In this motivational video, Brendon Burchard argues that modern technology deliberately creates powerful distractions that feel like pleasure, pulling us away from our dreams. He presents a simple yet powerful productivity system built around two pillars: dedicated block time and weekly deadlines, which he calls "Friday Finishers." Using the Growth Day app, viewers are instructed to schedule blocks, set a list of tasks to complete by Friday, and protect that time no matter what, thereby reclaiming weekends and avoiding the cascade of overwhelm that results from unscheduled work. Burchard illustrates common excuses for idle time, shares personal anecdotes about phone habits and separate work stations, and emphasizes the need for disciplined calendar management. He then connects this framework to four core human aspirations—greater aliveness, deep connections, meaningful pursuits, and continuous growth—explaining how disciplined scheduling supports each. Finally, he positions Growth Day as the world’s leading system for habit tracking, mindset journaling, goal setting, education, coaching, and community conversations, urging viewers to start their self‑improvement journey today.
Chapters
The distractions that they have built for us are so effing good. The world's best engineers are hired and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to make sure you add these distractions in. They made sure those distractions feel similar to celebration, enjoyment, pleasure, satiation, like they're working against you. You just have to decide who's going to win the battle. The distraction engineers or your soul and your dreams. You must have a block of time and you must have a deadline. And without those two things, when are you going to do this as a consistent practice and when is something due? Without those two elements, everything else we're about to talk about is so silly. So for those who don't know, we just call that block time and we call it weekly deadlines. I know, it's so simple. We call them Friday finishers. In growth Day, the idea that you should open up growth day, go to the plan section, type in Friday finishers, and set up a list of things that you will deliver or complete by the end of the week, no matter what. That's the battle for that week. Those things, I don't care if you have to change the schedule, move the calendar around, move blocks, those things get delivered or you die. Friday finishers. That way, when you finish by Friday, you actually get to have a Saturday and Sunday because you finished the most important things, you knew what they were. If you don't know the most important things to finish by end of day Friday, now it's your Saturday. Now it's your Sunday. Now it's on the plate of next Monday. And you're overwhelmed because my Monday after Monday after Monday, they stack and they stack and they stack because you never planned and planned and planned and now you say, ah, I'm so overwhelmed, why even try? And you're back in the cage every time. It's so predictable. So I need to block it. When is it gonna happen on a consistent basis? And what are the deadlines every week? If we can just get that. Just that rhythm down. Just that rhythm down, We've got you three months back. Who wants three months back? It's so easy. I mean, my most common complaint of all my executives are like, I had to learn how to fill the time again. That's the most. They're like, I don't. I don't know what to. I don't know what to do the time. I'm like, earn. I don't know what to do with the time lead. I don't know what to do with time. Talk to the Customers. I don't know. I don't do the time. Go on the yoga retreat. I don't. I don't know what to do at the time. Go to that vacation you wanted to go out. I don't know what to do at the time. Go to Montana. It's awesome. Please go to Montana. It's the best place ever. Every Montana in the room's like, you jerk. Don't tell them to come here. So can we agree block time is important, and we can agree deadlines are important. Okay. If I can't find them in your personal calendar, you are absolutely not going to stay high performing. You might stay interested, but you won't be impactful. You might say, I'm inspired, but you won't be high performing over the period of time because we just can't will ourselves into doing it, because the distractions that they have built for us are so effing good. You know, these things right here that they have built for you, these will dominate your psyche. They're better. The world's best engineers are hired and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to make sure you add these distractions in. They made sure those distractions feel similar to celebration, enjoyment, pleasure, satiation. Like they're working against you. They're working against you. So your block time is you taking life back, which you must do when you decide, I'm gonna own my dream. Everyone say, I own my dream. Turn to the person left and right. Shake them. Say you own your dream. Okay, I got it, Brendan. Okay, I'm picking this up, buddy. So you need me to get my calendar figured out? I'm like, yes. You need me to minimize distractions. I'm like, yes. Does anyone feel like this is common sense? Raise your hand. Actually stand up. If you can do better in these categories. Be honest. Stand up. Look around this room. Round of applause for honesty. Look around the room. Shake them again. Say you own your dream. All right, have a seat. We're doing the work. We're doing the work. Have a seat. Basic block and tackling. Basic offense. Fill that calendar up. And I'm actually. Okay, listen, you might go. But, Brendan, where's the time for fun? It's my old joke, right? It's like, I have that. I had this person in one of my groups who's like, the third most famous YouTuber in the world for yoga, and she's like, I'm working with her, and she's like, I just. I'm so frustrated because I'm so overwhelmed. And there's so much work in everything. And, you know, I'm just. And she's been telling about all her creative time and her freedom time and everything. She's trying to build that in. But now the business is getting bigger and she's got responsibilities and she's like, and now I don't have time for my yoga retreat. I used to go on yoga retreats and it filled me up and I never do them. I go, why don't you do them? She said, I don't have any time. I have. I have so much going on. I said, well, let me look at your calendar. We look at her calendar, there's all this unscheduled time. I go, oh, undisciplined yoga teacher have no time for a yoga retreat. It ain't hard, folks. You just have to decide who's going to win the battle. The distraction engineers or your soul and your dreams. You gotta decide who wins every day. It is a battle. It really is a battle. The average person picks up their phone more than a hundred times. It's so opposite. If you come to my house a hundred times in my house, we go, you know where my phone is? You have no idea. We leave it around for hours at a time, literally. Ask my team. They're like, hours at a time. I have no idea. I find my phone the weirdest places. You find it, like in the closet next to the shoes. Sometimes, like, it's so. It's such an unimportant item that we lose it all the time because we decide that's not going to define our lives. That's not going to fill our blocks. When it's time to work, we work. I have separate stations at my house of things that happen at the stations. This is in my office. This is the podcast table. This is the work and create and, you know, regular everyday office computer. This computer over here, it's just for zoom and broadcasts. That's it. Different little stations. And I know how much of my day is going to spend on those little different stations. And it's that simple. Like, we get so caught up. I just need you to fill your blocks of time better and further out. Know what you're working on. What matters. All human beings, what we really desire, once we get past sacred safety and sustenance, are these four aspirations. We want a greater sense of aliveness. That might mean presence, consciousness, awareness, vibrancy, passion, enthusiasm. We all want more of that. Some people call it adventure. Some people call it just the spice of life or joie de vivre, Whatever it is we want a sense of aliveness. The second aspiration we talked about was deep connections. That means your relationships. At the end of our lives, it's the relationships that matter so much to us. And we know from research that the deeper relationships you have, the longer we live. Third, meaningful pursuits. Some people get this through creating, some people get this through service. But I'm here to tell you the important phrase here is meaningful pursuits. You have to pursue something. We all want to get better, to become more, to be a better leader. A parent servant role model. That sense each day that we have something to do that matters. Growth Day. World's number one system for achieving it. We know from research. To improve your life long term, you got to track your habits, you need a mindset journal. You got to have a goal setting system. You need deep dive education, you need coaching. You got to have ongoing conversations with other people about your personal and your professional goals. Our goal for you is to help you make self improvement a way of life by giving you things that give you the guidance, the inspiration, the drive and the motivation to continue becoming more and more successful, healthy and happy in your life. Every day is a great day to grow. We say that every day in growth Day. Let's make this day the day you begin that journey.
