Folks… get ready to be BLOWN AWAY! I’ve got to warn you ahead that this episode has got loads (and I mean LOADS) of information that you can take away from and apply, not only to your own business or job or career, but in all other areas of your life. I personally have tried out some of the strategies mentioned here. They absolutely work! (Not to mention that this has made my life much more productive and easier.) And so, I want to share this with you.
Today’s guest is Rory Vaden, co-founder of Southwestern Consulting and is the author of New York Times bestseller Take the Stairs. Rory shares with us a load full of crisp, golden nuggets including some insights into “taking the stairs,” overcoming procrastination, and multiplying your time, which are all essential elements that have been incorporated into his new book Procrastinate on Purpose: 5 Permissions to Multiply Your Time.
Here are the highlights of my conversation with Rory:
Rory’s coolest sales experience as the customer: The Nordstrom Experience
What inspired him to write his book Procrastinate on Purpose:
- Time management as the number one thing their clients struggle with
- Over 900 active coaching clients at Southwestern Consulting
Learning from a 2-year old that led to 2 unique parts of the book:
- EMOTION: Time management today is emotional.
- SIGNIFICANCE: Making decisions based on significance – How long does something matter?
How to multiply your time: The Significance Calculation
“Give yourself the emotional permission to spend time on things today that create more time tomorrow.”
3 Types of Procrastination:
- Classic Procrastination – consciously delaying what we know we should be doing
- Creative Avoidance – unconsciously filling the day with menial work or trivial work because of distraction; evident in many salespeople
- Priority Dilution – interruption (either consciously or unconsciously); affecting the chronic over-achievers
The essence of Procrastinate on Purpose: Giving yourself permission to say no to the urgent things that are insignificant so you can say yes to the things that are significant
Ultra-performers or Multipliers vs average individuals
The Focus Funnel
A visual depiction of the thought process multipliers use to evaluate what really is significant and what isn’t
The Parts of the Funnel
- Top, wide part: Eliminate
- Middle: Automate – the permission to invest
- Bottom: Delegate – the permission of imperfect
How it works:
- Can it be eliminated? If not, can it be automated? If not, can it be delegated?
- If a task cannot be eliminated, automated, or delegated then it falls out to the bottom of the Focus Funnel.
- At that point, you know there has a task that must be done and it must be done by you, which leads to one remaining question:
- Must this task be done now or can it wait until later?
- If the task must be done now: Concentrate (the permission to protect: focus and disallow interruptions)
- If the task can wait until later: Procrastinate on Purpose (POP-ing: POP (Procrastinate on Purpose) the activity back to the top of the funnel entering into a holding pattern as it cycles back through the funnel until one of the four things will eventually happen – eliminated, automated, delegated, or concentrate)
The Significance Calculation
When it comes to delegating, what drives most of us is emotion.
Eliminating the limiting belief of “No one’s going to be able to do this well as I can.”
Deconstructing and breaking it apart
The Short Cost to Living in a Shortcut Society
A “take-the-escalator mentality” is dangerously pervading into other areas of our life and we start to embrace the idea that things should be convenient.
“Enjoying it isn’t a requirement of doing it.”
Dodging the things we need to do in avoidance of making sacrifices or experiencing the pain upfront
The Pain Paradox
Easy, short-term choices lead to difficult, long-term consequences. Meanwhile, difficult, short-term choices lead to easy, long-term consequences.
“You always pay a price. You either pay the price now, today. Or you will pay it later with interest. Procrastination and indulgence are really nothing more than creditors that charge you interest.”
“Procrastination is the most expensive, invisible cost in business today… and can be the natural by-product of living in a shortcut society where we live in a world of escalators.”
“The shortest, most direct path to the easiest life is based on doing the hardest parts of things as soon as possible.”
Find out more about Rory’s amazing books:
Current projects Rory is working on:
- Procrastinate on Purpose
- Another book in the works!
Check out Rory’s free one-hour webinar to get a visual of the Focus Funnel and he’ll walk you through it over at www.procastinateonpurpose.com
Rory’s Major Takeaway:
When you make the “significance calculation” and you start thinking a longer term the way that multipliers do, you really can multiply your time. The way that you do that is by giving yourself the emotional permission to spend time on things today that give you more time tomorrow.
“No matter who you are, how long you’ve been doing what you’re doing, success is never owned. Success is only rented… and the rent is due everyday.”
Check our Rory’s books:
Visit Procrastinate on Purpose for a Free video webinar to learn:
5 Ways To Multiply Your Time Discover How the Greatest Leaders in the World Think Differently about Time
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Thanks so much for having me Donald! Very excited to see your podcast growing. All the best to you my friend!
It was my honor. Thanks for coming Rory!