Productivity is something that everybody struggles with. Today I'm going to share with you the system that will transform everything for you when it comes to productivity. All you have to do is give it a try.

Join me for this episode of the Inside BS Show. Today we're talking about productivity and this is your system for making all the difference in the world when it comes to improving your productivity. So the first question I have to ask you when it comes to productivity is who are you? Who are you? This is very existential and you need to think about who you are in your mind.

Now I'm not talking about who you are today, who this person is who's sitting here listening to this. I'm talking about where you see yourself three, five, ten years from now. You might be sitting here and you might be driving in your car right now on your way to a nine to five job and you're thinking to yourself, I want to be an entrepreneur, I want to be the CEO of a hundred million dollar business.

Well if you want to be the CEO of a hundred million dollar business you need to start thinking and acting like the CEO of a hundred million dollar business right now, today. What does that mean? So you're driving to your nine to five job in a supermarket and your job is to stock the canned goods in aisle eight of the supermarket. If you're thinking like a CEO of a hundred million dollar business you are going to make aisle eight of the supermarket the best aisle in the history of supermarkets.

Your mindset is that you're the CEO of aisle eight in the supermarket. You are going to make aisle eight so spectacular that everyone who comes into the store is going to immediately go there to look at aisle eight. Everyone is going to want to shop in aisle eight because everything is so easy to find and it's so clean and it's so well organized.

What will happen then is the manager of the store will say you did such a great job with aisle eight I want you to take over aisle six and aisle seven and then you take over aisle six and aisle seven and aisle six, aisle seven, aisle eight are the most amazing sections in the store and people start talking about how those sections are unbelievable. Then the regional managers for the grocery store chain come into the store and they go Mr. Manager how is aisle six, seven, and eight so spectacular that the rest of the store doesn't look the same. We're going to take the guy who's running six, seven, and eight and make him the store manager and then he's going to transform the whole store and then you transform that store and within a year they say to you you're doing such a great job in the store we're going to give you the whole region and then you transform the region and within a year you're doing such an amazing job they give you the entire country.

This is how your thinking transforms who you are and your thinking transforms your productivity. So my question to you is who are you today right now if you're the CEO then you don't have time to screw around with menial tasks so you're going to look at your calendar and you're going to immediately say I'm going to run my calendar like a CEO. Every hour during my work time is going to be accounted for and I am going to define what winning that 60 minute time period looks like.

Just like if you're going to be the CEO of the supermarket chain you start by being the CEO of aisle eight you immediately say to yourself I'm going to take charge I'm going to be the CEO of my calendar I'm going to win every hour and then you sit down on a Sunday night and you plan every hour between nine and five with the things you need to do. Now you're saying to yourself okay Dave well I'll define what winning the next 60 minutes looks like but I can't help the fact that I'm going to get a call from a client and I'm going to have to handle a client emergency I'm going to get a call from my friends or my family and they're going to need me to do something or I'm going to get a call that I wasn't expecting that I really want to take and that's going to distract me it's going to derail me from what I was supposed to be doing that hour. Here's what happens you between nine and five if phone calls are a problem for you you dedicate one if you have to two hours to returning phone calls and during those hours you return phone calls so you block out something to do at nine something to do at ten something to do at eleven you block out lunch from twelve to one and then from one to two you return all the phone calls you got in the morning and then you block out two you block out three you block out four and then from five to six you return all the phone calls you got in the afternoon that's how you handle phone calls and distractions you do the same thing with email.

Now for years I worked with lawyers and they would say Dave I can't do this because I have court filings I have to react in the moment there's nothing that's going to happen in your day in your day but at eight o'clock in the morning or at nine o'clock in the morning that cannot wait until one o'clock in the afternoon that four hour window is not going to make or break you if you're on a flight you wouldn't be able to respond to an email during that time period there's no legal emergency that's going to come up that's going to require you to handle that during that time period so your phone calls and your emails if you block out one hour to handle morning stuff and one hour to handle afternoon stuff that's sufficient now the other question I get all the time about this system is okay Dave well what happens if I have more emails more phone calls than I can return during that one hour if somebody answers the phone I may take 20 minutes here's how you have to discipline yourself any phone call or email that's going to take you more than 10 minutes has to go on the calendar as a separate time period and you budget 15 minutes 30 minutes to answer that email 15 minutes 30 minutes to schedule that phone call so you're returning calls and Joe says Dave I need to talk to you I got this issue and he raises the issue and you say Joe I understand this is an issue it's going to take me more than 10 minutes to handle and I only have 10 minutes available now how's 7 a.m. tomorrow from 7 to 7 30 for us to have a conversation about this issue you block off that time in the future for the issue Joe says it's urgent it needs to be handled today okay how's 7 p.m. to 7 30 p.m. now my experience is that someone else's urgency immediately becoming your urgency is not you acting like a CEO it's you allowing someone to manipulate you in your time you're the CEO you say what's urgent and what's not what's urgent to them isn't urgent to you you have priorities and your calendar should be reflective of your priorities so blocking off each hour determining what a win for each hour looks like is your system your method for making things happen you want an example from my life I'll give you an example from my life I view myself as a 250 million dollar a year CEO I've run a business that did that kind of revenue it doesn't matter it's irrelevant what my revenue is today I'm still that guy so I have time blocked off on my calendar from 7 to 8 a.m. in the morning to walk and feed my dogs I walk each dog a mile that takes 20 minutes that's 40 minutes total I have to give my dogs 10 or 15 minutes to relax and calm down and then I have to feed them 7 to 8 a.m. is blocked off for walking and feeding my dogs that's at least today I block off from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. for showering shaving and personal care so whatever personal issues I have to take care of related to my hygiene or my biological needs they get taken care of between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. I have blocked off between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. today to record this podcast so I'm recording the podcast and I am editing it and I am posting it for tomorrow between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. a win looks like me accomplishing that goal this is how you manage your time because you're managing your activity you're managing your energy you're managing your focus you need to become the ceo of your life become the ceo of your calendar do this today and it will transform your productivity my name is Dave Lorenzo I am here every day with a new show for you designed to help you make a great living and live a great life we'll see you and speak to you tomorrow