My latest presentation from Drink Digital. This time I tackled the importance of working smarter not harder so that you can make time for the more important things in life.
From removing the avalanche of email and distractions many people have the secret to productivity. In reality most use their to do lists as a crutch.
Mastering hacks and turning them into habits is the real key.
28. Obama?
"You'll see I wear
only gray or blue
suits," [Obama] said.
"I'm trying to pare
down decisions. I
don't want to make
decisions about what
I’m eating or
wearing. Because I
have too many other
decisions to make."
53. Hold Shift and Press * then a
Shift + I
G + I
#yourewelcome #inboxzero
54. Use What Gmail Gives You
• Set up automatic labels
• Set up tool notifications to bypass main inbox
• Autoforward invoices to accounts
• Use priority inbox
So this presentation is a follow on form the last Drink Digital presentation – the one about making better decisions and enabling others to make better decisions.
You don’t need to have seen that presentation. This will make sense. Probably. But I’ll chuck the link up with this one next week for context.
So this one is called.
It’ll all make sense as we go along.
So time for a massive revelation.
You knew that though right? Not many people are not busy nowadays. We get assaulted by email, social media, spam, people, things, choice after choice.
One of our guys did some research recently and we actually need more hours in the day than we actually have.
So…I would go so far as to say…
We are very busy.
When I was researching how to make decisions last year I came a cross some interesting stuff.
But first – a semi rhetorical question.
This study done in Nottingham suggests 85 – I have seen some that are 100+.
Never trust the data.
So I have been checking mine.
Low was 36 times in a day.
High was 68
I averaged at just over 50 a day for the month of Feb – and I don’t use facebook.
Another semi rhetorical question.
This study suggests 122 – bi directional/.
Never trust the data!
And on average their research seems pretty spot on.
I topped out at 2000 + but I do some are tool and message updates – but that’s at least 70+ a day.
And on average their research seems pretty spot on.
So that’s the equivalent of 16 a day.
So over the 2 its 100+ easy.
I’m fairly lucky – Apparently I’m about average. Buts it's a lot. And I’m consciously trying to deal with it all.
Its almost become a status symbol – the busier you are – the more successful you are.
Inbox zero has become a boast.
Its coming at us from all angles.
And that….
….decision fatigue….which leads to wasted time.
That brings us back to those decisions that I talked about last time. The research that I was doing.
You know - the guy in charge of Facebook. The guy worth 56 billion dollars.
Notice anything from this google image search?
Apart form the cute star wars baby
King of apple. Worth 10 billion when he left us.
He's not so busy at the moment. But he was at one time.
"You'll see I wear only gray or blue suits," [Obama] said. "I'm trying to pare down decisions. I don't want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make."
When you break it down its elegant, its simple. It adheres to the Keep It Simple Stupid framework. It isnt creating a to do list that has sub folders, and priority buttons and colours for importance.
Not taking about minimalism. We are talking about hacks that become habits.
A hack is useless in isolation – it needs to become a habit.
They changed their habits to save them time. Often in order to get more shit done.
So I'm not really here to talk about wearing the same clothes every day , or choosing the same food over and over again.
I wanna talk a few hacks that you can turn into habits that save you time.
(1) Google.com - the data is shown right under the search textbox(2) Google Search Console - the data is shown in the Search Analytics page(3) Google Analytics - data shown in the Organic and Search Engine Optimization -> Queries pages(4) Google Trends - data shown in the queries widget(5) Google Search - data shown under main keyword as well as related searches(6) UberSuggest - data shown alongside keywords in this awesome keyword suggestion tool(7) AnswerThePublic.com - data shown in popup on each spoke of the wheel, data also shown in the alphabetic listings(8) Soovle.com - data shown next to each keyword all over the page(9) KeywordShitter.com - data shown under the main text area next to keywords(10) Majestic - Anchor Text Report(11) Moz Open Site Explorer - Anchor Text Report
Fee for 1 report – good if you work in house
$20 for 3 and $50 for 10 reports.
Also lets you track emails, run sequences, run polls, schedule meetings, check availability and more!
Don’t settle for the way that they are given to you search around
Don’t accept what is given to you. Don’t go with what is there.
Hack it apart and then turn it into a habit.
A good habit.