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Lesson Info

Final Time Management Tips

Capture everything regret nothing that's a tweet able I don't capture everything regret nothing um when you capture everything then you're not going to be saying what did I miss? What did I forget? What that great idea I had you remember I said that when I'm capturing stuff I have the the shower they have those aqua notes that you can use that you could buy from amazon or if you have kids you can get those and this is a great way to do it you get those trucks soaps and you said look it's easier for you and then you keep like that color of it means a lot to separate and hide it from your kid and then you use it when you're in the shower so you're like, hey, I wrote that down or you know you could do that I'm like what I mean it does make for some people it makes sense and for other people when they're in, you know, in the shower they just do what they're supposed to in the shower. If something comes and it comes back to them when they get out, then they capture it not wrong without eith...

er but capture everything regret nothing once you start doing that, then you're going to get to a point where you're gonna be able to make that quick thought in your mind and add those contexts as you go and curate as you go but right now you need to capture everything and you'll regret nothing right? Because then you know that you put it down, you captured it in some form or another paper beats more than just rock in today's world okay, sometimes paper is the best technology there is because you can pass it to almost anyone and they know what to do with it you could you can use it very effectively you can use this system that allows you to use it very effectively strike through system the dash plus system that you know you could use the bullet journal it's still going to beat some things in that regard because you know how to use paper already all of you out here using a pen and making notes and there's something about making a note and making the symbols versus just typing things on a keyboard because every key feels the same safe for the space bar our shift like there's a few but the ones that actually make a mark I'll feel the same right when you're writing something out on paper you're gonna have a little bit of pattern there which has a bit of retention right? So it's a bit more I don't know when I write stuff down and maybe it's because I'm left handed, but when I write stuff down I can I can connect with it right when you're typing things I typed for speed so honestly paper for effectiveness for me digital for speed right effectiveness efficiency paper helps you with the effect of such by outline on paper that's what I'm working on it I mean I'll use that every note moleskin because then I can move put it into the digital world for what I want to you know have that speed but analog there's an alert tools are for you know, effectiveness when I say something out loud you know when I was looking at that context are crucial rehearsing and like crucial crucial cube that's right? I could use a cup all the sudden it's like boom boom boom boom boom didn't even have to put in the digital world I knew exactly so when I look back at it, I could say oh remember when I said that out loud before about contacts in the crucial keep well look, this is how this works, right? So something about that right writing it down, you know, there's there's a there's some kind of pattern there that you don't get so for effectiveness paper can really work the digital around when you bring things into digital round that's for efficiency that's for recall that's what the high level projects could go that's why you're putting them in every note that's why you're putting them in asana that's where you're putting the minami focus okay make it simple. First that's. Why that's in big ready. Make it simple. Make it something you can wrap your head around then then make it scaleable. Okay, when you have both those ideas in mind, you're gonna be able to do both. So wrap your head around every note having inbox, have a professional notebook in a in a personal notebook. Thank you. You know what, a couple professional activities in here. Then I had to make a couple more notebooks. They make a stack, then do this that you mean that scaling, right. But initially make it simple because that lowers your learning curve. And that means you're going to start doing some of this stuff and making some of this stuff happen. Remember the thirty nine steps it's gonna mean something different? Everybody hitchcock's movie is not exactly a full on interpretation of the original book. There's. Some difference is there, right? So the thirty nine steps for one person could be I need teo take one core app in apply to my work flow or one course service. Or I need to really master one element of my paper system for my work flow. And for somebody else it could be hand when you something that's going to connect all these things I'm going to start adding lift to my work flow so I could make sure I'm doing my my workouts every day or I'm going to add something like my minutes to track my deliberate practice or I'm going to add something like skitch to do cem elements with ever no you're going to start adding on to ever know those things you khun d'oh you need to decide what those thirty nine days mean to you right you need to stick with um mitigate those distractions have your own sensible defaults don't let the app dictate what you do you dictate what the ap khun dio right there's lots of ways to break those conventions and there's lots of resources out there my state offers a ton of them from time and I have those brain starts like oh how to use reminders as a task manager he could do that you know how an eight year old can use ever know yep how my my daughter uses evernote and she uses it in a way that basically saves me time and is effective for me so instead of the bookmarking service if she's shopping for something or she sees something that she wants to get mom or not dad because I get to see it but her brother or something or for herself on her on there the family computer evident web clipper goes to the grace note book so when she clips something and she knows click on the elephant that's easy for a kid to remember every note was smart with that quick on the and then she's clips it it gets sink back to my ever known so when I'm on amazon and she says, hey, I want to get mommy this really great thing she's clipped it and she uses tags of tartars starts slowly used tags you know mom colton things like that but I didn't start with that, you know, I want to make sure she just started to feel comfortable using it instead of just trying to print off the web page or save it as a bookmark thirty nine steps later here's a tag honey here's how that works quality first quality first quantity I don't say second notice it didn't put second there quantity last not second because when you say second you could skip first lage what's next on the list what's next oh you know how many emails have I gone through you know there's the quantity right? How many things did I do today? Okay that's great you did thirty eight things how many of those things were value? Oh well did you know do you have any contacts attached to those new but I got a lot done really? So what did you move forward while the ten as I moved it along the paper but that was about it right you go quality first that's good inform your choices and the contacts and all that stuff add to that quantity last quantity last do we have anything else from the chat room in terms of of questions uh yeah there's an interesting discussion happening in the chat room and I want to get your take on it but abby lynn said that some people just want you to be a accessible twenty four seven no matter what you do and valerie says yes I'd really like to know how to address something like that during a job interview that can create a lot of stress so a lot of these time management things may be good if you're working on your own but what if you are still in the nine to five world? What if you're interviewing for a new job? Is this something that you could be comfortable sharing in an interview or how should people approach that? I guess the question that I would ask in that regard is if you're not comfortable sharing in the interview when will you be comfortable sharing it true right um I know when I've done into recent actually this is this is an interesting story that I had is I actually was going to do some consulting work and it was going to be a consistent contract and I said we talked and we wanted to work together and I really liked what what they were working on and and I said okay, we'll hear my boundaries on tuesdays and wednesdays I can't I can't do any meetings ah and oh and also I probably won't be doing much other than check email and only check it a couple times oh why? Because that's my and I used daddy do that's my day off so I went home with my my son studied it and you know, honestly, if I do try to do work that day then you're not going to get my best effort and nor will he and therefore you know and and I was honest about it I didn't go into huge detail, but I was very specific about that and the no yeah, no problem, no problem I said you I do work sunday so I made concessions I said sundays is it is a work day for me so therefore you're going to get that you know, but tuesdays and wednesdays I'll do some light lifting all answer emails, all that stuff, but you know, that's how no problem, you know, it helps also when you have kids when they have kids and stuff so you can make those and maybe that's the interview say is you know we'll have kids and we'll have a family, you know uh but soon as soon as we started eso accepted theo offer as soon as we started doing it all of a sudden tuesdays we have a meeting please no mean no I said during the interview process no we can't have a meeting so I only need you for an hour well it is it ate my uh my wife is still home kids aren't gone yet okay fine for me tonight today I will give you a meeting a week later we have another meeting today at eight o'clock well no well you did it last week well yeah that was an exception rather than the rule what only how can you speak for half hours needed talk sure alright find a half hour so again I I moved my boundary a bit where I was comfortable where I was comfortable next week you have a meeting today tuesdays or meeting day what we need tuesdays for me that's not a reading day on also I need this and that and all the sudden it became very apparent that those boundaries no matter how long I stuck around we're gonna be where they were not we're not going to be coherent they're not going to be something that we can we can work with so I I didn't I said before we move much further I think we should stop because this is not gonna work now keep in mind that I also made sure that I didn't give up a whole bunch of the contracts and that I had all my other ducks in a row before I made that decision, so I had that ability to make that decision. If you're looking for work in most situations, you're going tohave something already on to go if you don't, then yeah, you're gonna have to have different boundaries, but you need to have some you need to say, hey, look, I'm yours from nine to six and you know what? From in the evening, I will probably check a couple e mails and that'll be about it. You need to decide where that begins and ends, but you need to decide where it begins and ends. You can't just go in and say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, because when you do that that's, when you start to make sacrifices and compromises that really, you know, you're not willing to make right that's when you don't get to have time with your friends, that's, when you get to go out with friends, go, I feel so guilty I should be doing this thing, but I didn't. You know, I that's when you have to say, I'm sorry, colton, but I'm in a meeting right now, you know, and he comes up year olds don't know he walk in during the meeting, go daddy to television like I'm sorry and he be and then this thing this person would be like, you know, what's going on what's going on is this is a big boundary that I said that I told what you was an exception rather than the rule so I'm not I cannot even begin to say where those boundaries should begin and end but I can say that they need to begin and they need you and you need to have something there and if you once you do that then at least you have again a structure and that's part of that achievement structure you have somethingto work with because again we're not one of the things I talked about day one john cleese one of the things you need to make great stuff time and space not one of the other you have one and not the other something's going to be sacrificed the more time you have very little space you could feel cramped fifty cluster you're gonna be like, oh, you know how I could do my best work in the space right actors you know when they see how small stages like oh, how am I gonna make this work so small for three hour show right give all the space in a world with no time I wrote a three hour show I got this huge stage but how am I gonna cram this into thirty minutes? Right? So I hope that helps and I mean, people are gonna have to make those distinctions, but they have to make those just think it's and it's it's it's a tough choice it's a tough thing to road to hoe you have anything else before we heard there was a follow up there from valerie and she just said single people are overworked. We have no excuse to leave the office like married parents. And greg d said, well, rent a virtual husband, wife or family so what's a good, lively discussion in here but is anything you know and you know what? What? What I find I mean, how many of you guys out here are single? You're all right, she goes, you're single right the way you gave your twitter handle off the top right? But but, you know, I mean, really, why why would you want to leave the office mean, people saying no, I have no real reason to sure you d'oh you're off though there's this is work and life this is shifting from the office to the home, right? There are distinctions, you know? I mean, I know a lot of people sleep in their office there's some that do I did when I worked for the film festival that was another era during the festival I slept at the office I things I had to do I made that sacrifice I don't want to make it for very long I found a way to get out I loved working there for when I was there but eventually it didn't agree with me right? I had to make that distinction I had to decide where that began an end ended right and I knew going in what I was dealing with but yeah, you have a reason sure ugo you know that one of the things I often hear is you know I can't wait to retire because they don't have all the time to do the things that I wanted to do when I was younger but I was just working so hard that work work, work, work, work and then when you retire deal you have first off you have kids get saying that having kids and we have kids at home and they to deal with them that keeps going going and about the time you retire have nothing left to do guess what? You don't have any you're to todd you don't want to go in where I'm tired or you can't do the things like go to new zealand and rock climb you know, unless you've kept in great shape which case maybe you can or you know I want to go travel teo you know switzerland and you know climb that you know anything that you want I want to go skydiving I can't now because I've got a heart condition because I worked so hard for all these years and I'm not allowed to skydive anymore like you know what I mean and I know where I'm being glib people like chuckle like uh but that happens so why not make that distinction now right focusing and when we say you know I have all I'm at the office all the time at the office all the time why would I wanna you know that's what I do so how do we stop time focus on task not on time that's how we manage it if we look at the what over the wind not in not in place ofthe we talked about calendars, right? I didn't say ignore the calendar calendars no, I've got clocks here they're here why would I? You know I'm very aware that time is passing by I can see it I can see I could see time going by we all can but if you focus on task then I'm not too worried about it I will find I will look at the tasks now we'll say hey look, I've got a system in place we've got a foundation I'm not going to follow us far right so what do I want to do what does this mean to me why do I want to do this not when do I want to do this when does enter the equation but not first how much time do I have to do this we have you don't know a disruption happens boom maybe maybe you don't have that time the distraction while you you know that's kind of on you distraction that might be on you write a lot of cases it is when you have a task management system in place when you have a task mindset first overtime based mindset in a nutshell that's how you prioritize the right things about prioritizing your time because time is happening it's moving can't hold onto it nearly as long you can lock certain components of it down you khun time chunk you can decide what days mean to you you could see what months mean to you but I'ma keep saying mean to you mean you mean to you you know january doesn't mean january to me doesn't mean start of the new year that means time for me to recharge renew reflect build myself up for the year to come right I don't go well january is almost done what do I do now over the year is almost time we're in november right how many things do you want to get done before november you know not much time left hurry up get going now how do you feel hopes I let things go uh you're right, I should hurry right? But if you think about what's important to me over the next month and a half, two months or you know what my end of the year doesn't happen until april because that's what my finances or do that I'm going to do it according to tax season because that's when my year end ends and a lot of businesses that's how they represent their fiscal year is not the same as their counter here they don't follow the gregorian calendar that say january's the year we boost up so where we kick tail where we go start doing yoga, you know, because we're really, really tired right that's how you do it that's how you stop time you're you're not you're not focusing on it and like I said, I can see what time's going on right now you know, anyone who's looking at a digital device or a fashion accessory but you guys were looking up at me clocks aren't moving, they don't move you're focusing on the task at hand right? Anyone who's watching live right now you know there's some time element to it, but but some of the stuff that I've been bringing out you know, hopefully help him focus on task hopefully I'll help you guys focus on task and help manage your time better those who have decided they're going to watch it later they're not worried there they've devoted theo pvr that they're going to watch it later right they're going to get you know get to revisit it right so in a nutshell task over time that's how you protect prioritize the right thing so until next time get that cross that out time that's done I'm deleting that don't just keep going keep going forward that's it thank you do we have anything else in the from the chat room or from you guys I should try that out don't bother focusing on task that's really slow time now and I don't have experience for that but hopefully that does book way you're working out right are you focused on like when am I gonna know when you go for that run right or you're you're really focused on the thing you're doing right wait but I do feel like oh you know I wish I had more time to do it more you know like like if you're focused on like taking a break and doing something fun on a saturday but time still goes by rightly so you just just then but it doesn't at some point yeah there's there's that element of you focused on the task so you know that that's what's more important than the time you know the time at that point in time I still think you have anything else guys like I really hope this has been helpful like I really hope that you guys air you know, ableto I mean it's task you can hold on to I have this thing you know, I don't time it's like cool done was pull back time you know you want to slot if you focus on that stuff to me that's that's that's a big big thing yeah, I just want to act like time does go by no matter what but if you focus on the right things, then you've accomplished something with it like the whole year goes by but you have if you've managed to do one or two or three important things that builds on it it's generated in that sense you you get more than you don't even realize how much better you get me in focus on things right? And when you have a system in place that supports it, then you're going to be able to do that in a much better much better fashion writer would be more effective with it because you're right efficiency its all of its speed and so they go go, go but when you have that system in place that that tent that structure then you've got something that you could look back to right? Because it's there it's not going anywhere you can adjust it, you could tweak it, but it's there it's rock solid right so you know that that's something you could look at whereas while while the clock keeps ticking well everything keeps going okay you know what? I'm going to spend some time here getting familiar with what I need to do in this space then I'm going to shift over here and then here's a calendar appointment the clock is telling you that I need to go do that I need to be back in this space to deal with this best right so it gives you that that ability and it's it's it's not so mechanical as it is also artisanal right like there's a craft to it managing your time managing your task it's not just about its it's not a science it's an art that's why david allen's books called getting things done the art of stress free productivity so we have anything else or we just have a lot of people going workflow I think we're getting a chat room here I mean any final thoughts from you before we wrap up again I just want to I want to thank everybody here for being here thank everybody in the chat room that's been watching over the past few days those were here now and I've been there before uh again aps are great all that stuff it's the human approach is what we bring to the apse right? You know when you're working on a computer whatever you put in it uh, is going to be equal to what you get out of it and all of these devices, or what that what those are. And, you know, if you have the device in front of that's going to work for you, paper, whatever, and you focus on managing those tasks and not I have a task based mindset, overtime based mindset and add value to these things. And I think you're going to go a lot further. You're gonna go forward, that's, what we want want to go forward, you wanted, you know, we want to be productive. We want to be doing productive, wouldn't be productive. We want to go forward, and hopefully you guys can go forward from this, this course, and, uh, you know, keep doing that.