#771: Productivity Tactics – Two Approaches I Personally Use to Reset, Get Unstuck, and Focus on the Right Things AI transcript and summary - episode of podcast The Tim Ferriss Show

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Episode: #771: Productivity Tactics – Two Approaches I Personally Use to Reset, Get Unstuck, and Focus on the Right Things

Author: Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig
Duration: 00:19:51

Episode Shownotes

In this short and very tactical episode, I share some of my personal methods for how to get out of a rut, re-aim yourself at big outcomes, and make progress on a daily basis, despite the self-defeating tendencies that we all have.

This episode is brought to you by:Eight Sleep’s Pod 4 Ultra sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating: https://eightsleep.com/tim (save $350 on the Pod 4 Ultra)Momentous high-quality supplements: https://livemomentous.com/tim (code TIM for 20% off)AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement: https://drinkag1.com/tim (1-year supply of Vitamin D (and 5 free AG1 travel packs) with your first subscription purchase.)*For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsorsSign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissYouTube: youtube.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferrissPast guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Summary

In episode #771 of The Tim Ferriss Show, Tim Ferriss shares his practical methods for tackling productivity challenges and achieving meaningful outcomes. He introduces the mantra 'make before you manage,' encouraging daily creative tasks to foster a sense of productivity. Ferriss outlines an eight-step coping mechanism to enhance efficacy, prioritizing high-leverage activities and dedicated deep work time. Emphasizing the importance of focusing on one critical task and avoiding the misbelief that busyness equates to productivity, he reminds listeners of the universal struggles faced by many.

Go to PodExtra AI's episode page (#771: Productivity Tactics – Two Approaches I Personally Use to Reset, Get Unstuck, and Focus on the Right Things) to play and view complete AI-processed content: summary, mindmap, topics, takeaways, transcript, keywords and highlights.

Full Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker_00
Well, hello, Gavner. There are 700 plus of those interviews in the back catalog and we'll get back to that shortly but this time around we have a different format.

00:00:24 Speaker_00
In this short and very tactical episode I share some of my personal approaches, my personal methods for how to get out of a rut, get unstuck, re-aim yourself at big outcomes, reset and refocus and make progress on a daily basis despite the self-defeating tendencies and inner voices that we all have and that applies to everyone I've met.

00:00:45 Speaker_00
the top of the top in any given field. We all have those days. The first story I tell is of a three to four week period when I was beset by all sorts of personal challenges and ultimately the approach that saved my sanity.

00:00:57 Speaker_00
It does not require any heroic efforts, any differential calculus. It is beautifully simple. But first, before we get to that, just a few quick words from today's sponsors who make this podcast possible.

00:01:10 Speaker_00
If you want to support the show, please check them out. I use all of these on a daily or weekly basis. And given that I'm able to test everything under the sun, I think that is saying something.

00:01:20 Speaker_00
Regular listeners probably know I've been taking Momentus products consistently and testing them for a long while now. But you may not know that I recently collaborated with them to put together my top picks.

00:01:31 Speaker_00
I always aim for a strong body and sharp mind, and neither is possible without quality sleep. So I designed my performance stack to check all three boxes, and here it is.

00:01:39 Speaker_00
CreaPure Creatine for muscular and cognitive support, Whey Protein Isolate for muscle mass and recovery, and Magnesium Threonate for sleep.

00:01:47 Speaker_00
All Momentus products are NSF and Inform Sport certified, which is professional athlete and Olympic level testing. So, try it out for yourself. Visit livemomentus.com slash Tim and use Tim at checkout for 20% off of my performance stack.

00:02:01 Speaker_00
I'll spell it out, it's a long one. Live moment, O-U-S dot com slash Tim. So, livemomentus.com slash Tim for 20% off. This episode is brought to you by 8Sleep.

00:02:13 Speaker_00
8Sleep recently launched their newest generation of the Pod, and I'm excited to test it out, Pod 4 Ultra. Pod 4 Ultra can cool down each side of the bed as much as 20 degrees Fahrenheit below room temperature.

00:02:23 Speaker_00
Pod 4 Ultra also introduces an adjustable base that fits between your mattress and your bed frame, and adds reading and sleeping positions for the best unwinding experience.

00:02:32 Speaker_00
And for those snore-heavy nights, the Pod can detect your snoring and automatically lift your head by a few degrees to improve airflow and stop you or your partner from snoring.

00:02:41 Speaker_00
Plus, with the Pod 4 Ultra, you can leave your wearables on the nightstand because these types of metrics are integrated into the Pod 4 Ultra itself. So, get your best night's sleep.

00:02:50 Speaker_00
Head to 8sleep.com slash Tim and use code Tim to get $350 off of the Pod 4 Ultra. They currently ship to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia. Optimal minimum.

00:03:03 Speaker_00
At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Can I ask you a personal question? Now would seem an appropriate time. What if I did the opposite? I'm a cybernetic organism, living tissue of a metal endoskeleton.

00:03:19 Speaker_00
Me, Tim, Ferris, Joe. A few years ago, a creature died in the walls of my home. It was disgusting. Now, to be precise, it gave up the ghost in the heating system, so the death fumes were conveniently pushed directly into my bedroom.

00:03:38 Speaker_00
My ex-girlfriend and I discovered this around 11 p.m. as we tucked into bed, hoping for a good night's sleep. We could turn off the heat and freeze, that was one option, or we could bathe in the stench of what I assumed was a raccoon carcass.

00:03:52 Speaker_00
And the whole thing made my eyes itch. It was horrible. I imagined it downing its last meal, pig entrails, moldy socks. fermented beans, who knows, before defiantly jamming its bloated body into my HVAC.

00:04:04 Speaker_00
Don't worry, we are getting to some kind of lesson here. But the kamikaze raccoon was just the first surprise guest. The opening act, in short order, my dog then got horribly sick, unrelated to raccoon.

00:04:16 Speaker_00
Overdue paperwork started piling up, popping out of nowhere, and onboarding a bunch of new contractors ran into trouble. Then I pulled out of a parking spot and scraped the entire side of my car and the car next to me.

00:04:29 Speaker_00
Later that same afternoon, all these Christmas presents I had ordered somehow had run out of stock and were auto-canceled, so I was sent scrambling.

00:04:37 Speaker_00
And on and on it went, more and more clowns piling into the clown car for a shit show that lasted three to four weeks. It was just a 15-car pileup of nonsense. There are the rare times when I feel like I'm in the zone, and those are great.

00:04:53 Speaker_00
Those are fantastic. Then there are times when I ask myself, how in holy hell have I become the janitor of a mountain of bullshit? That happens more than you might think.

00:05:02 Speaker_00
Put another way, sometimes you're the boxer and sometimes you are the punching bag. We all get our turn as the punching bag. It doesn't matter who you are. As far as I can tell, it doesn't matter how successful you become.

00:05:14 Speaker_00
You've always grabbed a number at the deli counter of Just wait, eventually you're going to get your ass kicked by the universe.

00:05:21 Speaker_00
Now, during these periods of firefighting, let's just call it, when stuff is popping up, this whack-a-mole, I get fidgety and frustrated. I feel like I'm treading water, and patience wears very thin, has never been my strong suit.

00:05:33 Speaker_00
That's true especially with myself. And my instinct is to try to fix things as quickly as possible. And that's all well and good, but I've realized that from a place of what the fuck, I often rush and create more problems.

00:05:47 Speaker_00
This is particularly bad, catastrophic sometimes when I try to sprint immediately upon waking up. The mantra that has saved me and saved me during that three to four week period I mentioned was very simple and it's this, make before you manage.

00:06:03 Speaker_00
Make before you manage, that's it.

00:06:06 Speaker_00
What this means is each morning before plugging holes, fixing things, calling vets, answering text messages, delegating or yanking out dead raccoons, answering a million text messages, this mantra was a reminder to make something.

00:06:20 Speaker_00
You should read Paul Graham's essays and listen to Neil Gaiman's make good art commencement speech for more on all of this, but back to any given day and make before you manage. Even the most time sensitive items can usually wait 60 minutes.

00:06:35 Speaker_00
And by make something, I mean anything. It could be anything at all. You just need to feel like you've pushed a millimeter ahead in some creative direction. For me personally, even a 90 second video of calligraphy

00:06:48 Speaker_00
could set a better emotional tone for the entire day, helping me to be more calm as I handle problems, as I execute all the rest of the stuff later. Or maybe I attempt to jumpstart my writing with an Instagram caption, right?

00:07:00 Speaker_00
Or an email to a friend to take the pressure off. It's practically nothing, but it's enough. Even token efforts allow me to reassure myself with, hey pal, don't worry, you did produce something today.

00:07:13 Speaker_00
And the psychological difference between zero acts of creation and one act of creation, no matter how small, is really impossible to overstate. It's binary, right? Zero to a little bit, those are two different worlds.

00:07:26 Speaker_00
If you're lucky, sometimes that one idea, that one sentence, or one shitty first draft can turn into something bigger. And that happens when you catch the wave. But the point is to be able to say to yourself,

00:07:36 Speaker_00
Even for five minutes, hark, I am a creator, not just a janitor of bullshit. Here's proof that I can and will do more than just manage the minutia of life. And I think, at least personally, I do need that reinforcement.

00:07:51 Speaker_00
We all spend time on the struggle bus, happens to everybody. At the very least, this mantra has helped me to find a window seat when it's my turn. So as a reminder, when in doubt, try it out, make before you manage.

00:08:08 Speaker_00
Okay folks, I'll be back shortly with another story, this time from a birthday crisis. Fun, fun, fun. Ultimately, it has a happy ending. So stay tuned. But first, just a few quick words from one of today's sponsors.

00:08:22 Speaker_00
I do get asked a lot what I would take if I could only take one supplement, and the true answer is invariably AG1. It simply covers a ton of bases. I usually drink it in the mornings and frequently take their travel packs with me on the road.

00:08:35 Speaker_00
So what is AG1? AG1 is a science-driven formulation of vitamins, probiotics, and whole food source nutrients. In a single scoop, AG1 gives you support for the brain, gut, and immune system. So take ownership of your health and try AG1 today.

00:08:49 Speaker_00
You will get a free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free AG1 travel packs with your first subscription purchase. So learn more, go to drinkag1.com slash Tim. That's drinkag1, the number one. Drinkag1.com slash Tim. Check it out.

00:09:11 Speaker_00
The moment that you feel that just possibly you're walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself, that's the moment you may be starting to get it right.

00:09:24 Speaker_00
This is a quote from Neil Gaiman, one of my favorite fiction writers. It's from his University of the Arts commencement speech. But let's bring it back to my story. A few months ago, I had a birthday party. It was great.

00:09:35 Speaker_00
A dozen friends and I gathered for a few days of sun, beach, barbecue, catching up. We do it every year. And then on the last day, I didn't get up until 11.30.

00:09:45 Speaker_00
That's late even for me, knowing full well that the last few remaining friends were leaving about 30 minutes later, around 12 noon. And the sad reality is I was afraid of being alone. I was afraid of being lonely.

00:09:59 Speaker_00
So like a child, I hid my head under the covers, that's literally, and hit snooze until I just couldn't postpone reality any further. But why am I telling you this? Why am I being so self-indulgent in telling you this ridiculous story?

00:10:13 Speaker_00
It's because we all like to appear successful, a nebulous term at best, and the media like to portray certain standouts as superheroes, these people on the magazine covers and so on.

00:10:23 Speaker_00
And yes, sometimes these dramatic stories of overcoming the odds are super inspiring, but...

00:10:28 Speaker_00
Often, just as often, they lead to an unhealthy conclusion, maybe an inner monologue, which is something like, well, maybe they, whoever they happen to be, maybe they can do it because they're incredible, they have no faults, they're just karate chopping the day and winning at all moments, but I'm just a normal person.

00:10:44 Speaker_00
I can't do that. The reality is most superheroes, these superheroes, are nothing of the sort. They're just as weird and neurotic as we are. They're strange creatures who do big things despite lots of self-defeating habits and self-talk.

00:10:59 Speaker_00
So to personalize this, let's bring it home. I am definitely no superhero. I'm not even a consistent normal, whatever that is. So let me give you a little laundry list.

00:11:09 Speaker_00
Not too long ago, I cried while watching Rudy on an airplane and that was cause for concern for a lot of people around me. I repeatedly hit snooze for one to three hours past my planned wake time because I simply didn't want to face the day.

00:11:23 Speaker_00
I considered giving everything away, moving to Montreal, Seville, or Iceland. Location kind of depends on what I'm trying to escape. I've used gentlemanly websites to relax during the day when clearly having other urgent and important shit to do.

00:11:40 Speaker_00
I wore the same pair of jeans for a week straight just to have a constant during weeks of chaos. So listening to all that, you might think it seems pretty dysfunctional, right? I assume so, I certainly hear it that way.

00:11:54 Speaker_00
But around the same time, especially sort of the latter few weeks of that, I also was able to increase my passive income 20%.

00:12:03 Speaker_00
bought my dream house, got to the point where I was once again meditating twice per day for 20 minutes per session without fail. So not winning any gold medals in meditation, but incredibly helpful in stabilizing.

00:12:14 Speaker_00
I cut my caffeine intake to next to nothing. That usually means pu-erh tea in the morning and maybe a green tea in the afternoon. No more than one cup of really strong coffee per week. There's a lot to that, but suffice to say, much improved sleep.

00:12:28 Speaker_00
Signed one of the most exciting business deals of the last decade, including working on a collaboration that is first of its kind for me. Completely transformed my blood work, including a few biomarkers I've been working on for years.

00:12:41 Speaker_00
And I realized as the next point, once again, that let's just call it manic depressive symptoms are just part of entrepreneurship. And last but not least, I have come to feel closer to all of my immediate family members. So where does that leave us?

00:12:57 Speaker_00
So personally, I suck at efficiency, which is doing things quickly or doing things super well. But I have a few tricks. So here is my coping mechanism. It is an eight step process for maximizing efficacy, which is doing the right thing.

00:13:11 Speaker_00
Number one, wake up at least an hour before you have to be at a computer screen. Email is the mind killer, so don't go immediately into reactive mode. Number two, make a cup of tea, I like Pu-erh tea, and sit down with a pen or pencil and paper.

00:13:26 Speaker_00
I like to do it analog. Number three, write down three to five things and no more that are making you most anxious or uncomfortable.

00:13:33 Speaker_00
They're often the things that have been punted from one day's to-do list to the next, to the next, to the next, and so on. And most important usually means most uncomfortable, or very frequently it does, with some chance of rejection or conflict.

00:13:46 Speaker_00
To find the most important, you can often just look for the most uncomfortable, with some chance of rejection or conflict, so write down those three to five things.

00:13:53 Speaker_00
Step four, for each item, ask yourself, if this were the only thing I accomplished today, would I be satisfied with my day? Also ask, will moving this forward make all the other to-dos unimportant or easier to knock off later?

00:14:06 Speaker_00
That's a nod to Gary Keller, the one thing, so thank you for that, Gary. Step number five, look only at the items you've answered yes to for at least one of those. Those are the high leverage items if removed.

00:14:18 Speaker_00
Number six, block out at least two to three hours to focus on one of them for today, one. Let the rest of the urgent but less important stuff slide. They'll still be there tomorrow.

00:14:28 Speaker_00
Step number seven, and I'm repeating, to be clear, block out at least two to three hours to focus on one of them for today. This is one block of time, uninterrupted, no distractions, no social media.

00:14:39 Speaker_00
Cobbling together 10 minutes here and there to add up to 120 minutes does not work. Step number eight, if you get distracted or start procrastinating, happens to everybody, don't freak out and downward spiral. Just gently come back to your one to do.

00:14:54 Speaker_00
Congratulations. That's it. That's the whole thing. This is practically the only way I can create big outcomes despite my never-ending impulse to procrastinate, nap, otherwise fritter away my days with all sorts of bullshit.

00:15:09 Speaker_00
And it works, works really, really well. And I've come to learn if I have 10 important things to do in a day, it's 100% certain that nothing important will get done that day, so you gotta pick one thing.

00:15:19 Speaker_00
On the other hand, I can usually handle one must-do item and block out my lesser behaviors for two to three hours a day. in the beginning of the day, that's what works for me.

00:15:29 Speaker_00
It does not take much to seem superhuman and appear successful to nearly everyone around you if you learn to single task, single, single, single, single task, one. In fact, you just need a simple rule.

00:15:42 Speaker_00
What you do is more important than how you do everything else, and doing something well does not make it important. So material over method, the what over the how.

00:15:53 Speaker_00
And if you consistently feel the counterproductive need for volume and doing tons of stuff, maybe you should put a few things on post-it notes, put them in your bathroom. And the first that you can add is being busy is a form of laziness.

00:16:06 Speaker_00
Lazy thinking and indiscriminate action does not mean that more equals more in the positive sense. Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions you need to take.

00:16:20 Speaker_00
And when, despite your best efforts, you feel like you're losing at the game of life, just remember, even the best of the best feel this way sometimes. It happens to everybody.

00:16:29 Speaker_00
And when I'm personally in the pit of despair, I recall what iconic writer Kurt Vonnegut said about his process. Highly recommend his books. Amazing guy. And here's the quote. When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.

00:16:43 Speaker_00
So don't overestimate the world and underestimate yourself. You're better than you think, and you're definitely not alone. We're all in this together, and everyone is fighting a battle that you know nothing about. Hey guys, this is Tim again.

00:16:57 Speaker_00
Just one more thing before you take off, and that is Five Bullet Friday. Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little fun before the weekend?

00:17:07 Speaker_00
Between one and a half and two million people subscribe to my free newsletter, my super short newsletter called Five Bullet Friday. Easy to sign up, easy to cancel. It is basically a half page

00:17:19 Speaker_00
that I send out every Friday to share the coolest things I've found or discovered or have started exploring over that week. It's kind of like my diary of cool things.

00:17:27 Speaker_00
It often includes articles I'm reading, books I'm reading, albums perhaps, gadgets, gizmos, all sorts of tech tricks and so on that get sent to me by my friends, including a lot of podcast guests.

00:17:39 Speaker_00
And these strange, esoteric things end up in my field, and then I test them, and then I share them with you. So, if that sounds fun, again, it's very short, a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend, something to think about.

00:17:53 Speaker_00
If you'd like to try it out, just go to Tim.blog slash Friday, type that into your browser, Tim.blog slash Friday, drop in your email, and you'll get the very next one. Thanks for listening. This episode is brought to you by 8Sleep.

00:18:08 Speaker_00
8Sleep recently launched their newest generation of the Pod, and I'm excited to test it out, Pod 4 Ultra. Pod 4 Ultra can cool down each side of the bed as much as 20 degrees Fahrenheit below room temperature.

00:18:18 Speaker_00
Pod 4 Ultra also introduces an adjustable base that fits between your mattress and your bed frame, and adds reading and sleeping positions for the best unwinding experience.

00:18:27 Speaker_00
And for those snore-heavy nights, the Pod can detect your snoring and automatically lift your head by a few degrees to improve airflow and stop you or your partner from snoring.

00:18:36 Speaker_00
Plus, with the Pod 4 Ultra, you can leave your wearables on the nightstand, because these types of metrics are integrated into the Pod 4 Ultra itself. So, get your best night's sleep.

00:18:45 Speaker_00
Head to 8sleep.com slash Tim and use code TIM to get $350 off of the Pod 4 Ultra. They currently ship to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia.

00:18:57 Speaker_00
Regular listeners probably know I've been taking Momentous products consistently and testing them for a long while now. But you may not know that I recently collaborated with them to put together my top picks.

00:19:08 Speaker_00
I always aim for a strong body and sharp mind, and neither is possible without quality sleep. So I designed my performance stack to check all three boxes, and here it is.

00:19:16 Speaker_00
CreaPure Creatine for muscular and cognitive support, Whey Protein Isolate for muscle mass and recovery, and Magnesium Threonate for sleep.

00:19:24 Speaker_00
All Momentous products are NSF and Inform Sport certified, which is professional athlete and Olympic level testing. So try it out for yourself. Visit livemomentous.com slash Tim and use Tim at checkout for 20% off of my performance deck.

00:19:38 Speaker_00
I'll spell it out, it's a long one. Live moment, O-U-S dot com slash Tim. So livemomentous.com slash Tim for 20% off.