Transcript
Speaker: Bigger talks, bigger talks.
Speaker: We back again with another episode.
Speaker: And I'm so happy and grateful in the moment right now because my next guest, Donna McGeorge, all the way from Australia.
Speaker: She's here.
Speaker: She has a new book out, One Day Refund.
Speaker: She's all about productivity and preaching less is more and just being a phenomenal human being, but being productive.
Speaker: I think a lot of us are busy, but we might not be productive.
Speaker: So we're going to talk about productivity, using your time wisely and giving a refund on your time and your day so you can have fulfillment.
Speaker: And we're just going to get right into it.
Speaker: So Donna, thank you for being here today on Bigger Talks.
Speaker: How are you doing?
Speaker: How are you feeling?
Speaker: Talk to me.
Speaker: I am doing and feeling great.
Speaker: Thanks, Eric.
Speaker: And thank you so much for having me.
Speaker: I'm thrilled to be with you today.
Speaker: Yeah, well, thank you for being here.
Speaker: I have a few topics and things I want to talk about.
Speaker: But where did productivity and managing your time start for you?
Speaker: At what age?
Speaker: What phase?
Speaker: How did this even come about?
Speaker: I suspect I might have been born with it just quietly, but it probably came about mostly because my dad was in the Australian Navy, so we had a bit of a military upbringing.
Speaker: And that meant lots of things.
Speaker: So it meant, first of all, the structure and order that comes with military lifestyle, moving around a lot, always being the new girl at school.
Speaker: So having to be quick to adapt and figure out what's happening today.
Speaker: And I was talking to my mum about this recently and she said, yeah, we had to live a pretty lean lifestyle because we moved so much that we'd be packing up houses and there was never room for extra stuff.
Speaker: So that kind of led to, I think that's where it all started, but then that led to having a bit of a mindset of no nonsense, get stuff done, lack of attachment,
Speaker: focus and then and here we are in getting interviewed because I've written books on the subject so it kind of that's a short version anyway.
Speaker: Yeah I like that I mean military structure makes sense to get up at certain time make your bed brush your teeth wash your face cold shower whatever go hit the deck or hit the gym.
Speaker: So moving into the next question
Speaker: So you said productivity, why productivity and not progress?
Speaker: from your perspective?
Speaker: Oh, gee, that's a really good question because I don't know how to separate those really.
Speaker: So one of my, a good friend of mine wrote a book where he talked about the things that motivate people in the world are purpose and progress.
Speaker: And I think in order to have progress, we've got to be productive about how we spend our time.
Speaker: So I probably think the link between the two of those things is intent or purpose or
Speaker: How do I know I'm being productive?
Speaker: Well, probably because I'm making progress towards the goals I've set for myself, my purpose.
Speaker: So I would say they're not on opposite sides of the coin here, I wouldn't think.
Speaker: I think they're more of a journey.
Speaker: Yeah, they're together.
Speaker: They're kind of like on both on either side of the spectrum, but more than likely to have progress, you have to be productive and you have to create that productivity.
Speaker: You have something.
Speaker: I don't know if it's I read this in an interview, but I don't know if this is in your book, but you had a quote and it quotes anything is possible when we are intentional.
Speaker: Can you elaborate on that?
Speaker: I really like that.
Speaker: Yeah, so I do think a lot of the times we operate out of a feeling of default or a sense of default.
Speaker: We kind of get up and we do the same things and we have routine and rituals about how we do the world.
Speaker: Some of them service very well and some of them not so much.
Speaker: And so for me, it's like, you know, I work a lot in corporates and things like a meeting as an example.
Speaker: So people book meetings, show up to meetings and it's like they're in kind of autopilot mode.
Speaker: And I'm like, what would happen if you were a little more intentional about how you showed up?
Speaker: What is it, you know, at a very basic level, what do I want to get out of this meeting?
Speaker: Why these people?
Speaker: What is it that we're here to talk about?
Speaker: What are we trying to achieve together?
Speaker: And so I think anytime we...
Speaker: set an intention, I think that that proceeds just about anything because then how do I know I'm being productive and making progress, you know, to use your previous question, if I've got solid intention.
Speaker: Solid intention.
Speaker: And for the listeners and the people who are gonna be watching this,
Speaker: what is the intention individual needs to have to be productive?
Speaker: If you were, you know, if it was me and I just came to LA and I'm here for grad school, but I wanna be productive, what intention must I have to have that productivity?
Speaker: Is that even a thing or?
Speaker: Oh, look, I think so.
Speaker: And it's always going to be different for everyone.
Speaker: So if you've come to grad school in LA, my question would be, what's your intention with doing that?
Speaker: What are you planning to do with that study?
Speaker: Where are you headed?
Speaker: If I was to be very specific about it, I'd say you want to be thinking maybe two or three
Speaker: activities ahead of where your current one is.
Speaker: So if I'm studying now, it's to maybe get a great job.
Speaker: And if I want to get a great job, then what comes after that?
Speaker: So that's for me what I feel like being intentional is about.
Speaker: Yeah, it's kind of like having a game plan or a big picture or a big vision because I feel most productive when I'm getting things done.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So my intentions when I awake in a morning, the first thing I do is I meditate.
Speaker: After I meditate, I do affirmations.
Speaker: After affirmations, I pray.
Speaker: After prayer, I do declarations.
Speaker: And after that, I take my vitamins, I drink my water, then I'm off to the gym.
Speaker: Oh, by the way, I forgot, I make up my bed.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So with those two things, my intention is to be productive every day, but that gets the ball rolling.
Speaker: That brings momentum.
Speaker: I know some people, they might not have a routine in the morning.
Speaker: They might not have things to get done other than take a shower, wash their face, brush their teeth, maybe watch the news or read the newspaper, and they're off to work.
Speaker: So with your book, One Day Refund, for the people who are going to purchase this book and people who want to purchase the book, where does it start?
Speaker: What's the beginning or what's the first chapter that you hone in on to get people into that productivity space?
Speaker: Yeah, look, there's so much in what you just talked about there.
Speaker: First of all, having some kind of morning routine is, I think, really useful.
Speaker: And because it...
Speaker: It gets your day started in a positive way.
Speaker: So all of those things you talked about, all those rituals, routines that you have, they start your day in a more positive way.
Speaker: And the intentional aspect of it is that it's you're in control of the start.
Speaker: You're determining how you want your day to start.
Speaker: And so for other people, I've got to tell you, I stopped watching the news in the morning several years ago because I realized I was starting my day outraged.
Speaker: Because I hear something on the news, I think that's outrageous.
Speaker: And so now I'm angry starting my day.
Speaker: So all of those things you do are right on.
Speaker: The other thing I'll talk about is, you know, a lot of people say, oh, I'm just not motivated to do this or that or whatever.
Speaker: And so I think it starts with momentum.
Speaker: So you said this, those activities create momentum for a positive day or for a potentially positive day.
Speaker: So I just want to touch on those couple of things.
Speaker: In terms of the one-day refund, the first thing we have to do, I always say, is just stop.
Speaker: So we operate, we're 100% on 100% of the time and we go, go, go.
Speaker: And it's almost like over the last maybe 50 to 60 years, we've been increasing in speed and pace at which we do the world.
Speaker: And so I say tip number one straight up is just stop.
Speaker: Stop.
Speaker: And breathe.
Speaker: Stop.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: Just stop.
Speaker: Take a big breath.
Speaker: and just choose your rhythm rather than being driven.
Speaker: Ooh, say that again, that's a bar.
Speaker: Oh, you like that?
Speaker: I love that, I think we're in the studio.
Speaker: Say it one more again, pretty please.
Speaker: Rightio, so you choose your rhythm rather than being driven or pushed by others.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right, and so I'm a very driven individual.
Speaker: So for someone who's naturally driven, what should be my rhythm or what is a rhythm for an individual when we want to be productive?
Speaker: Yeah, I think, well, again, it's all different.
Speaker: We're all gorgeous, unique beings.
Speaker: So it's always going to be different for those.
Speaker: So the pace at which you operate could be faster, slower to someone else's pace.
Speaker: So the trick is, ask yourself, do you feel overwhelmed?
Speaker: Do you feel out of control?
Speaker: Do you feel like you're at risk of failing at the important things?
Speaker: Do you feel like everyone always wants a piece of you?
Speaker: Do you never get a break?
Speaker: Do you not have any thinking or breathing space?
Speaker: And if the answer to any of those is yes, then you're being driven by a rhythm that may not be working for you.
Speaker: And I would say stop, breathe.
Speaker: And what's the pace at which I want to operate today?
Speaker: Now, this just happened to me this week.
Speaker: I've got a client in an organization and he's just joined and he's frantically busy and he's trying to do all the right things and add value.
Speaker: And when I talk to him, I can feel my pace increase and my breathing increase.
Speaker: And I'm like, I've got to slow down because he then begins to drive my pace, if you get that.
Speaker: So I think it's around not being at the mercy of the pace of the world or others.
Speaker: And what's the right pace for you?
Speaker: Yeah, that is so, thank you for being so transparent because I had a taste of that this morning, as I was telling you before we got on here.
Speaker: I had a lot of things early this morning.
Speaker: I woke up 5.30, you know, did my morning routine, worked out.
Speaker: I had a call at eight, right?
Speaker: I had got a late last minute audition that had to be submitted that I wanted to get done before nine, right?
Speaker: Because at nine, I had a call, right?
Speaker: Then from there, I had an interview at 11.
Speaker: But in that moment, to go back what you said previously, I was in the moment saying, Eric, take a deep breath.
Speaker: You have more than enough time.
Speaker: Relax.
Speaker: So the nine o'clock, actually the schedule got confused and things was off.
Speaker: So I was like, oh, I got some grace.
Speaker: So now I have more time to submit my audition or whatever the opportunity was.
Speaker: And I was like, man, what are you in a rush for?
Speaker: This is me asking myself.
Speaker: And I think maybe you can help us, maybe you can help me understand, what is it in our world and our society that we feel like we got to go, go, go, or we feel like we got to get to the next thing
Speaker: without bracing ourselves and taking a pause?
Speaker: Like, what is that?
Speaker: Where did that come from?
Speaker: Where did that start?
Speaker: Have you done research or do you even know?
Speaker: Cause it's a thing.
Speaker: Yeah, look, my, not, I haven't researched it deeply, but the research that I've done in the writing of my books has been probably, well, I know it started in the industrial revolution when all of a sudden things like the electric light bulb were real triggers around
Speaker: how much more time we could use for work.
Speaker: And so once all of the machinery happened and we could increase productivity, we could make a car every minute, roll off the conveyor belt, thanks, Henry Ford, then that started to put pressure on people to really test, can we do more, can we do more?
Speaker: And it's everything.
Speaker: I even think about watching athletes who are performing
Speaker: And they're trying just to get that 100th of a second faster every single time.
Speaker: So there's always this urge.
Speaker: Just about every part of our world is pushing us to just do a little bit more.
Speaker: Can we just get a bit more done?
Speaker: And so I'm trying to remove the word more from my vocabulary.
Speaker: So someone says to me, how can I be more productive?
Speaker: I'm like, no, no.
Speaker: How about we just be productive?
Speaker: How do I get more time?
Speaker: How do I, you know, get more capacity?
Speaker: I'm like, no, no, no.
Speaker: The desire when there's a problem to add or create more is very strong in us.
Speaker: Whereas I'm going to say, what would happen if you took something away?
Speaker: So your morning this morning that we were talking about, um,
Speaker: what you were displaying there is for the most part that day was planned out.
Speaker: We just had a couple of unexpected things happen.
Speaker: Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker: And that created a feeling of, oh, gee, have I got enough time for this?
Speaker: But that's actually what I preach is having the kinds of days where you have
Speaker: what I call adaptive capacity.
Speaker: So there's sufficient capacity built into my day that if a great opportunity comes up, like an audition that I really want to be a part of, I've got the space, right?
Speaker: I've got the space to do it.
Speaker: Whereas imagine if your day today had already been back to back, no gaps, no nothing, you'd have either had to cancel things or you'd really be feeling like, oh, I have no time to do this well.
Speaker: So, so I applaud you for having the capacity to be able to fit in a couple of unexpected, you know, great opportunities.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's the reason why I start my day so early, you know, up at five 30, you know, doing my morning things and connecting with my spirit and getting in the gym.
Speaker: Cause even if I didn't feel as accomplished, I know that first two hours of my day, I'm getting, I'm getting some momentum somewhat some way to myself before anyone else.
Speaker: Uh,
Speaker: You have a saying, we need to think, we need time to think and rest.
Speaker: So I want to ask you, what type of rest do we need?
Speaker: Because I know we can go to sleep at night or take a nap, but our mind is not at rest.
Speaker: So what type of rest do people need to have or think about having to be more productive, to create that space, to be more fulfilled?
Speaker: Yeah, so for me, it's a fundamental that if we think about mind like a muscle, so you just said you go to the gym, and I'm assuming that after the gym, you feel, you know, you're hot and sweaty, and you may have a bit of muscle soreness or whatever.
Speaker: And so then you've got to rest your body or do some stretches or things like that, just to reduce the pain or to
Speaker: Accommodate the pain, really.
Speaker: Yeah, I feel better, actually.
Speaker: I feel enthused.
Speaker: I feel enlightened.
Speaker: And I always say motion changes emotion.
Speaker: So I probably woke up heavy now and I feel more balanced.
Speaker: Like, yes, what's next?
Speaker: I feel great.
Speaker: that you couldn't work out all day every day, right?
Speaker: No, you can't.
Speaker: You'd end up exhausted.
Speaker: So this is what we do to our brain.
Speaker: So if we think of our brain like the way we would go to the gym, it needs to rest to recover to be able to then work again when we do it.
Speaker: So no one that I know of works out all day every day.
Speaker: Maybe there's some people out there, but not that I know.
Speaker: But so this is what we do to our brain.
Speaker: So we work it all day and we work it hard and we're constantly thinking and we're jumping from one thing to another and we're filling our calendars and we're just on.
Speaker: And what we're not doing is we're not letting our brain have breathing space.
Speaker: So there's certain brain waves that if we hooked you up to a monitor, it'd show us the various brain waves.
Speaker: And so this thing on jumping around, doing things, being alert and attentive, that's beta brain waves.
Speaker: But our alpha, theta and delta brainwaves are the ones that happen when we sleep.
Speaker: Alpha brainwaves are the ones that happen when we, for example, when we daydream.
Speaker: And there's a lot of research now that says even just daydreaming, slowing down.
Speaker: So when you meditate or even do prayer, chances are you're accessing your alpha, maybe even theta brainwaves, which means you're just slowing your brain down and giving it a chance to do
Speaker: to to rest before you then go back up again and start oh interesting you just gave me because I've always I always meditate and to be quite honest I always meditate before my speeches or before I do a podcast so I've met I meditated for like 12 minutes before we got on today because I had to bring myself back to ground one and ground myself and say okay
Speaker: interview, she's lovely, Miss Donna McGeorge from Australia, one day refund.
Speaker: She's going to give us information for the podcast to change and enhance our situation because we need more rest.
Speaker: We need more time.
Speaker: And you did say in the article that even daydreaming on a train or bus is
Speaker: instead of like being busy on your phone, actually creates more productivity when you get back to work or when you get to work.
Speaker: And I was like, that's fascinating because sometimes I'm out looking in space just, I'm not really there in the moment, but I'm there.
Speaker: Well, we've become a bit addicted to activity.
Speaker: And so it's almost like if we're not doing something, we're saying, oh, this is a waste of time where, you know, I should be doing something every minute of the day.
Speaker: But I'm like, no, I stopped listening to podcasts and audio books and stuff when I was going for walks.
Speaker: I still listen to them at other times, but going for walks because I wanted to have that downtime, give my brain a rest,
Speaker: daydream, be in nature, breathe in the air and take notice of what's around me.
Speaker: Whereas it's just so easy to just be constantly putting info or stuff in the brain.
Speaker: That is so powerful.
Speaker: And I want to know, is there something in the book because
Speaker: In all my time of researching, reading books, listening to podcasts, audio books, I've never heard that ever in my life, given the brain time to rest.
Speaker: Because even when I go into nature and I'm walking barefooted in nature to ground myself to heal my body, I'm listening to a podcast or I'm listening to like healing frequencies or whatever, right?
Speaker: But there are moments where I'm like, you know what?
Speaker: I want to be acapella to that.
Speaker: I don't want to listen to anything.
Speaker: I just want to be.
Speaker: And I think that's really big to people listening.
Speaker: We have to dedicate time to not be active in anything.
Speaker: No phone, no music, no TV, no talking to anyone, no writing, just be and just let our brain just rest.
Speaker: Even though most of us were compulsively thinking a lot or thinking about things.
Speaker: When you do your walking, what are you thinking about?
Speaker: Are you thinking about the moment, the day, or are you just kind of just experiencing what's in front of you?
Speaker: Because I think letting the brain rest is so powerful and I love that.
Speaker: So thank you for that, Jim, because it helps.
Speaker: Yeah, when I'm walking, I'm just letting my mind wander.
Speaker: And it just goes where it goes.
Speaker: And sometimes, look, to be fair, I have ideas for books or articles or blogs.
Speaker: And so I'll be walking along and I'll go, oh, that's a great idea.
Speaker: So just in case anyone thinks I'm totally switched off, I'll still grab my phone and I'll just make a note that, oh, that's a great idea for a blog.
Speaker: Then I put the phone back away and keep walking.
Speaker: So sometimes I capture.
Speaker: So the interesting thing, the alpha brainwaves is where creativity sits, which is why we sometimes do our best thinking or have our best ideas immediately after a meditation or immediately like when we're in the shower.
Speaker: Oh, that's what I was going to say.
Speaker: Yeah, when I'm in a shower.
Speaker: And that's when they're active.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: My brain is wondering and I get the best quote or I know what I'm going to post today or the caption or, oh, I just got to.
Speaker: I'm like, but I'm in a shower and I'm not thinking about anything.
Speaker: I'm just there.
Speaker: My brain is just and things are just coming to me.
Speaker: Yeah, and that's because your alpha brainwaves have been let out for some air.
Speaker: And that's what they do best is they solve problems, they come up with ideas.
Speaker: And so when you give yourself space to daydream.
Speaker: Now, just on this, I read a book recently and I'm looking over my shoulder because my bookshelf is up.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a nice bookshelf.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, thank you.
Speaker: You have two other books or three other books.
Speaker: I like the titles.
Speaker: I've got two other books in this series.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: The book I want to tell you about is called Think Like a Rocket Scientist by Ozan Varol.
Speaker: Really great book where he said, you know, I expected it to be all about, you know, when you want to think like a rocket scientist, grab a bit of chalk up to Blackboard and do a bunch of, you know, calculations and things.
Speaker: But actually he said most rocket scientists sit back in a chair with their hands behind their back and let their minds wander because that's how they come up with ideas and solve problems.
Speaker: And he said then they go up to the blackboard and work it out.
Speaker: And so I was like, ah, so in order to think like a rocket scientist, which is, you know, we always think of them as the geniuses, we should be resting our mind more and letting it wander.
Speaker: Interest that that yes because there's a a step or way when manifestation when you're manifesting something there's laws called the law of least resistance, the law of least effort right and what they what they say is that okay if you do all the work you know for the meditation affirmations the prayer whatever you do to kind of manifest.
Speaker: But when you meditate and the brain is at rest and you just let go, those things you aspire to have or desire to have actually come into your vortex at some point when you're not thinking about them.
Speaker: I get my biggest opportunities when I'm not thinking about it, right?
Speaker: When there's not so much energy on.
Speaker: I might be talking to you on a podcast and like, hey, yeah, Donna McGeorge, you know, one day refunding.
Speaker: I could be getting the biggest opportunity somewhere else because my energy is not so engulfed in that moment.
Speaker: I'm just letting it all be.
Speaker: And it's so beautiful.
Speaker: Or you're dating someone or you're in a relationship and you're always thinking like what they're doing.
Speaker: But when you're not thinking about them, they could be texting you or calling you.
Speaker: So it's that polarity of just letting go and wandering.
Speaker: It's interesting.
Speaker: So I write my best or the articles or the blogs or whatever that get the most amount of hits from me are the ones that I write when I put the less amount of thought in them.
Speaker: They kind of come from a flow perspective.
Speaker: So I just write, you know, I've got to get this done.
Speaker: Don't really think about it and boom.
Speaker: So it's in effect, this is the dichotomy of it.
Speaker: It's kind of like the opposite of intention.
Speaker: So the intention is to write a great blog, but I'm not kind of thinking about it word for word.
Speaker: I'm just like, oh, I've got to write a blog today.
Speaker: I'll do it about that.
Speaker: Boom.
Speaker: And they're the ones that seem to just come from source wherever that just, you know, in through the head, from spirit through the head, out through the hands.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think we just, we're getting to something right here.
Speaker: This is very fascinating because when I used to play basketball, I played my best games when I didn't care.
Speaker: I didn't think about the next play, how I was gonna perform.
Speaker: I just was free.
Speaker: I didn't care about making a mistake.
Speaker: I was just in it, right?
Speaker: But I also know if, I always say, what we get rewarded for in public is due to what we're practicing in private, right?
Speaker: When we're by ourselves.
Speaker: So if you're author and you're, you know, consultant and business person, you're doing all your work behind closed doors, you're doing what you gotta do.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So then when you show up to a speech or you show up to a podcast, everything you worked on because you're not thinking about it, it's still in your subconscious mind.
Speaker: It just comes out because you did the work.
Speaker: You don't have to be I'm going to make it.
Speaker: I got to write a great blog.
Speaker: I got to have a great speech and then I got to be great.
Speaker: And it's like, no, that's the intention.
Speaker: So when you get there, it just comes out of you because you already put in the work and you allow it to happen instead of trying to make it happen.
Speaker: And I think that controls how productive you can be when you let things.
Speaker: Well, and from a brainwave perspective, it's what alpha brainwaves help us do.
Speaker: And Mikhail Csikszentmihalyi, who talks about flow, if he was here right now, he'd be chiming in saying, yes, that's flow.
Speaker: That's what I mean by flow.
Speaker: So when you're writing, what type of flow do you have to be in to get a good...
Speaker: or how long does it take for you to get a good chapter in, or do you have to listen to music?
Speaker: Like, what is your, what is your intentions when you're writing?
Speaker: Are you just going, you just letting the pen go and do its thing on a computer when you're typing?
Speaker: No, not usually.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: Look, there's a couple of things.
Speaker: I don't listen to music.
Speaker: Well, if I do listen to music, it's what my husband calls my spooky spiritual music.
Speaker: So it's no lyrics.
Speaker: It's just kind of noises.
Speaker: Sometimes it's birds chirping and waves crashing, that kind of stuff you get in, you know, like a beautician or when you're getting a massage, you know, that kind of music.
Speaker: But my belief is that momentum trumps music.
Speaker: motivation.
Speaker: So it's rare that the muse descends and I just get filled with inspiration.
Speaker: What tends to more happen is that I just set time every day so that you talk about what happens in private is what is then you get rewarded in public.
Speaker: In private, I just sit every day.
Speaker: I try to generate 500 words into a book if I'm writing a book and I just do that every day until I've accumulated volume and then I edit.
Speaker: So it's more, it's a much more structured process for me.
Speaker: More
Speaker: Occasionally, occasionally I'll get some divine inspiration and I may be able to bash out three or 4,000 words, but usually there is to get, to get three books written, get three books written.
Speaker: It is more about daily practice.
Speaker: Daily habits and daily habits than inspiration.
Speaker: Yeah, because for me, if I'm reading a book, I usually tell myself I have to read for 30 minutes a day.
Speaker: And so instead of saying I got to finish five chapters of the book, I'll just say like at least 30 minutes and that over time, eventually it could take a week, two weeks, maybe a few days.
Speaker: I'll be finished the book because I'm taking those habits.
Speaker: You had something that you wrote.
Speaker: You said, we need to find ways to compress time, batch our work, and create a good chunk of time, at least 90 minutes a day as a refund.
Speaker: Can you see you talk about that?
Speaker: I sure can.
Speaker: That's kind of the crux of the thing.
Speaker: So if you were thinking about your routine that you had this morning that you were talking about how you got up at five and you did your things and from eight o'clock you were on.
Speaker: And then you said there was a meeting or something got cancelled around nine o'clock, which gave you a bit more grace.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So too often we're at the mercy of that.
Speaker: So irrespective of what our work is, our calendars and schedules fill up and then someone cancels something.
Speaker: And we go,
Speaker: Look at this, I've got a whole hour or whatever to myself.
Speaker: So I say, what would happen if you protected 90 minutes a day that was a meeting for yourself?
Speaker: Now, if anyone's thinking, oh my God, I can't do that.
Speaker: That's too long, whatever.
Speaker: I'm going to say, well, why would you wait until someone cancels something to have grace in your day?
Speaker: Why wouldn't you schedule grace in your day?
Speaker: And you can look forward to it.
Speaker: So you pick the time of day that you want to do it.
Speaker: So maybe three o'clock in the afternoon or two.
Speaker: I know I've got a meeting with myself now.
Speaker: If you can't manage 90 minutes, do an hour, whatever works for you.
Speaker: And then, you know, I've got an hour coming up that I can look forward to that.
Speaker: That's just mine.
Speaker: No one wants a piece of me.
Speaker: I get to choose.
Speaker: I could either go for a walk, meditate.
Speaker: I could goof off if I want, or I can do a piece of work that's really important to me, but it's my time.
Speaker: And so I call it a refund because too often our time is taken from us.
Speaker: And it's like, well, how about you just take some back for yourself?
Speaker: you get to choose.
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: And to the most people I know that are highly successful, have great success, they time block.
Speaker: And I have a client that she's discussing, she talks about time blocking an hour or two for herself.
Speaker: She has a busy schedule, family, business.
Speaker: There's also an author, Stuart Wild.
Speaker: He's long gone past, but he talked about every day, just try it out.
Speaker: Try it out.
Speaker: Take an hour and don't do nothing.
Speaker: Just sit still.
Speaker: Don't listen to anything.
Speaker: Do nothing.
Speaker: And I did it for like a month.
Speaker: It was actually interesting.
Speaker: And then I grew to a point where I had a mentor tell me, he's like, you need to have a day, son, and you need to not do anything.
Speaker: Because I felt like if I wasn't doing anything, nothing was getting done.
Speaker: But actually, I was able to get more things done and attract more abundance in my life by doing less.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So it makes sense.
Speaker: Now, you just I just added that to my my day.
Speaker: I'm not for 90 day, 90 minutes a day.
Speaker: I'm going to find time.
Speaker: I'm gonna do nothing.
Speaker: I'm just gonna just allow myself to be.
Speaker: And because what do you suggest a person should do for 90 minutes a day for themselves?
Speaker: Well, it really depends, right?
Speaker: So one of the things I talk about is something called your activity horizon.
Speaker: So so many of us are scrambling because our activity horizon is a bit behind us.
Speaker: We're scrambling to catch up with stuff that was due yesterday.
Speaker: We need to get stuff done or it's urgent and it's due now, this urgency epidemic that we're in.
Speaker: And so I'll say, what if you use that time to do something that your future self would thank you for, to help you get your activity horizon in front of you?
Speaker: So instead of doing things that were urgent and due yesterday, I'm thinking about things a week from now, two weeks from now, a month from now.
Speaker: And so if you choose to use your 90 minutes to just do nothing, all power to you, I suspect your future self will thank you for that.
Speaker: Someone else might use it to say, you know what, I know I've got a big project coming up in, you know, in a couple of months, I'm just going to start mapping out what that might look like, because that then starts their brain, puts it in their brain, starts thinking about it in the back of their head over time.
Speaker: So I would say, you know, for others, it might be,
Speaker: meditate, pray, go for a walk, take a break.
Speaker: They might use that time for reading.
Speaker: They might even catch up with a colleague or friend.
Speaker: It's, I would say that the catch cry for that would be just, well, do something that your future self would thank you for that makes a difference to tomorrow or the next day.
Speaker: And then, yeah, and I believe the intentions of that alone will allow you to be more productive and have more momentum in progress.
Speaker: I want to go back to you saying momentum trumps motivation.
Speaker: Can you peel that back a bit and elaborate on what you mean by that?
Speaker: Yeah, so if we talk about writing a book, if I wait for inspiration, I'm not going to write until I feel inspired and motivated.
Speaker: I don't think I'd ever get a book written.
Speaker: Whereas if I just sit every day and create momentum just every day, a couple of hundred words, 500 words, that builds it up.
Speaker: And so I work a lot, I coach a lot of leaders and they'll say to me, I'm really struggling with the motivation in my team, particularly over the last couple of years as the world has been a little crazy.
Speaker: And I said, well, why don't you worry less about motivation and focus on just some simple things that you can do each day as a team?
Speaker: And that creates momentum.
Speaker: And before you know it, the very things that you are waiting to be motivated to do, you've got 70% of it done, you know?
Speaker: So that's what I always say to people, just start, do one thing, do something, anything to create movement and momentum.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's just all about that subtle or that little action can kind of create something.
Speaker: Like I tell people all the time, just go to the gym.
Speaker: Just go there for five minutes.
Speaker: Don't do anything.
Speaker: It's going to create some type of momentum.
Speaker: Like, you know what?
Speaker: At least I spent five minutes on a treadmill today.
Speaker: That's enough.
Speaker: And then do that every day for the next 10 days.
Speaker: I guarantee you increase the time or you're going to want to do something else.
Speaker: It's momentum.
Speaker: I want to go back.
Speaker: You talked about batching content because it's timing of this interview is significant for my life because I understand the power of batching content.
Speaker: I used to be like, oh, I'm not as creative when I'm trying to do a bunch of videos in one day.
Speaker: So because of my schedule has been getting so rampant and tight and so much going in.
Speaker: Yesterday, I had to sit myself down and say, okay, on these days, I'm going to do these videos on those days, because then what happens is all of the content that I'm creating that needs to go out is already shot and done, right?
Speaker: Say I do five videos, motivational videos on it.
Speaker: Sunday, boom.
Speaker: Then, okay, I got, you know, app content.
Speaker: All my app content is upload, ready to be, boom, done.
Speaker: And now I say, you know, if I'm writing a book, okay, I wrote for two hours today.
Speaker: So now when the weeks start, right, or Monday or Tuesday, whenever my weeks start, I don't feel overwhelmed with, damn, I didn't put a post out today.
Speaker: My followers or my viewers, I feel like I'm lacking.
Speaker: And I think that's the space that I think most people should try to take if they can, batching content and blocking out that time or getting as much as you can get done and be productive because then you'll save time on a back end when next week all these unexpected things come in, you don't feel pressured to post or do something you haven't done in so long because it's already done.
Speaker: So do you batch your work a lot?
Speaker: Every day, my friend, because I get the benefits of it.
Speaker: So you just said a whole bunch in there.
Speaker: So first of all, we get into a rhythm.
Speaker: So I also create videos for content.
Speaker: And so what happens is I set the intention, today's a recording day.
Speaker: And whether I feel motivated or not to do that is irrelevant.
Speaker: Whether I feel inspired or creative is irrelevant because I've got my scripts, I've got my stuff, I know the content I want to do, camera goes on.
Speaker: By the time I'm into my second,
Speaker: you know shot or second uh piece i'm in the zone so that's a classic example of momentum trumps motivation because by the time i'm done and in fact sometimes i'll say you know what i think i might do six more because now i'm in a zone right so baby right so that's one thing um the second thing is i i also batch according to the clock in my body so to
Speaker: We pay too much attention to the clock on the wall versus the clock in our body.
Speaker: And if we pay attention to the clock in our body, it shows us how to batch work throughout a day.
Speaker: So we're more mentally.
Speaker: So when you say you get up in the morning and there's a routine you do that's your spiritual routine and get in touch with your spirit, then you're ready to start work, say, around 8 o'clock-ish by the time you've done all your bits.
Speaker: And so the research definitely shows that we're more mentally, most of us are more mentally alert in the morning.
Speaker: up until around midday.
Speaker: And then we become more physically dexterous or we can do routine ritual stuff that doesn't have to think we're physically better in the afternoon.
Speaker: And so I'm very, I batch the work that requires high levels of mental intensity for the morning.
Speaker: I protect that time really, really strictly.
Speaker: I don't give it away that freely because that's the time I want to do this stuff where I really need to have my smarts switched on.
Speaker: Early in the morning, huh?
Speaker: Yeah, so I typically start my work day around eight o'clock as well.
Speaker: So from eight to 10, I rarely do meetings or things that require, you know, things that don't require my smart.
Speaker: So email is a classic example of this, right?
Speaker: Most of us come into work or sit and start our day.
Speaker: And the first thing we do is we bombard ourselves with emails.
Speaker: I'm going to say, no, don't do email for the first two hours.
Speaker: You can wait till later on.
Speaker: Plan the night before.
Speaker: What you want to do, that's intentional, what you want to do the next day, right?
Speaker: And then you, so for you, it might be produce, write a few, and for me, produce a few blogs, write a couple of chapters, get some videos made.
Speaker: And then you're absolutely right.
Speaker: In the old, good old Stephen Covey and his seven habits, the big rocks are done.
Speaker: Now, whatever happens, happens.
Speaker: The rest of your day, you know, is... And they say morning time is the most... Because I was listening to an audiobook called The One Thing.
Speaker: And he talked about Michael Phelps, how he had ADHD.
Speaker: And he talked about discipline, how being disciplined is great, but it also can be bad if you're disciplined at the wrong thing.
Speaker: Michael Phelps because he was so attention deficient where he couldn't focus.
Speaker: He did that one thing consistently every day.
Speaker: He was disciplined swimming every day that that one thing took him to the top.
Speaker: And so what I took from that was that, you know, in the book also discussed having willpower.
Speaker: We get most of our willpower early in the morning.
Speaker: So
Speaker: Or early in the day when the willpower shuts down, it's hard to be disciplined.
Speaker: It's hard to make decisions.
Speaker: It's hard to have that meeting and be sharp.
Speaker: So that's some good feedback and also planning your day at night.
Speaker: And then I guess you go to bed on it and then you'll be ready in the morning.
Speaker: Well, there's a couple of things.
Speaker: So first of all, I want everyone to have a good night's sleep.
Speaker: That's straight up.
Speaker: So I'm going to say at the end of the day, I want you to do some kind of brain dump where you just offload everything.
Speaker: What's on your mind, write it all down, get it out of your head.
Speaker: So it's not going to wake you up in the night.
Speaker: That's one thing.
Speaker: Second thing is how many decisions, because you're right.
Speaker: How many simple decisions can I make this evening?
Speaker: What am I going to wear?
Speaker: What am I going to eat?
Speaker: What route am I going to take?
Speaker: If I'm going somewhere, where am I going to park my car?
Speaker: Just research a few bits and be, if I've got kids, you know, what have they got on the next day?
Speaker: Got to pack bags, get gear organized, whatever.
Speaker: Do all of that.
Speaker: I call it an hour of power.
Speaker: If we do an hour of power in the evening where we just make a bunch of decisions about things, then we start our next day cleaner.
Speaker: And you're right, it's decision fatigue.
Speaker: It's decision fatigue.
Speaker: And so if we can make a few that don't require a lot of energy, like what am I gonna have for dinner tomorrow?
Speaker: What am I gonna eat?
Speaker: Have I got my breakfast organized?
Speaker: Just some bits and pieces.
Speaker: So I start the day, oh, look at this.
Speaker: So in effect, a productive day always starts the night before.
Speaker: Got it, I like that.
Speaker: A productive day always starts the night before.
Speaker: That is so true.
Speaker: And it's interesting, because now you got me thinking,
Speaker: Because I journal in the morning once I come home, come back from the gym.
Speaker: I do like my affirmations or my gratitude statements.
Speaker: I write in my least dominant hand and then I do my to-do list, right?
Speaker: So I'm thinking if I do that at night, at least the to-do list, right?
Speaker: Well, because I attach that to feeling productive, like, okay, I got my to do list, I did my little morning writing and so I'm just trying to figure out when you do your action items at night, are you doing it on the phone or are you writing it down on paper, is it by your bed, is it in the kitchen, like where do you, because I have to see it to kind of like take it in.
Speaker: Yeah, so I'm a big fan of the, I'm old school.
Speaker: I'm old school.
Speaker: I like writing stuff down.
Speaker: So I have a planner that I have and I empty my brain out in the morning.
Speaker: I'm just on paper, like I just on a piece of paper, I just empty my brain out in the morning so that I'm clean in the start.
Speaker: So it's called a Wipe the Mind or Julia Cameron.
Speaker: Also, she wrote in her book, The Artist's Way, talked about morning pages.
Speaker: It's a very similar thing.
Speaker: The stream of consciousness, empty out your head in the morning.
Speaker: But the evening one that I do is a little bit more light to do this.
Speaker: What am I going to get done tomorrow?
Speaker: Is it more intentional?
Speaker: A bit more intentional.
Speaker: Okay, got it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And so, and I do, I'm turning around because it's behind me on my desk that I write it down.
Speaker: And it's also laid out according to four quadrants of the day.
Speaker: So the first, so I don't just have a to-do list.
Speaker: I go, right, what am I going to do in the first two hours, the second, the third, the fourth of an eight hour workday?
Speaker: So this task I'm thinking of, what part of my brain does it need?
Speaker: What's the best time to do it?
Speaker: So that's kind of taking batching and time blocking to kind of another level.
Speaker: So it's not just I protect myself.
Speaker: time to do a task, it's like, what's the best time for me to protect to do that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, you know, and time is all we have, you know, at the end of the day, because time is forever going and moving.
Speaker: And within that time, we have to be the most productive.
Speaker: And I think, you know, most of the world, I want to say most, just about enough of the world is not getting as much done as they could, because they don't have the resources, they don't have the tools, they don't have the information, or they don't have your book, the one day refund.
Speaker: So the question is, how do we get the book?
Speaker: Where can we find it?
Speaker: And how do people find you and get into your vortex and your world of which you provide in a productive time blocking space?
Speaker: Beautiful.
Speaker: So you'll find me at donnamcgeorge.com.
Speaker: You'll get the book at all of the major online stores, Amazon, et cetera.
Speaker: And particularly if you're ordering it from, you don't want to order it from my website because you don't want to pay shipping from Australia, I promise you that.
Speaker: So order it at Amazon.com in the US or any of the online bookstores that are your favorites, you can get that there.
Speaker: And then, of course, I've got quite an unusual name, Donna McGeorge.
Speaker: There aren't many of us in the world.
Speaker: I'm across all the major social media platforms.
Speaker: And I was told once that I was a shameless self-promoter, which I think they meant as an insult, but I took it as a compliment.
Speaker: So yeah, I'm pretty active and I'm always sharing tips and ideas and thoughts.
Speaker: So I'd welcome any of you to come join my, get in my orbit.
Speaker: Yeah, we wanna learn from the Oracle, you know?
Speaker: You have all the information for us.
Speaker: What is, you know, before we get off here, what is a few takeaways you want the listeners and the people who are gonna buy this book to take away from the book?
Speaker: Like, what do you really want them to understand and know for their benefit?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I want them to understand and know that they say who they say when.
Speaker: They say you can decide.
Speaker: You're the master of your time.
Speaker: And too often we give it away without really thinking about it to being intentional.
Speaker: So the first thing I'll say is you're in control.
Speaker: You get to choose how you spend your time.
Speaker: Now, you're not going to know how to decide that if you haven't got some level of plan or idea or knowledge of what's important to you.
Speaker: So I'm going to say stop, take stock of where you're at, figure out what are the most, make some decisions about what are the most important aspects of your life.
Speaker: Very rarely do people say the most important thing in my life is my work.
Speaker: They'll usually, work is usually a means to an end.
Speaker: I work for people.
Speaker: you know, to have choices in my life, to provide for my family, to travel, whatever it might be.
Speaker: So be really clear on what that is.
Speaker: So it's to stop, take stock and make some decisions.
Speaker: Then from then on, it's really quite easy to be productive because once you know the most important things to do, you just do those and all the other rubbish just kind of falls away.
Speaker: It's really like magic.
Speaker: Yeah, it's so important.
Speaker: And, you know, take stock, people take your time, take a deep breath.
Speaker: What is important?
Speaker: What do you value the most?
Speaker: Because I believe from Donna George's voice, it's not work.
Speaker: Work is a means to end, right?
Speaker: To have better choices or maybe a better life or options.
Speaker: I just want to say thank you for being here.
Speaker: Thank you for giving us this time and this energy and this essence of yourself to help us create a more productive, fulfilling day.
Speaker: Because you just helped me, help myself, help others, you know, with time blocking, intentional lists at night, emptying your mind in the morning.
Speaker: And just feeling good about not doing anything for a bit and just letting my brain rest and also wander.
Speaker: I think that is so key in today's world.
Speaker: So I just want to say thank you.
Speaker: We appreciate you here on Bigger Talks.
Speaker: Everyone go get her book, One Day Refund.
Speaker: Get some time back.
Speaker: Refund that.
Speaker: Get the time you need and deserve.
Speaker: And you also work for, but you just don't know you have it because you haven't took it back yet.
Speaker: So Donna McGeorge, this was amazing.
Speaker: You're phenomenal.
Speaker: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker: Thank you, Eric.
Speaker: Thanks for having me.
Speaker: Have a good one.
