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

You’ve probably heard loads of advice about how to be more productive. Perhaps you’ve been told (probably by me) to block your tasks onto your calendar. Maybe you’ve tried the Pomodoro technique or the Getting Things Done (GTD) method. Some people will tell you to write down “three absolutes” for the day or week.

These techniques are what I refer to as “productivity methods” which define HOW you do your work. “There’s more than one way to skin a cat” and when it comes to managing your workload, there’s no shortage of methods to choose from.

The truth is, there’s no one best way to manage your productivity. You probably need to try a few methods to find the thing that works for you and your personal style. The method you choose may even change based on the type of work you’re doing.

Show notes » PaulMinors.com/141

Download my productivity blueprint and learn the processes and tools I use to be more organised and achieve more in my business and home life. You'll also get my FREE 3-part video training series where I'll explain 1) 4 simple steps to supercharge your productivity 2) common mistakes to avoid 3) the 10 productivity tools I couldn't live without.

Download here » paulminors.com/products/productivity-blueprint/

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast. I'd also love it if you could leave me a review. Doing this will help more people discover the show so they to can get more done and get more out of life.

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

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I hear from people all the time who are confused about which tools to use and how they all fit together. In this day and age, most of us rely on a collection of tools and services to organise our tasks, plan our time and to actually do our work. However, things get tricky when you consider that some tools are quite similar and it's not always clear when you should use what. To help clarify some of these issues so you can get a better handle on your own "technology stack", I've called in my good friend, Kia (pronounced "Kay") Kamgar.

Kia (a.k.a. the Marie Kondo of the tech world) is a member of my VIP program and we first connected on one of our group calls. Since then, he's been an incredible contributor to the group and has a wealth of knowledge to share. Kia is the face behind MacJunky.com where his goal is to "Keep IT simple". He works with individuals and business owners who are overwhelmed by their tools and helps them to create a simple and effective system.

Show notes » PaulMinors.com/140

Download my productivity blueprint and learn the processes and tools I use to be more organised and achieve more in my business and home life. You'll also get my FREE 3-part video training series where I'll explain 1) 4 simple steps to supercharge your productivity 2) common mistakes to avoid 3) the 10 productivity tools I couldn't live without.

Download here » paulminors.com/products/productivity-blueprint/

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast. I'd also love it if you could leave me a review. Doing this will help more people discover the show so they to can get more done and get more out of life.

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

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/paulminors/message

A few months ago I listened to this great episode of the Focussed podcast where hosts Mike and David discuss “moving the needle”. In summary, they highlight the importance of “effectiveness” and why we shouldn’t obsess over “efficiency”.

In this episode, I’m going to add my own thoughts on this topic.

Show notes » PaulMinors.com/139

Download my productivity blueprint and learn the processes and tools I use to be more organised and achieve more in my business and home life. You'll also get my FREE 3-part video training series where I'll explain 1) 4 simple steps to supercharge your productivity 2) common mistakes to avoid 3) the 10 productivity tools I couldn't live without.

Download here » https://paulminors.com/products/productivity-blueprint/

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast. I'd also love it if you could leave me a review. Doing this will help more people discover the show so they to can get more done and get more out of life.

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

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/paulminors/message

The average CEO reads about 60 books a year or 4-5 books per month. Reading is often positioned as being a prerequisite for success. For example, Warren Buffet reads for 5-6 hours a day and Bill Gates reads

Reading has been put on a pedestal as being a habit you have to have in order to be successful. CEO’s are used as examples of people who are successful because of how much they read.

But should we be looking at it another way? Are these people successful despite how much they read? Bill Gates might read 50 books a year, but do you think he was doing this back when he started Microsoft in the 1970s?

I want to emphasise here, I am NOT saying that reading is bad or that you shouldn’t read. I am where I am today because of the books I’ve read. But I do think we have to be careful about reading too much.

Show notes » PaulMinors.com/138

Download my productivity blueprint and learn the processes and tools I use to be more organised and achieve more in my business and home life. You'll also get my FREE 3-part video training series where I'll explain 1) 4 simple steps to supercharge your productivity 2) common mistakes to avoid 3) the 10 productivity tools I couldn't live without.

Download here » https://paulminors.com/products/productivity-blueprint/

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast. I'd also love it if you could leave me a review. Doing this will help more people discover the show so they to can get more done and get more out of life.

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

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/paulminors/message

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Joe and Matt from Evergreen Profits. Self-proclaimed "generalists", Matt and Joe are hosts of The Hustle and Flowchart podcast where they discuss a range of topics on their podcast, from online business and productivity to podcasting and self-improvement. As you can expect, these guys are my kind of people and I really enjoyed picking their brains.

Show notes » PaulMinors.com/137

Download my productivity blueprint and learn the processes and tools I use to be more organised and achieve more in my business and home life. You'll also get my FREE 3-part video training series where I'll explain 1) 4 simple steps to supercharge your productivity 2) common mistakes to avoid 3) the 10 productivity tools I couldn't live without.

Download here » https://paulminors.com/products/productivity-blueprint/

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast. I'd also love it if you could leave me a review. Doing this will help more people discover the show so they to can get more done and get more out of life.

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

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/paulminors/message

Last week I came across this pretty scary article on Twitter. The author, Matthew Miller, tells the story of how he got “SIM swapped” and lost access to his Twitter and Gmail accounts, had his personal files and documents from Google Drive deleted and $25,000 stolen from his bank account.

Most people I talk to are far too casual when it comes to protecting themselves and their data online. Either because they think “it won’t happen to me” or because taking steps to protect themselves is seen as too much of a chore.

The frustrating thing about this story is at the end, Matthew lists all the really simple things he did wrong that left him exposed.

In this episode, I’d like to list some simple things you can do to protect yourself and your data. I would view the following list as the bare minimum you should be doing. If you’re not following these guidelines, you could be putting your digital life at risk.

Show notes » PaulMinors.com/136

Download my productivity blueprint and learn the processes and tools I use to be more organised and achieve more in my business and home life. You'll also get my FREE 3-part video training series where I'll explain 1) 4 simple steps to supercharge your productivity 2) common mistakes to avoid 3) the 10 productivity tools I couldn't live without.

Download here » https://paulminors.com/products/productivity-blueprint/

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast. I'd also love it if you could leave me a review. Doing this will help more people discover the show so they to can get more done and get more out of life.

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

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/paulminors/message

I find it fascinating when you look back at your life, particularly your childhood, and identify moments that give you clues about what kind of person you’re going to turn into. At the time, you usually don’t realise it’s a significant moment. But when you look back later, these tiny little things stand out as pivotal forks in the road, where, had you made a different decision, you life may have been radically different.

I thought it would be interesting to list every job I’ve ever had and identify some of these moments. When you do this, it’s interesting to be able to look back and think about the lessons you learned that turned you into the person you are today.

If you’d like to share any big lessons you’ve learned from your previous jobs, please leave me a comment on the blog.

Show notes » PaulMinors.com/135

Download my productivity blueprint and learn the processes and tools I use to be more organised and achieve more in my business and home life. You'll also get my FREE 3-part video training series where I'll explain 1) 4 simple steps to supercharge your productivity 2) common mistakes to avoid 3) the 10 productivity tools I couldn't live without.

Download here » paulminors.com/products/productivity-blueprint/

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast. I'd also love it if you could leave me a review. Doing this will help more people discover the show so they to can get more done and get more out of life.

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

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/paulminors/message

Last week I showed you how I conduct my weekly review and plan the upcoming week. Now, a week later I'd like to talk about what actually happened and how I reacted to unexpected events that disturbed my plan.

Show notes » PaulMinors.com/134

Download my productivity blueprint and learn the processes and tools I use to be more organised and achieve more in my business and home life. You'll also get my FREE 3-part video training series where I'll explain 1) 4 simple steps to supercharge your productivity 2) common mistakes to avoid 3) the 10 productivity tools I couldn't live without.

Download here » paulminors.com/products/productivity-blueprint/

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast. I'd also love it if you could leave me a review. Doing this will help more people discover the show so they to can get more done and get more out of life.

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

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/paulminors/message

This is the first in a 2-part series about how I plan my week and how my week actually played out. Stay tuned for part 2 coming next week...

The weekly review is a process you follow at the end of each week to reflect on your progress, review the status of your projects and plan the upcoming week(s).

My weekly review takes place on a Friday afternoon. I make it the last thing I do each week as it’s a really nice way to close out a week of work. It also means I can go into the weekend and start the new week nice and relaxed knowing that I’ve planned the upcoming week.

Watch me on YouTube as I conduct my review for the week and explain my process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vad97nNC5HQ

Show notes » PaulMinors.com/133

Download my productivity blueprint and learn the processes and tools I use to be more organised and achieve more in my business and home life. You'll also get my FREE 3-part video training series where I'll explain 1) 4 simple steps to supercharge your productivity 2) common mistakes to avoid 3) the 10 productivity tools I couldn't live without.

Download here » https://paulminors.com/products/productivity-blueprint/

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast. I'd also love it if you could leave me a review. Doing this will help more people discover the show so they to can get more done and get more out of life.

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

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/paulminors/message

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by ideas? I do. Most of us have lists of ideas in a note somewhere, but very rarely do we act on them. Ideas hit us all the time and usually sound great at the time. The trouble with all these ideas is in working out which ones are good and should be prioritised first, and which ones are bad and shouldn’t be worked on at all.

The excitement about a new idea can cause is to spend time on things that we later realise shouldn’t have been done in the first place.

Or, the overwhelm caused by having too many ideas can result in decision fatigue and not doing anything at all.

By taking a few simple steps, you can more effectively prioritise your time and plan how and when to work on all your ideas.

Show notes » PaulMinors.com/132

Download my productivity blueprint and learn the processes and tools I use to be more organised and achieve more in my business and home life. You'll also get my FREE 3-part video training series where I'll explain 1) 4 simple steps to supercharge your productivity 2) common mistakes to avoid 3) the 10 productivity tools I couldn't live without.

Download here » paulminors.com/products/productivity-blueprint/

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast. I'd also love it if you could leave me a review. Doing this will help more people discover the show so they to can get more done and get more out of life.

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

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/paulminors/message