Transcripts
1. Introduction: Have you ever heard
that one moment when you went to a grocery shop, you felt as though
you got everything in your cart, you paid. And by the time that
you're returning home, you get your bags, you put it into your kitchen. Then you realize you're
missing a couple of items. And these aren't just
any kinds of items. These items will determine whether or not you're
able to create your dish. That's when you start to think, darn, only if I made
a grocery list. Lists are highly powerful. And it doesn't matter if
you're only using it for grocery shopping or other
parts of your life. In this beginner's
class on to-do list, you will see the power of what a to-do list will do
for your productivity. My name is our module three,
the founder of Vermont. He talks a media company which helps engineers and
entrepreneurs improve their communication
skills so they can articulate their ideas with
clarity and confidence. One of the topics covered
by the Armani tags brand is mindset
and productivity. And in this beginner's class on how to create a to-do lists. You're going to understand
what exactly is it has to experiment
with your to-do list, how to use it for
maximum productivity. Along with the final
project at the end, that will allow you to boost your productivity and get
more done in the day. If you're ready to level up, I look forward to
seeing you inside.
2. What is a To-do list?: A to-do list is a list which is going to allow
you to plan out your day. This is a very surface
level definition, so allow us to go a
little bit deeper. I like to view a
to-do list sort of like as a command for a human. Did you ever have that one
moment when you're sitting in the passenger seat
and your buddy was driving a car and you're not just sitting in the
passenger seat of wasting time. Instead, you're reciting the
directions for your buddy. How clear you were with
your directions would determine how efficiently
you got to your location. Let's say you start dozing
off and you forget to tell them to get off on exit nine.
What's going to happen? Now time is being wasted. This guy is getting angry
at you and you're like, okay, let me wait for
distinct to readjust. Every single time
that you are giving the proper explanation
of what you are saying. The more that you are commanding this person's nervous system. So they are doing what you
are telling them to do. Words have power. Words can influence our reality by effectively
designing a to-do list. Not only are you
capable of using words to reprogram yourself, you're also able to see whether or not the
day was successful. Because think about it. If I were to ask you right now, was your day successful today? That's very ambiguous question. You may be like, I guess, I mean, how do I even
measure something like that? I guess I'll go with my feeling
and it's not objective. But with the to-do list, you have a certain level
of items that you can see. And if you are to measure whether or not
your day was successful, you can see how much of these items that you
are able to cross off. A to-do list has a lot of
different functionalities. But one of the main
things we want to understand is that it will influence us and allow us
to do more in the day.
3. Assess Priorities: Let's say it's Thanksgiving. And you're going to
the grocery shop to do some
Thanksgiving shopping. What's the theme of your grocery
list going to look like? It's going to be
heavily centered around creating a
Thanksgiving meal. This mill is, let's say, a lot different than if you are going to your
Indian buddies, a wedding and you're
supposed to bring some sort of Indian dish. So that grocery list
is going to be much different than the
Thanksgiving grocery list. Themes dictate what is exactly
going to be on the list. For you to create an
effective to-do list. You want to ask yourself, what is my theme right now? Do I have one? If
not, that's fine. The question is, do I
currently have one? Did you ever have that
one moment when you had to focus all in on an exam? This exam was going to
determine your future. It was going to
determine whether you got into a certain program, a certain school,
got job offers, etc. For the next three weeks, you had to put all of your
efforts into this exam. What does this mean? This means that the
theme of your life for the next three weeks is
heavily exam focused. By understanding the steam, it becomes much easier
to understand what exactly am I going to
put on the to-do list? So one of the
questions you want to ask yourself right now is, what are my priorities? What am I trying to improve? Am I trying to improve a little
bit of a bunch of stuff? Is it just one thing for
the next couple of weeks? The more clear that
you get on this, the easier it becomes to fill out your to-do list effectively.
4. Write Simple: The next thing we
want to understand is that we have to write simple. Let's say you're a blogger. How you do not want to write it is today I need to do keyword research and then
I have to write my blog. And from the blog I need
to add an hyperlinks. And from adding in
the hyperlinked, running out of breath, even saying that
you do not want to include all those words
on your to-do list. Instead, you just want to boil
it down to one word, blog. You don't want to say, I'm going to create a workout
routine to go to the gym, do 15 lat pull downs as six bicep curls,
eight, squats, etc. You just want to say, Jim. The reason why is because our brain is an information
processing machine. Word, very simple activities. In a very complex way. The brain is going to view it
as a very complex activity. So you've gone to
the gym and doing a workout routine
is rather simple. But you using all that text is going to confuse the
brain into thinking, whoa, this is a very
difficult activity to do. The opposite is also true. Let's say this is a somewhat
difficult activity. If you write it in
simple language from sentences into
just one word, then it's going to
fool your brain into thinking that this
is an easy activity. When it views it as an easy
activity is going to be like, Well, go on, do it. So you're tricking herself
in a good way, of course. So for your to-do list, when you are adding n the items, you do not want
to use sentences. Instead, you want to use words. And by using words effectively, you're able to encapsulate the entire task and make it seem easy for your
brain to execute.
5. Execute: You have your theme,
you made your list. Now next up, you need to execute something about having
the list in front of you. It's written out. Now,
it's very easy to be like, am I going to be successful
or am I going to fail? The only way to be
successful is to execute. This is something that I could talk about
for a long time. But there's no need to. You already know what you
have to do right now. And you just got to pull the trigger and go from
point a to point B. And by the end of your day, you will be able to
see whether or not today was a successful
day or not.
6. Re-Evaluate: So you've been executing
for some time. Eventually, you want to take a pause and you
want to reevaluate. What this basically means is, are all the items in your
to-do lists necessary? Certain items are
absolutely necessary. You cannot live without it. While other items are
somewhat of a clutter, you could eventually remove it. The thing with a to-do
list is that it's growing with you as you
progress in life, there's going to be different
priorities that you have. Therefore, at the to-do list
may not always be stagnant. Instead, it's going
to be dynamic. Other times, you
will notice that certain activities
really are stagnant. You always go to the gym in a certain part of the
day within a week. This is fixed in the to-do list. While other activities are
more dynamic in nature. Let's say you're a
content creator. You don't always have
to do interviews. But every now and
then someone hits you up and it's like, Hey, can I have you on
my podcast episode, which you want to do is
we evaluate n intervals. I like to reevaluate every
three to six months. But then again, I've
been practicing with a to-do list for some time. Your interval will
depend upon you. I just tried to sneak in
this reevaluation feature. So you know that you are working
on the right activities.
7. Tweaking: Along with reevaluating, another thing you
want to do is tweak. A tweaking is a very fancy
word for experimenting. You're scientist, my friend. You're an engineer. My friend. Therefore treat this
tiny little to-do list as an engineer and
a scientist would. Here's an example of
what I mean by tweaking. There was a long time when
I was going to the gym, let's say at 06:00 P.M. and
I noticed that it was busy. Something about the
germ being too busy. I don't like, I know
people that are like, I love a palindrome because it makes me much more motivated. I'm not that kind of guy. I don't like to
wait for too long and just bump left and
right with people. So what I noticed was at times the gym was
on my to-do list. And by the time it
was time for the gym, I was like, do I really
need to go today? And there was a lot of
tension that was being built. And the tension
wasn't just being built when I had
to go to the gym. It was being built for the
other activities as well, within my to-do list. Let's say I'm eating
and I'm like, am I really going to go through all that clutter in
order to go to the gym, which was affecting me in a
very negative sort of way. So eventually I decided
that I was going to make a tweak instead of going to the gym at 06:00
P.M. how about I go at 06:00 A.M. and rather than going to the gym
straight up in downtown, how about I drive
five-minutes extra and go to the gym that's
not in downtown, that doesn't attract
so many people. By making this little tweaks. I started to go to the gym
and it was completely empty. Well, there was another
weirdo like me. So there were, let's
say myself and five other people in
this colossal germ. And now I want it
to go to the gym. I liked it that also empty. It was early in the morning. I felt better. I felt stronger. I had energy for the
rest of the day. And it was all
born from a tweak. U2 can have these sort of exponential effects simply by
readjusting certain things. So do not just have this fixed approach
towards your to-do list. Every now and then. A, b, that scientist, that engineer who is troubleshooting and
leading to new solutions.
8. Final Project: Your final project is
to create a to-do list. First step is to assess your
priority or priorities. What is it? Is it
self-improvement? Isn't getting stronger. Building relationships. Building a business? A little bit of everything, get as clear as
you possibly can. And step two is to
create a couple of items that you can add
on this to-do list. You are not trying to create
big, bulky sentences. Instead, you're trying
to create simple words. Once you have created
your to-do list, next job is to execute a coupon, executing for a series of days until you have
reached a week. Then I want you to reevaluate
your to-do list. How is it? Are you doing
activities that are high ROI or are you doing
activities that have clutter? I keep on tweaking and keep
on refining your to-do list. Once the week is done, I want you to create a report of your experience of living
life with a to-do list. Is your day more clear or
getting more things done? Are you improving your
confidence because you did what you said
you're going to do, get as a detailed in the
report as you possibly can, and post it in the final project section,
right arm below. I look forward to reading it. If you enjoyed this beginner's
class on how to build a to-do list and how to
improve your productivity. A visual check out
more content from the Armani talks
brand by checking out our money talks.com. In this website, you will be introduced to
plenty of my blogs, videos, podcasts, and much more. Armani talks.com. Go on and check it out.
Arman Chowdhury, Confidence thru Communication
