I Eliminated These 3 Daily Habits and Gained 12 Hours Per Week

After working with over 500 clients on their time management problems, I need you to know the number one thing that's overlooked. The average person wastes 22 hours per week on habits that do absolutely nothing for their success or happiness. It's ridiculous. I can't begin to stress how when you realize where you've had friction that gets removed, it gives you so much more energy and speed for the rest of the day. As soon as you find what works, you need to get addicted to it so that you only become more efficient and work toward the things that mean the most to you. All right, let's break down exactly what these habits are so you can eliminate them too. The first habit that I eliminated is a reactive morning mode. Start the day in reactive mode and you've lost control before you've even begun. Your future productivity will thank you if you eliminate this one right now. Reactive morning mode is when you wake up and you literally blow with the wind no matter where it takes you. You see your phone, so you grab it. You turn it on and it tells you what to think. You hear your kid yelling in another room and you immediately decide that you have to run to where they are, even if they're just having fun by themselves while they also start to wake up for the day. Your alarm is going off and it's actually the third time you hit snooze and because you suddenly let it set in that you hit snooze too many times, you choose that moment to wig out, jump out of bed and get into a hurry, running into things, hurting yourself and being rushed for the rest of your day. This is what it means to wake up in reactive morning mode. Absolutely anything indicates to you that you should be doing something differently than what you're doing in this moment or what you could be doing or what might actually feel good to be doing. I'll never forget this one morning where I had this really cheap nightstand and it was on these three little not real wood legs and it was very wobbly and I had a glass of water on that nightstand. I woke up one morning, I'd hit snooze a couple times maybe but it didn't matter because the water that was sitting on this rickety nightstand had fallen over maybe one of the times I hit snooze and fell onto my phone, which was my alarm clock. The water killed the phone so it stopped ringing. There was no more alarm to be had and I wake up and it is broad daylight and I am absolutely 30 minutes late for work, not even out of bed. These are the catastrophes that don't need to happen. When you assume that absolutely anything could veer you off course when you wake up in the morning and you refuse for that to be the case, you do better the night before in how you plan to succeed for the next day. So one thing I refuse to do is allow myself to be in reactive mode. I've planned my day, I know what the most important things are that I have to do first thing in the morning, definitely if I'm doing it before my kids wake up, which means the stakes are high and I also know what needs to happen the night before to make sure I'm more likely to follow through on those plans. Turning the TV off at a decent hour, not watching TV in my room at all, tucking my phone away in my bathroom so it's not something I'm scrolling for the last 30 to 45 minutes of being awake. All of this contributes to lessening the possibility of a reactive morning. The average person actually spends an hour and a half a day in reactive mode and you know what I'm talking about, that feeling where you're just like constantly leaning in, waiting, as if something's about to fall that you're going to catch because you are engaged but you are then stressing yourself out, your cortisol levels are up and you are not even in the present moment to see how you feel and notice the fact that you don't like living your life this way. When you're in reactive mode too much, you are not planning ahead as well as you could be. You're not ever getting ahead because you're constantly on defense. These are three hidden costs for being in a reactive morning mode. The first is dopamine depletion. This is the worst thing that you could do before getting real meaningful work done. You need to be able to present your best self and the more you can tap into that, the better but if you're making too many decisions and reacting and constantly reaching for things that give you that dopamine hit, you are just wearing yourself out before you can actually bring a present and optimistic mind to the most important work that you do, the things that we want to become masters in. So when you sit down to do something important and are constantly stressed about, oh, I always feel like I have a blank slate and I don't know what to do, I don't know what to write, I don't know what to create, I haven't worked on that thing I really care about, it's because all that reactive mode and constantly getting a dopamine hit from your phone and the news and all these other things is wearing you down and taking a lot of that energy out of you that you needed to present to that mastery work to begin with. Here's the second cost. Being in reactive mode all the time is creating mental clutter. So think about clutter around your house. Imagine new clutter just flooding your brain and your mindset. It lingers throughout the day. So if you don't really deal with things or a problem that's not even really a problem has become a problem for you at the first start of the day, it's going to continue to bug you throughout. And that is unnecessary crap we don't need to deal with when we would rather be doing something more productive, something we're excited about. Too much extra stuff to start is going to get in the way of clarity later. And the third cost, decision fatigue. Too many unnecessary inputs. All that unnecessary clutter is actually posing as a decision you might have to make. But you're just giving yourself lots of easy decisions to potentially not even make, but still procrastinate on when you could have saved all of that decision-making power on the things that make the biggest difference. Oh, I don't know if I'm gonna go to the gym. I don't know what to wear. I couldn't come up with something that was all in the wash. Yeah, oh, it's too late, can't go. You gave yourself too many decisions to make about something irrelevant and silly. Just put some gross gym clothes on, get in the car and go. Because you know that reactive mode is going to make you wanna stay in bed. Resist all the dopamine hits, mental clutter, and unnecessary decisions that are keeping you from having an intentional start to your day. If I had just 15 minutes every day to work towards maximum productivity, this is exactly what I'd do. I would protect my morning like it's the most valuable asset that I have. Because it is. When you prove you can start the day on your terms, you prove how much more of the day is actually in your control. So start by doing the simple things. Your phone sleeps in a different room than you from now on the end of story. Make it happen. The first 30 minutes of your day are for intention setting. So whatever aligned intentions are going to work toward the goals you want to build upon, that is what we do at the beginning of the day. Slowness, centeredness, be one with your own thoughts, or read really thoughtful thoughts in a book that helps you to build the dream you're working on. If the goal is to work on your health, then you go to the gym. Aligned intentions. At least the first 30 minutes of every day. And if you have too much mental clutter, the final thing I recommend is morning pages. Just longhand stream of consciousness writing inspired by Julia Cameron's recommendation from The Artist's Way. Write three pages. It's not pretty, it's what's up here. Get it out, get it out of the way, give it a place to go, give it a place to live, and move on. The second habit I eliminated is scattered task switching. This is getting scary and it's gonna get really bad for all professionals who want to perform at their peak. Let me explain why scattered task switching is killing your productivity. The average professional loses just over two hours a day just from task switching. And this is causing a 28% loss in productivity for every switch that happens. You think that you've gotta do this thing over here that has nothing to do with what you just spent the last 30 minutes doing, but that is your brain begging for a dopamine hit when it is bored. When all you really need to do is push through that boredom and find a new milestone in the work that you're currently working on so that it can get to a stopping point where you can take a break. Most people will not choose to do that. They will find some other problem to have to handle, thus unnecessary decisions entering the chat. And the thing that could have taken this set period of time, let it be an hour, let it be a week, let it be a month, let it be a year, goes on so much longer than it should. Here's a crazy productivity tip that you are not ready to hear, but it's honestly the truth. Your brain can't multitask. It can only switch tasks. And each switch is costing you so much more than you realize. Here are the signs that you are in a scattered task switch mode. Do you have multiple tabs or apps open simultaneously? I know you feel seen, let it set in. You've literally set the intention that you want to be doing multiple things at once when you have multiple tabs open. That one's pretty clear. Another one is starting new tasks when other ones still remain to be finished. You can think of a time you did that in the last hour, at least once, probably five times. We think it's our ADD, and it might be, but actually the ADD is reinforcing you constantly looking for something new to do because of that dopamine hit that you're going to get. If you see a task, something that needs to get done, and you're afraid you're gonna forget it if you don't do it right now while you're thinking about it in this moment, give it a place, write it down. Write it down, I dare you. For the next hour, my challenge for you is this. Every time you think of something you need to do and it makes you want to do it right this second because you think you might forget, write it down. Look over that note of things you think of to do in the next hour. Notice how much better you feel because it's been given a place to be remembered, and dare I say, cross something off that really doesn't need to happen. And the other sign is that you are a constant notification checker. If you're addicted to the notifications, you have to know what's going on at all times. You can't stand for that red bubble on your app to tell you you have an unread message. You have to check it. You're addicted to notifications, you're addicted to task switching. I hate that red bubble. My red bubbles are at least in the three digits, which is why I turn them off completely. I don't need to know they even exist. I don't need to know how many numbers are in the red bubble. I don't care how many texts I have. I'm in the middle of talking to you right now. Can you imagine if I'm sitting here and I'm supposed to be giving you my blood, sweat, and tears and all my experience and advice in this video and I feel the sudden need to go, hmm, I wonder who's texted me. Rude. I would never have done anything in my life ever if I were relying on my notifications to tell me what to do and how to feel. The biggest missing link with your productivity journey is dedicated focus blocks. Once I implemented this many, many, many, many years ago, my output, my average show-up rate compared to everyone else, just 10x. I always say this, if I can get five hours alone, watch out, because I just took over the world. I mean, I just did. The sooner you get familiar with what it's like to be in flow with a set amount of time, the more present you can be in all those other moments. You're not checking your phone while you're hanging out with your kids. You are sure of where you left off because of your ability to stay in the game on the things that move the needle for you. So if you haven't started already, then you must be new to my channel. You need to start time-batching. When you calendar block time, you block out moments for like tasks, all my videos get shot at one time, all of my emails get replied to at one time, all my podcast interviews happen at one time, all my errands happen at one time, all the things I don't have to do don't happen at any of my times. But time-batch the like tasks, and you will have moved so many boulders forward. You'll be blown away. And the third habit that I eliminated is kind of controversial. I refuse to engage in decision overload. Can I just vent for a second? We make way too many decisions per day to the point where everyone else thinks it's reasonable that they volley decisions at you unlimitedly because they want you to handle it. And then when you don't want to handle it because they sent it to you, but you didn't ask for it, it's your fault that you are indecisive. No, it's not. You get to decide what your most critical decisions are going to be. Don't ask me what's for dinner. I've decided that that is decision overload. I'm not here for it. If you are interested in having a more interesting dinner with me, you better come with suggestions because I'm not going to give you one. I have already meal prepped my life so that I know what I'm having for dinner. My choice is usually chicken or chicken. Sometimes I like to change things up and have eggs or tuna. But if you are making me dinner or you want me to do something more interesting for our dinner experience, you better have ideas. Don't ask me. I refuse to engage in decision overload. I have too many vital life decisions to make about my money, about my kids, about my career, about my brand trajectory, about what video I'm going to make next. These are things that actually make the biggest percentage difference in my life. So if I spend so much time thinking about the decisions that don't matter, I'm taking away that brain power from what does. I don't decide if I'm going to the gym. It's on the calendar. The clothes are set out. It's done. I don't even have time to decide to myself, is it going to happen? Because I see the game plan in front of me when I open my eyes. I don't decide what I eat more than once a week when I place my grocery order and I look at my meal plan and I follow it. Keeps things really simple and I actually feel a lot better when I do that. Where can you reduce your over-decision making? If you have to go to a job every day and you have to have a new outfit every day that is clean, that is pressed, that is professional, that has a certain look to it, why are you making that decision in the moment every single day? Certainly to start your day off on your terms, you want to go into a spiral of whether or not you look nice, pass. Once a week, set it out. Oh my gosh, if you haven't seen the David Beckham documentary, he literally sets out his clothes on a side clothes rack for the week, even David Beckham. And what is he even doing? He hangs out at home and with his chickens in the yard but he still picked out his clothes for the week. You can do this. I tell all my clients to reduce their unnecessary decision load if they want to 10X their productivity. Decision fatigue is the silent productivity killer that no one is talking about. Where can you make early and long-term decisions and just stick with them? How can you automate things that don't necessarily need to be handled every single day, every hour? I have my house cleaned. I don't have to decide if it's going to happen. I've asked a lovely company to do this for me. And part of the way that I've done this is by scheduling them. They're on the calendar. I don't decide if I'm getting my house cleaned a certain week. They just come. It's an appointment that is scheduled, done. Here's a script to use when you're drowning in decisions. Does this align with my priorities? If asked, would I do this tomorrow? And can this be automated, delegated, delayed, or deleted? Once you go through this line of questioning and you really start to understand the things that you are making yourself make decisions about, you will realize what is completely and totally unnecessary. A couple of implementation steps for this. Create a decision handbook. What are the choices you have to make on repeat? You've probably heard of people saying it's meatloaf Monday. That's a great reminder that you don't have When you have standards that are always in place, you know what the answers to the questions are. Therefore, the decision is made. You know what the grocery list is. You know what the appointment to set is. You know what the steps are. You follow them. You make it happen. You don't stew. Unless you want to make stew. That's different. I'm getting more than 12 hours a week back just by reducing these unnecessary life habits that just creep up on you for no reason just because of what people say or what you think or what you're struggling in. I'm going to show you exactly why it's worthwhile for you to rethink these things by breaking down the math. Just by starting the day on my terms, good morning, good life, and not being in a reactive morning mode, that's more than five hours back per week. I lean super hard on time batching, but just by reducing task switching, that's more than four hours of my week that I got back. Reducing decisions that don't need to be made, not having that decision overload is more than three hours per week. Just ask yourself how long the what are we having for dinner conversation went last time, and you'll believe me on that one. Imagine having 12 extra hours per week and what you could do with that. My energy and focus are up. My lights are green. I get excited, more excited about the things that I would have just looked forward to if I had the time for it. Now I actually have the time for them, and I'm more re-energized by them. It's crazy. Here's how I'm gonna motivate you to do it. I want you to think of a goal that you have, and I want you to connect a victory protocol to it. So if you reach this goal, here's how you're gonna celebrate. If I get to 20% body fat, I'm gonna take a long, lovely vacation with my husband. Okay, now we know why we're doing what we're doing. Cool, awesome. You know how to set goals, and you know how you're gonna celebrate. Now decide what you're going to implement in your life to make that goal happen, and reduce these habits, these bad habits in your life, so that you actually have the time to work on that goal, to go for that dream. The victory protocol will change everything. If you actually know how you're gonna celebrate your wins, you will act different. That's how I eliminated three unnecessary daily habits that the average person probably will continue to do their entire life, but I refuse, and only to start, got 12 hours back every week. If you wanna learn how to do your own time audit, then check out the link to this video, and I'll see you there.