1 00:00:00,510 --> 00:00:00,960 That's right. 2 00:00:00,960 --> 00:00:03,570 That's what I do, and I present it really simply. 3 00:00:03,570 --> 00:00:06,390 Here's a pie chart, here's a bar chart. 4 00:00:06,570 --> 00:00:09,660 I've got detailed exhibits that go on for pages and pages, 5 00:00:09,660 --> 00:00:13,770 but they're all summarized in those pictorial, uh, diagrams. 6 00:00:13,770 --> 00:00:17,280 And, and if you can do that with a picture or a pie chart or something 7 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:19,680 that simplifies it for people. 8 00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:57,880 Today, I'm speaking with Mark Ellwood. 9 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:00,830 Mark is a productivity consultant. 10 00:01:01,220 --> 00:01:06,929 His most recent book, The Poetic Path to Getting More Done and he's 11 00:01:06,950 --> 00:01:10,430 got a website, getmoredone.com. 12 00:01:10,910 --> 00:01:13,100 Mark, could you please introduce yourself? 13 00:01:13,100 --> 00:01:15,590 Let people know just a little more about you, please. 14 00:01:16,695 --> 00:01:18,405 Well, thanks, uh, for being here, Ed. 15 00:01:18,435 --> 00:01:21,134 Uh, I'm a productivity consultant, as you said. 16 00:01:21,824 --> 00:01:27,255 A little while back, I invented a small electronic device called Time Quarter. 17 00:01:27,255 --> 00:01:30,255 For those who are watching, it looks like this and it allows you 18 00:01:30,255 --> 00:01:33,615 to track how you spend your time working on different activities. 19 00:01:34,035 --> 00:01:38,040 So I lend that out to employees, they really enjoy using these 20 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:39,270 to track their own time. 21 00:01:39,630 --> 00:01:43,590 I analyze the results and show organizations how their employees can 22 00:01:43,590 --> 00:01:48,390 get an extra hour per day to spend on their top priority activities. 23 00:01:48,690 --> 00:01:55,410 Well, we all need a new device that gives us an hour a day more for each of us. 24 00:01:55,710 --> 00:01:57,360 That would be excellent, Mark. 25 00:01:57,810 --> 00:02:06,405 Uh, what, what did you start doing this for, tracking time? 26 00:02:07,335 --> 00:02:08,595 What got you into that? 27 00:02:09,645 --> 00:02:13,935 Well, you know, there's a lot of specialists and experts out there 28 00:02:13,935 --> 00:02:18,045 who said, uh, You know, my life was really in shambles, I was 29 00:02:18,045 --> 00:02:19,665 struggling, I didn't know anything. 30 00:02:19,665 --> 00:02:21,225 And that was the case for me. 31 00:02:22,079 --> 00:02:23,670 I was eleven years old. 32 00:02:24,269 --> 00:02:28,739 So, um, back when I was eleven, I started delivering newspapers. 33 00:02:29,010 --> 00:02:32,459 And maybe lots of your audience doesn't know a bunch about that business, 34 00:02:32,459 --> 00:02:37,350 but we would go to a depot and, uh, seven or eight of us, and all the 35 00:02:37,350 --> 00:02:38,640 papers would get delivered there. 36 00:02:38,850 --> 00:02:41,549 And then we'd gather them up and then take them in our bags and deliver 37 00:02:41,549 --> 00:02:43,500 them to people's houses or apartments. 38 00:02:44,130 --> 00:02:50,535 Well, on the weekend, the newspaper always came with a colored magazine insert. 39 00:02:50,535 --> 00:02:55,575 They were published separately and you had to put the inserts inside the 40 00:02:55,575 --> 00:02:57,795 newspapers to deliver them together. 41 00:02:58,245 --> 00:03:02,295 And so I watched these other guys and then kind of struggle and put this 42 00:03:02,295 --> 00:03:03,855 piece here and open that up there. 43 00:03:03,855 --> 00:03:06,945 And I thought, This is classic time and motion stuff. 44 00:03:06,945 --> 00:03:10,515 Well, not that I knew that term at the time, um, but I thought, 45 00:03:10,515 --> 00:03:12,105 How could I do this faster? 46 00:03:12,375 --> 00:03:17,715 So organizing the work, the magazines and the paper and the completed pile, 47 00:03:17,865 --> 00:03:21,915 was important to me to figure out how I could do that as fast as, as possible. 48 00:03:22,455 --> 00:03:26,145 Well, I learned lots of other things as a newspaper boy as well. 49 00:03:26,475 --> 00:03:31,995 So for instance, uh, lugging a lot around those big heavy bags, I 50 00:03:31,995 --> 00:03:34,215 thought, Let's invest in technology. 51 00:03:34,335 --> 00:03:38,775 So I bought a wagon and it was much easier to take the papers around and 52 00:03:38,775 --> 00:03:40,815 deliver them on a wagon than by hand. 53 00:03:41,410 --> 00:03:44,020 You also get into what's called operations research, how you 54 00:03:44,020 --> 00:03:45,910 organize tasks and how things happen. 55 00:03:46,150 --> 00:03:50,320 So imagine this, you're dragging the wagon up one side of the street, 56 00:03:50,500 --> 00:03:52,870 but you gotta deliver papers to the other side of the street. 57 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:55,570 So do you take one with you and then come back? 58 00:03:55,660 --> 00:03:57,550 Or do you take two or three? 59 00:03:57,640 --> 00:04:01,600 And so that was a fascinating exercise for me to figure out 60 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:05,380 what's the fastest way with, I guess the shortest number of steps. 61 00:04:05,950 --> 00:04:09,255 Another thing you could do is you could fold the papers up. 62 00:04:09,255 --> 00:04:13,485 You've seen kids in movies, tossing papers at people's houses from bikes. 63 00:04:13,695 --> 00:04:17,505 So you can fold the papers up, it takes three seconds or four seconds, 64 00:04:17,805 --> 00:04:19,545 and then walk and throw the paper. 65 00:04:20,145 --> 00:04:26,175 Or there is a way to throw a newspaper underhand with the paper not folded and 66 00:04:26,175 --> 00:04:29,595 you can kind of toss it up and hopefully it would slide into somebody's door. 67 00:04:29,895 --> 00:04:32,535 So, okay, so you've gotta make some calculations there. 68 00:04:32,655 --> 00:04:34,005 Do I fold the papers? 69 00:04:34,005 --> 00:04:35,565 Or just, do I save steps? 70 00:04:35,565 --> 00:04:37,095 Or do I throw them by hand? 71 00:04:37,275 --> 00:04:39,915 So all that was thinking about productivity. 72 00:04:40,455 --> 00:04:46,875 And then on my last paper route, I had about 130 customers and uh, I had to 73 00:04:46,875 --> 00:04:49,200 go and collect every week from them. 74 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:51,690 You gotta knock on someone's door on Tuesday night. 75 00:04:51,870 --> 00:04:54,300 Hi, it's Mark from the paper, I'm collecting. 76 00:04:54,660 --> 00:04:57,810 And it occurred to me that was taking a lot of time. 77 00:04:58,260 --> 00:05:03,330 So I divided the root in half, I went to half of the people on weeks one and three 78 00:05:03,510 --> 00:05:05,520 and half of them on weeks two and four. 79 00:05:05,670 --> 00:05:09,570 And instead of collecting for one week, I collected for two weeks at a time. 80 00:05:09,750 --> 00:05:11,940 And I could manage my cash flow and that worked fine. 81 00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:15,360 So that was kind of batching tasks together. 82 00:05:15,715 --> 00:05:20,305 So all these different approaches, uh, got me thinking about productivity. 83 00:05:20,515 --> 00:05:24,115 There was one other, some of the people paid at the office, so to speak. 84 00:05:24,115 --> 00:05:25,885 So, um, everyone does that today, right? 85 00:05:25,885 --> 00:05:27,265 You pay electronically. 86 00:05:27,595 --> 00:05:32,155 Um, and I suppose in retrospect, I might've encouraged more customers 87 00:05:32,365 --> 00:05:33,885 to pay directly at the office. 88 00:05:33,915 --> 00:05:35,875 I wouldn't have had to knock on their door. 89 00:05:36,115 --> 00:05:39,600 But by knocking on doors, you got better tips. 90 00:05:39,780 --> 00:05:42,000 So there's a bit of a trade off there. 91 00:05:42,330 --> 00:05:46,560 Um, and so all these things were getting me to think about productivity. 92 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:49,410 I mean, I didn't, I didn't consider myself an expert at the time. 93 00:05:49,410 --> 00:05:52,020 I was just trying to figure out how to deliver the papers quickly. 94 00:05:52,470 --> 00:05:55,140 And so maybe that's my origin story. 95 00:05:55,835 --> 00:06:00,965 Many years later, I'll just continue, uh, briefly, uh, in the corporate life, I 96 00:06:00,965 --> 00:06:03,335 was in a meeting and everybody was late. 97 00:06:03,695 --> 00:06:07,534 And, uh, I thought, Oh man, you know, we're spending a lot of time here 98 00:06:07,534 --> 00:06:09,424 waiting for everybody to show up. 99 00:06:09,695 --> 00:06:13,505 Boy, if you add up your time, and his, and hers, and mine, and I just had 100 00:06:13,505 --> 00:06:17,705 this kind of aha moment that you could measure that and have a little device 101 00:06:17,705 --> 00:06:21,705 and a way you can measure meeting time, and waiting, and paperwork, and so on. 102 00:06:21,914 --> 00:06:26,294 So the aha went off of about developing the Time Quarter, which is kind 103 00:06:26,294 --> 00:06:28,094 of like a chess clock in reverse. 104 00:06:28,515 --> 00:06:31,034 You've got two clocks that tick down the time. 105 00:06:31,215 --> 00:06:33,885 Instead you're ticking up the time, you're adding it up. 106 00:06:34,125 --> 00:06:37,724 and instead of two, you've got twenty-five, or thirty, or whatever. 107 00:06:37,935 --> 00:06:41,594 So that was the aha moment for the Time Quarter device, uh, to 108 00:06:41,594 --> 00:06:46,094 continue my journey of trying to be more productive with the world. 109 00:06:47,175 --> 00:06:47,445 Yeah. 110 00:06:47,445 --> 00:06:49,125 It, it's interesting. 111 00:06:49,125 --> 00:06:54,195 I really like the idea of this Time Quarter device that you put together. 112 00:06:54,675 --> 00:07:01,515 Uh, the big question is, in, in today's world, we use a phone for 113 00:07:01,515 --> 00:07:07,365 everything and everyone wants to know why it's not an app instead of 114 00:07:07,365 --> 00:07:10,455 the coder device that you hand out. 115 00:07:12,015 --> 00:07:12,284 Yep. 116 00:07:13,305 --> 00:07:16,815 Well, I can tell you, I, I launched the device way before 117 00:07:16,815 --> 00:07:18,285 any of these smartphones or apps. 118 00:07:18,285 --> 00:07:22,305 I mean, originally 1989 with the previous version, and it 119 00:07:22,305 --> 00:07:26,550 turned out to be the world's most popular product that everybody 120 00:07:26,550 --> 00:07:28,200 thought somebody else should buy. 121 00:07:28,650 --> 00:07:31,500 So I, I originally targeted for lawyers. 122 00:07:31,710 --> 00:07:34,560 And I went to them, they said, Eh, you know, not quite right for us. 123 00:07:34,740 --> 00:07:36,660 Maybe you should talk to accountants 'cause that's gonna 124 00:07:36,660 --> 00:07:37,890 really work for their business. 125 00:07:38,190 --> 00:07:41,190 So we did a test, in fact, it was on national TV and people were 126 00:07:41,400 --> 00:07:45,540 trying the device and it turned out, they said, You know, independent 127 00:07:45,540 --> 00:07:47,430 consultants are really gonna like this. 128 00:07:47,850 --> 00:07:51,060 So I went to the independent consultants and they said, 129 00:07:51,465 --> 00:07:53,025 Have you talked to the lawyers yet? 130 00:07:53,295 --> 00:07:55,165 So it was a big circle. 131 00:07:55,575 --> 00:08:00,795 So I pivoted and instead of, uh, trying to sell the device, I lent it 132 00:08:00,795 --> 00:08:03,675 out and used it as a consulting tool. 133 00:08:03,705 --> 00:08:05,415 It's much more profitable that way. 134 00:08:05,895 --> 00:08:07,065 But you asked about the app. 135 00:08:07,575 --> 00:08:12,075 Well, we did a project for the Ontario government here in Canada a while back. 136 00:08:12,315 --> 00:08:17,550 I teamed up with, um, PricewaterhouseCoopers and we would not 137 00:08:17,550 --> 00:08:22,530 have got anywhere close to winning that contract had we had a downloadable app. 138 00:08:22,710 --> 00:08:26,730 These are union people and they were really concerned about the anonymity 139 00:08:26,730 --> 00:08:28,800 of the studies, which we promise. 140 00:08:29,190 --> 00:08:34,140 And, um, asking them to take your personal phone and download Mark 141 00:08:34,140 --> 00:08:38,159 Ellwood's app thing on it where he's got access to your phone and all your 142 00:08:38,159 --> 00:08:39,990 data, that just wouldn't have gone over. 143 00:08:40,350 --> 00:08:43,795 So they really liked the idea that it was a separate device. 144 00:08:43,795 --> 00:08:48,115 In fact, the funniest story I tell is when we first presented to, it to them. 145 00:08:48,385 --> 00:08:52,675 Uh, we had already won the contract, PricewaterhouseCoopers and myself, but 146 00:08:52,675 --> 00:08:55,975 we presented to, to them and I just, you know, had to show them how it worked. 147 00:08:56,455 --> 00:08:58,585 And the union person said, You know, that little list of 148 00:08:58,585 --> 00:08:59,845 activities you've got there? 149 00:09:00,390 --> 00:09:02,250 Could you make the font a little bit bigger? 150 00:09:02,370 --> 00:09:04,110 And I thought, Okay, fine. 151 00:09:04,260 --> 00:09:05,130 We're good with that. 152 00:09:05,460 --> 00:09:07,770 So, uh, turns out that worked really well. 153 00:09:08,070 --> 00:09:10,770 Um, there's other reasons besides privacy. 154 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:15,300 Um, the Time Quarter's always on, your phone is not always on. 155 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:20,220 It's giving you constant feedback, the batteries will last 200 hours. 156 00:09:20,460 --> 00:09:24,240 Your phone has to get charged in seven or eight hours, and so you, you've gotta 157 00:09:24,270 --> 00:09:25,710 take it away and charge it and so on. 158 00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:30,540 Our device is always constantly giving you feedback, it's measuring 159 00:09:30,540 --> 00:09:35,340 the stuff you're doing on your phone, um, and it's ergonomically simple. 160 00:09:35,670 --> 00:09:38,880 On your phone, you'd have to pull up the app and scroll through, 161 00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:39,810 and this and that, whatever. 162 00:09:40,170 --> 00:09:46,530 The Time Quarter device is just slightly less complicated to use than a doorbell. 163 00:09:47,280 --> 00:09:51,120 So, um, doorbell, you never, did, did it ring or not? 164 00:09:51,390 --> 00:09:55,200 But the Time Quarter gives you audio tactile and visual feedback. 165 00:09:55,290 --> 00:09:57,420 You can see that it's on, that it's ticking away. 166 00:09:57,810 --> 00:10:02,220 People really like it, and mostly because we promise anonymity. 167 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:06,960 And so when you get people involved, when you get them to help create this 168 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:10,140 list of activities, when you tell them you're gonna measure all this 169 00:10:10,140 --> 00:10:15,570 non-value added stuff that's slowing them down, then they say, Oh, okay, good. 170 00:10:15,630 --> 00:10:17,420 And promise anonymity. 171 00:10:17,650 --> 00:10:21,395 So I don't use any individual's names in any of our reports. 172 00:10:21,695 --> 00:10:24,755 In some of our recent studies, I didn't even know who the people were at all. 173 00:10:24,755 --> 00:10:26,105 I just had to use code numbers. 174 00:10:26,495 --> 00:10:31,295 So, um, that's what encourages them to get keen. 175 00:10:31,745 --> 00:10:36,905 And, you know, I work part-time as a, as a ski instructor on the weekends and 176 00:10:36,905 --> 00:10:42,275 they're pushing hard for us to fill out our employee satisfaction surveys and 177 00:10:42,275 --> 00:10:44,555 they're getting up to maybe 70 or 80%. 178 00:10:44,855 --> 00:10:46,985 And that's a stretch 'cause they're really pushing hard. 179 00:10:47,579 --> 00:10:53,010 This, we get a participation rate with the Time Quarter device of 94%. 180 00:10:53,459 --> 00:10:56,040 People really like using it 'cause it gives them feedback 181 00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:57,239 and they can see what's going on. 182 00:10:57,510 --> 00:11:02,099 So that's kind of unheard of for, uh, you know, employee surveys. 183 00:11:02,339 --> 00:11:05,969 And so when you give them, you know, one of these to use, they 184 00:11:05,974 --> 00:11:09,810 like it, it's fun, it's simple, and that's, that's how it works. 185 00:11:10,875 --> 00:11:18,555 So what type of activities do employers like to track to make 186 00:11:18,555 --> 00:11:21,135 sure their time is managed properly? 187 00:11:22,275 --> 00:11:26,235 I think I've measured more than just about any, uh, any other person on the planet. 188 00:11:26,625 --> 00:11:30,165 Uh, I have a database of 3000 activities. 189 00:11:30,464 --> 00:11:34,125 Now some of them are kind of similar to each other, Uh, calling about a 190 00:11:34,125 --> 00:11:39,645 mortgage renewal, uh, calling about, uh, you know, uh, loan renewal, and so on. 191 00:11:39,645 --> 00:11:40,835 Any of those are sort of similar. 192 00:11:41,265 --> 00:11:47,145 Um, but the activities really are two major, you know, categories. 193 00:11:47,475 --> 00:11:50,204 One, what are the things you need to be doing in your job? 194 00:11:50,204 --> 00:11:52,305 What are your most important priorities? 195 00:11:52,545 --> 00:11:54,765 And two, what is everything else? 196 00:11:54,915 --> 00:11:58,215 Uh, the administrative tasks, uh, personal time, you know, 197 00:11:58,275 --> 00:11:59,715 dealing with complaints, whatever. 198 00:11:59,985 --> 00:12:04,064 Uh, so we're trying to see, how do we get people to focus on what's 199 00:12:04,064 --> 00:12:06,405 important and what are those things. 200 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:09,189 Some people call them time wasters, I don't. 201 00:12:09,460 --> 00:12:14,170 Uh, they're just necessary parts of the job, but they're the less, uh, uh, 202 00:12:14,199 --> 00:12:16,660 important or the non-value added tasks. 203 00:12:18,855 --> 00:12:19,665 Interesting. 204 00:12:20,055 --> 00:12:25,545 So how did the app come, err, it's not an app. 205 00:12:26,535 --> 00:12:29,355 See, here I am modernizing you, Mark. 206 00:12:30,585 --> 00:12:33,795 How, how does this device get put together? 207 00:12:33,825 --> 00:12:38,145 Uh, it, it had to be a process to come up with this. 208 00:12:38,595 --> 00:12:41,835 Did you have a team of engineers help you with this? 209 00:12:41,835 --> 00:12:43,735 Or how did that come about? 210 00:12:43,965 --> 00:12:44,765 Kind of, yes. 211 00:12:44,795 --> 00:12:49,920 I mean, I sometimes call myself an inventor, but you know, inventors 212 00:12:49,980 --> 00:12:54,030 tend to be a little outside of the norm, but I guess I invented it. 213 00:12:54,030 --> 00:12:57,870 So first, you know, I had this idea, I mean, again, it's sort 214 00:12:57,870 --> 00:12:59,280 of chess clock in reverse. 215 00:12:59,670 --> 00:13:03,599 Uh, and so, so that was sort of already an idea that was out there. 216 00:13:03,930 --> 00:13:06,900 Uh, but then I had to figure, okay, well how do I build this thing? 217 00:13:07,199 --> 00:13:12,420 So I found an engineer, an old buddy of mine who built the two prototypes 218 00:13:12,420 --> 00:13:15,750 for me, and then we had another engineer further modify those. 219 00:13:16,109 --> 00:13:20,280 I had an industrial designer, those are people who figure out, you know, 220 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:22,860 what is this container look like? 221 00:13:23,010 --> 00:13:24,660 How does everything fit together? 222 00:13:24,900 --> 00:13:28,230 Had a graphic designer design, you know, what the graphics look like. 223 00:13:28,800 --> 00:13:31,350 But there's also the user interface, 224 00:13:31,380 --> 00:13:32,280 that was me. 225 00:13:32,610 --> 00:13:35,880 You know, I'd sit around with a pad at night thinking, Okay, you push 226 00:13:35,880 --> 00:13:38,190 this button, and then that happens. 227 00:13:38,520 --> 00:13:42,880 So it's real simple, you just push one button and it begins tracking your time. 228 00:13:43,479 --> 00:13:47,360 But we needed a couple of other buttons if you needed to make a manual adjustment. 229 00:13:47,390 --> 00:13:51,590 Okay, what would this series of button pushes for that look like? 230 00:13:51,890 --> 00:13:55,850 Um, what if you wanted to scroll through and look at how you're spending your 231 00:13:55,850 --> 00:13:57,380 time on all these different activities? 232 00:13:57,650 --> 00:14:01,280 So there are only, well, eight other sort of function buttons, but I 233 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:03,290 wanted to keep that to a, a minimum. 234 00:14:03,670 --> 00:14:06,849 It occurred to me, you know, I used to go to trade shows and watching people 235 00:14:07,030 --> 00:14:10,540 on computers and say, Look at our computer program, or an app, or whatever. 236 00:14:10,900 --> 00:14:13,660 And they go, Well, you simply push this and just add that. 237 00:14:13,660 --> 00:14:19,239 And the words simply and just, were always worrisome to me. 238 00:14:19,599 --> 00:14:22,510 Because the person who developed this thing, you know, they, they 239 00:14:22,599 --> 00:14:26,140 eat, drink, and sleep with the thing and they know it inside out and they 240 00:14:26,140 --> 00:14:27,699 really know how to work it well. 241 00:14:28,239 --> 00:14:31,060 Whereas I thought, No, people haven't used this device. 242 00:14:31,239 --> 00:14:33,219 You've gotta make it dead simple for them. 243 00:14:33,720 --> 00:14:37,079 Turn it on, push one button and it's tracking your time. 244 00:14:37,079 --> 00:14:40,530 Now there's a list of activities that, that's corresponding to those, 245 00:14:40,770 --> 00:14:43,680 uh, letters of the alphabet, so we give that to people as well. 246 00:14:43,980 --> 00:14:47,640 So I used to say, You could learn to use it in about five seconds. 247 00:14:48,150 --> 00:14:51,720 And then there's doing some of the manual adjustments, it takes a little longer. 248 00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:53,430 But you've gotta make it simple. 249 00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:57,675 And so, you know, you look at Amazon and they've tried to, you 250 00:14:57,675 --> 00:15:01,455 know, get rid of all those sort of impediments, they've done that well. 251 00:15:01,605 --> 00:15:05,025 But there's a lot of products and services out there where you have to press a 252 00:15:05,025 --> 00:15:06,705 whole bunch of buttons and things. 253 00:15:07,095 --> 00:15:12,385 Um, and I've seen people complaining about that recently with, uh, Bill Maher on his 254 00:15:12,385 --> 00:15:14,995 late night show, talked about a valet app. 255 00:15:15,055 --> 00:15:19,105 So he's parking his car at a restaurant and he wants to go retrieve his car. 256 00:15:19,105 --> 00:15:22,105 Well, you gotta download the app, and create a password and an 257 00:15:22,105 --> 00:15:23,365 account number, and this and that. 258 00:15:23,605 --> 00:15:25,285 He goes, I just wanna get my car back. 259 00:15:25,705 --> 00:15:30,085 And we've seen that with many other types of apps that complicate things. 260 00:15:30,325 --> 00:15:35,974 Uh, sure you're gathering data, sure it's in a secure space and you can analyze 261 00:15:35,974 --> 00:15:38,344 that data, but it's gotta be kept simple. 262 00:15:38,555 --> 00:15:42,935 And so with the Time Quarter device, I think we've got it, um, by 263 00:15:42,935 --> 00:15:46,025 experimenting a little bit, by doing some of those thought experiments. 264 00:15:46,324 --> 00:15:47,045 We kept the, 265 00:15:47,715 --> 00:15:49,245 we kept it simple to use. 266 00:15:49,245 --> 00:15:52,064 And, and giving instant feedback and uncomplicated. 267 00:15:52,454 --> 00:15:55,454 When I, early on, when I tried to sell it to lawyers and that didn't 268 00:15:55,454 --> 00:15:58,545 work, they said, Well, we need it to do this and we need it to do that. 269 00:15:58,995 --> 00:16:02,695 And I thought, If you add up all of those features that they wanted, 270 00:16:03,465 --> 00:16:05,040 it's gonna get way too complicated. 271 00:16:05,430 --> 00:16:09,810 Think about the stuff you use, you know, uh, Microsoft Office, there's 272 00:16:10,110 --> 00:16:13,470 lots and lots of functions on there people don't know how to use. 273 00:16:13,980 --> 00:16:18,180 And I suppose for the power users, that's great, but you've gotta keep it simple. 274 00:16:18,180 --> 00:16:22,020 And Apple did that with their products by keeping the user interface simple. 275 00:16:23,430 --> 00:16:24,660 Yeah, I like that a lot. 276 00:16:24,810 --> 00:16:31,380 So what's the acceptance rate from the employees when they take on 277 00:16:31,380 --> 00:16:35,190 this, uh, study from the employer? 278 00:16:35,190 --> 00:16:37,380 What, how do they feel about it? 279 00:16:38,460 --> 00:16:38,640 Yep. 280 00:16:39,450 --> 00:16:42,330 Well, that's the number I mentioned early, 94%. 281 00:16:42,330 --> 00:16:46,814 So if we give out a hundred devices, yeah, 94 will come back 282 00:16:46,814 --> 00:16:49,214 with high quality detailed data. 283 00:16:49,515 --> 00:16:52,574 The other six, maybe somebody just didn't start for some reason 'cause 284 00:16:52,574 --> 00:16:55,694 they were about to leave or quit, or maternity leave, or something. 285 00:16:56,145 --> 00:17:01,574 Um, sometimes in that six, uh, you can make manual adjustments and 286 00:17:01,574 --> 00:17:05,264 people just make way too many manual adjustments or they do them incorrectly. 287 00:17:05,264 --> 00:17:09,135 And so I've got some algorithms to show me, uh, maybe I shouldn't keep 288 00:17:09,135 --> 00:17:11,054 that data and just put it aside. 289 00:17:11,355 --> 00:17:16,730 But 94% is pretty amazing and people are tracking hundreds of activities 290 00:17:16,940 --> 00:17:19,880 over the course of two weeks when we normally do the studies. 291 00:17:20,210 --> 00:17:24,950 So, yeah, every time they come back, I'm surprised at how detailed people 292 00:17:24,950 --> 00:17:26,810 were with, with their, uh, tracking. 293 00:17:27,980 --> 00:17:32,900 Some of the information that you've accumulated over the 294 00:17:32,900 --> 00:17:36,290 years is pretty interesting. 295 00:17:36,410 --> 00:17:44,385 The fact that women are better at time management than men is one of those facts. 296 00:17:44,805 --> 00:17:52,095 How did you come up with that fact and how much data did it take to compile 297 00:17:52,755 --> 00:17:57,495 to ultimately decide this is factual? 298 00:17:59,085 --> 00:18:03,375 So I go to, uh, conferences every year or so, the International 299 00:18:03,675 --> 00:18:05,675 Association of Time Use Research. 300 00:18:05,675 --> 00:18:08,595 These are a lot of academics and people working for government, 301 00:18:08,715 --> 00:18:13,545 uh, operations, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, uh, among others. 302 00:18:13,845 --> 00:18:17,085 And they do a lot of studies of, uh, time use. 303 00:18:17,085 --> 00:18:23,025 And so what we found out is, across a large number of typically Western 304 00:18:23,025 --> 00:18:29,325 countries, um, at home, uh, and domestically, women are more responsible 305 00:18:29,325 --> 00:18:31,125 for domestic chores than men. 306 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:36,510 So that's childcare, cooking, cleaning, uh, shopping, and a couple of others. 307 00:18:37,050 --> 00:18:40,470 And so I thought, Well, what does it look like in the workplace? 308 00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:44,220 And so those time studies don't tend to get that granular 309 00:18:44,220 --> 00:18:45,840 as I do in the workplace. 310 00:18:46,230 --> 00:18:48,690 So I thought, Well, let's see, uh, if there's differences. 311 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:52,560 So I have a database, 'cause I've been gathering all this data 312 00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:54,450 for, well, thirty-five years. 313 00:18:55,245 --> 00:19:01,004 And I thought, Okay, uh, it's 500,000 hours of data from, you know, dozens 314 00:19:01,004 --> 00:19:04,905 and dozens of corporations and thousands of individuals who've done this. 315 00:19:05,294 --> 00:19:08,834 So all the way along, I knew my database was gonna be of some value. 316 00:19:08,834 --> 00:19:11,895 So I have a lot of different analysis that I'm able to look at. 317 00:19:12,165 --> 00:19:16,024 So I'm working for this client, but I can compare the results to that claim. 318 00:19:16,485 --> 00:19:19,925 So looking across the whole database, I first decided, 319 00:19:20,165 --> 00:19:21,275 well, let's split it in two. 320 00:19:21,335 --> 00:19:23,795 Let's have a men database and a women one. 321 00:19:24,065 --> 00:19:28,835 So I did that by names, Susan is a woman, Uh, you know, Samuel is a man. 322 00:19:29,015 --> 00:19:31,415 And I had to go through all the names and kind of sort them 'cause 323 00:19:31,415 --> 00:19:35,015 I had people's names, we don't give them back to the clients. 324 00:19:35,345 --> 00:19:36,875 Uh, but nonetheless, I had them. 325 00:19:37,355 --> 00:19:40,895 Where I didn't have names, I just put that data aside. 326 00:19:41,670 --> 00:19:44,670 So I started to look at, what are the differences? 327 00:19:44,940 --> 00:19:47,910 And I concluded, as you mentioned, that women are better at 328 00:19:47,910 --> 00:19:49,770 managing their time than men. 329 00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:54,030 There were four major findings and we could go through those if you like, 330 00:19:54,300 --> 00:19:57,990 uh, one at a time to, to explain how I came up with that conclusion. 331 00:19:59,070 --> 00:20:01,290 Sure we'd love to hear that, Mark. 332 00:20:02,610 --> 00:20:04,469 Well, let's start, start with the first one. 333 00:20:04,740 --> 00:20:10,980 Um, first I discovered, uh, that women worked fewer hours per week than men. 334 00:20:11,070 --> 00:20:14,939 Now these are knowledge workers, they're people like sales reps, and 335 00:20:14,939 --> 00:20:20,100 managers, and customer service reps, and construction supervisors and so on. 336 00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:24,480 Uh, but they're largely working in offices, it's not people on the retail. 337 00:20:24,835 --> 00:20:28,585 I've done a few retail studies, uh, or they're not manufacturing jobs. 338 00:20:29,035 --> 00:20:32,365 Um, and, uh, I include personal time. 339 00:20:32,365 --> 00:20:36,025 Because if you go to the office, while you're there at the office and 340 00:20:36,025 --> 00:20:40,195 whether you eat in the food court or the cafeteria, or at your desk, you 341 00:20:40,195 --> 00:20:41,545 know, you're, you're still there. 342 00:20:41,725 --> 00:20:45,805 And similarly, for people working from home, we count personal time as well. 343 00:20:45,805 --> 00:20:49,885 So if you add all that up, it's about forty-six hours per week. 344 00:20:50,245 --> 00:20:53,425 Uh, so personal plus, personal is only about three hours per week. 345 00:20:53,875 --> 00:21:00,435 So women are at forty-five hours, men are at forty-eight hours, and 346 00:21:00,435 --> 00:21:02,235 that's the total number of hours. 347 00:21:02,504 --> 00:21:03,855 And you say, Well, why is that? 348 00:21:03,855 --> 00:21:07,995 Well, guess who's gotta get home to pick people up, uh, children up from 349 00:21:07,995 --> 00:21:09,945 daycare, and cook dinner, and so on. 350 00:21:10,455 --> 00:21:12,375 So that was the first of the findings. 351 00:21:12,524 --> 00:21:15,254 Um, the second one is a little more complex. 352 00:21:15,645 --> 00:21:20,655 Um, if you read time management books, they always talk about working 353 00:21:20,655 --> 00:21:22,500 on your most important activities. 354 00:21:23,129 --> 00:21:25,170 They don't really define what those are. 355 00:21:25,830 --> 00:21:31,395 Um, Stephen Covey talked about his, um, important, uh, urgent matrix, 356 00:21:31,395 --> 00:21:33,405 which is called the Eisenhower Matrix. 357 00:21:33,764 --> 00:21:38,145 It wasn't really President Eisenhower, he was in fact, uh, quoting a 358 00:21:38,145 --> 00:21:42,105 university dean who had come up with that urgent important idea. 359 00:21:42,315 --> 00:21:46,185 And then Eisenhower continued it and Covey popularized it. 360 00:21:46,514 --> 00:21:49,455 So you wanna work on so-called quadrant two. 361 00:21:49,695 --> 00:21:55,455 Those are your, uh, important but not urgent activities compared to urgent. 362 00:21:55,455 --> 00:21:58,425 But important and so on, so important but not urgent. 363 00:21:58,815 --> 00:22:01,305 And so again, Covey didn't really define those. 364 00:22:01,305 --> 00:22:02,715 I thought, Well, maybe I can. 365 00:22:03,375 --> 00:22:09,510 Turns out before we do our time studies, we ask people, What are the most important 366 00:22:09,510 --> 00:22:11,130 things you need to do in your job? 367 00:22:11,430 --> 00:22:12,330 I thought, Ah, that's it. 368 00:22:12,330 --> 00:22:13,230 Okay, I'll use that. 369 00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:18,150 So if you ask sales reps, they'll tell you processing orders, and taking care of 370 00:22:18,150 --> 00:22:19,830 customers, and dealing with complaints. 371 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:24,270 But the number one item is prospecting for new business. 372 00:22:24,690 --> 00:22:25,380 I thought, Okay. 373 00:22:25,730 --> 00:22:31,040 That's the most important activity, not urgent, for sales reps. So I looked at 374 00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:35,840 about a dozen different jobs and mapped all those for those different jobs. 375 00:22:36,140 --> 00:22:36,800 And then thought, Okay. 376 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:38,690 Well, how are they spending their time? 377 00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:44,070 If prospecting is what you're saying you need to do as a sales rep or 378 00:22:44,070 --> 00:22:48,600 managing and coaching employees is what you say you should do as a manager, 379 00:22:48,990 --> 00:22:50,670 how is your time compared to that? 380 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:53,760 So across the whole database, I looked at that. 381 00:22:54,120 --> 00:22:58,920 And found out, this is key, the average is only 20%. 382 00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:03,990 So for top priority activities, people are only spending 20% of their time. 383 00:23:04,725 --> 00:23:08,145 That sounds like that, that Pareto number, 20/80 rule. 384 00:23:08,145 --> 00:23:09,735 It's not, that's a little bit different. 385 00:23:10,125 --> 00:23:12,314 It's just coincidental that the number's the same. 386 00:23:13,215 --> 00:23:19,385 Turns out for women, it's 22% and men are only at 18%. 387 00:23:19,855 --> 00:23:24,764 So women are working fewer hours and within those hours they're spending 388 00:23:24,824 --> 00:23:29,350 a higher percentage of their time on their top priority activities. 389 00:23:29,700 --> 00:23:30,810 And there you go. 390 00:23:31,860 --> 00:23:33,570 That's very interesting, Mark. 391 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:40,140 So all of this data sifting is very complicated for so many people, they 392 00:23:40,140 --> 00:23:42,270 don't even like to look at data. 393 00:23:43,110 --> 00:23:48,840 So when you're compiling these reports for people, you're the one that actually 394 00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:55,200 is sifting through and the client doesn't necessarily have to get their hands dirty 395 00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:58,710 with all of the complicated data sets. 396 00:24:00,570 --> 00:24:01,830 That's right, that's what I do. 397 00:24:01,830 --> 00:24:06,450 And I present it really simply, here's a pie chart, here's a bar chart. 398 00:24:06,600 --> 00:24:09,720 I've got detailed exhibits that go on for pages and pages, 399 00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:13,800 but they're all summarized in those pictorial, uh, diagrams. 400 00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:17,325 And, and if you can do that with a picture, or a pie chart, or something, 401 00:24:17,655 --> 00:24:19,754 that simplifies it for people. 402 00:24:20,054 --> 00:24:24,195 And so that's my job is to use my different tools to analyze that. 403 00:24:24,195 --> 00:24:26,355 I've got three or four different analytical tools 404 00:24:26,355 --> 00:24:27,794 to, to look at all that data. 405 00:24:28,215 --> 00:24:29,955 Uh, you gotta keep it simple for people. 406 00:24:30,225 --> 00:24:36,435 I guess also, I don't know where or when, but I got this idea that science 407 00:24:36,435 --> 00:24:38,325 is important, that data is important. 408 00:24:38,745 --> 00:24:42,435 And so if you look at a lot of popular speakers or trainers, 409 00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:45,810 you know, they talk about, in my area, time management. 410 00:24:45,810 --> 00:24:49,770 But it could be leadership and communication skills, and they kind 411 00:24:49,770 --> 00:24:51,840 of say things that make some sense. 412 00:24:52,139 --> 00:24:56,180 Uh, and maybe that's based on personal experience, or observations, or whatever. 413 00:24:56,840 --> 00:25:01,320 But if you can root it in real data, that to me is the better way to go. 414 00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:05,850 Because, uh, it, there's just a higher credibility layer there. 415 00:25:05,850 --> 00:25:08,850 It, it's science rather than stuff that I made up. 416 00:25:09,270 --> 00:25:12,419 And again, you go on LinkedIn for instance, you hear people 417 00:25:12,419 --> 00:25:13,830 talking about all kinds of ideas. 418 00:25:14,399 --> 00:25:19,440 I think it has, not really true in terms of a, a, a, based on data. 419 00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:22,200 So that's, that's the way I like to approach the world. 420 00:25:24,149 --> 00:25:36,510 So, so who should be using this type of technology to perfect their organizations? 421 00:25:38,189 --> 00:25:39,929 Well, I, I say anyone should. 422 00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:45,689 Um, I've come to a kind of a new conclusion that kinda, uh, pulls the rug 423 00:25:45,689 --> 00:25:47,399 out of a lot of what I've been saying. 424 00:25:47,399 --> 00:25:53,580 But organizations have kind of gotten a free ride from their employees, 425 00:25:53,580 --> 00:25:54,930 certainly knowledge workers. 426 00:25:55,230 --> 00:25:59,760 Hourly paid workers, when someone works extra, you pay them extra. 427 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:02,370 Either just an extra hour or two or maybe 428 00:26:03,145 --> 00:26:04,465 time and a half for overtime. 429 00:26:05,004 --> 00:26:07,314 So there's a real cost there. 430 00:26:07,945 --> 00:26:11,034 But when you look at knowledge workers, your managers for 431 00:26:11,034 --> 00:26:15,395 instance, and maybe they're sort of contracted to, for like forty-two 432 00:26:15,415 --> 00:26:17,095 hours per week, is sort of typical. 433 00:26:17,395 --> 00:26:18,985 Uh, and that includes lunch and whatnot. 434 00:26:19,074 --> 00:26:21,804 So, okay, you, we want you there from nine to five. 435 00:26:21,985 --> 00:26:24,715 And if you show up at noon, well, you're gonna get a talking to. 436 00:26:25,105 --> 00:26:28,074 But come in between nine to five or the equivalent, eight to four. 437 00:26:28,735 --> 00:26:33,060 But if they stay longer, nobody says anything. 438 00:26:33,510 --> 00:26:36,870 They stay longer because they want to get promoted, because they enjoy the 439 00:26:36,870 --> 00:26:38,730 work, some people don't wanna go home. 440 00:26:39,030 --> 00:26:42,540 Uh, and, and they really, you know, embrace that and that's terrific. 441 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:45,030 But corporations are getting a free ride from that. 442 00:26:45,030 --> 00:26:48,885 So, as I mentioned, the average is not forty hours per week, 443 00:26:48,885 --> 00:26:49,935 it's forty-six hours. 444 00:26:49,965 --> 00:26:51,524 And people are working longer than that. 445 00:26:51,585 --> 00:26:54,945 Managers, for instance, tend to be around forty-nine hours. 446 00:26:55,335 --> 00:26:59,504 So corporations are getting free labor from those, um, from, 447 00:26:59,504 --> 00:27:01,004 from those knowledge workers. 448 00:27:01,485 --> 00:27:08,429 The problem is that free labor ends up turning into resentment, or bad morale, or 449 00:27:08,550 --> 00:27:12,570 stress, uh, or, you know, problems at home 'cause they're not getting home on time. 450 00:27:12,899 --> 00:27:17,340 So there's a huge cost to that in terms of turnover, and retention, and so on. 451 00:27:17,820 --> 00:27:20,909 But for the most part, corporations are saying, Well, this is great. 452 00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:26,645 Having said that, for those who realize that productivity is 453 00:27:26,645 --> 00:27:28,985 important, this is where this kicks in. 454 00:27:29,345 --> 00:27:32,705 So, all right, your people are working forty, or forty-five, or fifty hours 455 00:27:32,705 --> 00:27:36,845 per week, but they're spending twenty hours on that non-value added work. 456 00:27:37,145 --> 00:27:41,505 Wouldn't you wanna reduce that so that your knowledge workers can 457 00:27:41,505 --> 00:27:45,465 spend their highest amount of time, whether it's overtime or not, on 458 00:27:45,465 --> 00:27:47,085 their highest priority activities. 459 00:27:47,415 --> 00:27:49,845 So this is a diagnostic tool. 460 00:27:50,415 --> 00:27:55,065 Now it's interesting, during Covid there were all kinds of employee monitoring, 461 00:27:55,335 --> 00:28:00,105 uh, software and apps and so on that came out and people didn't like that. 462 00:28:00,435 --> 00:28:05,175 Um, so they were tracking keystrokes or they were tracking websites you visited. 463 00:28:05,505 --> 00:28:10,364 You know, if somebody's working on Word, are they writing a note 464 00:28:10,364 --> 00:28:13,604 to their friend, or their wedding invitation, or a thank you note? 465 00:28:13,725 --> 00:28:17,445 Or are they doing a report, uh, or doing something important 466 00:28:17,445 --> 00:28:18,375 that you want them to do? 467 00:28:18,375 --> 00:28:24,225 So, um, just tracking the type of program they're using, uh, doesn't 468 00:28:24,225 --> 00:28:26,024 give you all that many indications. 469 00:28:26,264 --> 00:28:27,435 Now for websites, okay, 470 00:28:27,794 --> 00:28:30,975 if you go to an educational website, you're using that. 471 00:28:31,155 --> 00:28:34,604 Whereas it's of a shopping site, well, clearly that's not what 472 00:28:34,604 --> 00:28:35,564 you're supposed to be doing. 473 00:28:35,985 --> 00:28:41,625 But nonetheless, um, the employees found these systems kind of, uh, 474 00:28:41,625 --> 00:28:44,685 they were, they were intrusive, and they didn't know what was going on, 475 00:28:44,685 --> 00:28:49,665 and it was kind of making employees wrong for, you know, working at home. 476 00:28:50,715 --> 00:28:52,095 I don't care about that stuff. 477 00:28:52,335 --> 00:28:55,305 There will be some personal time and we measure that just to keep people 478 00:28:55,305 --> 00:28:57,375 in the rhythm of using the device. 479 00:28:57,675 --> 00:29:02,235 But if they're shopping, or calling their daycare, it really doesn't matter 480 00:29:02,235 --> 00:29:06,315 to me 'cause it's how much time you're spending on those important activities. 481 00:29:06,315 --> 00:29:07,875 That's what's, counts the most. 482 00:29:08,024 --> 00:29:10,335 And we don't use employee names. 483 00:29:10,665 --> 00:29:15,014 So, um, this whole world of measurement got kind of a bad rap 484 00:29:15,315 --> 00:29:17,685 with, uh, those covid measuring tools. 485 00:29:18,075 --> 00:29:20,145 And so I'm not in that world at all. 486 00:29:20,175 --> 00:29:24,105 I'm just doing quick two week studies that diagnose where that 487 00:29:24,645 --> 00:29:26,505 non-value added time is going. 488 00:29:26,925 --> 00:29:31,815 So, uh, lots of corporations could benefit from it, individuals could as well. 489 00:29:32,235 --> 00:29:34,965 The challenge is getting people over that hump of wanting to 490 00:29:35,205 --> 00:29:36,945 actually analyze where they are. 491 00:29:37,875 --> 00:29:38,115 Yeah. 492 00:29:38,115 --> 00:29:42,615 And, and you know, even though a lot of people feel that's 493 00:29:42,615 --> 00:29:48,825 intimidating, it can actually save you a lot of time and time is money. 494 00:29:49,305 --> 00:29:53,294 And money can do a lot of things. 495 00:29:53,534 --> 00:29:57,044 So it's interesting what you've done, Mark. 496 00:29:57,254 --> 00:30:05,324 So your book, The Poetic Path to Getting More Done, it's poems, uh, poetry? 497 00:30:05,655 --> 00:30:07,645 Could you tell us about this? 498 00:30:07,645 --> 00:30:08,845 Yes, I will. 499 00:30:08,845 --> 00:30:13,675 a while back I was, I was, uh, I, you know, tweets were quite short 500 00:30:13,675 --> 00:30:16,825 and I realized I could do a rhyming couplet in a tweet when the, the 501 00:30:16,825 --> 00:30:19,555 short of 140 characters existed. 502 00:30:19,975 --> 00:30:23,335 So, uh, I did some rhyming tweets and I thought, Well, let's do a book about 503 00:30:23,335 --> 00:30:25,405 this cause I've written poetry for ages. 504 00:30:25,765 --> 00:30:29,505 Um, I haven't sold many copies, I don't know if Amazon even has it. 505 00:30:29,505 --> 00:30:34,455 But nonetheless, I, I quote those at, uh, workshops and I give out copies and so on. 506 00:30:34,785 --> 00:30:37,155 Because if you're gonna read up, if you're gonna learn about goal 507 00:30:37,155 --> 00:30:41,565 setting, uh, why not do it with, uh, a little bit of a, a poem rather than, 508 00:30:41,835 --> 00:30:43,545 uh, just somebody lecturing at you. 509 00:30:43,545 --> 00:30:49,335 So, uh, it's, it's not grabbed, uh, all over the world, but, uh, 510 00:30:49,365 --> 00:30:51,225 nonetheless, I'm proud of those poems. 511 00:30:51,705 --> 00:30:54,225 You mentioned, um, measuring a moment ago. 512 00:30:55,015 --> 00:31:00,370 And it seems to me that there are three areas of our lives where there's kind of 513 00:31:00,370 --> 00:31:02,650 an embarrassment factor that kicks in. 514 00:31:03,250 --> 00:31:05,650 And so one of them is finances. 515 00:31:05,650 --> 00:31:07,450 You mentioned time's money, finances, right? 516 00:31:07,780 --> 00:31:10,210 And you get people saying, Oh, I don't know. 517 00:31:10,210 --> 00:31:13,360 I don't wanna know where I spend all my money, uh, my credit card's 518 00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:14,800 over and I'm paying this and that. 519 00:31:15,220 --> 00:31:18,070 And, and there's this sort of embarrassment about finances. 520 00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:22,930 We know where we need to be, uh, but we're not taking those steps to getting there. 521 00:31:23,380 --> 00:31:25,660 The second one is body image. 522 00:31:25,910 --> 00:31:29,600 Oh, I ate a whole, you know, bucket of ice cream last night. 523 00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:31,550 I'm overweight, or I'm not in shape, or whatever. 524 00:31:31,790 --> 00:31:35,960 And people know what they want to do to have a healthy life, but they're 525 00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:38,030 not always taking those steps. 526 00:31:38,330 --> 00:31:41,150 You know, in both of those cases, measuring makes sense. 527 00:31:41,390 --> 00:31:45,200 For the finances, measure how you spend your money last week and 528 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:46,940 you're gonna learn some things about 529 00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:50,130 how much you spend on coffee, for instance, every day. 530 00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:56,300 Um, and, and for body image, whether it's weight, or, uh, how fast you can 531 00:31:56,330 --> 00:32:01,620 run half a marathon, or how many pushups you can do, or it doesn't matter, uh, 532 00:32:01,650 --> 00:32:05,970 but, but getting some measurements can help us diagnose where we wanna be. 533 00:32:06,100 --> 00:32:09,270 It can measure your heart rate, it can measure your oxygen intake. 534 00:32:09,690 --> 00:32:13,035 And so finally the third one is this one, time management. 535 00:32:13,305 --> 00:32:14,595 Oh, I waste my time. 536 00:32:14,895 --> 00:32:15,435 Oh, don't tell me. 537 00:32:15,435 --> 00:32:16,785 I know I waste my time. 538 00:32:17,055 --> 00:32:20,385 Yeah, but you said you wanna spend more time with your family. 539 00:32:20,385 --> 00:32:24,975 You said you wanted to get a promotion, so why not measure what's going on? 540 00:32:25,215 --> 00:32:30,555 So in each of those three areas, uh, and I'm not in the, in the weight loss 541 00:32:30,555 --> 00:32:31,635 business, but nonetheless, you know, 542 00:32:32,740 --> 00:32:35,050 get some data, measure your own time. 543 00:32:35,050 --> 00:32:38,200 And whether you use, uh, Time Quarter or just a piece of paper, doesn't matter. 544 00:32:38,530 --> 00:32:42,250 But get some data so you can say, Oh, that's what's going on. 545 00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:46,000 Here's where I wanna be and here's where I am and I can make 546 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:47,740 the adjustments to get there. 547 00:32:48,010 --> 00:32:50,830 So, um, I, you know, I wish more people were doing this. 548 00:32:50,830 --> 00:32:55,240 Many of the time management books encourage you to do a, a diary 549 00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:57,070 study or write down your time use. 550 00:32:57,790 --> 00:33:00,985 But what they don't do is they don't talk about where time is spent. 551 00:33:01,015 --> 00:33:05,845 I do, uh, because I've got that data and I can see where people need to be going 552 00:33:05,905 --> 00:33:08,150 and what their ideal profiles look like. 553 00:33:09,490 --> 00:33:12,940 This is ultimately personal accountability. 554 00:33:13,180 --> 00:33:18,940 And making sure that you use your time properly and efficiently can 555 00:33:18,940 --> 00:33:24,790 actually make you feel so much better about yourself overall. 556 00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:30,495 So I, I really enjoy, you know, learning about these things. 557 00:33:30,495 --> 00:33:37,005 And once we start implementing time management and tools into our life to 558 00:33:37,005 --> 00:33:40,815 simplify, it, it does make a difference. 559 00:33:41,415 --> 00:33:46,335 Mark, it's, it's always great to talk about this stuff. 560 00:33:46,365 --> 00:33:50,835 Is there anything that we've missed that you think we should highlight today? 561 00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:55,060 Well, uh, we haven't talked about how to do better and I'll 562 00:33:55,060 --> 00:33:56,830 give people one terrific tip. 563 00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:01,780 Uh, everyone knows that you should be writing a daily to-do list. 564 00:34:01,780 --> 00:34:03,040 And if you don't, try it. 565 00:34:03,100 --> 00:34:06,280 Write on a post-it note, or back of an envelope, or use an app, or whatever 566 00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:08,500 you wanna do, but create a to-do list. 567 00:34:09,130 --> 00:34:13,495 Here's how I differ, uh, from others in that, I tell people, 568 00:34:13,585 --> 00:34:15,295 Start with a blank slate. 569 00:34:15,715 --> 00:34:19,465 You've got nothing to do today, no emails, no meetings, nothing. 570 00:34:19,465 --> 00:34:21,025 Or at least pretend as if you didn't. 571 00:34:21,535 --> 00:34:28,105 And ask yourself, If I had nothing to do today, what would I do to 572 00:34:28,105 --> 00:34:30,355 affect my results a month from now? 573 00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:31,570 I'll repeat that. 574 00:34:31,720 --> 00:34:36,639 If I had nothing to do today, what would I do to affect my results a month from now? 575 00:34:37,030 --> 00:34:40,780 Well, that salespeople would make some sales calls, the manager would do some 576 00:34:40,780 --> 00:34:45,400 performance reviews, or introduce that, uh, get that new, uh, project moving. 577 00:34:45,820 --> 00:34:48,820 Uh, the engineer would be doing some design work and so on. 578 00:34:49,060 --> 00:34:53,530 Okay, those are things that affect your long-term goals and so those 579 00:34:53,530 --> 00:34:55,420 are your highest priority activities. 580 00:34:55,720 --> 00:34:59,270 And you should write down the things you can actually complete today. 581 00:34:59,660 --> 00:35:01,820 For a manager who wants to hire a new employee, you 582 00:35:01,820 --> 00:35:03,080 can't do all that in one day. 583 00:35:03,710 --> 00:35:07,880 But you can, you know, review the, the job description, or you can put it up on 584 00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:09,980 a website, or you can do some interviews. 585 00:35:10,220 --> 00:35:12,080 So, what can I complete today? 586 00:35:12,380 --> 00:35:15,140 And then at the end of the day, you can check those off and say, Yep, 587 00:35:15,555 --> 00:35:16,455 got those done. 588 00:35:16,995 --> 00:35:20,685 So that, those are your highest priority activities, the things that 589 00:35:20,685 --> 00:35:22,305 affect your results a month from now. 590 00:35:23,055 --> 00:35:28,005 Put those first on your to-do list and then fill in all the other stuff. 591 00:35:28,515 --> 00:35:31,065 And make time for the priorities first. 592 00:35:31,465 --> 00:35:34,345 Maybe that's early in the morning, maybe a block off time during 593 00:35:34,345 --> 00:35:37,405 the day between eleven and one o'clock, or something like that. 594 00:35:37,735 --> 00:35:40,195 Those are gonna be 20% of your time, we know that. 595 00:35:40,465 --> 00:35:43,375 So you've gotta make sure that that time is available to do 596 00:35:43,375 --> 00:35:47,155 those high priority tasks and let the other stuff fill in later. 597 00:35:47,185 --> 00:35:48,505 So start with those first. 598 00:35:48,745 --> 00:35:53,215 That's my tip for how to organize yourself and do a to-do list 599 00:35:53,215 --> 00:35:56,425 when you're overwhelmed by all these tasks that come your way. 600 00:35:58,435 --> 00:36:02,545 Mark, you, you've got people excited. 601 00:36:02,545 --> 00:36:04,885 You're loaded with information. 602 00:36:05,125 --> 00:36:11,785 So could you tell people how to get ahold of you and how they can work with you? 603 00:36:13,405 --> 00:36:16,255 As I said, uh, or you said, the simplest way is through 604 00:36:16,255 --> 00:36:19,005 my website, getmoredone.com. 605 00:36:19,525 --> 00:36:21,595 So it's mark@getmoredone.com. 606 00:36:21,595 --> 00:36:22,795 Just remember, get more done. 607 00:36:22,795 --> 00:36:25,120 There's a, there's a, you know, contact page there. 608 00:36:25,540 --> 00:36:31,105 And, uh, lately I've been saying, If somebody wanted just a consultation, 609 00:36:31,165 --> 00:36:34,855 I'm not a coach as such, but if somebody wanted a quick coaching 610 00:36:34,855 --> 00:36:38,125 session, I'll do that pro bono, uh, just to help people out. 611 00:36:38,395 --> 00:36:41,335 And then if you think you wanna use the Time Quarter device, I'm 612 00:36:41,335 --> 00:36:45,645 actually doing, sponsoring a study of female women executives who are 613 00:36:45,645 --> 00:36:47,755 managing large departments and so on. 614 00:36:48,115 --> 00:36:51,175 And they don't pay for that because I wanna present that 615 00:36:51,175 --> 00:36:53,215 data at an upcoming conference. 616 00:36:53,425 --> 00:36:55,645 So I'm looking for senior female executives. 617 00:36:55,990 --> 00:36:59,680 Someone else just wants a phone call, happy to share some tips with you in a 618 00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:04,210 quick coaching session without turning on the meter and the, and the dollar sign and 619 00:37:04,210 --> 00:37:06,190 not trying to upsell you on anything else. 620 00:37:06,415 --> 00:37:10,380 I'm just passionate about doing this stuff and wanna help people, uh, where I can. 621 00:37:11,310 --> 00:37:13,900 And if somebody wants to hire me after that, then they can. 622 00:37:14,515 --> 00:37:17,785 You can see that you're passionate about what you do, Mark. 623 00:37:17,785 --> 00:37:24,265 And that's always someone that you should be thrilled to get ahold of and work with. 624 00:37:24,325 --> 00:37:29,575 So I appreciate what you do and I surely appreciate you sharing it 625 00:37:29,575 --> 00:37:31,885 here today with us on the podcast. 626 00:37:32,965 --> 00:37:33,985 Great speaking with you, Ed. 627 00:37:37,195 --> 00:37:38,845 Thank you for joining us today. 628 00:37:39,505 --> 00:37:45,745 If you found this podcast enlightening, entertaining, educational in any way, 629 00:37:46,495 --> 00:37:52,935 please share, like, subscribe, and join us right back here next week for another 630 00:37:52,935 --> 00:37:56,325 great episode of the Dead America Podcast. 631 00:37:56,625 --> 00:38:02,175 I'm Ed Watters, your host, enjoy your afternoon wherever you might be.