On Purpose with Jay Shetty - 10 Proven Strategies to Boost Productivity & Create a Clear Plan for Achieving Your Goals
Episode Date: August 30, 2024Do you feel unproductive? How can you boost your daily productivity? Today, Jay talks about how to become productive without feeling burned out. In a world where productivity often leads to burnout, J...ay offers practical and transformative strategies to help you achieve more while reducing stress. Whether you're feeling overwhelmed by an endless to-do list or struggling to manage your time effectively, this episode provides the tools you need to reclaim your focus and energy. Jay shares the importance of creating a workspace that fuels productivity and how subtle changes, like scent and sound, can enhance your environment. He also highlights the significance of workplace trust and how identifying whether an issue is people- or system-related can save you time and energy. He wraps up with insights on "monk mode," a method to achieve deep focus in the midst of distractions, and encourages listeners to experiment with these principles to find what works best for them.. In this episode, you'll learn: How to focus on one task at a time for better productivity How to identify key drivers of success How to lean into your momentum for maximum output How to use a 'to start' list instead of a to-do list Tune in to discover how to be productive without compromising your well-being, and walk away with actionable tips that you can implement immediately. With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty What We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 02:29 Burnt Out Already? 04:03 Tip #1: Doing One Thing at a Time 10:10 Tip #2: Clean Your External Space 12:40 Tip #3: Create a To-Start-List 14:17 Tip #4: Give Yourself Positive Validation of Task Completion 18:51 Tip #5: No Email Until 10AM 19:47 Tip #6: Goal of the Day, Goal of the Week 22:03 Tip #7: Know When is Your Most Productive Time 23:41 Tip #8: Create a Space of Workplace Trust 26:21 Tip #9: Focus on What’s Causing Success or Failure 27:42 Tip #10: Lock Into Your TaskSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Something that makes me crazy is when people say,
well, I had this career before, but it was a waste.
And that's where the perspective shift comes,
that it's not a waste that everything you've done
has built you to where you are now.
This is She Pivots, the podcast where we explore
the inspiring pivots women have made
and dig deeper into the personal reasons behind them.
Join me, Emily Tish Sussman, every Wednesday on She Pivots.
Listen to She Pivots on the iHeartRadio app, Get emotional with me, Radhita Vlukya, in my new podcast, A Really Good Cry.
We're going to be talking with some of my best friends.
I didn't know we were going to go there, Amit.
People that I admire.
When we say listen to your body,, really tune into what's going on.
Authors of books that have changed my life.
Now you're talking about sympathy, which is different than empathy.
Right.
Never forget.
It's okay to cry as long as you make it a really good one.
Listen to A Really Good Cry with Rali Devlukia on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
A new season of Bridgerton is here. And with it, a new season of Bridgerton the Official
Podcast. I'm your host, Gabby Collins. And this season, we are bringing fans even deeper
into the ton. Watch season three of the Shondaland series on Netflix. Then fall in love all over
again by listening to Bridgerton the Official Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Subscribe to catch a new episode every Thursday.
Mental health is now talked about more than ever, which is awesome.
I mean, I don't have to tell you that it's a primary focus of on purpose.
But on a day to day basis, many people don't know where to turn
or which tools can help.
Over the past couple of years,
I've been working with Calm
to make mental wellness accessible and enjoyable,
or as I like to say, fun and easy.
Calm has all sorts of content
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So many bite-size options from the most knowledgeable experts in the world,
along with renowned meditation teachers.
You can also check out my 7-minute daily series to help you live more
mindfully each and every day.
Right now, listeners of On Purpose get 40% off a subscription to Calm Premium
at calm.com forward slash J.
That's C-A-L-M dot com forward slash j-a-y
for 40% off.
Calm your mind, change your life.
Sometimes your productivity is hampered
because you're not solving a people issue
and you're trying to solve a task issue.
And sometimes your problem is you're focusing on people
when actually it's a system issue.
So ask yourself, should I solve the system or do I need to solve a relationship?
The number one health and wellness podcast.
Jay Shetty.
Jay Shetty.
The one, the only Jay Shetty.
Hey everyone, welcome back to On Purpose.
I'm so excited to welcome you to a new episode.
It is great to have you here.
If you're focused on developing yourself,
building your mindset, strengthening your habits,
you're in exactly the right place.
I just wanna thank so many of you
that I've bumped into recently.
As I've been out and about,
it means the world to me when you come up
to me and tell me your stories and share your experiences of listening to the podcast. It
really makes my day and I love giving you a big hug, saying hello, fist bumping wherever
we are. And I want to thank you for your reviews. I want to thank you for your stories. I want
to thank you for the clips you make on TikTok. Keep the energy spreading.
Remember when you share an episode of On Purpose,
you could be helping someone else go through a breakup.
You could be helping someone find their passion.
You could be helping someone build a habit that might change their life.
And I'm so grateful that you're a part of this mission and a part of this movement. Now, today's episode is a theme that I think we all struggle with.
If you want to be more productive and less burnt out,
this episode is for you.
If you want to achieve more, if you want to build more,
if you want to create more, if you want to use your time more wisely,
this episode is for you. If you've been wasting
time, if you've been feeling like your priorities keep going to the bottom of the list. If you feel
like even at this point in the year you're so far away from your goals, this episode is for you.
Now I'm going to share with you some tips and tricks that have helped me
along the way to have better time management, have better energy management
and have better stress management in order to be productive but also be
effective. I think for a long time we went down this toxic productivity route
where everyone was stressed, burnt out, overworked, overwhelmed.
And when you end up in that space, it's really hard to pivot.
It's really hard to figure out how to get out of it.
And you almost feel like what was the point of being that productive?
And at the same time, all of us want to create.
We want to build. We're meant to grow as humans.
And if we're not growing, we feel like things are falling apart.
So I want to share with you some really practical steps that you can apply
starting today that are going to transform the way you work, live and love.
Now I want to start off with probably my favorite principle of all that has
transformed my stress levels, my mindset, and it is the
art of solo tasking or mono tasking, doing one thing at a time. I found that when we
do one thing at a time, whether it's eating, whether it's brushing our teeth, whether it's talking to someone,
whether it's browsing the internet, whether it's watching a video. When you do one thing
at a time, your stress level drops. When you do one thing at a time and you're absorbed
and immersed, your quality of effectiveness increases. When you do one thing at a time,
you feel a sense of accomplishment and completion.
This is a really interesting thing in today's day and age.
We live in a world where our lives are constantly incomplete.
We have books that we've read a page of,
a couple of, and they're incomplete.
We have a show that we started that we even forgot about, and then when you go back onto it, you're like, oh my gosh, I actually started
the show. I was on episode two, halfway through, but I forgot I started it. We live in a world
of incompleteness. So much of what we start never ends. Now, I'm not saying that we have to finish
everything we start, but if we focus on one thing at a time, chances are our completion rate is
going to go up. Now, what does that do? The completion rate going up makes you feel more
successful and accomplished. It makes you feel you got to the end of something. It makes
you feel like you got somewhere. You went on a journey. Otherwise, an incomplete journey
is imagine you're like, you know what? Today, I think I'm going to fly to New York. I'm going to actually, you know, halfway on
the fly, I'm going to decide I actually want to go to Atlanta. Okay, when I'm on the way
to Atlanta, right? So that incompleteness is what creates inconsistency, instability
in our lives. And we often don't make that connection of just how incomplete things have become.
How many of you have a task that's been incomplete for three days and you
completely forgot about it?
Or how many of you had a notes on your phone and you were writing some notes
about something you got distracted from a message.
Then someone sent you a TikTok link. And then after that,
someone sent you a YouTube video. And then after that,
someone sent you a link on Amazon and now you
forgot that note. So our incompleteness and this idea of doing one thing at a time allows us to
feel more accomplished, it allows us to close the loop in our minds, it allows us to not have this
constant state of distraction. Now research shows that when one switches from task A to task B,
their 100% attention does not automatically go to the new task.
Some people remain stuck at the original assignment.
This is from the research.
Now it says that this is attention residue and its strongest if
task A was unbounded or low intensity in nature before a person made the switch.
Even if you complete task A before switching, part of your attention will
remain temporarily on task A. So what we're saying is that if you don't
complete task A, if you don't finish task A,
and you move to task B, you could find that 40% of your energy is still trying to solve task A.
And now 60% of your energy is going to task B. Now let's say you go to task C.
You've left 40% behind. Now that 60 gets split up again. You've got 40% in task A, you've got 30% in task B, and you've got 30% in task C.
So you're only giving your leftovers.
You're giving the residue to the next task.
So your attention is getting more split and fragmented.
Whereas what we think happens is, oh, I was giving 100% of my attention to that.
Now I'm just going to move it over.
It doesn't work like that.
So when you have lots of tabs open, when you have your email, your text, your WhatsApp all open on your laptop screen,
and you're able to switch between all of them, it actually creates this challenge.
This research I found from the great book
called Deep Work by Cal Newport.
And in the book it says,
"'The principle of attention residue works like this.
"'Every time you switch from task A to task B,
"'some of your attention remains in task A.
"'Concentrating on the new task is harder,
"'so you lose some productivity when switching tasks.
"'One task at a time, complete the task.
I promise you, you will feel like you have so much more confidence,
so much more assurance. And when it comes to the end of the day,
you're not looking at your list going, that's still incomplete,
that's still incomplete, that's still incomplete,
because the mind always over amplifies how far
you have to go, not how far you've come. Right? Generally. So we have to switch our perspective.
When you're halfway up a mountain, you could either look down and think, wow, I've come a
really long way, or you could look up and go, oh my gosh, I've got so long to go. And what we need
in this mindset is actually, I may have a lot more left to do,
but I completed a lot today. I hope that idea of completion really resonates and sticks
with you because I see the incompleteness in our minds causing so much stress and anxiety.
And that's what happens, right? If something's left incomplete, if something's left undone,
that's what causes you stress. That's what causes you anxiety.
So the reason why doing one thing at a time is important is because you can
complete it. Now, I'm not saying this has to mean you complete every book if you're
bored by it or you complete a TV show if you're bored by it.
It's just interesting how much of our life has become perplexed by incompleteness.
Principle number two, cleaning your external space.
And what does that mean?
I don't mean that everything has to be perfectly tidy.
What I mean is that when you come to your work desk, you have what you need there.
You're not constantly getting back up and down going, oh, I forgot the post-it notes.
Oh, I forgot the highlighters.
Oh, I forgot to download this app. Oh, I didn't really have the latest version of chat GPT,
whatever it is, right? Whether it's analog or digital, it's there. Where's your water
bottle? Is it there? Where's your little snack? Where's your nuts that you need to nibble
on? Now, of course, you can get up and go and get those things and it's good to move
around during the day. But overall, is your space set up for success?
Or is the first thought when you come to your desk,
oh, I hate working here, I hate being here.
The first thing when you get into your bedroom,
oh, it's just too hot in here.
Like set it up for success, right?
So cleaning your external space
can have massive impact on your productivity.
One of the things I think we underestimate is scent, sight and sound.
When you walk into a space, what scent makes you feel that way?
So when I walk into my workspace, I want a candle or a diffuser
that has an energizing scent because I know I need to bring focus.
We don't use the sense of smell enough
in order to motivate our mind.
Use that.
Figure out a diffuser.
Figure out a scent that when you smell it,
you're like, OK, it's time to work.
It's time to focus.
Now a sight.
What's something you want to see?
I have this.
I have some art pieces in my office
that have phrases, reminders.
I have quotes on my table.
I have little quote books that I can just flick through to get motivation.
I'm surrounded by the energy and it's right there so that I can get to it.
I know that if I'm feeling a certain way one day, I can pick up one of my books.
I can pick up one of my affirmation cards.
I can read it out to myself and then sound.
Are you someone who likes to work in silence,
chatter or music? A lot of us don't even know that. We don't have the self-awareness to recognise it.
I'm a silence worker or I'm an instrumental music worker. I like lots of instrumental beats. I'm
happy to have them on in the background. It gets me to lock in or I like silence. I really don't like working when there's
chatter or background conversation and
background noise.
It doesn't work for me.
So figure out yours.
Number three, don't have a to do list,
but have a to start list.
And what I mean by that is a to do list
is a list of everything that you need to do.
A start list is like, well, where's the most important place to start? Right? So when we
have a to-do list, like for example, I could have on my to-do list, write a chapter of my book.
Now that's quite a big thing on my to-do list, but how what's my to start list? Okay to start write out what I think the chapter breakdown is gonna be right? Let's say on your to-do list
It says to complete a presentation. Okay, but to start what do you need to read?
So your start list almost makes it so easy for you that you just lock in
Rather than you look at the item on your to-do list now
This takes an extra step when you're planning when When you're planning, you may have to sit down
and think to yourself, okay, I have this to-do list,
okay, what do I need to start?
So it's an extra step in advance.
But then when you wake up and you look at your to-start list,
you know exactly what to get locked into.
I think this has been a game changer for me
because so often you look at your to-do list and maybe a to-do list is
Work on that, you know
Got to finish off that project for work or maybe the to-do list is obviously for simple things like laundry or whatever that that's different
I'm talking about things that
You've kind of been putting off for a while things that get stuck on that to-do list for too long things that are always there
almost it feels like.
Have a to-start list, not a to-do list.
Get emotional with me, Radhita Vlukya, in my new podcast, A Really Good Cry.
We're going to talk about and go through all the things that are sometimes difficult to process
alone. We're going to go over how to regulate your emotions, diving deep into holistic personal
development and just building your mindset
to have a happier, healthier life.
We're going to be talking with some of my best friends.
I didn't know we were going to go there, Amir.
I know, don't let me get this to you.
People that I admire.
When we say listen to your body,
really tune in to what's going on.
Authors of books that have changed my life.
Now you're talking about sympathy,
which is different than empathy, right?
And basically have conversations that can help us get through this crazy thing we my life. Now you're talking about sympathy, which is different than empathy, right? And basically have conversations that can help us get through
this crazy thing we call life.
I already believe in myself.
I already see myself.
And so when people give me an opportunity,
I'm just like, oh, great, you see me too.
We'll laugh together, we'll cry together
and find a way through all of our emotions.
Never forget, it's okay to cry
as long as you make it a really good one.
Listen to A Really Good Cry with Rali
Devlukia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Something that makes me crazy is when people say, well, I had this career before, but it was a
waste. And that's where the perspective shift comes, that it's not a waste that everything you've done has built you to where you are now.
This is She Pivots, the podcast where we explore the inspiring pivots women have made and dig
deeper into the personal reasons behind them. Join me, Emily Tish Sussman, every Wednesday on
She Pivots as I sit down with inspiring women like Misty Copeland,
Brooke Shields, Vanessa Hudgens, and so many more.
We dive into how these women made their pivot
and their mindset shifts that happened as a result.
It's a podcast about women, their stories,
and how their pivot became their success.
Listen to She Pivots on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
When the Taliban banned music in Afghanistan,
millions were plunged into silence.
Radios were smashed, cassettes burned.
You could be beaten or jailed or killed
for breaking the rules.
And yet Afghans did it anyway.
This is the story of how a group of people
brought music back to Afghanistan
by creating their own version of American Idol.
The danger they endured.
They said my head should be cut off.
The joy they brought to the nation.
You're free completely. No one is there to destroy you.
I'm John Legend. Listen to Afghan Star on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
This next one applies to that as well.
How many of you on your to-do list cross things off? How many of you will put a cross
next to it or put a line through it? Now this is really simple and you may be like Jay that's
not going to work. I believe it all works and I'll tell you why. It's because you're constantly in
communication with yourself and our body and mind picks up on subtle cues very strongly.
There are subtle things in society that have been so hardwired.
For example, if you see a cross
next to something,
you generally think it's wrong from school.
If you see a cross next to something,
it generally means don't enter,
do not go here.
Caution, right?
That is a symbol.
It's an emblem for something.
Now, you may not process that logically.
You can differentiate
between a cross on your to-do list
and a cross at a traffic signal or a sign,
or when they have those train crossings.
You can tell the difference logically,
but subtly, when you're not processing it that intentionally,
you're getting a negative impact.
So what I want you to do is swap your crosses for ticks.
Put a big tick, put a color tick, put a green tick.
Seeing color, seeing a certain symbol color
gives us a certain emotion
and we devalue how much these things work.
We undervalue how powerful these things can be, right?
We just think, oh yeah, it's just, you know,
this is just pseudo stuff.
It's like, yeah, sure. Maybe, maybe there isn't something massively scientific about it, but the
idea that you're learning to give yourself positive affirmation, a positive validation of
completion, a positive sense of self, I think it will make a big difference. One of the most well-known tools,
which I only recently realized I was lucky to learn
when I was very young, and just how many people
never actually got exposed to it when they were young.
And I wanted to share it with you.
And if you know it, that's great.
If you don't know it, then I really hope
that this changes the way you work.
It's called the Eisenhower Matrix or the Eisenhower Box.
And Eisenhower's strategy for taking action
was organizing the inbound of a task.
So on your to-do list or a task that comes through,
there are four ways of defining them according to Eisenhower.
The four ways are either urgent and important.
These are things that you will do immediately.
There's important but not urgent.
This is stuff that you'll have to schedule to do at another time.
Then there's urgent but not important.
This is ideally something that someone else can
do. It may require you to do it but not with the same amount of intentionality
and focus. And fourth, neither urgent nor important. And these are tasks that you
actually want to get rid of. Now when you start doing this, and I want you
to do this, and again it's almost like you'll think well why do I do that?
Why don't I just get on with the task? Because you might find you to do this. And again, it's it's almost like you'll think, well, why do I do that? Why don't I just get on with the task?
Because you might find when you do this for the first time,
a lot of the tasks that you're spending time on
maybe neither urgent nor important.
I analyze every one of my meetings at work this way.
We often go around the team meeting and my team will be filling me in on things.
And I'm asking myself,
how much of this was urgent and how much of this was important and how much of
it required me. And so ask yourself, is this urgent and important?
Let me do it immediately because often what we do is we trade what is
important for what is urgent.
And I think that's one of the biggest misses
in productivity and time management.
We get a request that's urgent for someone else.
That's another thing.
Not only is it not important for you,
it's not urgent for you, it's urgent for someone else,
and we drop what we're doing.
And being able to say,
hey, I'm gonna get back to you in five minutes,
I've just got to finish something off. Hey, I've been working on that.
What time do you need it by? Right. When do you need it by?
And in what condition are you looking for? We're looking for it to be like,
are you looking for it to be complete? I think these qualifying questions help you
to plan it out, help you to factor it out. One of the big ones of this, this is the next principle,
but this applies to the next principle very strongly.
No email until 10 a.m.
A lot of us, we get to work and the first thing we do,
and I remember I used to do this as well,
was I used to open my email.
You're starting your day off with a few things.
First of all, it's reactive.
You haven't started proactively
on what you need to focus on. You start reactively with what everyone else wants to focus on. Therefore,
it's urgent to someone else, even if it's not urgent and important to you. And thirdly,
you get distracted down a rabbit hole and you focus on things that you don't even know are of
value to what you're trying to do. Set a time, no email for the first 30 minutes of the day,
no email for the first hour when I get into work,
I'm gonna focus on my project,
so I'm gonna focus on what I need to deliver,
I'm gonna focus on what I need to build.
That's how you wanna plan your day out, right?
That's how you wanna focus.
One of the next productivity tips
that's made a big difference in my life
is something I called goal of the day and goal of the week.
I knew the goal of my day today was to script,
research and record two incredible solo episodes.
This is one of them, right?
That was my goal of the day
because I'm traveling for the rest of the day today.
I'm flying to London.
And so my goal of the day is to get to London safely
and do that and that's it.
I have a lunch in between for work. And that's my goal. My goal is simple. It's the podcast. It's the solos.
It's being present with all of you. That's the goal of the day. No matter what happens, I have
won if this goes well. I think what we often do is we have 10 goals of the day. We have 10 goals
of each day. And it's almost impossible. Now, this doesn't
mean you don't do more tasks. I've done more tasks today. I haven't had the luxury of only doing two
episodes. I've got a lot of other tasks to do today, but I'm very clearly in my mind saying to
myself, this is the win, because what happens is that every day will feel like a loss when you look at it and you look
I didn't get six out of ten things done but maybe you got two of the most important things done
in those four things you got done. We don't properly weigh things for what their value truly is.
We overvalue something and we undervalue something else or we give everything the same value and no tasks like to me recording my solos today and doing a
bit of housekeeping they're not of the same value to my work they're not of the
same value to my life they are of different value and so the goal of the
day has to be based around what you value today some days the goal of the
day will be to get the dishes done tonight days, the goal of the day will be to get the dishes done tonight.
Some day, the goal of the day will be
to get the laundry done, and that's totally fine.
But know your value.
Set a goal of the day and set a goal of the week
and pursue that.
Don't pursue this endless feeling of,
I just wanna check everything off my list.
I just need to get everything done.
Because you could get everything done
and 10 more things are going to appear.
But if you've done the big things,
if you've done the big goals,
goal of the day, the goal of the week,
you're going to feel a sense of accomplishment.
The next principle is know your best time to be productive
and put the most important activity at that time.
This is another self awareness tip.
If you know when you're most powerful, lean into that.
I know that I might my best energy in the morning.
I'm far better all the way up until one or 2 PM.
That is my golden time. That is my most impactful time.
So I'm going to place one of my most important activities in that 9am to 1 to 2pm slot. Then other things I'm going to add later on in
the day. What I find is a lot of us will find our best stuff, we're doing it at the hardest
times. So many of us are trying to do our best work at the worst time during the day
for us. So get a sense of it. Observe yourself, audit yourself over the next week and ask yourself,
what time of day was I most productive?
What tasks do I find easiest?
What builds my confidence?
Am I better when I start with the hardest thing at the beginning of the day or
the easiest thing at the start of the day?
Know your best time and schedule accordingly.
And this applies to the next rule, which is lean into beast mode.
You have to follow momentum.
Sometimes I'm on a streak where I'm just writing and it's really flowing.
And I realized to myself, that's the wind of the day.
I'm going to switch some of my tasks and focus on that.
Sometimes I'm in a recording mode and I can tell I've really locked in and I'm like, all
right, let me just lean into this.
Right. And I think a lot of us don't follow our momentum.
We don't follow that desire and energy when it's flowing, it's flowing.
Go with it and lean into it.
Now, if you work in a workplace with other people, the biggest blocker to productivity,
people think is chatter or noise.
And that is there.
There's some truth in that because one of the principles that I'll talk
about later actually refers to that. But the one I want to talk about right now is actually one of
the biggest causes of inefficiency at work is a lack of trust. When people have a lack of trust,
you have to ask them three times for that document. When people have a lack of trust,
You have to ask them three times for that document.
When people have a lack of trust, you have to navigate a meeting so carefully that you're de-energized after the meeting.
When people have a lack of trust and chemistry,
there's likelihood of being more conflict or competitiveness.
We have to try in our workplaces to create a space of workplace trust.
And what that is, is to make sure people
don't feel intimidated and you don't feel intimidated.
And I know this is so hard because sadly,
you're around people who have their ego up,
their barrier up, their boundary up,
you've kind of got into the same place now.
So what do you do?
And I've been there before as well.
I remember being in workplaces where I really felt that it was backs up against the wall and I really didn't
feel like people were warm, right? Not just to me, to each other. Sometimes people were warm to me
and not to other people and that made me uncomfortable. So what do you do? I can honestly say that
leading with integrity, leading with respect, leading with your best self,
communicating effectively, always going higher
no matter how hard it is,
will ultimately win the trust of the right people.
It's always better.
Don't get stuck in office politics,
don't get brought down by it,
don't get trapped by it, don't get ruined by it.
And the way you do that is by constantly engaging
with on purpose, you know, reading books that inspire you,
being around people maybe outside of work
or people at work who do move you and motivate you.
But recognize that sometimes you're trying to solve tasks
and everything else, but it's a people issue.
Know what's a people issue and know what's a task issue.
This is a huge rule for productivity.
Sometimes your productivity is hampered
because you're not solving a people issue
and you're trying to solve a task issue.
And sometimes your problem is you're focusing on people
when actually it's a system issue.
So ask yourself, should I solve the system
or do I need to solve a relationship
and figure that out? And that will save you so much time, money and energy. I've only got a
couple more that I want to share with you. This next one is called the Pareto principle.
And it's a concept that's based on this idea that 80% of your business success is actually based on 20%
of business, right? So it's almost like saying that 80% of your revenue is based on 20% of
your clients. 80% of your success is based on the 20% of people you actually know at
work, not the other way around. What we often do is we often get lost focusing on the 20% of people you actually know at work, not the other way around.
What we often do is we often get lost focusing on the 80% as opposed to the 20%.
In essence, we don't focus on the root of our success and failure, we get distracted.
And so it's a reminder that figure out what is really causing success or failure and focus on that. So ask yourself what is your
20%? Here are four questions I want you to reflect on. Number one, what is your 20%? What is the thing
that actually drives the 80%? Then what's your 80%? What are you focused on 80% of the time
and is it really leading to anything? Third question, where are you spending your time? And
fourth, how can you re-prioritize?
How can you recognize that you want to focus on the 20% that is life changing,
that is building and not get lost in the 80%?
Now, the last method I want to share with you is monk mode.
I remember so much of our meditation training during my time as a monk was about
finding that silence and that stillness and going inward.
And in the workspace, this monk mode is this idea that
how can you find that feeling of being locked in?
How can you find that feeling of being so focused
that you're not distracted by everything else around you.
And research shows that in-person conversations
ranked as the top source of distraction at work, 47 percent,
followed by phone calls, 20 percent, and chat platforms, 15 percent.
One of my team members does this, and I see it work wonders for her when we're all chatting away.
She wears headphones, right?
She wears headphones and they're noise canceling
and she's locked in doing her work
and I see the amount of focus she has
and how productive she is because of that.
And I see a couple of my team members actually doing this.
And so I recommend it.
If you're struggling to disconnect,
it's great to have them on.
It's not rude, it's not antisocial.
You can always join into conversations
and people actually admire it
because people can see how locked in you are.
So I wanna know which principles you're gonna test,
which ones you're gonna try.
I hope that this helps you be more productive and effective
and also lowers your stress levels.
And I'm sending you so much love and positive energy.
Remember, I'm always in your corner
and I'm forever rooting for you.
Thanks for listening On Purpose.
I'll see you soon.
Thank you so much for listening to this conversation.
If you enjoyed it, you'll love my chat with Adam Grant
on why discomfort is the key to growth
and the strategies for unlocking your hidden potential.
If you know you wanna be more and achieve more this year, go check it out right now.
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