Knowledge, hacks, and ideas to level up your personal practical productivity skills.

Brian Nelson-Palmer 9/24/24 Brian Nelson-Palmer 9/24/24

5 Productivity Hacks We Disagree On - With Eric Girard

This episode features a debate between Brian and Eric Girard. There’s 5 Productivity Hacks that these two disagree on. The discussion includes: tasks written on calendar vs to-do list, planning out every minute of the day on your calendar, wake-up times (early vs. late), meditation, and the use of Amazon Subscribe & Save. Throughout the episode, both participants present their opposing viewpoints. Which side do you agree with? What did they miss or not consider?

This episode features a debate between Brian and Eric Girard. There are 5 productivity hacks that these two disagree on. The discussion includes: tasks written on calendar vs to-do list, planning out every minute of the day on your calendar, wake-up times (early vs. late), meditation, and the use of Amazon Subscribe & Save. Throughout the episode, both participants present their opposing viewpoints. Which side do you agree with? What did they miss or not consider?

The Audio/Podcast

References In This Episode

The 10 day meditation course and challenge Brian referred to from Headspace.
Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program information.
Chewy’s Autoship program.
Eric’s Girard Training Solutions organization, and podcast: Management Development Unlocked

Episode Digest

5 Hacks That Divide These Two Experts

In a recent episode of the Productivity Gladiator podcast, host Brian squares off against guest Eric Girard on five contentious productivity hacks. Their lively debate highlights how even seasoned professionals can disagree on best practices. Let's break down their arguments:

1. Tasks: On The Calendar vs. On A To-Do List

Brian advocates for keeping tasks on a separate to-do list, arguing that calendars should be reserved for time-specific commitments.
Eric prefers putting tasks directly on his calendar, a habit he's maintained since school.

Key Debate Points: Scalability, handling timeless tasks, and the risk of losing track of items when they're not completed on schedule.

2. Daily Planning: Structured vs. Flexible

Eric plans out every hour of his day for maximum efficiency.
Brian leaves open space in his schedule, valuing flexibility to handle unexpected tasks or opportunities.

The Crux: Does rigid planning boost productivity, or does it create more work through constant rescheduling?

3. Wake-Up Times: Early Bird vs. Night Owl

Eric champions the 5 AM wake-up, embracing the "early bird gets the worm" philosophy.
Brian prefers a later start, arguing for the benefits of evening productivity and social life in the evenings.

Discussion Point: How do these choices impact work-life balance and overall productivity?

4. Meditation: Essential or “Meh”

Eric swears by morning meditation to sharpen his mind for the day ahead.
Brian finds meditation puts him to sleep, reserving it for those 4 AM can't-sleep moments.

The Question: Is meditation a productivity booster or just another task on the to-do list?

5. Amazon Subscribe & Save: Convenience or Hassle

Brian is all-in on Subscribe & Save, praising its convenience and cost savings.
Eric prefers on-demand purchasing, wary of accumulating unnecessary items.

Core Issue: Does automating purchases save time and money, or lead to waste and clutter?

The Takeaway

This debate showcases how personal productivity can be. What works for one expert might be counterproductive for another. As you listen to the episode, consider:

• Which side do you lean towards on each topic?

• What factors in your life influence these preferences?

• Are there additional perspectives or nuances the hosts might have overlooked?

Remember, you have to TRY both sides in order to truly have an informed opinion. The hosts are coming at these perspectives having tried both sides and developed their opinion. The best productivity system is the one that works for you.

Don't be afraid to experiment and adapt these strategies to fit your unique needs and lifestyle.

Chapters

— Introduction

— The Calendar vs. To-Do List Debate

— Planning Every Hour vs. Leaving Open Space

— Early Riser vs. Late Riser: Workout Preferences

— Meditation: A Tool for Focus or Sleep?

— Amazon Subscribe and Save: Convenience or Clutter?

Today’s Guest

ERIC GIRARD
CEO, GIRARD TRAINING SOLUTIONS

Eric Girard has over 30 years of experience helping improve the performance of managers and employees. He specializes in the development of new managers, focusing on their successful transition to their new role and on their team management skills. He has a high-energy and engaging facilitation style.

Eric is a passionate, lifelong learner. As a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor, he is pursuing the rating of Master Scuba Diver Trainer. When not designing or delivering training, he enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife and twin 14-year-old daughters.

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/ericpgirard

Instagram: instagram.com/eric.p.girard

Website: girardtrainingsolutions.com

Podcast: girardtrainingsolutions.com/podcast

Why Subscribe To The Email List: Brian shares separate hacks, tips, and actionable learning exclusively for his email subscribers. Sign up so you don’t miss out!

About The Creator/Host: I’m Brian. At age 4, I was diagnosed with insulin dependent (type 1) diabetes and told that my life was going to be 10-20 years shorter than everyone else. As a kid I took time for granted, but now as an adult, time is the most precious thing that I have. After spending a career hands-on in the trenches as a leader at all levels, I now help others to level-up through my Productivity Gladiator training. Graduates wield time management & life balance superpowers, activate a laser-guided ability to focus & prioritize, and implement a sniper-precise approach to task & email management. If what you’ve seen here intrigues you, reach out, let’s chat!

Time is the currency of your life, spend it wisely.

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Transcript

I'm Brian Nelson Palmer. And on this show, I share personal practical productivity skills. And in this episode, it's a debate. I want to pull you into a disagreement I've been having with Eric Gerard. We disagree about five productivity hacks. And we decided to record that disagreement and each of us making the case for our side and bring it to you because we wanted to see what you thought. See, I first met Eric

A while back, we did an episode called 10 time management hacks for new managers and I disagreed with them then. And I'm glad life has come back around so that I can share that disagreement with you now. So who's side are you on? Am I right? Is he right? Let me know what you think.

Hello, my name is Eric Girard and I'm the CEO of Girard Training Solutions. My focus is all about helping new managers transform from being great individual contributors to outstanding people managers. And with me today is Brian Nelson -Palmer. Brian, who are you?

Thank you so much, Eric. And I'm Brian Nelson Palmer. I am the founder of Predictivity Gladiator. And similar to you, I teach personal practical productivity skills and my target audience is recently promoted office people managers. So if you're managing a team, how do we get you more productive to get all of the things done and not be overwhelmed? And so I've been doing this for years and years. I've got a whole training school and session and curriculum that we follow. And I'm so passionate about this thing. And today,

The whole reason for that is because today, Eric, what are we doing, man? Let's debate. We are going to have a slap down. So the whole idea, we are going to have, we are going to have a productivity slap down. you listen, if you listen to me for any length of time at all, you know that I am passionate about productivity. addition to making new managers successful, I also think that new managers and everybody ought to be productive and effective and efficient. So I have strong opinions about certain things like calendaring and so on.

Brian also has strong opinions. And so we are going to surface those strong opinions in a duel. And we will have this conversation and we will see what you think in the comments and in the forums that we post these sessions in. Absolutely. Want to hear your thoughts because Eric and I straight up disagree. Like we were talking the other day and it's like, you know what?

I totally disagree with you, dude. No, it shouldn't be that way. It should be this way. And we found five topics that are exactly things that we are on opposite ends of the spectrum. So now we want to get you in on this. What do you think? And I'm to share my side. He's going to share his side. So let's debate these things. So Eric, what do we got, man? What's first? I'll tell you what, why don't you run down the list of topics and then we will, we will cruise through this from top to bottom. Top top. That's very organized. All right. Five things we're going to talk about first.

Do you put your tasks on your calendar or do you put it somewhere else like on a to do list? We've got different thoughts. Second, do you plan out every hour of the day or do you leave open space in your calendar? Are you more is it all about planning more of the day? Third, are you an early riser and an early gym person or a late riser? A later gym person. Fourth one, meditation. Do you meditate? Do you not meditate? Is it good? Is it not good?

Eric and I disagree. And the last one, the fifth one, let's talk about Amazon, subscribe and save because subscriptions and getting your stuff delivered automatically. I think one thing he thinks another. So game on, let's talk about those. All right. Game on. What's our first prompt again, please, sir. You put your tasks on a calendar or do you, do you put everything on the calendar? So Eric, I know you're a calendar guy and I totally disagree. I do not think you put tasks on a calendar.

I am absolutely a calendar guy. My motto is if it's on the calendar, it gets done. And so if you were to look at my calendar today, actually today is Friday, so it's a pretty light day. But for example, looking at any other day this week, you will see a reminder to get into social media, to meditate, to go to a class and teach a class, to call a friend for his birthday, to study for an event that's coming up. it's

all in my calendar. My calendar is my task list. That doesn't mean that it's incredibly rigid, though. So, you know, in case you think that my life is, is, you know, like a like a military marching band. It's not like that. There's definitely room for things to move. I think the military marching band guys out there, but yes, well, I'm just saying I was just I was I was reaching I was grasping. Yeah.

But I'm just trying to think of something that was really, really strictly organized in military and marching bands are very strictly organized. So anyway, if something's going to move, something can move. But otherwise, at the end of the day, I'm done with that task list. I've accomplished everything there. And that means that at the end of the day, at five o 'clock, I can switch gears, go upstairs to my family and hang out and not worry about work. Brian, what do you think? Nice. I totally disagree, Eric. I think.

You do not put your tasks on your calendar. Here's what I think. I think you're wrong. I know. I think you're wrong. I already think you're wrong. You haven't started speaking and I'm telling you you're wrong. I think your tasks go on a to -do list and your calendar is for where you need to be. So I teach the calendar is where you put the thing, the places you need to be like physically, virtually your presence is required at this location could be virtual. It could be this team meeting or whatever it is, where you need to be is your calendar. And what you need to do is your to -do list.

And here's why I think that because like I started out as a calendar guy like you. And I know where it came from. If you think back, I don't know for you, Eric, for me, elementary school, I had a day planner. And so they give you that little agenda day planner thing when you're in elementary school and you write down your tasks and your to do's and your assignments and it's a little calendar thing. But then there's never really a course that talks about what happens when things get more bigger. They don't there's not really a process for that. So when I started my work career, I was still in that mode.

And there's three issues with that. First one, what happens if there's not a date for the item that you have to do? So Eric, I'm going to ask you these three questions because this is my, have three issues with putting tasks on a calendar. So the first one is first issue. What happens if there's not a date for the item for me in the to -do list? I have a someday maybe or a waiting follow -up list.

where if I have to come back to it, goes to waiting follow up. If it's a something that I don't want to lose track of, but it does, there's not a date associated with when it comes back someday. Maybe I'll get back to it. Then it goes on that list. So I have my three to do lists and I'm either doing it or waiting to do it or someday maybe. And so that's what works. But for you, if you're putting it on calendar, what happens if there's not a date or a time for that thing? There is always a date. There's always a day and a time for a thing to get done. Okay.

Everything has its place. And so, for example, there's a note here where I need to update my referral partners in my CRM. That's not an urgent task, but it's on the calendar to take care of and it's going to get done. Whereas if I had it on a a to do list to do someday, someday would never come for me. It would just never come. I'm ADD enough that it just it just wouldn't happen. And so having it on the calendar is like, I need to do this thing. I get it done. It's checked off the list and I move on.

But Eric, how big is that? There's got to be a huge thing. I don't know about you. For me, I've got a whole bunch of things that are someday maybe kind of things that are just I don't need to get to them right now. But at some point, it's going to be important or I'm going to come back to it. So my I mean, my actual to do to do list that I could do right now is.

reasonable size. My sum, my waiting follow up list on things I have to come back to that I can't do right now is a pretty significant list, but I can't touch it right now. So it's fine. And my someday maybe list is also pretty reasonable size. So like I, I don't know that, that it seems to me like you would have just a whole bunch of stuff on your calendar. That's not, that's a, that's a big maybe. You know, I think what's happening here is we're coming at this from two completely different paradigms. All right.

So, so, you know, my paradigm is a place for everything and everything in its place, including tasks. So I've become a master guessing how long something will take. So, for example, this, this whole idea where I'm going to update the referral partners on my CRM, that's going to take me half an hour. It's only half an hour. So I walk through life going, how long will this thing really take me? Is it really going to take me a whole lot of time? Or for example, distilling water for my CPAP, how long is that actually going to take?

It's going to take me three minutes to set up the distiller. It's no big deal. I can take care of it in any time and it gets done because often I build these things up in my head of, geez, I have to do this and then I have to do that and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. When I actually map it onto a calendar, it's like, this is only going take me 15 minutes. I can knock that out any time. And if it's a someday maybe thing, it just goes later in the month. It gets handled later on after the more urgent things get handled closer in. Got it. So but then.

Eric, you're going to be moving these things around all the time. Like if updating your CRM is something you need to do, but then another task comes in that is more important or more urgent than that, then you're going to have to move. You're like constantly moving things around. Do you have tasks that just go from day to day? You've punted them and then punted them again and punted them again because other stuff comes up. No, actually it, it, doesn't happen.

And the system has flexibility in it. So if something's gotta move, it moves. It's not like it's locked in stone. But if it's on the calendar, it gets done, and other things get moved in around it. And then if there is a time -sensitive thing or an important meeting, then I move the someday maybe thing. I just move it out of the way and make room. And so people will often come to me, and I use Calendly to set up meetings, because I'm an external, right?

So I give people my Calendly link and I usually send out my 25 minute link, something I learned from you. So I do the 25 minute link, I send it out. Folks say, hey, you're not available until May. Could we do something about that? And I'm like, yeah, sure. Let me move something out of the way and I'll make room for you. So there's flexibility as well. If I don't like the person, then no, I'm sorry. You gotta wait till May.

It's your it's like your own door guy. It's like, no, there's no time on my calendar. Sorry. Yeah. OK. So then what about hold on. So that's issue number one was that what happens if there's not a date for that item? And I have things in my world that don't necessarily have a date or a time that they have to be done. And so I'm able to constantly be reprioritizing. But it just happens all on the list and I don't have to move things around. So that's that's issue number one for me. But issue number two is it doesn't scale. And here's what I mean by that.

I used to put tasks on my to -do list and I've seen some people, you listening might be this person who puts a list of tasks at the top of your day. So you've got one day item that has all of the things you're trying to do that day or something. And I tried that for a little while too. And the problem was that doesn't scale. Meaning if I get more and more to -do lists, more things on my to -do list or that list gets pretty long, then it starts to cover up.

the rest of your calendar. And so there's actually this, it happened to me where I missed a morning meeting. I had like an eight 30 meeting with my boss's boss way back in the beginning of my career. And I missed that meeting because my to -do list was so long that it had covered up the eight 30 time slot on my calendar. And I totally missed that meeting and I got in trouble for it. And I realized, you know, I can't like this, this whole putting tasks on the calendar isn't going to work because the calendar needs to be where I need to be like meeting.

my boss. So I had to get those things off off of there. So I don't know. What do you think about that? Cause that the scaling thing is it doesn't scale. I, there's only us like what happens when the list gets too long. You know, I, I haven't had issues with it. You know, at this point in my career, I'm a CEO. I run my own business. actually run three businesses and the color coding system I've got for the different calendars and the ability to guess how long something's going to take.

you know, in rather than saying that a thing is going to take me two hours. It's like, no, that'll take me 15 minutes. It seems to work out. Okay. You know, I haven't had an issue, again, I think it might be a paradigm thing. It might be, you know, where, you know, what, what qualifies as a to -do item on your list may not qualify for mine. Right. That seems like a whole nother. Well, I'm to leave that alone because we can debate that too. But so here, and here was my third one that I wanted to ask you about Eric. This is lose track of things. So what happens is

There was one day, and this is this, I lost track of a few tasks and got in trouble at work for them. And what happened is I had them on my calendar for a certain date and then I was unexpectedly sick and I did not get on. It was like a Thursday and I ended up being unexpectedly sick on the Friday. And when I came in on Monday, the day started off immediately and I did not have the chance to go back and move.

the things from Friday that were left over onto Monday. So now my day's over. My day was overloaded. I missed those items and I ended up losing track of a couple of things that my supervisor was counting on me for. So I ended up missing those items because I didn't move them. And so for me, that was the third. That was sort of the nail in the coffin for me at OK, I'm going to become a to do list guy because if it's on the to do list, I never have to move it. It's there. It's always there. The only thing I have to do is know what order I need to do all these things.

and start at the top and work your way down. But what about losing track of things? I don't lose track of things because I'm constantly in my calendar. So, you know, constantly checking up to make sure that I haven't missed anything, that something hasn't gotten past me. And then at the end of the day, in the end of the week, I go through and look ahead in my calendar. And if I was out or something happened during the previous day, I'll look back and say, OK, that thing that I was supposed to do Thursday, I didn't get to it. So I'll move it over to Monday morning and I'll take care of it then. So it's just drag drop.

put it where it belongs and we're all back. So I very rarely drop things because my calendar is my Bible. And so I'm in it all the time. And sometimes during downtime with the family, we're sitting on the couch hanging out. I'm in my calendar, just double checking, making sure that I know what's happening for the week coming up. And that sets me at ease. So five or 10 minutes on the couch with the family, they're reading, I've been scrolling the New York Times or something. I take a few minutes.

check the calendar, make sure everything's up to date, and then I can put the phone down and hang out with my family and relax. Yeah. So I think I know that you and I could probably continue to debate this. So we shouldn't debate this for too long. We want to hear what you listening and watching or thinking about this. But what I can say is that I love we are on totally separate sides of the fence here because I think you it seems like everything goes in the calendar. And I do agree that if there is time on the calendar, if you set aside time, it will get done.

So I totally agree with you there. However, for me, calendar is where you need to be. Task is where you need to do, what you need to do. It's a totally separate thing. So this is just a fascinating discussion, because ultimately it's all about getting stuff done. But man, two very separate systems. Absolutely. And I will say, pounding on the table, I will say, you're wrong, you're wrong. I totally disagree, Eric. No, man, it doesn't scale. I have problems. I have problems with it, but.

Well, you're allowed. It's OK. You know, is this isn't here's the beauty. The beauty of the world in our country today is that you don't have to agree. Yeah, this is this is not an autocracy. This this this space is a democracy and you're allowed to dissent. It's OK. Right. So I would never vote for his system. He wouldn't vote for my system. And we still both get stuff done. So it's an amazing thing. Yes. Moving on. Item number two. Item number two.

Do you plan out every hour of the day or do you leave open space in the last discussion, Eric, you talked about it sounds like you have a lot of your day plan. You said it's flexible and there's still a little time, but like you said, the first time available is May and you're Cal and Lee Lake. like, okay, what's the, so I don't plan out every hour of every day and we're on different sides of the fence. So you go first. What's this about? So plan and being so planned, talked about that. Yeah. So.

I literally block out time for lunch and dinner so that people can't book meetings when I need to eat. I've got a stomach clock that goes off at noon and six. And if you haven't fed me by then, there's going to be a problem. So there is lunchtime, there is dinner time. And then otherwise I book time for everything. So meetings where I need to be, people I need to meet, and things I need to get done all wind up in the calendar.

And there is white space and there is time to get up and walk around and do things. But at the end of the day, here's when my method pays off. At the end of the day, my time is mine. So I block off dinner at 6 p so nobody blocks me when I want to be with my family. And then after 6 p like for example, there's a calendar item here to call my friend Dan. So that's personal stuff. So sometimes if I want to make sure I remember to call somebody or do something personally, it also winds up in the calendar, but that's my time.

So it gets done and there's plenty of time to just chill out with the fam and read or watch TV or go for a walk or whatever. So, Eric, you're looking at the let's let's put some perspective on this. You're looking at the screen right now. How much if you were to add up the amount of white space on your calendar right now for the day, what are we what for your awake hours? Basically, what are we talking about? How much is there for today? Yeah, today is today's Friday. Today, Fridays are no meeting days for me. OK.

so this is pretty light. Let's go to a let's go to like a Monday through Thursday, like a normal sort of work kind of day. What are we talking about? OK, look at something that's fairly typical. OK, so looking at looking at Monday, the 23rd, there's there's now and a half. There's a half hour. There's 15 minutes and then at three o 'clock, I'm going to work out. That's me time. Then I come back and there's room for work and then there's dinner and then there's nothing. So there's still plenty of time to do stuff.

and to be relaxed and unstructured. Got it. So most of the rest of the day is that you kind of know what you're doing next and next and next going for for most of the day. And there's a little bit of white space in there to flex. Yeah, it sounds like a couple hours, two to three hours of wiggle. Yeah. Now, here's the thing. If I was working in corporate.

this may not work so well. I used to do this in corporate as well and I used to get flack from my manager because I would block off time to work on projects. Like my boss would assign me a project and I would say, okay, that project is due in two weeks. I better block off two hours a day to get it done. I would block off the two hours a day. I would have my time set aside so I could get it done. And then my boss would say, I need you in a meeting at that time. So then my boss would sabotage my system. So that didn't work all the time.

in corporate, but remember I'm my own boss. My, my bosses now are my clients and I can accommodate and make room for client meetings. It's no problem. Yeah. See for me, I am on, I'm on the other end of the spectrum here, Eric, which is if I don't have, it's where I need to be. Right. So there are, there is lots of time during my day where there's nowhere I need to be. And

for and you're right, some days are busier than others. And I do have like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are generally meeting days and there's a lot going on and it's back to back. And so there are days where from the morning through the evening, there's probably not a lot of white space because there's a lot of places I need to be. But for the most part, in my calendar, there is a lot of white space and the white space is still productive time. That's where our difference. I have mine on the to do list.

So if it's not a meeting time, then I am working on these things and here's where here's what I'm working on next. But if I am able to physically, if my presence needs to be there, then I can do those things. And so that's for me, that's where I, I believe that you, the calendar should only be where you need to be so that you can, you know, where your brain needs to be, where your presence needs to be.

And I think that there should be plenty of time where there's not anything on the calendar for that reason. So for me personally, I totally disagree, Eric. I think there should be lots of white space because that's when you get to function and you get to flow and you get to to be you and do your thing. So I don't know. That's I struggle with that one. I think we're on a different page here. Yeah, this is very much related to the to the first thing we talked about. So I don't think we're going to solve this.

But I would be interested to hear what our listeners think about this whole idea of to calendar or not to calendar. Yes. So please weigh in on the weigh in in the comments. Let us know what you think. Yes. Is Brian crazy or am I crazy? I really want to know because I feel like I think Eric's crazy. Eric thinks I'm crazy. So what do you think? That's fine. Let's see. Let's see what we got. Well, at least we've got the same haircut. There is that.

Your taste in barbers is on point, Eric. I like it. And if you're listening, we're both bald. So, you know, there's that we got that in common, right? We do have a lot of things in common, but on these topics that we disagree on, let's go to the third one, Eric, because the third one is early riser, early to the gym, early workout or late riser, later gym. Talk about that. Cause I think you're an early and I'm a late person. So what do you got? Okay. I'm a hybrid. So

I'm an early riser. So on a typical morning, I'm up at 530. I take my time in the morning. I make myself breakfast. I meditate, which we'll get to. And then I come in and I go and do outreach and networking and all the building, the business stuff. So that's the first thing that's blocked out of my calendar is two hours. Wait, wait, wait. What time did you say you start at 530? I'm up at 530 at my desk at seven. Okay, yeah. And before that means you did the

Work out in the meditation and stuff before too? No. So I get up and meditate according to the calendar, Brian, I meditate at 6 45. Yes. Breakdown. Yes. Yes. At 6 45 I meditate and then I come and get the outreach and the networking done. And then the rest of the day is tasks and what have you. And then because, because I'm up so early and because my, my energy naturally drops off in the afternoon at three o 'clock, I carve out

two hours to go to the gym and workout. And then recharged, I either come back and do something personal or I may duck back into the office for another hour and do a little bit more work. Yeah. All right. Come on, let's go. I was going to say for me, I am not an early person, meaning I like to get up later. So, so point of reference, I'm a group fitness instructor.

I teach an 8 a class. 8 a is the earliest that I want to be working out. And I wake up just in enough time to get to the gym to teach the 8 a class. That's my sort of my my way of doing it. And if it were up to me, my work schedule doesn't allow it right now. But I my sweet spot, I love the middle of the day.

I love a noon workout because then you got your morning, then you go to the gym, you work out, you got that exercise, you get totally breathless. You get like that, that wonderful feeling of I'm physically exhausted. It resets everything. You take a shower, you sit back down and then you work the afternoon and it's like restarting your day. So I love noon workouts. I tolerate 8 a workouts and I will not work out.

Before 8 a at 730 would be like the earliest that I would ever dream about doing a class or something like that. And I don't work out after work because then that interferes with my family time and my social time. And there's like that. That doesn't work. So I can't do after work. So I am a late late riser. But also one other point on that, Eric, is that I am some of my creativity and my life functions a little bit later. So in order to get up that early, you'd have to go to bed early because sleep is important. So whichever camp you're in.

You got to get your sleep, your seven hours, your eight hours. So you can't just be both. You have to pick one or the other in order to really get your sleep, too. And so for me, there's some social stuff and some evening stuff and some of my creativity happens later, just naturally. So I would rather stay up till 10, 11 and then get up at seven, six, 37 rather than the opposite. But I don't know what you think. No, no, no, no.

No, no, no, no, no, no. So I'm up at 530, six o 'clock. I do the whole breakfast thing. I'm at my desk at seven. The workout happens at three because I am brain brain dead by the afternoon. And so I go I go do something that doesn't require a lot of thought. That energizes me enough to do something else in the afternoon. And then I am also an early to bed person. So to me, a late night is nine thirty.

So I'm usually in bed at night. And so so again, you know, using the CPAP analogy, my CPAP usually tells me that I'm sleeping eight hours, nine hours a night. Right. So, yeah, I mean, I'm I'm 54. I'm middle aged. This is what happens to you folks. I'm sorry. This is it. I well, I'm in my 40s, so I'm not quite there yet. But at the same time, don't know, Eric, I feel like you got and you got kids.

Your kids do not go to are they are they doing that thing where they're like sitting on the couch and they're like, dad's going to bed and then they're still up doing their thing. They they stay up a little bit after us, but I hear them thumping around and goofing off and they're usually in bed by nine thirty. So it's not that they're going to bed really late. I have no idea if they're awake in their room, you know, reading or something. Yeah. But but they are out of the living room usually by nine thirty or so. Got it. And is it that way on the weekends, too?

for you guys. Yeah, pretty much. Because, you know, we're up and about doing stuff, but we usually sleep in on weekends unless I'm teaching scuba, in which case I'm up at five thirty again. Right. Yeah. Yeah. God see. Now, five thirty is ridiculous, Eric. No way. There is nothing about five thirty that I want any part of, seven, six thirty at the absolute earliest. Only if I have to get to an eight o 'clock class and there's like, man, no way. Well, then then you'll love this. You'll absolutely love this. My

best client, my biggest and best client likes to have me teach classes at 6 a because they're based in Iowa. So that's 8 a for the... 8 a their time. That's 8 a their time. And then they have a lot of folks who are East Coast or Europe. So 8 a is a good time. 8 a Central time is a good time for them to start. So I'm up at 4 30 to work. Ooh.

Well, that's painful that you're going at seven 30 on those nights. That's painful. That that means a coffee IV for me. Yeah. Do what you got to do for the clients, man. I like it, man. I respect it, Eric, but hell no. I will not go that early in the morning. like, no, not if I can help it. I will say if I had a client and it was a work thing that needed me up that early, you bet your keister that I would figure it out. But naturally, no way.

in my regular life. No way. I, you know, I do it because I really, I really, really like and respect this client. I'm happy to do it for them. If there wasn't so much what the, what the Chinese call Guangxi, if there wasn't so much good feelings between us, I might push back a little bit, but I'm happy to do it. Got it. There you go. Well then next, let's talk about the next one, which is we talked about meditating. So I'm not a big meditator. Let me take first on this one.

Meditation is not my thing. I tried it. Let me just say first off before I before I say that I'm not. I did try it. I took a 10 day meditation thing. What's that? Man, there was an app that came out that gives you like a 10 day intro or something. So I meditated for 10 day headspace. Exactly. I tried headspace. I did the 10 day meditation. I got every morning and I sat there and I meditated and by the sixth or seventh day,

What happened is I fell asleep meditating. And what meditating taught me is that, is that meditation is excellent for me going back to sleep. So I will tell you right now that at 4 a when I wake up and I can't go back to sleep because you use the bathroom or something and you go back to bed and you're trying to go to sleep and you can't go to sleep. I meditate and it works like a charm. I am out. It is like a superpower. If I meditate, I go to sleep and

That's not to say I understand the benefits of having nothing going on in your like quieting your mind. I think that's super important. But I, to me, my creativity and my flow is letting my brain just go with all of the thoughts that I'm having. And so I don't, I don't meditate during my conscious day when I'm during the regular times. don't.

I don't dig it. It's not for me. It's not my thing. And I know it's not for everybody. Maybe you listening aren't a meditator either, but I tried it. It's not my bag. Like it's, it's great for going to sleep. What do you got? I think you're missing out. I use headspace. I've been kind of in and out on and off with the whole meditation thing. And it took some experimenting. I actually was going to a live person where we were doing the single resume and she was walking me through this thing and she had tapes and CDs and things like that, that

You know, like the practice was like half an hour long. That was too much. But I've been, I've been experimenting with headspace and I found this one where it's just simply this very nice lady guiding you through taking 10 deep breaths, clearing your mind and taking 10 deep breaths in through your nose, out through your mouth. The whole thing takes five minutes. I've got my, the way my office is set up is I can dim all the lights and do all this cool stuff in here. And I've got a really nice rocking chair behind me.

So I come down to the office after breakfast, I'm ready to go. I dim the lights. I do the 10 breaths. Five minutes, I'm done. I'm centered. I'm ready to go to work. So for me, the trick is it can't be too long. So like a half hour practice is just too much. But I would be interested someday in like going to a meditation retreat and learning how the yogis do it. That's not on the list. It's not on my calendar. It's not on the list.

If it ain't on his calendar, it ain't getting done. heard it. It's not going to get done, but someday, someday, maybe, you know, and if it's important enough, it'll get on the calendar. But in the meantime, I find headspace to be useful. It's not very expensive. And there's so many options, so many options in terms of guides, know, male, female, young and old, very short meditations like just do five breaths, you know, it takes two and a half minutes all the way through to a week long thing you can do. So I like it. I dig it. It helps me sort of get

organized. And my big thing is you've probably heard my big thing these days is empathy, empathy and management. And one of the things that I teach in the empathy module is mindfulness and meditation. So I better practice what I preach. This is true, Eric. No way, man. It's not. Here's the here's the the thing that I now headspace. The one thing that I did, I think I discovered with headspace and you're a regular user. So you can correct me if I'm wrong here.

but I think I remember there were meditations you could do while you were washing the dishes or while you were doing chores around the house or something like that. Is that true? Am I misremembering that? don't know. There probably is. There's a lot to it I haven't seen. Okay. So the thing that I'll say is clearing your mind or letting your mind just roam and wonder. One of the things that was really helpful when I learned meditation,

was the concept of a thought coming in and then you letting it go and not and going back to center and where you were. And one of the things that happens for me is that some of my most creative thoughts you ever been in the shower and you have all these great ideas in the shower. yeah. Mine is just wandering. It's just doing its thing. That's almost like it's it's similar to meditation, but it's not in that meditating in meditation. You're trying to know thoughts, trying to quiet your mind.

Whereas for me, I like to let it roam, let it play, let it whatever. So the time, the only time I want it to quiet is 4 a when I'm trying to get back to sleep. that's now man, meditation is just a helpful sleep tool for me. I am not a meditator. I respect your decision, but I feel, I feel bad for you. I think you're missing out. I I will take your pity and I will give it right back to you for, these things. Fine.

Moving on, where are we at? All right. Last one. Amazon subscribe and save. my God. This is my love. Talk to me. What are your thoughts? Freaking hate it. my God. So what are you talking about? OK, you got me on this whole subscribe and save, right? Like you, I talked to you or I listen to one of your episodes and I'm like, subscribe and save. It'll save you a bunch of time. Cool. So I put the spa chemicals on subscribe and save the vitamins, some other household stuff I put on subscribe and save.

And pretty soon I wound up with this stuff stacked around the house. The timing was all off. I've got I've got cleaning products that are six months old that I haven't gotten to yet because the subscriber and saved timing was wrong. So I find that I'm intelligent enough to order my own stuff when I need it. And Amazon is fast enough to get it to me when it needs to be there. So when when the spa shock needs to needs to be refilled, I just order it when I need it.

It's very limited. It's not that I don't use it, but I don't use it for everything because my perception is that you are like a devotee of this stuff and like do it for everything. So let's hear your side. Eric, I want you to subscribe and save everything that you can. Everything that is practical. So let me qualify that statement by saying, Hey Brian? Yeah. No.

I'm telling you, if you're listening, I want you to try it. If you haven't tried it already, because I did not understand the magic of subscribing. So, by the way, let's explain for the if you're listening, you don't know what this is. Subscribe and Save is a program in Amazon where you can go on Amazon and you can subscribe to a product. And what that means is the product will you can put it on whatever interval you want and the product will show up at that interval. So perfect example of this would be vitamins. I take my vitamin one a day.

Every day, there are 120 pills in that bottle, which is exactly four months. So I know that about two or three weeks before the four month mark, I'm going to be ready for another one of those pillbox, another one of those containers of vitamins. So I have it on a subscription where it shows up every four months so that it's ready to go. And I never have to think about it. I don't have to reorder it. So the two reasons that I don't want you to listen to Eric and I want you to try subscribing, say is because

You don't have to think about it. And the amount of stuff that you have to think about all the time is astronomical. So if you can subscribe to things that are very regular, I don't subscribe to everything like I don't subscribe to toothpaste because I haven't been able to figure out that interval. I don't subscribe to deodorant because I don't know the interval. I don't subscribe to some of the food things. But let me tell you the things that I do subscribe to that have been a game changer. Every single one of the pet things. We have a cat and

every one of the pet products is on a subscription because it's used the same interval like clockwork. They eat the same amount of food, the same amount of waste, the same amount of litter, change the litter same. So it's to the point like that's one or another one would be batteries for your smoke detectors in your house. You know, well, I hope you know that you should change those every six months or a year or whatever the interval is for your for your smoke detectors.

So what I love about this is if you subscribe to it, then when the batteries show up, you don't even have to think about it. You don't have to remember that a year ago I changed it and it needs to be August. You don't put it on your calendar like Eric probably does. Absolutely. Are you kidding? That's absolutely on the calendar. No, I don't even want it to be a calendar thing. I want it to show up at my door and I'm like,

That's right. It's been a year already. Okay. Let me change these batteries and they're right there ready for you to change the batteries. So no, Eric, I think you should subscribe to the things that you can that are regular so that you don't have to think about it either. It just shows up when you need it. It is magic. And you get five to 15 % off. If you subscribe to as much as I do, you get 15 % off all this stuff. So you save money and you don't have to think about it. What's not to love? I'll tell you what's not to love clutter. I hate clutter.

I hate having too much stuff around the house. Every month, like clockwork, I take a trunkload of stuff to Goodwill, because we go through the house and clean up all the clutter and we give it away to somebody who needs it, okay? So, subscribe and save, all right? I did Mrs. Murphy's cleaning products, right? It was a three pack. I said, great, send that to me every three months. Guess how many Mrs. Murphy's bottles I have now? Like 12 hanging around the house, they're cluttering up my...

So what, you don't clean the house? What? Why aren't you using it? up. Hold on, hold on. Before now, let me just share for you. If you haven't done subscribe and save, the other thing you should know is that Amazon sends you an email a week and half ahead with an interval that says these are the subscriptions coming up. And if you want to change them, you can't. So I don't want you to think that if you subscribe that you are forced to take the product because you said you would a year ago or whatever it was.

No, it's in the app. You can easily adjust. I don't need it yet. So if something does start stacking up, like Eric says, you can easily punt it, skip it, change the interval and it notifies you ahead of time. So you're not like, I don't want you to think that you're forced, which is why I still think you should try it. have vitamins in my, in my downstairs bathroom on the shelf. have vitamins lined up. That's going to last us probably three months because subscribe and save.

keeps sending it. They won't stop. So I just I hate clutter. If it was me, we wouldn't go to Costco. mean, Costco is really important, you know, for things like toilet paper and paper towel and and dishwasher detergent and things like that. But it means that there's a shelf in my garage dedicated to the big box and all that stuff. And all this stuff is just hanging around because you have to buy it in bulk. You to buy it in quantity. I just wish there was a way to get.

just the roll of paper towel you need when you need it without having to buy 11 of its friends. Totally tracking with you on that. And I'll just say that if you want to subscribe to a smaller set of paper towels, you certainly could. And then you just would have to figure out the interval over time. So the other thing I'll say is, wait a minute, you don't have to think about it. You did. You said you don't have to think about it. And now you're telling me everything. If you notice that you're starting to build up a backstock of these things like you're talking about,

then you can look at, when was the last time I ordered? And you can actually figure out, okay, what my interval was wrong. So one example of thing that I did subscribe and save wrong was the cat food. And so the cat food came in and I got, was like a, I don't know, it was like a five pound bag or something. And I said, all right, let's order it. And then I ended up, I think it was like a month or something and the cat didn't eat five pounds. is example.

numbers, and then they discontinued that quantity. And so I had to change it to a 10 pound bag and I didn't change the the interval. So I ended up with three 10 pound bags of cat food. And by the way, I have a very, very small cat. So this that amount of food is like a long, long interval of food. So I got that one wrong. However, when when you get it, you adjust it. So there is a tweak that can happen.

If you need to over time, if you start ending up with 10 things of Mrs. Murphy's like Eric does, you either need to clean your house more. I'm just saying. Or you should change the interval, bump it out a little bit, because now you know you only need it every four months or five months or whatever that is. So. Basically, Brian, I think you've just made my point. Thank you. Fair enough. Well, listen, I I think.

that it is a game changer and you should totally try subscription stuff. If you're a cat person or a pet person, it's not just Amazon. Chewy has this now. Walmart has the ability to subscribe to things. So that beauty of subscription is you don't even have to think about it. It will just show up for you. And for me, that little amount of time that you save not having to think about it, pull out your phone and order your spa chemicals like Eric does. I think that's a win. So I think you should do it. But

At the same time, I do agree that it's not for everything because most of our food, none of our food is subscribe and save. It is for supplies, not food, because I haven't. The food thing is not a there's not a good interval for that. Yeah, I would eat way too much if food was unsubscribed and say if they put if they put &Ms unsubscribe and save. I was just going to say, right, if it was whatever your guilty pleasure is. And so it starts showing up every week. And I look at my wife.

Well, there's another one coming, so I better eat this one. And then I just keep eating all these bad things for you because it's Amazon's fault, right? Like, yeah, I'm good. I'm guiltless. I'm guiltless. that's all right. Well, I appreciate it for you listening, please. I want to know what you think because I am totally on a different page from Eric about this stuff. And so I'm curious where you land on this spectrum of things, because, man, I just strongly, strongly disagree.

with his approach. So and for the record, I just want to say that I feel like in our country today, if you strongly disagree, you have to be like enemies or something. And I just want to clarify that I strongly disagree with Eric and I still love this guy. Like, man, he's he's a he's a great dude. He gets all the stuff done. So like we're allowed to disagree. And that's cool, too. So you're allowed to disagree with us. So come disagree with us and tell us what you think. Yes. And in order to disagree.

on a subscribe and save basis, please subscribe to both of our shows. So you can do that in an Apple podcast. You can subscribe to the shows and that way you get the goodness from both of us. Brian, thank you so much. This has been hilarious and I hope that our listeners find it equally interesting and fun and thought provoking. Right back at you, Eric. Thanks for a spirited discussion and thanks for having different thoughts. Because I will say that having a different approach or different opinions only

helps me evolve in my thoughts or it's helpful when you have a thought and somebody pokes holes in it and you're able to go back and say, no, I think this even more now or it might change your mind and God, who would have thought? So I love that we don't have the same perspective on this and it only sets me in my ways even more on these things. So I appreciate you for that. Thanks, Eric. Yep. Thank you. And we'll see you all on the next one. Bye bye.

Brian Nelson-Palmer 8/8/22 Brian Nelson-Palmer 8/8/22

Andrew Lawless - Your Workload Tripled, What Do You Do?

Your workload just tripled, what do you do? How do you handle it? We delivered more than 41 tips which you can apply right away!

I spoke with Andrew Lawless, a high performance coach, and the founder of The Consultant Profit System. Andrew coaches people to go from $100K to $1Mil a year. That’s a 10x increase in work. Clearly in those circumstances you need to change your processes during that much growth, and he had some great insights!

Your workload just tripled, what do you do? How do you handle it? We tackled more than 41 tips you can apply right away!

Perhaps someone on your team leaves for another job, or someone gets pulled for another project, or maybe a new initiative starts. All the sudden you find yourself with two to three times the work you had before. How does your life balance not take a hit?

Even a 10% increase in workload will warrant looking at some of these tactics. Often people pick up “a little more work” and do things like skip lunch or stay an hour late. It’s the approach of absorbing the extra and continuing to do the same thing you’ve always done, just more of it. Don’t! I urge you to use these tactics for all situations where workload increases over 10% to help maintain your sanity.

Today’s Guest

Andrew Lawless

High Performance Coach
Founder - The Consultant Profit System

Website: teamlawless.com
IG: @andrewlawlessdc
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/leadership-and-business-coach

On the show, I speak with Andrew Lawless, a high performance coach, and the founder of The Consultant Profit System. As I was thinking about this show topic, Andrew came to mind because Andrew coaches people to go from $100K to $1Mil a year. That’s a 10x increase in work. Clearly in those circumstances, “What got you here won’t get you there” and you need to change your processes during that much growth, so I thought he would have some great insights as well. I was right!

41 Tips & Tactics To Handle The Overwhelm

We started out looking at this through the lens of an employee. What can you do for yourself to handle a 3x increase in your workload? Here are some recommendations we shared.

For Employees

Most people do not have clarity in terms of what they absolutely have to do right now in order to move a project forward.
- Andrew’s Personal Example: My wife and I built a house in Ireland, we’re reviewing the plans and had a two hour discussion about the kitchen. The problem was we didn't even have a building permit at the time, so if we had spent ten minutes on the building permit we would have made more progress than spending two hours discussing the kitchen.
- Focus on “the one next thing”. Gary Keller wrote a book called “The One Thing” which is really helpful on this topic. For each project or effort you’ve now added to your plate, “what’s the one thing that I need to do next to move this effort forward”
Have the discipline to be focused on the work at hand, don’t let yourself get distracted by shiny objects.
- Andrew’s Personal Example: I started doing research on the topic on YouTube but ‌I ended up watching Bruce Springsteen videos for half an hour.
You can use tools to help with focus
- Addiction To Social Media: Fix It With Apps And Tech Hacks
- Distraction Free Youtube - No recommended videos appear, just the ONE you’re watching.
- Freedom - Blocks all distractions across all devices, currently one of the market leaders in this area.
Mark your calendar for “Focus Blocks” - 25 to 50 minute periods. They’ve sometimes called these “tomato” or “pomodoro” timers. These are windows of time for total focus with the brain breaks in between.
- I use focus music during these times. I’m actually listening to it right now as I write this.
- Turbocharge Your Focus & Productivity Through Music
- Search for and use ESM (electronic study music) playlists.
Avoid getting stuck in email. Batch process it at certain points during your day, but don’t get stuck in your inbox. Most job descriptions do not include statements like “respond to all emails within 1 hour”. Handling your email is a part of your job, but prioritize it accordingly.
- A suggestion is to just have 2-4 time slots during the day for email, keep it closed at all other times.
- 'Email Inbox To 0' Hacks: Cut Email Down To Minutes-A-Day Through Batching And Notification Changes
- 'Email Inbox To 0' Hacks: 4d Approach To Processing Your Inbox
- Email Management Hacks: Deep Dive On Snoozing Emails To Come Back Later
- Email Management Hacks: 2 Email Rules To Cut Your Inbox Down By More Than Half
If you are not imperative to a meeting, ask for it to be recorded. Listen to the recording at 2x or even 3x speed. 60 minutes turns into just 20-30, and you can skip through the roll call and other less pertinent parts.
Collaborate with your boss on prioritization. You’ll want their agreement on which/what you should do first and what drops.
- Remember, everything is not an emergency. If there’s no blood, and someone isn’t dying, it’s not a genuine emergency, so make sure you and everyone take a breath and keep perspective.
- Start asking about deadlines. Are those dates “nice to have it by” dates or “need to have it by dates”. Don’t add stress working under the “nice to haves”.
Volunteer to write Guides and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on some of the work that you’re doing.
- If your boss can get help, maybe a temp, maybe a part-time employee, they’re going to need to ‌do the work, so having that SOP or instruction will mean they can get started right away with little training.
Self-Check Tactic from Andrew: “The first question I ask my clients is to open your calendar for me so I can look at it. If I cannot extract what exactly their priorities are by looking at their calendar, then there's a problem.”

For Front-Line Supervisors & Managers

Now for front-line supervisors and managers, besides all the above recommendations, we added on these specifically for those who are managing others.

Remove yourself from the production of the team underneath you. Your job is to work on improving the boat, not rowing it. You want to ‌support and pitch in, but if you maintain some of the work AND have to be the manager, then you will not have time to help develop and improve the team. In the long run, this will keep you and your team stagnant instead of‌ continuing to get better.
Andrew: “The number one reason that I'm seeing is that individual team members are assigned tasks that require them to work ‘against their grain’. For example, I am a “short cutter” so if you want me to find a shortcut to get things done, I'm your guy. If you want me to follow a procedure and be meticulous about it, I am not your guy. I will be your biggest nightmare or it will take me longer.”
Play to your team member’s strengths more than trying to develop their weaknesses.
Kolbe-a and Kolbe-B tests are a great resource (the best one in Andrew’s opinion) to find the overlap of skills and strengths between employees and managers and help with team dynamics.
Remember to manage the energy of your team. Most managers spend all their time policing and chasing after the low performers and the low energy portion of the team. Instead, support the high-performers and bring the same energy to them that they’re producing.
If it’s an internal promotion that brought you to your current management position, don’t bring your old job with you. Make sure you prioritize your transition of your roles. Sticking around doing your old job AND your new job at the same time isn’t going to do anyone any favors. Both jobs and both teams will ultimately suffer. That’s a lose-lose and isn’t sustainable. Make that as short as possible. Be clear on that with supervisors and management.
Immediately notice all the places where you’re the bottleneck in a project or process. What are all the places your team is “waiting on you”? Prioritize those as the first places to improve processes. Make sure you “get out of the way” of the work that needs to be done.
Don’t get stuck thinking you either need a new full-time employee or nothing. There are many in-between solutions that can work. Whatever the most low-level and redundant work is that your team is performing, have them write SOPs for that first, and ask for contract or temp support. You can even hire virtual support ‌inexpensively for all work that’s not in person. For virtual temporary help, no hiring process is required. Virtual help can start right away, as long as the work you need them to do is clearly defined.

What about personally, not just work?

We also discussed what you need to remember for yourself personally, outside of work. When the volume of work picks up, what do you need to do?

You need to remember to defend your personal life. That means when you sign off, even if you stayed two hours later, you're off. Don’t go back and do more later. Engage with your kids, your family, your friends, and you’re still taking care of your health. You need to “turn off” and just “be you”.
Andrew shared an exercise that he says has saved marriages is to take a moment to mark your transitions throughout the day. In between each meeting, or before you walk in the door at the end of the day, take several slow deep breaths and then ask yourself “ how do i need to show up as the best [partner, parent, boss, etc] in the history of the universe.” Reflect for a moment, then proceed.
If things are so crazy that you’re buying lunch for everyone to work through, spend the money to buy a GOOD HEALTHY lunch. Don’t take “the easy way” and buy everyone pizza. Pizza or other heavy carbs will kill the productivity of your team. Order good nutritious stuff, with vegetables and proteins and good food
Fitness is going to be super important, all that stress gets released through fitness. Make it your JOB to get your 3 workouts in a week. Even if the only mental bandwidth you have is to just show up to fitness classes, or take an aggressive 30 minute walk, mark your calendar for those and make sure you go.
Sleep! Mark your bedtime on the calendar if you need to. You need your rest if you’re going to operate under these busy times at work.
Drink a lot of water. Dehydration shows itself as tiredness. Especially if you are over fifty.
The Eisenhower Matrix - If there’s too many tasks, for you or your team, visually organizing them on this matrix is really helpful to know where to target your effort. Here’s a Youtube video which helps explain the Eisenhower matrix and how to use it.

Andrew’s Offer

Andrew also offered all followers of the show free access to his “Influence Booster” and a free session to chat with him. I’d encourage you to check it out!

Download: Influence Booster Training and worksheet (Be instantly more influential with your client teams and project stakeholders): https://accelerate.teamlawless.com/the-influencebooster

Video

The Audio/Podcast

About The Creator/Host: I’m Brian. At age 4, I was diagnosed with insulin dependent (type 1) diabetes and told that my life was going to be 10-20 years shorter than everyone else. As a kid I took time for granted, but now as an adult, time is the most precious thing that I have. I created Productivity Gladiator because I saw what a difference it made for employees to improve their productivity, improve their life balance, and live their best life right now, today, not wait until retirement. Thanks for checking out Productivity Gladiator! Time is the currency of your life, spend it wisely.

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