TES 086 - How to Be More Productive

Hey there, real quick before we jump into the episode, listen, if your earnings treadmill hasn't set you free yet, running faster won't either. Listen, hustle without principles just going to burn you out. So here's what I want for you. I want you to join me for my money machine experience live. It is three free trainings. Deep dive into how to escape the treadmill and build a money machine that actually works for you. All right, grab your spot here by going to moneymachinelive.com and I'll see you in the free training. Hey there everyone. Mel Abraham here, the author of the number one best selling book the Entrepreneur Solution and the founder of Thoughtpreneur Academy where we teach you how to brand yourself as an influencer so you can have more impact, more income and more freedom. And welcome to this episode of the Entrepreneur Solution show. In this episode we're going to talk about what I call the productivity spheres. How do you become more productive and the rituals that come about. This question came up in a recent one on one mentoring with one of my high level clients and also asked this in my live event where, you know, what are the rituals that I go through to make sure that I'm productive and successful? And so that's what we're going to tackle in this episode. There's an action guide that goes along with this called the Productivity Ritualizer. If you want to download that, go to melabraham.com session086. You'll be able to download the action guide. Work along with me. Make sure that you're using the same templates and tools that I use each and every day in my business for myself and with my clients. Now, if you're not at your computer, if you're not sitting in front of your computer where you can download it, that's all right. Just take your phone out, text me myLegacy, one word, no spaces. MyLegacy to 38470. I'll send you the download link so you can follow along. Get get the same tools and templates that I've used again with my high level clients and with myself. So why don't we jump in and let's get started. So let's jump into the 10 productivity spheres and the productivity ritualizer in this so we can kind of figure out what it takes. What I want to talk about is really how do you build success rituals in our life? And rituals are an interesting thing. We talk about it and some people may think about it in the context of religious rituals, but rituals are habits. They're things that we do on a regular basis that get us a certain level of results. And every entrepreneur that I know that is truly, truly successful, that is at the highest level of success, I find that they have rituals. They have things that they do in the mornings, during the day and in the evenings that are consistent. That's systematic. So I'm going to give you a process. In some of the rituals that I've used. This. This, like I said, came out of a question that was asked to me saying, you know, what do you do each and every morning? What do you do when you get up? What do you do before you go to sleep? What do you do to make sure that you're successful and productive? And so what we're going to deal with is just that. Here's the interesting thing. If we don't get rituals right, if we don't understand what we're doing, how we're doing it, why we're doing it, ultimately we find ourselves really in a confused state where we. We're spotty. We're going from one place to the next place, and we don't know why, and we don't know where, and we don't know necessarily what we're doing. So we're extremely confused in the process. And through that, we find that we're totally unfocused. Ultimately, we're in a place where we're not focused on anything. In fact, we're like that kind of that what I call an ADHD gnat that's flying around or the moth to a flame that you go to one light, you go to another light. The shiny ball syndrome. And so we're completely unfocused. And when you're unfocused as an entrepreneur, when you're unfocused as an individual, getting results becomes sporadic. It becomes problematic because you're not directed, you're not intentional, you're not making and taking steps and things that need to go to get to a point. Think about this.

When we need to do. When they do laser cutting of metal, for instance, that laser is very, very thin, very, very concentrated, very, very focused. That's what we need in our life to really make the successes, the productivity successes possible, is that the more laser focused we are, the more directed we are, the more accomplishments and achievements we're going to find that we make. The other thing that happens if we don't get this right is that we ultimately end up with no results because we're all over the place. I mean, we're A patchwork of action with no real direction. And so the key is that we got to get this right, otherwise we're not going to get through this, or the results that we get are not going to be at the level that we want them. The results that we get are not even going to be in the ballpark of where we want them. So the key here is a couple things, because when we get this right, one, we have clarity. When we figure out what those rituals are, when we figure out what those productivity elements are, we find clarity in it. In other words, we go from confusion to clarity in that sense that we go. I know that's the direction I need to go. That's what I need to accomplish. That's what I need to do to move me to that point. The other thing that happens when we get this right is everything we do is intentional. Every step we make, every move we make is with a specific result in mind that it is intentional. You know, too often I see individuals and entrepreneurs that literally will just kind of go at the whim of the winds. And when you go at the whim of the winds, then where you are going to end up is haphazard. It's where you're going to end up. It's going to be at the whim of the winds. And if I have a destination, if I want to go from point A to point B and that's the destination I want to get to, then I need to make some intentional decisions and choices along the way to keep me on that line towards that destination of point B. Otherwise, if we happen to get to the destination, it's purely coincidental. And so what I'm going to invite you to do is to be very intentional with your actions, very intentional with your decisions on what you do and. And even more intentional with your decisions of what you don't do. In fact, that's the thing that will probably drive you the furthest the fastest is to be able to say, this is something that doesn't move me from point A to point B in a fast way, therefore, I'm not going to do it. Saying no is probably one of the biggest choices that you can make to move that forward. And ultimately, if we get the clarity right and we get that intentional decision making, we find that we start to complete tasks, we start to get to the finish line, we start to get accomplished, we start to get to the goals that we're trying to get to. Instead of being confused, unfocused, and haphazard results, we actually get the Results that we're looking at. And so that's the reason why this is important. So we can gain clarity, we can gain focus, we can be intentional with what we do, and we can get to completion. So if that's why it's important, what do you need to know? And these are the keys that I think really start to drive things in the process. And these are the three principles that I want you to take away here. First is your focus precedes action. And a lot of times we just, in our energy and our excitement to want to do something, we just want to jump in and get it done. Here's what I invite you to do is instead of just jumping in to get it done, take a moment to sit back, get the clarity, focus on what it is that you're trying to accomplish, then take action. So get the clarity first, focus second, and then take action. That's why the first principle is focus precedes action. In other words, before we take action, we got to know where we want to go. It's like that racer, just before they start the race, they are intense. They're focused on what they got to accomplish. They have an intentional direction. They know what they're, what they got to do next, what they got to do after that, and what their ultimate outcome is. But they get focused first before the race starts, before they take action. So focus precedes action. The second principle I want you to take away is to realize that actions don't equate to completion. We can be busy, but we may not be making progress. The idea is that we need to be busy with the things that are going to create progress or things that are going to move us intentionally in the direction of where we want to go. And so the next, that one principle is to realize that action doesn't equate to completion. So we need to take those actions that move us closer to completion. And then the third principle is to do this, is that fulfillment is really your true currency. A lot of people will sit back and say, oh, I want to make money, I want to make money and I get it. And money is a scorecard. Money is a big deal in the sense of measurement of success. But what we're really searching for is that fulfillment.

Really looking at how do we set up those rituals, how do we set up our days, how do we set up that process to build fulfillment into the process versus just profits? So those are the three key elements that I want you to know, which leads us to the next piece, which is okay if that's the case. How do you do it? So I want to introduce you to the ten spheres of productivity. And these are the kind of the ten aspects, the ten things that I do each and every day, five in the morning, five in the evening. And it'll set you up for success not only in the current day, but it'll establish a pattern for each and every coming day the way you do it. So we're going to jump into this. I'm going to walk you through this worksheet. We'll jump to the iPad and do that so you understand what those 10 productivity spheres are. So let's get into the iPad and see what that is.

Here's the thing. What I do is I try to do some things first thing in the morning when I get up, and then last thing in the evening. And then the in between the morning rituals and the evening rituals is just my productivity time. It's when I am doing and taking the actions that I need to take. The first thing that I'll typically look at typically do is.

In the mornings I wake up early. Typically between, depends between 5am and 6am, 6:30 maybe. On the late side, my wife, she sleeps. She sleeps a little later. Not much, but she sleeps a little later. So I'll just come downstairs to my office or I'll go out on the balcony watching the water. And the very first thing I do is what I call my creativity time. And so this is my time.

To be creative.

It's where I find that most of my writing is best, Most of my thinking is best. And so what I'm doing is capturing that creativity. Now sometimes it's going to be just me doodling frameworks or thoughts, or writing in a journal or a diary, or maybe it's actually drafting emails and blog posts and specific writing that is involved, or creating coursework or creating additional trainings for you, or building out another podcast or session or YouTube session such as this for the Entrepreneur Solution Show. But what I found is that for me, and you may be a little different, you may say I'm more creative in the afternoons and you'll move these fears around. But I think you need to have these fears in place and do them as rituals, which are things that you're going to do each and every day. And so the first piece for me is this creativity piece is that I'm going to take the time when my mind is fresh. I haven't been impacted by phone calls, by reading or anything like that. And I'll take that time to create and to write and to do those things that are meaningful to me.

The second sphere of productivity, and I think that this is huge for a lot of folks if we do this right, is what I call my exercise time.

Now, inevitably, inevitably, I typically will go and work out between five and six days a week, and I'm either gonna go to the gym or I'm gonna run on the beach, or I'm gonna do some sort of cardio. Typically, my workouts are somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour and a half on the day, and depending on what it is I'm doing. But I. I find that once I've done the creativity work, then to energize me and bring that vibrancy in, one of the things that I want to do is go out and do some exercise. One, when I do exercise, I put the headphones in, and I'm either going to be listening to music and thinking as I'm doing that, or I'm going to be listening to a specific podcast or some. Something that's going to keep me in focus and in tune. So I'll go over to the gym and get some exercise in. I feel energized by the time I get back, and now I'm ready to kind of tackle that the day, if you will, in doing that. And so you may find again, that some folks like to exercise in the afternoon. I got into the habit of exercising in the morning primarily because what I used to do is consistently exercise in the morning, and then I did martial arts in the evening, so I couldn't exercise in the evening at the gym. So I still work out in the morning, and I'll do some other stuff in the evening. I'll even do more exercise in the evening at times. But I want you to block out creativity. Time, exercise time. My time is in the morning. I think it's a great time to try it. If you don't have a specific preference, follow what I'm doing and see how it fits for you. And then make some tweaks. Once I'm done with exercise time. And these are the rituals that I do each and every morning. Once I'm done with exercise time, then it comes down to what I call.

Team time. Okay, is there things. Are there things that my team is waiting for? People on my team that need, you know, does Jeremy need something? Does Denise need something? Does someone else need something from me? Whether it's an email, a phone call, a yes, a no, a review of a contract, a review of something, a review.

Are they Sitting and waiting on stuff. They're not probably sitting and waiting or anything for me. But the bottom line is, do they need something from me? Do I owe them a phone call, a written response? So one of the things that I'm going to do immediately, once I'm done with exercising and ready to hit kind of get into the work and the productivity mode, is I'm going to search my email box for things from my team members, see what they need, see if I can answer those so I can keep them moving forward and keep them productive. Also, I'm going to look at do I need to make any kind of phone calls or give them resources that they need? Do I need to make a call on their behalf, an introduction on their behalf? So I'm going to take this moment. It could be literally five minutes, it could be 15 minutes, it could be an hour. We'll talk about the timing of some of this in a moment. But I'm going to do the things that my team needs right away. And so then I go from team time, if you will, to what I call.

Strategy time.

This is the time that I get a chance to sit back and look at my strategies. What do I have in place that's working? What do I have in place that maybe isn't working so well? And then I got to tweak. What are the tweaks that I need there? Resources that I need? Are there, people I need to talk to to develop that, to really start to build it. What do I need to do? What strategies am I working on? Now, those of you that know me know that I work in 90 day sprints. So I typically have a 90 day plan with in that 90 day plan is typically three maximum four projects that need to get done and then some action items in there. So my strategy is all penciled out for every 90 days and that's what I'm really working on. I'm going to review my strategy. I'm going to review where I'm at. I'm going to review the action items that are in that strategy and what I need to get done to move the needle. Everything that I'm going to focus in on during this ritual time is what are the needle movers, what are the things that I heard this saying? What's the small hinge that swings the big door? What's that small hinge that I need to take care of that's going to allow me to move in great strides towards my goal, which leads me to this next piece. And it's what I call MIF time.

This is where I now go from this. Now by this point, the only emails, the only things that I've typically done are for my team or anything related to my strategy. That's it. I'm not digging in. I'm not going into anything with respect to Facebook, although part of my strategy is Facebook. So I will do a live or something like that when it comes to that. But MIF the myth time is what I call most important first. So a lot of times we find, and it's really interesting when I talk to entrepreneurs or I talk to some of my clients, when we start to say, I said what do you think you should be doing? And it's usually the thing that they're procrastinating and they know that they should be doing it and it's the most important thing first. So I want to take everything and I want to rank them and I'm going to do the most important thing first because that's the needle mover, that's the small hinge, that's the thing that's going to swing the big door or move the needle the furthest, the fastest. So we're going to do most important first and we're just going to keep going down that list. All right. The key behind all of this is that I will typically not exceed 90 minutes in any block. I work in 90 minute increments, but I'll think about 30, 60, 90 because I want to get up, I want to keep the energy flowing. So never will I cross 90 minutes. I will sit down, I will set an alarm, I will look at the time, I will do something that every 90 minutes that allows me to get up, move around, refocus, re, energize, get my blood flowing if I'm sitting down and do that. So be aware of the time. Doing lengthy three hour marathons isn't going to be productive for you. So I'm going to invite you to do think in terms of 90 minute increments. 30, 60 or 90 minute increments and do that. So that's my morning routine, creativity, exercise, team strategy, the myth stuff. And that carries me through the day. 90 minute increments, maximum, giving me my time, hydrating a lot. And then I go to the afternoon. So now I come to the afternoon. I've done my day, I've done my work. Now I have an afternoon ritual that starts to build this out. And I'm going to give you the action guide's got a worksheet that's going to allow you how to map out your day with this. So you want to make sure you download that. The first thing that I do when I'm done with the day, I'm ready to start winding it down. The first thing that I do here is this.

It's review time. This is when I look back on the day and I say, how did I do? How did I do with my myth tasks? How am I doing on my strategy? How am I doing with my team? How am I feeling in the sense of my. My vibrancy, my energy, the progress that I made? What are the successes? What are the wins? What are the things that we're trying to build into? So when I do this, I kind of look at this time and this next time, which is my wins. Time.

Is alright. What were my wins for the day? Did I accomplish the things that I wanted to accomplish? Did we have a big contract get signed? What happened during the day that are my wins? Here's the interesting thing is that we are really good at being critical on ourselves. We're awful at complimenting ourselves. We're awful at celebrating our successes. And so what I'm going to invite you to do is to celebrate the wins of the day, to acknowledge the fact that you got certain things done each and every day, to be able to celebrate those, to be able to go home and say, you know what, honey, I got this, this, and this done. I feel really good about it. Because without that, we keep beating ourselves up on the stuff we didn't get done. We're focused on the negative versus the positive. Granted, there may be more things that we would have liked to get done. We'll pick that up in the review, we'll pick that up in the plan, in one of these next rituals, and move it onto the myth list for the next day as we move forward. But one of the things I'll do is review, and I'll look at the wins and building through that. The. The next piece is this. And this is something that I think we need to do a lot more of.

Gratitude.

Gratitude.

So I take a moment, once I'm done with the review and the wins, to sit back and ask myself, what are the things that I'm grateful for for today?

Not just the accomplishments, but the people, the happenings, the existence, and to be truly, truly grateful for what has transpired in that day. Because from that space is where we get to be able to build. That's the time that we get a chance to expand and grow and see things better. Because we've taken A moment to celebrate our wins, to understand the learnings and to build onto that. And, and now we're grateful for the time we have. Listen, here's the thing that I realized is that when we have gratitude in our heart and our soul and our mind, we think differently. The things that we come up with are very, very different. So I'll spend time in the afternoon or the evening as I'm shutting down to look at my gratitude. Then I move into this piece called plan, which is plan time. I'm going to think about the the Threes www and it's not World Wide web. The thing that I want to look at is, is for the next day, what's my plan? And I would look at it under the three W's. One, what, what do I need to have happen tomorrow for it to be a win? So that's the first W. What are the wins for tomorrow that I want to have? Then in order for those wins to happen, what are the what's that need to take place? In other words, what do I need to do? What do I need to get accomplished to make it a win? And then third W is this. Who, who do I need help from to get the what's done so I can have the wins in the next day? Because that's going to allow me to reach out to them, connect with them and contact them because they now become part of that team and part of the strategy in the morning ritual of the next day. So my plan is really about the wins, the what's and the who's in the process that I'm going to put into place for the very next day. And then the last piece is this.

The unplugged time. The unplugged time.

Here's what I think we need to do. And this is, this is a challenge in many cases for many entrepreneurs, especially home based entrepreneurs and those of you that are home based solopreneurs or home based businesses. It's really challenged to put those boundaries around, to shut the door of the office, to say, work's done for today and unplug. Now you may unplug and say, I'm just, I'm gonna go. Some people like to go and cook, some people don't. Some people just want to go have a nice dinner somewhere. Some want to sit and watch a little bit of tv. Some want to turn around and maybe read whatever it is. Once you choose to unplug, you unplug, you unplug and you spend it with your loved ones. You spend it with Your spouse, you spend it with your significant other. You're present in the moment, you take the time to rejuvenate yourself, to unplug completely. So then when you come back in the morning to the morning rituals, you're ready to be creative, you're ready to do that. You don't have the guilt, you don't have the weight of the fact that you didn't unplug, you didn't spend time with loved ones or your spouse or your significant other in a way that was meaningful to them. So that's what I call the ten productivity spheres. This is how I kind of look at my days. In the mornings, I do the five in the morning, the creativity, the exercise, the team, the strategy and the myth time. I try to break things down in 30, 60, 90 minute increments, maximum, and do it that way. Then in the afternoons, I'm just simply going to review. I'm going to celebrate my wins. I'm going to be grateful for the things that have happened. I'm going to denote that I'm not just generically grateful, specifically what it is. Create the plan for the next day, thinking about the three W's, the wins, the what's and the who's. And then I'm going to completely unplug. Those are the 10 productivity spheres. And I think that when you see how this all plays out, you're going to see that it truly is a way that changes and shifts how much you can get done in a day, how much you can get done in a week, and it will blow you away what you're going to get done in a year. When you bring rituals into your, into your life that allow you to turn around and say, I know what I'm doing, I know how I'm doing it. I'm staying intentional, I'm keeping clear and I'm going to be focused. I'm going to take action to go from point A to point B. That's what that's worked in my life. And it's worked in a lot of the people that I've mentored and coached as clients, high level clients of mine, as well as entrepreneurs around the globe. If it's not this specific ritual, they have rituals. And so the key is this. What's your ritual? If you don't have one, embrace this one. At least start with this one and then you can modify it. Because this takes into consideration the intellect, the physical, the caring, the thinking, the logical side, the emotional side. It brings into play all of the elements of your life. To make it more meaningful. As I said that there's a worksheet, an action guide that goes along with this session. It's called the Productivity Ritualizer. It'll explain everything to you and it's going to give you a worksheet format to bring the spheres of productivity to life.

In your world. So grab that. The way to grab that is to go to melabraham.com session086 and you'll be able to download the action guide with the worksheet. Use that each and every day. It gives you all the instructions to do it. If you're not by your computer again, you can get it by just texting me. Text mylegacy1word to 38470 and we'll make sure that we send you the download link so you get the tools and templates that can drive your success in an accelerated way. If you haven't done so already, I'm going to ask you to do me a favor. Hit the subscribe button. Subscribe. Stay with me on this journey. Let's have some fun. Let's make some differences. Let's have an impact. Let's grow your life and create the success that you're looking for in doing that. So one way that I can be your mentor in your back pocket as you move forward in this space. And everyone needs more productivity. So you do me another favor. I'm going to ask you for a couple of favors here. Share this. Go ahead, hit the share button and share it with some friends. Share it with some friends that maybe don't have a process and we can give them the process and the tools to be more productive and get more out of their life. And last but not least, if you have questions for me, if you have comments, post them, let me know. Let's keep this. Let's make this a dialogue. Let's have a conversation. Let me see how I can help you out in doing that. And if you want to leave me a message or a question, just go to askmelnow.com and you can record your personal voicemail message to me. If it's a question, I may bring it on one of the episodes and make sure that it becomes one of the episodes of the Entrepreneur Solution Show. So I hope this serves you. I hope you found it of value. Get your productivity in line. Let's rock and roll this this next 12 months for you. And if there's something that I can do, please let me know. Until we get a chance to see each other in another episode, may your vision be grand, your journey epic, and your legacy significant. See you soon. Cheers. Bye.

We hope you enjoyed this episode. Make sure you subscribe so you get access to all of Mel's business and success tips. And if you like this episode, share it with a friend. If you have a specific business or success question, you can ask it at www.askmelnow.com. remember, it's all about being bold, dreaming big, and living life your way because the world needs you. Until the next episode, may your vision be grand, your journey epic, and your legacy significant.

And that's it for this episode of Building youg Money Machine, where we help you learn how to master your money, eliminate financial stress, and live a life of choice. If you found this valuable or helpful to you, here's what I'd love for you to do. If you do me a favor, go to Apple, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this podcast and rate and review the show. It helps us tremendously to keep us at the top of the list so we can continue to get this information and this message out to people. Because I truly believe that financial freedom is your birthright and I want to help each and every one of you claim it. Thanks so much.