Tag: How do I

How do I: Do More That Matters

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You have more demands, distractions, and responsibilities on your time than ever before. So how do you actually do more without burning out, spinning your wheels, or wasting time on things that don’t matter?

This isn’t about working longer hours or grinding yourself into the ground. It’s about working smarter, optimizing your efforts for better outcomes, and executing with intention. This is about removing what doesn’t work, automating what can be systemized, and doubling down on the actions that drive results.

Below is a no-nonsense list of habits, principles, and strategies that I have used to maximize effectiveness, impact, and productivity. Pick what works for you, implement, iterate, and keep moving forward.

  1. Be Prepared. We live in a world full of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA). Be ready.
  2. Be Resilient and Adaptable. Principles and core values matter.
  3. Be Persistent. Follow up.
  4. Be Vigilant. Pay attention to what matters. Notice changes. Stay ahead.
  5. Stay Consistent. Build habits, routines, and scalable systems.
  6. Always Be Capturing (ABC). Your memory is unreliable. Document everything by default.
  7. Eliminate. Simplify. Automate. Delegate. Prioritize. Execute. Repeat.
  8. Test Your Systems. Have backups. What works today may break tomorrow. Regularly stress-test your processes, tools, and teams.
  9. Learn to Discern. Not everything deserves your time or attention.
  10. Take Action. Complaining, comparing, and worrying solve nothing. Action eliminates fear and anxiety.
  11. Ask Better Questions. Assumptions are expensive. Better questions get better answers.
  12. Negotiate Everything. Every deal, decision, and opportunity has options, both on and off the table.
  13. Choose, Then Move. When faced with a fork in the road, pick a direction or forge a new path. Avoid analysis paralysis and indecision.
  14. Guard Your Energy, Time, and Money. Use them wisely. Audit each regularly.
  15. Schedule Everything. Don’t make to-do lists. Put tasks directly on your calendar. Assign time blocks to everything. When necessary, move or repeat this time block periodically.
  16. Batch Similar Tasks. Group repetitive work to maintain flow and efficiency. Tasks are opportunities for efficiency and optimization.
  17. Exercise Patience (Strategically). If waiting isn’t worth it, eliminate the task or skip the wait entirely.
  18. Use Constraints to Your Advantage. Constraints force creativity and efficiency.
  19. Step Outside Your Comfort Zone. Growth requires discomfort. Seek controlled challenges.
  20. Be Adaptable Like Bamboo. Stay flexible but strong in any situation.
  21. Be Accountable. Hold people accountable to what they commit to as you do.
  22. Push forward to decisions. It is either a yes or no, not maybe. Remove those gray areas and make them crystal clear.
  23. Speed is a Competitive Advantage. Don’t wait for permission nor consensus. Start. Play the long game too.
  24. Design Your Environment for Success. Your habits are shaped by your surroundings. Optimize your workspace, digital tools, and daily routines for peak performance.
  25. Perfection is a Myth. “Perfect is the enemy of done.” Stop using perfection as a delay tactic or excuse not to ship it.
  26. Follow Through Relentlessly. Execution matters more than ideas.
  27. Hydrate. You’re mostly water. Keep it that way. You will think clearly too.
  28. Eat for Nutrition, Not Stress. Food is fuel, not therapy.
  29. Move Daily. Walk. Stretch. Exercise. Your body and mind depend on it.
  30. Sleep 6 to 8 Hours. Rest is non-negotiable. Schedule sleep like any other priority.
  31. Set a Morning and Evening Routine.
  32. Get Sunlight Every Day. Natural light regulates energy and focus.
  33. Use all your senses. Don’t overburden one.
  34. “Lead, follow or get out of the way.” Pick one based on the situation.
  35. “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Choose your circle wisely.
  36. Contribute to Communities. Seek groups that challenge and support growth. Help those who want to help the group.
  37. Be Present. Add Value. If you’re not contributing, earning, or learning, ask why you’re there.
  38. Time is Non-Refundable. Use it wisely or regret it later.
  39. When in Doubt, Start. Don’t wait for permission or others to join you. Begin, iterate, and adjust as needed. You won’t be 100% ready, and that is okay.
  40. Delegate to AI first. If an AI can do something faster, cheaper, and better than a person, let it. Monitor, refine, iterate, and focus on what only you should do. If an AI can’t do it, delegate it to other people who can.
  41. Be Mistaken for a Machine. Consistency is a compliment, but automate whenever possible to free yourself for higher-value work.
  42. Define Success Clearly. Set measurable goals. Vague ambitions lead to vague results.
  43. People consume content in different ways. Some like to listen. Some like to read. Some like to watch. Some like a combination of content in different formats. Feed your audience value.
  44. Teach to Learn. Explaining something to others forces clarity, getting the basics right, and deeper understanding. If you can’t teach it, you don’t truly know it.
  45. Write to Think Clearly. Make it a daily habit.
  46. Find the gaps. Change perspectives. Try inversion. Seize the opportunity.
  47. Do the Boring Stuff. Success isn’t just about big wins, it’s about showing up and executing daily, even on the unglamorous tasks that move the needle. Do the work no one else wants to do.
  48. Master Asynchronous Communication. Meetings are often a waste of time. Use async tools (email, project management software, video recording, podcasting) to minimize unnecessary back-and-forth.
  49. Be Your Own Case Study. Test strategies, track results, measure differences, and refine based on real-world data. Become the proof of what works.
  50. Ask “Why?” and “What Else?” Regularly. Curiosity drives better decisions. Remain curious and inquisitive.

If you implement even a handful of these principles, you can execute at a higher level, avoid burnout, and get more done in less time. Stop waiting for a sign. Keep taking action on what matters. Day 1 starts today.

Questions?

How Do I: work remotely now and into the future

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Raju Panjwani interviewed Henrik de Gyor about remote work for his show: BOLD CONSCIOUS CONNECTIONS. We talk about some insights about remote work and address some elephants in the room like RTO.

Do you have questions about remote work for your business? Schedule a call

How do I: consume news

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Time to consume news should be limited.

When I shower, I consume news. I select several news briefs from various news sources on numerous topics of interest to consume in audio form only. Once I am finished getting dressed, I stop listening to the news for that day. This may take about 15 minutes.

If the news is not relevant, skip to the following brief.

News is a myopic view of current events.

Our ability to discern what is relevant and essential is critical.

When it comes to news, very little is within our control, and even less affects us directly in any way.

How we dress for the weather is within our control.

The weather takes less than a minute to consume and understand.

Consume some news briefly to stay aware and prepared.

Do not let news consume you. News should not become a time suck or a mind suck.

Our time is better spent elsewhere.

Consume less news and get more things done that matter.

How do I: record my podcasts?

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Tools of the trade

A while back, I used to use Skype with some recording software to record my podcasts.

Then, I noticed the audio quality difference between Skype and Zoom.

Zoom is my go-to for reliable calls, recording podcasts, and creating webinars for several years now.

Zoom can also split the audio recordings between each speaker to easily avoid crosstalk (talking over each other) or audio volume differences which is important for podcast recording.

Scheduling

Using Calendly.com, all podcast interview scheduling was completely automated based on my preferred availability on my Google Calendar when I wanted to record audio podcasts.

Recording Asynchronous Podcasts

Note that all of my podcasts are interviews now. I ask the same questions and get different answers from each person interviewed. I personally do not add value to the conversation by asking the same questions, therefore I could remove myself from the interview process.

As of October 2022, I found out about rumble.studio where I can record podcasts asynchronously. This means the two parts of the interview are recorded separately.

Part 1 is the Questions.

Part 2 is the Answers.

I record myself asking those same questions one more time for each podcast (Yes, I have several podcasts). Not per episode. The intro, middle roll and outro are recorded all separately.

Now ALL of my podcasts are recorded asynchronously. After 12 years of podcasting, I can say that I no longer schedule time to interview someone… anyone for a podcast because I can do this asynchronously. And you can too. And no one wastes any time.

Each interviewee gets a step-by-step process where they hear the question I recorded (they see the text question too), then they record their answer to their hearts content (as many times as they wish). This cycle of steps repeat for each question until they submit their last answer and then I am notified when they are done.

No calls. No scheduling. Once answers are all captured, the recordings are ready to be edited and packaged as new episodes. In a future post, we will cover editing as a matter of documentation, delegation and review.

Have you tried asynchronous podcast recording?

How do I: deal with uncertainty

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Take the unpopular perspective that when it comes to uncertainty, I would prefer to deal with uncomfortable unknowns than comfortable knowns. Why? It is more challenging. It makes us think and do more. Dealing with uncertainty is more fun to work with than even chess or puzzles because the outcomes and rules are already known for both of those games. Making things that don’t exist yet is far more uncertain and more challenging. Embrace uncertainty and immerse yourself in it like a pool of water. Bring some hypothesized outcomes to test. Learn to swim in a shallow pool of uncertainty before exploring the deep, dark underwater caves of uncertainty. As you explore the depths of uncertainty, be sure to leave proper markers along that new path to get back to reality as we know it. Document your journey as well as your escape.

Avoid drama and ego. Question all fears, not just your own. What partly matters during the journey is that you are being listened to and valued by the few, not because you are right, for your vision of what could be and/or should be. This will evolve over time into something recognizable, useful, and valued. Clarity and conciseness will eventually hit the right chord.

Multiple perspectives matter more, not to reach a consensus, but because we need to understand multiple diverse points of view of how to see, hear, and feel something new, even if it may be partly familiar. While it could be so new and unknown, does it matter, to whom and why?

No matter how much is uncertain, there will be known unknowns and unknown unknowns. We should plow forward toward incremental improvements, iterations, and baby steps because this is how we get through it and make that new path. This path may be taken by a few others who want to do this work, to follow up, and even improve upon. By bringing the dark areas of uncertainty into the light, we may find possibilities and value to more.

Our future audience may want or need this. Having conversations and experiencing this are the only ways we will know if and when those barriers of uncertainty have been broken. How else will we reveal that certain need or certain desire for this that you build?

Keep making new things and create new paths. New uncertainties will follow up.