Chasing Financial Freedom
Chasing Financial Freedom
Transform Your Workday Using 4 Easy Habits to End Multitasking Madness | Ep 324
Ever feel like you're fighting an uphill battle with your to-do list? You're not alone.
The entrepreneurial journey demands more than just managing tasks—it requires leading them to completion with purpose and focus. Drawing from my experience managing properties 2,000 miles away, I've discovered that the difference between merely surviving and truly thriving comes down to how we approach our daily battles with productivity.
When we allow "loosey-goosey" approaches to project management, problems inevitably arise. The solution? Strategic follow-up without micromanaging. Creating prioritized task lists with clear timeframes transforms team performance and personal productivity alike. Think about it: just as you might ask your children, "Did you take out the trash? Did you make your bed?"—follow-up in business ensures accountability while showing you're engaged without hovering.
My productivity breakthrough came when I abandoned the triage mentality. Attempting to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously typically results in completing none effectively. Instead, focusing on one revenue-generating task until completion before moving to the next has dramatically improved my results. My system now includes evening documentation of tasks and morning prioritization when my mind is fresh. Combined with intentional distraction management—turning off notifications and creating dedicated focus time—this approach has transformed my daily experience from overwhelm to accomplishment.
Try conducting a time study to identify where your hours are actually going. How much time is consumed by emails, messages, and other distractions? Once you know, you can systematically reclaim your productive capacity and experience the freedom that comes from bringing meaningful tasks to completion.
What productivity system works best for you? I'd love to hear your strategies for winning the daily battle against distraction and overwhelm.
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The battle is real.
Speaker 1:That is the tone for this week's podcast episode. We're going to talk about the battle. I'm battling on several fronts, but the biggest battle is getting things right on one of our houses to get it all cleaned up ready to go. The city comes in, takes a look at everything, a hard look, and calls us out on STEM because work should be done correctly the first time, but it should be above code. And when we just do code and check the box, I hate that man. So I'm thankful, but I'm also stressed because it's got to get done and we got to close on the house next week.
Speaker 1:The battle is where I want to talk about is being in the trenches, and one of the things that I really want to step into is the difference between a manager and a leader when it comes to task delegation. As you guys know, these houses are in Indiana. I live in Arizona. That's about 2000 miles away, give or take. So I have to be very proactive in how I actually communicate with the team, making sure that we have work orders put together, we have direction and we're focused, and part of this challenge of where we're at today is we allowed a little bit of a loosey-goosey on that front. When I was in corporate America, I was pretty tight on timeline schedules because I was pretty much booked all day long in meetings. So time was my most valuable asset, which it still is today. But I have more time here to be able to think things through and go through an iteration and I think at times that slows us down.
Speaker 1:But also it's the follow-up. The follow-up is what has kept me in the game and I've been very good at follow-up. But when we're not following up, we tend to have problems. And I'm not just talking about anything that I'm doing, I'm talking about life. How do we consistently make sure if we're on a project or we're trying to get something done? A good example at home, when you have the kids cleaning the house, what do you have to do? You have to follow up to make sure they did it. Did you take out the trash? Did you vacuum the floors? Did you make your bed? Did you clean your bathroom? You consistently have to have follow-up. Is that the right way to go about it? Yes and no, and that's a loaded question. Yes, as in, you let that person or people know, or the team know that hey, I'm involved. I know what's going on.
Speaker 1:Where are you guys at the other piece is it could feel like they're being micromanaged. At the other piece is it could feel like they're being micromanaged. So is there a balancing act that you can do in there? Yes, I truly think that you can balance that out by having top of priority or a priority list or a punch list however you want to call it of things that need to be done on a project and then timeframe when are those items? First of all, their numerical order by importance of what needs to be done, and then timeframe Expectations to get them done. And then, if there's reasons why they're behind or they can't get done, there's an explanation there so you could figure that out. And if you miss these timeframes, does it delay the project? Does it actually send it off the rails? And that's how I'm looking at life as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:If I'm not triage, I talk about it. It doesn't work, guys. You can't work on four or five, six things at once and expect all of them to get done. Can't work on four or five, six things at once and expect all of them to get done. Typically, you might not even get one done. So one of the things that we've spoken about on a prior episode is this I'm not triaging, I'm sticking to one item and I'm finishing that one item out and once it's done, I go on to the next, and of course, these are all revenue generating tasks. I'm putting my top priorities at the very top of my list to be able to go after it.
Speaker 1:When I'm triaging and I'm just going from fire to fire, I'm not getting anything accomplished and the end of the day, what do you guys feel like? You accomplish nothing. You're overwhelmed, you're tired. So, when it comes to the task, management as an entrepreneur is every single night, before I shut down, if there are important tasks that have been left over or got added to my plate, I'll write them down. I don't put them in order. I typically do that in the morning when I'm fresh, because at the end of the day I'm dead, I'm just I'm out of it. So I just leave it there. I write them down I use Google Docs, sorry and then I'll take a fresh look at them in the morning, rank them and go. Typically, I've got three to five that I've got to work on, sometimes more, but if they're in the top three they're focused on immediately, sit down, have my great cup of coffee and get in that saddle around 630 and start going.
Speaker 1:Now are there going to be interruptions? This is the other piece that I want to talk about Text messages, emails, phone calls, emails, phone calls. Initially, when I got into the lending piece, the first several hours first hour, and then I did two hours was do not disturb time because I was making phone calls, sending out emails, that type of stuff. Now that time is used for making follow-up phone calls or emails, and the other is prioritizing my tasks and then getting them done. Then, after that point, I can go back into emails, take a look at what's going. I turn off my notifications. I do not put it on DND, I just silent and on my wrist here is my watch. Make sure that it's not getting notifications, because I'll just look down like this and say oh man, there's another notification that doesn't work.
Speaker 1:In the time that I've been doing this, I've noticed that I've gotten more focused. I feel confidence is the first word, because I feel like I can get more things done in a day, and the other thing is I don't feel as overwhelmed when I'm able to do this. Now, every single day is not perfect. There are days where we have challenges when I say we me have challenges to where there is a fire I wake up to and I have to go put that fire out, and it throws the day into a little bit of disarray. But I bring it back on track as soon as I can get that one task done, move over, reset myself, calibrate, get my tasks lined up and go. It might be later in the day, but in the end it still works.
Speaker 1:It's the focus and the persistence that I'm putting into this, to be consistent in this matter of my business in my life. I don't know yet, honestly I don't know. I'm trying to be consistent in some things that I do personally, but that's for another story and another time. I'm trying to make sure I stack certain things at certain times during the day for my personal life, so it just becomes muscle memory, which I've been doing that for a while. But there's other things that I'm trying that I haven't done very well at and we'll talk about that at another time.
Speaker 1:Guys, I'm going to end it here. I just want to say if you guys are struggling with getting things done task management, knowing that it may be your manager or you're a leader, knowing the difference between the two, working through that process so you can have an effective team, and then you also can be effective by being able to manage your time better. I know in corporate America it's tough when you're going from meeting to meeting. I don't have a ton of meetings, but I have a ton of other things going on. So it feels like that have a ton of meetings, but I have a ton of other things going on.
Speaker 1:So it feels like that, and I can tell you this, since being focused on one task at a time and bring it to the finish line, it's allowed me freedom in the sense of being able to get things done, clarity in my mind and being able to bring more tasks to the finish line. So I feel like, at the end of the day, it's actual facts that I've actually got these tasks completed. They're checked off, they're done. I don't have to worry about them. I know that I've completed the tasks that I set out at hand and if there's an important one at the end of the day that I haven't gotten done, I will do the extra time to make sure it gets done, because I know I don't want it to roll over. But if I'm wiped out and I just don't have any brain capacity, then of course I'm going to do what needs to be done to get it first thing in the morning.
Speaker 1:But, guys, if you're struggling with this, figure out where your time's going. Do a time study and see how much time you're spending with email, text messages, phone calls, any other distractions that you get. I work out of my house. I have distractions in my house. Figure that out in a day. Do an eight-hour day or however many hours you do. Figure out what that looks like and then see where you can cut those distractions out to be more productive. I'll see you, guys, on the other side. Stay safe, stay healthy. Talk to you soon.
