596. How to get more done

What we tend to do is focus on the things that feel urgent instead of really understanding what the important things are. Welcome to the Earn your happy podcast. I'm Lori Harder, founder of The Bliss Project, 3 Time Fitness World champion, fitness expert and cover model turned self love junkie, lifestyle entrepreneur and author. Each week I'll bring you a guest or a thought that will help you bust through your fears, connect to your soul, and get focused and clear so you can elevate your life, business, and relationships. We don't wait until we're ready for someone to tell us we're good enough. We take what we want and we anoint ourselves. Get ready to earn, own, and unapologetically rock your happiness every single day. Are you with me? Here we go.

All right.

And we're back with another episode of.

He said, she said.

I can't believe that name stuck. Anyhow, today we're going to talk about something really awesome that everybody struggles with. Ready for it?

I'm ready for it.

Are you scared?

No, I'm not scared. We could also name this, like the RV adventures, because we're sitting in the RV right now.

We are, but I don't think that's as cool of a name.

No.

Okay, let's get to the topic so we don't waste people's precious time. And the topic today is, how are we so damn productive? And that's like me giving props sometimes.

I'm not, but I. I want to talk about this.

Yeah.

Because you don't have to be productive 1 million percent of the time. 100% of the time. Right. You, like, make sure that you are being productive in the right way.

Yeah.

I think a lot of people get that confused.

Well. Well, they do. And here's the other thing. They get confused. I get so many messages. Here's what I want to talk about today. I get so many messages like, how do you guys get so much done? How do you get so much content out? How do you guys fit it all in? How do you. How are you guys on the road for a month and still able to do all this right? And the first thing I wanted everybody who's listening to know is stop comparing yourself. Because we have a team and we've been doing this a long time. And what you see coming out on social media and on the podcast and all that stuff does not reflect reality. Let me repeat this. What you see does not reflect reality. Now, that's not intentional. I mean, we're pretty damn open books. But when you see so much content coming out A lot of it is content that's being repurposed by our team. A lot of it is content that's being cut up when we just record something once. A lot of it is content where you and I are last minute, frantically be like, babe, we got 19 minutes left. Let's just get this episode out. Yeah, that's what it really looks like. And so stop beating yourselves up, because the absolute truth is this. And both Lori and I, I think, feel this way. I'll speak for myself. You can speak for you. I feel like every day I set out to get 10 important things done, and I get about five, and then I beat myself up over it.

Oh, my God. I just said this to you on the walk, which, by the way, is another productivity hack, is that we literally go on walks and work things out, and we set things that we'll do on the walk. Like, okay, we know we need to make this decision, so let's make sure by the end of this walk, we make this decision Decision. But for me, same exact thing, Chris. Like, I beat because I have a to do list, which I tell everybody against, and it has 50 things on it. I get, like, you five or 10 done. And then the rest I just feel bad about. But I have to tell you that I do the things that are most important on there, and it's the things that I. Looks like we're moving to the next section. It's the things that I literally know will move the needle. So it's the things that I ask myself every single day. I wake up and I'm like, what do I have to do today? What are the things that are absolutely the most important thing for moving my business forward? Not the thing that makes me feel good about myself or like, I did something, but I didn't really, because there does come a point where reading another personal development book on your business or reading another business book is not actually moving your business forward. Or listening to another business podcast or.

Except this one. Oh, this one always moves your business forward.

This one. You stay tuned to this one or else. You share this one on social media.

Or else.

So with that said, you really have to start asking yourself the tough questions of, like, what do I have to face today? What is that? What is it? Brian Tracy says, eat that frog. What is that thing that I have to do? That is the hardest thing, but it's going to be the thing that moves my business forward the most. And I try to do those earlier in the day when I have the most energy and willpower. Because it's very rare that after about 3:30 or 4:00', clock, I'm going to be able to write those challenging emails or I'm going to be able to do that, that big ask that really scares me of that person, or write that really intentional, thoughtful email that's gonna hit somebody in the heart and make them wanna lean in or be a part of a project that I'm wanting to do. So I really have to get real with myself and be like, okay, these are the three hardest things I have to do today and I need to do them right now. And they're the most important things and they're the biggest things. And then honestly, I feel like an embarrassing amount of small things go by the wayside. Like sometimes I'm really. Like, sometimes I won't answer emails for four days. And that's not good. Yeah, that's not good. But it's also. Here's the thing, I just, I literally was just reading or listening to. We were listening to Masters of Scale and I'm trying to think of the. Who does that? Who does that podcast. It's the guy who started.

Founder of LinkedIn.

Founder of LinkedIn.

Escaping me.

Anyhow, anyway, he's freaking amazing, but he was talking about the most successful people with businesses let fires burn. And I think that's one of the fires, quote unquote, that I'm letting burn is sometimes I can't get to my email or I don't get to any of my DMs, or I just do like 10 or 20 DMs a day because those are the things that are not moving my business forward right now. So while they do, they're not the biggest things, they're not the most pressing and important.

So you know me, I always like to kind of sum things up. A new tip. So is this what I'm hearing out of you? You basically only do the needle moving activities first. Like you put those first in the day and then the way you select those, basically you're saying, what's the most important thing for my company right now? Or what's the most important thing for my day right now? Is that right?

Yeah, I decide what's most important in my life right now. Like what is my goal? Or I know what my goal is. And I look at my day and I say, what are the things that I must do in order to move this forward?

I like it. So here's why I think I'm so productive. I live and die by my calendar. And I mean I live and Die by. You can't talk to me during the business week, really, any of the days, unless you are on my calendar. And here's the guys.

I schedule time with him.

He does. She does. Sorry. She does. Lori puts herself on my calendar for meetings about light pink. She puts herself on the calendar, like, when we have to talk through something or she needs help maybe crafting some emails or something. That's how serious I am about my calendar. Because during the day, I only do things that are penciled in on my calendar at that time. And it helps me, number one, not be overwhelmed, because it feels system, like, systematic to me. I'm able to work through this list of things. I know when they're happening, I know what's coming up, and I can see the progress I'm making as the day goes on. Number two, we have so many things that we could say yes to that. When I live and die by my calendar, if there's not room, I can't say yes to it. And so there's many times where people are like, hey, I've got this really cool thing I want to do with you, or I want to catch up with you on. I'm like, great, I'm four weeks out. And they're like, what do you mean you're four? Like, we can't catch up for four weeks. And I'll say, yeah, I can't catch up for four weeks. I'm so sorry. I got a lot going on right now. It's the next opening on my calendar. Now here's how serious I am. I even do this with friends. And you might hear this, be like, what? That's a horrible friend. No, it makes me a good friend because I strategically am able to choose who to say yes to and who is not going to be a great use of that space on my calendar. And so it makes sure that I'm only creating space for either the business partners or friends that are most important to me and most important to our mission. So I literally live and die by my calendar. Nothing happens if it's not on there.

So for me, another hack productivity hack is working out. And this might seem like, well, yeah, we all know working out is great, but to be honest with you, like, this morning, I couldn't work out because I had a doctor's appointment early this morning, and I just noticed the lack of energy and my mood was just, like, total shit. And I had a really big work day today. Like, I had so many things I wanted to get done, like, every day. But today I really, really, really was focused on getting some very big things done. And I probably only got half done because my energy was so sluggish. And it was just a reminder of, you don't get a choice if you want to go for that walk or workout. Like, you're not going to be the person that you want to be or reach your goals if you don't take care of yourself and go for walks and create the energy. So don't fool yourself. It's not taking time from your day. Like, if that's what you've been telling yourself, like, oh, I don't have time and the energy to work out. That is what's taking away your energy is the fact that you are not working out and you're not going for a walk or you're not doing the thing that creates willpower, whether that's walking or meditating or, you know, meeting up with a girlfriend and going for a walk, whatever that looks like. But it's absolutely my, it's got to be. My number one biggest productivity hack is making sure that I go move my body.

I see such, such a difference in you. Like, for people, like, that's lame advice. No, it makes or breaks her. She is a different human being if she moves her body and gets those endorphins first in the morning versus if she doesn't. And the way we prove that is sometimes once in a great while, and I'm telling you so rare that Lori doesn't get up and we don't get our workout in, you know, to start the day, but once in a while it happens. And when I can tell that she's having one of those days, we'll go for a walk or a run. Typically it's a jog in the afternoon and when we come back, you have twice the energy, twice the ability, twice the happiness, twice the everything. It's like you're ready to finish the rest of the day. So total game changer. Okay, here's probably my last tip for why we're so damn productive. I delegate like a boss. I have no qualms, no problems, no hesitations around making sure I'm asking other people to do things for me. Maybe to a point where people are like, wow, you ask everyone to do everything for you. Damn right I do. Because I understand the value of my time. I mean, you guys, if you listen to my show, you know, I've always taught you got to figure out what your hourly value is. And then if it's not joy producing or income producing at that value Then you have an obligation, an obligation to actually let somebody else do that, delegate it to somebody else, or you're going to be pulling yourself away from your financial and monetary goals. One hour or one task at a time.

Yep.

And so you have three ways. If you're like, well, I don't have your money yet, don't worry, we don't take excuses here. We only take American Express. So. So if you're like, well, I don't have your kind of money yet to hire things out, you have three options to delegate. So that's not an excuse. Number one, the obvious option is higher, right. But for a lot of people, that's not a possibility right now. So option number two is trade. You have skill sets and things and abilities that other people wish that they could have and they're not ready to pay for it yet. And other people have skill sets, you know, things and abilities that you wish you had that you should be delegating, that you can't afford to hire out yet, so you should be bartering. Like, go check out my friend Tata's site, barter and be Com. It's amazing. It's a whole bunch of women bartering their services before they're ready to be hiring some of these things out. Right. So option one, hire it out. Option two, barter or trade it out. Option three is call in favors. If you're living life right, then you should have a circle of influence that is willing to do favors for you. Everything from friends to family to business partners, you name it. If you treat people right, they're going to be there to do favors for you to take some heavy lifting off your plate. So those are your three options for delegating. And I've got a rule of thumb as to when you need to start investing some of your money into actually hiring out help. It's the 20% rule. So here's the problem. Most people, when they start their own business, they think every dollar they take in is income. It's not, it's revenue. And out of that revenue, some of it is income. But a lot of it is supposed to be going back into the business. And so the 20% rule when it comes to getting help is this 20% of the money that you are taking in should go towards you reinvesting into people that do a lot of the heavy lifting for you and take things off your plate. So, for example, if you're just getting started and you're making five grand a month, then 20%, $1,000 a month should go towards Hiring a remote part time assistant. When you get up to 10 grand a month, then 20%, about $2,000 a month should go towards a full time or, sorry, a part time assistant either in person or remote. So two grand a month. When you get up to 20 grand a month, right, you're making $240,000 a year. 20% then is about $4,000 a month. That's a full time employee or it's two part time employees. So that's your rule of thumb for knowing how and when you should be hiring and redirecting some of that money to take the heavy lifting off you so you have more time, more energy to do the things you're good at. Therefore grow your income and hit your goals faster.

Yeah, I love that. I would say my very last tip and you've already touched on it a little bit is just saying no.

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Yeah. You're like, I've watched you exercise your no muscle like I've never seen before.

It is the hardest thing that I've ever done though. I think especially as a female, it's kind of like we feel like when we say no to people, we're afraid we won't get love or we won't be liked or we'll be viewed as selfish or whatever that looks like. But you got to decide who your, you know, your five or your three most important people are that you want to say yes to. What what those really important friendships are or those really important business relationships are that you're going to kind of focus on helping out. And you have to decide to just yes to those people and say no to everybody and everything else because you just don't have the time. You guys, we live in this world that is so completely connected and distracted that you could essentially be busy all day doing everybody else's stuff, right? Or commenting to a million other people or answering every email on someone else's agenda or every single dm. Like just because you Put up a post that did so well. It doesn't mean that now what you're gonna have to do is comment back to every single person when you have major things you need to be doing behind the scenes to move your. To really, truly start making money or make more money or move your business forward. And what we tend to do is focus on the things that feel urgent instead of really understanding what the important things are. So you have to let those urgent things kind of burn. So that goes back to that fire. You have to let those things, you know, kind of just sit there and you have to know what's important and go and do those. And that's what everybody does. It's not that we get everything done, it's that we get the most important things done. And you build up a tolerance to allowing some things fall by the wayside or wait. And that doesn't feel good to do. It doesn't feel good to, like, let things sit like, I know right now, Chris, you don't like that your DMs are overflowing. It's driving you nuts. But your tolerance has gotten better to knowing that you're doing the important things while letting the things that aren't necessarily most important right now, you know, get your attention.

Yep. So there you go, guys. Five tips, ways, methods, whatever you want to call it that Lori and I use to be extra productive. We are not as productive as you think we are, but we are actually more productive than the average human to the point where it was absolutely worth teaching. I hope that this leads to a life full of productivity and success for you and hit us up. Lori doesn't like when I say in the DMs, so tag us on Instagram with your takeaways from this. Your favorite parts of this. We always love sharing those.

Thank you guys. Until next time, we'll see you. Thank you guys so much for spending this time with me on the earn your happy podcast. I am so glad that you stopped by. If you could take one second to share this episode with someone you think would love it, that would be absolutely amazing and we would be forever grateful. Also, please leave us a review if you feel so moved by going to itunes and leaving us an honest thought and honest comment. Tell us what you think, tell us what you want to hear more of. It would really help us out on our journey to helping thousands and thousands of people. Until then, don't forget to earn your happy. Thanks again, guys. Bye Bye.

Sam.