The Simplest Productivity Hack of All Time

Kasim: 00:00:11

Running a business is hard.

Kasim: 00:00:12

Running a business, running an agency, running an e-com store like this is hard.

Kasim: 00:00:16

This is hard work.

Kasim: 00:00:16

Being an entrepreneur is massively difficult.

Kasim: 00:00:18

And if you are trying to do everything, you're trying to run the traffic

Kasim: 00:00:21

and manage the employees and deal with customers task management

Kasim: 00:00:24

is one of the most important things that you have to deal with.

Kasim: 00:00:26

And so what I wanna do I wanna give you what I think is the simplest

Kasim: 00:00:29

and yet most effective hack strategy tactic I've ever been given as

Kasim: 00:00:34

it pertains to task management.

Kasim: 00:00:35

Let's cut to the slides.

Kasim: 00:00:36

This is a conversation about the difference between your

Kasim: 00:00:38

task list and your calendar.

Kasim: 00:00:40

There should be no difference between your task list and your calendar.

Kasim: 00:00:42

Your task list is a list of things that you're supposed to do.

Kasim: 00:00:45

Your calendar is a list of the things that you're going to do.

Kasim: 00:00:47

Tasks that aren't on your calendar are things that are never gonna get done.

Kasim: 00:00:50

And y'all, I did this for a decade plus I had a collection of

Kasim: 00:00:54

things that I knew I needed to do.

Kasim: 00:00:55

That was my task list.

Kasim: 00:00:56

And then I'd have my calendar that was always full, top to bottom

Kasim: 00:00:59

with, meetings, appointments.

Kasim: 00:01:01

Sales consults, whatever.

Kasim: 00:01:02

And the task items were never on my calendar.

Kasim: 00:01:04

And I'm telling you, it took me 10 years to figure this out.

Kasim: 00:01:07

You've heard people refer to this generally as time blocking, but I, I don't

Kasim: 00:01:10

like that standalone because oftentimes when you think time blocking, you think

Kasim: 00:01:13

like, okay, I'm gonna carve some time out.

Kasim: 00:01:14

For some of the most important tasks, nay, nay, everything on

Kasim: 00:01:19

your task list gets scheduled.

Kasim: 00:01:21

And if it doesn't, Then it's something you don't plan on getting done, which is fine.

Kasim: 00:01:24

You can have a holding tank.

Kasim: 00:01:25

So I can have a list of stuff that like, Hey, someday I'm gonna do this stuff.

Kasim: 00:01:29

And that's cool.

Kasim: 00:01:30

I keep mine an Evernote and it's just ever-growing and I, rarely get

Kasim: 00:01:33

to a lot of it, but that's okay too.

Kasim: 00:01:34

Sometimes you need a place where tasks go to die.

Kasim: 00:01:36

I actually really like that.

Kasim: 00:01:37

I like having A location where I can drop stuff that in the moment felt important,

Kasim: 00:01:41

but then later when I look back on it, I'm like, I really didn't need to do that.

Kasim: 00:01:43

I didn't need to do that.

Kasim: 00:01:44

That's the voice that I used by the way, when I'm thinking about things

Kasim: 00:01:46

that I need to do, I didn't do that.

Kasim: 00:01:48

Task list needs to be your calendar.

Kasim: 00:01:50

These two things need to be merged.

Kasim: 00:01:51

They need to be the exact same list because otherwise you're gonna go insane.

Kasim: 00:01:54

what I would end up doing, and I bet for a lot of you, especially younger

Kasim: 00:01:56

entrepreneurs, what you end up doing is you work all damn day on your calendar.

Kasim: 00:01:59

And then after work, when the calendar is over, now you go tackle your task

Kasim: 00:02:03

list, move your list into your calendar, and here's what's gonna happen.

Kasim: 00:02:06

This is what's really interesting is shocks me to this day.

Kasim: 00:02:09

You get as much if not more done.

Kasim: 00:02:12

Swear to God, it's true.

Kasim: 00:02:13

You get as much if not more done because you're being intentional about what

Kasim: 00:02:17

it is that you're capable of doing.

Kasim: 00:02:19

And you'll also notice that, you know, there's that old saying, if you want

Kasim: 00:02:22

something done, give it to a busy person.

Kasim: 00:02:23

When you fill up your calendar, you get really cautious about how much time

Kasim: 00:02:28

you allocate to certain tasks and what you allow to land on your calendar.

Kasim: 00:02:31

I am repelled by meetings.

Kasim: 00:02:32

I'm repelled by it.

Kasim: 00:02:33

My favorite thing that happens is when people reach out, like on LinkedIn or

Kasim: 00:02:36

their cold emails or whatever, like, Hey, why don't we drop some time on

Kasim: 00:02:39

the calendar, virtual cup of coffee?

Kasim: 00:02:40

And I'm like, you have no idea.

Kasim: 00:02:42

you'd have better shot offering me herpes.

Kasim: 00:02:45

that's the most valuable thing I have.

Kasim: 00:02:47

I swear to God, I mean it when I say I'd sooner give you money, like

Kasim: 00:02:51

you're digitally panhandling, but you're panhandling the thing that's

Kasim: 00:02:53

a non-renewable resource for me.

Kasim: 00:02:55

I've got a ton of money.

Kasim: 00:02:56

or access to the ability to produce money.

Kasim: 00:02:58

As an entrepreneur, I can make money.

Kasim: 00:02:59

I can't make time, don't ask me for my time.

Kasim: 00:03:01

but part of that is beat into me because I've built this system and

Kasim: 00:03:04

I'm not the only one that built it.

Kasim: 00:03:05

I don't remember where I even stole this, to be honest with you.

Kasim: 00:03:06

It might be David Allen.

Kasim: 00:03:07

I think getting things done regardless, your task list is your calendar.

Kasim: 00:03:11

Those two things are merged, and when they're merged, what you're

Kasim: 00:03:14

gonna find is you end up being exponentially more productive.

Kasim: 00:03:17

it forces you to set time aside.

Kasim: 00:03:19

You have to set time aside for your most important tasks, which mean you

Kasim: 00:03:21

actually get your most important tasks done, which means now you're living in

Kasim: 00:03:24

Stephen Covey, Covey's Quadrant two.

Kasim: 00:03:26

And if you haven't read the Seven Habits, you absolutely

Kasim: 00:03:27

have to but you're bringing the most important things forward.

Kasim: 00:03:31

Scheduling them first and then everything else gets scheduled

Kasim: 00:03:33

around them, which is superduty.

Kasim: 00:03:35

Cool.

Kasim: 00:03:35

What I really like about this too is it lets you see what capacity you have.

Kasim: 00:03:38

You get to know.

Kasim: 00:03:39

Oh, I'm running out of time.

Kasim: 00:03:41

I'm running out of place.

Kasim: 00:03:42

I'm running out of margin here.

Kasim: 00:03:43

And it is, look at that.

Kasim: 00:03:44

I already have a slide for it and I didn't even know it.

Kasim: 00:03:46

Getting things done by David Allen.

Kasim: 00:03:47

Really worth reading by the way.

Kasim: 00:03:48

It's not gonna blow your mind.

Kasim: 00:03:49

It's not gonna change your life.

Kasim: 00:03:50

It's not anything that you don't already know.

Kasim: 00:03:52

It's just like, Super simple, really good, solid advice.

Kasim: 00:03:56

And I'd be really interested in knowing what you do for task management.

Kasim: 00:03:59

What am I missing here?

Kasim: 00:04:00

If you're like, yeah, C, that's great, that's 1.0.

Kasim: 00:04:02

But let me tell you how the Jedi do it.

Kasim: 00:04:04

I'd love to learn from you.

Kasim: 00:04:04

I'm not telling you I'm a tasker efficiency expert or anything.

Kasim: 00:04:07

But I have noticed, especially cuz you know, I've done mild amount of

Kasim: 00:04:11

coaching now in consulting and I've got a mastermind and, there are people

Kasim: 00:04:13

that come in through our, agency and I can just kind of see, oh, this

Kasim: 00:04:16

seems to be a problem for people.

Kasim: 00:04:17

So I thought I'd shoot a video on it.

Kasim: 00:04:19

I'm also posting a thread every single day to Twitter.

Kasim: 00:04:21

So if you're not following me on Twitter, go follow me at Casa Muslim.

Kasim: 00:04:24

You can follow me on Instagram at the same handle and I'll see you tomorrow.