Tag: Productivity

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?

Tools I Use: not-to-do list

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Lots of us have to-do lists.

Some of us schedule the to-do (task) with the time assigned on our calendar.

Fewer of us have a not-to-do list. Literally a list of things we should not do ourselves or at all. Why?

Our time is limited, and valuable and we don’t need to do it ourselves. Or eliminate the task all together. You could also delegate it or automate it. Find out how below.

Kudos to Tim for the idea of the not-to-do list. Tim Ferriss has his not-to-do list, which are great ideas.

What is on my own not-to-do list as far as tasks?

  • Creating lists of contacts/companies to reach out to (use Upwork instead)
  • Copywriting for marketing purposes (ChatGPT, yes, use a machine to do it faster and often better than a person)
  • Coming up with gift ideas (ChatGPT)
  • Scheduling calls with back-and-forth messages (All calls scheduled through calendly.com with my fixed availability for calls each month that updates with my one master calendar)
  • Recording podcasts asynchronously (Try Rumble.studio and record podcast interviews without the podcaster and interviewee speaking together)
  • Editing podcasts (use Upwork instead)
  • Proofreading or editing my own book (Upwork)
  • Technical tasks (Upwork that are not worth my time and effort to do myself)
  • Creative tasks (Fiverr and not pretend I am a designer)
  • Shop at many different brick-and-mortar stores for the same product (this is what Amazon or Google Shopping is for… to stop wasting your time).
  • Buying wet and dry food for my pets (Petco.com repeat delivery every three months solves this too)

What is on your own not-to-do list?

What to talk about productivity? Schedule a call.

Tools I Use: speech to text

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In the tool kit of accessibility functions most computers have today that I use often is speech to text.

Once enabled with a quick command, all you do is annunciate and the computer will write what it hears you say.

I have to emphasize that you do need to annunciate, not simply mumble what you say to the computer and expect it to understand what you say, including syntax. Period. Editing comes later anyhow.

Thanks to advances in speech recognition, speech-to-text works quite well now. If the speech recognition is trained on your voice and the way you say things based on a script you read to train it, the speech-to-text function can work even better. The best speech recognition tools can learn based on your edits and corrections.

In the past, I wrote about text to speech to save time reading/reviewing electronic documents and articles. Speech to text is just another productivity superpower you can use on a daily basis.

Most of us can speak rather than type since our hands are already quite occupied. This computer function can save you time and energy by potentially making you more productive like it does for me.

Do you use speech to text daily?

Tools I Use: One Calendar

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Time

How many sets of 24 hours do you have each day?  One 

So why should we use multiple calendars for scheduling all of our events?

Segment your time between work, personal (alone), family and friends with your schedule.

Yes, you can schedule your family and friends unless you find another 24 hour period per day.

Everyone has 24 hours per day, 1440 minutes per day and 168 hours per week.

What do you do with your time?

How do you use each hour of your life? Too many don’t care and waste it.

We are either productive or not.

We move the needle toward accomplishment or not.

We move the needle toward our own fulfillment or not.

I believe if I did not accomplish something every day, the day is wasted and that is hurtful to at least one person. You.

Even if I am sick or on vacation, that is not an excuse.

Track your time

How many calendars and scheduling tools do you use to track your time, all your meetings (personal/professional), all your calls and everything else in your day?

I know too many people who use nothing for their own personal schedule and a work schedule applied by their workplace. That is not time tracking nor time management.

Without time management,  we create excuses like “I am so busy” or “I don’t have time”.

The fact is we choose how we spend our time. We choose when we get up and go to bed. We choose when we eat. We even choose when we go to the bathroom.

There is plenty of time management advice about focusing on 1 thing or top 3 things per day.

I take a different approach.

Use one calendar for all of my time. Google Calendar follows me everywhere for all of my time.

Thoughts on Paper

Forget paper calendars. I know too many people who repeatedly lose their little agenda or don’t even travel with it.  Which makes it a useless afterthought.

Hanging in my office is a really nice, big paper wall calendar which was designed by the late Massimo Vignelli. It is very nice decor, but I do not use it.

Change

When you need to shift your calendar events because someone reschedules, how do you handle that?

Simply confirm a new date/time and drag the existing event to the new date/time on Google Calendar. Done.

A calendar change takes one finger on your smartphone. Yes, you can play “Calendar Tetris” by moving calendar time blocks as needed.

If the calendar tool we use is inflexible and cannot handle iteration, change the calendar you are using. Do not wait for change to happen to you. Seek it ahead of the change so you understand it better than after it happens to you. No whining. No excuses. Use your time more wisely. We can all make the time we need based on our own priorities. After all, it is your time. All 168 hours every week. How are you using your time?

Want to know how I schedule meetings and save time doing so? Read this.

Questions?