The Paul Minors Podcast: Productivity, Business & Self-Improvement

Procrastination; the enemy of progress. We’ve all been in that situation where we intend to work on a task or project but can’t muster up the willpower to do the work. Even just making a start seems like a daunting task as you look at what feels like a mountain of work.

Before you know it, you’re scrolling through Twitter, watching YouTube, checking email (again) and doing just about anything besides the actual thing you need to do.

With that in mind, here are 5 tricks to help you overcome procrastination and make progress on your work.

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Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

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There’s nothing quite like that feeling of being in the zone; that place of flow and focus where you do your best work. If you’ve watched Disney Pixar’s Soul, it shows “the zone” as this generally joyful place between the conscious and unconscious world where you find yourself when you’re completely focussed on your craft or work.

One of the ways I’m able to find this focus and enter ‘the zone’ is by listening to music. When you’ve got a good pair of headphones on and the right music playing, it’s amazing how much more focussed you can be.

With that in mind, I’d like to share the music I like to listen to when doing my work. Most of the music I like to listen to is instrumental. If there are lyrics, I find it harder to concentrate when you have another voice in your head. And I use Apple Music as my player of choice but I’ve included links to Spotify alternatives where possible.

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Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

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You’ve probably heard about the importance of providing value to potential customers before they purchase. By providing value first, you build trust and credibility that helps leads to eventually justify paying for your product or service.

Free trials and samples are easy. But for coaches and consultants, it’s tricky working out how much free advice to give out without cannibalising your business. The fear is that if you give out too much advice, people won’t need to pay you for your service.

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Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

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Yesterday I turned 30. When you have a significant birthday like this it’s natural to look back on how you’ve grown over the years. Heading into my 30s, I’m pleased with where I’m at in life. When I turned 20, I was still at University and had the goal of running my own business. In my early 20s, I had a couple of great jobs which allowed me to learn a lot and develop as an individual. In 2014 I started my blog and began learning about how to make money online by selling my expertise. In 2016, when I was 25, I managed to take my side business full-time and went travelling with my wife. From there my business has grown to the point where I can comfortably support my wife and our son. So I’m pleased to say I’ve achieved what I wanted to in my 20s.

Looking back, I thought it would be fun to share 30 things I’ve learned over the years that have helped me along the way. Of course, I still have a lot to learn and am looking forward to seeing how I continue to grow in my 30s.

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Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

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Forming a new habit can be tough. Whether you’re trying to build a habit related to fitness, personal finances, business or personal well-being, forcing yourself to stop your old methods and start a new habit can feel weird at first. It takes time before the new habit becomes part of your routine and starts to feel normal.

Looking back at some of the habits I’ve adopted, there’s one habit that I’ve adopted that’s helped me when forming other new habits. And it’s this:

Tracking.

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Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

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We all have various expressions and turns of phrase that we rely on to make a point and communicate our intentions. However, in this day and age, it’s easier than ever for messages to be misconstrued and taken out of content. Or, if we’re not careful, certain words and phrases can weaken our point and undermine the message entirely.

Whether you’re writing an email or talking in person, here are a few phrases and words I’ve tried to remove from my vocabulary, that you should as well.

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Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

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We all like to improve on what we’re doing and how we do things. Whether that’s improving a process in your business, learning a new skill at work or the way you take notes in a class. But the improvement often comes with an adjustment period where it takes time to become accustomed to the change before you can enjoy the benefits. This is why making improvements to the way you work can be challenging. And even though your current process may be slower, doing things the way you’ve always done them is simply easier.

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Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

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Out of the box, the Mac is a great piece of kit, but with a few tweaks and some useful apps, you can turn your Mac into an incredibly productive machine.

In this episode, I’d like to list some of the tools and tweaks I’ve made to supercharge my productivity while using the Mac. If you’re a Mac user, I highly recommend spending some time learning about each of these tools. I can say with confidence that tools like these genuinely help me to save time so I can get my work done faster meaning I can handle a larger capacity of clients and go home earlier if I want.

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Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

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If you want to be more organised and effective at managing your time, the key is simplicity. People often come to me for help because their systems are overly complicated and hard to manage. They tell me they spend more time maintaining their system than they do actually doing important work.

As I’ve created and shared videos and blog posts, people often tell me how organised my systems appear to be. There’s no real secret other than I try to make things as simple as possible.

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Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

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Passive income is often portrayed as the holy grail of earning money online; make money while you sleep, sounds good right? But before you quit your job to embark on the passive income lifestyle, I thought I’d share a few realities you may want to be aware of.

To add some context for new readers, my business currently generates revenue in a few different ways. Primarily from providing consulting services but also from digital product sales, affiliate marketing, sponsorships and ad revenue. Some of these revenue streams require more effort than others. While I get some revenue without having to do anything afterwards (e.g. affiliate income), every revenue stream requires effort to create and maintain.

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Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

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