Transcripts
1. Intro: This is for the
person who's tried every method of time management and still can't stay consistent. But what if for
us, something more unconventional was the answer? That's what this course is. Six methods, most of which are
relatively unconventional. And instead of
avoiding distractions, we actually thrive by putting
them in their right place. This course is for
those who have tried to everything else and
can't stay consistent. Or those who are doing
the right things and just feel burnt out. There is hope and there
is a way to do this. So follow along and will boost our productivity and
our time management. I don't have a spoon.
2. How This Course Works: Now before we start, let me explain how each of
these videos is going to work. Every class in this
course is going to be a method and typically an
unconventional method. But at the start of every class, I'm also going to explain
who this method is for. See, different methods will fit different profiles
of person best. But if you find a profile
that doesn't quite fit, you are where you're at. Don't skip that method. People change, seasons change. And what works for you one day may not work for you the next. And what doesn't work one day
may work for you the next. The point of this course is that things are always changing. Methods need to change
seasons change. So watch and learn all that. You can then apply them to
each day as it fits best.
3. Method 1: Get a Morning Routine, and Change it!: This method is for
those who love consistency and routine and
find it genuinely helpful, but may have difficulty working uphill in
the face of change. Things just seem
to fall apart in change or your consistency
pattern is broken. When something changes, you have a hard time going
back to that rhythm. Well, no need to fear. There's a method just for you. Chances are if you're
watching this course, you've already heard
about the benefits of a morning or evening routine. And it's true, it's
genuinely very helpful. But something about these patterns
eventually become ruts. And when something changes
our minds can have a really difficult time
developing or going back to it. So what if we took the
morning routine model and we adapted it just
a little bit to better prepare our
minds for change. And so better safe guard
to keep that routine. Govern. If you don't have
a morning routine, I highly recommend getting one. They are enormously useful. I typically try to start my days with Bible and
prayer and then setting goals and thinking about
what would make me feel successful about the day
at the end of the day. Now, the difference is, I recommend doing it in different places
or different ways, no matter what your routine is. If you start with
a cup of coffee, try changing what room you're
having that coffee in, or even have it outside in different locations
on a bench nearby. Same thing if you start with reading ten or 15 min of a book, do that in different
locations or different books, or even try an e-reader. See it seems silly. But these little changes, especially changes in the view in front of you and location, can really help our minds adapt
to the unplanned changes. As a silly example, I teach for a living. And one of the things
that I teach is guitar. Now, when you're playing guitar, you want to warm up. And so in this metaphor, we can kind of think of a guitar warm-up as our morning routine. Now there's one
warm-up that seems to help students and myself a lot. This warm up is to play a set of notes in an unconventional way. So there are some patterns
that you just don't find in songs and yet
we use them to warm up. The reason being it trains
the brain and the fingers to adapt to new
unconventional patterns. So we let our
fingers get used to these odd changes
in our warm-up. And then when we
find new changes in the songs were practicing, while we're better
equipped to handle them. It's the same with
our morning routines. Aim for unconventional
changes in that routine. So when an unplanned one comes, you are going to be able
to either return to your routine or work through
it without missing a beat.
4. Method 2: Give distractions their place: This method is for the
easily distracted. Now, you've heard before, to avoid all distractions
run from them. Get some self-control,
white knuckle it, and just a void. And in some cases, that can be enormously useful, especially as
procrastinators when we need to get something
done very quickly. But I can tell you right now, it's enormously easier if we don't think about it as
avoiding all distractions, but rather embracing
distractions by putting them in
their right place. We can all picture the metaphor of a child and a cookie jar. When you tell the child, don't go in that cookie jar
or don't look in the closet. I've got something
secret in there. What's the first thing
they want to do? They want to eat from
the cookie jar or go peak in the closet as soon as mom and
dad aren't looking, see an avoidance of something, thinking about
avoiding something. Typically, sets are lack of self-control as either wanting that thing or just
ruminating on it. When we think about
avoiding something, we're thinking about avoiding something and we've
still got a split focus. Rather we need to think about
cherishing something or even just embracing something
in its right place. Let's say that you've
got a silly game on your phone that just
keeps sucking you in. You need to focus
and get things done. But there's this game, it's just one more level,
five more minutes. And then you realize
the day's gone. And instead of good
dedicated work time, you had broken work time with probably two or three
too many breaks. Well, what if we took those
unscheduled, unplanned, lack of self-control breaks, and we put them into
dedicated break time. I'm talking you say, I'm going to enjoy
this guilt free for 15 to 20 min at this
time of the day. And here's the mind
shift that happens. Instead of thinking
about avoiding that cookie jar or that closet that probably
has presence for you. Well, now we can work
dedicated and say, hey, in about an hour, I'm going to have
some dedicated guilt free time to do that thing. Then you can enjoy
it and you can return to work
with a nice break. It could even be two or
three times in the day. The nice thing about
that dedicated time is that it's a way to structure our breaks and it keeps us in that forward momentum
of structure. All of a sudden
the break becomes a structured habit rather than an unstructured
distraction.
5. Method 3: The bulk creator plan: This method is for those who have trouble with consistency. And it can be for any
amount of reasons. Whether it be a lack of consistency because
of self-control, maybe a lack of consistency because every day for you
just looks different. Or you live with someone
who's every day, it looks different and
that has a big impact on how you can spend your time. Whatever the reason, if
you're watching this, you've probably heard already
that consistency is key. And it can be true that
consistency is key, but that can also be
defeating to hear, especially when you
don't have the time or ability to be
consistent or you've tried to white
knuckle consistency and you still haven't
managed to get it down. So if consistency is key, how can we be encouraged
if we can't be consistent? That is who this method is for. The bulk creator. In fact, this is the
method that I use when I'm doing something
like making videos. When I sit here and
I'm making a video, I'm not just filming
this course, this room that I'm in right now, I'll give you a
little fourth wall. Breaking. This room is
not a fancy studio. This is my living room
where I live with my wife. And so I have to set up these
lights and this camera. And there's a table
in front of me with notes and I can see
what's on the camera. But it takes time to set up. Now, I'm not going to
do that every day. I'm probably not even
going to do that every week if I'm honest with myself. So I scheduled time monthly. Now during this month, I can set up curriculum. I can plan and plot
what I'm going to do. And then I'll set
this up once a month. If I'm feeling ambitious, maybe once every three weeks, then I bulk create
about a month ago, a month from the
recording of this video, I sat down on a
Friday and Saturday. My lovely wife was
gracious enough to let me leave all of this in
the living room overnight. Between Friday and Saturday, I was able to
record for courses. Then over the course of a month, I can edit and upload. This is a way to get consistency while really doing something
one day out of the month. Now, of course, this
isn't going to work for everything that you
or I have to do. There are some things that we
need to be consistent with every day and some of these other methods will
help you with that. But I suppose this method works best for the thing that you have the most trouble starting or
finding the motivation for. I love the editing process, I love the advertising process, and I love well, pretty much everything
except the filming. So that is the thing
that I'm going to set to do once a month and try to bulk create and then the
rest of the month is really freeing to do other
things while I'm editing, which is the part
of the process. I enjoy. If you can
get motivated for that one day and I highly
recommend scheduling it, it will still probably never happen if you wake up and say, today is that day I'm
gonna do for classes. But I like to schedule it. I like to say, Okay, I know that this coming Friday is the day I'm
going to set all of this up and then I'm
going to just go with it.
6. Method 4: The motivation multiplier: It's hard to work with
a lack of motivation. This method is for
those who are maybe mid project and
thinking to themselves, What am I even doing? Why am I doing this? Why am I making this? Why am I working on this? And could my time be
better spent elsewhere? If you fit this profile, I'm going to guess from my own experience
that somewhere on your computer you've got
a folder of a quarter finished or half
finished projects. Now, it comforts you
that they're there. You know, you have an
idea that will work, but you just can't
get back to it. Well, this method is for you. This method is to multiply
motivation for a single task, but it takes a little
bit of work to set up. The goal is that
everything you do or create has multiple purposes. We tend to doubt something, but it's hard to doubt a
lot of things at once. So e.g. I. Might be creating a song. Maybe I'm making a
song for a purpose. Maybe I want to sell
that song on a website. Well, it can be really easy for me if I'm
not seeing the sales, I want to be halfway through the song and think,
What am I doing? I could spend my time better and then bounce
back and forth. It's very ADD between
these things. Now, that goes away. If I multiply motivation by multiplying the use
of any single thing. And that's why I say it
takes a little bit of work to set up is you
have to creatively think how to use what you're
doing in multiple ways. Then a single product or a single task has multiple
outputs of usefulness. And if you start to
doubt one or even two, you can comfort yourself with the outputs that
are already there. So we'll go back to
my song example. If I'm making a
song and uploading it to a website to sell, maybe I'm doubting
how that's working. Well, I've set it up so
that when I create a song, I'm actually using it for five or six different
things at a time. I could put that song on
the website to sell it. I could also put that song on my own website as a backing track for
other musicians to use. That adds value to my
website and increases sales. I could put that backing
track on YouTube. And that's going
to increase views. And if I link to my website
in the description, well, that will bring in people to my website and increase sales. Everything that I'm doing is going to point in a few
different directions. As an added bonus, each of those directions can
point towards each other. Youtube points to the website. Soundcloud points to a website
I'm selling songs from, but that keeps me highly
motivated to record a song. Now I'm not going, well, what am I doing with this? But I'm going well, when I'm done with this song, I've got five or six different
places to upload it to. And I'm really motivated
to keep that going. So by a motivation multiplier, what we're really doing is a usefulness multiplier
for every task.
7. Method 5: The procrastination killer: This method is for the procrastinator who
just can't get started. Now, I might be the king
of all procrastinators. But it's really difficult
to give advice on because procrastination has a
few different routes. So what works for one person may not work for someone else. See you on the other
side of this screen, might procrastinate because
of a self-deprecation. The feeling that you
can't do something or put out something that's as good as what you're
seeing around you. So it probably won't work. So why even start? You may procrastinate
for the sake of pride? And this was my problem
for a long time. I was known by the people
around me as the musician, the guy who did this. So I didn't want to
put out a lot of what I created because what if they heard it
and didn't think it was as good as they
had in their minds. Or the third type of person might be someone who's
really living in a comfort zone with an idea
that they think will work. This was also my problem. You have an idea and you thought it through
and thought about different aspects of it and
you think it will work. And that's a great comfort. You've got a thought that
you think will work. But then what if you put it
out there and it doesn't? What if you put your all into your best thought
and it doesn't work. Well, if that's the case, you would probably feel
claustrophobic or stuck. Or like you put your
best idea out there. And now what, I
guess this is life. Well, all three of
these methods actually have a really easy solution. And that's to really
embrace making junk. And I'm not talking
about putting out work that you think is
really, really bad. But I'm saying that someday
when you look back, the things that you're
putting out today are going to be junk. See, I have an old course
on learning guitar. It's my first
course that I made. And I've gotten feedback on it from other people
who say, well, you should change this,
you should adapt this, this would really
make it useful. And I look back at
it and I go, Yeah, there's a lot of things about it that I would change,
but here's the thing. It was the start of
everything that I'm doing now and it's made me some money. So even if you're making
something that you know, you could do a better job in, you need to start somewhere. And that only happens by being comfortable making
a poor product. Your products will get better. You will learn by doing. You will learn
primarily by doing. But you need to start
by making something. You can't wait until
you've got all of your ducks in a row because
it will never happen. You could set everything
up perfectly. And the next year some
new technology will come out that could change the
way that you do things. And then the following year and the following and the following, you could always go down this rabbit hole of making
something better. But instead of making
something better, if you just made something, you would learn new insight that you couldn't
get any other way. And that's where good
products come from. That's where a good
creativity comes from. Instead of worrying that everybody else is making
something better, instead of worrying that your pride will be injured
when you release something. And instead of worrying that maybe it won't work when
you put your all into it. Just create something. Chances are that
your first, second, third, or even fourth attempt
won't really go anywhere. But you're going to
get better each time. Someday. What you create with the
experience you get from making junk is going to
be someone else's dream. And you will have to pass on the message that you
have to just start. By way of encouragement. Maybe go find some of your
favorite people, creators, businessmen that you look up to and look at
where they started. One of my favorite
things to do for this, since I create videos
and I work with music, is to go look at the YouTube
channels that I really admire and see
where they started. Each person starts in a
place where I would go back and change something about
it if it were my video.
8. Method 6: The workaholic's solution: This method is for
the workaholic who can't stop working and
has just burnt out. Maybe you're itching for
some time with family, maybe you're itching for time
out with friends or just to relax and enjoy what
you're doing but you're having trouble stopping. So why is that in a
productivity course, it seems like you're being productive and Dealing
with time management. Well, that's a little
different than productivity. See, you can be productive and
have poor time management. And I'll tell you right now, poor time management will
eventually kill productivity. Workaholic schedules
That's not sustainable. And so no matter how much
work you're putting in, you won't make it because
you will burn out. And as we talked about before, some form of consistency is key. So the workaholic, maybe
you're blazing hail of work, but you're gonna just keep that momentum going
right off the cliff. On the other side. There are two very
different methods that both help this profile of
person and might help you. The first one is to define
success for the day. Just define what you think would make the day feel successful
at the end of the day. The second one is to automate
very different things, but both incredibly useful. And we'll start
with the first one. When you sit down or
you're putting together your morning routine,
define success. For myself. I have a long to-do list. I'm going to prioritize
that list and pick what I think would make that
day feel successful. I have some consistent things
that I have to do each day. And then I have
some other things that just need to get done. So I have my main to-do list and then I have a
two-day to-do list. And I will take from
the main to-do list, I will put it in the
day and I say if I can get those things done, then I can mentally
rest and shut off from work tonight and
enjoy time with my wife. Now, there's a way to
sabotage this method. If you're a workaholic, you can recognize that the to-do list that
you're dragging into, the days success category might be your whole list or more
than half of your list. Yourself. An attainable goal. Say Truly if I get these
important things done, I can call that a successful day and I can start
again tomorrow. Now, the next one that I think
is incredibly helpful for me is to automate the
tasks that you can see. You can get views on YouTube. You can set up videos
to post automatically. You can run an ad for your business that brings
visitors to your website. You can do any number of
things to automate a task. You could outsource
something using Fiverr or a different
website, whatever it is. If you automate, then
you can also know, well, work is still
getting done. Even though I'm not actively
working at my desk. With those two things, you can finish your day by looking at a
checklist and saying, I've completed what I
need to and I can call that a successful day. And I know that some
tasks are automated. There's still things working for my business or for my work or for my creativity,
whatever it be. There are still things
working behind the scenes. Even while I'm not actively
sitting at my desk, then you can finish your day, sit back and enjoy some much needed rest
before the next work day.
9. Final Project: Chances are one of these
methods can help you. Hopefully, at least
one of them can. Whether you're having
trouble getting started with procrastination, trouble finishing a
project with motivation, or trouble walking
away from work and having a social life
or time with your family. For our final project. What I want you to do is just a little bit
of introspection. Think about what you have
the most trouble with. Think about which
profile you fit the best, and then write. Encourage other students write what method you're going to try, how you feel about it, how you think it will help you. And as an added bonus, if you've already employed
it and you find it useful. Tell people about it. You have a task now to
help other people manage their time well so
that they can be productive without
feeling burnt out. If you wanted to contact me, you always can with any questions
or comments at Jacob at lamb lessons.com or you can
visit me at lamb lessons.com. I'm looking forward
to meeting you guys.
Jacob Lamb, Musician, photographer and videographer
