Why You Must Set Your Top Priorities For Your Day

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Subscribe to The Goal Achievement Podcast on Apple Podcast & STITCHER.

Learn more about Matt’s productivity coaching at www.Matt-East.com/pricing

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I've been asked recently by many new clients about why I ask for their top-3 priorities each day. Here are the three main reasons. I figured I would share this with all clients, since you may have also wondered about this. We're trying to create a virtuous cycle of momentum and daily forward progress with your top-3. Here's how and why we do that:

First, we know, clarity is necessary to perform at your peak.

So, it's critical to be clear about what you want to achieve with your time and energy. By determining your top-3 priorities, you create clarity for yourself.

Second, we recognize your motivation is earned each day.

By taking action on your top-3 priorities, you create motivation for yourself. Contrary to what most people believe, motivation is created by taking action. You do not feel motivated and then act. You act, and then your motivation follows. To prove this. Consider a time you didn't want to go for a run, but regardless of that feeling, you fought through and started running anyway. And then 20 minutes into the run, you feel great, almost euphoric, and you think to yourself, "I can't believe I almost didn't run today; this has been the best part of my day." That's an example of motivation following action. If you waited around to feel like running, you would have NEVER started the run, the motivation to run followed running. This works similarly with working on any challenging task or activity. If you can begin to trust your motivation to follow after you start a task or activity, you'll have a massive advantage for the rest of your life. By completing your top priorities each day, you teach yourself how taking action creates motivation. And you learn it's a process that you can rely on.

Lastly, we know success creates more success.

After setting your top-3 priorities and taking action on them day-after-day, you will start feeling like you are making progress. Once you feel like you're progressing - momentum starts to build. Because you've begun to prove to yourself that you can take action and accomplish whatever you want each day. Even if the priority is a seemingly small task, this cycle of (clarity-taking action-creating motivation for yourself-accomplishing the priority) still creates incremental progress (that you recognize as success). This success leads to more self-confidence and a belief that you can execute on whatever you choose. And when you realize that, you can accomplish just about anything you want. That's why I like to see your top-3 priorities each morning. And that's how setting priorities has helped so many of my clients achieve incredible success. Because over time, when you follow the process (and you trust yourself enough to start on and do the work) you create an unstoppable cycle of executing day-after-day-after-day. And that daily execution adds up. And that builds your self-confidence to take more action - and set bigger goals for yourself. And those bigger goals lead to more focused needle-moving priorities each day, which leads to more success for you. And that's how it works. That's why I love to see your top-3 every morning—that's why I never want to start my day without knowing my top-3.

It's not always easy, it's not always fun.

But the process ALWAYS WORKS if you're willing to put in the work. Let me know if you have any specific questions or concerns. -Matt

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Three Listener Questions

The Goal Achievement Podcast, hosted by Productivity Expert Matt East, is all about helping you find clarity, design a plan, and most importantly achieve your goals.

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Subscribe to The Goal Achievement Podcast on Apple Podcast & STITCHER.

Learn more about Matt’s productivity coaching at www.Matt-East.com/pricing

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Three Listener Questions

Podcast transcription

Hey guys, just a heads up before we get into this, I drop a couple F-bombs in this episode as we're talking through George Floyd. So I just want to give you guys a heads up if you're listening with kids. 

Hey gang, what's up? I hope you're all doing really well. I've got three listener questions today, so let's just get right into it. 

The big question we all face every morning is this: How can we focus more time on the projects, activities, and relationships that are most important and meaningful to us and less time on the stuff that doesn't matter so we can actually move closer to our goals and dreams? 

That is the question, and this podcast is the answer. My name is Matt East and welcome to the Goal Achievement podcast. I'm so glad you're here, now let's dig in. 

All right, let's get into it. So the first question:

Matt, before the murder of George Floyd I was on fire, I was working on my book and my website, and I was so focused and making amazing progress. But since then, I've been scared, angry, sad, and frustrated, I know I need to get moving again, but it's been so hard. Do you have any ideas? 

So first, thanks for sending this question and, and of course, you feel that way, of course, I mean, we all feel that way and we've all kind of taken a step back and the wind has been taken out of our sales, I think not only across the nation but, you know, across the globe. I have a lot of global clients and... and I have a lot of North American-based clients. 

But I mean, this has been a huge deal, and everybody, virtually everybody that I know feels the exact same way you do where it's really made you reevaluate things and take a step back, and obviously, it's hit your productivity temporarily and taken the wind... wind out of your sail... Sails. And, you know, that's completely normal, you'd be crazy if that wasn't the case. So first, I'd just say recognize that you're 100 percent normal, and... and it would be crazy if you didn't react that way. 

OK, so here would be the advice, though, since that's what you're asking for and I do know this is something and I... you know, I've seen other, a lot of my clients obviously feel this way and yeah, so here's what I'd say, I'd say:

One, B take it easy on yourself like recognize that, first of all. 

Second of all would be just by you know, you're doing a lot of amazing work with your book and your website and I know the person who asked this question, so I know that I know they're doing amazing things, and I would just say that by continuing the work that you're doing, the work that's going to make such an amazing impact on the world and on your family and all of that, I would say just to remember that that work, you can do it in a way that honors the memory and life of George Floyd, and I would encourage you to do that. 

So if you're struggling and you know, you know, you're struggling to get going, think about that, think about how your work can honor the memory and life of George, and try to use that as inspiration to keep going and to get started and to kind of get restarted on your website, in your book and all that good stuff. 

The next... the other thing I'd say is probably a little more direct, which is just, you know if you stop this work that you're doing, this incredible work you're doing, if you stop it, I mean, you let the guy that killed George Floyd, Derek Chauvin, win, I mean, you let him win the battle. Like, if people stop doing all this positive in the world and they're stopping because they feel unmotivated and deflated because of this Derek guy who fuck him and what a piece of shit that dude is. I mean, I can't, I think personally like I think a lot that like humans are inherently good and. I mean, that was some I mean, that is just unbelievable, it really, really, really, really, really just I mean, I haven't been able to talk about it on here because it's just like, infuriating I mean, it's just unbelievable. 

So you know, you let, you let Derek win again if, if you stop doing your impactful work, you know, so I would say those two things. 

One by continuing the work, the powerful work, the important work that you're doing, you're making your art, you're doing your thing, you're you can do that in a way that honors George Floyd. And two if you stop, you let Derek Chauvin win and, you know, fuck that, don't do that, give me a break. 

So that's my advice. I don't think I've dropped the F-bomb on here before, but I do like to cuss, so that may happen more often. I think I have marked this is no longer a that there could be some bad language, so hopefully, I don't get in trouble, I'll make sure to mark this episode as explicit. 

But yeah, yeah, that's it, continue the work and do it in a way that honors George and his legacy and his life, and two if you stop, you let Derek Chauvin win and don't let that happen. So that would be my, that's been my advice to my clients who have struggled with this very similar question, and obviously, I didn't push them like the first couple of days, but once, you know, people start asking for that, just like this listener did, this question came and they're giving me the green light to say, hey any ideas? So there, that's those are my two ideas. 

OK, question number two, by the way, I hope that's helpful, and if it's not, email me and let's set up a call. I will, we can chat through this. So, OK, the second question, listener question is:

I'm starting an online business, any advice? 

Man, that is quite the broad question, I'm starting an online business. Any advice? Well, yeah, I've got some advice, it's dependent on the business, but for most businesses, I would say, create an incredible lead magnet like your best work, create something amazing that like in your head, you should be charging like fifty dollars for it and give that away to people. That would be my best advice because, you know, make that lead magnet... magnet applicable to what you do, and that's my best advice. 

Create an unbelievable lead magnet so that you can get leads. And, and generate a little bit of buzz, and that's definitely what I would do. 

The other thing would just be I feel like people want everything to be perfect before they launch, you know, there's a concept of MVP or minimal viable product, and I would definitely say, you know, don't try to make everything perfect before you start signing up customers and serving customers, because that's going to drive things more than anything. I mean, that's going to drive your product or your service more than anything is responding to what those customers, customer needs are. 

So get customers and you're going to get customers by creating an incredible lean magnet, that's what I, I wish I would have done that like, right on the gate was just I started podcasting, but I didn't create like a really, really special lead magnet so that when people hit my website, they can download it and then boom, they're on my email list. They are where you've got a relationship we can build from there, and that is a game-changer. 

So that would be my... my advice for almost any business, incredible league magnet. 

OK, the third thing, third question, oh this is funny, this is so funny. So this is from a buddy of mine that's also a coach and he says:

Matt, WTF? How and why are you offering or coaching right now for 29.99? 

So, he's in, he's on my email list I bet because I've just sent out an email that said, hey my coaching's only 29.99 right now. So why, how, and why are you offering it. 

So first, the first thing is I've used to coach and I paid what I was paying when I was previously before I knocked this price down, so I when I used to coach, I paid 86 dollars a month. So what coach taught me, you can pay 86 a month or you can pay 25 a week, which I guess equals about a hundred a month. So I was doing 86 bucks a month and you know, Rachel and I have a pretty healthy income and I mean that was still 86 bucks a month, still made me like think about, you know, I turned I'd bypass it and flip it off and on and all that as I'm working with Chris Sauers, my coach, my running coach. 

But it's not like I just turned it on for 86 bucks a month and like, never thought about it again, And if it were 29 bucks, I would have just like started with Chris and never ended, so I've thought about that, I'm like, you know, Rachel's an attorney, I have a really good business, and so her income is higher than the average person that would be using my coaching, and I'm like, if I have trouble like stomaching 86 a month and I love coaching, then I'm sure my clients are. 

And I have I have a ton of clients who would sign up for like, you know, 30 to 60 days, and basically, they would get their the productivity issues solved, not really solved, I shouldn't say solved, but they make a ton of progress and then they kind of want to stick around. But, you know, it'd be time to pay 86 bucks again or 100 bucks again. And they're like ugh. 

So people would stop, you know, a lot of people would use me for like two weeks to figure out what's going on and then stop, and I know it was pricing because when I've reached out and said, hey, I've lowered my price at 30 bucks, you want to jump back in? I've had an unbelievable response. 

So that means a lot of people felt the same way I did, which was 86 was a lot and 30 seems much more where it should be for digital coaching, where the market sat and I just really feel like it's my job to price digital coaching in a way that, you know, the market can consume it and, you know, I'll figure it out from there, I mean, I've got to... it's going to be hard to do this for a long time because as I take on more and more clients, that its coaching doesn't scale absolutely beautifully. 

So I may raise my price again for sure but for right now, that is what it is, and I'm sticking to it imma stick to it as long as I can. You know, when I reflect on my mission, my mission is to help as many people as possible focus more on the projects, activities, and relationships that are most important and meaningful to them, hopefully, so that they can achieve their goals, achieve their dreams and do what they want in life. 

So when I thought about that, too, I'm just like the goal of my coaching practice is never to make it boatloads of money, it's been to help as many people as possible and... and make some money along the way. 

So that's it I mean, 29.99 just really is way, way, way more easily to stomach than either 86 dollars or 99 dollars. So that's the 30 bucks and it's been awesome, I mean, it's awesome. So yeah, that's two things. 

Oh, this is a big thing, too. The third thing I forgot, I was... the reason so the one of the parts of this is how and why, so the why, so why? I was running one day listening to Jay-Z like three weeks ago, he has a song called You Don't Know and there's a line in there, he said... That he says:

"I smarten up I open the market up". 

So I smartened, I smartened up and I opened the market up. So I smarten up, I open the market up. 

So to me, that's kind of like in my world, I was just kind of thought, I'm like, man, would it be smarter to I could just using price I can make coaching so much more widely available or attainable for people, so there's no doubt that coaching works and it can be transformative. I mean, if you go look at like my testimonials, like my coaching works, but 86 bucks is a lot a lot to stomach. I mean, that's a big rub with coaching is that it's expensive. 

So if I can solve that, if I can bring that price down to something that helps people and I can still provide my coaching at a level that helps them achieve their goals and their dreams and stay focused on their projects, activities, and relationships that are most important, meaningful to them, then we both win, so that's it, I smarten up. I open the market up. 

So that was a big just that line in that song had an impact, and then also as far as how yeah, I mean, it's, this is what I do full time, so that's what I do. So how and I don't know, I don't know how to answer that and, you know, use an app, I do it digitally and it'd be impossible to serve the number of clients I have if I didn't have, like systems in place or if I was trying to do it via email, that just would not work. 

So that's it guys, that's it,  those are the three questions, thanks for sending those in. The questions really pour in when I'm actually recording podcasts, so keep sending them in, I'll keep recording and answering and that's it guys. 

Hope you guys are doing well, if you need anything, please don't hesitate to reach out to me and I am happy to help any way that I can. So that's it guys bye-bye. 

Hey, everyone, it's Matt again and I have two special offers for you: 

First, did you know you can actually download my best-selling book, The Purposeful Planning Method: How to Plan Your Day, Beat Procrastination, and Regain Control of Your Time for free from my website right now? That's Matt-East.com, you just Google Matt East Productivity and it will pull right up, and you can download the digital book or the audiobook, either one for free right now. 

I can't promise this offer will last forever, so snag a copy if you want it. This is the exact same book that costs I don't know what it is like 18 bucks on Amazon and Audible so go get it while you can, don't come whining to me if you miss this deal and you didn't download it. 

So I'm telling you, if you want it for free, go get it. 

Don't wait and take action, knock it out. It's again, it's Matt-East.com, is my website. So, or just Google Matt East, Google productivity coach, I think I come right up first. 

So second thing, I want to invite you to work with me, I'm offering my digital productivity coaching right now for 29 dollars and 99 cents a month. That's 70 percent off the regular price, so it's usually 25 bucks a week or 100 bucks a month, so you jump on this opportunity. 

It's the only coaching that I have available right now, my... I have two VIP level coaching where I can actually meet with people over the phone either once a week, or once every other week, and those are sold out. So this is the only way you can work one on one with me right now, and I've decided to price it so that anyone that basically wants this could do it. 

It's 29.99, and it's it's perfect if you're looking to transform your productivity and if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably trying to do that. So this coaching works. It's awesome, and man, for 29 bucks like the ROI on this is incredible, or if you're a solopreneur like a lot of my clients, if you're an entrepreneur or if you're just a professional looking for an edge, I mean the ROI on this is incredible because you're not investing much. 

Some of these coaches cost a couple grand. I mean, I have a package that costs 500 dollars a month, so this is 29 dollars a month. It's you can't beat it, it's less than a dollar a day, it's literally less than a buck a day. 

So, and we will communicate every single day in an app, it's awesome, it works. I've been doing this for a few years now, I know what I'm doing and I can help you, so it's, it's amazing, you would love it if you try it, you will love it. 

And it's 100 percent confidential, I always like to mention that. 

So there is no downside to giving it a shot, so try it. I bet you'll love it, and if you don't just cancel no big deal relax, it's no... There's like literally no downside to this, so give it a shot, you deserve it. 

You owe it to yourself to have some accountability, have somebody that cares. 

That's why I use writing coach, I like having somebody that I pay to care about when I'm working on, so it's great, I highly recommend it and I think you guys would love it, and that's it. 

I hope you guys loved this episode and we'll chat again soon bye-bye.

3 Secrets for Overcoming Self-Doubt

The Goal Achievement Podcast, hosted by Productivity Expert Matt East, is all about helping you find clarity, design a plan, and most importantly achieve your goals.

Matt shares two secrets for finding your motivation!

Learn more at www.matt-east.com

Overcoming Self Doubt

Podcast Transcription

Hey guys, what's up it's Matt. 

Hope you're doing really well, on today's episode we're going to talk through three secrets you can use to overcome self-doubt. So the next time some self-doubt creeps in, I've got three tips or tricks or secrets that you can use to help defeat that, to overcome it, so let's dig in. 

The big question we all face every morning is this: How can we focus more time on the projects, activities, and relationships that are most important and meaningful to us and less time on the stuff that doesn't matter so we can actually move closer to our goals and dreams? 

That is the question, and this podcast is the answer. My name is Matt East and welcome to the Goal Achievement podcast. I'm so glad you're here, now let's dig in. 

All right, gang, let's dig in. So I received a listener question this week that said: 

Matt really enjoyed your recent podcast episode about the two secrets for finding motivation. Do you have any secrets that you could share for overcoming self-doubt? 

So yes, I do, I've got a few things that I like to use, I've got a few things that have helped clients of mine, so let's just chat through them real quick. 

So the first thing I like to think about, if I'm facing self-doubt, is I think through this... I think if anyone else has ever done what I'm looking to do, if anyone else has ever done it, then that validates that it's possible and it helps me understand that I can do it too, so does it make sense? So if someone else has done what you're looking to do, it validates that it's possible and that with enough skill and effort and you know, if you stick to it, you can do it, too. 

So I think through that a lot, I think through when I'm struggling with something that I'm trying to do. But I know someone else has done it before, like start a podcast, write a book, or something like that I definitely think through, hey if anyone else has ever done this before, then I should be able to do it, I may have to be patient with myself, I may have to skill up, I may have to put forth more effort than I expected or wanted to, but it does mean that if someone else has done that thing, that it reassures me that I can do it too. 

So that is definitely the first secret that I use as I reflect on that, I do that a lot, that is definitely something I keep in my back pocket, and it's something that I share with clients a lot too, so keep that in mind, if someone else has ever done that thing that you're doubting that you could do, then it validates that it's possible and that with enough skill and enough effort, you can do it, too, so that's the first thing. 

The second thing is, I like to reflect back and think of a, of a you know something in the past that I had doubt about and then I overcame it, and then I use that to build confidence that, hey, I have had this feeling before, I've had this self-doubt like this before, and I was able to overcome it, and once I overcame it, it was no big deal. 

So like again, using the example of like writing a book or starting a podcast I had big doubts about both of those things. So... but I just thought to myself, you know, hey, I have felt this way of other times in my life where I had self-doubt and I overcame it then and I'll overcome it this time, so I kind of use that to build confidence, as I'm, as I'm facing that self-doubt, that reflection back that, hey, I felt this before and I was over to be able to overcome it before. 

So if you think back to a time in your life where, you know, you had self-doubt and then you overcame that, think through what that process looked like, what it felt like, and when you're facing self-doubt with something you're working on now, try to apply that, hey I felt this before and I overcame it and I'm going to do that this time. 

So that's definitely something that I like to use, is just reflecting back in time and... and recognizing that I've overcome this feeling before and I'll do it again. 

So that's a good little tip or trick, good little secret. 

All right, then the third thing for overcoming self-doubt is this. 

Just to remember that as you are demonstrating the ability that you are doubting or if you are as you are just getting better at whatever that thing is that you're doubting that you can do as you take action on it, and is you... your acumen for whatever it is gross, your doubt is going to dissipate, it's going to diminish over time. 

So just remember that, that if you're having a lot of self-doubt similar to the last episode where if you're lacking motivation, you kind of have to do the thing to actually feel motivated, it's counterintuitive. This is the same thing. 

Like you're not going to release that self-doubt until you actually take some action in your acumen and your ability and your skills for whatever it is that you're doubting yourself. 

And that is, your self-doubt is going to decrease as your ability increases, and the only way you're going to be able to, you know, demonstrate the ability to do whatever the thing it is that you want to do is you're going to have to take action. 

So remember that you know, that's something like talk about my podcast as an example, I mean, the first I mean, the first thing I mean, the episodes still aren't that great, but the first 50 were terrible and... and you just get better by just continuing to do it and continuing to put in the wraps, and that's how it is, that's why I get so frustrated... I, you know the podcast community, people reach out a lot, and so I get reached out to a lot by, like new podcasters and they'll say, you know, they want some guidance or whatever, and a lot of times they'll feel frustrated that after like, you know, 10 episodes things aren't going well. 

And it's just like, man it takes so much, you know we're in a hundred and thirty, forty-something episodes in... well, and that's just on this podcast, not counting the Better Humans podcast. So, you know, I've recorded hundreds of podcasts and I'm still pretty terrible and the only way I'm going to get better is by, you know, continuing to refine the skills and to refine my podcasting ability to get better, to improve, to practice, to record episodes, I mean that's it. 

So I get frustrated when guys reach out. They're like, I'm 10 episodes in I think I might quit like dude you're 10 episodes in! Nobody's listening yet because nobody knows you're podcasting and because you're not very good, so hang in there. So, yeah, got to build up the acumen, got to build up that your ability, and as you build up your ability that self-doubt will begin to decrease and to diminish over time. 

So and you know, you're never not going to... you're always going to fill some self-doubt, keep that in mind. I mean, people are notorious for... you know, feeling like impostors, regardless of what you're doing, so you're never going to feel completely comfortable, that's just not how the game works. 

So... so understand that a certain amount of that self-doubt is healthy and it's to be expected. 

That's probably another really good tip to expect it to expect that you're going to have some self-doubt, but as you take action, that self-doubt will decrease. 

So that's it, guys. That's what I would say. 

So to recap those, I'd say number one. If anyone... Remind yourself if anyone's ever done the thing you're looking to do, that validates that it's possible and if they could do it, you could you can do it, you might need more skill, you might need to put out a tremendous amount of effort, but if it can be done, then you should be able to do it, too. Obviously, that's within reason, but, you know, most things that does apply for 99 percent of stuff I'm helping my clients with giving that advice is good advice for they want to write a book, start a podcast, build a business. Hey, if anyone's ever done it, you can do it and use that knowledge to your advantage. 

Number two is to reflect back and think of a past time when you had self-doubt and you overcame it and used that as confidence to realize that you're going to overcome your gonna be able to overcome the self-doubt that you're facing currently. 

And number three, remember that as you demonstrate the ability, the skill or the ability that you are currently doubting through your actions and you build an acumen for doing whatever it is that you want to do, your self-doubt is going to decrease. 

And then lastly, like I said, you're always going to have more self-doubt. So don't let it freak you out and don't let it to stop you from taking action, and you know, as you take that action, as you take the right action, your self-doubt is going to decrease over time. 

So I hope those... hope, those little secrets for reducing or overcoming self-doubt, I hope you guys like that, hope those help, and I hope you're able to take one of those and use it this week. 

Everybody have a great week, and if you need anything, please don't be shy I'm happy to help in a way that I can. That's it guys, have a great week, bye-bye. 

Hey everyone, it's Matt again, and I have two special offers for you: 

First, did you know you can actually download my best-selling book, The Purposeful Planning Method: How to Plan Your Day, Beat Procrastination, and Regain Control of Your Time for free from my website right now? That's Matt-East.com, you just Google Matt East Productivity and it will pull right up, and you can download the digital book or the audiobook, either one for free right now. 

I can't promise this offer will last forever, so snag a copy if you want it. This is the exact same book that costs I don't know what it is like 18 bucks on Amazon and Audible so go get it while you can, don't come whining to me if you miss this deal and you didn't download it. 

So I'm telling you, if you want it for free, go get it. 

Don't wait and take action, knock it out. It's again, it's Matt-East.com, is my website. So, or just Google Matt East, Google productivity coach, I think I come right up first. 

So second thing, I want to invite you to work with me, I'm offering my digital productivity coaching right now for 29 dollars and 99 cents a month. That's 70 percent off the regular price, so it's usually 25 bucks a week or 100 bucks a month, so you jump on this opportunity. 

It's the only coaching that I have available right now, my... I have two VIP-level coaching where I can actually meet with people over the phone either once a week or once every other week, and those are sold out. So this is the only way you can work one on one with me right now, and I've decided to price it so that anyone that basically wants this could do it. 

It's 29.99 a month, and it's it's perfect if you're looking to transform your productivity and if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably trying to do that. So this coaching works, it's awesome, and man, for 29 bucks like the ROI on this is incredible, or if you're a solopreneur like a lot of my clients, if you're an entrepreneur or if you're just a professional looking for an edge, I mean the ROI on this is incredible because you're not investing much. 

Some of these coaches cost a couple grand. I mean, I have a package that costs 500 dollars a month, so this is 29 nine dollars a month. It's you can't beat it, it's less than a dollar a day, it's literally less than a buck a day. 

So, and we will communicate every single day in an app, it's awesome, it works. I've been doing this for a few years now, I know what I'm doing and I can help you, so it's, it's amazing, you would love it if you try it, you will love it. 

And it's 100 percent confidential, I always like to mention that. 

So there is no downside to giving it a shot, so try it. I bet you'll love it, and if you don't just cancel no big deal relax, it's not ...There's like literally no downside to this, so give it a shot, you deserve it. 

You owe it to yourself to have some accountability, have somebody that cares. 

That's why I use a writing coach, I like having somebody that I pay to care about what I'm working on, so it's great. I highly recommend it and I think you guys would love it, and that's it. 

I hope you guys loved this episode, and we'll chat again soon bye-bye.

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Subscribe to The Goal Achievement Podcast on Apple Podcast & STITCHER.

Learn more about Matt’s productivity coaching at www.Matt-East.com/pricing

Two Secrets for Finding Your Motivation

The Goal Achievement Podcast, hosted by Matt East, is all about helping you find clarity, design a plan, and most importantly achieve your goals.

Matt shares two secrets for finding your motivation!

Learn more at www.matt-east.com

Subscribe to The Goal Achievement Podcast on Apple Podcast & STITCHER.

Learn more about Matt’s productivity coaching at www.Matt-East.com/pricing

How to Find Your Motivation

Podcast audio transcription

Two Secrets for Finding Your Motivation

I hope you're all doing really well. In today's episode, I will share two secrets that you can use if you are ever feeling unmotivated. These secrets will help you get moving. And I think you'll love them. Here we go.

Every morning, the question we all face is this: How can we focus more time on the projects, activities, and relationships that are most important and meaningful to us and less time on the stuff that doesn't matter, so we can actually move closer to our goals and dreams? That is the question, and this podcast is the answer.

My name is Matt East. Welcome to the Goal Achievement Podcast. I'm so glad you're here. Now, let's dig in.

Hey guys, what's up? Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to the show. Also, I've received a ton of feedback about the new intro to the podcast. For like 130 episodes, I had the same intro and then changed it a few episodes ago. And the feedback's been really, really, really positive.

Thanks for all your encouragement and all of that good stuff. It means the world to me. So thanks a ton. 

How to feel motivated.

Today we're going to talk about a couple of secrets that I like to use if I'm ever not feeling motivated or if a client shares with me that they're not feeling motivated and they need some help with that. I've got a couple of tips, or, I guess, tricks, or... I don't know, they're kind of secrets that, if you use them, they will get you moving. They work! They're awesome.

We talk all the time in this podcast, and I talk with my clients all the time, about how important it is to have clarity about what you actually want to focus on in your day, in your week and your month, even your quarter and your year. And even if you have that clarity, occasionally, it can still be challenging to muster up the motivation to actually take action.

Often, you're going to find that the clarity alone is enough to motivate you. Once you are clear on what you actually have to do, that in and of itself is a great way to overcome procrastination. So that's one reason why we want extreme clarity about what you're gonna focus on during the day.

If you're stressed, or if you ever struggle with procrastination, you want to get super clear each day on what you want to focus on with your energy, what you're going to put effort towards. I mean, everything we talk about within the show is if you want to spend more time on your projects, activities, and nurturing your most important relationships, you've got to prioritize and focus on it.

Mustering up motivation.

Sometimes, for whatever reason, it can be challenging to find the motivation, to muster up the motivation. So here's the first secret. It's something I mentioned in my book. If you guys haven't listened to my book, it is free on my website. I also posted it on this podcast a few episodes back. This concept about motivation is in the book, and it's probably one of the things that people reach out to me about most often after they read it. Here it is. 

The most successful people in the world understand that motivation is followed by action, not the other way around. 

There's a very common misconception. And I believed this forever. I felt like it was necessary for me to feel motivated before taking action. Does that make sense? For example, if I wanted to, I don't know, start my business, I thought to myself, "When I feel motivated, I'll start my business." Totally, totally the wrong way to go about it.

The most successful people realize that in order to feel motivated, you need to take action. Waiting for motivation is a productivity and dream killer. If you are waiting for motivation before you take action on your priorities for the day, or towards your biggest dreams and your goals, you're doing it wrong. You've first need to take action in order to feel motivated.

The motivation will follow your action. 

Let me give you a personal example of this. Yesterday, it was raining. I'm in Indianapolis, Indiana. And it was raining here when I got up for my run; I like to wake up and typically, when it's not COVID-19, I go right to the gym. With the current situation, I've been trying to just wake up and go for a run right away. No hesitation. Get up, get moving.

I usually have no problem with that. I actually love it and look forward to it, and it's all good; but for whatever reason... Oh, I know what it was, it was storming outside—it wasn't storming, it was raining out. And so I'm just like dragging ass to get moving, which is kind of weird, not normal at all.

I thought, "Hey, maybe my body's just tired. Maybe I should take a break and not run today." Well, I ended up pushing through. I started running. So I go out there, I did not want to run. I did not want to run. It was like the last thing I wanted to do, but I went out there anyway.

I started running and it was terrible for like 10, 15 minutes. Then, you kind of get into it, and you find your rhythm. And, you know, you're listening to music, and you just kind of get into your sweet spot. And I thought to myself, "Why was I not going to run? Not only is this a great part of my day, it's probably the best part of my day." You know, once you're out there and you're enjoying it, and you've got endorphins and stuff happening in your body, that makes you feel great. You know, that runner's high just felt great, but I would have never experienced that if I waited for motivation.

Once I got out there, I felt motivated. I felt great. I wanted to continue running; you know, as I'm out there, I'm like, "I'm going to go home, do some pushups and sit-ups, and crush it." I felt completely motivated. But I only felt that motivation because I took action. It's a perfect example of that. I mean, how often does that happen, where you don't want to do a workout, or you don't want to run or whatever, whatever it is?

And then you actually start doing it, and then you think to yourself, "Man, I can't believe I wasn't going to run," or "I can't believe I was going to skip the gym today," or whatever. It was the last thing in the world you wanted to do, but once you actually get started, and you do the activity, the motivation follows.

So that is the secret of all secrets. 

Motivation is going to be followed by taking action, not the other way around. 

That is a cruel, cruel, cruel life lesson if nobody's ever told you that. I mean, it is a game-changer. If you can implement that into your life and realize, like, "I just got to get moving and motivation will follow," that is like a secret weapon you can use. You can just weaponize yourself with that and really become effective and productive and perform at a high level every day.

If you're not waiting around for motivation to get started and you can become a self-starter, knowing that the motivation will actually come later, that is so powerful.

It's just critical that you don't wait until you feel motivated to begin working on your goals and your dreams. You know, I talk all the time about the top three priorities. It's critical not to wait until you feel motivated to begin working on your top three priorities.

That motivation will follow if you trust it. Trust yourself, and that if you do the hard work and just get started, your motivation will follow.

Trust your motivation to follow. 

Once you start taking action... I've been doing a lot of work on my website, and I do all that stuff myself. For the most part, I outsource—like, to Upwork—the design of my book and stuff like that. But as far as the website stuff, I play around with it a lot and I like to tinker with it and see what's working and all that good stuff.

Well, you know, I very rarely feel like doing any of that; if I block time and there's something that I want to focus on, you know, if I'm trying to improve some copy or improve conversion rates on the people joining my email list or whatever, I never really want to do that stuff. Like, I'm not super jazzed about it.

And then, once I start doing it, it's fun, and I love it. I feel motivated and, you know, it's taken time to trust myself and trust that the motivation follows if I start taking action.

So, try that next time you're struggling. Try to just get started. 

Just start and trust your motivation to follow after you begin taking action. 

I know you guys have experienced that with, like, a workout, where you totally didn't want to go work out, or you didn't want to run, and then you start doing it and 20 minutes in you're like, "Oh my Gosh, this is amazing. How was I not going to do this?" Almost everyone in the world gets to experience that. So, hopefully, you have, with like an art project or writing project or some type of work, or even cooking a meal sometimes; you have felt like, "I'm not feeling like I want to start dinner," or whatever. And then I get started, and I enjoy it. And then the motivation follows. 

If you can can implement that mindset into your day-to-day, you're going to be dangerous. I mean, you will be able to do just about anything you want in your life if you can take action and not wait for motivation in order to take that action. Let the motivation follow. Does that make sense? Hopefully, that all makes sense. If not, send in your questions, and I'll try to clarify. 

The next motivational secret: tie your task to your larger goals and the larger outcomes you want to create in your life.

If you are dragging to get started on something, think about connecting that task or that activity to your larger goal or larger ambitions and expected outcomes. So to illustrate this, let's use the most mundane priority as an example.

So let's use an example I saw today. One of a client's top three priorities is to change out one of the car seats for his kids. So his wife's telling him to do it. He wants to do it, but he's dragging to get it done.

If you're struggling with a small task, try to tie it to your larger goals and the larger outcomes you want to create in your life. So in this example, you know, just take 20 seconds and think, why is this important? Why does this car seat have to get changed out? And it's because, in this instance, this guy loves his kids and wants to show them that he cares about them and their safety. And one way to show them that is by keeping them safe in the car. That's a core thing that this guy wants to demonstrate as a father, that he loves his kids and wants them to be safe. He wants them to know that.

And this is one way to demonstrate he wants to be a good husband. He wants to be a good partner spouse. So one way to do that is by owning small tasks like this, which aren't much fun, but you take action and knock it out and make your spouse happy and all that good stuff.

So, tying this super small kind of mundane priority—I shouldn't say small priority, it's a big deal, but it's kind of like doing laundry or something like that—tying it to the bigger picture and your bigger ambitions. 

In this example, this is one way to show your kids that you're a great dad and that you care about them. You want them to be as safe as possible, and that's important to you. You want to be a good partner. Even if this task seems like a very mundane one, it's something that displays that too, he can display that to his wife through this action.

It helped him think through that and tie this mundane task to the bigger picture of his life. That is another..., I mean, that can be like a secret weapon. If you're struggling with a task or with getting stuff done, take action on your priorities.

So, those are the two things. The first one we talked about was your motivation follows your action. So don't wait to feel motivated before doing something. That's a game-changer. It's awesome. If you can build that into your mindset, into your skillset, as a human, that is so powerful.

And the second, tie your priorities to your larger goals and expected outcomes in life. Your priorities from a day-to-day perspective should be aligned with your broader goals. Obviously, that's how you're going to get stuff done. That's so important. So, you know, if you have too many days go by where your priorities aren't aligned with those broader goals that you have set for yourself or your business, or for your family or for your health, then rethink that; you want those priorities to align with your larger goals.

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Can Time Off Fuel Your Productivity? Today's Guest Max Frenzel Believes So

The Goal Achievement Podcast, hosted by Productivity Expert Matt East, is all about helping you find clarity, design a plan, and most importantly achieve your goals.

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Shownotes:

Here’s the Amazon link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1734794402 

The website for the book: www.timeoffbook.com

Max’s website: www.maxfrenzel.com

Connect with Matt East: www.Matt-East.com

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Subscribe to The Goal Achievement Podcast on Apple Podcast & STITCHER.

Learn more about Matt’s productivity coaching at www.Matt-East.com/pricing

Can Time Off Fuel Your Productivity?

Podcast Transcription

Hey guys, it's Matt, I hope you're all doing really well. 

This is a really special episode because I get to interview a client of mine, his name is Max Frenzel and he is the author of a new book called: Time Off, the subtitle is: A Practical Guide for Building Your Rest Ethic and Finding Success Without Stress, and I just love Max and I can't wait to share this, I'm so proud of him, and the book is amazing, it's absolutely stunningly beautiful, it's one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen. 

So especially for a nonfiction book, I mean, it is absolutely beautiful, it's just stunning. So check it out, grab a copy of the book. We're going to talk today about why taking time off could be a competitive advantage for you and for the future of work. 

How taking time off can help fuel your creative work and your creative output. 

And we talk about some practical steps that everyone can implement right now for better time off, so I hope you guys love this, and that's it, enjoy the episode, here we go. 

The big question we all face every morning is this: How can we focus more time on the projects, activities, and relationships that are most important and meaningful to us and less time on the stuff that doesn't matter so we can actually move closer to our goals and dreams? 

That is the question, and this podcast is the answer. My name is Matt East and welcome to the Goal Achievement podcast. I'm so glad you're here, now let's dig in. 

Matt Welcome to the Goal Achievement podcast Max, thank you so much for joining me, I can't wait to dive in and chat with you, thanks so much for joining the podcast. 

Max Oh, thanks for having me. 

Matt Yeah, yeah... so I wanted to have you on because as you know, I feel like productivity isn't just about doing more for the sake of doing more, it's really the opposite, it's about having clarity about what you actually want to spend your time doing so that you can focus on the projects, activities, and relationships that are most important to you, and that includes being intentional with your leisure activities, your hobbies, your recreation, your vacations, your downtime, and just taking time for yourself. 

And you wrote a book that is kind of encompasses all that, so you wrote Time Off: A Practical Guide to Building Your Rest Ethic and Finding Success Without Stress. I'm so pumped to have you on, and I guess a good first question is, you know, what's, what's rest ethic? that's an interesting way of maybe saying, is it just rest or what is that? 

Max Yeah, that's a great question. So probably the first thing to say is, even though the title of the book is Time Off, it's really not a book about being lazy and just sitting at the beach with a cocktail of something. It's really about being, as you said, more conscious about how you use your time, and having a rest ethic is a really central concept in that, and actually, if you're up for it, let's try a little life experiment and invite the listeners to join us in as well if you up for it. 

Matt Oh, yeah. 

Max So let's take a deep breath in and then actually hold it until I say stop. OK, you ready? 

Matt Yeah, yeah. 

Max All right, take a deep breath in and I hold it, let's keep holding for a while, just a little bit, it might start getting uncomfortable. OK, let go. 

Max You could have probably held this a little bit longer, but the out-breath, I'm sure, felt really, really amazing. We like to think of the work ethic as this inhaled part, so work ethic is really going down your task list, executing projects, all this kind of stuff, that's the inhale part. But the problem is a lot of people forget the exhale and it just... walking around their lives with their breath held and it gets uncomfortable really, really quick and you start burning out. 

So what we want to advocate for is this idea for Rest Ethic, which is really the exhale part, it's ideation, it’s restoring your energy, really gathering more creative momentum again, and just like inhale and exhale are two really important balancing parts, so too are work ethic and rest ethic and just recognizing that rest is important and taking time off is important, that's not enough, but you actually need to treat it like work like if you don't put it in your calendar, you're not actually going to stick to it, you know, is not just going to magically appear this time off, but it's really so crucial because, well, especially for creative work, but even work in general busyness and productivity are very, very different things. And a lot of people pride themselves on the busyness part, but never actually pause to ask if all that busyness is getting them anywhere. 

And really, a lot of the great… the breakthroughs, especially in the creative area, which is more and more important for knowledge workers, those really require the taking a step back and incubating on ideas, and getting a fresh perspective. So we really encourage people to think about their rest ethic and as you said, is really all about being conscious of your use of time. 

Matt Yeah, it's amazing how those breakthroughs, you know, obviously I'm an entrepreneur and I'm generating income off of my ideas and I virtually never have a good idea sitting at my computer working. 

Max Totally. 

Matt When I'm out, you know, mowing the grass... 

Max Same. 

Matt Running or hiking or, you know, Rachel, I have been with this covid stuff. We have been doing tons of we have a little cabin away from the city, we've been doing a ton of... 

Max Awesome. 

Matt ... and I've had so many good ideas, I'm like, I cannot wait to go dive back into work now in an intense way because I'm having all these kinds of ideas and breakthroughs, as I'm just wondering, literally wandering aimlessly through the woods. So... 

Max That's amazing. 

Matt Yeah, so did you come up with the... the... the actual phrase rest ethic? Is that a phrase you came up with? 

Max I think we came up with this one thing I should mention, I wrote this book with a friend of mine, John Fitch, based in Austin, Texas and I think he actually came up with that term, although I don't think it's an original term, it might have been around for a while, it might have even picked it up subconsciously somewhere. 

Matt Sure, sure... totally, totally makes sense. 

Matt So, yeah, awesome, awesome. 

Matt And we should mention, too, just for the audience knows, like, we sound very friendly because Max is a client of mine, so kind of through the writing process, he has been a digital... so I do some digital coaching, some digital productivity coaching. And I should mention, you know, you mentioned right off the bat that rest isn't about just sitting on the beach, wouldn't... although I would also encourage that occasionally. But... 

Max Absolutely. 

Matt It's... it's more than that, and it's about getting stuff done, and you are a beast at actually getting stuff done. So I do want to mention that to everybody and that, you know, we're definitely not just promoting... 

Max Absolutely. 

Matt Doing absolutely nothing all the time, but... but it's a good you know, occasionally it can really benefit you and your productivity. 

Max Yeah, and actually, also, one thing to add to that. Leisure is not just the rest and the downtime part like even work, if you approach it right, can be like leisure. So one thing we talk about in the book is this idea of noble leisure, which goes back to Aristotle for him, rest was very, very different from leisure because rest... rest always asks the question and rest for what? And usually, the answer is for more work, so rest is just there for the sake of work. 

But he saw that then work is there for the sake of leisure, and leisure is really at the highest in this hierarchy, and what was leisure to Aristotle was really anything that gives you meaning in life, so if your work really fills your life with meaning, then that totally counts as noble leisure in that sense, me working on that book was definitely work, but it was also extremely meaningful to me and it was really leisure time away from my main job. 

And there's another concept or various different types of concepts that we touched on in the book but they will fall under this idea of using one project you're really passionate about to get some distance from another project. So for example philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, he called this idea of mental crop rotation. 

So like in agriculture, you plant different things on a field every year to have the soil recover, so too like mental pursuits, you can focus on one thing for a week, then switch to another one and have your mental soil recover in a way. So it's really not just about relaxing but even work. If you approach in the right way, an unconscious way can be leisure. 

Matt And something I really admire about kind of watching you from afar is you have an incredible ability to get into deep work rather quickly and multiple times a day, well because and let me explain myself because you have, you know, a lot of times your focus for the day would be some bookwork and even some really deep I don't know if I'd call engineering work, but data, you know, some data, analyzation type work. Both of those things are very, very varied, they're not surface either, deep work. And do you feel like you're intentional time off has allowed you to be better at that deep work when it comes time? 

Max Absolutely. 

A) Because I balance it with a lot of proper leisure and good kinds of time off, I think I can go much, much deeper when it actually counts, and really, I think a lot of people are sort of always kind of half on and half off their hovering somewhere in the middle, a lot of us have lost the ability to really switch off when we don't need to do anything and then really switch on as well when it actually counts. So I think that's definitely one thing, one point we're really taking time off seriously has helped me. 

But also using time off to distance myself consciously from these things, because a lot of them are very well deep, as you say, and also very creative and I think creativity is really about connecting very distant dots, like very decent ideas. If you're always with your head in the material, it's very, very hard to see these distant connections, but if you actually take time off and do something in between, or work on something else, that's exactly as you said, like in your downtime, then those sudden ideas suddenly pop up because your subconscious mind really makes those bigger connections. 

So I like to divide my day into several parts, usually my morning while I was really deep into writing the book, the mornings until noon were really reserved for the writing process. I get up, make a coffee read for a while, that's another really important thing for me, the day always starts with reading, and then after that, I get two or three hours lock-in for just focusing on writing. Then I maybe cook lunch, go somewhere, eat something, sit in another coffee shop and then switch maybe to my day job, which is more research engineering side. 

But even that I like to break up with walks or making myself a coffee or just this little daily rituals or I really love baking, so I'm working from home a lot now, definitely during this whole career a situation, but even if it's not happening and I found it really is amazing like baking is such a great break up of your working day because there's a little bit to do which really needs some focus, like needing the dough folding it, and then you have this one hour stretch, where the dough is resting, and you can really dive deep into some work. And then I know, OK, now I've got to go back to my dough and it kind of gives me this well, mental incubation, mental fermentation almost, and it's a nice cycle is it really helped me a lot, and there's lots of these little things that if you spread them through the day consciously, it can really boost your creativity and productivity. 

Matt So when you were doing some research for the book, did you find some examples of where like or some interesting examples of people using downtime or time off to, you know, further drive their creativity or their productivity. 

Max Absolutely, so the book is really full of examples of people who found success, not in spite of practicing time off, but they actually used time off as a very key tool toward success. So to give you an idea, the book is actually split into different deep dive chapters, so there's a chapter on sleep, there's a chapter on creativity, the chapter on solitude, on play, on travel, and so on, and then within those chapters, there's the main text. But in between are also profiles of people famous and less famous and historic as well as present, who found success with that very particular type of time off, it's a little bit of the story and at the end is always a very practical advice to the reader. 

So how can you actually put that into practice? 

So, I mean, there's about 50 such examples in the book, I think, but I can just tell you about a few:

Hermann Hesse was a really big famous German novelist and poet he won a Nobel Prize in literature think and he wrote some of my favorite novels as well, Siddhartha is a wonderful book, and in a sense, he actually advocated for this idea of what we now call in the book Time of Micro Dosing so it's really these little things in between, so he said something like someone who for the first time on his way to work, picks up a flower, has really made a big step towards joy in life, and this idea of just pausing a little bit and just picking up a flower, it seems so simple, but it's really, really powerful is something everyone can do immediately, you just need to become more conscious. 

Bertrand Russell, similarly, he was actually very outspoken about the importance of leisure and also encouraging people to save some energy from their day jobs to spend on leisure and he was really saying, put it in your calendar. I mean, he didn't quite say in those words it was before Google calendars, but we essentially translate that into modern terms. If it's not in your calendar, it doesn't count, so schedule your leisure activity just like you would your work activities and maybe a more modern example, which I like it's from my Ph.D. adviser, Terry Rudolph, So he's a quantum physicist he now runs a quantum computing startup in Palo Alto, company is now 100 people but the whole idea of time off and deep work is so at the core of what they're doing and he has his interesting advice, how he uses running. So he's a runner and if he wants to just clear his mind, he goes for a really, really hard run. He says he can't do meditation, but this hard run is for him basically the same it's the same effect he does trail running, so if he goes hard, he really has to focus, OK, where to put my feet and he can't think of anything else. 

But he also has a different mode of running for that he sits down before the run and makes a little list or just thinks through a particular problem that he wants to think through on the run and he actually uses the run as a chance to think through it but the interesting thing there is he doesn't have any distraction or any tools there's no access to the Internet, he can't just look things up, he can't even take notes. So he says it's very it really changes the way he thinks about problems, it gives him, this again, bigger and different perspective because he has to keep everything in his head simultaneously and can't write down a note or look up a little detail. 

So I really encourage people to try these things as well, consciously getting away from distractions, but also useful... tools that are most of the time useful. It can be very interesting if you force yourself into a different way of thinking, so those are just a few examples there's many, many more in the book. 

Matt I love it, I love it, I love the idea of intentionality... I was, I've done a lot of trail running and used some trail running to solve problems, but I've never thought about it intentionally like that. I really would focus like sometimes you just randomly have a, you know, an idea pop up as you're kind of experiencing a runner's high. But I've never really thought to head out with intentionality of solving a specific problem, that's amazing. 

Max Even a walk can do if people are not into running, just thinking about a problem, you want to think for half an hour or however long you're out and actually committing to thinking about that is really interesting. 

Matt How did you plan to write this with a coauthor? 

Max It just kind of happened. I never really planned it, to be honest, so if you would have told me, I don't know three years ago that I would be publishing a book now, I was probably told you you're crazy. Basically doing my Ph.D. I had super... I had so much freedom and I got a lot of stuff done in a very, very leisurely way but then afterward I went into an AI startup and suddenly it became more and more busy without feeling productive and one day it hit me, hey, something's wrong, what happened? What changed? And that's when I started writing about the whole thing. I started writing a medium initially not many people read it, but over time it actually became quite popular. Some of my articles and my coauthor now also found some of my articles and he was doing a podcast at the same time about exactly this topic. So he asked me, hey, do you want to come on the podcast? And I did that and we became friends over time and one day he asked me, hey, do you want to write this book together? And that's kind of how the whole thing started. 

Matt Is that podcast still around? 

Max It is still around, it's also called Time Off. 

Matt OK, wonderful, that's great, cool. Have you been on that podcast? 

Max I have been on that podcast, that's what kicked the whole thing off really. 

Matt No, no, I mean like promoting the book. 

Max No, we've not been promoting the book there too much yet. 

Matt But you will. 

Max Yes. 

Matt OK, awesome. Will you let me know when that episode goes live? I'll share that on my website. 

Max Awesome. 

Matt Awesome, what else about the book writing process like surprised you. Did anything surprise you? 

Max Definitely I mean, it's my first book, it was both of our first... for both of us it's the first book, and I guess the interesting thing, like the first draft was ready maybe October last year and at the time it felt OK, now the book is done, but anyone who has actually published a book will tell you, no, no, no, that's maybe 20 percent of the writing process done. We send it, we send it off to an editor, and we had an absolutely amazing editor, Ann Mainard, she's absolutely wonderful two months later so the manuscript came back with her comments, and basically, she asked us to completely rewrite the whole thing, like take everything apart, reassemble in a new way, throw away most of it well, not most of it, but a good chunk, the initial draft was over 100000 words. The final draft is now at around 80000 words, but a lot of it was thrown out in the process and rewritten. So I think just how much happens during editing that was very interesting inside and also the big influence editors have on good books, I never realized before actually working with an editor. 

Matt Now, did... when you got that initial feedback where you kind of tore into it. Were you discouraged or like encouraged or what were you feeling? 

Max That's a good question, I think we both knew at the time that there is so much that could be improved, but also the way she presented it was not just, OK, you have to just redo that whole thing, but it was OK I can see the bits that are really, really good we just need to repackage it, and this is how are we going to do it? So because she really saw clearly the gems that were hidden in there and how to connect them in a right way, it was very, very motivating because we could then see, OK, that makes total sense, and once we actually do what you're saying, this is going to be so much better than what it is right now. So I think it was actually very motivating. 

Matt And her name was 

Max Ann Maynard, she works for Command +Z Content or Command Z as you guys like to say, 

Matt OK, and you... how did you hunt her down? 

Max I think we actually found her online through someone else who wrote about his writing process, I'm trying to remember who it was, I'd like to say James Altucher, but I'm I might be confusing that. But anyway, it was some... someone blogging about their writing process and how they work with Ann and it sounded really good. So we reached out to her, scheduled a call, and it immediately clicked like we knew, OK, we really want to work with Ann and it was definitely the best decision we made in the writing process. 

Matt And then I've seen the book and it is just absolutely stunningly like visually it's just beautiful, where did that all like where did you start to decide? Like, I want this to be a visually, you know, like, gorgeous piece of art, essentially, as opposed to just a typical book? 

Max Well, it's again, kind of funny story, actually, it happened by coincidence, more or less... Very early on, we knew that the book is going to be well, that is going to have a lot of profiles of people in there and we thought it would be very nice if we could have very beautiful illustrations of those people so we decided to look for an illustrator and both John and I went on Instagram and just post a story, hey, does anyone have a good illustrator they could recommend for this book project we're working on? 

And someone reached out to me who I never met personally about this illustrator, Maria Suzuki, also Maria doesn't know this third person personally, it's just someone who happens to follow both of us anyway, she recommended Maria to me, I reached out to Maria, we connected. Illustration was a perfect fit for the book and funny enough, we actually share a lot of mutual friends here in Tokyo so after we got connected through this random person on Instagram, we realized we actually very closely connected. Anyway, her style is absolutely wonderful it's these very light pencil sketches and it just fits the idea of time off perfectly, it's very light, it's very airy. There's a lot of white space and really invites you to pause and just look at those illustrations for a while and get lost in them a little bit. 

Matt And I can vouch, man they are beautiful. 

Max Thank you. 

Matt Just stunning, the book is just really impressive. 

Max Yeah. I can't wait to get it into reader's hands. 

Matt Yeah and the date that goes live is the 25th of May, which were exactly a little bit prior to that, but it'll go live on the 25th of May, which if you're listening to this, it's go time, go grab a copy. 

Max Absolutely. 

Matt So anything else, as far as you had mentioned, a couple of very practical steps people can take or implement right now, but is there any other stuff that people could take away and they could, like, do today to help with their time off? 

Max I think the key thing I'd like to ask people is just... and you probably totally agree with this... To be more conscious of how you spend your time and also think about the times where you're busy and are those really the times where you feel the most accomplished, chances are it's not. So really reassess what brings you meaning and what brings you joy and how you line your time with that and if you might want to rethink your time a little bit, also schedule time for, well, deliberate downtime. 

And I'm actually curious, if you don't mind me asking in your coaching I know for working with you you really encourage people to schedule time off and use that as one of their key priorities for the day. I'm wondering, have you seen any particular types of time off that the people found particularly valuable? 

Matt Oh, that's a really interesting question. So, you know, this is totally off the cuff without looking at the data but I would say what I've noticed with people being more intentional, you know, occasionally they'll be a really big switch for somebody mentally, it usually doesn't happen right away, it's like 60 to 90 days into the process of once they're really building the muscle of prioritizing each day and they'll be like a dawning that, you know, maybe somebody, some guy that, like helps with dinner with like the kids and his wife, who has always looked at that, is like a rushed activity, and like there can be a dawning where he's like, you know, I think I'm going to prioritize the dinner tonight and instead of cooking in 20 minutes I'm going to cook for like an hour and a half and actually enjoy the whole process. 

And when there is that, like switch from this frantic activity of like getting dinner ready for the kids and for the family and it being like a complete rushed, you know, chaotic mess to like, hold on, I'm going to prioritize this, and at seven o'clock tonight or six thirty tonight, I'm going to start cooking and I'm going to serve dinner around eight o'clock and I'm going to enjoy every second of that process, and when somebody has that and, you know, that's just an example that's something that's happened really recently with a client and they have that dawning that this can be kind of enjoyable time off and they could enjoy that hour and a half of cooking and working with food and talking to their kids as they're cooking and maybe, you know, having a glass of wine or something and just really embracing it, you know, like doing a total 180 and just really embracing all of those tasks and actions associated with that meal, as opposed to just, you know, rushing through it, that's the beauty, that's the you know, I never pushed somebody there. 

But when that breakthrough comes, it's always just a really refreshing it's just I don't know it's huge, it's it's massive, I mean, I can... that's life-changing for somebody, and... so that's something that I notice a lot with clients when they have that breakthrough from like a dreaded activity to hold on maybe I need to draw this activity out, and if it's not rushed and if it's, you know, how can I make this? I ask the question a lot in my coaching. What would this look like if it were easy? You know what it... what is, what is cooking dinner look like? If it were easy. 

And maybe sometimes it's not, you know, maybe it's the opposite maybe it's that, you know, somebody you hire somebody to cook or you have it brought in or something, I don't know. But I do like to ask people, you know, if it's a big struggle or a point of contention, you know, that's interesting and then, you know, I have clients who... I have a client who works six months out of the year intense he does a lot of... obviously, my coaching is always confidential unless I get permission but he does some very intense planning for a like Fortune 10 company, and he plans events and executes those events for six months out of the year, and then for that next six months, he's 100 percent an author and he usually picks a... a kind of interesting destination and he hunkers down and he just writes and basically takes time off for six months. I mean, it's amazing and yeah, it's... it's amazing. 

Max Yeah, I think the examples you're showing are great and also they highlight one thing we really believe in, there's no one size fits all approach of time off and it can happen at any scale from the micro-short, like picking up a flower to really multi-month or multi-year sabbatical and everyone can find their own style somewhere in between or mix and match different things. 

I think also one thing actually I'd like to ask people is to I mean, it's not an easy thing, but at least becoming conscious of it stop feeling guilty about not being busy because we have this really deep ingrained guiltiness of not working, even though it's not effective. But really, we need to allow ourselves to step back and accept that actually, that's going to lead to much, much better results I mean, I work in A.I. and I'm very positive about the future and what A.I. brings for all of us, even though there might be some difficulties in between. But none of us is going to out busy the machines in those different tasks, so you should really start to focus on a more human values like creativity and empathy and all of those really, really require taking time off seriously. 

Matt Yeah and, you know, it kind of all comes together here, Max, because if you are struggling with the feeling that guilt associated with time off with which that is very common, a lot of people feel that the number one thing and you've mentioned this a couple of times on this interview if you are feeling guilt, you know, one of the... the number one tips to get around that or to not feel that is to schedule that time in your calendar and that can relieve a ton of that guilt. 

I tell a story in my book and that's very applicable to this, so I worked with a client who... She's an executive for a large company, you know, professional sea level, made a ton of money, lived in a gorgeous, gorgeous home, and she built a beautiful house and she wanted to sit on her back deck in the evenings and, you know, you kind of overlooked the wooded area and she wanted to drink a glass of wine and have a book and she said that's something that she wanted to do for like the last ten years, as she, you know, has been working and been focusing on like, OK, well, how often do you.... do you get to do that now? And she said, you know, I've done it a couple times and I was like a couple of times this week or a couple of times this weekend or like what? 

And she says, no, I've done it a couple of times since I've lived here and I was like, What? So and I was like, this is something you really want to do and, you know, this is somebody that gets stuff done I mean, she's amazing, she's a... I mean, she is a beast good at accomplishing what she sets out to do. So, you know, we put it on her calendar, you know, like whatever, it's 8:15 at night to 9 o'clock her job was to go sit on the back deck with a glass of red wine and read a book and... 

And it alleviated one hundred percent of the guilt and, you know, she travels a lot but when she's not traveling now, she hunkers down on the back deck, drinks a glass of wine and reads her book and I mean, it's been transformative just because she's been intentional with that and it's... It's become, it kind of gives her permission to use that time for relaxation and for a little downtime and it was, you know, nothing more than... than scheduling it and kind of getting to that mental space that, well, this is what I'm doing with this time right now. yeah, it's great. Well, it was so much fun this has been a great conversation... 

Max Absolutely I really enjoyed this. 

Matt I've loved it, so... Awesome you guys go out, grab this book, it's called Time Off and Max, man, it's been so much fun working with you, and I'm so proud of you that you've been able to... 

Max I also want to say thank you to you, because you've also been keeping me honest and really making sure I have my priorities every day right during the writing process. So thanks for your contribution to the book. 

Matt Well, I appreciate that. And that's that's definitely not necessary you've... You did this 100 percent and it's... It's an absolutely visually stunning book and the concepts in it are amazing and I'm so proud of you. I think it's, I really hope it catches on and I'll definitely help promote it once it's once we're off and running. OK, awesome. Max, see you later. 

Max Awesome, take care. 

Matt Thanks again. 

Hey everyone, it's Matt again, and I have two special offers for you:

First, did you know you can actually download my best-selling book, The Purposeful Planning Method: How to Plan Your Day, Beat Procrastination, and Regain Control of Your Time for free from my website right now? That's Matt-East.com, you just Google Matt East Productivity and it will pull right up, and you can download the digital book or the audiobook, either one for free right now. 

I can't promise this offer will last forever, so snag a copy if you want it. This is the exact same book that costs I don't know what it is like 18 bucks on Amazon and Audible, so go get it while you can, don't come whining to me if you miss this deal and you didn't download it. 

So I'm telling you, if you want it for free, go get it. 

Don't wait and take action, knock it out. It's again, it's Matt-East.com, is my website. So, or just Google Matt East, Google productivity coach, I think I come right up first. 

So second thing, I want to invite you to work with me, I'm offering my digital productivity coaching right now for 29 dollars and 99 cents a month. That's 70 percent off the regular price, so it's usually 25 bucks a week or 100 bucks a month, so you jump on this opportunity. 

It's the only coaching that I have available right now, my... I have two VIP-level coaching where I can actually meet with people over the phone either once a week or once every other week, and those are sold out. So this is the only way you can work one on one with me right now, and I've decided to price it so that anyone that basically wants this could do it. 

It's 29.99 a month, and it's it's perfect if you're looking to transform your productivity and if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably trying to do that. So this coaching works, it's awesome, and man, for 29 bucks like the ROI on this is incredible, or if you're a solopreneur like a lot of my clients, if you're an entrepreneur or if you're just a professional looking for an edge, I mean the ROI on this is incredible because you're not investing much. 

Some of these coaches cost a couple grand. I mean, I have a package that costs 500 dollars a month, so this is 29 dollars a month. It's you can't beat it, it's less than a dollar a day, it's literally less than a buck a day. 

So, and we will communicate every single day in an app, it's awesome, it works. I've been doing this for a few years now, I know what I'm doing and I can help you, so it's, it's amazing, you would love it if you try it, you will love it. 

And it's 100 percent confidential, I always like to mention that. 

So there is no downside to giving it a shot, so try it. I bet you'll love it, and if you don't just cancel, no big deal relax, it's no... there's like, literally no downside to this, so give it a shot, you deserve it. 

You owe it to yourself to have some accountability, have somebody that cares. 

That's why I use a writing coach, I like having somebody that I pay to care about what I'm working on, so it's great, I highly recommend it and I think you guys would love it, and that's it. 

I hope you guys loved this episode and we'll chat again soon bye-bye.

Remaining Productive During Uncertain Times

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The Goal Achievement Podcast, hosted by Productivity Expert Matt East, is all about helping you find clarity, design a plan, and most importantly achieve your goals.

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Learn more at www.Matt-East.com

Listen to Matt’s book, The Purposeful Planning Method:

• INTRODUCTION

• CHAPTER 1, Why You Should Read This Book

• CHAPTER 2, What is The Purposeful Planning Method?

• CHAPTER 3, Why Does This Method Work So Effectively?

• CHAPTER 4, The Fluid Layer

• CHAPTER 5, The Habit Layer

• CHAPTER 6, The 10-Day Purposeful Planning Challenge

• CHAPTER 7, Common Questions

• CHAPTER 8, Motivation to Begin

Subscribe to The Goal Achievement Podcast on Apple Podcast & STITCHER.

Learn more about Matt’s productivity coaching at www.Matt-East.com/pricing

Remaining Productive During Uncertain Times

Podcast Transcription

Welcome to the Goal Achievement podcast, my name is Matt East, I'm your host, and thank you so much for joining me, I hope you're all doing really well, I hope your families are all healthy and everybody's doing OK out there, let's get right into the episode. 

So first thing I wanted to apologize because I hadn't posted many episodes recently because I had uploaded my book and I saw that they were being downloaded and listened to, but I just went in and listen to one myself and it sounded terrible. You know, those were recorded outside of, I guess, the program that I import my podcasts into to distribute it, and when I put those podcasts into GarageBand, they just sounded terrible and I didn't know it. 

So one, I'm mad at you guys for somebody not letting me know, like Matt, they sound horrendous and we can't listen to them... Rerecord them. So, one, you should have reached out and let me know because I've seen that, I mean, thousands of people listen to those recordings and they were terrible, so I'm going to repost them, the actual recordings for the book are great, they sound really, really good, and the feedback has all been really good on them. 

You can find the actual files without there being like any weirdness or echo or like corrupted data or whatever happened there. 

You can find those on my website at Matt-East.com/VIP. 

And you can listen to each chapter there, they... they sound good, and I'm so sorry about that I feel terrible that you guys listen to those, they were horrendous. I'm guessing most of you were like, this sounds terrible and his podcast sounds pretty decent, so what's going on here? But yeah... 

So, you know, I that file is, you know, going to be on audible and all that, so it has to be really good, solid recording, so it actually sounds pretty good on the file that I didn't share through the podcast, so sorry about that, I have removed those podcasts, the last four podcasts where the book was shared because I mean, it sounds so bad, I don't know why anyone would want to listen to that. 

So I will repost them and you'll be all set but in the meantime, just go listen to them at my website that's the best spot, I'm not going to post them like today or tomorrow because I don't want to cover up this new episode because people are going to think it's still just the previous four bad sounding episodes when they pull up their feed, their podcast feed. So I want to show that, hey, there's this new episode, so I'll get those up but yeah, I'm so sorry about that, they sounded terrible, I can't believe you guys listen to them. I, I don't know you should've emailed me or let me know, totally my fault, but I felt terrible. 

So anyway, moving on, second thing you may have noticed, there is a new cover to this website or to this podcast, so I changed it up a little bit for just some branding reasons, and I hope you like it, nothing major, I am going to start recording a little more frequently and I'm just going to keep it super casual, like super, super casual. My podcasts have always been very casual with almost zero, almost zero editing, but I'm just going to continue to make it like really casual, so that's the plan, if they're casual, I'll record, way more episodes, because I'm not worried about it being overly amazing or whatever. So that's it, that's it for my updates. 

But how are you doing? Are you guys hanging in there or are you staying productive? Are you remaining focused? 

I just noticed today I was sending a note out to many of my clients, letting them know that it's the 20 I think it's the 21st. week of the year right now, so, you know, 21 weeks in, are you still focusing on your goals and what you wanted to achieve with your year? 

Obviously, you may have had to make some tweaks and adjustments based off covid-19, but don't let it just end your goals and your dreams and your aspirations for the year, make some... make some adjustments, pivot a little bit and let's stay productive. 

I have been sharing 9 tips for remaining productive on my website. 

There's a guide and it's I shared a little bit of it on a podcast, I think four or five of them a month or two ago. But I wanted to share all 9 tips today and kind of chat through each one. 

So the first tip to remaining productive right now as we're, you know, all either cooped up or just now starting to have a little more flexibility and, you know, if you're one of those people that's trying to remain productive and stay focused and you're kind of cooped up in your house, you're not somebody that's been out and about. 

And, man, thank you so much to the people that have been still working and serving in the front line delivery people, the nurses, the doctors. I mean, how amazing is the work that those people are doing, the mailman, anybody, anybody that's continued to work through this, you are so amazing that is just, that is just incredible, so thank you so much. That's... I don't know what else to say, it's just awesome, you are awesome if you've been working through this in and out and about. 

I've been really what do you call it, quarantined up, so Rachel and I have just been on lockdown pretty much, and I shouldn't say pretty much. We've been, you know, just staying at home and getting outside for some walks and stuff, we have a little cabin, too, that we've been able to get down to, which is nice for a few days. 

But yeah, let's talk through nine tips for remaining productive right now and these are so important to me and they are so, so important. 

The first one is: Are you influencing your mindset by controlling what you do first thing in the morning? 

So immediately upon waking, are you kind of joining the chaos and the drama? And we're proactively taking steps to get centered and to begin your day with intention and, you know, getting into the rhythm of your day and setting the tone for your day proactively. So I just encourage you to, you know, try to be very mindful of how you are approaching those first few minutes of your day and what you're consuming you know, I would challenge you to do a little meditation or focus breathing or yoga or even exercise. I've been trying to get up and... and go for a quick run first thing in the morning, and it's been amazing, so definitely encourage you to influence your mindset any way that you can by controlling what you do first thing in the morning. 

The next step is to: Set the emotional tone for your family, friends, and colleagues and to just reflect on the energy that you're projecting to those people. 

You know, the energy you're projecting right now to the world is impacting those around you and that energy that you're projecting is something that you can control. So I just want to encourage you to think through that, think through the energy that you're projecting to others and, you know, that is either going to reassure people or it's going to escalate the situation. So just be really intentional or I would encourage you to be really intentional to set the emotional tone for those around you right now. 

The third item is to: Determine what you want to spend your time and energy towards each day. 

So this is sort of my bread and butter for I know a lot of the people I coach listen to this podcast and this is what we do is kind of in the coaching relationship, as I have my clients share with me how they are going to spend their time and their energy each day. So we basically work through setting their priorities and then there's some accountability on the backend because I follow up with them and see how they did. 

You know, performing at your peak requires clarity about what you are spending your time, focus, and energy on each day and I think that during a time like this, it's more important than ever to begin each day with clear priorities and I know a lot of you know, here in the United States, a lot of states are even here in Indiana are you know, people are getting out and about again. But, you know, it's still going to be a little crazy for a while so all of these things still... still apply. 

And I would say determining what you want to spend your time on every day, that should be done when things are, you know, going awesome. This is a trait of, you know, the world's most successful people have clear priorities about what they want to do with their time each day so, you know, priorities include projects you're focusing on at work or home or activities that you want to do or relationships that you want to nurture. 

And I just challenge you to begin each day with clarity by identifying those top priorities, you start with three just identified three top priorities for your day and trying to block some time to complete each one of those. 

All right, the fourth tip is: Limit or end consumption of news or social media. 

So, you know, it's one thing to stay informed, but it's another to allow news and social media to just consume significant amounts of your attention and your energy each day so, you know, whatever you're consuming, you're also thinking about whatever you're thinking about is affecting you. So really being intentional about limiting your news and social media consumption can go a long way, I'm trying to spend, I mean, virtually no time on news and under five minutes a day on social media, and if anything changes news-wise, you know, a loved one will call or text me and I'll know about it nearly at the same time as everyone else. 

So I would just challenge you, you know, to limit your news and your social consumption to under a few minutes a day or under five minutes a day or just, you know, be intentional about it, you know, I guess you're sure you can do whatever you want. I think that it's... it's very important and just to be, you know, very aware of all of that consumption is something that's, I don't know, very positive, so just be aware of it. 

Number five is: Consume positive content that leads to growth. 

I don't have to worry about you guys with this, if you're listening to this podcast, you obviously like positivity and like learning and like trying to improve yourself, so I commend you for that and that's incredible. But, yeah, not only is it important to limit or end your news and social media consumption, that's not helping you out, but it's crucial to actually consume positive content right now. 

So I would challenge you to, you know, consume more positive content through books by reading or listening or podcast or, you know, even learning a new skill or something like that through a course or something that's going to grow your knowledge and your skills and your ability. So definitely challenge you to consume positive content right now. 

The sixth tip is to: Try to use this time to create, write or learn something new. 

So you guys know, with these less, less face-to-face commitments due to the social distancing means, you know, our calendars have really freed up, at least mine has. So are there ways that you can leverage that time to make substantial progress towards personal or professional goal? 

You know, I have a ton of clients who have mentioned to me that they want to build a sustainable, like online business or create a secondary income stream online, and man it's a perfect time for that I mean, absolutely perfect, it's an ideal time to take action on something like that. 

So you can use this, use this time where your social distancing to create something that would have positive impact on you and your family for a long time, I've been working a ton the last few months on improving my SEO and starting to create some content for an online course. And those things, you know, those are things that I'm going to benefit from for a long, long time. 

So I would just challenge you to do the same build, create, write or learn something new right now and it'll pay off for a long time. 

Number seven is: Compartmentalize your thoughts and own your responsibilities. 

Man, this is a huge one, so we're all in unchartered territory right now but that's not permission to neglect your responsibilities there's zero benefit to adding fuel to an already tense situation rather than focusing on your daily responsibilities, you know. Personally, I need to spend my time creating, thinking, and building positive things, not obsessing about a pandemic that I have little control over, so there is just no upside to getting distracted and not executing on what needs to be done right now for your family and colleagues. 

So really challenge you to execute on your responsibilities at the highest level and, you know, that includes taking exceptional care of yourself and your family right now, so I would challenge you to do that. 

Number eight is: Move and exercise every day. 

So are you exercising? We all know exercise triggers a surge of healthy chemicals in our brain, those are endorphins, so and they make you feel great, so extra blood flow can really help your brain function at a higher level and that can lead you to feeling more focused you know, you get that runner's high. 

So I would just encourage you to exercise, and if you're unable to go outside, you know, doesn't mean you can't do a YouTube video inside or something with just a little movement. I've done a lot of those YouTube type videos recently, and they always look so easy and they're like impossible, so major props to those people that do those, all right. 

Number eight* (nine) is: Communicate with your parents and loved ones. 

So this is just a no-brainer, call your... call your loved ones and, you know, there's it's important to nurture these relationships. And I would just challenge you to call your loved ones and stay in touch with them. So... So, guys, I hope you're doing those things. 

And we have some listener questions next that I want to get to before we dive into the listener questions, I do want to say I have had a lot of listener questions like very covid related over the last few months, and I have been answering those just in one or one emails to try to connect one on one with the person and I've thought about it, and at the time, I thought I was doing a really nice thing, but, you know, I should have probably been answering them also on the podcast so other people could hear them if they wanted. 

So I'm going to try to focus on answering all listener questions, when people ask me something unless it's super personal, I'm going to and I'll never share any names on here so don't worry about that. But if you ask me a question, I'm going to try to answer it on the podcast always so, yeah, I'm going to really try to be focused on recording some of these episodes in the next few weeks. And yeah, I'll be answering questions on here versus the email it's so easy just to, like, respond via email to answer somebody's question real quick, but I need to record the podcast and share with everyone. 

So here we go, let's dig in. 

The first question is, and this is a long question, Matt, thank you for your book, I'm a solo producer and it's helped me a ton, here's my question. 

I love oh I love tech but whenever I don't understand how something works and it starts sucking up my time and blocking my creative flow, it makes me angry, I also find it humiliating not to be able to figure out what seems to be super simple for many people, this is one of the very few situations where I can lose my calm and positivity, I try to outsource and ask for help as much as, as much and early as it happens as possible, but part of me thinks I have to get it done on my own, hence the struggle and the down moments. 

OK, so this person is a solopreneur and they are struggling with when they are working on something that's like technology-related and it starts sucking up their time and it's taking a lot longer than they think they should and they get frustrated, seems pretty normal. OK, yeah, let's chat through this a little bit. 

So I've tried to do all the tech stuff for the most part on my own for my business, although I'm getting much better outsourcing to like on places like Upwork, but for a long time I did 100 percent of my tech stuff and I've definitely felt frustrated and overwhelmed at times, and here are a few ideas that would maybe help you or just encourage you. 

So here we go, let's say I got five things. 

So number one is: If I'm doing something technical for the first time and this is crazy, so if I'm doing something technical for the first time, I've started to block at least like five times the amount of time that I anticipate that I'll take in my head, does that make sense? 

So, like, if I think something's going to take ten minutes, I block like 15 minutes to an hour for doing it. If it's tech, like technical, and I've never done it before, if I don't know how long it's going to take, because it always... technical stuff, just like if you're doing it for the first time man it just takes longer for me, maybe not for everybody, but I've noticed for me it just takes I mean, it doesn't take like five more minutes, it takes significantly more time. 

So, you know, I've noticed that, I've recognized that over the years and I now just try to block plenty of time and it relieves a lot of pressure and I... You know, that seems to really like dial down my frustration. 

Sorry if you guys can hear that, my I have a neighbor that is mowing or blowing leaves or blowing something, so sorry about that, if you can hear that, but yeah. 

So that's what I would say is one thing is block plenty of time because that relieves so much pressure and, you know, my book talks a lot about the planning fallacy, which if you've read the book, which this person has, you're aware of. But people, in general, are just very optimistic about what they can get done in a day. And being aware of that means that you can, you know, properly try to schedule yourself and have a realistic approach to your priorities. 

So number one, I would say, block massive time for technical stuff if you're struggling with this. 

Number two, when I run into this issue: I try to reassure myself with positive self-talk that the issue was as expected and is OK. 

So I might say, of course, I have to overcome some hiccups you know, along the way, I've never done this type of technical skill before, this is my first time and it would be foolish to think anybody could do this without any issues. So, you know, and then you Google what you're trying to fix and you try to learn it so, you know, I know this, that's ... it sounds like, of course, you do that, but, you know, it can be tough in the moment. 

So prior to starting, you know, a technical skill, but you've never done before trying to think through that to try to think through this, hey, I've never done this before, there's going to be some hiccups. If somebody else has ever done this before, then I'm going to be able to do it, it just may take me a little longer and...and would definitely just approach it that way of being kind to yourself. 

The third recommendation is: If it's a real struggle, you know, just sometimes I will just remove all time restraints. 

You know, realizing most of my deadlines are self-imposed anyway and 100 percent, I'll judge my effort on actually taking action and the process of doing what I'm trying to do versus the result of creating. So I just remind myself, if anyone in the world has ever been able to do this, I'm going to be able to eventually do it and it may take longer than expected, but I'm going to try and enjoy the process along the way and I just reassure myself that I'll be able to... to try to do it, so that's a good strategy. 

The fourth suggestion is: I rely on friends and coaches and courses and like I said, on Upwork consultants. 

And, you know, I... I'm not hesitant at all to hire somebody at this point if I feel like they can do something faster than me and if it's, you know, if it's something that I would really benefit from learning because it's something I'm going to do over and over and over or in my business, it's going to be done over and over and over and I want to know how to do it so I can either train somebody to do it for cheap or and I understand it or I just want to know the skill or whatever I mean, I will just take the time to try to learn it versus hiring it out. 

Whereas, you know, for like my book cover, I hired somebody to do that for all the formatting and signed my book, I hired somebody to do that for all the engineering of my book audio, I hired somebody to do all that because I wanted an expert, but yeah. So don't be afraid to rely on somebody with that may be able to walk you through that, walk you through your technical problem. 

And the last thing last suggestion is. Oh, this is a good one:

I try to embrace that it's hard and that I understand that most people will stop doing it because it's difficult. 

So if I can remain persistent and see through it, you know, from a competition standpoint, from a business standpoint, when I'm working, usually dealing with, like technical challenges, I just realize that it's a competitive advantage if I can figure it out or pay somebody to figure it out. 

And those are the five things, so I hope some of the... one of those ideas helps you and yeah, just try to be patient, give yourself plenty of time, don't be afraid to hire some help or have somebody walk you through it and remove time constraints if that's something that you're really fighting with, embrace that, it's difficult and those are all things that I would do. 

Let's see here we have one or two more questions, we have two more questions, oK. Matt hope you and Rachel are well, for you don't know Rachel's my wife. 

How can I better prepare my mindset right now at the beginning of my week for my week ahead? 

Yeah, that's a great question and, you know, I always... I suggest my clients to reflect on a few questions and I change up the questions, you know, frequently because I'll send out like a group Sunday message with some questions, but I recently sent out these questions to give you an idea of what I would suggest thinking through beginning your week to prepare your mindset and to get in the right frame of mind to have a productive and strong week. 

So the first question is: How can I be a leader for those around me? That's a good question. How can I be a leader for those around me this week? Just kind of think through that. 

The next question is: What kind of mood and tone do I want to set for myself this week? 

The third thing is: What can I do to progress towards my goals, my annual goals and my quarterly targets? And what actions do I need to take to work closer to those? So how can you do that? 

The fourth thing is: I like to think about, you know, one of my most excited and enthusiastic about heading into this week, it's a good one.

And another good one is what's the number one thing I need to accomplish with my time this week? 

That's a great one, another one is:

What kind of energy do I want to bring to my work this week and what kind of energy do I want to bring to my family this week? 

And I like to think through who needs me on my A-game right now so I can always be an important or an impactful question. 

So those are some questions I like to think through heading into my week, not just... not just like to build it to do list, but to think about kind of looking at it from a bigger picture, like who needs me to be on my A-game? 

Because then sometimes that will influence what I work on and what I dedicate my energy and my effort towards. So like, you know, throughout this time I will say, my clientele hasn't really dropped off, I've been just like super dedicated to my clients through the last couple months and obviously it's kind of shown here, I haven't recorded a bunch of new podcast episodes. I've just been like all in on my clients, you know, just really trying to help them out and be present and there for them and, yeah, I don't know it's been awesome. 

So, yeah, I like those questions, maybe those are helpful if you know if... What did I give you? One, two, three, four or five, six, seven, eight, nine questions you know, maybe you like half of those. So I think that's an important skill is just to pick and choose, pick one or two of those things, pick one or two or things from a book and pull it out and implement it in your life. You don't have to you know, you don't have to, I don't know how to say it... What's the right word? Embrace like every idea from a book you know. 

If I listen and read one or two books or a week and I'm just trying to pull one, maybe two things from each one, and if you pull if you like one of those questions a lot, just work that into your Sunday routine and think through that before heading into your week each week. 

So, all right, last question, I mean, this has been a long episode, last question, Matt. 

How have you remained so positive throughout our current situation? 

That's a funny question, this is from a client, that's funny so, yeah, I mean, the answer is simple, I guess it is:

One, I trust myself to figure things out and I'd say, more importantly, I trust in your ability like humankind and people that listen to this kind of stuff, like I trust in your ability to figure things out, you know, I'd say it's probably true that you've had to overcome a lot of stuff to get to where you are today and, you know. 

I would also suggest that you knew like going into this and I knew going into this like it was never going to be an easy process, pursuing my goals or pursuing your goals or writing a book, you know, building a business, trying to get fit, creating meaningful relationships. You know, all those things, you know, when you have good goals and big goals, you know, shit's hard. 

So I just, I don't know, I never thought it was going to be easy, and... and I've always trusted my ability to figure things out and I've always a trusted, trusted, you know, my client's abilities to figure thing out... Our client's ability to figure things out so you know that's it, that's why my outlook and my attitude is positive because I believe that our ability to figure out things is, I don't know, I just feel like our ability to figure out things is something that we're good at as humans. 

And I think that we will figure this out, and I think that we're resilient, and I think that if we're focused and we take ownership and continue to function during this time, you know, we're going to come out on the other side and be OK and... and not only that, I think, you know, I feel like a lot of people are going to be in a better position coming out of this situation than they were heading into it. 

So keep at it guys, keep leaning in, your hard work will pay off, that's it, that's all I have, thank you so much for listening, I haven't recorded an episode in so long my like throat or so... not somewhere in that way guys that was bad, this is bad timing to say my throat is soared, I feel fine my throat is dry. 

So that's it, hope you guys enjoyed this, it's a little late in the day so my energy wasn't too high. Maybe I need to record this earlier, but you guys are awesome, thank you so much for listening, let me know if you need anything I am here to help you out and you guys make it a great day, and please don't hesitate to reach out if you need anything. 

Don't forget to go to Matt-East, so Matt and then a little dash East .com. Just Google Matt East that'll do better, just Google Matt East it'll pop right up, and then go to /VIP on my website and you can listen to the book and it's dope and it sounds great, and I'm so sorry that I posted that bad episode on here. 

So that's it guys, bye-bye. 

Coronavirus — The Perfect Opportunity For You?

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The Goal Achievement Podcast, hosted by Productivity Expert Matt East, is all about helping you find clarity, design a plan, and most importantly achieve your goals.

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This podcast is based on a group message I recently sent to all of my Productivity and High-Performance clients. Here’s that message. You can also find this article on Medium.

(This is a group message to all clients)

Gang-

I want to share a few thoughts. Most of this will be counterintuitive to what you’re hearing and experiencing in the media and online. Keep in mind you’ve hired me as your coach to challenge you and help you perform at your best each day.

Before we dig in, I want to acknowledge a pandemic is a historical event, and this message is not intended to downplay its impact. As far as I know, each of you are healthy and your family members are virus-free. As always, if you need anything specific, please let me know.

With that said, here are some challenges:

1. I challenge you to be aware of your mindset each morning. Are you joining the chaos bandwagon or are you proactively taking steps to get centered and finding your focus and intention? How can you find a rhythm each morning that leads you to be centered, focused, and thoughtful? Could beginning your day with meditation, breathing, yoga, or some exercise help? I notice a few of you aren’t prioritizing your morning meditation like you normally do. There has never been a better time to engage in your meditation practice.

2. I challenge you to think about the energy you’re projecting to your family — you’re fully in control of this and it is impacting them. Are there things you can do to reassure them and de-escalate the situation? Would underreacting be beneficial in some ways?

3. I challenge each of you to spend more time producing work each day than consuming news or social media. This coaching is full of creatives. From a creative perspective, you can come out on the other side way ahead of the curve or behind it. I’m trying to limit my news and social consumption to under 5 minutes per day. If anything drastic changes news-wise, I’m sure a loved one will call or text me, and I’ll know about it nearly at the same time as if I would have by consuming the news in real-time.

4. A lot of clients have told me they would like to build an online business or create a secondary income stream. Seems like an ideal time to take action, since most of us can’t leave our homes. Can you create something in the coming weeks/months that positions you and your family well for years to come? For me, one-on-one coaching doesn’t scale beautifully, so I’m building and creating online courses right now that will generate evergreen revenue. Meaning I’ll receive money from them for the rest of my life. I’m also writing book #2, same deal, another evergreen revenue stream. Is it time to start building that thing or writing the book you’ve been thinking about?

Some practical tips that have helped me:

1. Create a gratitude list each day of 5 things you’re thankful for.

2. Exercise. I like Yoga With Adrienne: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFKE7WVJfvaHW5q283SxchA
and this medium’ish-intensity workout: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFKE7WVJfvaHW5q283SxchA

3. I find the below headset to be very helpful for compartmentalizing when trying to work at home. Works much better than ear-buds for me, I don’t know why. It just does.

4. I created a sauna in my bathroom using basic heaters (picture below). It’s amazing. Most of you know, I’m obsessed with going to the sauna and steam room every day, but this has been a great alternative.

5. Call your parents and loved ones if you’re worried about them.

That’s it for now.

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Learn more at www.Matt-East.com

Listen to Matt’s book, The Purposeful Planning Method:

• INTRODUCTION

• CHAPTER 1, Why You Should Read This Book

• CHAPTER 2, What is The Purposeful Planning Method?

• CHAPTER 3, Why Does This Method Work So Effectively?

• CHAPTER 4, The Fluid Layer

• CHAPTER 5, The Habit Layer

• CHAPTER 6, The 10-Day Purposeful Planning Challenge

• CHAPTER 7, Common Questions

• CHAPTER 8, Motivation to Begin

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