself it can be done in one year, it will be done in one year. It's just a matter of how much time we give ourselves to get something done. By having a daily cutoff time, by forcing ourselves to do the things that need to be done, especially if you focus on one or two major things like the one thing or the two smaller things and say, “Okay, I need to have this done before five,” then you will find ways like you said to get it done. The other big benefit of that is that when you have that balance to say, “Okay, after five I'm going to stop working,” you can then go to bed earlier. You can enjoy time with your family. You can spend time with your kids or you can do some personal hobbies. You can run some errands. You can do all these different things that restore order in your life. They give you a sense of relief. They give you a sense of energy to help you recover. Guess what? You're going to show up as a better owner, as a better property manager the next day because if you're sleeping well, you're eating right, you have the time to do all the things you need to do, you're going to show up the next day feeling refreshed and having more energy. Like we talked about and like you mentioned earlier, energy is such an important factor. It's such an important currency for productivity and when we have the energy to focus and do the things we need to do, we are so much more productive than without it. It's like if you have really nice sports cars sitting in your garage, you're the perfect driver. You know exactly how to drive it. You know every single feature, but the car has no gas. Guess what? You're not going to go anywhere even if you have the right tools, you know exactly what you need to do, you have no gas? Guess what? You're not going to drive that thing anywhere. It's the same thing for us. If we don't have energy. If we don't have any of that when we're starting our day, it's just so much more challenging to be productive. Then we have to caffeinate. We have to drink more coffee or tea getting ourselves ready. That's not a success [...] for us to be able to focus and be productive for the rest of our lives. We want to be able to start our day, get things done that need to be done, and have the energy to focus and do the best work that we're paid to do, essentially. By introducing that cutoff time, it has so many benefits that come with that. Just think about all the benefits that come with having more energy. Sleeping better, running the errands you need to get done. Having that sense of order in place because you can do all these different things. It makes it so much easier and makes you so much happier as well. That's going to be reflected in your work you do the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that. Jason: I think ultimately what all of these creates is presence. It allows us to be more present or more there when we need to be there. If a property manager is communicating with a tenant, they need to be on when things get difficult or sticky. They need to be on with an owner and they need to cognitively have the ability to make decisions, and move quickly, and think. All of this gives us power. It gives us power when we're able to be more present because if you're tired, you're not present, not nearly. If you're cognitively burned out, then you're almost in a situation that is painful that you're forcing yourself to do something. Forcing your body to do something that is uncomfortable. You're done and you keep going. Let's go back to the idea of this ideal day. How do we create a map for our ideal day? When do you do this? Thanh: Ideally, you want to plan your ideal day the night before. That's something that is such a simple habit that I teach and very few people actually do. But once they do it and follow through with it, they start to know this huge productivity jumps because it allows you to start your day right away, as soon as you're done with your morning routine or you're sitting down on your desk instead of just starting your day where you're scrambling, trying to figure out what to do. Also, the other benefit that comes with planning your day the night before is that you can go to bed knowing that everything is being addressed and is going to be addressed the next day as well. You can feel relaxed and not stressed out as much because you know anything that needs to be addressed needs to be done the next day, so you can sleep a lot better. It has so many energy benefits as we talked about earlier. Planning your day the night before is one of the first things I would recommend people do. The second thing is to have one big goal. One big win for the day, then the third thing is the cutoff time. You have those three pieces in place, plan it the night before, one big goal, and having a cutoff time. You will have an ideal day figured out for yourself. If you're working from home, one of the things I would also recommend that you don't eat at your desk. Actually leave your office or your home. This applies also if you're working on an office because most of us are just sitting at our office or desk the whole day and we get so burned out by just looking at a screen, being on Zoom meetings, or being on the phone the whole time that it's actually nice to be able to step away. Go for lunch for an hour and go for a walk. By the time you come back, get outside. Get some sunlight, some vitamin D and you feel so much better. Your mood is elevated. You have a new sense of urgency, a new sense of energy. Stepping away from your desk to have lunch, as simple as that sounds, will make a big difference. I was working with this coaching client. He had all these big goals and we were committed for a three-month engagement. The only thing we did is I told him to go for an hour-and-a-half every single day because he was working at a big bank. He was super busy. He felt like he just had to work 80 hours a week. The only difference that we truly implemented was just going out for lunch because it's like a mid-day reset for him. I gave him a new sense of energy, a resurgence of focus. He was able to work from going to 80 hours to 55 hours, which was a huge improvement for him. The only change was because he had a longer lunch and is going outside. Going out for lunch away from his office. As a result, he was just more focused, had more energy, and knew exactly what he needed to do. He had more time to think about stuff. So, instead of just sitting there all day at his desk feeling lethargic and just sitting there for the sake of sitting there, he wasn't actually truly productive. Again, plan your day the night before, have one big win, set a cutoff time, then definitely go out for lunch outside of your home and office. Jason: I love it. It's like breaking up your day into two chunks to tackle. It's a lot easier than doing an eight-hour chunk. The night before, why not do planning in the morning? Maybe you can touch on that. Some people do this. They get up in the morning. They sit down. They're like, “I'm going to plan out my day,” and they do it in the morning. Advantages? Disadvantages? What are your thoughts? I'm sure you've had clients doing that. Thanh: Yeah, I've done both for many years. Planned the night before and I also planned the morning of. One thing I found is if you're somebody who is a morning person, you have the energy you have in the morning, then planning the night before gives you the most benefit because you can just start your day right away and just use your energy and focus on the important task that needs to be done. You just get started right away. You're not wasting time or energy planning something. You already did that the night before. If you're a morning person, then I would say that's the way to go. I would say for a majority of people that applies too, even if you're not a morning person. Even if you're somebody who starts a little bit later, let's say 10, 11, or 12. It's still beneficial to plan the night before because you can go to bed knowing that, "Okay, I have an idea what to do." Also, there's the sense that once we know what we need to do the next day when we go to bed we can just feel assured that we're going to do this, but also, our brain will start thinking about how do we solve this particular task or problem or knowing exactly what we need to do the next day. That's very powerful as well whereas if you plan the day off or the morning of, often it's easy to get distracted, or to have an excuse for something, or just continue to lay on the bed a little bit longer because we wanted to. Because there's no sense of urgency or clarity about, "Okay. I need to do this today," because that planning process still hasn't come up. I think for many reasons and for many people planning the night before is more of a preference, ideal, something that you will make a habit of because I do think it has much more impact. But if you're somebody who doesn't' really get started until two or three o'clock in the afternoon, then I'd say it's okay to do it in the morning because you're not going to be as focused anyway. Those are some of the pros and cons, but if I were to work with a client, I would always recommend doing it the night before. Jason: I like the idea you touched on there that if you do your planning the night before, you're then allowing your subconscious to work out a lot of the details. A lot of entrepreneurs operate based on their gut, their intuition. It's things that they're subconscious, or deep down are coming up for them, or they’re figuring out. I think that gives them more of an opportunity to use that supercomputer that our subconscious mind is. That makes a lot of sense. I'm going to play around on that. That sounds cool. You always hear the phrase, “What keeps you up at night?” Entrepreneurs are notoriously known for being kept up at night because they're worried about something or working on something. Maybe just the act of offloading everything at the end of the day and saying this is going to be a plan for tomorrow, instead of leaving it there feeling like you need to work on it, that's going to allow your subconscious to work on it, but also create the space so that you can get good rest and you aren't kept up worrying about things. It'll allow you to lower that anxiety or that pressure, noise, or that stress that every entrepreneur tends to carry. Thanh: Yeah, that's why I always recommend that people journal at night as well because when we have so many thoughts before we go to bed, it's just so hard to fall asleep. I've been really geeking out on this even further because I have an Oura ring, one of those fitness trackers, and one thing I've [...] is that when I journal and I put all my thoughts away, my REM sleep goes up significantly. REM sleep is when [...] frustration for our brain, for our mental health, and when I don’t journal, the number of minutes of REM sleep goes down quite a bit. I think it's really because when our brain is occupied with all these different things, it cannot actually relax as much because there's just so much going on. But when we journal and put it on paper, put it away from our head and actually put it on paper, our brain can relax knowing that we don't' have to use this as memory or store anything. It's on paper. It's there. If we need it, we can access it. We don't have to worry or stress about it. You can actually focus on recovery while we're sleeping. It also helps you to sleep better. You feel less stressed when you do that. It's a nice winding down routine for you as well to decompress and just destress. I like to journal in the morning as well just to reflect and think. Also at night before I go to bed just to honestly put my stray thoughts away. If I wanted to do something, or I had a particular task, or I had an idea that I don't want to lose, just write it down real quick. It's out of your head and as you know, our memories are terrible. I've had so many ideas and then go, “Oh, what was the thing I was thinking about? That was such a brilliant idea.” Or I had a catchphrase and I was like, “Oh, I should use that on my podcast or marketing copy. Oh my gosh. I forgot what that was. I wish I had written that down.” Our memory is as not strong so it's always a good idea to write stuff down as quickly as possible especially before you— Jason: [...] about the palest ink? Thanh: That I don't know. Jason: It's the palest ink. I'm being Asian Efficiency now. It's my turn. There's this Chinese proverb that the palest ink is better than the best memory, or something like that. Thanh: Oh, I've never heard of that. I might have to borrow that from you. Jason: You could look it up. I don't know who said it, maybe it was Confucious, he says everything. But anyway the faintest ink is better than even the best memory because it's there, it’s tangible, it can't be forgotten, We know our brains are not really great at accuracy or remember things, so I love that idea. Related to that, Mr. Asian Efficiency, how do you feel about typing versus writing? Because what you're saying is writing in my journal, writing in my journal. Are you actually writing or it sounds like it can be more digital, nerdy, tech, whatever way of typing everything. A lot of people are, “Type it all. Type this note. I'll type it on my phone. Type, type, type.” Do you find there is any difference? Are the things you feel like writing is better suited for? Do you write anything? How does this work for you? Thanh: I think this whole analog versus digital is an interesting conversation for many people. What I have seen in my own personal life and amongst thousands of our clients is that there's no one best way to do something. It's really a personal preference. You can have a paper to-do list, or a physical planner where you write your to-do list, or you can have a digital one. I tend to prefer to use a digital planner myself, but when I'm writing notes down or journal, I usually like to do it on paper. There are scientific studies that show if you write something down, you tend to remember better. Your retention is a little bit better. There's some value in that as well. You also need to look at the functionality, utility value that comes with that because you leave a piece of paper at home, you can't really access it anywhere whereas if it's something in the Cloud or Evernote. If I write it down on my computer or write it down on my phone, I always have it with me whenever I need to. I like to have a combination of both so for example my to-do list is digital, I use OmniFocus as an app for that. Then in my company we use something like Jira, a project management tool. For notes and just storing ideas and just random stuff I use Evernote. That's on my phone and also on my computer and available on the web. That's an easy way to access stuff very quickly too. But when it comes to journaling, I like to have a physical planner. I use something like a five-minute planner or just a self journal which is a physical planner. I use it every single night and every morning to either plan my day, to think about stuff, or to just write down and just put some thoughts down or ideas that I have. Whenever I am traveling, I'm also carrying one with me. If I don't have it with me, then I'll store it in Evernote real quick. Most of the time, I like to use something physical because it allows me to disconnect from my computer. I'm sitting behind my computer most of the days and when I'm sitting there, I'm just not as creative because I'm associating computers and screens with work. Sometimes, if I want to be creative, I have to actually step away from that to be able to go to my whiteboard. That's another tool that I use which is physical or pen and paper-ish. Just go to my whiteboard and start mind mapping, brainstorming ideas, or creating a quick list of things I need to do or want to remember because I can be so much more creative when I'm away from my computer. The same thing with pen and paper. Sometimes, if I'm doing thinking questions for myself then I say, “Thanh, what will it take to double my business over the next six months?” That’s a simple question that I ask myself. If I do that behind my computer, I get easily distracted. There's notification popping up. “Oh, let me just quickly check this email. Someone's messaging me on Slack or Microsoft Teams. Oh my gosh, I'm getting so distracted,” whereas if I'm away and I have my favorite beverage. I'm sitting at a nice coffee shop or something, I see beautiful people walking around, there's a nice atmosphere, and I'm just sitting there and thinking, there's a different level of engagement, commitment, and clarity that I get from doing that. I like to use a combination of both. Again, there's no perfect solution for everyone. There's no one-size-fits-all, and a lot of times people have to figure out on their own what they prefer and also depending on their lifestyle, but I think everyone can benefit from digital and paper. Jason: Yeah. Like every podcast episode, I'm writing down notes. This is just this episode, that's page one. I'm already on page two. Thoughts as they come to me, things I need to do, like I just wrote down I need a cool box for my mic like you have because I don't have that. That's kind of cool. I'm always thinking and the brain is always going, so writing things down (for me) is a big deal. I use all kinds of digital stuff to keep track of things. Keep track of tasks, keep track of what my team is doing, tons of software and my business so I get it. Then even on my iPad, I have an iPad with an Apple pencil so I can write on that and it's digital. There are a whole plethora of different ways. I guess ultimately it's what works for you. What's going to actually help you feel creative, feel the momentum, and get your thoughts out. I do think there's magic in writing. As nerdy, as digital, and tech-savvy as I am, I think there's magic in writing. They found that even when you write stuff out, if you lose your main writing limb and you start writing with your other hand, your handwriting will eventually be exactly the same once you get used to it again. Handwriting analysis, if you geek out on some of those stuff, is actually like brainwriting. It's like a brain to paper. I think there's some magic in writing that I think there's also something therapeutic about writing for me that I just don't get by typing something. Thanh: Absolutely. I have a beautiful pen that was gifted to me. Someone gifted me a Mont Blanc pen and the really funny story about that is like four or five years ago when I got this gift. Someone gave me this pen and when I got this pen, back in the day I didn't know anything about pens so I'm like, “Wow. Okay, this is a nice gesture.” So I put that pen away. I didn't really think much of it and a few months later, one of my employees comes here and says, “Thanh, is that a Mont Blanc pen?” and I go, “I have no idea. What does that even mean?” He says, “Oh my gosh, this pen is like $700, Thanh. Did you not realize that?” I was like, “No, but let me use it because it's so expensive.” That's when I started using my pen and that's when I realized wow this is really actually a beautiful pen. The weight of the pen, the way you hold it, then I actually started writing down stuff a lot more as a result of that. As you said, it's kind of a therapeutic thing. It's a beautiful tool that I have that I like to use. It's really smooth and sits nicely in my hand. Because I'm away from my computer, there's no crazy stuff going on. There's a lot to that. If you make it really enjoyable for yourself where it's a therapeutic fun thing for you, you have tools that you use that you enjoy, then it makes it really easy and fun. Something that I always talk about in my podcast is called minimalist luxury. How can you have very few things, but the thing you do own or the best quality that you can afford is absolutely the best thing that you want to own and have? For example, having one really nice pen allows you to do so many cool things with that. Writing a contract, or agreement, or journaling every single day. It's a fun process for you because you love to use that pen or maybe it's a really nice jacket that you love to wear and anytime you wear it, you feel so much more confident. Going back to that feeling that you want, that you're looking for, it's like if you want to feel powerful you wear that particular jacket. There's one jacket that I have, anytime I wear it I feel so powerful. It's my favorite jacket and every time I go to speak, that's the one I always like to wear because I associate it with being powerful. Jason: I think I saw the post on your Instagram or your Facebook. Your power jacket, does it have a little shield on it? Thanh: Exactly, yeah. All these different things that we can buy and there's not many things that we need, but the few things that we need or want to make sure it's the best one that you can afford because oftentimes it will last longer. It's better quality. You'll enjoy using it more. That's something I learned from using that pen because I don't want to use any other pen, that's the one pen I want to use and every time I want to use it I feel so happy using it. Jason: Yeah. Thanh, we can probably talk about this stuff for hours. We can go on and on and I'm sure there's lots of stuff that you can share and teach people. Maybe we should wrap this up. How can people learn more and what things do you teach or share at your company? Thanh: Absolutely. Thank you first and foremost for serving your listeners and audience. If people want to find out more about me and what we do at Asian Efficiency, we have a podcast called The Productivity Show; it’s the number one podcast on iTunes. Also, you can go to asianefficiency.com. You can find anything there about productivity, being efficient, automation, what kind of tools to use. There's so much free content there that I would love to share with people, so just go to asianefficiency.com and we'll take care of you there. Jason: Awesome, alright. Thanh, it's been great having you here on the DoorGrow Show. I appreciate you being here. Thanh: Thank you. Jason: All right. We will let Thanh go. Check his stuff out. Really cool guy. Anybody that is focused on something as much as he has, has some really cool ideas to share and it's fun to have people like that on. If you are a property management entrepreneur, and you're wanting to add doors, you are wanting a better website, a better presence, you are wanting branding that makes you feel confident to look good when you go showcase your business to other people, helps you improve your sales, whatever you're looking to do for your property management business so that you can improve your growth, we can help over DoorGrow. Check us out. Go to doorgrow.com and we look forward to having you as a client and supporting you in your growth. We love our clients. We have some amazing, awesome clients. Check us out at doorgrow.com and be sure to join our community at doorgrowclub.com and that's it for today. Until next time, everyone, to our mutual growth. Bye, everyone. You just listened to the DoorGrow Show. We are building a community of the savviest property management entrepreneurs on the planet, in the DoorGrow Club. Join your fellow DoorGrow Hackers at doorgrowclub.com. Listen, everyone is doing the same stuff. SEO, PPC, pay-per-lead, content, social, direct mail, and they still struggle to grow. At DoorGrow, we solve your biggest challenge in getting deals and growing your business. Find out more at doorgrow.com. Find any show notes or links from today’s episode on our blog at doorgrow.com. To get notified of future events and news, subscribe to our newsletter at doorgrow.com/subscribe. Until next time, take what you learn and start DoorGrow hacking your business and your life.
Bob learns about Parkinson's Law and his thoughts on it! The Parkinson's Law states: "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." Enjoy!
Work will expand to take up the time allotted to do it.
If you are having trouble getting stuff done, give yourself a deadline and accountability with someone. Also the intro is a great song covered by buddy Jonas. I think it's a fantastic clip for these times.
Here to Thrive: Tips for a Happier Life | Self Help | Spirituality | Personal Development
Kate Litterer is a productivity researcher and coach who specializes in intentionality, habit formation, mindfulness, and slow living. Her clients range from PhD students to tenure track professors to self-employed creatives.In this episode, we cover so much about how you can work smarter, so that you have more time to truly live, rest and love. Specifically we talk through:Parkinson's Law (how we will use whatever time we have to do a task)The Planning Fallacy (how we often underestimate time resources needed which leads to overcommitting)Pomodoro Technique for Enhanced ProductivityWorkaholismRecognizing our Invisible Labor as still EffortfulHow to set Boundaries with Ourselvesand more.This is a podcast with hacks to help you better manage your time and your restoration.This is a podcast with hacks to help you better manage your time and your restoration. Find Kate @ www.katelitterer.com or www.thetendingyear.com The list of books she mentioned: Counterproductive by Melissa Gregg: https://www.amazon.com/Counterproductive-Time-Management-Knowledge-Economy/dp/1478000902How to do Nothing by Jenny Odell: https://www.amazon.com/How-Do-Nothing-Resisting-Attention/dp/1612197493How to Not Always Be Working by Marlee Grace: https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Always-Working-Creativity/dp/0062803670The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin: https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Project-Revised-Aristotle-Generally/dp/0062414852 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Someone once said that a really good declutter of your life is as good as a remodel (and so much easier and cheaper). Now as an architect, I don't know that I totally agree with that. A remodel can improve your layout, add natural light, introduce in beautiful new surfaces and generally custom fit your home to your life. A solid decluttering job can't do any of those things. However, sometimes a serious declutter is as good as an addition. Pare down your stuff BEFORE you plan your remodel so you don't waste valuable time, effort, and MONEY making more room for your things instead of creating a home you love.In Today's Episode you'll hear ...Real talk: you're going to need to declutter before your remodel anyway ... you'll have to get ALL of your stuff out of the way before you can start swinging a hammer for demolition! [1:45]Two fun stories of my rolling stone past: that time I lived in a tent for five months, AND that time I lived in hostels along the Mediterranean coast for five months ... and what both adventures taught me about living with less [2:37]Parkinson's Law applied to stuff in your house [4:45]Two quick tips to make your kitchen bigger ... overnight! [6:31]A little shout out to all our friend, Marie Kondo, with my thoughts on why her methods don't always work for Americans [9:17]My personal decluttering hero: Marla Cilley, aka FlyLady and her magical 15 minute burst theory of doing everything [9:53]Find links and complete show notes at midmod-midwest.com/206!
I'm calling an audible to my original plan. We started this now 5-part series with Goal Setting I "What is Your Why" and talked about the most important aspect of goal-setting. It's your reason for getting up and doing what you do. The "5 Why's" exercise is an effective way to peel back the layers of your reasons to get to the core of what makes you tick. We are not robots, but emotional creatures. Mike Michalowicz, in his epic book "Profit First", shares why rational accounting doesn't work. He uses an example of plate sizes. Do you know that the average size has grown from 9" to 13" in diameter. That's DOUBLE! Over the same time period, the average American male's weight increased from 160 lbs to 190 lbs! Why? Mike goes to say that humans consume everything they are given. It's human behavior. They also use every available amount of time to finish a project and every dollar to fill their budgets. This is why Americans don't have 'extra' savings on hand or 'spare' time or 'uneaten' calories. There is a name for this. It's called Parkinson's Law.Parkinson's Law states that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." We have to fight against this human behavior to win and learn how to Kill Parkinson!Our SMART goals are subject to Parkinson's Law too. If you set a SMART goal with a 'T' of 3 months, you will either miss the goal or make it just in time even if you could have done it faster. This is human behavior. I want to encourage you to set goals so that you can complete them in the beginning and get the wins. However, you need to get more aggressive as you progress. I'm going to use this example. I interviewed my friend Courtney Wisely of Rescue My Maid Service on a FB Live to help her set a SMART goal. She wanted to complete a technology course for cleaning service owners to help them be more productive and automated. I asked her if she could get it done by December (12 months away). Her answer was "Heck, yeah!" Then I asked if she could have it done this month. She said, "Heck, no!" I asked about June, which was 6 months away. "Um... yes." She wasn't as confident, but knew she could. Then I said April or 4 months away. She was very uncomfortable, but believed it was possible. I encouraged her to set her SMART goal for April. Here's the psychology behind this and it looks at the 'A' in SMART or 'Attainable'. I pressed Courtney and discovered she could achieve this massive goal in 4 months. However if she set the goal like most people for 12 months, Parkinson's Law would kick in and she'd allow the work to expand to fit the time. That would waste 8 months of potential goals or create a huge Opportunity Cost. Courtney won't do this. She will set the goal for 4 months and kill it this year. Just keep in mind that Courtney is a hyper-focused goal-achiever. We're not all there. So start where you are. The 'A' in the SMART goal has to be defined by YOU depending on where you are in your goal-setting journey. What's barely attainable now will be a joke in a year, so you cannot continue to set the same goals. The reason I added a 5th part to this Goal-Setting series was to show that human behavior drives your completion of goals. You need to have an emotional 'Why' which determines the 'R' in your SMART goal. You need behavioral 'A' in your SMART goal to kill Parkinson. And you need an accountability partner to ride with you along the journey to point out when you are veering off the path or taking too long to get something done. Face it. Goal-setting is 80% emotional and 20% rational.
A Phil Svitek Podcast - A Series From Your 360 Creative Coach
Parkinson's Law, not to be confused with Parkinson's Disease, is a powerful principal when applied properly to your life. It states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion". So even though you think you always need more time to complete projects or tasks, you actually don't! Isn't that crazy? Join me for this lesson as I deep dive this phenomenal and give you practical ways to truly harness it for yourself. Thanks for tuning in and may this insight help you move forward with your projects faster/more effectively. WEB LINK: https://philsvitek.com/whats-parkinsons-law-and-ways-to-harness-it-for-yourself SELECTED LINKS FROM EPISODE: Master Mental Fortitude Course Book: http://mastermentalfortitude.com
Interested in the Nomad Life or just making more money in less time? Download my ebook called What's Next at my website: www.nomadjay.com. It's free.For bonus content and to stay current with Jay, visit www.nomadjay.com.
Parkinson's Law and egg timers for the win!
Parkinson’s Law states that the time you give yourself to complete a task is how long you will take to complete a task. However long you decide you’re going to spend on a project is how long you’re going to spend on that project. This thought, this way of living can really change everything for us. It is so, so empowering because it means we are in control of so much more than we give ourselves credit for or like to admit. Let’s talk about it! Everything I talk about in this episode can be found HERE: alliecasazza.com/shownotes/134
Why aren't we taking advantage of that? The more time we have the more time we need or use. Parkinsons's law is just an amazing recognition communicated in a pretty good way. I think you definitely have experienced that as well. —————————————————————
Business Owner's Freedom Formula | Actionable Advice for Small Business Owners
If you ask most business owners what's the one thing they would want more of, MOST will answer TIME. The other common answer is "good help". However, the problem with the answer of more time, is unless you have an actual plan, you'll waste that too. Just like the time you spend now on things you shouldn't be doing. It's just like the people who win the lottery. They always wanted more money. They got it and then wasted it all. Parkinson's Law is alive and well. In today's episode I share with you how to actually put a plan in place to achieve your goals related to having time to do what you really want to do.
This episode covers the concept of Parkinson's Law - work fills the time available for it's completion Exercise: Make a list of tasks and assign time to each one 1/2 the time of each task **hold yourself to getting them done in the time alotted ***Reward yourself, much like we do to our kids when they get things done If you're looking for a fresh start for 2020, check out my free resolutions to reality mini-course
What should you be thinking about? Don't just think about it, DO IT! You've heard about Murphy's law, but today we're talking about Parkinson's Law as well as Jeffrey's own law... -- CAN'T GET ENOUGH SELL OR DIE? Join the Sell or Die Hards Official Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sellordiepodcast/ Jeffrey’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreygitomer Jen’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jengitomer/
John Lee Dumas, Founder and Host of the award-winning podcast Entrepreneurs on Fire, Creator of “The Freedom Journal” and “The Mastery Journal” and an entrepreneur who generates a 7-figure net annual income speaks with Jason A. Duprat, Entrepreneur, Healthcare Practitioner and Host of the Healthcare Entrepreneur Academy Podcast. In this episode, they discuss productivity methods, discipline and how to define success. Learn about JLD’s background, the importance of net profit, the value of structure, how to focus using refresh sessions and using the Pomodoro Method and Parkinson’s Law to elevate productivity. Episode Highlights: What is JLD’s background and how did he get started? What are his views on gross profit vs net profit? What advice does he give to entrepreneurs on how to grow a business? JLD encourages others to ask - what do I really want from my business and my life? How does JLD structure his days for optimum productivity? JLD discusses the role of refresh sessions to help you focus.. Why does he dedicate the first 90 minutes of his day to self-care? What kinds of creative projects is he currently working on? What is the Pomodoro Method? What is Parkinson’s Law? And how do they work together to boost productivity? If JLD could wake up with one skill or quality to help him grow his business, what would it be? What is JLD’s vision for success? What are his parting words of advice for startups who are struggling? JLD encourages entrepreneurs to find the biggest pain points potential clients have so you can try to solve them through your expertise. 3 Key Points: Your focus should be on your business’s net profit rather than gross profit. Dedicate the first part of your day to self-care to start your day on the right foot. Define success for yourself. Tweetable Quotes: “How do you get better at something? Well, you actually do the thing.” – John Lee Dumas “Tasks will expand to the time they are allotted. That’s called Parkinson’s Law.” – John Lee Dumas Resources Mentioned: John Lee Dumas (JLD) Website: https://www.eofire.com/ JLD's The Freedom Journal: https://thefreedomjournal.com/ JLD's The Mastery Journal: https://www.themasteryjournal.com/ The Pomodoro Technique: https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique Parkinson's Law: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Parkinson%27s%20Law #HealthcareEntrepreneurAcademy #HealthcareBoss #healthcare #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #entrepreneursonfire #focus #productivity #timemanagement #pomodoromethod #parkinsonslaw
Whatever you set out to do, make your deadlines seemingly unreasonably shorter than the time you think you need and you'll be surprised at what you can accomplish. Karen breaks down Parkinson's Law and make sure you check out her series on "confidence," which will give you the foundation to get it all done.
Candace Pollockhttps://theintentionalitygurus.com/Today's Topic:Parkinson's law is the adage that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion"
Hindi po. Hindi po ito yung Parkinson's disease, iba 'yun. At lalung hindi rin ito klase ng batas. So ano nga ba 'yan? Di ko na ilalagay sa description. Pakinggan na lang natin ng sabay-sabay sa panibagong episode na namang muli ng Coffee Na Lang Dear Podcast. :) (FB: Coffee Na Lang Dear) (Blog: shadesofwanderer.com) (Credits: Vodovoz Music Productions) #PinoyPodcast #PodcastPH #CoffeeNaLangDear #CNLD
Parkinson's Law is the adage that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Imagine allocating ten days for a seven-day task. You’ll probably spend the whole ten days working on it with hours filled with excess research, analysis, and even stress! The interesting thing is it works the opposite way, […]
I recently put myself under some pressure and it got me thinking about how we can use Parkinson's Law to our advantage. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
In this episode, Jim Oliver and Nick Kosko discuss: The continued and ongoing relevance of Becoming Your Own Banker by R. Nelson Nash. Expenses expand to equal our income Willie Sutton's law- Wherever wealth is accumulated, someone will try to steal it The IRS takes your money to give to the Treasury to pay to the Federal Reserve for all the money they're borrowing Key Takeaways: We need to overcome Parkinson's Law to succeed If you can overcome Parkinson's Law, you will win by default, and you don't need to do it alone What we consider "necessities" change as we have more resources available "Do it yourself" retirement plans don't work You can't abolish your student loan debt in bankruptcy "Work expands to meet the time envelope allowed." — C. Northcote Parkinson, Parkinsons Law and Other Studies in Administration Book Link: Becoming Your Own Banker- Nelson Nash Free Copy: CreateTailwind.com Connect with Jim and Nick: Facebook: CreateTailwind & Jim Oliver Website: CreateTailwind.com YouTube: createtailwind.com LinkedIn: Jim Oliver Show notes by Podcastologist: Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.
FOCUS, PEOPLE! Both Matt and Andrew have historically sucked at setting boundaries with their businesses and focusing on what they actually need to do. But all that's about to change! And Andrew's about to start a family, so he's got extra incentive to figure how to manage his time. They both love working on their businesses, but it means it's easy to get lost in their work or go down a rabbit hole with tasks that aren’t actually that important. So what are the critical areas they need to focus on with their business? And how do they start working smarter (not harder) with the hours they have? The clock starts... now. Enjoy! P.S. Parkinson's Law is the old adage that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." Definitely not "Oslo's Law," guys. P.P.S. If you need some organizational help with your online business, check out Matt's course Asana for Bloggers: Moneylab.co/Asana
Productivity is a lifestyle. Constructing a life which allows you to be productive on demand is challenging. This is 20 minutes of strategies, technology, and tools to help you double your output on demand. Highlights [1:01] Why "I don't have enough time" is not a good excuse [2:08] Structuring routines for output [4:30] Pomodoro vs. Deep Work [8:44] Multitasking is the enemy [12:10] Parkinson's Law [15:31] Supercharge your productivity with software Resources Deep Work by Cal Newport The Pomodoro Technique: The Acclaimed Time-Management System That Has Transformed How We Work by Francesco Cirillo Walden by Henry David Thoreau How to Fix Indoor Air Quality and Increase Cognition by 60+% with Aki Soudunsaari Iris Brain.FM Freedom.To Forte Labs Getting Things Done by David Allen Skid Row - 18 and Life The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker Sponsor Our sponsor today is Neurohacker Collective. Neurohacker Collective specializes in the comprehensive formulas possible for needs like better mental performance, slowing the aging process, and increasing energy. Their founder Jordran Greenhall is a well respected public intellectual who has been on the show to discuss ways to increase human sovereignty, and their medical director Dr. Daniel Stickler has also been on the show and is one of the foremost experts in the world in the field of integrative medicine. They make the product Qualia Mind which can create astonishing improvements in focus, mental energy and emotional willpower, with the more affordable Qualia Focus being almost as good at half the cost. They also just debuted a product called Eternus, the most comprehensive anti-aging formula on the market, and are appoaching backorder status for this revolutionary formula with dozens of ingredients and anti-aging properties. Go to neurohacker.com and entered discount code BOOMER at checkout for 15% off any purchase of Neurohacker products. Again that's n-e-u-r-o-h-a-c-k-e-r.com and coupon code BOOMER at checkout for 15% off your purchase. They're products are the real deal for thinking clearer, improving energy, and staying in your physical prime for as long as possible. That's coupon code BOOMER for any purchase of the amazing products from neurohacker.com Disclaimer This information is being provided to you for educational and informational purposes only. This is being provided as a self-help tool to help you understand your genetics, biodata and other information to enhance your performance. It is not medical or psychological advice. Virtuosity LLC is not a doctor. Virtuosity LLC is not treating, preventing, healing, or diagnosing disease. This information is to be used at your own risk based on your own judgment. For the full Disclaimer, please go to (Decodingsuperhuman.com/disclaimer). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion"
If you measure what matters, what matters always improves! Episode 5 is a follow up to the “freeing up money” conversation we started in episode three. We were examining money leaks and different ways to free up lazy, inefficient money so we could put it to better use for our financial future. Two principles that go along with that topic are the “Law of Measurement” and “Parkinson’s Law.” Although neither of them are actual, legal laws, they both apply to your finances and investments and money puzzles! Check out the full show notes for today's show at this link: https://yourmoneypuzzle.com/podcast/money-puzzle-5-parkinsons-law/
Almost a week ago I touched on a law called Parkinson's Law. This is a segment from my weekly webinar where I went way deeper on that law and how it works. This could be your answer to success! enjoy!
Parkinson's Law is super powerful! Learn about it in this short 5 min clip!
This edition of 'Wisdom Nights' focuses on how our actions reflect our priorities. How do you spend your time, energy and money? That's the fastest way to determine what you currently value in life. Parkinson's Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law "What gets measured - gets managed" said Peter Drucker. Having a diary can aid creativity: https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/02/john-steinbeck-working-days/ Follow me on: Instagram: @MoHasan92 Twitter.com/MoHasan92 Youtube: Let's Talk with Mo Hasan Email: LetstalkwithMoHasan@gmail.com Blog: MoHasan.net Soundcloud.com/MoHasan92
เคยเป็นมั้ยครับ ที่รู้ว่า งานยังไม่ถึงกำหนดส่ง ก็เลยยังไม่คิดจะลงมือทำ เพราะคิดว่า ยังมีเวลาเหลืออีกเยอะ เดี๋ยวค่อยทำก็ได้ นี่คือ Parkinson's Law ซึ่งมีผลกระทบต่อการทำงาน และผลงานอย่างมากมาย.... ติดตามบทความด้าน HR เพิ่มเติม ได้ที่ prakal.wordpress.com หรือ facebook page: Prakal HR Community หรือ VDO ความรู้ด้าน HR ที่ www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVBkS7L…iew_as=subscriber
From Brew & Kitchen, Cheltenham, UK Geoff & Paul chat about how the year has started and what events lie in store. Paul's Birthday Party comes up, and the subject of 'RSVP' leads to some interesting discussion about how think adjust to deadlines and completing tasks. Enjoy!
Episode 30 of The Teaching Space Podcast explores the benefits of using Google Calendar for teachers. Podcast Episode 30 Transcript Welcome to The Teaching Space Podcast. Coming to you from Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Hello, it's Martine here and welcome to Episode 30 of The Teaching Space Podcast. Today I will be sharing with you Seven Reasons Why All Teachers Should Use Google Calendar. If you've been using Google Calendar for a while, you'll be aware that this year, it's had a bit of a makeover. I found a really good walk-through video on YouTube that I'll make sure I share in the show notes. Actually if you don't normally look at the show notes, I'm going to really recommend you do it for this episode because I'm going to share lots of videos to help you understand the seven reasons I'm going to tell you in a second, a little better. So do hop over to theteachingspace.com/30, it will be worth it, I promise. 1. Co-ordinating with Your Family/Partner Let's get started then. Number one, an amazing reason for using Google Calendar is to coordinate lives with your partner/family. Because of the way Google shared calendars work, it is really easy for you to keep an eye on what your ... in my case husband, is up to. I mean that in a very positive, healthy way incidentally. We both have really busy lives so it's really important that we know who's home in the evening, who's looking after the dog at lunchtime. All those sorts of household things. So one of the best reasons to use Google Calendar and this applies to anyone, teacher or not, is to coordinate with your partner or family, whatever suits your specific arrangement. 2. Arranging Appointments with Parents Number two, something a bit more teaching oriented now. Arranging appointments with parents. So a good example is a parents evening. If you are a G-Suite for Education user, you will have access to a function called Appointment Slots. So you are able to offer up a number of slots to your parents and when one person takes a slot then it disappears so you can't end up double booking yourself. Which is so handy. I don't know about you but in the past parents evenings have taken an age to organise. So this is a fantastic function. I found a great video on YouTube showing you how to use it, so please check out the show notes for that. Just to reiterate, if you aren't a G-Suite for Education or indeed G-Suite for Business user, you will not have access to this tool. 3. Encouraging Speedy Meetings Number three, encouraging speedy meetings. What you can do is if you go into your settings in Google Calendar you can tick 'Speedy Meetings'. And what this is is ... for example if your default meeting length is 30 minutes and you set up a 30 minute meeting, it will automatically adjust it to finish five minutes early. For longer meetings it will adjust your meeting length to finish 10 minutes early. And over previous podcasts I've mentioned something called Parkinson's Law, in relation to meetings, that they expand to fill the time allotted to them. Well if you allot a little bit less than you think you need, this has got to be a good thing. So I really like Speedy Meetings. 4. Colour Coding Number four, colour coding, because well, colour coding, come on, we've known each other a while now, you know how I feel about colour coding. I find colour coding really useful. In Google Calendar you can colour code various calendars, so for example shared calendars you have access to. But also events. So I really recommend that you setup some sort of key ... I'll give you an example, any red events in my calendar are urgent, they will get my attention straight away, that's just a small example. If you perhaps teach different groups you might have one colour for group one, one colour for group two, one colour for group three, something like that. So at a glance, it makes it a lot easier for you to see what's going on on your calendar. 5. Automatically Adding Events From Gmail Number five, automatically adding events from Gmail. This is something you can adjust under settings. What this means is if you use Gmail as your email provider and for example you book a flight, your Google Calendar will notice this and take the details from your email and put the flights in your Google Calendar. Isn't that amazing! It doesn't just work for flights, it works for other events as well. So Google Calendar takes the info from Gmail and it adds what you've been talking about event wise to your calendar. I find that a bit scary, but I tell you what, it is so handy. So definitely have a go with that. Obviously it only works if you use Google Calendar and Gmail. 6. Adding Hangouts to Appointments Number six, adding hangouts to appointments. Google Hangouts are brilliant, but sometimes they're a little bit complicated to arrange. I get a bit confused sometimes, which link I need to share with the person joining the hangout and all that sort of thing. Now, you can add a hangout to a calendar appointment. So if you go into your Google Calendar and you setup an appointment and you invite someone to the appointment, you can add a Google Hangout directly to that appointment. So rather than sharing a link just before the hangout's about to start, as long as you invited that person and they have accepted via their Google Calendar, both parties can go into the calendar, their Google Calendar, open the appointment and access the Google Hangout from in the appointment. This is so useful, I use this all the time and I really recommend you give it a go. Again I found a great YouTube video you can watch below. 7. Organising Session Plans Number seven, organising session plans. Now I'll be honest, this reason wasn't on my original list, but while I was mooching around YouTube to find videos to illustrate the other six reasons, I came across this idea of using your Google Calendar to organise your session plans. And it was largely down to Alice Keeler, who's a brilliant Google Certified Innovator I think and she shares loads of Google resources. There are two videos from Alice, part one and part two. And it demonstrates how if you create your session plans in Google Drive, you can attach your session plans to appointments in your Google Calendar. And it's a really nice visual, chronological way to stay organised. This isn't something I've done before, but I am really tempted to do it because what you can do, is setup a separate calendar for each group that you teach and work like that. So I'm kind of excited about it and really interested in giving it a go when I get my next new group. Are You Convinced? Have I convinced you yet, are you still not sure? If you're on the fence then why not try using a Google Calendar for your own personal diary commitments. The app for IOS is excellent. I can't speak for the Android version as I don't have it, but the IOS app is brilliant. It's really easy to share your calendars with your partner, your family, that sort of thing. Give it a go, maybe do some meal planning on your Google Calendar. Hold that thought because that's what I'm talking about next week. I thought this was a teaching podcast, I hear you shout. Do bear with me, next weeks podcast is going to be a good one. Wrap Up Okay, I think that's it for me today. Thank you so much for tuning in. Don't forget to hop over to Facebook and join our closed Facebook group, The Teaching Space Staffroom. It will be really nice to chat to you in there. Also, if you are enjoying the podcast, then please consider leaving a positive iTunes review because it helps other teachers find The Teaching Space. I'd be really grateful too. Thanks so much for tuning in, see you next week.
Mike Michalowicz' new book, Clockwork, continues his tradition of writing VERY actionable books. While business books containing one great idea are published every week, Michalowicz' books are valuable because of the action they trigger. His Pumpkin Plan and Profit First strategies are part of our Incubator and Growth Phase curriculum, and Clockwork's "Queen Bee Role" has been the subject of great discussion in our private Facebook group.First, we start with Mike's definition of the Entrepreneur's Survival Trap: doing the things that will help you survive the day, but won't grow your business. It's the rush to the "urgent problems" without considering the future we're trying to reach.Then we talk about Parkinson's Law: how your tasks will always expand to fill the time you have. You'll always be busy. The key to success is to do the RIGHT things.Mike said that he doesn't like the "grind" and "hustle" mentality that many business speakers push now. I agree (here's our post called "The Hustle Is A Lie."Mike went into his "4-D Mix" - where an entrepreneur spends his time, between Doing, Deciding, Delegating, and Designing.All of us know we need to spend more time thinking about our business; planning for growth; identifying and prioritizing opportunities. But we all get sucked into the daily delivery of our service. Mike gives us a great exercise to get more "Designing" time. He calls this the QBR: The "Queen Bee Role".Mike explained how to get yourself out of daily Doing, Deciding, and then how to properly Delegate. Then we got into Design, and what you SHOULD be doing every day.
If you are looking for some great productivity hacks on how to get more done, check out this podcast! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/antoniocucc/support
We are all guilty of procrastination at some point. Parkinson's law is the adage that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion". If you are given 8 hours to accomplish something, you'll take all 8, even though the task may only take 2 hours. This is another form of procrastination. Robert, Alejandra "AJ", and Scott discuss Parkinson's Law and how leaders can deal with it. In another topic, the team begins to focus on basic management and leadership skills on how to inspire others and rally people to your vision. Robert is a retired US Army Armor and Recruiter/Retention MSG turned Fortune 50 executive; Alejandra "AJ" is an active duty USAF Security Forces NCO; Scott Johnson is a former British Army Engineer and EOD NCO Go to www.patreon.com/mentors4mil and pick a tier to join the team. Join our new Facebook Team Room at https://www.facebook.com/groups/mentors4mil Follow Mentors for Military: iTunes: http://apple.co/1WaEvbB SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/mentors4mil Instagram: www.instagram.com/mentors4mil Twitter: www.twitter.com/mentors4mil Facebook: www.facebook.com/mentors4mil Homepage: www.mentorsformilitary.com Use Code Mentors4mil at www.SkeletonOptics.com to receive your discount.
In what situations do you think Parkinson's Law has a positive and negative effects to you? If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, resources, and more at https://www.superdatascience.com/156
Finally a heated debate! Parkinson's Law states: "Any task will inflate until all of the available time is spent" Using an article titled "Parkinson's Law: Why Constraints Are The Best Thing You Can Work With" written by Louis Chew and found on medium.com as inspiration, we dove into how this law is applied to our lives individually and in our governments. Article can be found at: https://medium.com/the-mission/parkinsons-law-why-constraints-are-the-best-thing-you-can-work-with-4fad6e0e91cf --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/3-5-guys-boxes-fries/support
Parkinson's Law is a book by C. Northcote Parkinson. And this book is best known for its opening line: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Now, do you recognise it? I bet you do. Honestly, I didn’t know it had a name until I started writing this episode.
If I'm automatically defining my life as "busy," then what does that say about my life? Am I living the life I want to live or am I just filling my time with busy activities that ultimately makes me feel overwhelmed and stressed out? The process to better productivity starts by acknowledging where you're wasting time the most and then figuring out where to go from there. - Jeff Sanders When can too much ambition be a bad thing and how can you set healthy boundaries? In Wellness Force Radio episode 169, keynote speaker, Host of The 5 AM Miracle Podcast, Founder of The Rockin' Productivity Academy, and Author of both The 5 AM Miracle and his latest book, The Free-Time Formula, Jeff Sanders shares how we can get rid of distractions, take advantage of breaks to recharge our batteries, and start living a more productive life. Discover what free-time actually is and why it's so beneficial to get work done and make the most out of each day. Win A Copy Of The Free-Time Formula The Free-Time Formula by Jeff Sanders comes out on February 28, 2018, but two of our lucky listeners will get to win a copy for free! Visit the Wellness Force Community Facebook Page to enter to win! The Free-Time Formula helps you slow down time and get the important things done. We're all overworked, stressed, and always being asked to do more, and do it better; the days aren't getting any longer, so something has to give—don't let it be your sanity. This book provides a real-world framework for more effective time management that helps you prioritize, focus, clarify, and go. You'll begin with a time audit to assess your current stress, strategies, and output—and the results may shock you. From there, you'll work step-by-step toward a new daily routine that will help you become the focused, efficient achiever you've been trying to be for so long. It's not about cramming more into your precious 24 hours, it's about figuring out what really matters to you, and getting the most important things done first. Every day. Never miss another big deadline, never flake on an important meeting, never be late to an appointment again. It is possible with great planning, and this book is your personal guide. Focused on action, not filler, this book is an excellent resource for those who want to achieve more but do less. With a few simple changes, you'll find the time you've been missing and put it to more productive use. Define and prioritize your personal and professional goals and responsibilities Cut the distractions and clarify your daily objectives Adapt your workplace tools and environment to facilitate actual work Periodically self-assess, course–correct when needed, and plan for the future Rather than rush through another day leaving things un-done and roses un-sniffed, take a beat and a breath and take back your day with The Free-Time Formula. Listen To Episode 169 As Jeff Sanders Uncovers: All about his upcoming book, The Free-Time Formula and how his visit to the emergency room helped inspire it. What you can do to identify whether or not something isn't helping you be productive. Research on Parkinson's Law and the adage that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." Why a 9-5 job might not be ideal for productivity or making your work time valuable. How to slay the distraction dragons in your life. Ambition: how it can backfire and how to set up healthy boundaries around it. How your body will let you know when it's time to slow down. What is free-time? Do you push your free time to the side? Why do you have more free time than you think you do? His view of productivity when it comes to health and wellness. The inspiration for his growth in emotional intelligence. How his wife, Tessa, helps remind him when to take things easy when life gets too much. What you can do to encourage other people to begin living a more productive life with you. Why 90% of Americans are addicted to caffeine and what Jeff did to stop drinking so much of it. How you can take a break from caffeine and nootropics. The power of taking breaks like sabbaticals to help you recover and reset your body. Strategies for including sabbaticals into your schedule and how to set healthy boundaries. How to take a break on a daily basis - different habits and hobbies to include in your day. What you can do now to start living a more productive life with Jeff's Cut the Nonsense method. Power Quotes From The Show "You have to achieve balance if you're going to have long-term ambition and productivity. It will not work forever if you just continue to push harder. It has to be an intentional shift in how you operate to make sure you're getting your work down and there is a break built in." - Jeff Sanders "It takes some time to get used to taking a break and not work when you love what you do. You have to have these intentional boundaries in place to make sure that your workplace can still operate when you're not there. That way, you can comfortably use your free time as your moment to replenish your energy and creativity. When someone doesn't take a break, that's when burnouts happen." - Jeff Sanders "There is a corollary between our work and our ability to set these healthy boundaries. This is so important because if we don't set these healthy boundaries and we pressure ourselves to work harder, the body will suffer. That's exactly what happened to me." - Josh Trent "I want to make sure that I'm eating and sleeping well along with working out every single week. I'm doing that because I see how it helps my productivity and improves my results. My work is better when I'm healthier. I have to put my health first to become the better version of myself." - Jeff Sanders "Everything is a distraction. Every possible thing that we do or could interact with is a distraction from the one thing that we're trying to get done. If you know what the one thing is that you want to get done and identify your priorities, you can set boundaries to make sure you accomplish your task. " - Jeff Sanders Links From Today's Show: Jeff Sanders Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn The Free-Time Formula by Jeff Sanders The 5 A.M. Miracle Podcast The 5 A.M. Miracle by Jeff Sanders The Rockin' Productivity Academy WFR 052 Dominate Your Day Before Breakfast with Jeff Sanders WFR 115 The Power of Saying No with Jeff Sanders How To Find Happiness, Focus & Productivity No Matter How Busy You Are with Jeff Sanders Michael Hyatt How to Use Parkinson's Law to Your Advantage Caffeine Effects on the Central Nervous System and Behavioral Effects Associated with Caffeine Consumption WFR 012 Living a Healthy Lifestyle In a Modern World with Dan Pardi WFR 088 How to Find the Health You're Looking For with Dan Pardi About Jeff Sanders Jeff Sanders is a Jeff Sanders, author of The Free-Time Formula, The 5 AM Miracle, and founder of The Rockin' Productivity Academy. Jeff is also the host of The 5 AM Miracle Podcast, which has ranked #1 in iTunes in the Self-Help and Business categories, been nominated for 5 Podcast Awards, and exceeded 5 million downloads. He is a plant-based marathon runner and personal development junkie. Every week you can find Jeff writing and speaking at JeffSanders.com. Jeff has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre and Psychology from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. He has been married to his wife, Tessa for seven years. They live in Nashville, Tennessee with their quirky pug, Benny. Get More Wellness In Your Life Join the WFR Community on facebook Send Josh Trent a personal message Tweet me on Twitter: Send us a fun tweet (or a what's up) Comment on the Facebook page Sign up to get an email alert whenever we release a new episode Support This Podcast Leave a 5 star review on iTunes Share this episode with someone you care about Contact Wellness Force Radio for podcast sponsorship and partnership opportunities Rate & Review Wellness Force ---> REVIEW THE PODCAST Ask A Live Question For The Next Episode ---> Click here to leave a voicemail directly to Josh Trent to be read live on the air. You May Also Like These Episodes Food Freedom Forever With Melissa Hartwig Nir Eyal: Breaking Bad Habits, Technology Addiction, & Emotional Triggers Healthy, Happy & Harder To Kill w/ Steph Gaudreau of Stupid Easy Paleo Beyond Meditation: How To Get A Better Brain With Ariel Garten Living A Healthy Lifestyle In A Modern World With Dan Pardi Creating A Life Worth Living With Michael Strasner Join the Wellness Force Newsletter: www.wellnessforce.com/news Don't miss next week's show: Subscribe and stay updated Did you like this show on Ketosis? Rate and review Wellness Force on iTunes You read all the way to the bottom? That's what I call love! Write to me and let me know what you'd like to have to get more wellness in your life.
Zero Xcuses Podcast: Build Discipline, Regain Control Over Your Time & Eliminate Excuses!
"Work expands to the time we give it." That's Parkinson's Law in a nut-shell and in today's Deacons of Discipline episode we break this down into some practical strategies we can apply right now. If you've ever waited until the last minute to crank out that term paper or pull off that presentation with little prep time, that's Parkinson's Law in effect. We can, however, purposely use this law to increase out productivity so tune in to learn some ways how! Get Parkinson's Law here! I'm participating in the Mark Divine's Courage Foundation BURPEES FOR VETS challenge to support their programs for veterans with PTS. I've committed to doing 100,000 burpees in 2018! I am pledging $0.02 for every burpee I do. Check out my fundraising page and please consider making a donation or pledge per burpee to help me reach my goal of $25,000!!! Support Kenyon's Goal of Raising $25,000 for Veterans! Support the show by visiting our sponsors and affiliates!!! See all our recommended books and products in our Amazon shop: https://www.amazon.com/shop/zeroxcuses Are you looking to band together with like-minded alpha males who are looking to build discipline, regain control of your time, build wealth and ultimately live life on your terms? We have recently launched the Infinite Results Mastermind where you can do just that. If you are interested in committing to getting exactly what you want in your life then join us at the link below: Infinite Results Mastermind Are you looking to build rock-solid discipline? Regain control over your time? Build your bank account? Connect on a deep level with your family? If so and you're willing to invest the time, money and energy into reaching your goals checkout my discipline coaching program! I teach you the fundamental tools, strategies and tactics necessary to have discipline in every area of you life! It's by application only and I only have a few spots for this! Discipline Coaching Connect with us here: Check out our blog! Zero Xcuses Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ZeroXcuses/ Support this show by visiting the Zero Xcuses RECOMMENDED BOOKS AND PRODUCTS Amazon Page
Episode 5 of The Teaching Space Podcast shares 10 simple strategies to help teachers and trainers save time. Podcast Episode 5 Transcript Welcome to episode 5 of The Teaching Space Podcast. Today I'm going to share 10 simple timesaving strategies with you. My First Book The reason I chose this topic for today's episode is that I'm currently writing a book. It's my first book which is very exciting, and the book is all about being a productive teacher or trainer. That's why I thought it would be a great idea to tease some of the contents of the book with this episode. So without further ado, here are my top ten simple strategies for saving time. 1. Inbox Zero Inbox Zero probably isn't what you think it is. There's a lot more to it than just having an empty inbox. I've written a lengthy blog post all about how to achieve Inbox Zero. I highly recommend you check it out. 2. Stop Being a Perfectionist We, teachers, have a tough time when it comes to perfectionism. We are under a lot of pressure to constantly model best practice and to be perfect in every way. However, that will take its toll, and it isn't possible. We all need to develop. We all should have a growth mindset. And if you are striving for perfection all the time is impossible to grow. I talked about this in episode 1 of the podcast. Stopping being a perfectionist is absolutely one of the best time-saving strategies you can implement. 3. Schedule Everything I use a Google Calendar and that works brilliantly for me because I can see everything on my mobile devices as well as when I'm at my computer. And I have all of my teaching sessions in there. I have any marking time outlined and I schedule lunch. Yes, you heard that correctly I schedule lunch. Everything is on my calendar and accounted for. By giving yourself that level of structure, you can identify any gaps in your schedule, and you can plan things far more realistically. One of the other reasons scheduling is so powerful is that Parkinson's Law dictates that events will expand to fill the time allotted. Meetings are a brilliant example. If you put an hour aside for a meeting, that meeting will take an hour. Even if it only needed 15 minutes. So by scheduling everything you create constraints within which you need to complete tasks. Then if Parkinson's Law is indeed correct, and whatever you've planned to do can only take a certain amount of time, you are going to end up saving time. And what should you do with that saved time? 4. Schedule and Take Breaks Taking breaks will keep you mentally sharp and make you work more efficiently, thus saving you time again. I'd also recommend setting an alarm on your phone for home time if you tend to work late. The likelihood of you doing good quality work after hours is pretty slim. 5. Batch Your Tasks Batching refers to the practice of collecting similar types of tasks and dealing with them all at the same time. So you could, for example, batch your emails. Rather than just having your email program open and responding to emails as they come in, you could allocate one hour a day maybe at the start of the day or the end of the day to deal with all of your e-mails at once. The reason batching works is it reduces start up and slow down time. For example, the time it takes to open your email inbox and to receive said email might seem like a tiny tiny fraction of time, but it will add up as the day goes on. Even worse is the mental delay it takes to switch from doing one type of task to another. It also improves your focus because you're working for longer on a task so you can enter a state of flow as you work. Batching is a fantastic approach to productivity. 6. Identify Your Most Important Task of the Day... ... and do it first. If this strategy is of interest to you, I highly recommend Brian Tracy's book Eat That Frog. 7. Ask For Help Number seven is probably the most difficult strategy on this list. Ask for help. Ask your colleague your line manager. Ask anyone to help you. 8. Go Paperless Put all of your handouts on Google Classroom or in Google Drive and share those with your learners. Not having to photocopy, staple and hole-punch handouts has revolutionised my lesson prep. I estimate I've cut it down by half. 9. Streamline Your Marking Process I'm going to delve into this in a bit more detail in episode 6 of the teaching space podcast, so please keep an eye out for that one. There are many different ways you can streamline your marking process. For this list of 10 simple strategies, I'm going to suggest that you come up with codes for marking. You can provide your learners with a marking key that explains all of the acronyms you're using. But just by putting letters rather than sentences you are going to save a lot of time. 10. Segment Your To-Do List I use the following segments: today upcoming, and later. I use Asana as my project management tool of choice, but you could easily set up a today, upcoming, and later segment system in Trello or Workflowy. I've used both of those systems as well and I highly recommend them. Wrap Up Those are my 10 simple strategies for saving time for teachers and trainers. As I mentioned, I am currently writing a productivity book and will be delving into the strategies and others in a lot more detail. Please consider leaving a positive review for the podcast on iTunes. I hope you enjoyed the episode, and I hope you'll join me next time.
Kate makes another reference to Juicy Jeremy while she teaches Parkinson's Law and SMART goals. (1:30) Kyle admits that he tried using an email auto-responder telling people - including his boss - that he's a busy person and will respond to emails at 11am and 4:30. #employeefail "Breaking News, Internet," declares Kate. "Kyle just discovered that there are 26 hours in a day." Wait, what? (15:20) Kyle's new mantra is "No agenda? No attenda" while he acknowledges he's a sucker for brain-pickers. (18:00) Kate introduces Kyle to something called a "walk-and-talk." Mind. Blown. (20:30) Kate recommends the Steven Covey approach begin with the end in mind. Tech: Kyle uses Get Momentum to stay focused throughout the day. People can also block disruptive apps and sites by using FocusMe. (31:15)
In this episode of the Maven Money Personal Finance Podcast… Andy discusses lifestyle creep or, as it is more commonly known, "keeping up with the Joneses". Quick Preview of the Podcast: The two elements of lifestyle creep. How does "Parkinson's Law" apply to personal finance? The good and bad sides of the creep. The "best" time in your life to go broke! Links: Humans Under Management Ego Is the Enemy How (Not) To Position Your Investment Portfolio For 2018 Don't forget to check out the Maven Adviser website for more great content. So sit back and enjoy unrivalled words of wisdom from Andy Hart - host of the UK’s premier personal finance show. Is there a topic you’d like Andy to cover? We’d love to hear from you! Contact Andy Hart directly with any comments / feedback on team@mavenadviser.com. Alternatively you can reach out on Twitter @MavenAdviser.
Have you heard the saying "A goal without a deadline is just a dream." There's a lot of merit to this statement. A concrete deadline creates a sense of urgency, especially if there is an event tied into it such as a wedding, beach vacation, photo shoot, or physique contest. This is inline with Parkinson's Law which states, "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." But as we all know... Life happens. And these unexpected challenges often set us back, which places a greater stress on you if you are to still achieve your goal in the allotted time frame. In episode 31 of the Physique Mastery Podcast we share our approach of using a floating deadline, which gives you the best of both worlds. A sense of urgency with a bit of leeway for when life presents you with challenges. Visit the Jacked After 40 website https://www.jackedafter40.com/ Do you have a topic you’d like us to cover in a future episode? Send it to scott@metabolicmasterpiece.com
According to Parkinson's Law, you will get a task done in whatever time you have to do it- whether it be 20 minutes, or 2 hours.
Thanks to the death of private pensions, the devaluation of Social Security benefits and other undeniable retirement factors such as inflation and increased taxes, America is now in a retirement income crisis. Personal Pension Radio show is focused on helping you pack your bags for both halves of the retirement journey. Kraig's mission is help you build & protect your wealth and lifestyle today and generationally. Optimizing Retirement income does not happen with a product. Mutual funds, life insurance, real estate, or annuities by themselves will not help you optimize your retirement income. You must have an integrated approach. DISCLOSURE: KRAIG IS THE INCOME ENGINEER BUT HE IS NOT AN ATTORNEY OR A CPA. PLEASE DO NOT CONSIDER THINGS ON THIS SHOW AS ADVICE. PLEASE TALK WITH A QUALIFIED CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER BEFORE MAKING ANY FINANCIAL DECISIONS. Financial Dependence, Financial Solvency, Financial Stability, Debt Freedom, Financial Security, Financial Independence, Financial Freedom, Financial Abundance, retirement, pension, income, protect, rescue, help, money, savings, Certified Financial Planner (Job Title), Income Tax, Money, Finance (Industry), wealth, tips, Personal Finance, financial podcast, infinite banking, Self-Directed IRA, Retirement Planning Tips, Retirement Planning, Individual Retirement Account, Investing 101
If you feel that you are an entrepreneur or think that maybe you are an entrepreneur, you should know about Mike Michalowicz and his books. If you are operating through standard accounting, GAAP accounting, or what Mike calls Frankenstein accounting, you are going to want to listen to this episode and how you can increase profitability. In this episode we are talking with Mike Michalowicz about his most popular book Profit First and how and why you should implement it in your business. I have implemented Profit First into my business and several listeners have reached out and said that Profit First is the secret to the growth of their property management companies. You'll Learn... [03:57] The pain that created Profit First [06:41] When Mike had to tell his family how he lost all his money being an angel investor [10:57] How Jason found out about Profit First [13:03] Why every business owner should apply the Profit First accounting method [14:15] How Mike is driven by the Profit First system to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty [15:48] 80% of entrepreneurs are struggling check to check [18:52] Pay yourself first isn't a new concept, but Mike applies it to business [21:37] The principles of Profit First and why GAAP is crap [23:10] Get started by setting up multiple bank accounts and paying yourself first [25:39] Parkinson's Law - we get the same results with less money [34:00] How business owners need to take care of themselves financially [43:53] Mike's other books The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, The Pumpkin Plan, and Surge Tweetables The rich guy next door with the nice house & nice car is just one bad month away from losing it all. Entrepreneurial poverty is the dirty secret in most businesses (80%) and needs to be eradicated. No matter how much you make, without putting Profit First, your expenses will eat everything. The secret to innovation is limitation. Resources Buy Profit First on Amazon Mike’s Books on Amazon MikeMotorBike.com
Today I am joined by one of my students "Straussie". Straussie took the Stand-Up Comedy Level One: Writing class back in February. Then he followed through with the Level Two: Performance Class and the Business of Comedy Class. I could tell right away this guy doesn't mess around. He is serious about things and is now nine months into stand-up comedy. We talk a little about his growing up in Australia and his move ten years or so ago to America to pursue the music business. He is still part of that industry as a production manager for a country music artist. That job has served him well as he has made many connections with folks who are gifted in a variety of skills that compliment his development as a comedian. We talk about the ups and downs and challenges of getting yourself started in the world of stand-up comedy. Specifically, we talk about: Taking the comedy writing class and seeing what goes into being a great comedian Utilizing friendships and connections to help with his web site Using SquareSpace to host his site Hiring a rock and roll photographer to shoot his pictures Using a white background so he could easily photoshop them Hiring out his graphics through Fiverr One message his site is sending that he didn't see coming The challenge of finding time for everything that goes into stand-up Producing his own comedy show "Straussie With Mates" in Nashville The benefit of hosting that show The format and the style of the show How he promoted the show and how many turned out What he learned form the experience The importance of creating deadlines Parkinson's Law and how it applies to the comedy business Developing his YouTube channel, uploading videos What he learned at the CLEAN COMEDY CONFERENCE in San Diego Some advice he got that he needs to now implement What he has planned for the remainder of the year and a whole lot more! This episode is brought to you by PATREON SPONSOR CHELLE BAXTER and by Audible. Visit www.audibletrial.com/schooloflaughs for a free audio download and 3o day trial! JOIN CLUB 52!!! "Club 52" is a 52 week, email based stand-up program. It will include a weekly challenge designed to help you become a better comedian. This year long program will feature an email every Friday from me. I will ask you to take a serious look at some of your business practices, writing processes, performance techniques, branding, marketing and a whole lot more. The program starts the week you join and continues for 52 weeks as long as you are still supporting the podcast through Patreon at the $7 a month level. Questions? Email me (Rik) at SchoolOfLaughs@gmail.com. Or call 1-888-895-8549. Or. if you are ready, head on over to www.Patreon.com/SchoolOfLaughs to get started.
Dr. Day discusses Parkinson's Law and how it's relation to the Law of Attraction can get you a flood of new patients!
Tony discusses Parkinson's Law and why you're working too many hours and what to do about it.
Courage Cast - Faith, Encouragement and Motivation for Today
We dive further into the 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris and the elimination process. Realize much of it is psychological. We can actually shift the way we work when we apply the 80/20 Pareto Principle combined with Parkinson's Law.
In this episode, Yasmin shares why tiny time is not a challenge, instead it's a unique opportunity to embrace! Hear why busy-ness is not a good idea, how you can be effective with the time you have, why doing what lights you up make time expand and apply Parkinson's Law. Yasmin also sets you a challenge!
Erica Wernick, founder of LA Bound: a business that helps aspiring TV and Movie Actors/Actresses/Experts achieve their goals in Los Angeles. In this episode we learn what a new membership organization is like. We discover the essence of Parkinson’s Law: that every penny made is also spent. We guide Erica through her first step toward Profit First in setting up different allocation accounts, including running a basic profit assessment. In this episode we also explain cost vs. investment.
Most of the people I talk to feel overwhelmed. They want to take control of their health & their habits but they're overwhelmed by life. They're taking care of family, working, maintaining their home. It's a lot. That's what this episode is for. I want to help you understand how to reduce stress and get more results by simplifying your environment, your mind & your life. I've created a free guide for you so you can take the concepts in this episode and implement them into your life. Visit the show notes page for this episode or go to PrimalPotential.com/simplify to get your free guide! But definitely make sure to listen to the entire episode! I know it will be incredibly helpful for those of you who feel stressed, overwhelmed & life you just don't have enough time or bandwidth to achieve your goals. http://primalpotential.com/how-to-reduce-stress-get-more-results-through-simplification/ How To Reduce Stress Identify what is important to you Eliminate the rest Simplification isn't just about your schedule or your thoughts. We can simplify many areas of our lives as we consider how to reduce stress & accelerate progress towards our goals. It's easier to keep up than it is to catch up - stay on top of recurring tasks if you can't eliminate or outsource them Understand & respect Parkinson's Law - tasks will expand to fill up the time you allot to them. This is where they phrase "If you wait until the last minute it only takes a minute" comes from. Assign a fixed amount of time to complete a task and then focus exclusively on that task for the pre-determined interval The simplification guide will help you simplify each of the following categories with dozens of suggestions for how to reduce stress by making changes in each of these areas Environment & Space Time Mind
nowing how we work can be as important as any other factor on the job, but imagining how much time our work might take can be, well, hard. Because psychology. The team explores the topic of estimation this week, leading Max and Caitie to tackle everything from Parkinson's Law and deadlines to mythical "summer projects" and that mad dash to clean the house before your mother drops in. Tasks may expand to fill the time we give them, but surely we can use this knowledge to our advantage. Or maybe we should just know that the time required for a project might always be... unknown. You know?
You can make your fortune by investing 10 minutes each day to learn how the stock market really works. Who doesn't want to know how the stock market really works? Being able to make money in the markets is empowering and profitable. No one cares more about your money and success than you do. Our ideas on investing are very simple to understand. We only ask that you spend 10 minutes a day, five days a week tracking the Total Market, S&P 500, NASDAQ 100 and Gold. You will need to open a virtual trading account (for free) with any online broker and place $100,000 of play money into the account. Now you're ready to start learning. We have several rules and they are very simple. The first rule is Parkinson's Law. It is the old adage that “work will expand to fill the time available for its completion.” We have all experienced the truth of this law in our business and personal lives. We see it by the fact that the more time we give any task, the longer the task takes. Because of Parkinson's Law, we limit drastically the time we commit to investing on a daily basis. The number one way we limit our time is by simplifying our decision-making process. Albert Einstein, one of the first scientists to unlock the secrets of the universe, has several good quotes on simplicity: Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler. If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Any fool can make things more complex. It takes a touch of genius to move in the opposite direction. So, how do we simplify investing? First, we must realize that any stock, market index (a collection of stocks), ETF (exchange traded fund) or commodity can only move in one of three directions when it comes to price: up, down or sideways. We are most interested in up and down movements and only concern ourselves with sideways movements due to the transaction cost of buying and selling and the time value of money. So, if all we want to do is discover if the price is going up or down, how complicated can this process really be? To answer this question, we have another quote from Albert Einstein: "Everything is simpler than you think and more complicated than you can imagine." How true! Think about investing. It is simple in conception: buy low and sell high. However, millions of people are constantly doing just the opposite. Why? They have no system, such as a trading chart. To make our decision process easier and more accurate, we use a very simple stock chart with one indicator upon which we rely. We also use candlesticks (graphical depictions of price movements developed hundreds of years ago by Japanese rice traders), as well as a simple trend line. We look at two time periods: the two-day chart and the four-hour (half-day) chart. In other words, we utilize the acronym KISS: Keep It Simple and Straightforward or Keep It Short and Simple. Join us for our next training entitled "Occam's Razor."
Get the TOP 100 MOST COMMON ENGLISH PHRASES
Ben Orenstein is once again joined by Joe Ferris, CTO of thoughtbot. Joe and Ben dive right in to a technical discussion about Objects versus Structures. They then discuss what Joe does as the new CTO of thoughtbot, and how his goal is to set up a system where everybody is teaching everybody. Finally, they discuss why Joe doesn't like using rspec's let and subject, and his strategy for writing tests without them. Object Mentor blog, Objects vs. Structures Robert Martin Shape Hierarchy (Open Closed Principle) Martin Fowler's Refactoring Code smell Case statement code smell Visitor pattern Shotgun surgery Method object Composition over inheritance paperclip Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests thoughtbot's apprentice.io Parkinson's Law of Triviality (bikeshedding) Broken windows theory rspec's let and subject Mystery Guest Follow @thoughtbot, @r00k, and @joeferris on twitter.
In 1955, a British naval historian and prolific author, Cyril Northcote Parkinson, wrote an essay for The Economist, in which he wrote what now has become the renowned Parkinson's Law, that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."In 1955, a British naval historian and prolific author, Cyril Northcote Parkinson, wrote an essay for The Economist, in which he wrote what now has become the renowned Parkinson's Law, that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." He was actually talking about bureaucracy expansion from his experience in the British Civil Service. Unfortunately for Mr. Parkinson, the meaning of the phrase he named "Parkinson's Law" has birthed several corollaries, many of which have computer-related meanings, and his meaning has all but bit the dust. Now we have several versions such as...Data expands to fill the space available for storage.Storage requirements will increase to meet storage capacity.and...my favorite...Nature abhors a vacuum. However, it's the Parkinson's Law corrollary in regard to time management that I think will pique your interest:It states...the amount of time which one has to perform a task is the amount of time it will take to complete the task. I recently read about a study in which several groups of undergraduate students were allowed to choose their own course deadlines in varying degrees, some were allowed no deadline, that is, to have everything submitted before the end of the course, some got to choose their deadlines during the semester but once chosen they were fixed dates, and then there was a control group with the professor's normal deadlines. Surprisingly, the ones with the professor's deadlines, scored the best. The second best were the ones with the self-prescribed, staggered deadlines throughout the semester. This provides at least some statistical evidence that humans are naturally bound to healthy pressure when it comes to the productive use of our time, and once again gives us heed to listen to Parkinson's Law when deciding how much time to dedicate to a particular task or project. I hope you enjoyed this episode of ProdPod. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith and thanks for listening. Here's to your productivity success...in two minutes or less.
In this podcast, Ricardo explains the concept of "Parkinson's Law" on projects and how to prepare a feasible schedule to avoid the law. He gives tips on how to develop work packages to be are easier to measure.