Hacks For Greater Productivity

It is so important for you to speak through your dreams than you can probably ever imagine. And a lot of people keep that stuff to themselves because what, they're worried how they look. So now imagine all these things colliding on the opposite. You're worried how you look so you don't tell anybody, so you're not socially accountable and you have no social cheerleading. You're worried what other people will think. So in your brain you go, well, if other people are going to think I'm crazy, why even do this? I mean, that's a risk. So I might look stupid if I do. So now your brain goes, well, why even imagine this for yourself anymore? Then your brain says, well, if you can't imagine it for yourself anymore, why would you even plan it? And if you can't imagine it, you can't plan it. And other people might think you're stupid. Why don't you go find something else to do like Netflix or shopping or hanging out or indulging yourself in some other hobbies that aren't relevant to what you're trying to do. AKA let's procrastinate, because we're worried. The first topic of the day is the three brain hacks that you can sort of use to help you overcome problems. Procrastination. First off, again, I congratulate you all. Look, if you're taking time out of your day to day to work on yourself, give yourself a little pat on the back, you know, congratulations. You know, a lot of people have the opportunity to get coaching, to get mentorship, to get training, but they don't. And they go and they browse and they, you know, they, they go and they shop or they go and they, you know, do nothing. But you're different. So I know when I speak to you about procrastination that maybe you don't need all the basics. We can go into some of the hacks that will really serve you to make sure you don't procrastinate on a Wednesday or Thursday or Friday when you're supposed to get stuff done. Okay, so let's talk about procrastination right now and just have a conversation about what it means. You know, procrastination basically means that you are not doing what you know you need to do when you know you need to do it. It's putting things off because in the short term it's easier, it's more comfortable, it's more certain, it's more pleasureful to be distracted or to indulge yourself doing something else than it Is to sit down and do the actual work to create the outputs that matter when they are needed. And I know that every single one of us procrastinates. Me too. So it's okay. The issue is, can you set yourself up so you do less of it? I believe you can. Now, I believe there's tactical things you can do to procrastinate less. Those are things I'm going to focus on the most here today. But I also believe there are very important emotional things you can do to procrastinate less. You know, most procrastination is either tied to worry, the emotion of worry. Like, I'm worried that if I do it, it won't turn out well, Or I'm worried it's going to be too hard and I can't handle it. Or I'm worried I don't know what I'm really going to do, and I'm going to mess things up, fail or cause ruin in my life. So a big part. If you ever feel like you're procrastinating, sit down with a journal and say, what am I worried about? And really, just journal, just write it out. What am I worried about? Well, I'm worried if I do this, because what happens is unconsciously we're not aware. We're. We're not aware of our worries. So we keep thinking it's the task's fault. Well, the task is not passionate. Well, it's not. You know, we say, well, maybe it's not my real passion, maybe it's not my real purpose. And we start blaming ourselves, and we start having, like, these, you know, these esoteric kind of conversations with ourselves about life's meaning. Instead, what's happening is unconsciously we're a little worried about something. And if we can bring that worry into our awareness, then we can examine it, observe it, and start building the case that that's not something we should be worried about or something that is something we can truly handle. You know, so think about any project you right now. Are you procrastinating on? You know, I hear all the time from a lot of people in my industry. Well, Brendan, you know, I want to write a book, but I'm procrastinating on it. Okay. Do you not like writing? Oh, no. I love when you're writing and you fall in that flow and everything's so great and so beautiful. I love that so much. Okay, so you like writing? Yes. Okay, but you're not writing. No. Well, then we just go to. I go right to the emotion. I go, what? Might you be worried about that's causing you a little bit of just emotional uncertainty or insecurity that's preventing you from confidently stepping in, writing that book and going, well, you know, I don't. I worry. I don't really know how to write a book. I worry that no one will listen to me. I worry that my voice isn't meaningful. I worry that I won't be able to get an agent or a publisher. I worry that, you know, putting all my eggs in a basket of a book is risky financially for my family right now. And once you write down those worries, you can flip them and you say, okay, I'm worried that this project might be something that could cause harm to my family because, you know, I need to do this other thing. All right, what if it led to great abundance for your family? Then you say, well, you know, I'm worried no one cares about my voice. What if you become that breakthrough surprise, that copy that no one had, that book that no one anticipated would sell so many copies? And it does. In other words, instead of making all your what if Statements followed by negative phrases, what if this doesn't turn out? What if I'm terrible? What if I'm stupid? What if it doesn't work? What if it causes this problem? What if you flipped those what if statements to positive phrases? What if it does turn out? What if this is the thing I've always loved to do? What if this thing makes it? And I know you could say, well, that's just positive thinking. I'm like, well, yes. And the opposite is unconscious worried thinking that is making you procrastinate. Make sense. So the very first thing I ever do, whenever I feel myself procrastinating, I immediately go to the emotion of worry. What might I be worried about? And I just journal about it and I start trying to flip it. Okay, that's the first thing that I do. The second thing that I do is much more tactical, and that is, oh, let me make sure that I just have blocked scheduled time, that nothing else happens but that, and it consistently is happening. Now, I know some of you guys are saying, brendan, this is so basic. I know these aren't even the three brain hacks. This is just getting you in the game. I'm trying to tell you, like, these are the big picture things. Number one, find your worry and debate it. Number two, make sure you actually have time scheduled to do something. A lot of people are procrastinating because they're overwhelmed by. By the randomness in their life. Write it Down. A lot of people are procrastinating because they're overwhelmed by the randomness in their life. And all of that random activity, those random tasks, those random obligations are creating all this uncertainty of mind that's stealing away your confidence. So how do you get back more confidence so you don't procrastinate as much? You actually have to get a little more structured with your time. I know that doesn't sound sexy, but if you will start structuring that activity, that time for that activity that you're putting off. See, it's easy to say, well, I'll write my book next week or someday, but someday, I mean, like, someday is the gateway to procrastination. It makes sense. If it's not sitting there, that is, when you do it, every single day, every single week, every single month, you'll procrastinate forever. It needs to be a block of time that literally is there. I have to do it. I'm so dumb and so easily distracted that I have to put up on my phone my block time alarms that it literally says. It pops up and says, hey, Brendan, you're supposed to be writing right now. And I go, oh. And I look at my calendar and there's the block of time. Oh, right. I scheduled a block. One hour right now to write. Forgot. Sit down and write. I need notifications and alarms to kick my butt, to remind me. Because especially for those who are stay at home or you're a solo entrepreneur and no one else is keeping you accountable but you, you need to use this as a weapon of accountability for yourself. Because your random hours where you think you're going to get to something, you don't. That's not because you're not passionate. That's not because you're not smart. It's not because you're not capable. It's literally because your brain is on random mode so much. And the more your brain is on random mode, the less you will produce. You need to block the significant amounts of time to get to the work. And I know you know this, but be honest. If I showed up at your house and we looked at your calendar, is it so clear what you should be doing and when? Over a period of time. And if it's not, that's why you're still procrastinating. Because, listen, procrastination is just a pattern of response to insecurity, random activity, or worry. Procrastination, for a lot of people, it's a pattern. It's a way of dealing with worry or insecurity or randomness. So how do we deal with it? We got to address the worries. We got to address the insecurities and the randomness. And once we do that, I mean, it's easy to block and tackle to get us better. Does that all make sense? So this is a high overview of how I think about procrastination. If you and I hung out and you're like, brendan, I hate myself because I'm always procrastinating. I'm like, babe, you got no reason to hate yourself. It's totally okay. Everyone procrastinates. I do too. But once you recognize where the pattern comes from, how you're either consciously or unconsciously dealing with worry or insecurity or randomness, now you can start to structure yourself. Now you can start to analyze those worries and insecurities and flip them and get back in the game. I hope that's a good big picture of procrastination. But now let me do what I promised. I told you I'm gonna give you three brain hacks to specifically minimize it. Cause I think once we deal with the emotional element of it, that worry or insecurity or how we're dealing with the overwhelm of randomness, if I can remove some of the overwhelm of randomness in your life, little more structure, remove the worries. A little more positive thinking. Now we can do the blocking and tackling to actually get more done. Okay, so let's talk about procrastination in this way. Three brain hacks. Number one, simple. You're more likely to do something if you have already prepared and stepped it through. You're already more likely to do something if you already prepared and stepped it through. What does that mean? It means if you want to not procrastinate on Monday, Sunday night, I want you to sit down and do this simple little thing. Project plan. I know it's not sexy. Please don't make fun of me right now. It's not sexy. I know it's not sexy. And it will change your life forever. The day before the days in which it's required that you really get stuff done, I want you to sit down and project plan. I don't mean tomorrow. Write down your to do lists. That is one element of project planning. But I want a bigger picture. I want you to be thinking about the big projects that you have coming up, and I want you to have written out these steps that it's going to take. The big steps that we'll take to accomplish this project and this project and this project. With a timeline for each of them. And then work backwards from that to create tomorrow's to do lists. But here's what's funny. If listen to this. If your mind can't see completion, if your mind cannot see completion, meaning you don't know the path, you don't have clarity on the path to fulfill or complete something. If your mind can't see the steps, your heart will ask to pause. If your mind can't see the project through completion, your heart will ask to pause. Even if you're the most passionate, dream oriented, amazing, high performer in the world. But you yank away someone's clarity. You know, no goals, no growth, no clarity, no change. And so if you find yourself procrastinating, it might not even. You might be like, but Brendan, I hate myself. I procrastinate and I even know the next three things I should do. I go, not enough. Knowing your next three steps is not enough. Your mind needs to see all the steps through to completion. And that's what we call project planning. It's not super fun, but it's saying, okay, this is the big project. Here are the big key activities, the big buckets of activities that would have to happen to get it done. Here's the timelines. Those big buckets have to happen, okay? Then these big buckets of activities, those have to be broken down into tasks and then into ultimately daily to do's. And if we don't have that, like, it's just hard to act when you don't have a complete picture, right? You're kind of like procrastinating. Let me give you a metaphor. You know, they've timed people about how long it takes them to complete a puzzle. So if I show up at your house and I give you a big puzzle box and there's 400 pieces in it, and we set it out on your table and we watch how long different time periods takes to complete it. You know the fastest, most productive time in which people are putting puzzles together? The last 20%. Have you ever done a puzzle? Right? You might walk by it three, four times for a couple weeks. You don't do anything. You put a few pieces together, but as soon as the picture becomes a little more clear, guess what you do? You hunker down and, and you complete it, don't you? That's what's going on with procrastination. Even if you see the first couple pieces, it's just like if you can't see where it's going, your heart will go pause. I'm unsure I'm scared. I don't know what to do. That's just how we think, right? That part of our brain that is trying to protect us, that part of our heart that says, I want to do good, I want to care for other people and do things with excellence, all of a sudden, those are compromised when we don't do the most basic thing. So if there's an important project you've been procrastinating in, do yourself the greatest gift I can give you today, and that is tonight. Sit down with your journal and step it all the way out. Even if you have to make it up, even if you're like, I'm not sure this is actually the big activities. It's not about having the perfect project plan. It's having one that is completed. At least the knowledge you know now, because then your brain will go, okay, let's get into this and keep making this thing better. But your brain won't get into it if you haven't project planned. So this is really important. What I do to avoid procrastination, each week is every single Sunday for me. That's my Sunday review days, Sunday workdays. I'll sit down and I'll literally step through the entire week. Of all the major things on my email, on my to do list, I'll think about the bigger projects and I'll just kind of step it all the way through. And guess what? I enter the week more engaged, more joyous and confident because I know what the heck is going on. So if you keep procrastinating, I promise, if it's not, lots of worry or it's not, you know, lots of randomness, it's, you haven't seen it through yet. Other brain hack, very related, but a little different and more immediate. And you'll love this one. So number two is this. And it's so basic, but I'm going to test you and see how often you've been doing it. And that is visualize. Remember I said you won't do it if your brain can't see it step through. Well, here's specifically what I do to make sure I don't procrastinate. I literally visualize and affirm what I'm about to go do. So if it's Sunday, and I'd say, okay, you know, tomorrow in the afternoon, I've got all these things I can procrastinate because I'm the only one holding myself accountable. And I could say, well, you know what, let's see here. How would I avoid that? I will sit down and I'll do this 20, 30 minutes a day, visualizing the next day or that morning. I'll sit down and visualize the day and I'll just step it through. I'll say, okay, let me see myself going into the kitchen, getting my little green tea, going over to the office, sitting down at the computer, opening up that blank page, happily typing along, sensing and feeling those great emotions of doing my calling as a writer. Let me feel the power and the joy of finishing a great day of writing. Let me imagine myself going to dinner, getting to sit down with my wife and saying, honey, here's what I did today. I wrote this part of the book. Let me hear, see and feel that interaction with her happiness and her joy that I'm doing my path. Let me imagine myself going to bed that night, happy that you know what I did, what I'm here to do. Now, I don't know what your calling is or what you feel like you should be doing, but for me, that simple little activity of just literally walking the entire day through, not just one thing. I do this with mega athletes all the time. I say, listen, I don't want you to just imagine the fight. I want you to visualize yourself on the way over to the arena. I want you to see. Visualize yourself getting laced up. I want you to visualize yourself on the walk down to the ring, entering the ring, your first feelings, walking around the ring, the sense that you will have as you're in that fight, that sense that you have when you're getting beaten in that fight and how you're going to feel and respond to that. Because visualization is not just happy, go lucky. It's also like, okay, see yourself. What do you do when there's a struggle? So for me, okay, what do I do when I get writer's block? How does the brendon dealing with writer's block Deal with that? And I'll see it. I'll imagine myself getting back at it and I'll see it through. How does it feel when you win? How does it feel after the win? How's it feel at the end of the day? How does it feel when you finally lay your head onto your pillow and go to bed? That is a full day visualization on the things that matter the most for your productivity. And I want you to do that at least either the night before or the day of the morning of and what will happen these two things together. As I know you might say, bren, that's so basic. But okay, did you do it last night? Because I've found as a high performance coach, sometimes it is not the big crazy things, it's that people aren't doing the fundamentals and they want me to say, Brendan changed my life. I go, okay, let's change your life. Let's be accountable. Did you do these things last night? So don't tell me it's too basic. This is me challenging and being honest. Did you do these two things last night? If you're not doing this consistently, that is why you are consistently procrastinating, my friend. I know sometimes life change can be so basic and you go, duh, why haven't I been doing that? But those ones are really important as a coach for me to call out for you because I know a lot of people who could be so much more effective if they got back to the fundamentals. Let me share this last one with you. So first Brain Hack project plan day before, step it all the way through day before or the morning of, visualize the entire process of the day and you doing it well. Even if you meet uncertainty, fear, struggle, hardship. And the last piece is the other brain hack. Don't forget that not only do we need order, not only do we need the creativity and the visualization, we're also social animals. So I want you to socialize your agenda with other people. Socialize your agenda with other people. What does that mean? Well, it's just the same, you know, at this time of year a lot of people are trying to lose some weight or trying to go to the gym. And what's the first advice everyone always gives them because it's proven by science to work over and over and over again. Get a workout buddy. Because if you got a workout buddy, you'll show up. It's harder to procrastinate when your name, your integrity, your relationships are on the line. And so you need to tell people about what you have to do. You'd probably be annoyed hanging out with me because if we went out to dinner, I'd probably tell you 10 things I'm going to do tomorrow. And I'm not telling you that because I love to talk about work. I know if I speak will become more real the next day. If I don't affirm it and share it with other people, it's just in my head, I'm just not going to be as productive. And I do know without question this is a big issue for a lot of people. They're stay at home moms, they're work from home entrepreneurs, they're the senior leader in their company who does a lot of status things, but they don't themselves get to talk through a lot of things. And I can't tell you how important it is to speak through the reality that you want, right? These things you could certainly do on your own. But if you share these things with other people and you socialize that agenda, all of a sudden you won't procrastinate because you know that you've put it out there, other people are going to hold you accountable or even just more. Sometimes talking something through makes you want to do it more literally. They found in psychological studies, just speaking out your goals makes it more likely that you will take consistent action on those goals. Just literally, just speaking it. And they've even done it where they took out other people. They just made someone stand in a booth with a microphone and speak out what they were going to do. They were more likely to do that than if they just kept it in their head and didn't speak it. So if you're like, but, Brandon, I got nobody who believes in my dreams, I'm like, well, I bet you have a friend and you could facetime them or Skype them. And talk through is so important for you to speak through your dreams than you can probably ever imagine. And a lot of people keep that stuff to themselves because what, they're worried how they look. So now imagine all these things colliding on the opposite. You're worried how you look so you don't tell anybody. So you're not socially accountable and you have no social cheerleading. You're worried what other people will think. So in your brain you go, well, if other people are going to think I'm crazy, why even do this? I mean, that's a risk. So I might look stupid if I do. So now your brain goes, well, why even imagine this for yourself anymore? Then your brain says, well, if you can't imagine it for yourself anymore, why would you even plan it? And if you can't imagine it, you can't plan it. And other people might think you're stupid. Why don't you go find something else to do, like Netflix or shopping or hanging out or indulging yourself in some other hobbies that aren't relevant to what you're trying to do. But AKA, let's procrastinate because we're worried. You see how these tie together? So the brain hacks are to set yourself up so that you have more confidence and routine and structure going in. These are the three ways as a Recap. Project plan night before, week before, day of, I don't care. But if you can do it the day before, it sets it mentally in your brain and you and you have a little more confidence in it, definitely. Visualize night before or day of all the time. I am a constant visualizer all the time. I'm seeing things, stepping things through. As we went to set up here, we hopped in the car, we're all coming back over here to set everything up, and I am driving and talking, but I'm literally visualizing the different places in the office that we can get in and get set up. I'm visualizing how it's going to feel to talk to you when I'm not as set in the situation as I want. I'm visualizing how it's going to go and what tools I'm gonna use here when I don't have my fancy flip chart or my fancy TV to teach from. All of that was visualizing just pregame before this. So I do this in real time too. And then last piece is socialize it. You've got to start sharing your thoughts, your dreams, your agenda, what you're gonna do with other people. And if you do those three things, you, your brain will be more optimized and more likely to get in the game and get stuff done. Next topic. This is a big one was about three habits that you can do to increase productivity. Now I know that you already noticed that I've combined these topics for a reason. Dealing with procrastination is ultimately also helping you be more productive. So please remember, project, plan, visualize, socialize are the three big ones. Now for productivity. The three habits that I want you to really focus on and get really, really, really clear about for your productivity is this. Number one, I want to make sure that you have absolutely clear weekly outputs. And I know this is similar to the project planning, so let's just bust it down. A clear weekly output. Going back to an example someone shared earlier that they wanted to create an ovo, but they haven't done it yet. It's because they haven't yet decided. This is the week that by the eye, on Friday, I've got these three webpages up and these three videos go. The output is not clear. A lot of people are clear on an activity, need to shoot videos, need to make pages, but the output is not clear. It's like webpage video playing button that works. It is done by Friday. And what do I do with that asset once it's done? I also email it to five friends to get their feedback on it so I can socialize it. Clear weekly output planning is everything. And I don't mean activity, I mean what is the thing you're creating. It is the easiest habit in productivity to know what are the things I'm actually creating. It's not the same as year to do. It's like I have to have a meeting. No, no, what do you have to create? What do you physically tangibly have to form by the end of this week? So my example last night I had to do that webinar that was a clear output on my agenda that I knew I had to get done. Because listen, if you don't know the outputs but you know all the learnings or the activities or the things you have to be doing but you don't know the actual output, the end game, you can't be productive because productive means what the root word of productivity is to produce. So I need you with razor clarity every week to know the outputs that you are going to create. Like specifically what are you going to like, what is that specific output that you can tangibly hold or share with other people? So like in social media that might be by the end of the week, your outputs are these seven posts or these seven videos or these seven things, right? In real life work, it might be these four presentations or this report. But if you're not really clear about outputs, what you'll do is you'll fill in time. If you aren't clear about outputs, you'll start randomly filling in time. Well, someone will say, hey Brendan, can you have that meeting? And I'm not clear about the output that I'm supposed to specifically work on. I'll go, yeah, I guess I'll take the meeting. But if I know the output, I can get really razor clear. And that will change everything for me. Everything for me. Okay, next up, other big habit for your productivity and it's tied to energy. So I want you to do is this one. I want you to find your exacting workout schedule for productivity. I want you to know at this time in your life and maybe you already have it. I want you to find your exacting workout schedule specifically for increasing productivity. I don't mean when do you like to work out? That's not what I mean. I don't mean what's your preference of how many days? That is not what I mean. I mean on any given specific day, what is the exacting workout schedule that will make you more likely to create your outputs? Let me give you an Example again of my yesterday. I know you guys keep asking me for more personal examples. So I'm trying hard today. I'm sorry if it's a little clunky as I'm trying to do that for you. I. I'm getting more used to sharing my journey and stories than I used to be. You read all these. I mean, you read this book. There's nothing about me in this book at all. There's literally no reference of me in this book at all. There's literally no reference of me in this book at all. So two of my best selling books, there's nothing about me in them at all. Cause I'm just not that interested in myself. But you guys have been asking these questions. So let me give you an example of yesterday. Remember, my thing was I needed to create the output of a webinar that I knew would take me three hours. Okay? So two days ago, when I was looking for the schedule of this week and I saw that time that night, I was like, oh my God, that night, there's three hours I need to create that. When would I have to work out that day or the day before to make sure I was in the best possible place for that work activity? And for me, what I have found my exacting workout schedule. If I have a big output I have to do, if I work out exactly three hours before, I'm a weapon. I mean, it's crazy, but for me, listen, when I said exacting, I mean exacting. If I work out the night before. Nope, won't work. If I work out two hours before, uh, if I work out six hours before. Nope. For whatever reason. And we all have a different rhythm, we all have different exercises that we do. I don't know what yours is. I want you to find it exacting. I'm working with a Fortune 100 executive right now who is really remarkable. And this person, to give you an idea, pays me a quarter million dollars a year in coaching. And we're on the phone right before we went to Cabo, whenever that was, a couple weeks ago, three or four weeks ago, I'm on the phone with them. And this person is already unbelievably productive. I'm sharing this concept with him. I said, I want you to find the exacting, exacting time for the workout and the exacting form of a workout for those days when you need to be your best. And. And of course then I say, when's the days you need to be your best? And he's like, every day. I said, yes, But I want you to find, listen to this. There's a reason I'm teaching this way. I want you to find the time during the week or the day when the most important output is due to be created. And I want you to know when you're going to create that specific output. Your workout schedule leading up to it, that is optimized. So last night after I finished, I hopped in and did about an hour of my emails. And I got an email from him and he goes, you just changed my life. With one of the most fundamental, easy things. He said, I can't believe what this has done for my life. And he shared how his was. This was his two hours before the most important thing he's working on that day, he goes on a 30 minute brisk walk. That's his thing. He told me that in the time between now and that last four weeks ago, whenever it was, he's tried cycling for 30 minutes, he tried going for a jog, he tried weightlifting, he tried yoga. He's like, I tried all these different things. But what I found for me is if two hours before I really need to sit down and do something, diligently I take a 30 minute power walk. I am unbelievable. When I go to sit down and work, I go, awesome, Congratulations. It only took you 63 years to figure that out. And I say that jokingly, but do you know yours? And I mean with exacting precision and detail. I promise you, as simple as this might sound, this will be a high performance habit that will change your life. I yesterday, you know, was so just razor clear about making sure that I set myself up for that. And for me, my specific ones is I'll do what really works best for me. I'll do elliptical for 10 minutes at the setting of 17 and 17. That means the 17 elevation, 17 resistance. A setting of 17 and 17 for 10 minutes. As good and strong as I can go, just go, go, go, go, go. Then I do five minutes on the rower, then I do five minutes on the bike, then I do chest press, pull ups, get a shower in, get some food, then lay down for 20 minutes and I'm a weapon three hours later. I don't know why that is my routine, but it works. So please find your exacting workout schedule. I promise you'll be like, Brendan, that's why I'm in your monthly programs. I'm not doing some of these basic things and they're so huge. I don't even think that's a basic thing. I actually think that's pretty advanced because nine out of 10 people I've ever met and asked, do you know your exacting workout schedule for optimizing your outputs that matter? They're like, no, I don't. That helps. Okay. And then here is the last one. I suck at this one. And I'm getting better. Okay. I just learned this one from probably someone who I consider one of the most effective coaches in the world, sports coaches. And he taught me this phrase, delegate seven days in advance. Delegate seven days in advance. He told me. And this was really interesting. And this is a coach who has taken teams to world champion levels. This was amazing. He said, brendan, most people delegate day of. And I was like, oh, my God, that's what I do. You know, I get to that day. And because I'm so focused as an individual contributor in my career, I'll have my week planned out pretty good and pretty solid. And then on that day when I'm doing a task, I'll go, oh, right, I need some help with this. And I'll delegate day of. And he said, what he does is he sits down like on a Monday morning, and he looks at his week and he immediately thinks of, what are all the questions I'm going to have and what could all the things I could hand and delegate right now? And he delegates seven days in advance. And I was like, that's pretty sharp. I mean, that is a weaponized high performer right there. Delegate seven, not day of, seven days in advance. So you need someone to go get you lunch on a Thursday, on Monday or on Thursday before, say, hey, next Thursday I need you to go get me lunch at 2 o'. Clock. I know that's so basic, right? But it's almost same thing as like, oh, you're working on getting your OVO up and you're going to have to make a logo, okay, seven days in advance, put it onto someone else and say, hey, need a logo in seven days. Like, we don't think about that. But what happens is now we get to the web page and go, oh, crap, it says, upload logo. I don't have a logo. I better delegate that now. And what it does is it slows you down. So delegating in advance speeds up the schedule. And if you think this is no duh, let me ask you a question. Did you sit down at the beginning of this week and say, what are all the things I need to delegate? Because you know what? I didn't. So that's why I said, I suck at this one. And this is a big high performance habit. For me this year, I really want to get better at it. Okay, that's three kick butt ways to increase your productivity. Clear weekly outputs. Be razor clear on all the outputs that need to be created. Be razor clear on what is your best movement workout exercise schedule on the days those big outputs are due. To make sure you optimize your your ability to be awesome. And I want you to delegate seven days in advance. These three things put together with the other three things I told you about. Project planning, visualizing and socializing. Your learning will change your life. And that's why you're here, my friends. So let's move on to our next big topic. I'm moving my sheets around for you guys. I mean it takes a real just drive for self mastery to do this every single month. But as a community, I can share with you. I have never seen such a good one and been so pumped about the interactions we're having. Good for you for being in the game of high performance. Because look, I'm never gonna stop doing this work and I don't think you should either. I don't think any of us should ever stop this journey to self mastery. We should never stop learning and consuming these ideas. Because look, if you found one thing that moved the needle in how you feel and how you perform in life today, then this was worth a million bucks. You know what I'm saying? That's the way I look at it. It's like my friend who is the Fortune 100 executive goes, Brendan, this one idea that walking for 30 minutes, two hours before the things I need to create has changed my life. How simple. But sometimes we need that. Okay, next up, we are on to this nutrition and workout conversation and, and we're going a little more diligent into it. And here's what I like to do. I'm going to bounce off of one idea we had before and we talked about finding your exacting workout plan. And what I'd like to do now is challenge you if you have never done this before, to find your exacting meal plan for productivity. I mean exacting. So let me give you an example. If tomorrow at 2 o' clock you block time to do work for two and a half hours, what specifically would you need to eat at lunch? So let's say for two hours you need to be at your mental highest performance at lunch. I want to know specifically what is it that you are consuming, both from a meal, a food perspective, but also maybe your nutritional supplements, specifically what would that be for you? And I want you to go. Well, Brandon, I guess I'd have a salad. Nope, not specific enough. What kind of dressing is there avocado? Is there sesame? Is there chia? What's I want? I like exacting weirdo optimization level. That's what I want you to know. So that when it's important for you to serve, you can set it up. I mean really set it up. Now some people say, well, Bren, this is just over architecting life. And I go, yeah, that's true. Maybe you don't always have that exacting meal plan or nutrition, but how valuable is it to know what those things are? So when the times come that really do count, you're going to win. You know, I've been blessed to work with so many extraordinary athletes, executives, entrepreneurs. But I think about some of the athletes I've been worked with in the past, which they really, they inspire me because I'm not an athlete. You know, I want to be in the best shape that I can for what I want to do and to have the energetic emotional reality I want. But I'm not out there trying to super optimize my ability to lift a certain amount of weight or to accomplish this certain amount of time on a 40 yard sprint. This is not what my life is built around. So I admire them and they've really inspired me to think even more diligent about it. And you can always see a kid coming out of high school sports who has not yet learned to understand their meal planning, who goes into college and crashes and burns because now or goes from college into professional sports and they're still eating crappy. It's like they burn out so fast and it's because no one ever taught them your nutrition and your understanding of nutrition leading into a game, into a fight, onto the field is so important. But I say, well, why is that not important to you? Right. Why is that not more important than to you? Right. And some people kind of casually think about that. They're like, well, I'd better eat before the meeting. And I go, no, consuming calories is not the same as finding an exacting meal plan. I mean, exacting. I'll give you an example. Travis and I had a routine, and it wasn't just a routine because we were friends and pals, but we would go have breakfast at a specific time in a specific place, and I would eat a specific meal with just the right amount of proteins and fats for me. Then we would go to the office and it would be at least 90 minutes. Then we would start filming in that 90 minutes, I would consume a specific set of supplements and get myself ready. And then almost always, that was when we started filming. And for me, that was the perfect flow. That it took a couple years to figure that out, but that if you ever watched my online courses and you thought, have you ever watched one of my online courses? Like, Brennan's murdering it right now. He's killing it. I promise you, I did that exacting meal plan that day. And if I didn't, if you're like, Brennan's a little off today, it's like, dah, I didn't get that food right. So it matters. Your next meeting, your next conversation, the next time you sit down to write before I write a book. I mean, if I'm gonna sit down to write for a couple hours, I. I'm a maniac about what I've eaten. I'm so clear about it. Because if you can keep managing the conditions that improve your performance, and what greater condition matters than how you fuel your body for performance? Well, I tell you, you can change your life. So I want you to know the exact thing. 1. So I want you to use it as a metaphor just for you. If at 2 o' clock tomorrow you need to be mentally unbelievable for three hours straight, what would you consume at lunch? I want you to be razor clear about this. I mean, so specifically clear. Specifically for you. Now, here's the thing. Most of you are guessing, and I say that with respect, but most people don't know. They're like, I don't know, I guess a salad, you know, I guess, you know, an avocado or, you know, I guess a piece of chicken. I can't tell you what it is for you, but you could work with a nutritionist to find out what it is for you. And if you've never done this before, I highly encourage everybody to do this. If you have never sat down with a nutritionist, paid them and said, I want you to help me figure out my ideal nutrition for me at this stage, this weight, this time of my life. Please give yourself that gift this year. I mean, people will spend hundreds of dollars on all sorts of weird foods and bizarre things shipped to their house, but they won't spend a couple hundred bucks to sit down with a professional to do the test to figure out what they really should consume and should not. I think that's important for you because I know when someone has done this. Well, I can tell when I'm working with somebody, and it's just that they're so obvious. They're so on. They're so good. I'm like this person managed their meals well today. And it's not about getting obsessive about the meals for control sake. It's about understanding how what you consume leads to good or bad performance. That's all. It's not for me, I don't think about this in terms of weight or appearance at all. I think about it is what's going to make me a weapon when I want to think. Well, my brain needs to be on from 2 o' clock to 3 o' clock to 4 o' clock to 5 o'. Clock. What specifically what I eat and what I take. For me it's a very high output. For me specifically, it's a high intake, I should say it's a very high intake of proteins and fats. Very high, very low on the carb, very high protein, very high fat. For my meals, right where protein is like going into that time, it's like 70% of the dish where the fats for me might be something where it's like 25% of that dish and maybe a tiny little bit of carbs, that's for me. But then I also, I know that I'm going to have to pump up like if I pump up some acetyl L carnitine, alpha lipoic acid, phospho cytylserine, 100, if I will take something like 150 milligrams of ginkgo and let's say 250 milligrams of quercetin. I know I'm be so insanely sharp for the next four hours that the world pray for because I'm going to kick some butt, you know what I'm saying? So, but that's me. Other people, that ginkgo would freak you out. Other people, based on their structure or how they consume, they're going to have to pump up, you know, carbs to 30%. I don't know what it is for you, but if you don't know specifically what it is for you, I want you to go on a hunt. I want you to get crazy about this and go, well, what is it? I want you to rotate dishes and meals and try it. I want you to, if anything, literally schedule time where you're going to measure this. You can say, okay, for the next three weeks from 2 o' clock to 4, that's going to be block time, mental performance time. And I'm going to really try for this many weeks, I'm going to try these different dishes at Lunch and this different supplement routine. And I'm going to rate myself from 2 to 4. How was my mental performance? And I'm going to look back at my diary and find which one it was. And I'm going to try it again. I'm going to try it again and try it again until you find it. Because I promise, when you find it, you outperform your peers who are just, you know, bumbling into a Starbucks sandwich, you know, or bumbling into something that's not good for them. And I know it too, right? And you're never going to get this exactly right. So don't be too hard on yourselves. Find your exacting meal plan for nutrition to optimize your performance. Very, very important. Also, you need to have your regular cleanse routine booked out over the next six months. A cleanse routine booked out for six months? I don't mean you cleanse for six months. I mean that if I showed up and I looked at your calendar, can you show me the times that you're fasting, the days that you're not going to eat, or the days that you're going to do a cleanse? Is it in here? Can I see it on your phone? And people ask me, well, how often should I do it? I can't tell you. Your nutritionist or your healthcare provider should do that. I have a particular opinion that most people need to do a cleanse on a monthly basis if they consume alcohol or high levels of processed foods. It's not true for everybody, so calm yourselves down. I'm not making blanket judgments. I'm saying my opinion, having worked with a lot of high performers and achievers, is that you need to have at least a cleanse routine every month. And that could be as simple as, you know what, I'm going to make sure that I don't eat, you know, two days of this specific week. I'm not going to eat from, you know, I'm going to have my dinner at 6pm and I'm not going to eat the next day until lunch. I'm just going to do a morning fast that I'm not going to eat anything else. 6pm then I'm just going to not eat anything all the way until the next day till noon or two. Okay, so you're basically skipping breakfast for two or three days. Maybe that's your thing. Or maybe say, you know what? I'm only going to juice for every month. I'm going to find three days that I just juice during those three days, nothing else but juice and Protein shakes, That's it. I don't know what yours is, but you should find the one that makes you feel alive, makes you feel amazing. Right? My personal one is I tend to every single month, I have about three days that I just do. Of those three days, I just do juice and protein. And it's not protein shakes, to be specific. Meaning I don't. For three days of a month, I don't consume food in the traditional manner. I might use my Vitamix and make an amazing juice smoothie kind of thing with some protein in it, but I won't consume other types of foods. That's for me. I find when I do that, I feel great. I find when I don't do that, I just feel a little heavier, a little more lethargic. And everyone has their own one. I just want to know, do you know yours and is it scheduled? I don't mean maybe I'll do one next month. I mean, what days next month? And I think that will truly serve you again. Find out what's appropriate for you. For some of you who are like, but Brendan, I'm a weightlifter. That wouldn't work for me. I'm like, cool. Work with your nutritionist to figure out what does some clean eating look like for you during the times that really matters for your performance or during times in which you need to recharge and re fresh. Okay, I hope that's helping you then. Last big challenge for each of you is to try something this week if it is appropriate for you. And that is increase intensity during your workouts. And this was a great suggestion somebody else gave me. They said, you know what, Brendan, I want you to decrease the amount of time you work out by 20%, but increase the intensity during the time that you have to work out by 20%. And I loved it. We called it the 2020 Challenge. I was like, that's really good. So for me, I like a longer workout. Knock that down by 20% and up the intensity by 20%. And I'd love to give you all if you'll take it. Your next 10 workouts, try cutting the time a little bit, but increasing by 20% your output. Now please consult your doctor, your physician, your medical examiner. Medical examiner like you died, but the person who is giving you great healthcare advice from a professional standpoint. I am not a doctor. I do not pretend to be one and I don't even pretend to know what's right for you. So please make sure that you consult your professional provider and ask them, how could I increase my intensity in my workouts. I think you might find that your workout routine has become routine. And a lot of folks, if they're not in group classes that push them or they're not in structured types of activities that immediately just by the nature of what they do, like a crossfit or HIIT training, increase or demand intensity, I think that can be a big challenge. So I am cheering you on to go to another level in the intensity in which you are meeting the things that you are doing. So those nutrition workout activities, find your exacting meal plan. This will change your life. Your exacting meal plan for your best mental or physical performance depending on what you do. Okay, number two, schedule that cleanse routine. When is it happening? This month, Next month? Next month, the next. Put it six months out. Don't say I'm going to do it in April. Brendon, when specifically in April. I promise you when we get to April in high performance month, you'll be like, brendan, thank you so much. I've been doing what you said and last try the 20 increase intensity challenge and I think you will find some extraordinary results and you'll feel pretty amazing. So we talk through a lot. We talked today about project planning, visualizing and socializing so you can avoid that procrastination. Set your brain up to automatically do the things that are important to yourself. We talked about making sure that you are delegating seven days in advance, finding your exact performance workout routine to make you good when the time counts. And we talked about make sure that you are very clear on your weekly outputs every single week. If we can just do those things. Some of those are basics. But imagine what if you were hitting on all cylinders on all nine of the strategies we discussed today. Like not your kind of casual what if on all nine of them or even four of them or six of them, but you just got better in each of these areas. Would it change your life? I'm here to say sometimes it's the simple things and all these are simple. You can do all of these. You can pat yourself on the back and say I did a good job at this, I'm proud of myself and you should give yourself that gift. And I want to thank you all for being here, taking some time out of your day. Thank you, my friends for joining us here for this discussion of motivation, high performance, making your performance your best. Implement these nine ideas. Don't just think about them, do them. These were all very tactical high performance training principles and practices that you got today. So put it into play, my friend. You deserve to perform at your best. The world needs you. The highest performing you.