{"id":8709,"date":"2024-09-09T19:40:19","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T23:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/2-great-productivity-hacks-early-to-rise\/"},"modified":"2024-09-09T19:40:19","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T23:40:19","slug":"2-great-productivity-hacks-early-to-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/2-great-productivity-hacks-early-to-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Great Productivity Hacks – Early To Rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Profit<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

\n

The Polish Productivity Hack for Crazy Busy Entrepreneurs<\/strong><\/p>\n

The other day a friend of mine tried to drag me into his drama.<\/p>\n

You see, my friend is an online coach\u2026 and he has a beef with another online coach.<\/p>\n

He forwarded me a couple of posts and a video he had made \u2026as if this was some high school dramarama where I had to pick a side.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot my monkey, not my circus,\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0I told him before deleting his messages and giving him a courtesy two-week block on Instagram.<\/p>\n

I stole that line from my friend Scott. He says it at least once on every coaching call\u2026 And I love it.<\/p>\n

Not my monkey. Not my circus.<\/p>\n

Turns out it\u2019s Polish in origin (who knew!).<\/p>\n

\u201cNie m\u00f3j cyrk, nie moje malpy.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This phrase (the English version!) is what you need to keep in mind when other people want:<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To drag you into their drama<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To have you put out their \u201cemergency fires\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To trick you into doing the work that they were supposed to do<\/p>\n

Sure it\u2019s a little \u201ccold\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

But it will help get your mind right when you\u2019re tempted to:<\/p>\n

a)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Do a $10 (or $100) an hour task that steals from your $1000\/hour time<\/p>\n

b)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Do something that is not your job & should be delegated out<\/p>\n

c)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Do something useless that NO ONE should be doing at all<\/p>\n

d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Steal precious moments from your kids to argue online<\/p>\n

Not my monkey.<\/p>\n

Not my circus.<\/p>\n

Back to work.<\/p>\n

Productivity Tip #2 \u2013 The Meeting Stack Hack<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everyone knows to stack wins.<\/p>\n

But few people know how to stack meetings.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t stack meetings, and you have them randomly scheduled throughout your day, then your productivity is going to die a \u201cdeath of a thousand cuts\u201d.<\/p>\n

Just as you get into the flow a part of your brain will start to think\u2026 \u201cOh, I have a meeting in 30 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then after the meeting it will take you time to get back into the flow.<\/p>\n

Soon you\u2019ll have to switch back out of the flow and into preparing for another meeting.<\/p>\n

The next thing you know the day is over \u2026 full of activity, but not accomplishment.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how to fix this:<\/p>\n

Avoid adding new one-off meetings.<\/p>\n

Only schedule meetings immediately before or after existing meetings.<\/p>\n

This allows you to have meeting blocks with hard deadlines (this meeting has to end because you have another meeting to attend).<\/p>\n

Make sure to also reduce the meeting time\u2026 if someone asks for an hour, tell them you have 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

Stack them up into 3 hour blocks (with a few 5-10 minute breaks in there).<\/p>\n

Make the world play by your rules.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now combining the two hacks above\u2026<\/p>\n

This weekend I want you to do a ruthless reexamination of your Aug-Sept calendar and remove all fluff\u2026<\/p>\n

You probably have a lot of monkeys on your calendar that shouldn\u2019t be there.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Meaningless calls you\u2019ve agreed to\u2026<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cCoffee meet-ups\u201d that will go nowhere\u2026<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Podcast interviews that you agreed to out of guilt\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to \u201ccull the herd of calls on your calendar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Use the old \u201cMarie Kondo Spark Joy\u201d method on your schedule.<\/p>\n

If the meeting (or results of the meeting) do not \u201cspark joy\u201d, toss it!\u00a0<\/p>\n

This also seems a little cold.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s what happens when you let crap creep onto your calendar.<\/p>\n

Yes, even ol\u2019 CB over-schedules and says YES where I shouldn\u2019t\u2026<\/p>\n

Last Monday I agreed to a podcast out of guilt (because the podcasters were good friends with Bedros).<\/p>\n

And then I stacked a meeting after because an old client I\u2019ve known for nearly 20 years asked for help with his business and wanted to vent about his ex.<\/p>\n

So I missed out on going to the pool with Isabella and Sofia\u2026<\/p>\n

To do a podcast that didn\u2019t matter\u2026<\/p>\n

And then my friend NO SHOWED on a call he begged for.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t get fooled again.<\/p>\n

Time to be ruthless.<\/p>\n

So while it might seem \u201ccold\u201d to cancel\u2026<\/p>\n

Stealing playtime from my kids is much colder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Or being late for dinner with your partner because you took random phone calls all day that left you running behind on your deadlines.<\/p>\n

Or skipping workouts and hurting your health because you were Golden-Handcuffed to Zoom all day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The problem is that while everyone knows how to book a (useless) meeting\u2026<\/p>\n

Few people think to cancel useless meetings.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I spend 15 minutes every week \u201cediting\u201d my calendar.<\/p>\n

Every Friday afternoon\u2026<\/p>\n

Right before my call with my good friend and longtime client Trent in New Zealand (where it\u2019s Saturday AM)<\/p>\n

I set aside time to get rid of the monkeys that are not part of my circus.<\/p>\n

I give my calendar a good Marie Kondo-treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I cancel as many calls, meetings, podcasts, etc. as I can.<\/p>\n

For example, yesterday I canceled:<\/p>\n