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This is Optimal Work Daily,
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Episode 1318. Be focused
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on your outcomes, not your
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tasks, by Karl Pullein of
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karlpullein.com. And I'm Dan, I am
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your personal narrator, and I'm here with you
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every single day, including weekends and holidays, reading
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to you from these great blogs that cover
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all kinds of work-related topics. And
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today, we're going to hear from one of our
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regular authors, Karl Pullein. So, let's get right to
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it now as we optimize your life. Be
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focused on your outcomes, not your
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tasks, by Karl Pullein
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of karlpullein.com. There's
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a common misconception about being productive, that
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productivity is about completing a lot of
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tasks each day, and to become more
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productive, all you have to do is
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complete more tasks. Of course, this
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is not true. Becoming more
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productive is about doing work that
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matters, so your measurable output increases.
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Completing two tasks that move a project
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or goal further forward is going to
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produce far better long-term results than completing
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a hundred tasks that have no impact
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on any of your important projects or
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goals. Stop picking
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the low-hanging fruit. We
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have a natural tendency to go after the
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low-hanging fruit, to check off the
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easy tasks, because doing so makes us feel good.
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We get that dopamine hit, and that puts a
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smile on our face, and has us wanting more.
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So, we populate our to-do lists with
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even more easy, non-important tasks, just
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so we can check them off and get that dopamine hit.
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It becomes a vicious circle. We put
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more and more unimportant tasks on our to-do
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lists, hoping for more dopamine hits. Of
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course, we tell ourselves we are completing important
1:39
tasks. After all, we must have
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a clean desk so we can focus better on
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our work, and we need to make sure we
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have enough staples in our top drawer, just in
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case we run out while stapling important documents. Oh,
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and we should check our email just one more time,
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in case something important has come in. Begin
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the day with a simple plan. We
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All have a good mix of easy routine and hard work.
2:00
The project new to complete each day. Difficulty:
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Start when you're not clear about what work is
2:05
important. Prioritizing your work is a
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big part of becoming more productive. This
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is why beginning a day with a plan
2:11
based on what current projects are important is
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vital. However, the routine work can
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very easily take over the day if you're
2:18
not careful. A sign
2:20
time each day and week for your
2:22
routine admin work. There.
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Are a couple ways you can make sure that less
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important routine work does not take over your day. One.
2:30
Way is to assign One day he tweet
2:32
for admin work. This. Could be
2:34
Friday afternoon, for example. Fridays.
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Are famously difficult to focus on important work
2:38
because we are often thinking about our plans
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for the weekend. If. That is
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the case. You could assign Friday as your admin
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and clean up day. You. Could even make
2:47
sure you have enough staples and your top drawer. This.
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Means you only have easy tasks to do on
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Friday and you don't need a lot of focus
2:53
to get them done. Another. Way
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is to allocate a time slot each
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day to do your admin and routine
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tasks. Giving. Yourself one hour
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a day to just get the routine.
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Easy tasks complete. Will. Help you
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stay focused on the important project work for
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the other seven or eight hours each day.
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I assign one hour a day for all
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my routine admin work. I usually a
3:15
sign the ended the day to do this because they
3:17
don't need a lot of concentration to do it. But.
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You can choose any time of the day or week to do it.
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Focus. On your desired outcome. The.
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Key to better productivity is to focus on
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the outcome you want, not the tasks that
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will get you there. We. Often
3:32
add unnecessary tests when we're planning out
3:34
a project. For example, send email to
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Get Twenty Nine Teen Planning template. Nine.
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Times out of ten, a phone call would get
3:41
the desired result faster. You. Might also
3:44
find that you have tasks such as: talk
3:46
to John about the presentation, order. And
3:48
lower down on your list. Have. A task
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saying. Asked John for the twenty
3:53
nineteen sales forecast. These. two
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tasks could be completed either by one phone call
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or walking down the hall to talk to john
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But because the tasks are not grouped together,
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you miss the second one. That
4:04
means now you have to communicate with you twice
4:07
instead of once. When you set
4:09
up a project, you need to be very clear on what it
4:11
is you're trying to achieve. What's the
4:13
desired outcome for the project? David
4:15
Allen, in Getting Things Done, writes
4:17
about this, and Tony Robbins in his Time
4:19
of Your Life course puts a lot of
4:21
stress on outcome thinking. The
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tasks help. They are signposts along the
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way. More often than
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not, the shortest distance between where you
4:30
are now and successfully completing the project
4:32
is not through completing all your tasks
4:34
in the right order. More
4:36
often than not, the fastest way to completing the
4:38
project is a simple phone call or going out
4:41
to see the client or customer. I
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use Evernote to plan out my projects
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and not Todoist. I can
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add tasks and steps I think will be needed
4:49
to complete the project in a list at the
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bottom of my project note. And
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once I am satisfied I have everything needed to
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get the project completed, I go through
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the list removing tasks I feel are
5:00
not necessary. What I end
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up with is a list of absolutely essential
5:04
tasks. This often reduces the
5:06
number of tasks required to complete the project
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down by half. If you
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are serious about becoming more productive, focus
5:13
less on your tasks and more on what it
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is you are trying to achieve. The
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goal, the completed project and the outcome you
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desire, are what you are looking for. Not
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completing 10 tasks so you feel like you
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have accomplished something. As Jim
5:27
Rohn said, quote, don't
5:29
mistake movement for achievement. It
5:31
is easy to get faked out by being busy. The
5:34
question is, busy doing what?
5:41
You just listened to the post titled,
5:43
Be Focused on Your Outcomes, Not Your Tasks,
5:46
by Carl Pauline of carlpauline.com.
5:49
When it comes to hiring, don't go searching
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for the one, just meet your match with
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Indeed. Indeed is your
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matching and hiring platform with over 350 Million
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global monthly visitors. And
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a matching engine that helps you find
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quality candidates fast. Ditch. The busy
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work. Use. Indeed, for scheduling,
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screening and messaging. Ninety.
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Three percent of employers agree indeed delivers
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the highest quality matches compared to other
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job sites. And. One of the
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things I really love about indeed is that
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if filters out those incompatible applicants. For.
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When you're hiring, the process is much faster
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and you only have to consider applicants that
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are already likely to be a great. And
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listeners of the show will get a seventy
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five dollars sponsored job credit to get your
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jobs more visibility. And indeed.com
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sliced up. So.
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Just go to indeed.com/sternum right now
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to support our show by saying
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you heard about Indeed on this
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podcast. indeed.com/startup.
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Terms. And conditions apply. And
6:49
thank you to Curl whose last name by the
6:51
way is spelled P U L L E I
6:53
am and they do have his website linked in
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this episode description for yes. Carl.
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Is a renowned productivity and time management
7:00
coach who's helped thousands of people around
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the world get better at managing their
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time and become more productive using technology
7:06
they carry around with him every day.
7:09
And. You can check out his podcast which is
7:11
called the Working With Podcast. Corals,
7:13
Also written three books on productivity and time
7:15
management and he's also got a couple of
7:18
courses I'd encourage you to check out there
7:20
called Time and Life Mastery and Your Digital
7:22
Life. Curls. Purpose is to help
7:24
people learn how to manage their time so they
7:26
can enjoy their lives and build a life they're
7:28
truly proud of. His. Featured over on
7:30
Optimal Living Daily every once in awhile as well.
7:33
See you can check out that show for more.
7:35
And. Again, be sure to come by Carl
7:37
police.com to show him some support. You.
7:39
Can also find so much more
7:41
about Coral plus his podcast, coaching
7:43
courses, webinars, books and much more.
7:46
All right there on the site
7:48
for you. And again that is
7:50
Carl police.com. And. That is
7:52
can do it for today. I appreciate you subscribing
7:54
are following the show wherever you get your audio.
7:57
And I'll be right back with you tomorrow. Where
7:59
you're optimal? Life. Oh wait.
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