Mike Vardy's Blog, page 49
May 1, 2019
Episode 242: Exploring The Productivity Paradox with Tonya Dalton
On today’s episode, I spent time with Tonya Dalton. Tonya Dalton started her first business in 20019 working out of her home juggling two small kids. By 2011, she had grown the business to the point where her husband could leave corporate America. The company continued to flourish, but something was missing. In 2014, she closed up shop to follow her true passion, inkWELL Press ®—a company centered around productivity tools, training and education. Tonya’s messages about business management, productivity, and the pursuit of passion have impacted thousands and inspired her to launch her podcast, Productivity Paradox, and her online productivity course, The liveWELL Method
This episode is brought to you byMike Vardy’s Next Big Project . This is not just going to be another book Mike is writing. This is his BIG book. It’s the one that he’s been meaning to write for years. It’s the one that’s going to really dig into his productivity methodology and philosophy. It’s the one that’s going to help people like you adopt a simple, flexible, and durable approach for your time and your tasks that will allow you to get more of the right things done. Go to http://bitly.com/nextbigproject and find out more!
Tonya Dalton is a productivity expert who believes that too many people feel overwhelmed with all that they have to do each day. She owns inkWELL Press, a business focused on helping others use productivity to pursue big goals and end each day feeling satisfied and successful. Her messages about productivity, goals, and purpose have impacted thousands and inspired her to launch her podcast, Productivity Paradox.
Specifics that we covered on the show include:
On how Tonya get it to productivity (1:50)
The idea of the “north star” (2:50)
On how to help people who get sidetracked from their productivity goals (7:02)
On productivity framework or system (11:15)
On women being productivity experts (15:30)
On productivity apps (18:50)
On people trying to do things all at once (23:58)
Things that Tonya still struggles with when it comes to productivity (26:55)
On productivity being a lifestyle, a journey and an ongoing thing (40:40)
“I’ve talked to people about following their north star and for me your north star is made out of three things. It is really what you are doing so your mission statement, what you are dreaming so your vision statement or where you want to go and the defining things so the core value and things that are going to get you there.” ~ Tonya Dalton
Relevant Links
Website
YouTube
This episode I’m reminded how overwhelming it can be to feel like you have a million things to do each day but if you have a mission, a dream and a core value plus factoring in productivity will really help your life.
Enjoy the show? Want to keep up with the podcast? You can subscribe to the podcast feed by clicking the “Share” button in the player above – and you can share it further using the same button as well. You can take things even one step further by rating and reviewing the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening and supporting the show!
The post Episode 242: Exploring The Productivity Paradox with Tonya Dalton appeared first on Productivityist.
April 29, 2019
Don’t Worry About It
“Don’t worry about it.”
I hate this phrase.
Hearing this phrase does the exact opposite of its intent. It creates worry for me. I find that worry is a waste of time. I’m with Travis Bradberry on this. He said the following about worry:
“‘What if?’ statements throw fuel on the fire of stress and worry. Things can go in a million different directions, and the more time you spend worrying about the possibilities, the less time you’ll spend focusing on taking action that will calm you down and keep your stress under control.”
– Travis Bradberry
I avoid using “What if?” statements as much as possible because they bring on worry. I do what I can to create instances where there’s no need to ask that question because I’ve already put a process in place that negates it.
“What if I can’t get that blog post done today?” leads to the answer “You will because you’ve set aside 11pm to 1:30am to work on maiming stuff. You’ll just make it then if all else fails.”
“What if I don’t know what to do on Friday?” leads to the answer “You’ve already defined Friday as the day you give your focus to planning tasks, so just look at the tasks you’ve tagged as such and you’ll know what to do.”
“What if I get sick? My family has it and I’m afraid I’m going to get it too.” leads to the answer “If that happens then you’ll just look at tasks you’ve tagged as low energy tasks and work on those while you focus on getting better.”
Instead of worrying about “What if?” scenarios as they come up, focus on creating clear answers in advance when you can that remove the worry as much as possible. Every time something like this comes up, create that clarity so you have a solution when it comes up again – which will inevitably happen in some way, shape, or form.
Make that happen and then when someone says “Don’t worry about it” in the future, you’ll be able to do just that.
The post Don’t Worry About It appeared first on Productivityist.
April 24, 2019
Episode 241: What Sports Can Teach Us About Greatness with Don Yaeger
On today’s episode, I spent time with Don Yaeger. Don is an award-winning keynote speaker, business leadership coach, eleven-time New York Times best-selling author, and longtime Associate Editor for Sports Illustrated. He has fashioned a career as one of America’s most provocative thought leaders. As a speaker, he has worked with audiences as diverse as Fortune 500 companies and cancer survivor groups, where he shares his personal story.
This episode is brought to you by TextExpander . TextExpander lets you instantly insert snippets of text from a repository of emails, boilerplate and other content, as you type – using a quick search or abbreviation. Good news is that TextExpander 6.5 is out now with the new visual editor for snippets. Visit TextExpander.com/podcast for 20% off your first year .
This episode is also brought to you by Front . Founded in 2013, if you are ready to transform your team’s productivity with efficient email, you’ve got to give Front a try for only $9/month. Front is reinventing the inbox so people can accomplish more together. With new workflows, efficient collaboration, and all their communication channels in one place, more than 5,000 businesses rely on their Front inbox to be more productive as a team. Visit https://www.frontapp.com/timecrafting to start your free trial today!
Don Yaeger is primarily sought to discuss lessons on achieving greatness, learned from first-hand experiences with some of the greatest sports legends in the world. He is also often retained by companies and organizations to coach their leaders, management teams, and employees on building a culture of greatness by studying great teams in sports and discerning the business lessons we can learn from them. Additionally, as an Executive Coach, Don has worked with a range of leaders from the president of the largest bank in the Caribbean to CEOs of financial services companies to technology executives. His coaching model is based on years of experience and study with those who have inspired championship-level teams. Throughout his writing career, he has developed a reputation as a world-class storyteller and has been invited as a guest to almost every major talk show – from The Oprah Winfrey Show to Nightline, from CNN to Good Morning America.
Specifics that we covered on the show include:
On areas that Don wanted to dive more into with his work (03:10)
On projects where Don had the “Aha!” moment (04:28)
On sports in general (07:02)
How to handle adversities (14:07)
The importance of having structures and framework (16:30)
On Don’s process when crafting a book (18:28)
The people that Don look up to (21:24)
On Don’s daily routine (26:55)
Lessons that Don wanted to pass on to his kids (29:25)
On establishing good habits and breaking bad habits (32:07)
On sport metaphors or sports analogies (37:20)
Three books that Don would recommend people (40:20)
“Most of us do our jobs and we don’t think about how the access or the opportunity created for us could be part of our own personal development and I made it part of mine early. And I started asking that question. And the question I choose is ‘If you could name for me one habit, one thing you’ve done consistently, that allowed you to go places your competitors couldn’t go, what would that habit be?’ and I just kept a list of the answers these great winners has given me.” ~ Don Yaeger
Relevant Links
Website
YouTube
Book: A Game Plan for Life: The Power of Mentoring
This episode lets us know how to achieve success without sacrificing principles and how to build one of the most productive and rewarding relationships available to any athlete, businessperson, teacher, or parent-that of mentor and protégé.
Enjoy the show? Want to keep up with the podcast? You can subscribe to the podcast feed by clicking the “Share” button in the player above – and you can share it further using the same button as well. You can take things even one step further by rating and reviewing the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening and supporting the show!
The post Episode 241: What Sports Can Teach Us About Greatness with Don Yaeger appeared first on Productivityist.
April 22, 2019
The Sound of Sixty Seconds
During the workshops and talks I deliver I’ll often ask the attendees (or audience) to do absolutely nothing for an entire minute.
I time that minute and to this day I still get fidgety at around the forty second mark.
Sixty seconds is both a short and long time. Many moments can happen during that minute. One way to identify them is to take note of every sound you hear over the sixty seconds.
I’ll demonstrate here by sharing what I hear in that time period in bullet points below:
Running water in the bathroomVoices coming from the tv on the living roomThe barely audible tapping of my thumbs on my iPhone keyboardThe tiny crackling sounds of bones on my neckMy breathingMusic from the television
That’s quite a bit of noise in sixty seconds. (And I didn’t even count the sound of the thoughts rolling around in my head.)
My challenge for you to take a minute today and just listen to the sound of sixty seconds. Take note of everything that you hear, no matter how insignificant it may seem. There is power in that timespan. In fact, what you hear might just change the way you approach the rest of your day…and beyond.
The post The Sound of Sixty Seconds appeared first on Productivityist.
April 15, 2019
Where Your Time Can Go
I’ve been spending a lot of time watching Highway to Heaven for the past couple of months. I’m not a particularly religious person but the show offers some strong messages that I think are valuable and we need to hear.
There was an episode featuring Leslie Nielsen, best known for his work in The Naked Gun film series, who played a really awful rich gentleman. The episode seemed to be inspired by Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Early in the episode, Michael Landon’s character reveals himself to Leslie Nielsen’s character as an angel, having tried other ways to get him to see that how he was living his life was not good at all. Upon revealing himself, this is what the angel said:
“We all have to choose what kind of life we lead and ultimately we’re responsible for the choices we make. You’ve made some very bad choices in your life. But there’s still time. It’s up to you the way you use it… your responsibility.” — Jonathan Smith, Highway to Heaven, The Gift of Life
Of course, Leslie Nielsen’s character winds up changing and does get his happily ever after. A lot of minor characters and even off-screen characters also appear to get a happily ever after due to the changes he makes.
All of this got me thinking: even if we haven’t made bad choices in our lives, we all have to choose what kind of life we lead and are ultimately responsible for the choices we make. But there is still time to make better choices. There is still time to live better.
And what’s more, if we choose to do that then the impact it has may be wider than we think, and could reach people that we never imagined.
The post Where Your Time Can Go appeared first on Productivityist.
April 8, 2019
Do Look Back
I'm a big fan of Henry David Thoreau's insights and writing. There's not much that he says that I don't agree with. But there is one quotation that is attributed to him that I do take a bit of an issue with:
"Never look back unless you are planning to go that way."
I think that advice flies in the face of ensuring that you avoid making the same mistakes in the past going forward. I also think that proper planning involves reflection and review. There are some things that you've left in the past that you never intended to leave there and if you don't look back to collect them, then you can't connect with them again and move them forward.
I think a more appropriate piece of advice is not to spend too much time looking back. I think when you do that then elements like doubt, regret, and shame can start to rear their ugly heads. It's best to look back so you can learn so that you can forge ahead with clarity and focus.
The post Do Look Back appeared first on Productivityist.
April 1, 2019
Deep Work Doesn’t Have to Be Done in Solitude
I’m a big fan of Cal Newport’s writing and his books, especially his book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. We’ve had several conversations about his working (and living) habits — he’s been a guest on my podcast on not one but two occasions — and his dedication to the concept of deliberate practice is something I am working on more than ever. My commitment to delivering a daily podcast is an example of that.
I made some other changes to things I was doing in order to get more deep work done. In fact, I went so far as to theme one of my days as “Deep Work Day.” Every Friday is defined as such. I’ve blocked off my schedule so that no one can schedule meetings with me. I’ve categorized tasks as ones that should be done when I’m in deep work mode, so they often get tackled on Fridays.
But something occurred to me about deep work and the way I approached it.
How I Was Wrong About Deep Work
I had this notion that deep work was work that was to be done alone. I was to sequester myself in my office for hours on end and dive into my writing and any other deep tasks over the course of the day. What I found was that I wasn’t able to do as much as I’d hoped on Fridays. Not nearly as much as I’d hoped.
I decided that deep work in solitude isn’t something that I can sustain for an entire day but I can alter my thinking around deep work so that Fridays still carry that definition. I concluded that I could have social time with those that I could have deep conversations with, essentially deepening my relationship with them. By aligning those kind of gatherings with my Deep Work Day they would stand out from al of my other “meetings” during the week. They would resonate deeper. Some of them may even matter more.
I had it in my head that being around others on the day I was diving into deep work would be contradictory. But after reading about how Carlos Beltran, a member of the Houston Astros during their 2017 World Series champinionship run, connected with this teammates, I realized I was wrong.
During his first days with the Astros, he approached each one of his new teammates—everyone, pitchers included.
“My friend, I am here to help you,” he said. “Even if it looks like I’m busy, you won’t bother me. If you sit down next to me and ask me a question, I would be more than happy to give you the time that you need.” – Astroball by Ben Reiter, on Carlos Beltran
How I’ve Redefined My Deep Work
Spending time with people I wanted to spend time with and carry on deep conversations with on Fridays wasn’t contradictory at all. It was complementary. As long as I was clear on the criteria of those gatherings, I was upholding the definition of my Deep Work Day.
Once I shifted my mindset about deep work, my Fridays got better. Making that change also made for a better week. Over the long term, my hope is this change will ultimately lead to a richer — and better — life.
The post Deep Work Doesn’t Have to Be Done in Solitude appeared first on Productivityist.
March 25, 2019
The One Degree Difference
I had eye surgery only days before writing this piece.
It wasn’t a laser surgery designed to improve my eyesight, like so many of these surgeries are. Instead it was a surgery designed to prevent me from making my eyesight worse. (If you want to know more about the type of laser surgery I had then just search the term “laser iridotomy” and you’ll be on your way.)
Lasers are precise in nature and when the surgeon was spending the minute or so on my eyes I thought about how if he was off his mark but one degree then there was a chance that the surgery would do more harm than good. Just one degree.
I think the choices you make throughout the day can follow the same pattern. One degree in one direction or another can send you where you want to go or divert you down a path that you’ll have to work your way back from to get forward momentum again. If you put parameters in place to help make those choices simpler, then the chances of the one degree going against you is lower. If you don’t, then the chances go the other way.
My friend Marli Williams spoke of this at an event I spoke at and used a sailing metaphor to drive that point home. Whether you look at it through the lens of a laser beam or the bow of a boat, the story is still the same. One degree can make a difference.
And like both you do have more control over what that difference can be…good or bad.
The post The One Degree Difference appeared first on Productivityist.
March 18, 2019
How to Wake Up a Sleepwalking Mind
Spoiler Alert: This is not a piece about meditation.
The framing I am thinking about when I use the term “sleepwalking mind” is the idea that a mind that is walking in its sleep is less likely to make great gains. It’ll go through the motions, fiddling away on tasks that can be done quickly but are also devoid of much value.The kind of things a sleepwalking mind will do involve low levels of engagement. They may move you somewhat, but not very far and possibly not in the direction you want to go.
One of the biggest ways a sleepwalking mind can be created is when you place tasks that are too large in it. Things like “work on report” or “finish book” or “renovate house” are massive undertakings that when presented as such to your mind end up putting in this state. Your brain gets stuck when it sees big steps. It doesn’t know where to start and where to go next. It just sees the desired outcome. It has no idea how to get to that outcome so it stumbles upon it through trial and error or avoids working towards it and spends time on things that are more comfortable or easier to do.
Waking up a sleepwalking mind isn’t hard to do once you figure out what to do…and follow through on that consistently.
So what can you do?
Simply put, you need to break down these big things into smaller things that your mind can digest more readily. You need to do this for everything that comes to mind. Need to work on a report? Break down the work into its smallest elements. Want to finish that book? What small steps could you go through to get there? If your house needs renovating then you need to break down that project to its smallest possible particles to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
While it’s true that your mind needs rest, you need to make sure it is operating at optimal levels outside of those rest periods. A sleepwalking mind is neither restful – meaning it can cause stress because you’re not as attentive or productive with the more impactful work – nor is it optimal, meaning it demonstrates subpar clarity, focus, and awareness, leading to subpar results.
The post How to Wake Up a Sleepwalking Mind appeared first on Productivityist.
March 11, 2019
The Potential of a Fresh Start
There’s something about starting something with a clean slate. The ability to have a fresh start shows up more often than we realize each day.
When we wake up in the morning, that’s a fresh start. When we come back from any sort of break in our workday, we’re offered a fresh start. When we end our day of work and transition to the remains of the day at home, the opportunity shows up again.
I started fresh in my application when writing this piece. My recently repaired MacBook Pro had a clean install of its operating system, giving me the chance for a fresh start with it. Whenever I turn the page in one of my notebooks, a fresh start presents itself too.
A trip to the grocery store provides the possibility of a fresh start with your eating habits. A statement from your credit card company gives you the chance to start fresh with a new payment philosophy. The day your birthday rolls around can trigger a fresh start as well.
According to Vocabulary.com, a fresh start is defined as “an opportunity to start over without prejudice.” While you can’t control the prejudices of others for every single fresh start you decide to make, you can do your best to control yours.
Aaron Sorkin has a rather quirky way of creating a fresh start multiple times per day.
“I take anywhere between six to eight showers a day. I’m not exaggerating. I’m not a germaphobe: it’s all about a fresh start.”
The potential of a fresh start is tremendous. It can offer clarity and, in turn, focus. A fresh start gives you space to move, think, and breathe. It doesn’t just create freedom; it contains freedom.
The post The Potential of a Fresh Start appeared first on Productivityist.
