Getting Things Done

Let's get back to that, Michael.OK, so you want me to explainwhy I'm not getting things?Well, yeah, why do you feel likeyou're not getting things doneand what's happening there andhow I can possibly help you?Ok?well, I'm not reallysure how to put it.I guess I at night, I'vebeen doing the thingthat you mentionedin another podcaston how old it was, butto write down everythingyou want to do for the nextday in a book and kind of mind,dump yourself so you can sleep.So that's been helping me a lot.And when I wakeup, I already havethis list of things I want todo so I can get started on them.But it just seems like Iget a couple of things doneand I feel good about.And then I kind of justget really distracted.I get distracted with lookingat things like Facebook numbersand things like that,which I should just noteven pay attention to at all.And when I went back to thepart about being scared,I think what I'm doing isI think I'm stopping myselffrom doing the workand distracting myselffrom doing the work becauseI am scared of what.Of doing it, then itfailing or right, doing itand having a success and thengetting all excited about itand then it not happeningagain or whatever, so.Right, a lot of self-disciplineI need to have here,and I'm just like this, right?Yeah but I'm just I just don'treally know how to start.I just listen toanother random course.I think it was prior, probablyas wow, prioritization.Yeah there you go.Yeah and.Basically, OK, Messing upthat word so many times,just fried mybrain, but it's OK,you you said, what did you say?You said you chunkyour calendar outand you let others get into yourcalendar, so when you wake up,you just look at the nextthing to do and you just do it.And I just, I don'tknow, I just that'swhat I need to learn how to do.I just need toteach myself, mike,you chose to do this yesterday,so you had that thought.So just do it now, you know?OK, OK.It sounds a lot.No, no.It's not stupid at all.Please don't say that.And if it is stupid, allowme to have the pleasureof telling you that's stupid.OK Don't take myfun away from me.OK there's a lotof stuff in here.There is a tremendous amount.We all can learn from here.OK, so the first thingis, you're doing the work,you've got your goals,you chunked it down,you're writing yourto do list each nightand then you're attacking it.But then you'regetting distracted,you already knowwhat's happening here,you're getting distracted.From that.So here's how I handlejust managing myself.I love to go on to YouTube andmake some comments and fighttrolls.I love to check out what'shappening on Twitter.And you can only imagineif you get distractedwith a couple of channels, I'mdistracted with 15 channelsthat I have to checkevery single day.So I only reward myself.So I've turned that into areward now, that distractionand when a code, itis something else,I want to encode it as a reward.I only get to do that fun stuff.If I complete the task.I also imagine someof these tasks suck,like accounting orinvoicing or respondingto some legal documentor something like thator building a proposal.Those things are notfun to do at all.So they're on our listand we have to do them.So we kind of have to have afigure out a different way.My other guess atthis is that youhave a lot of things to dothat are just busy work thatare neitherimportant, like urgentand impactful to your business.So we have to prioritizethe things that are goingto make us the most money.And oftentimes, they'rethe most difficult thingsthat we just don't want to doit like I have on my list here.I'm not going tolie to you guys.I have a list here.I have to respondto this attorneybecause I sit on theboard, I have to respond.And this kind ofmanagement stuff sucks.I hate doing it.I've been dragging my feet.So for whatever reason,I've not prioritized itenough in my life that I'mgoing to go and commenton YouTube before I actuallyrespond to this email.And that's my weakness as well.We're going to workthrough that, OK,so I want you to look atthe things that distract youas a reward only ifyou complete the task.And to recognize that thingsthat you hate doing the mostare actually probably the thingsthat you have to do the most.Otherwise, the thingson your to do listaren't being prioritized enough.Think of yourself asa person who there'swhat came is that missilecommand you guys remember backin the day missile command getold school, old dogs will knoweverybody was like, would youhave a base or multiple bases?And you have to fire arocket up because there'smissiles comingdown and you haveto prioritize like whichones moving fastestand which ones aregoing to hit my base.So you have to knockthose things outand it's a constant thing,and it's super stressfulto play that game asyou advance in levels.And that's where you'reat in life right now.There's somethingthat's coming down,it's going to destroy you.You've got to godeal with that firstand then you can also then sendthis email to deal with thatand kick that or puntthat down the road.So it's a constantjuggling act and you'regoing to get through that.I hope that makes sense.And I'll allow you alittle bit to follow upwith that, if that's not clear.OK, I want to talkabout this idea.I love that you said thisbecause this is usuallywhat I say to people.And then they look at melike, what do you talk about?Why would I bescared of success?That is an insane idea.Well, scared of successis a different way.Something else that'smuch more powerful.Not to admit somebodyhere a whole lot.Werner can join, ok?When you say you'rescared of success,nobody's reallyscared of success,what they're scared of is therealization that they're notas good as they think they are.So they delay doing that thing.So, for example, if youthink you are a good dancer,you're not going toenter the competitionbecause the competitionwill objectively tell youone way or anotherwhere you rank relativeto other competitors.And you're not readyto face that reality,so I know a lot ofcreative people in my life.Composers, writers, artists,musicians, all kinds of people,designers.Filmmakers and they thinkthey're really talented.How did he know,because everybodyin their life up to this pointhas told them this their mom,their dad, their teacher.Colleagues, friends, strangers.And they like that feeling.And that expectationof themselves.Doesn't want to getshattered by some other form.For example, if you submit yourwork for a design competitionand you win nothing or you winthe bronze or not the gold.I can hurt you.That's going to shatterthis image of yourself.So this takes me backto the very beginningof this call today,which was about happinessand expectations.If you get rid ofyour expectations.The results are whatthey're supposed to be.And you should be OK with that.And it could bethat when you arriveat doing the thing thatyou're supposed to be doingand you realizeyou're not that good.And that's OK.If you really love it,do it for the love of it,and don't worryabout anything else.I do like that one messagethat strapline does sharewith his community, whichis, you know, what's so what?So what if you can't selllogo for more than $1,000.You're doing something creativeand you're doing somethingthat you're passionate aboutand that you've dreamt about?And that's more than whata lot of people on Earthhave the ability to say.So don't worry about the rest.So, Michael, let'sinvert it back.Let's talk abouta little bit more,and let's see if we canunlock something here.I want to have a breakthroughmoment with you, Michael.Me too.OK can I say?Yeah, go ahead.How can I like have a followup question because thisis something I have alsokind of been going through,and I kind of cameto a realizationafter visiting the blindstudio, and it was so I thoughtthis might be useful and itties back to both expectationsand getting things done.One of the things thatI realized was that.One of the voicesin my head, am Ilistening to Am I listeningto my ego and my listeningto my own pride?Am I listening for the paycheck?Am I listening for like ambitionor what truly matters to me?What am I listening to?Am I listening to my ownpassion to create something?And when I had that realizationand I put all of these thingson a stage and Istarted seeing that,OK, I'm not getting thingsdone for me personallybecause I am starting to.Listen to theambitious side of me.Whereas I should beputting down the timeto kind of hone mycraft, be more diligent,figuring out more things,so the things that get doneare just a byproductof me pursuingmy passion and unhappiness wasa manifestation of me gettingthe things done, beingable to express the passionand that came to a realizationbecause I was in a studioand there were peopleworking diligently.But it was absolutely silent.There's no ruckus,there is no busybody,there is nothing goingon, but everybody was justmanifesting their work and thatkind of hit me pretty hard.That was I was that's whyI was sitting on the sofabecause I was justabsorbing the silence.And it was fantastic.And it was truly gaveme pause to realizethat I'm listening to voicesthat don't really matter.And that was mything, it's like,do you feel like,is it something?Am I losing it or is itsomething that kind of tiesback in?You're asking, Michael,that question, right?Yeah Michael, and it'sopen to you as well.Michael, you wantto respond to that?I'm honest, I'm honestly notsure how to respond to that.OK I'm asking you askthat question again.Or state that in a simpler way,like dumb it down a little bitfor me.Happiness manifestingitself, quieting the voicesthat it's too much inthere to just make it.I can find thisfeeling his idea.OK, do it.So at the end of it,he says that we end uplistening to too manythings in our headand all our thoughts,our own voices.But then it comesback to prioritizingwhat you want tolisten to, becauseat the end of the day, ifyou're able to do the work.Happiness is a manifestationof the work you do,getting Fame as amanifestation of the workyou do, getting recognitionas a manifestation of the workyou do.So all in all, it boilsdown to this one thingthat you have to recognizeat the end of the day, thatis the work.That's what I that'snot really in question,it's just an observation.I thought I had todistill the idea down.I think you distill italmost the same way.It's an image, soit's like, I get it.I think you smarty pants.Michael, let's just talk.It's just two of us.Forget about them.It just is.All right.Let's get back to us.Like what in this dialogueabout you getting distracted?Or are you having this list?But it's justsomething that is notthere that's motivatingyou to attack your list.You want to respond tothat part of it first.Or do you want totalk a little bitabout what you're scared of,of understanding or realizingabout yourself?OK, so something Imay have realizedwhen you were, youknow, responding to mewas I just recentlystarted doing videoson YouTube and stuff, andthat's all I can think about.That's all mybrain thinks about.I just think about, likein life, I walk around now.I think of cuts like how I couldcut my life to make it funny.I can't.And so I have to work,you know, at least six,eight hours a day, at leastto pay my bills every day.So while I'm doing,they're sittingthere trying to do theselike UI designs and stuff,which I'm alsotrying to move out ofand to create a strategy.And then I've discovered thisvideo thing that I like to do,which is just takingall of my thought,you know, and brainpowerto do something that'stotally fun for me, but isnot paying the Bills at alland will realisticallymay never pay the Bills.So I have to still spend agood amount of my time tryingto make money somehow.Yeah so that'sanother huge hurdle.I'm trying to get over and I'vebeen trying to somehow takecreative businessstrategy, createtake these videosand the happinessand the funny andeverything else,and kind of mashthem all together.So I can do be doingwhat I want to doand try to make money from it.And it's really difficult.But the small little followingthat I've capturedseems to be OK with it.So now I just need to do it.But again, it does stilltake a long time for itto make money andeverything else,so I still have to I stillhave to stay focused.I still have to chunkthis time out to do it.I can't sit here all day andthink about my next video.So OK.I want to respondto some of this.And then I'll hearfrom somebody else.Ashley is goingto jump in, right?The lady with pink.Ashley, you go first.Go ahead.Oh, I was going to say so.I get that.I understand thefeeling you're havingright now and a really good.Just a quick little thing toget that piece, that idea outof my brain and recognize itand then move back into my workis that I'm carrying a notebookaround with me everywhere,literally to thebathroom, to the kitchenif I go to the garbageto put my recycling away.I have that notebook with meso that when I have an idea,it comes up.I'm just able tosay, write it down.So I don't forget it because95% of the ideas thatpop into your head,you're going to forget.So just write it down andthen just release it, right?That's it.You just have thatoutlet, and itallows you to recognize that theideas there put it in and thenjust get back to your work.You're not ignoring the idea,you're not throwing it away.But if they pop up,that's the best time.So just put it aside and writeit down and then get back in.Mm-hmm OK, thank youvery much, Ashley.Something I want to say toyou, Michael, is this is thatand I might be guiltyof perpetuatingthis idea is that whenwe're working on something,the other thingthat we're not doingis always the thingthat's alluring to us.It's like you're married andthen that other person catchesyour eye and I go, Oh my god,I wonder what my life wouldbe like with that person.And so your mindwanders and floats,and it starts to thinkabout all these what ifs.And I think the guiltthat I carry part of thisis because I'm trying tosell you guys this dream,right, where you can juststand in front of a camera,just be totally a goofball,do whatever it is that you do,and people are just going tothrow money at you all daylong.So I get that I'm guiltyas part of this machine.And I think about this is that.Before we get to do allthat kind of fun stuff.Have we achieved mastery at thething that makes us the money?And let's keep iton context here,so what I got fromthis conversation,as far as your UIdesigner and now you'drather be UX strategy person.And there's a bunch of peoplein this group that the USstrategy.And then he'slike, why won't youhire me to do the design work sowe'll all want to be somewherewhere we're not?Maybe you guys can tradeplaces, I don't know.Because there's a lotof people who are like,man, I don't want todeal with all that clientuser journey mapping,empathy graphs and all that.I just want to make cool stuff.So can we just be ok?First of all, doingthe thing that wedo that it pays us well,I assume people like usfor it and to develop masteryover that before we startbranching offbecause I'm not surewhere you're at in that chain.Perhaps you've beendoing this for 20 yearsand you feel like,you know what?Yeah, it's timefor me to move on.I've hit the ceiling.I've been to the top of themountain and looking down.It's not thatinteresting, so I wantto go to a differentmountain, right?That's it for me.Now you guys have to realizeI've been in business for 23years and the first twodecades were essentiallydoing the same thing.Yeah, there were littlechallenges along the way,but really it was to makecommercials for other people.And I do share the informationI share with you for some of youto kind of shortenthat path, but notto cut it all the way out.So I think it's fantastic.I think if you cando UI work and you'redoing some amazing thingsfor websites and appsand it looks goodand makes you happythat we should be OKwith that for now,while you develop youronline YouTube personalityand you grow your channel.I think that wouldbe great, so that'syour hobby, that's the modernequivalent of woodworkingor building a deckin the backyardor something like that.That's us in the 21st century,right, as men and women,we get to do thesethings and builda community around what we do.I'm also wondering if you can'thave those two things startto overlap.So they're not twoseparate things whereand this may kill youto do this, Michael.Well, you're sharing yourdesign process over about UI.And then you startto talk about.The UX stuff, the strategystuff on your YouTube channel,so they're startingto align and overlap,so eventually somebody is goingto see this and think, Oh gosh,Michael is a really smart guy.It's fantastic.He knows how to do this.We need to hire himto do this for us.And that could be your bridge.Perhaps I don't know.Michael, you want to respond.Yeah, it does make sense.My the bridging of thegap is a lot weirderthan you would think becauseof the evolution of howmy videos have gone.They have nothing todo with design at all.And so, yeah, my goal whenI started making the videoswas to make people laugh.And then I wanted tobasically help them somehow.And then I realizedthe best way Icould help them is withhelping their business.So And like, that's mysuperpower and everything else,right?So that's what Ishould be doing.I shouldn't just bedoing this other thing.So maybe I should just start adifferent channel completely.I don't know, butI don't know if youhave to do that if youenjoy making people laugh,and that gives you joy.That's fantastic.The whole alignmentof the superpoweris to try to figureout as many thingsthat you offer theworld that give you joy.Try to find as manyoverlaps as possible.So first of all, makingvideos that make people laughmakes you happy.Makes them happy.We can all use a little bitmore of that in the world.And if you can help them.Grow spiritually.And help them grow theirbusiness or their understandingof extra UI on one level up,like I'm not a comedy guy.I'm not trying to ever be funny.I don't think I'm like that.And if that's whatyou do, I thinkyou can find a sweet littlespot where all those things kindof connect.But where I thinka lot of us areis that we segment orsegregate our different skillsand interests.So they develop on their own.And the two never meet.So your clients on the UIside don't know anythingabout you trying to make peoplelaugh and the people theyjust trying to makelaugh don't evenunderstand that there'sthis person who'sgot all this wealth of knowledgeto share because they're justtrying to make me laugh.And so when you stand alonein one silo, one vertical,you compete witheverybody in that space.So in the world of peoplemaking people laugh.There are people like FuTV, there's Jerry seinfeld,there's a lot ofdifferent people out therewho are very good atmaking people laugh.How you competeagainst that is youstart to fold the otherthings that make up you.And you start toput that out there.OK I spent a lot of time.Maybe we need to justthink about this and circleback on that future call.OK and I'm going to moveon to the next topicunless somebody hassomething that theywant to respond that'sdirectly related to this.I just want to jump in saying,I have watched your videosand they're really funny.And it would be kind of sadthat he's still being this.Yeah, I mean, it's the purposeof the videos is to be funny.Then I think thatachieving that quite well.And if you enjoydoing it, then youshould just make it a hobby.Take two days.Do it on the weekend.You know, just do iton Saturday, Sunday.And that's all youdo on Saturday,Sunday and the rest ofthe week is work time.Yeah what is Michael'svideos about?What's he doing?Is he over chairs,cooking videos?So great.And I keep looking atthem and watching them,and I can see the crossoverin my head, writing,I can see how you can writeit to tools of the trade dude.Upgrade the knife and talkabout how one solid knife isreally good for having thatinvestment in a proper tool,right?You can line this up.There are cooking reallygood food analogiesthat you can use in that videoto go into strategy, especiallythe user strategy.All right, I'll after thisand ask you about that.OK, guys, I haveit since rusticaand actually have seenyour videos that have not.And there are giggling, talkingabout it, and they're saying,it's really good.I trust these two people.So if they'resaying it's good, Igot to forget everythingI said before.Screw it.Just flush that away.Let's look at like this.Let's look at like you'rein Shawshank Redemption.And you need to escapethat prison because you'vebeen unjustifiably condemned.You didn't do it.You're not guilty of a crime.Right and I think aswith Tom hanks, right,so he's the maincharacter, and he's digginghis way out of this thing.One scoop of sand at a time.So here's what I think ifthis is what really gives youjoy in life, makingfunny cooking videosor whatever it is thatyou're doing food videos.Just realize thatdoing the UI stuffis you digging out a tunnel?And realize that one day that'snot going to be here anymore.And just focus the restof your heart, your energyinto making your funny videos.And when that starts topick up at a certain point,you can leave theother stuff behind.Another way oflooking at this isyou can just do themost amount of UI jobsthat you can do for themaximum amount of money.Until you have enough runwayto survive for six monthsand you cut all yourexpenses, you don't go out,you don't do anything.That then, will allowyou to focus and producefunny food videos for sixmonths and really makea concerted effort.Lots of ways to get there.Maybe that's whyyour to do list isn'tgetting done because you reallyactually don't want to do it.So you're nodding,so I see that right.So maybe that's your plan, man,shawshank, this whole thing,this is prison time.Just put you at a time.Just do it and get it done.And realize thatevery day that youdo that, you're one day closerto seeing sunshine on your faceand breathing fresh airand that kind of stuff.OK all right, we'regoing to move on.