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Focus, commitment and self-discipline are a huge part of achieving success, but why are they such hard concepts to master? What does one do after acknowledging they need a better time and energy management system? Matt and Greg discuss the book The Power of Full Engagement and provide their tips for having productive days and the structure that’s required.
Takeaways + Tactics
Anything in your schedule is a promise, to yourself or someone else and you should refuse to break that promise
If we keep doing what we do naturally, we’re going to keep on failing and we’re not going to reach our goals
Most peoples’ day gets away from them because they don’t have scheduled blocks. They keep their focus shallow and that keeps them from doing the things that will move their businesses forward
The key to real success is not so much time management as it is energy management.The control of your time is in service of your energy levels
Will, self discipline and self-control all draw from the same energy tank and we have a lot less of it than we think. Structuring your life in a way where you have to make these constant decisions throughout the day, draws down that energy tank and makes it less likely that you’ll maintain that level of self-control throughout the day. -Matt Johnson
Matt and Greg began the chat with a couple of questions, one about a script for a homeowner who’s on Zillow’s Make Me Move, another about how to manage a FSBO appointment where the owner says they’ve sold houses on their own before. Another question came from an agent who just joined a new firm and and wants to know how to maximize his results.
In the second portion of the show, Matt and Greg launched into the main topic of the day inspired by James E. Loehr and Tony Schwartz’s book The Power of Full Engagement which Matt said changed his perspective while he was working marketing. The big point this book makes is how the key to real success is not so much time management as it is energy management. The control of your time is in service of your energy levels and it’s important to match your energy levels to the work you’re doing. One can either try to fight that and try to keep a constant level level of work but realistically that doesn’t work with your natural rhythm.
A big disclaimer from Matt and Greg is not to use managing energy as an excuse not to hustle or work hard, which is a common thing people do. When you’re working, be absolutely fully engaged and when you’re not, be fully and actively disengaged. An important method in energy managing is having structured breaks throughout the day and Matt provided the example of having 90 minute bursts. These bursts require all of your energy and that means putting away and closing any distractions, like phones and social media. If you’re able to work in this way you’ll find that you’ll get tasks done much quicker. Additionally by blocking off parts of your day and creating a schedule, and having rituals in those schedules you will get a lot more out of your day.
Will, self discipline and self-control all draw from the same energy tank and we have a lot less of it than we think. Avoid structuring your life in a way where you have to make constant decisions throughout the day, which will draw down that energy tank and makes it less likely that you’ll make the right decisions, and that you’ll maintain that level of self-control throughout the day and throughout the week. So why not acknowledge that fact and make things structurally easy on yourself, in terms of the way you time manage and time block.
In order to get to your goals there needs to be some behavior change, living on autopilot and doing what you’d do naturally is only going to lead to the same results or failure. Once you acknowledge that you have goals you want to hit, realize you’re not going to get there by doing the same things you do everyday. Matt and Greg then discussed commitment and scheduling. Greg said, “Anything in my schedule is a promise, to myself or someone else and I refuse to break that promise.” Matt added to this by reminding listeners to ask themselves if they have 10 times the commitment they have now because that’s what we need to put in. “I can either try to force myself to reach goals or I can develop rituals that propel me towards success.”
As the hangout started winding down, the co-hosts discuss their own routines, rituals and the questions they ask themselves. Matt gave a quote from the book, which drives home all the points made in the discussion “to make lasting change, we must build serial rituals focusing on one significant change at a time.”
Set up a structure, where there doesn’t have to be a lot of decision making and make things easier for yourself. Build rituals and routines and let the routines carry you onto success because they will become like autopilot and pull you towards the positive things you want to do, and that will make success a lot easier.
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