1. Overview
1.1. What is this and why do why do we need it?
1.1.1. 80% of people used to Make and Move things
1.1.2. Most people, especially entrepreneurs are in charge of deciding what their work is
1.1.3. No one has received training
1.1.4. -Brain is a terrible master
1.1.4.1. Dead Batteries Example
1.1.5. -Keeping things only in your mind is TERRIBLE
1.1.5.1. Usually place inappropriate amount of mental energy
1.1.5.2. Psychic Ram is limited
1.1.5.3. Every open loop has a piece of you
1.1.5.4. It becomes overwhelming
1.1.5.4.1. You dumb it down and tune it out
1.1.5.4.2. You don’t dumb down and tune out selectively
1.1.5.4.3. Ignore important things as well
1.1.5.4.4. Also reduce your capacity for creativity, vision, enthusiasm, inspiration
1.1.5.4.5. Once you get it back, it will amaze you
1.1.5.4.6. gravity analogy
1.1.5.5. Infinite loops in your head are extremely unhealthy
1.1.6. Not about being smart
1.1.6.1. People with the most capacity end up developing the worst habits - because they wait the longest or never develop systems
1.1.7. What's the answer?
1.1.7.1. Collect everything
1.1.7.2. Put actionable items into a robust and complete system that you trust
1.2. Evidence of a Problem
1.2.1. My history with BGM
1.2.2. Seeing it repeatedly with 52b
1.2.3. Why I chose to teach this section
1.2.4. This is the easiest your life will ever be
1.2.4.1. Entrepreneurial bug = more work than you can do
1.2.4.2. Great time to learn
1.2.5. Stacks
1.2.5.1. Everyone has them
1.2.5.2. Shows that alot of things are being mishandled and causing mental strife
1.2.6. Stuff
1.2.6.1. Letter
1.2.6.2. Business Card
1.3. Accountability
1.3.1. What am I responsible for now that I’ve let this in
1.3.2. Source of stress is not too much to do or information overload
1.3.3. You’ve made commitments to yourself
1.3.4. Meeting analogy - Pay a price when you break an agreement
1.3.5. Start saying “No”
1.4. Benefits
1.4.1. Reduce Gnawing Sense Of Anxiety
1.4.2. Quality of Life
1.4.3. Increased capacity for creativity
1.4.4. Productivity
1.4.5. Allows you to spend your time making strategic decisions
1.4.6. Increases flow - being in the zone
1.4.6.1. Time disappears
1.4.6.2. -What’s next
1.4.7. Recalibrate when surprises come up
1.4.8. Keep you afloat when things are crazy
1.5. Systematic Approach
1.5.1. I'm not preaching any particular system
1.5.2. Do what works for you - What you'll actually do
1.5.3. SOPs
1.6. Work Smart Not Hard
1.6.1. Being lazy
1.6.1.1. Find the most efficient ways to do things
1.6.1.2. Effectiveness > Efficiency
1.6.2. About Me - Not Naturally Organized
1.6.2.1. I might seem anal
1.6.2.2. Things get out of control regularly
1.6.2.3. Neat =/ Organized
1.6.2.4. Equilibreum of input and system
2. Areas of Focus
2.1. Files / Organization
2.1.1. Collateral / Reference material
2.1.2. Archive
2.1.3. Working Docs
2.1.4. Distributed Brainstorming - Buckets
2.2. Communication
2.2.1. Zero inbox
2.2.2. SOPs for accountability
2.2.3. Don’t interrupt
2.3. Task Management
2.3.1. Fundamental Thought Process
2.3.1.1. Whats the Successful Outcome
2.3.1.2. What’s the next action
2.3.1.3. Applies to Everything
2.3.2. How you “Get Stuff Done”
2.3.2.1. Define what “Done” means
2.3.2.2. Define what “Doing looks like”
2.3.2.3. This is not obvious
2.3.3. How do these things come in?
2.3.3.1. Taking notes
2.3.3.2. Email
2.3.3.3. Voicemail
2.3.3.4. Texts
2.3.3.5. Inbox
2.3.3.6. Mail
2.3.4. 5 Steps
2.3.4.1. Collect
2.3.4.1.1. Leaks => Gnawing Sense of Anxiety
2.3.4.1.2. Phone number example
2.3.4.1.3. Might be more important, so you're not present anywhere
2.3.4.1.4. IMPORTANT that you collect and track eveything
2.3.4.1.5. Each thing has a small part of your psyche - Limited amount of Ram
2.3.4.1.6. Evidence - how does it feel when you turn in a term paper
2.3.4.2. Process
2.3.4.2.1. Build in times to go through what you've collected
2.3.4.3. Organize
2.3.4.3.1. Not just organizing stacks
2.3.4.3.2. Set triggered reminders
2.3.4.3.3. Categories
2.3.4.3.4. Show you what to do with everything
2.3.4.3.5. Don’t blend actionable and unactionable items
2.3.4.4. Review
2.3.4.4.1. Keep it current
2.3.4.4.2. Build in Weekly Review
2.3.4.5. Do
2.3.4.5.1. "What's Next?"
2.3.5. Requirements
2.3.5.1. -Collect everything
2.3.5.1.1. Habit
2.3.5.1.2. including on the fly
2.3.5.1.3. Put inboxes in palce
2.3.5.2. Process regularly
2.3.5.3. Organize into a system
2.3.5.3.1. Reminders of what you need to do at the right time
3. Tools / Gear
3.1. Low - High tech
3.2. Whatever works for you
3.3. Cheap or expensive
3.4. Pitfall of Legal Pads
4. Examples of Systems
4.1. File Management
4.2. Task Management
4.2.1. Super Low Tech
4.2.1.1. Legal Pad or Similar
4.2.2. Low Tech
4.2.2.1. Evernote with minimal notes
4.2.3. Mid Tech
4.2.3.1. Spreadsheet
4.2.4. Hi Tech
4.2.4.1. Basecamp
5. Levels / Roles of work
5.1. Levels - Issues arise at all levels
5.1.1. Runway
5.1.1.1. Daily Tasks
5.1.2. 10,000
5.1.2.1. Projects
5.1.3. 20,000
5.1.3.1. Areas of Focus
5.1.4. 30,000
5.1.4.1. Big contract
5.1.4.2. Event coming up
5.1.5. 40,000
5.1.5.1. long term vision
5.2. Roles - issues arise in all categories
5.2.1. Financial
5.2.2. Carreer
5.2.3. Service
5.2.4. Creativity
5.2.5. Family / Friends
5.3. Things you don’t realize until you think at this level
5.4. This is something to do occasionally
5.5. This is one of the huge benefits - Mindspace to think this way
6. Best way to do this
6.1. Top down?
6.1.1. What is your destiny, mission, areas of focus, projects, and next actions
6.2. Bottom up
6.2.1. Better for 2 reasons
6.2.1.1. Can’t focus on big picture if runway is out of control
6.2.1.2. Naturally opens you up to creativity
6.2.2. If you know that the phone call you are about to make
6.2.2.1. moves the project along
6.2.2.2. that helps move you further along in one of your important areas of focus
6.2.2.3. so that you are fulfilling your company's mission
6.2.2.4. Great feeling of fulfillment and productivity
6.3. Pert, Gant, and Critical Path charts
6.3.1. Can be helpful but tend to not be useful if all of this is not handled successfully
7. Best Practices
7.1. Recognize that you are the high performers
7.1.1. You got into the program
7.1.2. You showed up today
7.2. Zero base
7.2.1. Anything in there is like the unread text number
7.2.2. Its about habit
7.2.2.1. If the zero fairy came and dealt with everything
7.2.2.2. unless you change your habit, you'll be right back where you were
7.3. Collect everything
7.4. Answer the 2 questions
7.4.1. What does done mean - Successful Outcome
7.4.2. What does doing look like - Next Action
7.5. Top 3 Ways to Fail
7.5.1. Not Complete
7.5.1.1. Don't trust it
7.5.1.2. Go back to keeping things in your head
7.5.1.3. Vicious Cycle
7.5.2. Not Up To Date
7.5.2.1. Don't Trust it
7.5.2.2. Go Back to Keeping things in your head
7.5.2.3. Vicious Cycle
7.5.3. Blending actionable and unactionable
7.5.3.1. Go numb to the list
7.5.3.2. Avoid looking at it
7.5.3.3. Go back to keeping things in your head
7.6. So, to be successful
7.6.1. Trust that systems are complete and up to date
7.6.2. Capture everything
7.6.2.1. Over Note Take
7.6.3. Process regularly
7.6.4. Review Weekly
7.6.5. Create buckets for unactionable items and use them
7.6.5.1. Someday Maybe
7.6.5.2. Future
7.7. 2 and 2
7.7.1. In some cases, you only need to write something down after you've thought of it twice
7.7.2. If something takes less than 2 minutes, just do it. It takes longer to organize the reminder
7.8. Weekly Review
7.8.1. How it works
7.8.1.1. Review all Areas of Focus
7.8.1.1.1. Look for new Projects
7.8.1.2. Review all projects
7.8.1.2.1. Make sure next actions are in place
7.8.1.3. Review all actions
7.8.1.3.1. Make sure they are timed, prioritized or tagged appropriately
7.8.2. Incentivize yourself
7.9. Make tasks very clear
7.9.1. Most to-do lists are just incomplete lists of unclear things
7.9.2. Everything on your list attracts or repulses you
7.9.3. Usually, not because of the nature of the item
7.9.4. Because it is unclear
7.9.5. Define it to make it attractive
7.9.6. Cranking Widgets analogy
7.9.7. Do the thinking ahead of time and go back to cranking widgets
7.10. Mind wondering = Worrying
7.10.1. Internal Conflict
7.10.2. Write it down -> put it in a system that you trust will remind you when you need to do it
8. What is Required
8.1. Big Picture - Systematic Approach
8.1.1. Collect Everything
8.1.2. Process Regularly
8.1.3. Organize into a system you trust
8.1.4. Review Weekly
8.1.5. SOPs
8.2. Task Management System
8.2.1. 3 Levels
8.2.1.1. Area of Focus
8.2.1.2. Project
8.2.1.3. Task
8.2.2. Ability to sort / tag tasks
8.2.3. Ability to Create Buckets