Time Blocking - Regain Your Value

00:00:00:06 - 00:00:31:06
Unknown
Welcome to MY Thought Partner. We are here talking about time blocking. It's one of my favorite subjects. I don’t know about if it's your favorite subject or not. No, I hate it, but it's okay. We'll talk about it. Yeah, That’s what we’ll do. I'm Michael David Davis. I'm Nicole Davis. And let's get to it. Okay yeah, time blocking. So, listen, I feel like you can go on your high horse about it, right?

00:00:31:06 - 00:00:48:19
Unknown
Your your soapbox, your pedestal. You love time blocking. You tell everyone who will listen about time blocking. Like, why do you love it? Some love it. Yeah, I love it because it gives me back my time. Okay? My time is money. It's more valuable than anything else. Because you know what? You can't get back time, but you can make a lot more money.

00:00:49:04 - 00:01:09:12
Unknown
So the way I look at it is that if I don't have control of what's happening around me, then in essence people are robbing me. It sounds silly, but that's what it feels like. It's like people are taking out of my pocket any time that I don't have something set aside. Sure. So like when you ask me to do something around the house, I feel like I'm losing money.

00:01:09:12 - 00:01:32:08
Unknown
Yeah, No, I get that vibe. Yeah. I don't feel like I have, like, time blocked housekeeping or a house cleaning sometimes. So that's missing out on, you know, planning or events of that nature. Right. So, I mean, maybe talk a little bit about how you actually go about time blocking and how you find that to be an effective way to manage your time.

00:01:32:08 - 00:01:49:01
Unknown
Yeah. What do you actually do? I do like it sounds simple and it is simple. It's the the challenge that I think I have and a lot of people have is that sitting down and doing it right, it's like finding the time to time. Like, Yeah, but I think like we're kind of talking around it like, what is it?

00:01:49:03 - 00:02:17:14
Unknown
Yeah, it's, it's taking chunks of time and actually blocking them out from your calendar and doing it without distractions and making sure that when you're doing it, not only are you not distracted, but you're only focusing on that moment at hand. So, for instance, for me, what I like to do is that, you know, I like to start later on in the day because I do a lot of my thinking and I do a lot of my, like planning and brainstorming early in the mornings.

00:02:17:15 - 00:02:42:07
Unknown
And so that might look like from 630 to 730. That is a specific time that is on my calendar that is not available to anyone else. Not that many people are doing business at that hour, but even with you, I'm hoping like, hey, I want to have that time dedicated to just ideas and brainstorming of what might happen throughout that day or later in the week or maybe in the month.

00:02:43:00 - 00:03:04:08
Unknown
And then that will progress into like my work day, which is then maybe 8:00, 9:00? Yeah, that's when I'm okay. So now I'm going to focus on and look at my emails, and that's the only time I'm looking at my emails. And when I'm doing that, I'm not looking at emails on my phone. I'm really looking at them on my laptop or desktop, whichever.

00:03:04:14 - 00:03:24:19
Unknown
And as I'm doing that, then I'm really responding, I'm prioritizing those emails and as I'm prioritizing those emails, so I might star them to look at them later, I actually will also snooze emails. So if I get an email in my inbox, I feel like you are going to another zone right now. Yeah, it's it's great. It feels so good.

00:03:25:20 - 00:03:48:11
Unknown
But time blocking. Yeah. Okay. So. So you're saying that from like 8 to 9:00 you have a spot on your calendar that says, I am checking in, prioritizing email? Yeah. And let's really make it realistic, like eight, 830. Okay. Yeah. So I say 8 to 9 to keep it simple. But you know, we can like you said, I will get really minute about it.

00:03:48:11 - 00:04:19:02
Unknown
So that 8 to 9 is really about my responses that need to happen. Maybe that is something on social, maybe that is something on LinkedIn, maybe that is something I just like how sleep housekeeping or like tidying up before you start your day, Right? Right. Yeah. So if any of those dust bunnies that have snuck into the underneath the dresser overnight, then yeah, I'm I'm organizing those dust bunnies into the dustbin and determining if I'm getting rid of them, putting them in recycling, or they are going to vacuum or are you not, and then that will progress further on.

00:04:19:02 - 00:04:44:21
Unknown
So then that will turn into, like, meetings. So the meetings I might have from like 9 to 11, and that might be for meetings that half hour lengths, that might be one hour. Yeah. So but can I ask the question because so here's where I get squirrely with time blocking, right? Is that I feel that when I time block, I inevitably, inevitably then have to move it somewhere else, right?

00:04:44:21 - 00:05:03:06
Unknown
Because I have a client that calls and says, Hey, can I meet with you from 1015 to 11? And if I already have that blocked off, I just feel like I'm doing a lot of like calendar manipulation. Sure, I like the idea of it. It's just the actual execution gets weird for me. Yeah. So can you. Yeah, well, you're.

00:05:03:12 - 00:05:24:05
Unknown
You're like, my favorite. She's my worst. She's my lovely. My life. The love of my life is worse client. I like you, but you bring up a very valid point because that's my first. I love that conversation with our clients because it's, it's one of those things where there's a whole point in time blocking it so that you don't have to manipulate things.

00:05:24:05 - 00:05:51:08
Unknown
Because if you think about life when you're not time blocking, you're typically juggling everything. And when you're juggling things, it is that instance like, Oh, I am checking my emails and all of a sudden now I am getting a phone call from a client who needs something urgently, or you have your boss or somebody that's demanding your time, which because you have this appearance of an open schedule, you will shift and prioritize in your brain, Oh, I can do this now.

00:05:51:14 - 00:06:20:09
Unknown
Right? And so what happens is, as we tend to say, we can do it now. All the time. Yeah. And while that list is getting longer and now you don't know how much time you can allot those tasks, right. Yeah. So I think that brings up another good point, right? Is that, you know, something else that or a reason that I am resistant, maybe it will say to time blocking is that it's not always that easy for me to estimate how long things are going to take me to do.

00:06:20:09 - 00:06:38:09
Unknown
Right. So I think maybe my version can I offer up a different version, please? Yeah. So I think my version of time blocking is I use a Google calendar and so it's using tasks on my calendar instead. And so I add all of my tasks on there and I put them right on the calendar. You can have like the cute little list on the side.

00:06:38:09 - 00:06:59:18
Unknown
I'm not into that because I can't see it all the time, right? So I'll put my tasks on my calendar and I assign them to a time, but it's always just like a task. It's not taking up 30 minutes or an hour or whatever. And so that way for me, at the end of the day, I can see like everything is kind of crossed off and checked off or what have you.

00:06:59:18 - 00:07:20:06
Unknown
And so I know that I got those things done. Yeah, but I guess they don't feel as compelled to get them done in that specific time. And that also allows me to kind of move things around and reprioritize them. Right. Based on what I really want to get done. What you need to get done. Yeah. So let me ask you this challenge, right?

00:07:20:06 - 00:07:37:17
Unknown
So so we have the MDD and the NRD way of doing things right, Like I am the human that is actually you are the MDD., I'm the MDD. You are. They need to give the NRD of this environment. And you know, I'm just the MDSsquared. So like, I'm the rule breaker. You're the rule follower. Oh, yeah. Hands down.

00:07:37:17 - 00:07:55:17
Unknown
Right? Totally. If it can be broken, I'm going to break it. She is going to make sure that no, I'm going to make the system and we're going to follow that. Right? Right. Yeah. So knowing that about you like to follow those systems. Mm hmm. How is it easier for you to create tasks? Because, dude, because. Okay, like, if I.

00:07:55:18 - 00:08:15:06
Unknown
Because I like a system, I like a schedule, I like the rules. I like everything to, like, fit into a nice little box. If I can't get it done during that time, right, then it like, crushes my little like worker bee soul. Yeah, but you just said if you can't get them done that time. So if you're not time blocking, how do you know.

00:08:15:13 - 00:08:33:05
Unknown
No, that's what I'm saying, is that if I tell you can't prevent yourself from being set up for failure. Okay, exactly. So, like, if I time block myself. 930 to 1030 and let's be real, like if I have a client who's like, you know, lady, this is on fire. Yeah. I'm not going to be like, you know, I don't know, grab a bucket.

00:08:33:12 - 00:08:49:15
Unknown
You know, I'm not going to do that or turn on the guard. She does talk to clients much later and I'm like, If it's 10:00 at night, it's not unknown for her to send out those emails to make sure people are soothed and satisfied. I am not that person. I'm like, If it's that urgent, then it shouldn't have been waiting until this late at night.

00:08:49:15 - 00:09:10:03
Unknown
I will take care of it, but I don't have it. I don't do well with boundaries. So. But which is a good point, because that's time blocking, is that right? It is setting boundaries so that people can respect the time that you do have. Yeah, right. But I don't think it's that people don't respect my time. It's I mean you don't respect your own time.

00:09:10:03 - 00:09:31:09
Unknown
I don’t think that’s true either. But I think it's just if I say to myself, I'm going to get these things done from 930 to 1030, and then for some reason something comes up that I, I cannot get those things done because my client is my priority, right? I want to make sure that they have what they need.

00:09:31:16 - 00:09:49:15
Unknown
If they can't get to their learners, if they can't forward something to their own clients and take care of the business that they're operating, that messes with me. So, you know, then on top of that to be like, Well, I can't talk to you, but I made a commitment to myself that I was going to Yeah, I don't know.

00:09:49:15 - 00:10:08:00
Unknown
It just like messes with my head. I mean, it's a very strong and valid point. But going back to that concept again when you're blocking it off, so it sounds let's say you have you know, you mentioned that you have a challenge. You're not good at estimating the time of how long something might take you. So then you can really generalize time blocking.

00:10:08:00 - 00:10:29:19
Unknown
So you can look at the calendar and time block it and say that maybe for 2 hours you are dedicating that to client troubleshooting no matter what. Right. So because again, I imagine if I had five or seven, even three clients want me at the same exact time, they have the same urgent issue in their world because, you know, they're up there apart from each other.

00:10:29:19 - 00:10:59:07
Unknown
Yeah, but in their world, it's it's urgent now, right? I can't. I can't both satisfy all those clients at the same time. Yeah. And yet also be mentally refreshed and prepared and have done the research I need so that I can answer those questions or needs a time. So then I would dedicate a time frame. Now, a part of this time blocking is you really do need to set the expectations with people.

00:10:59:07 - 00:11:19:21
Unknown
And so because if you're going to say, I think it doesn't work, otherwise it doesn't work otherwise. That's right. Yeah. Because if you don't say, All right, so I'm in, I'm going to client or friend or family member or colleague, whomever, I'm going to be available from 11 to 2. They don't really need to know the reason why you're available, but you're going to just say, I'm available to you.

00:11:19:23 - 00:11:41:02
Unknown
Yeah. And then that makes them. You don't have to say, Hey, I'm only available for fixing your problems from 11 to 2. Right? That sounds like what does that about it just want like, I'm available, but go ahead. Yeah, please. It's always something. Yeah, so. But maybe so. Maybe. Yeah, I just do alterna-time blocking and I didn't tell me more.

00:11:41:02 - 00:12:01:06
Unknown
Well, yeah, well, I mean, I'm obsessed with Calendly right? Right. And so for me, I just send my 30 minute Calendly link out to all my clients and say, you know, grab time with me. And so casually kind of I mean, I know we're not like plugging. Perhaps we're not sponsored, but it's a great tool and we'll tell you all about different tools to that.

00:12:01:06 - 00:12:18:11
Unknown
Yeah, I'm using yeah, but I mean, you know, you can set your parameters there, right? So you can't book with me within the next hour. Right? Right. It has to be at least an hour buffer before you can book me so I can wrap up whatever I'm working on. They can kind of see the time that I have available.

00:12:18:11 - 00:12:54:01
Unknown
Right. So maybe, maybe I'm time blocking and I didn't even know or I'm not really I'm not. I'm like, you're hitting it on the head. Anti time blocking. I think the resistance for time blocking is for is people they're saying that I, I you're you're you're way more valid point than me saying like I'm going to be militaristick about this and I'm going to say that this is what it is now there is that flexibility, but I have the ability to look at my calendar weeks out in advance ago I know I had the flexibility on Tuesday at this time or Friday at this time, because there is chunks of time saved for that

00:12:54:01 - 00:13:10:21
Unknown
where if I'm looking at my calendar and all I'm seeing are meeting invites from different clients or different needs, but I don't know what I'm going to do for like planning because, look, we have to plan different activities, right? Right. I have to believe at that time, self care, there's all kinds of things that are around in there.

00:13:10:21 - 00:13:27:23
Unknown
And if I look at my calendar, I'm like, Oh, I've got this, you know, four, 4 to 5:00 open. Yeah. Then I go and book it. And that might have been, you know, an unconscious part of my mind that was set for me to actually go take a walk or something to recalibrate. Now I'm just robbed myself of that, right?

00:13:28:04 - 00:13:49:05
Unknown
I got it. But I think I think a lot of us are already doing that time blocking, right. But we're doing it on an unconscious level, which then I think also leads into everyone's frustration because in my mind, I thought I was going to go have a snack at 3:00 after I got done with this client phone call or this meeting and then 3:00 happens.

00:13:49:12 - 00:14:10:22
Unknown
You have said, we got to meet with somebody at 3:00, then just call about something urgent. And right now I'm pissed. Now I am hungry, right? You're not kidding. You robbed me of my time. Yeah, but because we are clients serving or because we are people that want to make sure others are taken care of. Yeah, right. And I think the majority of people in any environment are like that.

00:14:11:12 - 00:14:28:01
Unknown
Yeah, we'll do it. And so what happens is you do that again and now and then you just, like, build up that big wall of resentment within yourself. Yeah, I got it, I got it. And then you're let down, right? At end of the day, you're tired, you're more fatigued, you're exhausted. So really, who you hurting if you're not doing some for a time?

00:14:28:01 - 00:14:47:15
Unknown
Blocking, right? Yeah. I mean look, I think as with most things in life, it's about balance. And so I don't think you can, you know, personal opinion. I don't think you can wholly be in the camp of time blocking. And I'm like sticking to my time blocks and that's it. Just like you also can't be like, you know, wild and free with your calendar.

00:14:47:15 - 00:15:06:13
Unknown
Also, there has to be some sort of happy medium in there that really works for you. And so I think we have like exhausted this topic. I mean, maybe not. I know you could talk about so many things like it, but but I think the other thing that we want to talk about so we want to talk about kind of like prioritization, but also a realistic goal setting.

00:15:06:13 - 00:15:25:12
Unknown
And so thinking about kind of like how do you set some of those goals for yourself, whether that is related to how you prioritize things in your day and how you set some of those goals for yourself during the week or over the coming month, quarter, year, what have you? Yeah, So you know, what are some of your thoughts on that goal setting?

00:15:25:20 - 00:15:45:05
Unknown
Let's go back to your task. Right. You mentioned that how you like to set task for your day. So for me, when I look at that concept or idea what I used to, we use different apps all kinds of tools that are out there. I, I will tell you what helps me operate in a block of time is setting time to do those tasks right, to sweep those dust bunnies or determine how I'm going to vacuum.

00:15:45:05 - 00:16:05:17
Unknown
I know we all know you love time. Like we got it. Hold. I look, I'm going to look. This is going to work. It's going to it's going to tie in with you. So like when I'm looking at my task, right, And I will create this list. And I see that when I'm looking at that task to prioritize those things, I'm now going, all right, what is today's immediate task that I need to get done?

00:16:05:17 - 00:16:23:09
Unknown
Yeah, jampacked, right? If it's deadline driven, that's obviously going to be the priority. If it is something that needs to be done by the end of the day. Right. I can hopefully look at that task and assume this might take me 30 minutes. It takes me an hour. Yeah. And I can know where to put that in my day.

00:16:24:03 - 00:16:38:17
Unknown
I can also look at that and go, Does this need to be done at the end of the week? Is it something I need to do at the end of the month or is it something that needs to be done at a quarter? So based on that task list My whole principle that when I create a task list is to only create a task.

00:16:38:18 - 00:16:56:14
Unknown
So I'm in a complete for the day. And the reason being, it doesn't mean that you need to complete all that task first. Yeah, yeah, at the end of the day. But it's because, like, you want that sense of accomplishment, right? You want that reward given that you are actually completing and fulfilling an entire day's worth of work.

00:16:56:14 - 00:17:15:04
Unknown
So I have five things on a ten task list. Five of those things are I've got to get done today that stays on my task. Those other five things, I'm going to move them to where okay, needs to be done at the end of the week. It's Monday, by the way. I'm a monday person. We can talk about that another time like Monday.com because I want to talk about that.

00:17:15:04 - 00:17:31:15
Unknown
Oh, yeah. That's way it works. It's not that way. But then, okay, I can put those and shift them over to Tuesday. Right. So it's going back to the same concept of when I see certain emails, I will snooze them. I won't respond. Now, let me tell you right, I will always respond to an email within 24 hours.

00:17:32:06 - 00:17:45:10
Unknown
I will. But if it I will say, Hey, I'm going to get I'm going to let me look into this. Let me dive a little deeper, but I will put that as a snooze in my email box, especially if you have Gmail. That will then remind me the next day in the morning so that I have to go to that.

00:17:45:10 - 00:18:05:01
Unknown
That becomes a priority. But yeah, that is a nice feature I actually didn't even know about that. You shoot me now. So. So the goal though for me and what I try to get people to understand is that you want to create tasks that are completion. You're able to complete them in the day, right? You want to feel like you have done something fulfilling so that when you're done, like how good does it feel when you get to go?

00:18:05:05 - 00:18:32:01
Unknown
I completed I completed everything, yet it doesn't mean that you're neglecting the other things. You're just putting that priority like you're talking about. Okay, so when you talk about prioritizing things though, are you just prioritizing based off of deadline or based off of, you know, you had mentioned like where things fall in the week or where they fall in the month, Like what kind of internal checklist are you using to help you kind of rank those things that you're going to complete that day?

00:18:32:03 - 00:18:55:12
Unknown
This is a great question because I think it goes back into like the whole my ideas and brainstorming in the morning. You know, there's always this internal mindset of a clock. A lot of the priorities is based upon where you are in your life, right? And so if you have somebody that is a leader or you have a manager or you have some sort of boss that's breathing down your neck, obviously you're trying to prioritize what's going to get them off of you, right?

00:18:55:12 - 00:19:30:08
Unknown
Like, yeah, how do I keep this person from annoying me or bother me, whether that's a persistent client or whether that is somebody that is a spouse. I mean, you name it where it is. And he's like, Yes, fair enough. Yeah. Do you think check that out for me. But it's I think that priority you have to look internally and say, what does matter to me and how does it impact me, not how it impacts somebody else, but how it impacts me and that me, part of that being it will impact me if that client's not happy because they're going to continually come back to me, right?

00:19:30:08 - 00:19:53:11
Unknown
Or it's going to impact me because my boss is going to keep bothering me. They're going to they went from emails, now they're texting now they're calling me, right. And I can't stop. So that's kind of how I shift that priority, not just deadline, but how it's going to affect my ability to enjoy breathing calmly while someone else's not interferring.

00:19:53:18 - 00:20:21:08
Unknown
So I think maybe another way of looking at it, I also think about how those tasks impact me and kind of my happiness or my feeling of success. But I also look at my energy level throughout the day and when do I need to crank certain things out. And a lot of times we'll end up really trying to tackle the things in a lot of brain power earlier in the day.

00:20:21:11 - 00:20:45:03
Unknown
Yeah, because I am a morning person, like I am not pleasant to be around in the morning because I'm so pleasant in the morning. And I think we're very similar in that energy, like we live those morning times and just dive in because of the things like task or and things done. Yeah. And so for me, you know trying to write a proposal at four in the afternoon is not going to happen.

00:20:45:03 - 00:21:09:14
Unknown
It's just not going to be a good product. I'm going to dread it. And so I really try to just, you know, shove as much of that stuff that is tough for me early in the day and then give myself a reward. And, you know, my rewards probably don't look like everyone else's, but my reward is like, you know, building out some sort of Excel template or like, you know, digging deeper into some data around something.

00:21:09:14 - 00:21:30:01
Unknown
Because for me, that for me, yeah, that kind of stuff feels more like soothing or it's more interesting to me to, like, dig into data rather than produce a proposal or, you know, write a grant application or something like that. Yeah. So that's, that's kind of how I will prioritize some of those things. I do. I do maybe some already.

00:21:30:01 - 00:21:54:03
Unknown
You start at the deadline and then kind of look, okay, so working from that deadline, when does it absolutely have to be done and then when do I need to plug that in during my day to make sure that I can really give it my best attention? Well, and I think and I think you made a perfect example of that again, when we're saying the prioritization part of it and I'm focusing on that, it's got to be about you or like how I look at it.

00:21:54:03 - 00:22:09:21
Unknown
I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head. You have to trust yourself to know when you are most efficient in your day, right? So whether you are somebody who works on a day in a corporate level or somebody that works on a third shift, that you may be, you know, maybe you're in the emergency care or in a hospital system, right?

00:22:09:21 - 00:22:39:08
Unknown
And you're working 24 hour shifts and those types of things. So you you know, those types of environments. You're a pilot, right? There's a very systematic way that, you know, when you're taking the most beneficial part of your energy, but that's something that you have to identify, right? So I think that if you know that you're more productive, like we're the kind of people who are productive during the day, but if you're more productive in the afternoon, then that that schedule might flip differently for you than it does us.

00:22:39:08 - 00:22:58:13
Unknown
Yeah, right. And what's interesting is you kind of will find those people that you work with as well. It may be a little tough, honestly, for us sometimes because we are both high energy during those same times and so we both want to get our own stuff done during that time, which makes it hard for us to collaborate.

00:22:58:15 - 00:23:21:12
Unknown
Yeah, that's right. Sure. Like, no, I have to crank this thing out. You're like, I am trying to crank this thing out. You know, what's interesting for me is that a lot of times in my professional career, I've actually found myself working really closely with people who are night owls. And so I will crank something out in the morning and then kind of like, tag them in and they'll work on it at 11:00 at night and then it's ready for me in the morning and then I can tag back in.

00:23:21:18 - 00:23:54:21
Unknown
And so that's really nice when you find those people who do kind of have that opposite energy pattern for me, Yeah, we just don't happen to be those those those people. So I think I think the nice thing is that it's it is a you know, you hit it right on the head and I think that is you're finding the people so you're not only trusting yourself, but then you're also finding the people that you can almost adopt them into your time blocking system or your prioritization system because you it's I think it's impossible to do it alone.

00:23:55:01 - 00:24:23:04
Unknown
But in order to do it more efficiently alone, you have to have full control of your availability. Right? And so if my availability is and our availability is competing based on our priorities of what we have due to our respective industries and clients and going into the personal life, how do we prioritize each other still? Because we do both work from home and do both work in different environmental things.

00:24:23:04 - 00:24:46:02
Unknown
There are some overlaps, but ultimately we have to have very different trains of thoughts, of things. You know, you're very system oriented and I'm more I have to come up with the ideas and then also how to work with clients and bring those ideas together where at that point I can go, Oh my gosh, hey, I'm tagging you, in how can you look at that and solve that?

00:24:46:05 - 00:25:04:14
Unknown
Well, in your very big picture, right? I mean, like you, you kind of see how it's all going to fit together long term and you have the big ideas. And I you know, and sometimes Eyore That's right. I like she here. She's my dream killer. But like, oh, my gosh, I want to do this, this and this, this.

00:25:04:14 - 00:25:26:12
Unknown
And Nicole's like, yeah, So let me remind you of one thing that you still haven't done yet. Can I bring you back to reality, my love? And it's like, let's let's break this down one piece at a time. And so I think that that's part of the balance that we find in each other. Right. But that's also that can also be points of friction and and points of stress of like you're like, no, no, no, let's go on this big journey.

00:25:26:12 - 00:25:50:10
Unknown
I have this big idea. We can do it. And I kind of want to take, you know, one, one bite at a time. Yeah. And that really is why I had to survive in a time blocking environment, because I have to give myself that freedom to allow the brain to work and give myself that time where. But I have to once I stop, I have to shift that focus so that I can actually do the tasks associated that.

00:25:50:10 - 00:26:14:17
Unknown
Because if I don't, I will spend days in the world of, Oh, just look at all these beautiful things that are not happening yet in life. Right. And and I won't get them done. And so I will I will drown in my own expertise. I forever and yeah, and like, let's start right. Just do something. Yeah. Yeah. So that's how that time block works for me.

00:26:14:18 - 00:26:47:02
Unknown
Yeah. All right. We're going to wrap this for the second and we'll be back second half. Let's finish recording and recording. Both of us. Our best, our best selves. This moment, I just have fun. I feel like we talked about a lot of stuff, but, like, what is the common thread? Like, what are we trying to let people know in this, in this, the first podcast, What are we trying to let people know?

00:26:47:14 - 00:27:20:06
Unknown
I mean, I think the whole idea of concepting should be taken. I think I have no idea what, what I say. I, I think you said the whole idea of concept. Okay. Right. Okay. So what are we trying like, who cares, right? What are we trying to, like, communicate in this little about little chat? What about any of this stuff that we were talking about?

00:27:20:06 - 00:27:47:05
Unknown
Yeah, like, I mean, so I think if we go through kind of all the things, it's time blocking, it's prioritization. It maybe like low key goal setting, but I don't think we're talking about big goal setting is just kind of, you know, how are you navigating your time and prioritizing the things that you need to accomplish? I just realized by the magic of videos, TV and magic, I'm wearing my glasses now.

00:27:47:05 - 00:28:10:01
Unknown
I wasn't before. So let me get these off for you guys. I really it really helps right? Like, easy. Okay. To me, I think. Hey, I'll tell you to me again what I find the most valuable and and people that go from a world of almost an unstructured day, giving yourself that ability to give you. It's really about giving you back your freedom.

00:28:10:01 - 00:28:38:00
Unknown
And it really is about managing your stress. Yes. So if you have someone who I mean, I think we all do time blocking to a certain extent. Yeah, right. So if someone is looking to make a change, maybe, or just kind of shift the way that they attack their their schedule or approach their day or their week, what are maybe like three things that you would want people to know that they could try out this week?

00:28:38:05 - 00:29:00:10
Unknown
Yeah. When it comes to time blocking and prioritization, just to like put you on the spot. No. Yeah, please put me on the spot. Never done this and never before, ever. So never. You know, I think when I think about that concept of in and I will say it, I mean this is, this has all been kind of driven by my own self desires and needs.

00:29:00:10 - 00:29:24:19
Unknown
And it was because of the ability for me to have almost no control of how if you would put me on the spot and say, what are you doing today or what are you going to get accomplished? You know, if I had a supervisor, somebody in a previous corporate world and say, What did you get done today? That would almost be a hard answer for me to go.

00:29:25:07 - 00:29:46:18
Unknown
Well, I did. I would find myself fumbling for a response. Right. Kind of like now. Yes. I'm like, they would like for you to prioritize and answer that because of that, right? Yeah, I think that's the same thing. I just never wanted to be in a position of not knowing how to answer a question when someone said, Hey, so what did you get done today?

00:29:46:18 - 00:30:09:22
Unknown
What did you accomplish? And so taking that ability and time blocking it in to the life and putting those tasks and those dedicated non distraction times I was able to then at the end of the day, if someone came to me and said, What did I get done? I can go. Actually I was able to finish A, B, C, D, I have tomorrow.

00:30:09:22 - 00:30:29:08
Unknown
We're going to get E and F taken care of. And I have also the next three clients that we're going to have a conversation with, right? It's going to be resolved. And I and I was able to project probably when deals would get done better, I was able to like, you give me a blank look. Go ahead. Okay. Because the question.

00:30:29:08 - 00:30:52:19
Unknown
Yes, let's hear it. If someone wants to start shifting the way that they tackle their week. Yep. What, three things. Yeah. Would you tell them to try this week? And this is to order to do that. As you can see, this is why I have to time block. Because there's so many hours in my life. Okay? I would say the three things to start with is like, first of all, trust yourself, right?

00:30:52:19 - 00:31:11:15
Unknown
Trust yourself to understand that you can do this right. You got to trust yourself, that you like it. You can get it done. The second thing is to commit to yourself to actually getting it done. Okay? Right. Because if you don't trust yourself to do it, you'll never get it done. And then if you're saying, you know, I, I trust myself, I can get this done, it's not going to be perfect, right?

00:31:11:17 - 00:31:29:09
Unknown
Yeah. Then you got to commit to doing it because if you don't do it, so trust commit. Yep. And then the third thing is, is that reward yourself for completing it. Like, you got to give yourself that little bit of like, Hey, I got this done and it's a it's a good feeling. Okay, my turn. Yeah, go for it.

00:31:29:09 - 00:31:54:09
Unknown
Yeah. Okay. So the MDD version is trust yourself, Commit to yourself, reward yourself. Yes. Right. This is going to be like so indicative of who we are in life. So because you're like all light in the clouds. Right. But. But I mean, look, she has the tangible like I'm all about. Here are three concrete things. That's right.

00:31:54:17 - 00:32:19:07
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. So to me, it would be first, maybe observe, observe and document what your energy level is like. I really think that that's a huge part of how you tackle your schedule and tackle your week. Yeah. And so look at when when do you find yourself being really energized? What types of tasks really energize you? Where are the things?

00:32:19:07 - 00:32:37:18
Unknown
What are the things that you end up doing when you don't really know how to fill your time? Like, what are those things? And I think I mentioned it before, but for me it's always like a data project or it's designing something in Canva. Like for me, I can just kind of turn off my brain and I just enjoy like looking at all the templates and all the graphics and that, Right?

00:32:38:00 - 00:33:07:21
Unknown
Yeah. So find those things and find those times. So that's the first thing is to identify things about energy. What energizes you and when do you have the most of it. Yeah, yeah. And second thing I would say would be to start time blocking self so try it out. Right I don't I think the problem when people try to start something new is they try to go like full tilt into it.

00:33:08:07 - 00:33:28:01
Unknown
So try time blocking two days this week, right. Yeah. So to me that's enough to kind of see what do I like about this, what is working. And so take those things that you learn from your energy exercise and apply those to time blocking two days out of the week. Guess what? Like I don't even think they should be two back to back days.

00:33:28:01 - 00:33:47:12
Unknown
Right? Because that can also feel overwhelming. Like, oh, and definitely don't do it on a monday or a Friday because your brain is probably elsewhere on either two of those days. That’s fair. You might do it on a day that's least stressful to you. Yeah. And so then so energy levels try it. Do like a toe in the pond?

00:33:47:22 - 00:34:10:06
Unknown
And then I mean, I think the third thing to me would be then reassess and plan for next week. Right. So reflect on what you did. What did you like, What did you not like? What went well? What was like, you know, a dumpster fire. Yeah. And then pivot accordingly for next week. Because I think at the end of the day, like no one, no one is an actual expert on this stuff.

00:34:10:06 - 00:34:32:06
Unknown
Like, you are your own expert, you are the expert at yourself. And so I think those are the things that you have to learn and maybe to your point, to gain confidence in and then apply for yourself of what's actually going to work for you because you're the only one who knows. Yeah. All right. So I say MDD this is team MDD

00:34:32:06 - 00:34:58:07
Unknown
right now trust commit to it and then reward yourself right. And team NRD is where I say, Are you listening? Look, man, this is tough. She's this is really you know, I'm an active listener. That's right. So it is to oh, initialize. It's not that Oh my gosh. The second one is time blocking, to shut it down. So one was reevaluate.

00:34:58:07 - 00:35:16:19
Unknown
First one was assess your energy. To me, that's like trusting yourself, but it's not. Okay, So does your energy different times of day, different types of tasks. Yeah, right. Yeah. And then, yes, try time blocking and try it maybe two days out of the week. They don't have to be back to back. According to this one, they don't have to be.

00:35:16:19 - 00:35:37:14
Unknown
Mondays and Fridays either. Yeah. I love that I get my own taken. He still contributes to my take when I was crazy. And then the last thing yes is assess, reevaluate and plan for the next. The next go. Yeah. Because you're your own expert. I'm proving it right here. So team NRD is. Oh, my gosh. Is that first line painful?

00:35:37:14 - 00:35:56:22
Unknown
Like it's painful is to you? It I already said it. They've heard to have before they retained it. You have to be MDD or team NRD or what is your version like? Is there a hybrid version out there that incorporates both of those in there? There's 100% hybrid version. And by the way, like there's let me just reiterate, there's the version for you.

00:35:57:02 - 00:36:20:13
Unknown
There is. And so that that version is also valid and extraordinary and wonderful. We're going to take this further next week, believe it or not. What more is there to say? This one must more to say. Look, you think it's we just touch the basics. But next, next conversation will be about kind of finishing up what you're saying, the assessment.

00:36:20:13 - 00:36:52:00
Unknown
Right. We're going to look at what it was that maybe you accomplished and the things that you assess in that, because now we're going to really get into the concept of how to make it easier. Right. And like streamlining that process and how can you do that? And there's even one thing that we left out almost completely we said in the very beginning, and that is removing distractions and believe it or not, those two are really tied closely together because the distractions are what make it hard.

00:36:52:00 - 00:37:17:08
Unknown
Yeah, it's tough. Well, and by the way, like distractions are just built into our everyday lives at this point with the pinging and the phone and the laptop and that the doorbell, if you're working from home, your dog barking at something or this the whole reason why we started this podcast so we can spend non distracted time to get that elusive goal behind us that we've got dedicated one on one time that hopefully, you know, you guys will get to enjoy as well.

00:37:17:10 - 00:37:36:22
Unknown
We think that'll be that'll be the next conversation will be distractions, distractions and what will it be? I don't know. Let's see. That's me. You catch me entertained. All right. We'll see that in the next conversation. Look forward to hearing you from then. Look forward to what? Yeah. That's horrible. That's so bad. I said the calls, the expert of wrapping things up.

00:37:36:22 - 00:37:57:20
Unknown
As you can tell, I'm the human being that will just talk way too rambler about too many ideas. Oh, what are we taking away today? Yeah. So, I mean, you know, take some of these principles, train out to rethink, and then next week we're talking about cutting out distractions, which is really hard. Which is really hard given, I think just, you know, the world that we live in at this point.

00:37:58:05 - 00:38:29:01
Unknown
A lot of us are still working from home. There are a lot of distractions. You've got significant other you've got dogs barking out the window, you've got your phone, you're getting pinged on slack and everything else. So it's just kind of taking us on these principles and then applying them one step further to really eliminate the distractions. So we look forward to hearing, speaking of our dogs in this crate and being a huge distraction also and streamlining the process and streamlining the process.

00:38:29:08 - 00:38:51:18
Unknown
Streamlining what process this streamlining the process of what they accomplished, like in the fact of doing this two days, oh, so oh, so they're only going to do what I recommend, not what you recommend. Yeah, I don't. I love that. Right. Yeah. Because look, let's really break it down. Yeah. People listen to you, they come to me for the show and the pizzazz, but they only really stick around to listen to Nicole

00:38:52:08 - 00:39:27:15
Unknown
That's why it's a team MDD or team NRD. See you next week. Have a good one here. Look forward to what I'm looking forward to hearing from you again. You know, you okay? All right. There should be some sort of ending, I think, because looking forward to hearing. Then again, you keep doing it like everybody who.