Productivity

Eat the frog first (Added to notion)

Need advice on how to make yourself sit down and do the things that are less easy to do?

Read Charles Duhigg’s book, “The Power of Habit”, Steven Coveys “1st things 1st”, or best of all, Brian Tracey’s “Eat the Frog First”

Build a simple habit of doing the most challenging, most resisted, important task (anything, little or big) before you do any routine tasks like answering emails, especially early in the day when you still have decision-making muscle. Look forward to the more accessible, fun, and exciting stuff you’ll do the rest of the day as a reward.

Start where you are

Many of us have marvelled at the simple beauty of the Arthur Ashe quote:

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

It’s just a spot-on phrase that never fails to remind us to get out of our own way, stop making excuses and start plugging away at whatever we’ve been procrastinating against.

Instant Gratification

“Every mistake you make in life can almost certainly be tied to instant gratification. If you wait, take a deep breath, and not need whatever it is you are after NOW, you will do much better in life.”

-Joe De Sena, Spartan Race founder.

The 4 Hour Work Week

The Four Hour Workweek (4HWW) by Tim Ferriss is an eye-opening read, especially for those like me interested in personal productivity, and running internet-based business models.

Here are the best, no-nonsense takeaways from the book:

If you’re spending 12 hours a day at your desk, and still not finishing your work, it’s time to make a change.
Interest, energy and ability go up and down all the time. Trying to work through it when you’re miserable is unproductive.
Doing less is not being lazy. Don’t give in to a culture that values personal sacrifice over personal productivity.
Stop putting hard choices off because of timing. It kills productivity.
Ask people for forgiveness instead of for permission.
Emphasize what you’re good at rather than trying to correct weaknesses.
Figure out how to use stress rather than letting it make you less able and confident.
Don’t choose unhappiness over uncertainty. Define the worst case scenario to change this.
Watch out for fear disguised as optimism.
Give yourself less time to do everything.
Most problems solve themselves. Stop making an emergency out of everything and “cultivate selective ignorance.”
Master the art of not finishing things and interrupting people.
Some things are just time consuming and repetitive. Do them all at the same time.
Don’t make people ask you for permission. Clearly delineate when you absolutely need to and avoid otherwise.
Consider a remote personal assistant. Outsourcing isn’t just for companies.
Set unrealistic and hugely ambitious goals.
Forget about time management and the “results by volume” approach. – the real focus should be on doing less.
Use the 80/20 rule: 80 percent of the results come from 20 percent of the time and effort.

You can by the book here: The 4 Hour Work Week
And follow Tim Ferriss on his blog here: Tim Ferriss Blog

Personal Productivity (Added to notion)

Here are the top 10 personal productivity principles & techniques that I’ve benefited from in my life.

Making a Vision / Mission Statement
Setting Goals. Big, brave goals release energy. So, set them clearly and then revisit them every morning for 5 minutes.
Morning Rituals
Weekly Planning
The Pareto Principle
Task Management (Example: Getting things done – GTD – especially “mind like water” – getting everything out of my head, writing it down and using the “2-minute rule”)
Outsourcing – Outsource everything you can’t be at BIW (Best in the World). Focus only on activities within what I call “Your Picasso Zone”.
Time Management (Example: The Pomodoro Technique) and focusing on the moment.
Doing the First Thing First (Example: Big Rocks principle, what matters most, eat the frog first)
Inbox Zero

Other productivity tips that didn’t make the list, but are still so important to your productivity:

Stop waiting for perfect conditions to launch a great project. Immediate action fuels a positive feedback loop that drives even more action.
Keep tidy. Mess creates stress.
Sell your TV. You’re just watching other people become successful instead of doing the things that will lead you to your dreams.
Build routines/habits into your life—it’s much easier than disciplining yourself. Peak productivity is not about luck. It’s about devotion.
Don’t say yes to every request. Most of us have a deep need to be liked. That translates into us saying yes to everything – which is the end of your elite productivity.
Stop multitasking. New research confirms that all the distractions invading our lives are rewiring the way our brains work (and drop our IQ by 5 points!). Be one of the rare few who develop the mental and physical discipline to have a mono-maniacal focus on one thing for many hours. (It’s all about practice).
Get fit. Reaching your absolute best physical condition will create explosive energy, renew your focus, and multiply your creativity.
Workout 2X a day. Exercise is one of the greatest productivity tools in the world. So do 20 minutes first thing in the morning and then another workout around 4 or 5 pm to set you up for wow in the evening.
Work in 90-minute blocks with 10-minute intervals to recover and refuel (another game-changing move I personally use to do my best work).
Write a Stop-Doing List. Every productive person obsessively sets to-Do Lists. But those who play at world-class also record what they commit to stopping doing. Steve Jobs said that what made Apple. Apple was not what they chose to build but all the projects they chose to ignore.
Use your commute time. If you’re commuting 30 minutes daily, get this: at the end of a year, you’ve spent 6 weeks of 8-hour days in your car. I encourage you to use that time to listen to fantastic books on audio + excellent podcasts, and valuable learning programs. Remember, triple your learning rate is the fastest way to double your income.
Be a contrarian. Why buy your groceries at the time the store is busiest? Why go to movies on the most popular nights? Why hit the gym when the gym’s full? Do things at off-peak hours, and you’ll save many of them.
Get things right the first time. Most people are wildly distracted these days. And so they make mistakes. To unleash your productivity, become one of the special performers who have the mindset of doing what it takes to get it flawless first. This saves you days of having to fix problems.
Get lost. Don’t be so available to everyone. I often spend hours at a time alone outside. I turn off my devices and think, create, plan and write. Zero interruptions. Pure focus. Massive results.

I genuinely hope these personal productivity tips have been valuable to you. And that I’ve been of service. Your productivity is your life made visible. Please protect it.
Stay productive.

Morning Routine

I want to be ready to influence my world – before my world is ready to influence me.

I’ve found that how I start my day – determines largely how I spend my day. In a nutshell, how I begin and spend each day is really important to me – and influences the rest of the days I have left.

What could be more important than getting a firm grasp on how we start each day with a morning routine?

So long ago, I created the habit of getting up around 5 am. Sometimes a little earlier, sometimes a little later. My first battle of the day is to win the battle of the bed. Putting mind over mattress. According to Jocko Willink, this habit alone is the cornerstone of discipline and serves you more dutifully in the key areas of your life.

daniel shaw reading — Can it get any better? – the morning routine from a balcony overlooking the Austrian Alps…

During the weekend, while travelling, or when the clocks change – I don’t miss my morning routine because I love it, and it instils a sense of purpose, peace and ritual in my day. I consider it the single most important time of the 24hrs that each day contains, as these small actions are done over time and have led to the long-term benefits that I currently enjoy in life.

And I would encourage anyone wanting to raise their living standards to spend time building this one habit. It’ll make a difference in every area of your life for sure. Here’s how I do it:

The morning routine

Going to bed relatively early the night before for 7-8 hours of sleep helps (even though it’s usually interrupted by my little daughter), and I currently wake naturally sometime around 5-6 am, so that by 7-8 am I can spend a bit of time with my wife and daughter over coffee, then travel to my office.

(I rarely work from home, as I believe home is to be used and called as “home” – my place of rest & refuge, and work – well I don’t like to waste time when I’m working, and therefore only do work there)

I use dayscore.net to create a check-list for building this habit that I have as a bookmark to open on my tablet home screen as soon as I wake up, and I tick the items off during my morning routine, which usually takes me 1-2 hours:

Drink a glass of water – Remember that you’ll have far less energy when you’re dehydrated. And get less done.
Quiet reflection time of meditation / prayer / spiritual reading
Exercise – home workout or trail run (keeps me vibrant and full of energy throughout the day). Sometimes I have a protein shake after this.
Look at goal list / mindmap / dreamboard
Plan the day in my pocket notebook (prioritise my 5 most important tasks for the day, single out the most important task, look at any tasks I have to do every week on that particular day, and ask what I need to do? Who do I need to talk to? Who am I waiting on? What would have to happen for this to be an excellent day? For me to end the day proud?)
If it’s Monday, then I do a weekly review.
Make sure I’m well presented (shower, shave, brush teeth, clothes)
Eat Breakfast (quick look at twitter & facebook)

My day then begins with spending time with my family, settling into an office space clear of clutter (mess creates stress), and getting to inbox zero, before doing my most important task of the day, before moving on to the rest of them.

For beginners, I’d advise starting with just one or two items on the list and then building it up into something that fits you best. For me, it’s still just 1 to 2 main tasks/goals per day.

More about the benefits of setting up and keeping to a morning routine can be heard in this excellent podcast:

productive morning rituals

He who every morning plans the transaction of the day and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the maze of the most busy life. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign. – Victor Hugo