The 5 AM Miracle with Jeff Sanders #238: The Free-Time Formula: Finding Happiness, Focus, and Productivity No Matter How Busy You Are

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1 1 The 5 AM Miracle with Jeff Sanders #238: The Free-Time Formula: Finding Happiness, Focus, and Productivity No Matter How Busy You Are February 12, 2018 Introduction [Play Alternate ] Free time is a marvelous thing, but it's tough to carve out the margin we need in a busy world. This week I dive into my new book and share how you can overcome the trap just being busy, so you can create a better rhythm that makes time for what matters most. This is The 5 AM Miracle - Episode #238: The Free-Time Formula: Finding Happiness, Focus, and Productivity No Matter How Busy You Are [Fade Out Music] Good morning and welcome to the 238th episode of The 5 AM Miracle. I am Jeff Sanders and this is THE podcast dedicated to dominating your day before breakfast.

2 2 My goal is to help you bounce out of bed with enthusiasm, create powerful lifelong habits, and tackle your grandest goals with extraordinary energy. Here on The 5 AM Miracle Podcast we discuss early mornings, and we dive deep into topics like healthy habits, personal development, and rockin productivity! Just before we get to this week s content For the last 2 weeks of February, leading up to the launch of my new book, I am offering a special VIP 50% discount on my premium productivity membership program, The Rockin Productivity Academy. Beginning on Valentine s Day, February 14th, visit RockinProductivity.com to join the Academy for half price. Once again, that s RockinProductivity.com! Now, let s begin with this week s feature segment! [Fade Music Up and Out] Free time truly is a marvelous thing, but we re busy -- all the time. That s why my new book exists, to help curb the addiction of being busy for no other reason than it s

3 3 the only thing we know how to do. Today we are going to dive into my book, The Free-Time Formula, and discuss how you can overcome the trap just being busy, so you can create a better rhythm that makes time for what matters most. To open up this discussion, I m going to read an excerpt from the first chapter. Let s dig in! Excerpt from Chapter 1 FREE TIME: AN EXCUSE TO KEEP WORKING I know this is the Type A in me speaking loudly, but work is not the enemy it is one of our greatest means to fulfillment and goal achievement. Work is a love affair with our inner creative and a real opportunity to leave the world better than we found it. My wife, Tessa, and I are self-identified workaholics, and we both work from home. We naturally fill our free time with more work because we genuinely love what we do. Every Friday night is date night for the two of us a chance to stop working, get out of the house, and eat dinner together somewhere in Nashville. I would

4 4 love to say that we have tried all of the best restaurants, but we are way too predictable (and cheap) for that. If not tacos at Las Palmas, then tacos at Taco Mamacita. If not Mamacita s, then back to Las Palmas. Tacos win almost every week. Date night used to be scheduled at 5:00 pm, then 5:30, then 6:00. A few weeks ago, we skipped it because both of us would rather finish our projects than leave anything undone. Though Tessa and I intentionally schedule free time on our calendar to be filled with a night out, we ultimately choose in the moment how we want that time to be spent. Free time becomes a placeholder on our calendar for priority management fighting against impulsivity. In other words, in the open spaces on our calendar we could tackle our responsibilities and goals, or spontaneously do whatever we want. Knowing the two of us, whatever we want often means choosing to extend our workday a little longer. This choice comes with its own set of pros and cons, but when you genuinely love what you do, working a few extra hours can often bring more satisfaction than clocking out early to get a jump start on the weekend. On the flip side, you could find yourself working to the bone and falling into the trap of

5 5 staying busy because it is the only thing you know how to do. Busyness is not Productivity A couple of years ago I interviewed my friend Ted Ryce on this podcast. He is a personal trainer, and he shared a piece of wisdom that applies to so many areas of life. He said, Soreness is not progress. Progress is progress. I completely agree. It s also true that busyness is not productivity, accomplishing what matters most is productivity. In our quest to accomplish more, we often just fill our time with MORE stuff: MORE activity, MORE events, MORE meetings, MORE goals, MORE checkmarks on our never-ending to-do lists. To counteract this addiction of always wanting MORE, we have to redefine what it means to be happy, productive, and fulfilled. Doing Less For me, one of the best ways I find to do LESS is to get really good at saying no. It s a skill, no doubt, and one we all have to master if we our ever going to find ourselves with real,

6 6 tangible free time. In the first few weeks of this new year I found myself with more free time than I ve had in years. This was no accident. I intentionally cleared my calendar MONTHS in advance to ensure this time would be less busy and more fulfilling. It totally worked. It was hard -- really hard to say no to so many things that I thought were priorities, but it has shocked me at just how many things NEVER have to get done, or can wait for a very long time before they are addressed. It s just too easy to prioritize nonsense, the things that never have to get done, and then we find ourselves staying busy again and again, day after day. If you want to help yourself overcome the addiction of doing more, get really good at saying no. Practice every day. Do whatever it takes to turn down new invitations, new ideas, new projects, and new events. At the same time, begin cancelling current invitations, current ideas, current projects, and current commitments. You just don t have to do it all and you should stop trying right now! Outsourcing

7 7 Another strategy that has worked well for me, though I haven t done enough of it, is outsourcing any and all work that someone else could handle better, faster, or for less money. Red Butler I recently got a free trial with a service called Red Butler, which provides customized personal assistants to help with just about anything you need in your life or business. They did NOT sponsor this podcast -- I just wanted to share my experience with them to highlight the value of what letting go of extra work can do for you. Within a few days of using their service, I had sent over a half dozen requests, mostly items to research on my behalf because I just didn t want to spend my time doing work that someone else could do while I worked on more pressing matters. Using a few of their many assistants, I asked the Red Butler crew to research daycares (for Tessa and I s upcoming parenting experience), as well as finding a new television, looking up flights and hotels, and reviewing my calendar to help

8 8 schedule upcoming interviews. Red Butler is a great service, and one that offloads a lot of fluffy work that has to get done, but not necessarily by me. This kind of service can be used by anyone, entrepreneur or employee, or even a stay-at-home-parent who needs help accomplishing tasks that they just don t have time for. I don t spend a lot of time discussing outsourcing in the book, but it is on my priority list for this year because there is so much value to be grabbed from offloading as much as you can, as often as you can. If you want to learn more about Red Butler, I highly recommend you check out RedButler.com. They have a great thing going over there, and I m a big fan. Now, when we come back from the break, I ll discuss another hot topic from my book, how to shrink your enormous to-do list down to the vital few.

9 9 [Play Spring in My Step ] Now I want to take just a minute to feature and thank my premium sponsors of The 5 AM Miracle. As a listener of this show, you get access to some of their incredible and exclusive discounts and bonuses. These amazing folks also help me to deliver high-quality content for you, for FREE, each and every week! [LinkedIn Learning] If you are looking to improve your productivity, get better at time management, or lead efficient meetings...everything you need to achieve more is on LinkedIn Learning. If you re looking to lead a more productive and efficient life, LinkedIn Learning has courses on Overcoming Procrastination, Time Management Foundations, and Personal Effectiveness. They also offer Quick Tip courses for software like Outlook, Excel, and QuickBooks to boost your productivity.

10 10 I ve recently taken a course in Public Speaking and have loved the quick and easy strategies that I picked up in just a few minutes. It s even better because you can watch the videos in double speed to consume content even faster! No hidden charges or upsells: Access all the courses you want, all for one monthly price. Available worldwide. Learn from anywhere from your computer, tablet, or mobile device. We ve got a special deal for you: You can get a free 30-day trial with LinkedIn Learning today, by visiting LinkedIn.com/5am. That s LinkedIn.com/5am [DesignCrowd] DesignCrowd is a website that helps startups and small businesses - from dentists and accountants to photographers and DJs - outsource or CROWD-SOURCE custom logos, business cards, and web designs from designers around the world. Here's how it works: 1. Post a brief describing the design you need. 2. DesignCrowd will invite its talented designers to

11 11 submit their ideas. 3. Within hours, you ll receive your first design and over the course of 3 to 10 days, a typical project will receive 60 to 100+ different designs from designers around the world. 4. You then pick the best design and approve payment to the designer. DesignCrowd has over 600,000 designers from Sydney to San Francisco ready to help you with awesome creative ideas. Get the perfect custom design, every time. Check out DesignCrowd.com/miracle to learn more and receive your 5AM Miracle VIP offer when you start your next project. For a special $100 VIP offer for our listeners, check out DesignCrowd.com/miracle to learn more and save up to $100 when you start your next project. Or simply enter the discount code "MIRACLE" when posting a project on DesignCrowd. Once again, that's DesignCrowd.com/miracle. [FreshBooks] A quick question if you re a trailblazing freelancer: If you could reclaim up to 2 days a month of your

12 12 precious time, would you? Our friends at FreshBooks, who make ridiculously easy cloud accounting software for freelancers, are the architects behind this question, and for good reason. By simplifying tasks like invoicing, tracking expenses and getting paid online, FreshBooks has drastically reduced the time it takes for over 10 million people to deal with their paperwork. If that s not enough incentive, the FreshBooks platform has been rebuilt from the ground up. They ve taken simplicity and speed to an entirely new level and added powerful new features. If you re listening to this and not using FreshBooks yet, now would be the time try it. To claim your 30-Day unrestricted free trial, with no credit card required, go to F reshbooks.com forward slash 5AM and enter 5AM Miracle in the How Did You Hear About Us? section. [Fade Out Music] How to shrink your enormous to-do list down to the vital few.

13 13 Here is an excerpt from Chapter 4 that will shed some light on this discussion: Excerpt from Chapter 4 I tend to get overly ambitious. I take on projects when any new idea pops into my head, or I read about a fun strategy that appears vitally important for my business, or I attend a conference and take pages and pages of notes with more stuff to do than I will ever have time for. For years, I would not write down the new ideas in any organized system. I would just begin tackling the new projects immediately, simply adding them to my ever-expanding workload. At some point, I would realize the number of projects I committed to was growing too fast. I would pause and write all of them down to craft a comprehensive list of everything I was committed to accomplishing. These lists became my go-to for project management. Initially, they were incredibly helpful because I had visual clarity over the various promises I had made to myself and others. However, it became apparent

14 14 over time that simply acknowledging I was too busy to ever get everything done was not enough. You cannot simply say, Here are the 124 goals I have for the next ninety days. That is not progress it is insanity and it is undeniably overwhelming and counterproductive. The breakthrough came when I began to distinctly classify my projects. I created clear categories for them and found systematic approaches to ignore everything that was not vitally important in my current season. Categorize Everything Categorize ALL of your tasks, events, projects, and ideas. When I meet people who are overwhelmed, they fall into one of 2 categories 1. Buried in Real Work 2. Buried in Clutter Let s tackle the first one, Buried in Work. Some people are over-committed, either by choice, or by circumstance. Either way, there literally is more for them to get done than they will ever have time for.

15 15 2nd category, Buried in Clutter Some people have no organizational system, or the one they are using is broken. In this case, there is actually a normal and healthy amount of work to complete, but with such a mess on their hands, it s impossible to know what matters and what doesn t. In either of these situations, Buried in Work, or Buried in Clutter, the solution is to clarify what is going on and prioritize the vital few things that actually need your attention NOW. There is a specific system in the book that I share in detail for how you can categorize all of your tasks, projects, ideas, and events to determine what matters most. I know this is a tease, but you will just have to read the book to learn all about it! And, honestly, it would take a lot more time than I have here to dissect the whole thing. For now, check out this week s action step! [Play Opening Night ]

16 16 1 Action Step: Get your copy of The Free-Time Formula Today! You can get over $500 worth of bonuses if you pre-order, and over $300 in bonuses just for buying a copy of the book (including hardcover, digital/kindle, or audiobook). Just visit FreeTimeFormulaBook.com to just straight to the book to learn more! To keep things simple, you can also just visit JeffSanders.com and see all the links and info right there. [Fade In Music] As always, if you would like to see the complete list of the links I mentioned in this episode, please visit the show notes page at JeffSanders.com/238 as in Episode 238. Finally, on the next episode I will be sharing how you can free up 10 hours a week, every week. Well, that's it for this episode of The 5 AM Miracle Podcast. Until next time remember, you have the power to change your life, and the fun begins bright and

17 17 early. [Fade Music Up and Out]

The 5 AM Miracle with Jeff Sanders #243: Front-Loading Productivity Strategy with Tessa Sanders. April 23, 2018

1 The 5 AM Miracle with Jeff Sanders #243: Front-Loading Productivity Strategy with Tessa Sanders April 23, 2018 Introduction [Play Alternate ] Have you ever wondered how the most productive people never