Speaker 1: So over the last five years, I've read pretty much every time management book out there. And there are four habits that I genuinely use every single day to make my time management more efficient, which I think allows me to be a very busy corporate lawyer while also running a YouTube channel and a business, staying fit and keeping a healthy relationship with Beth. I also then find time to read, watch TV and see some friends even. So let's run through those four habits in this video. Habit number one is to treat work sessions like you're going to the cinema. So if you're not one of the losers, unless you have genuine bladder issues, who needs to go to the loo during a film, you will have prepared yourself to be sat in a seat, watching the film, immersed in that experience for maybe two and a half hours without moving. And I think we should treat work sessions in order to enable us to get into a state of flow of genuine immersion in our work in exactly the same way. I picked up this idea a few years ago from Gary Keller's book, The One Thing, and it has honestly been a complete game changer for me. I think just going into a work session, thinking I actually need to prepare to sit here for an hour, hour and a half and be really focused has really changed how I think about work sessions. It means that before I sit down to work in the office or at home, I make sure I've been to the toilet, stretched my legs, got myself a drink and a healthier than I probably would at the cinema snack, and then also made sure that my phone is on silent, not gonna disturb me, make sure that notifications or do not disturb is on, allowing me to really immerse myself in the work that I'm about to do. And just like when you're at the cinema, if you're like me and you find it hugely distracting and annoying when people are like rustling around in their popcorn and generally making noise around you, taking you out of that like state of flow of watching the film, I really strongly recommend that you use either a playlist or an app like Endel, today's sponsor, more on them later, to really block out any distracting noise. This is so important for me that for when I'm in the office, I have my AirPods Pro with the noise cancelling function on, they're much more discreet than my bigger Bose noise cancelling headphones that I wear when I'm at home. All of that then puts me in a state of mind where I am ready to get into a state of flow and immersion in the work that I'm going to do. Second habit is the batch task before you start. So batching is a very simple idea, where rather than switching between, I'm gonna water this plant here and then I'm gonna do a bit of reading and then I'm gonna do some work and then I'm gonna clean the floor upstairs, you try to batch similar tasks, so watering all of the plants at the same time all at once, which just generally makes life way more efficient. I think the question here is really just like, how do I implement batching day-to-day? I think there are really two ways that I implement batching. The first is batching by project. What I mean by that is that when I'm at work and I'm working on, let's say something for my client, James, when I have all of the emails and documents open from James, it's way more efficient for me to do all of the work for James while I have everything there and open than it is to do something for James and then think, oh, actually, I really need to do that thing for Sandra, so I'll just switch over and close everything and then need to open everything for Sandra and then open everything again for James later when I go back to James. Batching by project effectively means do everything for James and then everything for Sandra. It sounds pretty obvious, but I think actually being really conscious of when you are switching between projects way too frequently is a hugely healthy mindset to adopt. It allows you to be much more efficient in how you're working, both practically in terms of not having to open and close different things for different projects and also in terms of how your mind is operating. It is in the mindset of working for James. Do all of the work for James while your mind is focused and in that frame of mind rather than switching between different projects. A top tip for me is when I'm at work and I'm working on, say, three different projects at once, I actually have a different desktop for each of those different projects, so I actually have to move between desktops, which obviously allows me to keep all of the stuff relevant to a single project open in one desktop all at once and also creates resistance for me in terms of flicking between the different tasks across different projects. And the second kind of batching is just batching by task. So unless I get an insanely urgent email, I try not to reply to emails more than once every hour or two. So I'll let my emails build up and then do the task of writing and replying to emails all at once. And I also batch tasks outside of work. So for example, when I'm cooking a meal, I'll make sure I cook two or three meals worth of that recipe because it doesn't take massively more time to cook two or three times the amount, but obviously if I cook a new meal every single night, that takes way longer. And I also batch chores. So if I'm cleaning, I'll clean the entire house for three hours rather than doing bits and bobs here and there. So yeah, for me, batching is really all about just having a consciousness of doing more of this type of task or this type of project right now to avoid having to switch between things, losing focus, and overall just spending more time than I should be on those tasks. So before we move on to the final two habits, I really quickly want to tell you about today's sponsor, Endel, which has pretty quickly become probably my most used app. It creates personalized real-time soundscapes that help you focus, relax, or sleep. So Endel is without a doubt the single best app I've ever had to get me in the zone whenever I'm finding it hard to concentrate on work, especially if there's background noise where I'm working, which I'm particularly bad at blocking out. Endel is informed by science, created with science, and backed by science. It's an environment-based app that takes everything we know about sound to create real-time personalized soundscapes that help with focus as well as relaxation and sleep. I genuinely find Endel compliments my body's natural circadian rhythms using its AI-powered technology to help me relax when I'm stressed. I always listen to Endel's Relax Mode on my way home from work when I've had a tough day, or to reliably get me in the mood to sleep even when I feel a bit restless. I absolutely love their gentle alarm that slowly wakes me up in the morning. Rather than that, we all know and hate. And I'm also a huge fan of Endel's Scenario Mode, which allows me to tell the app, okay, I'm gonna do deep work now, I'm gonna do it for 60 minutes, and then I get a soundscape to help me get in the zone for that entire work session. So if you want to start using Endel's amazing soundscapes that keep me focused for hours pretty much every single day, follow the link in the description and the first 100 people to download Endel will get a free week of audio experiences. Alrighty, third habit is to try to avoid work before doing the work. And this is inspired by Grace Beverley's book, Working Hard, Hardly Working. So there are two ways that I try, and I think anyone can try, to avoid doing work myself in order to have more time for other stuff. The first is to delegate. I think in a work context, it's so easy to be given a task to instantly jump into doing it and five hours later you've finished. So for me, the habit is really just spend five minutes thinking before I jump into this task, are there other people who can more effectively do this than me? Are there people who could help people with more expertise in this area than me? I really do genuinely find it so tough to delegate because I'm quite protective of my work. I really want the work to be high quality, but I think getting into a habit of considering options to outsource is absolutely critical if you want to make the most of your time. And the second is to use tech or other resources. And I think in that five minute period where you're just thinking, can I do this more effectively? It's worth thinking, are there tech tools that I could use? Are there other people who have probably done this task before who might be able to say, actually, there's this really useful Excel formula that will solve all of your problems. So in a couple of minutes, digging around for tools, asking other people who have probably done that task before for how they did it and what lessons they learned before diving in. And fourth and final habit is to multitask. And if you scour YouTube, you will find a ton of advice saying that multitasking is the least productive, most awful thing you can possibly do. And I generally do agree. I think batching and focusing on doing one thing at a time is absolutely essential to productivity, but I have one specific rule that allows me to multitask and save so much time every week. And that is to use my brain and my body at the same time. So if I'm using my body, doing something physical, like walking to work or exercise or chores around the house, I am able to use my brain while doing those physical things. So that might mean listening to an audio book or a podcast or just thinking about my business. And similarly, if I'm using my brain to work, I can then use my body to do something physical like standing at my desk. I even have a friend who has a treadmill that she walks on while she's on calls. I also have this spiky ball thing that I roll my foot on while I'm at my desk just to improve flexibility in my foot and lower leg. And if I'm on a call where I'm not really talking much and not on camera, I might stretch for five minutes. Anything you can do really to get some kind of movement in your body while you're working, I think is a really healthy habit to get into. So yeah, if you're using your brain or your body, think how can I use the other one at the same time? So yeah, those are my four kind of small, simple, but highly effective habits that honestly I reckon save me at least 20 hours every week. Let me know if you have any habits you think I should adopt that could save me even more time. And I look forward to speaking again very soon.