“The to-do list is the graveyard of the important but not urgent” – Kevin Kruse
Kevin Kruse is an entrepreneur who has won both an “Inc 500” award for fast growth and a “Best Place to Work” award for
employee culture. Today, he is the CEO of LEADx a company that offers free leadership training and professional development to everyone, everywhere, at any time. He is a New York Times bestselling author and the host of the The LEADx Leadership Podcast.
I first came across Kevin when I discovered his awesome podcast called Extreme Productivity. Kevin has interviewed many of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs to identify the common habits and principles that make them more productive, including Mark Cuban, Kevin Harrington, James Altucher, John Lee Dumas, Pat Flynn, Grant Cardone, and Lewis Howes. This resulted in his New York Times Best Selling book, 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management.
As a massive time management nerd, I was keen to chat with Kevin to learn more about how he gets things done and teaches others to do the same. I LOVED this conversation. Kevin really helped me reconcile some of my own challenges in my own quest to become more productive, and I think he will help you do the same.
Contact Kevin:
In this episode, we also cover:
- The importance of realising and scheduling for your Most Important Task
- How to set goals
- How to organise your in-tray and manage decision fatigue (Getting Things Done)
- Calendar overuse
- Social media management
- iCal vs Google Cal
- … and much more
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Listen below:
- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
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This episode is brought to you by Hituni.com, providers of the best online courses in high intensity training that come highly recommended by Dr. Doug McGuff and Discover Strength CEO, Luke Carlson. Course contributors include world-class exercise experts like Drew Baye, Ellington Darden and Skyler Tanner. There are courses for both trainers and trainees. So even if you’re not a trainer but someone who practices HIT, this course can help you figure out how to improve your progress and get best results. Check out Hituni.com, add the course you want to your shopping cart and enter the coupon code ‘CW10’ to get 10% off your purchase!
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Selected Links from the Episode
- Time Management & Productivity Boosting Strategies w/ Kevin Kruse (High Intensity Health Podcast)
- 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management by Kevin Kruse ( Amazon US / Amazon UK )
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss ( Amazon US / Amazon UK )
- “Productivity” Tricks for the Neurotic, Manic-Depressive, and Crazy (Like Me) by Tim Ferriss
- 10 Life Hacks for Improved Productivity and Health in 2017
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen ( Amazon US / Amazon UK )
- Zeigarnik effect
- Calendly
- Basecamp
- How to Use Batching to Boost Your Productivity and Reduce Stress in Business and in Life
- Philadelphia 76ers
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill ( Amazon US / Amazon UK )
- Evernote
- iCal
- Bank of Ireland Co-Working Space in Galway
- Google Calendar
- Hazel
- If This Then That (IFTTT)
- Boomerang
- Amazon Echo ( Amazon US / Amazon UK )
- Archimedes
- Body by Science: A Research Based Program for Strength Training, Body building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week by Dr Doug McGuff and John Little ( Amazon US / Amazon UK )
400 – How to Pivot your HIT Business For More Profit
397 – How to Double your Client Base (Case Study with Billy Fletcher)
391 – How to Make Money in Fitness with High-Intensity Personal Training
I tried the strategy this week of listing out and scheduling my Most Important Task, and found it really helped to clarify my thinking at work and get rid of the time wasting on busy work type stuff. I believe it will greatly enhance my productivity! I plan to implement the MIT for a month, and then evaluate and consider using my calendar to schedule out my time and tasks as opposed to working from a list. First, I want to build the habit of scheduling the Most Important Task.
Thanks for sharing, it’s been very helpful!
This makes me so happy! Nice one Matt for taking action on the advice in this episode. Here’s something I’ve found to be REALLY effective. 2 things. Use this link to identify MIT: https://tim.blog/2013/11/03/productivity-hacks/
Then
Use Parkinson’s Law to increase per hour productivity. Give yourself time restrictions. Give yourself just 2 or 3 hours max to complete your MIT. You will be amazed how effective and truly productive you will be, even if you do NOTHING else.
I basically took this approach to smash my quota in my sales career in just 1 or 2 hours every morning.
Thanks, Lawrence! I’ll do this and up my game so I can make more meaningful impact. I’m currently in a combination of service and sales roles in financial planning office. As I get more effective and grow my sales, I’ll gain more autonomy, which is what I want.
😀
I haven’t ever worked in a service role so I can’t really comment, but I imagine that it’s much harder to implement this and other productivity strategies in this context since I assume you are mostly reactive.
In sales however, most employers don’t (or shouldn’t) care about how you’re using your time so long as you are hitting / exceeding your sales targets. That’s the beauty of sales. Most sales people / organisations aren’t very effective or organised at selling and the targets often reflect that. Once you learn how to hack that game, you will see how you can achieve more output with MUCH less time as most sales people by being far more thoughtful about your actions and cutting out the fat.
Tim Ferriss said it well in the 4-Hour Work Week. Ask yourself this when determining your MIT: “What single action will bring my most profitable customer one step closer to signing another purchase order”.