If you can’t make decisions, you’re not alone. Many of us struggle from chronic indecisiveness. And the result is a TON of wasted energy and creativity every day. Not only waste, but stress and anxiety weigh on us as well as we try to constantly decide all day every day on everything from responding to a chat to quitting a job. 

In fact, according to the University of Leicester, we make up to 35,000 DECISIONS PER DAY!

In this podcast, we’ll learn: 

• The story of a conversation that flipped my perspective on decisions forever.

Let’s go!

Hey friends, this is a short episode because I'll be on paternity leave and just wanted to let you all know! I also wanted to share something worth your listen quick though and tell you my story of stopping watching TV and how it's been AMAZING and pretty much happened on it's own.

Talk to you again in a few weeks!

- Robert

How do you know when you are working hard or when you are overworking? Where is the line between them?

Well the line is actually a chasm and there is a HUGE difference. 

Research shows that when you overwork, you get less done and all areas of your life suffer.

But when you work hard, all areas of your life prosper!

What’s more, working hard and overwork are actually at odds with one another, not different points in a linear spectrum. 

In todays episode, I’ll paint a picture of the difference for you with 12 comparisons, then we’ll round out the discussion with 5 practical ways to start working hard instead of overworking. 

Hey, and this episode is only 13 minutes!

Let’s go!

The average person spends a distracted 2.5 hours looking at email only getting back to what is urgent, but what about:

• The important but not urgent?

Why not spend a half hour of intentional email processing, in one sitting, get through it all, keep things moving, unbury treasure, care for people well, keep your commitments, and stop. the. stress!

Email processing is like riding a bike. It take effort to learn what to do. At first, every muscle is tensed, your mind fully absorbed in making your body work in coordination together. But soon, email processing is like riding a bike! So easy and you don’t even think about it!

When you set out to do something, knowing the importance helps motivate you, today we’ll talk about the top 3 reasons to get through email, as well as my story of how this has helped me so much.

Let’s go!

Have you ever met that person who has important things going on but does not ever seem to be stressed? They just feel like they are in control of their life? And when you meet with them, they are engaged with you, almost as if talking with you is the most important thing they could possibly be doing in the moment? 

Well I’m not a betting man, but if I were, my money would be on them already understanding the principle I’ll outline in today’s episode.

This principle is actually the root of a lot of the other things I teach and I would guess causes 80% or more of your stress: micro-commitments. 

I’ll also show you the 6 main places that micro-commitments occur and how to fix it.

Let's go!

A student of mine recently asked something like this, “Robert, what do you do when something breaks your focus? Now that I have a lot more focus using the POWER Routine, it’s even harder when that focus is broken. The other day, I was in the zone and my roommate needed something. I tried to get back focused again, but then my roommate needed me again. This doesn’t happen much, but that day, I ended up giving up on the entire Work part of my routine. It was also really hard on me. What should I do in that situation? How should I handle it next time?”

That is a great question and something I want to address in today’s episode with some frameworks to grow in the skill of processing int(eruptions)! 

You don’t have to be stressed when interruptions happen!

- Robert

As someone that works on a computer, it’s difficult for you to see your impact, but that is something you need to see.

Like a farmer, that gets to walk out into the morning sun and look upon his seedlings that are just sprouting. Eventually, he’ll be picking strawberries, corn, and cucumbers.

He sees his labor come to life, but for us, the best we get is a neat looking report that is still inside a screen.

But this is an important question, because work is one of the greatest drivers of joy in our life, and if we never take pause to consider whether or not our work is good and real, we are missing out on that sense of “done” and “well done” we long for deeply.

Instead, we find ourselves just scrambling onward and onward, never arriving at done, potentially for years and decades!

In today’s episode, I describe the simple daily habit you can form as part of your daily routine that will help you be “done” and feel that sense of accomplishment.

FREE GIFT to get 2 hours back per day starting tomorrow! timesmith.work/guide

On average, we spend 33% of our time in meetings. 

And yet I likely don’t need to convince you that the state of meetings today is not good.

Some managers and leaders seem to spend nearly 100% of their time in meetings.

Now that would be fine, if that was a good use of time. Meetings themselves aren’t necessarily good or evil. They are just a tool.

How we use them determines that. And there are a lot of good reasons for meetings, but the biggest problem is the sheer amount of meetings.

Because we have so many meetings, we:

• Come in late and miss the socializing part.

So in the end, others can tell that you’re not giving your best, many of us feel the meeting is a waste of time, and yet no one does anything about it.

In today’s episode, we’re looking at the E-Engage step of the POWER Routine™, and I’ll give you:

• 7 reasons meetings happen unnecessarily so you can spot these reasons and get ahead of them (warning: some of these are culture shifting)

Let’s go!

Resources:

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Thanks!

Ever wondered how much potential work you can do per day? Ever wondered if work/life balance is all it’s cracked up to be? If we were made in God’s image, what does that mean for how much work we should do? Does part of you say “leave it all on the field” and the other say “enjoy life and live to the fullest?”

Spoiler: we were not meant to only work and prioritizing life actually INCREASES our work output when approached correctly! 

Research proven! And anecdotally, it’s totally been my experience as well as the experience of many other amazing people.

So sit back and let me convince you with research that you SHOULD live a full life AND this will give you THE MOST work output your are capable of.

In this research-packed episode:

1. How much we work today and why it’s so so little.

Also see timesmith.work/guide to take back hours a day.

Hope you enjoy!

• Robert

How do you keep track of the stuff? All that stuff you are needing to do, waiting on, needing to discuss… Task lists, sticky notes, email inboxes… your head? Do you try to remember everything? (PLEASE NO)

Do you find all that information too much to remember, too hard to keep track of, and daunting when it’s time to do anything about the stuff? (If yes, you are part of the 100% of the population because our brains can’t remember 1 million things and decisions, so don’t feel bad!)

What if all the information, flying around at you all day from all different sources and in all different places was distilled into just 3 simple categories?

Stuff you are waiting on, stuff you need to do, and stuff you need to discuss with someone?

Pretty simple right? That’s because it is! My system is unique in that it boils down ALL the actionable stuff in your life to just 3 lists.

In this episode, I dive into what each list is, how to use it, examples, and simple pro tips that will put your productivity into overdrive, decrease your email volume by up to 50% or more, and cut down on your email and chat processing time, all while giving you the actionable information you need when and where you need it!

The 3 lists are:

• Next List

Don’t forget my free gift to GET BACK 4 HOURS PER DAY at timesmith.work/guide. It has a cheat sheet of the information from this show on the 3rd page.

To your clarity, sanity, and success,

Robert