If you feel that you're constantly busy right now, but not making real progress towards what you really want in life. I want to share with you in this video how to achieve more results in one week than most people do in 12 months. The reason why I feel so passionate about this is because I've gone through your experience.
I know what it's like to be spinning in the same spot for years, ending each day feeling drained of energy, wondering what you're not doing right to go towards your dreams. I was chasing all the productivity hacks, reading all the books, doing all the things, thinking I just needed to do more. But all it did was leaving me burnt out and frustrated.
And that's why I decided to take a step back and to create a system for myself. A framework that would help me focus on what truly matters. Cut out all the noise.
Go all in and align my actions with my long term goals. Not only have I been able to grow my business and stay present for my family, I've also built momentum towards my biggest dreams. One intentional week at a time.
So let's break it all down. Step number one f, which is find your priorities. This first step was inspired by Stephen Covey story of a philosophy professor filling a jar with rocks, pebbles and sand to really illustrate how life is filled with different elements.
He said, imagine your time as a jar. If you start by pouring sand, the small, tiny little trivial tasks, there's no room for big rocks. The big projects and things that matter most.
But if you start with the rocks, you can fit the sand around them. It's all about what things you let into your life and how you let your life unfold with intention. And let me know if you've been there.
You sometimes get to the end of the day having done a lot, but none of these things were the things that you meant to do. And each day time just flies by. Until this month and then years is because when we don't put in the structure of our time, it's very easy to give in to distractions.
There are urgent right now, but not important. So a really great question to find out when your big rocks are in your life is is what would you want to be celebrating 12 months from now? What are the values that you want to structure your day around?
Whether that's you, the people in your life and your work. For example for work. If you're gearing up for that next big promotion, changing your career or building your business, or if you want to build a healthy, fit body, taking care of yourself or pursuing more calm, mindful ness in your life.
And lastly, for relationships, maybe is find that special someone is more time with your kids and partner or friends. You want to see more of regularly until you take ownership of your time and your actions. Everyone else which is dictated for you.
For example, in my business, I learned to focus on my big rocks, which are what drives real impact. Designing training programs in mindset, productivity and wellbeing. Delivering workshops to share my message.
Connecting with others in my industry to make that meaningful. Relationships. Learning new skills and creating content that connects with my audience.
Everything else. The pebbles, the sand like emails and then even some social media. They all come second.
You will never have enough time for everything, but you will always have time for the most important thing. By prioritizing the important things to work on, I leave enough time for myself to spend it with those that I love the most. Now I know what some of you guys might be thinking.
That all sounds great, Lori, but I work a full time job and my schedule is packed with meetings, deadlines, and constant interruptions. How am I supposed to even follow this system? And I totally get it.
I've been there too. When I worked in the stressful 80 hours per week corporate job for years, climbing the career ladder, my calendar often felt like it was owned by everyone else but me. But here's the thing.
Even when your workday feels out of control, there are still small but powerful ways to integrate the focus system into your daily routine. Let's say you're juggling multiple deadlines. Instead of trying to do everything at once.
Ask yourself. So what are the tasks that will move the project forward? This week?
What is the one thing that I can deliver today that will have the biggest impact? And what is the one thing that I can do today that can move me forward in my career goals? And what meetings and tasks can I cut out?
That's not essential. And by sharing this with your colleagues and your management team, you can try to solicit a transparent way of how you spending time on your work and carve out boundaries of how much time you're spending in meetings versus, let's say, closing deals or whatever success looks like to them in your role. Now, everyone's work life looks different, but by having these open conversations, these check ins with who you work with will definitely help.
Step two optimize your environment. Now, I'm not extreme minimalist because I have a young kid and she has a lot of stuff. But one thing I take ownership and control over is my work area.
That's sacred. You know how a cluttered desk leads to a cluttered mind? Your environment is a reflection of your focus.
And digitally on my laptop. The one thing I hate now is having a cluttered desktop full of files and downloads, which makes it impossible to find anything, but also impossible to collaborate or share anything with those who I work with. And I have now a zero desktop saving policy, which helps me to make sure all the important information are saved, either in notion or in files.
In my Google Drve and Drpbox. Now, if you're looking for a digital planner notion, you can also check out my Personal Notion planner In the description below. For me, optimizing my environment means creating a dedicated workspace free from distractions.
The best periods for my work is after I drop off my daughter at nursery. I've silenced all the notifications. Set up specific hours for deep work and even create a visual cue for myself, which is a closed door with a post-it on it to let my family know I'm in focus mode.
And when I was in a proper role, I worked a lot in open plan offices and even now in co-working spaces where it's usually open plan, right? So if that's you, I recommend using noise canceling headphones to block out noise, which is to look like and signal to others that you are in focus mode or reserve a conference room or phone parts just for important tasks. You can adjust your digital environment to like close all the unused hubs.
I put my hand up. I used to be a massive tap water with 20 plus tabs open. And just another way to create overwhelm and distraction for myself.
And I know you can't avoid the endless pings of Slack or Microsoft Teams, but you can create small pockets of focus if you're in back to back meetings. Look for the gaps. Maybe a 20 minute window between calls or the first 30 minutes before the office bus starts.
Even giving yourself a little bit of an optimized environment like this can really help you move forward more than you ever thought possible. And speaking of environments, It's something I believe in deeply dedicating time to learn skills to make a real impact in your life and work. I was able to dive into mastering tools that help me work smarter, but not harder.
And Adobe Photoshop became one of those tools. Everything you see on this channel and all of my graphics are all because of this. My favorite feature is the AI generated fill which is super fun to use and it helps me transform my images and graphics in seconds.
It transformed how I approach content creation. They allow me to produce incredible graphics and designs in less time. You can try it out for free for seven days, and the link in the description and learn a new skill too.
Step three is see. Commit to deep work. And I want to dedicate my love of deep work to the author, Cal Newport, who inspired me to be on this journey of committing my focus to create my best work, which led to some of my best videos on this channel and some of my best workshops and keynotes I've delivered to my audiences in my training company.
And for me, deep work means blocking out 2 to 3 hours to write scripts, develop workshop materials, or strategize for my business. And during these blocks, I'm completely offline. No email, no phone, no interruptions.
And I totally understand that deep work and the full time job might not look like these uninterrupted hours, but it could mean making the most of the time. You do have. During my corporate days, I use an early morning block when it's quiet in the office and everyone is just arriving in the office to work on complex tasks that require my undivided attention, especially when it's really quiet.
Like writing reports, or analyzing data, or even just brainstorming ideas. And you can start with one deep work session per day, even for just 45 minutes. For what you can carve out based on your own individual situation, you can use a tool like a timer to help you stay focused.
And one super pro tip if you're out with your laptop without a charger, there's nothing like a slowly depleting battery on your laptop to keep you focused and getting your task done. Now, that's from a personal experience. Step four is you unplug and recharge.
After going through multiple episodes of burnout. In my work life, I can tell you that rest really is productive. It's much better to be in the game of life in the long term than burning out and dragging yourself towards your dreams while killing your health in the process.
Think of yourself as the marathon runner versus a sprinter. A sprinter burns through energy quickly, while marathon runner paces themselves in the long haul rate. Life and work are marathons, not sprints, which is why recharging is so essential.
And for me, recharging means stepping away from work to play with my daughter, or taking a walk outside with a friend, or practicing a quick mindfulness session. Even if that just means 5 minutes or 1 minutes in the park at a time during the day. These moments are not lost time.
They're investments in my ability to perform well If you're working the job, this one can feel impossible with the demanding job. But even small breaks can make a huge difference. So, for example, I used to think that I had to power through lunch to stay productive eating on my desk all the time, but stepping away, even just for 15 minutes.
It gave me the fresh energy to tackle the afternoon slump, and micro breaks throughout the day at work makes so much difference. So every 60 to 90 minutes I get up for a quick stretch, go for some water. So give yourself that pockets of time to schedule intentional tech free moments.
Maybe it's a no phone time during breakfast or walk after work to decompress. Only you know what works best in your own unique schedule. And step five is simplify and reflect.
So think of your week as a closet. If you keep cramming new stuff into it without clearing out the old stuff, you'll end up overwhelmed and simplify is all about clearing the clutter and focus on what truly adds value. So for me, reflection happens every Friday.
I block out time my calendar to review what went well, what didn't, and what can I let go of. This helps me refine my approach for the following week. I usually review my current systems in my business the finances.
Is there anything that's getting too complicated for its own good? Do I need to let go of certain steps, removed services and products that no longer serves my work? And if you're in a busy work environment, reflection doesn't have to be a long process.
In a busy workday, even a few minutes can really help you to recalibrate. So take a moment to think about what can you simplify in your current working life and let go of to help you move towards your next biggest goals? When I finished working in my previous job, at the end of each day on my commute or a couple minutes on my desk, I would do this.
This simple habit of reflection. It helped me to spot patterns like realizing I was saying yes to too many non-essential requests of work. If someone tried to ask me that, I don't.
Another thing I would say I'd be glad to help. But if we're adding this to my responsibilities, what else can we take away to make room? You might already very full schedule.
And for me, having these honest conversations with those who I work with, it helped me to manage the expectations at work. And I really hope that through this video, you understand what I realized years ago that productivity isn't about working more, or trying to fit more in to what is already a bursting calendar. It's about aligning your time and actions with what truly matters to you.
So take that time to think about what your life will look like. If you're truly making progress towards that next step in your life and work. Then go after it with your focus energy to make it all happen.
So what's one small change that you can make this week? I'm Lori. If you like this video, you might also like this one.
All about my deep work routine in more detail to help you work smarter but not harder. Thank you so much for being here and I'll see you in the next video. I hope that this video, you understand.
Will, I realized years ago that productivity isn't about working more or trying to fit more into what is already a bursting calendar is about aligning your time and action with what truly matters to you. Take the time to think about what your life will look like. If you are truly making progress towards that next step in your life and work, then go after it with your focus and energy to make it happen.
If you let the system guide you to design your life and work, you'll be amazed how much progress you finally make towards your goals. Each week, ahead of 99% of people who let their life and time being controlled on all the pilot. This isn't just a system for work.
It's a framework of living with intention. It's how I build my career, grow my business, being there as much as I can for my family and make progress towards my biggest dreams. So what's one small change that you can make this week?
I'm Laurie. If you like this video, you might also like this one about my deep work routine in more detail to help you work smarter, not harder. Thank you so much for being here and I'll see you in the next video.
Hi, I'm Laurie. Founder of professional training company, keynote speaker, and the creator of this growing YouTube channel. And on top of it all, I'm a proud mom to a happy, lively little toddler.
So life is full to say the least. But here's the thing. Even with all of these things moving parts in my life, I'm learning how to get more meaningful work done week after week.
It wasn't always this way. I was lost and confused and how to make real progress. And this system has helped me and countless others I've shared with in my community, to move forward without feeling overwhelmed.
