3407: [Part 1] The Single Most Effective Thing You Can Do to Produce Consistently Measurable Results by Michael Mehlberg

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[00:00:30] This is Optimal Living Daily, The Single Most Effective Thing You Can Do to Produce Consistently Measurable Results. Part 1 by Michael Mehlberg of michaelmelberg.com. And I'm Justin Malik.

[00:00:43] Happy Friday. Welcome to one of the only podcasts in the world where articles are narrated to you for free with permission from the authors. It's an award-winning podcast thanks to you. Today I have a bit of a longer post, so I'll read the first half today and then finish the rest for you tomorrow.

[00:00:57] So with that, let's get right to it and start optimizing your life.

[00:01:05] The Single Most Effective Thing You Can Do to Produce Consistently Measurable Results. Part 1 by Michael Mehlberg of michaelmelberg.com.

[00:01:15] Can I tell you something? I took the day off to homeschool my kids and I'm about ready to pull my friggin' hair out. Not because of my kids. They're troopers. They're working hard.

[00:01:26] No, I was frustrated because I didn't know how long each assignment would take, didn't know when they'd get tired, and had no idea how to move them through their planned education.

[00:01:37] As such, we failed a math test, spent twice as long as we should have on history, and I missed feeding them all lunch.

[00:01:45] Tonight, I'm recommending my wife to Sainthood.

[00:01:48] Quote,

[00:01:50] It's a lack of clarity that creates chaos and frustration.

[00:01:54] Steve Maraboli

[00:01:56] Now, with a bit of perspective, I see exactly what went wrong.

[00:02:01] I had a plan, but I didn't have a schedule.

[00:02:05] Planning versus scheduling.

[00:02:07] Remember Franklin planners?

[00:02:09] My dad used to tote one everywhere.

[00:02:12] Bound in leather and stuffed thick with assorted papers is the executive professional's badge of the 1990s.

[00:02:18] I remember spying it on the kitchen counter, wondering at its contents, imagining it packed full of world-changing business deals,

[00:02:25] C-level contacts at publicly traded companies, and strategic plans for supreme corporate domination.

[00:02:31] Alas, when I grew old enough to afford my own, Franklin planners were no longer in vogue,

[00:02:37] replaced instead by their digital equivalent, the Palm Pilot.

[00:02:40] I bought this digital copycat, learned how to write its semi-cryptic letters, and didn't look back for 15 years.

[00:02:48] Now, I see there was always something missing.

[00:02:52] The Palm Pilot was not the digital equivalent of a paper planner.

[00:02:56] Neither are its successors, the BlackBerrys, the Surface Books, or the iPhones of the world.

[00:03:01] Something was lost in the translation from paper to silicone.

[00:03:05] The most important part of a planner, the ability to plan.

[00:03:09] There's a difference between planning and scheduling.

[00:03:13] Planning is thinking about what you want your life to look like in 1, 3, 5, 10, or 20 years.

[00:03:21] Where do you want to be?

[00:03:22] What do you want to have?

[00:03:24] What do you want to be doing?

[00:03:26] Scheduling, on the other hand, is what you do today, tomorrow, or this week.

[00:03:31] Plans are your mission, your vision, your goals.

[00:03:35] Schedules are your meetings and other calendar events.

[00:03:38] They're the blocked-off times where you do the work necessary to achieve your goals.

[00:03:42] For example, your plan for tomorrow might be to refurnish your dining room.

[00:03:47] Your schedule will be to go to Costco at 9 a.m.,

[00:03:52] spend an hour shopping for and buying a dining room table,

[00:03:55] driving home at 10 a.m.,

[00:03:57] unload and put the thing together at 10.30 a.m.,

[00:04:00] then spend the next two hours painting the dining room,

[00:04:03] have a 12.30 p.m. lunch for 30 minutes,

[00:04:06] hang a new light fixture at 1 p.m. for one hour,

[00:04:09] then play video games until bed.

[00:04:11] If you have a plan without a schedule,

[00:04:13] you'll have good intentions without action.

[00:04:17] This leaves you vulnerable to getting lost in a sea of urgent tasks

[00:04:20] that distract you from your goals.

[00:04:22] You'll want to buy a dining room table,

[00:04:24] but may wake up late and get to Costco when it's an effing zoo,

[00:04:28] taking two hours instead of one.

[00:04:30] You'll have to interrupt your painting with lunch

[00:04:32] and then might lose yourself to the mental pit of Instagram for a bit.

[00:04:36] Before you know it, it'll be 5 p.m.

[00:04:38] and you'll have wet walls,

[00:04:40] a half-hung light fixture,

[00:04:42] and nowhere to eat.

[00:04:43] On the other hand,

[00:04:45] if you have a schedule without a plan,

[00:04:47] you'll work hard toward an unknown goal

[00:04:50] and make progress toward someone else's vision.

[00:04:52] You'll drive to Costco to just shop for anything.

[00:04:56] You might buy a book.

[00:04:57] You might buy one of their thick and meaty hot dogs.

[00:05:00] You won't get your dining room started,

[00:05:02] instead leaving to spend the next hour

[00:05:05] with stomach pain in the bathroom reading your new book.

[00:05:08] Build your plan first,

[00:05:09] then schedule daily.

[00:05:11] Create a direction for yourself,

[00:05:13] then block time to execute.

[00:05:15] Design your life,

[00:05:17] then live it.

[00:05:19] Quote,

[00:05:20] if it's not on your calendar,

[00:05:21] it's not a priority.

[00:05:23] If you don't have goals for it,

[00:05:25] you're probably not thinking about it.

[00:05:27] If you're not thinking about it,

[00:05:29] then it's probably falling apart.

[00:05:31] Benjamin Hardy.

[00:05:33] The beauty of scheduling.

[00:05:35] The beauty of scheduling what needs to get done is this.

[00:05:39] Your time is blocked,

[00:05:41] making it far less likely that distractions,

[00:05:44] meetings,

[00:05:44] or other people will take it.

[00:05:46] When you schedule a task,

[00:05:48] you're more inclined to work on it.

[00:05:50] When you schedule a task,

[00:05:51] others can't capitalize on your time

[00:05:53] without your permission.

[00:05:55] Imagine two scenarios.

[00:05:57] In scenario one,

[00:05:59] you have a free and open calendar.

[00:06:01] You've got goals,

[00:06:02] and you've even broken those goals down.

[00:06:04] You know what you should be working on today,

[00:06:06] but are giving yourself all day to do it.

[00:06:09] What happens when the phone rings,

[00:06:11] when someone comes to the door,

[00:06:13] or when a new email comes in?

[00:06:16] We'll hear that on tomorrow's episode.

[00:06:22] You just listened to part one of the post titled,

[00:06:24] The Single Most Effective Thing You Can Do

[00:06:27] to Produce Consistently Measurable Results

[00:06:30] by Michael Melberg of michaelmelberg.com.

[00:06:33] And I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:06:35] Thank you to Michael.

[00:06:36] This one really hit home for me

[00:06:38] because I've definitely been guilty of having plans,

[00:06:40] but not actually scheduling them.

[00:06:43] When I started this podcast back in 2015,

[00:06:46] I had these big plans about what it could be,

[00:06:49] but I didn't actually schedule specific time blocks

[00:06:51] for recording and editing.

[00:06:53] That led to some pretty stressful moments of recording

[00:06:56] while I was sick in bed

[00:06:57] or editing late into the night

[00:06:59] because I hadn't blocked off the right time for it.

[00:07:02] I thought his example of the dining room project

[00:07:04] was spot on, so easy to think,

[00:07:07] oh, I'll get to that today.

[00:07:08] But then time slips away,

[00:07:10] and before you know it, the day's gone.

[00:07:12] I've had plenty of those days myself

[00:07:14] where I had good intentions,

[00:07:15] but didn't actually block off specific times for tasks.

[00:07:19] Something I try to do now,

[00:07:21] especially with this podcast,

[00:07:22] is block off specific recording times.

[00:07:24] It doesn't always work perfectly,

[00:07:26] but having that structure

[00:07:27] really does help prevent other things

[00:07:29] from creeping in and taking over.

[00:07:31] So hopefully this was a good reminder for you too.

[00:07:33] Maybe we can both try to actually schedule

[00:07:36] some of those plans we've been putting off.

[00:07:38] I know I will.

[00:07:39] And we'll hear the rest of this article tomorrow,

[00:07:41] so for now, that'll do it for today.

[00:07:44] Have a great rest of your day,

[00:07:45] and I'll see you tomorrow for part two,

[00:07:47] where your optimal life upweights.

[00:07:49] .