How To Accelerate Your Productivity
21 Jan 2021 · 24 min
Brendon Burchard lays out five moves to boost productivity before year's end: identify your Core Three activities and spend an extra hour daily on them, apply the Significant Growth Rule to new projects, drop any major initiative not started within 45 days, refuse commitments that compromise existing promises, and hire within 30 days to scale.
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Hello my friends.
I'm Brendon Burchard, host of the Brendon show and founder of growthday.com and I'm honored to be your high performance coach today. I believe that every day we can be inspired. We can live with intention and purpose. We can bring the joy and honor the struggles of each day to push ourselves to grow, to serve, to be a role model, to lead extraordinary lives. I believe that every day is a great day to grow. That's why I started my company, growthday.com it's an online personal growth platform where you can get me and the world's best personal development teachers live coaching you every week, sharing our wisdom, keeping you motivated and accountable, encouraging you to find the aliveness and the connection and meaning of life that we're all after. If you're not a member yet, please go sign up@growthday.com and join our huge worldwide community of achievers. For less than a dollar a day, you get the world's best teachers live every week. And look, you've probably known for a long time that you needed some expert guidance, an inspired community and life changing tools. So please, your breakthrough awaits you@growthday.com now let's get to today's episode. My friends, please listen closely. Maybe you take some notes so you remember these insights of personal growth and share this episode with three of your friends because we all have to share more positive messages in the world today.
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Now let's begin. I'm going to cover five things that are going to absolutely accelerate your ability to to get more done this year. And you're to love these. I'm going to help you prioritize. I'm going to help you quit some things, start some new things. I'm going to help you get yourself in order for the rest of the year. So I'm getting really serious right now and we're going to do a real strategic session with you and we're going to jump right in because I have a ton to give you today. First idea, remember these are five things to help you accelerate your achievement by the end of the year. Write them down in your journal and let's get in your head thinking about the rest of the year. Okay? Number one, big huge thing, one hour more per day on my core three, okay, I begin this every year. First move, I know I need to identify what are the core three things right now that have been bringing me results this year, the core three things. So as an example, cause I'm an entrepreneur, like many of you guys are in my business, I go, okay, what are the three primary revenue drivers we have right now? So my question is, what's been working? And I mean, absolutely working. What are the three absolute best things that are working for you in your business or your career or your personal life if you're not employed or not self employed? Like what's absolute? The three things that are so working for you. I want you to know what those three things are. And overall, I want you to give an hour every day more to a focus of one, two, or three, all three of those things. So let me give you an example right now, in my business, right, one of my core three is our book funnel. Like, so for me, as you guys know, as an author and a trainer, when I sell books, that's good for the business, we sell books. Then people want online courses, then they want to come to our seminars, or they might hire us for a coach, or they might hire me for speaking. But the book is a big core.
Three for the business, right?
And so right now I go, okay, I need every single day the rest of this year to give more time to that thing every day. Not on a Wednesday, not on a Saturday. Like every day. I need to check in the numbers, create a new ad, flip out a page. I need to lead my team better on it, something every day for that one thing make sense. So if you got three things, what I want, I want an hour more. So that means might be in 20 minutes, 20 minutes, you know, and you know, 20 minutes. So you're giving 20 minutes more each day, or maybe you just choose one and you're going to give that an hour more a day. But it's basically this one more work hour of the day focused on one of the core three. Got it? Write it down. This for you. I want you to start this today. Today, one more hour on focusing. I often call the core three or the needle movers, the primary three things that are working. I need an hour more from you a day for the rest of the year. And you will thank me for the next decade. You'll be like, oh, my God, Brendan. Because what happens is, and you know this, you're getting caught up in distraction. And so right now, people are lackadaisical and they're not focused on the right things. So I want you to think, where are you distracted? I want you to clear out the distractions. I want you to say, the core three things in my business are. And I need you to give an hour or more a day on those. Because right now, this time of year, I identify what's been working, and I kind of double down on those. Give them more. One hour more. Because think about, you know, maybe you're like a coach or, you know, a certified high performance coach or a business coach or a life coach. And you're like, I've been doing this one thing. It's been giving me most of my clients. I'm like, well, that would be one of the core 3. Do that more an hour a day, and then thank me two months from now. I need one more hour, guys. One more hour a day on the core three. So it's two parts here, right? You need to identify your core 3. What are the core 3 things that are working the best for you? And then how are you going to get that hour? And how are you going to divvy that up? Is that hour more each day? You're going to do 20 minutes, 20 minutes, 20 minutes for an hour a day? Or are you going to focus on, okay, this week, one hour a day more on this core number one. Next week, one more hour a day on core number two or three. I don't know what it is for you, but I need that hour, one more hour a day on the core three. Either all of them together or one at a time. One hour, guys. One hour. Second. Big idea. And I love this one significant growth rule. And here's what the significant growth rule means. I look at everything I'm doing right now, everything for my business right now, and I go, okay, of all these things I'm doing, which ones will lead to significant growth this year? Which ones will lead to significant growth this year? Everything else, everything else, I start pushing out on the calendar. Whether I push it out 2, 3, 4 months from now or. Or I push it till next year. But I do a real close look at all of my activities. I look at my partnerships, my relationships. I look at everything I'm doing in terms of marketing funnels or brand building or what I'm doing in the marketplace or what I'm doing in my career, and I go, which ones of these things are leading to significant growth? And if it's not leading significant growth, I need to minimize that time. Now, I know you might say, well, what's the difference between, like, a Core three and a significant growth rule. Well, the significant growth rule is for the rest of the year, right? The Core 3 you already know. The Core 3 are the three things you're already doing to getting results. The significant growth rule is all these new ideas people are going to give you and put on your plate, everyone's going to give you some more things to do, right? There's going to be new opportunities, and every new opportunity or every new idea your thing has to be at this time of year, will that lead to significant growth there this year? If it is, maybe you can add that on to your workload. Because remember, I'm just asking for an hour here, maybe you can add that on. But if a project comes your way and it doesn't lead to significant growth at this stage of the year, and it won't lead to significant growth the rest of this year, I'm out. I'm out. So I turned down two or three projects just last night from people. Good ideas, great ideas, but I know those won't lead to significant growth until next year. So I'm like, not till next year. Because I know that instead if I focus on these Things, the Core 3 or other projects that I do know lead to significant growth. In other words, significant growth is a way for you to prioritize and say, no, I don't want you taking on any new projects if you don't believe they'll lead to real growth by the.
End of the year.
Because you could just focus on these more, right? It's that old story of acres of the diamonds. You know, people travel all around the world looking for the treasure and working so hard looking for the new, new thing. And then they come home and one day they put the spade in the backyard and they dig up some diamonds, right? Often your next big breakthrough, you already, it's already in your yard. You know what I tell people all the time? You've probably already met the person who's going to help you generate your next hundred thousand dollars, your next million dollars. Like you already met. They're already in your network, but you're spending all this time to go do all these other things you already met the person who's going to make you your next million dollars or give you access to an audience or give you access to an opportunity. You've already met the person, but you're out there searching for new and you're accepting all these new ideas. And as you accept new ideas as a high performer, what does that do? That crowds out other things. And so from this day forward until the end of the year. I want you to have the significant growth rule. Will this project lead to significant growth by the end of the year? If not, table it. People say, but Brandon, I don't know. If I pass up that opportunity, it might not ever come around again. I'm like, what are you, 20 years old? Only 20 year olds believe that by the time you're 30 and 40, you kind of recognize things come and to your life in waves and in circles and in rhythms and you don't worry that one day you're going to run out of opportunities. That FOMO stuff, leave that to the 20 and 30 year olds. You're ready. You got it. Like the world is never going to dry up of opportunities on you one day, right? The only way that would ever happen is if your mindset closed out everything because of fear. But the world, man, have we ever lived in a time of more opportunity. So don't worry about saying no to something that isn't significant growth for you. Focus on your core three or everything else you're doing, your brand, your business that is working or could lead to significant growth.
Hey, it's Brendan and I want to jump in the middle of this episode here real quick and tell you about something I'm really excited about and something that answers a question that many of you have for me all the time.
Which is, Brendan, where do you get.
This crazy focus and energy in your life? And the truth is I've developed a supplement line that really helps me do that and frankly I needed to. I don't know about you, but sometimes when you're trying to achieve big things, a lot of stress comes along and as you're trying to achieve bigger things, you need to be on your A game more often. You need to be mentally sharp, you need to be mentally prepared, you need to be mentally energized and productive. And not once in a while, but like every day, you have to be on and sometimes guzzling more coffee isn't.
Going to do it. You have to use what we call.
Nootropics, which are, you know, basically supplements that help optimize your brain. And yes, we have a product for exactly that. It's called HPX Optimize and it is our most popular product. And you can get it, it's back in stock@HPX wellness.com that's HPX wellness.com you'll find HPX Optimize for your mental focus and energy.
There's.
You'll also find my favorite powdered energy drink that we created this 100% organic and vegan. And you'll find my essentials, which is my daily multi that I take, that covers my energy, that covers my longevity, that covers my immunity, that covers my brain and body health that I absolutely love. And you will feel the difference. Go to HPX Wellness.com right now. HPX Wellness.
Third big idea, which I love is my 45 day quit rule. I look at all my big project ideas, you know, I don't know about you, but I have a journal with all my big ideas in it, you know, or I have my vision board or I have an Excel spreadsheet of all these different ideas and projects I want to do. And I've got like, you know, right, as an example right now. I know my next six books I'm going to write. I know, I know my next three campaigns I'm going to launch, I know them. But here's what I have to force myself to do. And I don't like it. I say, okay, if this is a major project that I want to do, even if it could lead to significant growth, if I'm not going to start it, listen to this. If I'm not going to start it in the next 45 days, it's off my plate until next year. I just get real. And I'm like, okay, well if that's not gonna. If I'm not gonna start on this thing, I'm not gonna do it. And I literally just take it from my journal in my little bucket of things I want to do this year. And I feel so mentally relieved. A lot of people have a lot of anxiety about the number of projects they have on their plate that they really want to do. And so what ends up happening is that anxiety leads to a lot of procrastination. That anxiety leads to a lot of poor prioritization because there's so much to do. They're like, oh my God, there's so much to do here. So I won't do any of it. Ever had that? Have you ever found yourself in front of Netflix going, oh my God, I have so much to do. But I just watched the fourth video in the third season. Has that ever happened? You have so much to do, and that's the problem. You have so much to do that you haven't prioritized what you are going to do, so you don't do anything. So what I do is this time of year, I look at all those things that are on my plate and I get honest. Which ones am I going to Start in the next 45 days. And if I'm not going to start the next 45 day now, it's not even on my mental concern. It's not even on my dashboard. No anxiety there. No. Oh, my God. I still got to get that one in. Nope, it's gone. You know, it's like one of our clients and friends, Arianna Huffington, always says, you know, the best way to complete a project is to quit it. You know, just like, well, I'm done with this. Just stop. And now all the mental concerns, like, once you allow yourself to release from a project, it's so freeing. And now your mind can go back to these two. What's going to be significant growth and what's going to be my core three. And now life gets easier because when you clarify, when you prioritize and you take like 50 things, when you take a list of 50 things down to.
Three or five.
Confidence comes back in. Motivation comes back in. Focus comes back in. Many people lose their focus because they have too long of a to do list. That's not realistic, that's not motivating. That's honestly full of a lot of things that are like six months out. I'm like, get rid of those if they're six months out. Don't have them on your to do list anymore. Go park, open, have a journal. That's your January 1st journal. And go park them in there like a parking lot. Take those projects and ideas. That's my January 1st. It's not even on my mental concern anymore. I have tons of that frees me. It's like, how come, Brendan, how many of you get so much done? I'm like, I'm not worried about the things I'm not getting done. How do you get so much done, Brendan? I'm not worried about the things I'm not getting done because I parked them. They're over there. They're not on my mental dashboard. Clarity, confidence, motivation, focus comes back in. That's the 45 day quit rule. I encourage you to challenge yourself to try it. Fourth big idea, the deliver excellence rule. This is another prioritization move for me. It's like, okay, someone throws a big opportunity to me, it could lead to significant growth. I could get it going, but it compromises the deliver excellence rule, which is, wait, if I take on these, anything here, would that prevent me from delivering what I already promised the best that I could. Like for me, I'm very stretched in my schedule. I mean, very stretched. I got to get a lot done during the Day. Big team, big brand, big business, big clients. I got to be man, I got to be good. But lots of great opportunities come my way. That could be significant growth this year. But then the second level of that evaluative tool is to say, huh, if I do that though, will that steal away from something I already promised to somebody I care about or who's important to our business? Will that make me fail to deliver what I wanted to deliver? And so I got to be honest and I got to prioritize. And I am like, if you saw how much I work. To prioritize things doesn't mean I don't leave things. I mean, I'm sure my team could tell you 100 things I haven't done that I'm supposed to or whatever. So it doesn't mean I'm perfect. It just means I work really hard at it. I'm very diligent and focused on it because I got people counting on me. I got you. And I know you got people counting on you too. If something comes up and it's like this great idea, but you're honestly, it doesn't lead to significant growth or you're not going to start at park it. But also if it is something that you could get going and it would lead to significant growth, but it's going to screw up what you already promised. Don't break your integrity. Put that thing back in that parking lot. It will give you so much mental freedom. Your tendency high performer to over commit yourself is actually stealing from your ability to make good choices, to feel the day, to win the day. And so you've got to kind of reevaluate where you're at and what you're doing. I had a call a couple days back where someone had so many good ideas of what we could do and the person kind of, they had been in my life maybe, you know, five, six years ago, kind of reemerge, hey, let's do all these things and we'll make all this money and we'll do all these things. And I had to go, you know what? I actually would love to work with you. It's not going to happen this year. The person goes, but you have all year. I go, that's right, I've got all year. That was previously planned before you showed up out of nowhere, dude. So you got to be willing to tell people, I'm sorry, with your fancy new idea that seems like an emergency or so important. Not this year. This is the phrase I want you to write down in your journal. Not this year, you got to get good at that right now. That is why right now, you need to begin this practice. Not this year. But I am here to tell you, this is the time to really evaluate what can you deliver. And because you can't deliver everything with excellence, this is the time to go to that core three, Deliver that. Pick one or two projects that might deliver extra significant value. Cool. If you're not going to start it next 45 days or it's going to compromise, deliver excellence, you're going to write this down. Not this year. And I'm telling you. Does it feel like just. I know you're sitting at home and maybe this is a little weird, but just. Just say it with me. Not this year. Does that feel good? You know, your neighbor comes around, someone comes to your business, hey, why don't you do all these things? You're like, not this year. It feels so good. It's just like, I think I'm gonna say it all day. I think I'm just walk into the next restaurant, and they'll be like, would you like something to eat? I'm just like, not this year. It just feels so good to say. I mean, just start saying it to random people. Not this year. I'm sure some of you put on a T shirt or on a hat. Not this year. It's like, no, just not gonna happen. That is going to make you so much more accomplished by the end of the year. Getting in a rhythm right now. Not this year. Because I know that we live in a culture that's very different. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. I'll take it on. You know, it's never say no to everything. Say yes to everything. Well, you know what? Saying yes to everything was awesome pre Internet. I loved that rule. Yes to everything. Absolutely. Before the Internet. No, not even close.
Never.
One of my favorite things. You've been thinking about hiring somebody. You haven't done it yet. I know you've been thinking about it. Trust me, I've been thinking about it. We've been working hard. I just had a call yesterday for someone who's going to help me onboard. 10 people in this office. Like, that's scary to me, but it's like, finally weaponized, done. So what I want you to do is have that in place. And so hire. If you've been waiting for that virtual assistant one day, honey, I'll hire a virtual assistant. Hire him. Go on the Internet tonight. Get it done. Set up the meeting. I've needed to hire four more sales managers. Okay. Call that headhunter company. Go out to that contracting agency, contact them tonight or tomorrow morning and get that in motion. There's no reason you need to be urgent about hiring now. Now, don't do what everyone else does. Here's what happens. They get back to work and maybe I'll hire somebody. And they hire somebody. But it takes, you know, maybe 30, 60 days to onboard them. And now that person is really, you know, they're just getting almost always, almost decent, like almost good. And they're gone for a week and then they're back for 10 days and now what? So you get it. It's really important. If you've been thinking, if you're going to hire at all this year, I want you to do it in the next 30 days. If you're going to hire at all this year, force yourself, challenge yourself. Put it on your agenda. Get it done in the next 30 days. You will thank me all the rest of this year.
Okay, my friend, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Brendon Show. Tell some people about this episode. It's on each of us to spread positivity and empowerment during these times of chaos and negativity.
Right?
So I'm asking you to be the dealer of hope and personal growth and education in your tribe. So take a screenshot right now and share the screenshot and this link to this episode with three of your friends today. Post it on social media. Use the hashtag growthday. That's Growthday, because that's the name of my company and we're always giving away prizes to our community. If you'd like to help me personally, then please rate and review the podcasts on Apple podcasts. Give us some stars, cheer us on, leave a review. Because believe it or not, that stuff actually really does help. And I read all of them. So my last thought for today, please remember you are stronger than you think and the future holds good things for you. Tomorrow can be an inspired day.
Every new morning is a second chance. Every day is a great day to grow.
We're thankful to have you here in the growth day community. So be sure to go deeper with us@growthday.com. Sam.