Jim Edwards and Stew Smith discuss some of the things they are learning during this weird time for business and personal lives amid stay at home orders.
Scheduling, productivity, and your personally most effective time to work can be optimized with the right mindset. Whether you have your own home office, entrepreneurial occupation, or working from home / laid off, this time is what you make of it. Stay safe, healthy, and keep working hard!
Remember – if it is not on the LIST, it does not EXIST. Make that TO DO list and stick to it.
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Jim Edwards: Hey guys, Jim Edwards here and welcome back to the Sales Copywriting and Content Marketing Hacks Podcast this is Episode 71.
I’m your host, Jim Edwards along with my co-host and podcast producing guru, Mr. Stew Smith!
Welcome Stew!
Stew Smith: Hello, Jim!
Hello, everybody.
Let’s do this!
I got a good one today!
Jim Edwards: You do?
Stew Smith: I do.
Jim Edwards: Well, that’s good. Let’s hear it!
Stew Smith: And it’s all about bandwidth scheduling to-do lists, checklists, get just getting things done and being productive.
Jim Edwards: Wow…
Stew Smith: One thing I have learned…
Well, probably learned this long before there was a reason to stay in the house and not go outside and see people…
But the importance of having a checklist…
A to-do list just keeps things organized…
It also keeps your brain from spinning in circles thinking I got to do this I got to do that, wait, I forgot this, I forgot that…
You can just look at it, and it settles the brain down
So, you now can focus on one thing at a time.
Jim Edwards: Exactly.
Stew Smith: That’s the beauty of the checklist…
And one thing I’ve learned about this, stay at home order quarantine, whatever you want to call it with COVID is that I don’t have any interruptions anymore.
Jim Edwards: Now, what kind of interruptions do you not have any more you still have interruptions…
But what interruptions are gone now that were there previously?
Stew Smith: Well, there be well, yeah, that’s a good point…
I mean, there would be a meeting.
There be maybe an errand I need to run…
But now I just I set them all aside and maybe do a big errand all at once versus going out multiple times a day.
I don’t have a workout at the Naval Academy that I have to go do with my guys…
I don’t want to pick up My kids from school, grab lunch, have a lunch meeting.
There’s just a lot of things that aren’t happening anymore.
And I get I can still get started my regular time get my workout done.
I’m back in my office by seven 7:15, and I am just start working in by lunch…
I have accumulated a lot of productive hours in there that most of my work is done…
At least the creative side of it.
Yeah, that’s probably my creative hours are in the morning, eat some lunch, take a break…
My son now works out with me every day after lunch…
After finishes his morning of classes, we work out, so that’s fun…
That’s not I don’t really consider that an interruption.
Jim Edwards: Right.
Stew Smith: But I’d kind of done anyway at this time…
So creatively thinking I’m kind I don’t have any left…
So, I’ve changed gears, and I move more into an actual admin side of my job and focus on whether it’s produced, processing orders, or maybe updating a system, with the back end of the sales process of, your website.
Just little things like that nothing that requires me to generate a lot of thought. It’s mostly the manual labor stuff of having your own online business.
Jim Edwards: Right?
So that’s kind of my thought on the two golden hours type principle is that in the morning is my creative time and, in the afternoons, my mechanical time stuff that I’m not stuff I can do…
But I don’t have to think the same way I have to think to write an article or to write sales copy or to edit stuff or to do those types of things.
Stew Smith: Yeah, actually, I can do those things in the afternoon while I listen to the radio or watch TV or something, and it’s not that distracting, right?
Whereas if I’m focused on producing sales copy or writing an article or, doing something else on that side of my brain, I really need quiet time and focus…
Jim Edwards: And the big thing for me that I’m finding is that I’ve never really had the outside the office things.
If I had to go do an errand or something, it’s I’ve always been like, hey, it’s happening at the end of the day.
It’s not…
It’s it doesn’t happen during the work period.
I’m a jerk about that around here to the point that no one asks,
Stew Smith: Well, that’s good.
I mean, you’ve figured out a system that works for you.
And therefore, whenever the system changed outside of you, it didn’t affect you any.
Jim Edwards: Yeah, but what’s happened is I’m busier now than I’ve ever been, because everybody else is online or trying to be online or doing stuff and it’s not me not complaining, I’m just saying I where other people are like, man I’m looking for something to do.
I’m like, “Man, I’m looking for like an hour off.”
And, and that’s, that’s interesting, though, but the same thing of what you’re saying is, on the flip side, you got to be careful about not overloading your schedule with meetings with things because I’m getting thrown for a loop now with some stuff with some new things that we’re doing that I’m having a bunch of meetings for.
And it’s I mean, it’s even making my workout suffer a little bit.
Like I haven’t run yet today, and I need to, and I’ve been going this morning since six nonstop, and I’m going to have stuff until 3:30 today, and I’m not going to be able to do my run until 3:30-4:00, which is not the best time for me…
So, I’m starting to think of whether I need to even though this isn’t what I like to do
I’m wondering if I shouldn’t start doing my workout first…
Before doing anything before even walking into my office…
I mean that would be a big shift for me…
But I can’t let that go what I mean?
Stew Smith: That’s been my go-to for quite some time, and I come back in I’m clean, I’m ready I’m wide awake, and I get start working pretty well…
I don’t have to wake myself up…
Right for half an hour or whatever.
But I will do this too…
And this was one of my it was I wasn’t really a distraction from work…
It was actually a relief from work…
At lunch, I would either go swim first or eat a really small lunch and then go swim just for like 30 minutes and then come back and that kind of woke me up a little bit.
Didn’t take a lot of time out of my schedule that I was already scheduled to eat lunch anyway for that hour, and came back at 1 and was able to still get some productive things done for another hour or two if I needed it from the morning.
So if you can get your run in during lunch, not a bad idea, shortens lunch, eat less, especially if you’re trying to lose weight…
Eat less and then you, you get some activity on top of it, and it helps multiple ways, and you come back, instead of having that food coma after lunch, you actually are a little more awake and alert.
Jim Edwards: I’ve been taking a nap after lunch.
That’s what I’ve been, I eat lunch, and then I drink a cup of coffee and take a nap and for 20 or 30 minutes until I’m like pang! Then I’m ready to go…
That works too.
Stew Smith: Yeah, it’s not something I do every day, but I will definitely do that as well.
Especially if I missed out on a good night’s sleep the night before.
But anyway, the whole gist of all of this is I saw a quote the other day by Marcus Orelius is one of the classic stoics from way back in the Greek days when they were sitting and thinking a lot,
“Learn to be indifferent about things that make no difference.”
Stew Smith: And it’s just one of those things that make me think I like I waste a lot of time sometimes dealing with stuff that doesn’t really matter.
Jim Edwards: Right.
Stew Smith: Whether it’s, you flick over to Facebook, because you got pinged on something…
And then next thing, you’ve spent 30 minutes over there…
it’s and,
Jim Edwards: and that’s something that I think a lot of people struggle with that for whatever reason, again, you call it creative, or I call it creative procrastination, or strategic procrastination.
It’s like, I don’t need to worry about this right now.
I may never have to worry about this.
It’s like if I don’t do this right now, as opposed to the other thing that I’m doing, is life going to end?
No.
Is it going to piss somebody off?
Probably not.
I don’t think the only one that cares about it is me.
And it’s not that big of a deal.
It’s like, I only go check the mail at the post office once a month.
Don’t go every day.
There’s why there’s, I mean, no bills go there.
That’s a good point.
So, I mean, I walk down and check the mail every other day at the end of the post off at the end of the driveway, because half the time they’re bringing it to me.
I mean, all the little things that people worry about.
You got to make a decision…
I’m just not going to worry about it.
The other thing is making your intentions very clear to others and the world about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it and what you’re doing!
Its people will interrupt you if you let them interrupt you.
Ah, if you don’t check your email if you don’t answer,
Oh, that’s the other thing…
My phone is always on Do Not Disturb…
My phone is never off Do Not Disturb.
And I have some people that it just pisses them off like crazy.
Because like I can never get ahold of you.
I mean, I guess you didn’t make it on our team you didn’t make it onto the home team of the of people that I’ll let get past Do Not Disturb but even then I have it on vibrate.
That’s really good.
And see my system is if it’s an emergency and they can’t get me they call Terry and then Terry says, “Hey, this is what’s going on.”
I said okay, then then we’ll deal with this.
But the phone is always on Do Not Disturb.
Stew Smith: I don’t have my phone.
My phone’s upstairs.
There you go.
Yeah.
So
Jim Edwards: That’s why it’ll never go off in the middle of a well it’s done it once or twice, but I mean it normally it’s not going off in the middle…
Have a webinar because it just can’t…
So, I mean, there’s little stuff that you can also do to eliminate those distractions. So, you can get in the zone of getting stuff done!
And I think the biggest thing is like you said it all, it all starts with having written down what you’re going to get done today and the timeframe within which you’re going to get it…
And you the first time I ever met you, or soon after I met you, you told me your phrase of
“If it’s not on the list, it doesn’t exist.”
Stew Smith: Yeah…
Jim Edwards: And that’s absolutely true.
But I think. Also, it needs to be a list with timeframes on your calendar of when you’re going to get it done.
Because if work will fill the time allotted, whatever that is, I don’t parade principal or whatever is that the one about stupid people I don’t remember.
But, the point though, is that if you have two items on your to-do list, and you have all day to do them, chances are they’re not going to get done, or they’re going to get done crappy, or they’re going to get done at the end.
I’ve always had appointments in my calendar for doing stuff.
I schedule everything…
Stew Smith: Yeah!
Jim Edwards: Do I stick with the schedule perfectly all the time?
No!
But I know that it gets going to get done.
Stew Smith: And I think about it, you know what gets done, but you also know what didn’t get done.
Right.
And you can come back to it later and say, okay, that’s not a big deal…
I can handle that tomorrow…
Jim Edwards: Right.
Stew Smith: Versus thinking in your head, like, there’s something I forgot…
I don’t know what it is…
And it just keeps spinning and keeps spinning.
It just distracts you from anything productive.
Jim Edwards: Exactly!
And keeps you from sleeping even.
Stew Smith: Yeah!
Jim Edwards: Yeah!
So, I think that what’s happened is you have eliminated the physical interruptions that used to keep you from getting stuff done…
And that’s why you’re in the zone so, much more than you’re seeing what’s important…
And what’s not really important…
And so, when they do let you come up out of the basement, what’s going to be different?
Or are you just going to go back to the way things were?
Stew Smith: Oh, no! This is fantastic!
I am going to continue this, this method of planning and scheduling…
So, I don’t have those interruptions, and I just be a little more disciplined about it as well.
Jim Edwards: You’re going to go back, and you’re going to have to go back and start training the guys at the Naval Academy.
Stew Smith: But that’s in the afternoon, though…
So, I’m kind of done with my most productive session…
And that’s actually kind of a research and development arm of my business anyway, so, we got to get it done…
And so, when I say it’s a distraction, it’s, it gets me out of the house, and I’m not doing stuff with my business…
That I can’t be, but I just have to plan it better…
So, it doesn’t matter.
Jim Edwards: So, what about…
Stew Smith: Me as well, this isn’t groundbreaking information…
We’re discussing here.
I mean, this scheduling is very important to the entrepreneur…
But there’s one thing I’ve learned in all this, and it’s, time and energy wasted reduces my focus time.
Jim Edwards: Oh, yeah, absolutely!
This is groundbreaking!
You are saying, this is not groundbreaking, but it is groundbreaking…
Because you’re seeing it in action!
It’s knowing something externally rather than, experiencing it.
And everybody’s like, I want to go back to the way things were, I don’t want them I don’t want to go back to the way things were.
So that’s why I’m asking, how now when everything how now brown cow! when everything is back to “normal?”
Are you going to organize your day differently?
Are you going to slide back into the Oh, let me go to the post office for a little while and then it turns into 45 minutes.
And then okay, the heroes that tomorrow when that starts up again the morning is that going to be the same workout time is what you’re doing now…
Are you going to start batching stuff?
Are you going to outsource stuff?
What is it?
What’s going to be different when things are back to the new normal?
Or whatever it is?
Stew Smith: Well, that’s an interesting question…
I don’t have an answer for you.
But my goal is to keep me as productive as possible for as long as possible.
And the one thing I’ve also learned in this COVID era is that when there are multiple people trying to do meetings, and some are watching Netflix, and some are on the computer, doing something else, there’s a certain amount of bandwidth that you have in your house.
Like I can’t do these videos in the afternoon anyway, because my bandwidth is all jacked up because I got my dad watching TV…
I got somebody doing a class for college…
So, if I do a class for high school, it is just the amount of bandwidth in the house is being used up on our internet.
So, it gets shaky, streaming video issues, but we’re the same way.
Yes, we only have, So, much bandwidth that we can actually be productive in a day.
And, if I go from six to two, that’s eight hours.
That’s, that’s a long day of being productive.
Jim Edwards: And that, it’s funny, we both get started early in the morning
I was working mentally. I was working at four o’clock this morning…
And then it’s like, when four or five o’clock comes along, and you’re like, man, I feel like I’m breaking I’m work.
I’m taking off early.
I mean, everybody’s like, go until five no screw that!
I’ve been going for 12 hours.
It’s okay to be done.
So, I love the metaphor for the physical bandwidths in the house is a great metaphor for the mental bandwidth in your head.
At some point, you’ve used the bandwidth.
Stew Smith: It’s done!
Jim Edwards: And it’s I didn’t do that on purpose…
It did that on its own…
I think that he’s good.
It’s good timing actually was, So, my point though, and I do have one.
Am I the wizard right now?
Wow.
Okay.
I just totally that thing now
Stew Smith: You’re just talking about bandwidth and near yeah, and…
Jim Edwards: It’s just too you’ve used it for the day…
Yeah…
So, you’re going to do some go do something else…
Yeah, go do go do something
Bam…
I’m hang out with your family.
Yeah, go shopping.
No, you can’t do that.
Yeah, go to the local restaurant before 50% of the other people that wanted to be there, yeah
Stew Smith: I agree.
Like I said, yeah, enjoy life the rest of the day, you got some time to do it days or longer enjoy it.
Jim Edwards: The one last thing I would say, to help you is or to help anyone listening is figure out what time of day is your best time of day for your creative stuff versus what I call the mechanical stuff.
Stew and I are both early birds.
Yeah, but you may be a night owl.
And you may say to yourself, hey, first thing in the morning I can barely move.
I’m like a sloth.
Okay, that’s cool.
Then don’t sweat that.
Just do what you need to do.
And then nighttime if that’s your creative time, then that’s what you do.
Stew Smith: Yeah, my wife is a night owl.
And she is productive from like, 10pm to 2am mean she gets stuff done…
She’s a damn zombie in the morning.
Yeah, but I’m a zombie after 10pm.
So this is the way it works.
There you go.
So, but anyway, I know you have a new product that you’re working on and it’s about checklists and I wanted to check in on you…
One to see how it’s going?
Because I’m really interested because that really kind of ties into what I’m doing with kind of reforming my scheduled to figure out what’s the best time for me to get stuff done…
And how to do that every day because every day is a little bit different with tasking.
How is the Jim Edwards method calm wizardry creation coming with the new checklist wizard.
Jim Edwards: So, we’ve created this new checklist wizard that is pretty amazing…
That allows you to create dynamic checklists instead of, saying, “Hey, you can have five things on your checklist.”
What are the five things on your checklist?
It’s like you can have as many things on your checklist as you want…
You could have one thing on your checklist, you could have 20 things on your checklist, whatever you want to do.
And then the cool thing is that you can create your checklist items.
And then you can also output them in a Word document in a word processing docent that you could send off to somebody and have them format it make it look really cool.
Or you can do it yourself.
You can also output it as PowerPoint slides, so that you could use your checklist as a way to teach a class.
So, there’s, it’s really cool, versatile, and I’m sure once people start using it, they’re going to come up with some really cool things that I think I may not have even thought of.
Stew Smith: I just thought of something that’s really cool.
If you could do this, how those checklist articles are real popular…
I don’t really like them because you have to click a button every time I’d rather just have it all in one page and I read the whole thing…
I bet me around really cool way to make a checklist article.
Jim Edwards: Yeah.
Or I could even create another wizard based on that to create a checklist article.
So I could yeah, I think I’d rather have a separate wizard, because then we can have it output your, your calls to action and your email and your Yeah, I think that’d be a better way I can do that.
I don’t know when that’ll be done, but that would be pretty cool.
But do you think this checklist wizard,
Stew Smith: You’re doing is coming soon?
Jim Edwards: Yes, it will be released very soon…
In fact, when you’re hearing this, it may already be released or may not but yeah, it’s done.
I just got to release it.
So, when the pools open
Yeah, when the pool after
Stew Smith: Memorial Day,
Jim Edwards: After well, Memorial Day is like four days away.
I mean, I’m going to release it in June.
Stew Smith: Okay, gotcha.
Cool. That’s awesome.
Good…
Well, I could use it… I mean, I have an old school system of doing my, my checklists, and it works really well.
It’s just my desk calendar.
I there you go out of fan of looking at a computer and, or not a computer, but I have to have it written down and in front of me doesn’t have to be handwritten…
It can be typed, but it just needs to be sitting somewhere on a clipboard, or my calendar.
And that works best for me versus I tend to lose it on my phone.
Jim Edwards: To me, yeah, I don’t use somebody I don’t actions on the phone…
As, I like to write mine down.
I made my own form to keep track of everything…
It’s same thing and it’s just having it written down on paper.
I think it’s I think part of being old school.
Stew Smith: That is true.
I have to we have to face it.
Jim Edwards: There you go!
Cool.
All right, everybody.
Well, that was good.
And we hope you enjoyed this…
If you’re not a member of the Sales Copywriting and Content Marketing Hacks Podcast, you should be.
If you need to get in shape, go to StewSmithFitness.com.
And if you want to get some really great advice on online business, head over to theJimEdwardsMethod.com, and we will talk to you soon.
Thanks, Stew!
Stew Smith: All right, we’ll see you!
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