If You Want Everything, Give It 90 Days — Transcript

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1. 0:00You have a productivity hack, an easy
2. 0:02productivity hack. Instead of spending
3. 0:04time getting in the mood to work, just
4. 0:07start working. Confront the work. People
5. 0:09think they need perfect conditions to
6. 0:11start, when in reality starting is the
7. 0:14perfect condition.
8. 0:17>> I'm married to that.
9. 0:19I love that.
10. 0:21Because
11. 0:22if you think like I you know, I
12. 0:24obviously am somebody who always wants
13. 0:25to optimize how much work I do per unit
14. 0:27of time. And so I I was you know, there
15. 0:30was definitely times earlier in my life
16. 0:31I was really romanticized by these like
17. 0:33very extensive morning routines and
18. 0:35supplement rituals and like all this
19. 0:36stuff of mental masturbation around the
20. 0:38work that needed to be done. But when I
21. 0:40looked at two hours later and nothing
22. 0:41had actually gotten done,
23. 0:44the moment you begin working
24. 0:46is when your output per unit of time
25. 0:48goes up.
26. 0:49And so that makes beginning the single
27. 0:53greatest hack that you can have for
28. 0:55everything else that you do in work.
29. 0:57Because things when you start working,
30. 0:58you start getting in the mood to work.
31. 1:00Right? Like everything else is
32. 1:01procrastinating around the work that you
33. 1:02think you should do. But like I have
34. 1:04noticed for me at least, I have these I
35. 1:06have some big mental tasks. You know
36. 1:07what I mean? Like big content piece or
37. 1:09big thing that you need to like you know
38. 1:10it's going to take real mental effort.
39. 1:12It takes me like five minutes of
40. 1:13actually being in it to then get a a
41. 1:15little bit of a lay of the land to then
42. 1:18get into it. But I used to take hours to
43. 1:21delay to start the first five minutes.
44. 1:23And so my time compression of when I
45. 1:24thought I should start doing something
46. 1:26and when I started doing it over time
47. 1:27it's just compressed to the point where
48. 1:28it's like the moment I think that I need
49. 1:30to start doing it. Sometimes I just
50. 1:32start it because then what happens I get
51. 1:33this open loop. And so rather than
52. 1:35complete work at like cuz a lot of
53. 1:36people are like, I want to complete it
54. 1:37at this really nice clean point. Stop
55. 1:39halfway through the sentence cuz it'll
56. 1:41drive you mad.
57. 1:42>> That's the Zeigarnik effect in full
58. 1:44work. Do you know this story? Zeigarnik?
59. 1:46Oh wow. This is is what that's
60. 1:48That's what you shut up. That's what
61. 1:49you're leveraging here. So um
62. 1:52the Zeigarnik effect was a study
63. 1:54originally done on servers in
64. 1:55restaurants.
65. 1:56>> Okay. And they realized you've ever been
66. 1:59at a restaurant and a server comes up
67. 2:00and stands with their hands behind their
68. 2:01back. Go, "What would you like tonight,
69. 2:02sir?" And you say, "I'll have the
70. 2:03lobster roll and a glass of red wine and
71. 2:05a blah blah." And you're like,
72. 2:06"This motherfucker's not He hasn't got a
73. 2:08pen or a pad of paper. He's crazy." And
74. 2:11then they go off and what they realized
75. 2:13was servers in restaurants
76. 2:16were unbelievably good at being able to
77. 2:18recall exactly what a table's order was
78. 2:21while that table's order was still open.
79. 2:22So,
80. 2:24uh guys in table 16, uh they want to
81. 2:26swap the peas out for a little bit of
82. 2:28extra rice and they're doing this thing.
83. 2:30As soon as the table was closed,
84. 2:32they couldn't remember anything. So,
85. 2:34this is an open-loop, closed-loop system
86. 2:36and it's built into the brain.
87. 2:38The brain abhors an open loop. It's the
88. 2:41same reason why Netflix cliffhangers at
89. 2:43the end of every episode guarantee that
90. 2:45you'll watch the next one because you
91. 2:46can't bear the fact There's even novels
92. 2:48in the dark romance genre that make
93. 2:51guarantees that there won't be
94. 2:53cliffhangers.
95. 2:54They make They put it on the front or
96. 2:56the back of the book and they say no
97. 2:57cliffhangers guaranteed, which is
98. 3:00People have so much distaste for it that
99. 3:03it's a selling point that you get the
100. 3:05closure at the end of it. And finishing
101. 3:07halfway through a sentence
102. 3:10reduces the activation energy required
103. 3:12to begin that sentence the next day and
104. 3:14it keeps it in your mind too overnight.
105. 3:16So, I think uh yeah, whether you've
106. 3:19stumbled on it or whether you knew about
107. 3:20it, you've managed to leverage a pretty
108. 3:22powerful piece of psychology there.
109. 3:24>> Sick.
110. 3:25>> Going back to the work thing, uh
111. 3:27another one from you that I absolutely
112. 3:29adore, it just takes work. Shitloads and
113. 3:32shitloads of work. Every time I try and
114. 3:34dress it up or cut a corner, I get
115. 3:36brutally reminded the work just needs
116. 3:38doing.
117. 3:39The work doesn't care who you are. It
118. 3:42just cares that it gets done.
119. 3:45>> [sighs and gasps]
120. 3:46>> I'm actually going to reverse quote
121. 3:47David Goggins on this one.
122. 3:50But uh I love this quote that he has,
123. 3:52which he says, "There's no shortcuts for
124. 3:53you, David." Or "There's no shortcuts
125. 3:55for you, Goggins." I heard him say that,
126. 3:57and I just love that as a refrain. Which
127. 3:59is that a lot of people look for a
128. 4:01shortcut.
129. 4:02But, the idea that you say like,
130. 4:03"They're not for you. You don't get to
131. 4:05use them. You are immune to shortcuts."
132. 4:08I just love it because then it it just
133. 4:10further shortcuts the path to the work
134. 4:12that needs to get done.
135. 4:14And I wrote that tweet on my I don't
136. 4:17know, 11th run of this presentation that
137. 4:21I'm doing cuz that's a recent one. And
138. 4:23so, I was it was like 11:00 at night,
139. 4:25and so right now I'm working triple
140. 4:27shifts, which is not common for me. I
141. 4:28usually do two, not three. Um so, for me
142. 4:31a normal work day is like I wake up, uh
143. 4:34I start working at, you know, 6:00 or
144. 4:357:00, and then I go until about
145. 4:366:00-ish. So, it's like 10:00 to 12:00
146. 4:39really concentrated hours work, and that
147. 4:40I can do 6 and 1/2 days a week. I
148. 4:42usually take Saturday afternoons off. Um
149. 4:45and it's really just because at that
150. 4:46point I can't work anymore, and my
151. 4:48brain's stew, and then I I get my 1/2
152. 4:50day, and then I'm good to go. And I'm
153. 4:51ready to kick on, you know, to work on
154. 4:52Sundays.
155. 4:54My triple shift is I get I go to dinner,
156. 4:56and then I come back at 7:30, and then I
157. 4:57work from 7:30 until 11:30 or 1:00 or
158. 4:59whatever, right?
159. 5:01And when I'm putting in triple shifts is
160. 5:04when I know I'm like really gassing it.
161. 5:06Um
162. 5:06and that's that's when I'm like
163. 5:07repeatedly doing 16, 17 a day of actual
164. 5:10productive work. And
165. 5:13I I hear the same thoughts that everyone
166. 5:15does, which is like, "It's not going to
167. 5:16matter. Like, it's fine. You've like
168. 5:19it's good enough." Like, I hate that I
169. 5:20like it it it makes me sick to even say
170. 5:22that, right? Because the thing that I
171. 5:24like, David Goggins, right? He's got
172. 5:26like, "There's no shortcuts for you." I
173. 5:28would say the one that I have two that
174. 5:30are like my internal ones. One that is
175. 5:32probably the most common is, "I will do
176. 5:34what is required."
177. 5:36And
178. 5:39"This work needs doing."
179. 5:41And there's just no way around it. And
180. 5:44it just it's just
181. 5:45looking at the face of the work, and
182. 5:46it's like smiling back at me like
183. 5:49no one else is going to do it.
184. 5:51Um and like
185. 5:53I love that one. Like when we're
186. 5:55recording content in the early days
187. 5:56we're doing like a hundred shorts every
188. 5:58time we did it and it was direct to
189. 5:59camera. And it was the only time I could
190. 6:01fit it in with all the portfolio stuff
191. 6:03that we're doing.
192. 6:04And so I was it was always like I will
193. 6:06do what's required.
194. 6:07And that's been a really helpful refrain
195. 6:09for me when I'm confronted with
196. 6:11especially when you know what needs to
197. 6:13get done. And the second one is
198. 6:16but I'll know.
199. 6:19And so like even if it does go well and
200. 6:22even if everyone else says it's great
201. 6:25but I'll know.
202. 6:26And it'll then rob me of all of the joy
203. 6:30of all of those moments in that
204. 6:31experience because I'll know that I
205. 6:33could have done better. And the thing is
206. 6:35is like to to quote myself from earlier,
207. 6:37like I've never regretted working harder
208. 6:41ever, not once. And some people are like
209. 6:43on your deathbed you're going to like no
210. 6:45cuz I lived every moment of my day doing
211. 6:47what I wanted to do. And I remember I
212. 6:49had a boss when I
213. 6:50my first boss after college
214. 6:53she said this thing. I had had a a
215. 6:55particularly good weekend and she said
216. 6:59I'm pretty sure happiness is stringing
217. 7:02as many of those days in a row as you
218. 7:04possibly can.
219. 7:06And although I hated the job that piece
220. 7:08of advice has actually been probably
221. 7:10what I has been my blueprint for how to
222. 7:13live which is like my birthday looks the
223. 7:15same as my Tuesdays which looks the same
224. 7:17as my Sundays.
225. 7:18>> You know what the original name
226. 7:22pool for this podcast was? It's the only
227. 7:24time in history I've done branding my
228. 7:26entire adult life and with club nights
229. 7:29all you're doing is coming up with
230. 7:30brands. I
231. 7:31Paradiso oh it's it's tropical there'll
232. 7:33be a flamingo skint oh it's a cheap
233. 7:36night it's for people to get fingered in
234. 7:37the corner. Like it's we all I did was
235. 7:41branding right I was the branding guy.
236. 7:42I'm pretty good at copywriting. All I
237. 7:44did was branding.
238. 7:45The one time I've had divine
239. 7:46inspiration, 3:00 in the morning, wake
240. 7:48up with the name was Modern Wisdom. The
241. 7:50one time out of every business, every
242. 7:52night, every brand I've ever come up
243. 7:54with, that was the one time. But, on the
244. 7:55list of the others, Mind Mind and Matter
245. 7:59was one of them. The other one was a
246. 8:01quote from Tim Ferriss. It's called
247. 8:02Crushing It Tuesday.
248. 8:04And he said that what you should aim for
249. 8:06in life is for your average Tuesday.
250. 8:09Not the spectacular one-time private jet
251. 8:12with the friends to go for the whatever,
252. 8:14whatever. Not the
253. 8:16UFC Power Slap launch party [laughter]
254. 8:20staring at the back of Dan Bilzerian's
255. 8:22dirty mullet. Like
256. 8:24not that. You want your average Tuesday
257. 8:27to look the way that you want most of
258. 8:29your life to do.
259. 8:30>> And when I think about the days that I
260. 8:31look back on at the end of my day and
261. 8:33think like today was a good day,
262. 8:35invariably, it's the same few things.
263. 8:37It's I worked very hard on something
264. 8:39that I felt was worth doing.
265. 8:42I worked out, and I spent time with
266. 8:45people that I enjoy being around.
267. 8:47If I do those three things,
268. 8:49I had a good day.
269. 8:51And so, that's been my, you know, Alex's
270. 8:53simple blueprint for doing things. And I
271. 8:55think the point that you were making
272. 8:56earlier, I think it's worth hitting on
273. 8:58again, which is just that like
274. 8:59most people's definition of work is a
275. 9:01negative one, which is why they abhor
276. 9:02it, which is also why they misunderstand
277. 9:04so many people who, quote, I'll say
278. 9:05quote here, are successful or ahead of
279. 9:07them or whatever, is that
280. 9:09both people One person says the word
281. 9:10work, and the other person hears the
282. 9:12word pain.
283. 9:13And so,
284. 9:15the first step to like becoming more
285. 9:17successful is understanding the language
286. 9:19that the people who are successful are
287. 9:20using. They're actually defining the
288. 9:22word differently. And so,
289. 9:25whatever that thing is that you actually
290. 9:27enjoy doing, where you lose track of
291. 9:28time when you're in it, even if it's
292. 9:30challenging, but usually it is
293. 9:31challenging, right? Like it's not easy,
294. 9:33cuz then it's boring, right? Which is is
295. 9:35why the uncertainty thing is so key,
296. 9:36right? To not knowing if it's going to
297. 9:38if it's going to work or not. You are
298. 9:39going to work though either way.
299. 9:41Um
300. 9:42is that
301. 9:43the people who are quote addicted to
302. 9:44work make it easy to be addicted to work
303. 9:46because they
304. 9:48do things worth doing.
305. 9:50And I think a lot of it is coming down
306. 9:51to making sure that you take the few
307. 9:54precious seconds that we have to do the
308. 9:56few things that are worth doing for the
309. 9:57rest of your life.