How to Become More Productive and Less Busy with Smart Habits and Hacks

Key Discussion Points:

1. Morning Routine:
   • Both hosts emphasise the importance of a structured morning routine.
   • Jack starts his day with early exercise, fresh air, and quiet time before diving into work.
   • James values a calm start with time for himself, including reading and cold dips, avoiding caffeine and screens early on.
2. Personalisation of Routine:
   • The hosts highlight that routines should be tailored to individual preferences and lifestyles.
   • It's about finding what works for you, not just following popular advice.
3. Diary and Time Blocking:
   • Both use Outlook calendars to manage time effectively, with a focus on time-blocking for various tasks and projects.
   • Flexibility is crucial—moving tasks instead of deleting them if plans change.
4. Focus Techniques:
   • James uses noise-canceling headphones, binaural beats, and the "OneSec" app to minimize distractions and maintain focus.
   • He also employs the K-safe to lock his phone when he needs to focus deeply.
5. Tools and Apps:
   • Motion App: Helps break down big projects into manageable tasks and integrates with Outlook to automatically schedule them.
   • Reminders App: Useful for setting quick reminders on the go, especially when driving or away from the office.
6. Lead Generation and Client Care:
   • Jack and his team focus on consistent lead generation (e.g., sending 1,000 letters weekly) and structured client communication, including regular video updates and market reviews.
7. Managing Distractions:
   • Turning off unnecessary notifications and using focus modes on devices to avoid distractions.
   • Setting expectations with clients and colleagues to avoid unnecessary interruptions.
8. Productivity Tips:
   • Parkinson’s Law: Tasks expand to fill the time available. Set shorter deadlines to enhance efficiency.
   • Competitive mindset: Using a timer to push through tasks faster.

Closing Thoughts:

• The episode underscores the importance of discipline, self-awareness, and flexibility in maintaining productivity.
• James and Jack invite listeners to share their own habits and hacks or seek advice on implementing the strategies

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Transcript

Welcome to another episode of the Elite Agent Masterclass. Today, myself and Jack Durkin, co-founders of the Elite Agent Masterclass, are gonna dive deep into habits and hacks that we use on a day-to-day basis. Now, before we hit record, Jack, we went, is there that many things that we can share here? Are there? And we started to pick them apart, and I'm like, actually, there are loads and this episode it could be quite long your anticipation is it might be a bit on the shorter side but i think as soon as we start asking questions and start unpacking stuff like oh yeah we do that because their habits they go under the radar they become subconscious and so i'm especially with you because you're quite her habitual character i'm keen to really start to pick at that so give us that give us one of your headline habits I think, to be fair, mine all started with my morning routine. And I think you're right when we when we're discussing it before, because you do them so repetitively, you don't think about it, you just do it. And when we were chatting off air, I said, I'm not sure there's that much we can go through here. But if we can really dive deep and remind ourselves what we're doing each day. then I think there's a lot to unpack. So I think mine starts with my morning routine, getting up nice and early. I feel much better when I get up early and get my exercise done every single morning, gets me in the right head frame, also getting out and getting some fresh air as well, going for a run. But I feel like my day is set up so much better when I do that as opposed to just rolling out of bed, rolling into work and starting the day. So I think mine starts with a morning routine that usually consists of a run or going to the gym or some physical exercise. And then I also like to get into the office earlier now so that I'm not getting straight in, rushing in, have a good 15 minutes of just preparing myself for the day rather than rushing in. I think the better you can prepare, I love that. I think I can totally relate to the morning routine. And I think for clarity, I think it's important for people to understand that the morning routine doesn't always have to consist because there's a lot of talk, isn't there, about get up early, go for a run, meditate. And all these sorts of things. And as much as I do subscribe to them, I think they're great if they work for you. I think the point I wanted to make is they need to be what works for the individual. So if someone isn't a runner, then, you know, for example, my morning routine, and I can speak about this from the point of view of being a dad as well as a business owner. If I can stick to the getting up at five o'clock in the morning, which I do it through choice. It's not because I want to be a part of 5am club and all this, but my kids get up between quarter to six and quarter past six. So for me, it's about having that 45 minutes to potentially an hour and a half maximum to myself. And what I do within that hour and a half, then it might be, you know, I enjoy reading. So it might be reading for half an hour. I've got the cold dip tub. So hopping in there and, you know, just spending a bit of time thinking rather than reading. I think the counter point, though, is things I don't do in my morning routine. And I think you'd agree with this as well. I don't consume. I love my coffee. I've got a coffee machine being to cup. I've got the strongest espresso yet. See, I've got the strongest espresso beans I can possibly lay my hands on. It's like double caffeinated beans. But I don't touch that for the first hour and a half of waking up. I do my absolute utmost not to look at my phone or any screen within the first hour and a half. There is a lot of science behind the impact that can then have on your brain and your focus for that day. And so I do my absolute utmost to avoid those things. I think it's as much about what we don't do as what we do do. Yeah, I think it's, for me, very similar to having that you time at the start of the day, because I think as soon as you get into, well, as soon as everyone else starts getting up, then I feel as though you're always serving others. So you're going through your notifications, you're messaging people back because you want to respond to them. Then your family get up or your partner gets up and you're helping with housework or you could then get into the office and you're helping one of your colleagues. and i think having that you time before anyone else is up so that's why i like getting up a little bit earlier because um i get before anyone else have a an hour or so of just me time just doing what i want to do and then it puts me in the best frame of mind in the best position to serve others and i think yeah that's really important if you can set your day up right then yeah you're onto onto a good day Totally agree. And the reason I said I can share it from a dad's perspective as well as a business owner is that there are days where the alarm goes off at five. And because one of the kids has been up in the middle of the night, I'm not. I really just need an extra hour. And so then what happens is that extra hour that I take means I'm getting up at the same time as the kids. The problem I then have is, like you've just said, I'm immediately going into dad mode. I haven't had the ability to wake up. And some people can do that. Some people can and I respect that. But I think what is a big part of this episode and I think a big thing that people just need to take away from it is do what works for you. If you can open your eyes and immediately go, bing, I'm on and that not have a negative impact on the rest of your day. Good for you and credit to you. I know I am absolutely not that person. I can't just go, bing, I need to have some me time to come around to do a few things that set me right for the day. Because if I don't, it's almost like I feel like I'm frantically moving from task to task rather than calmly, you know, moving through the day with poise and composure. Yeah. And I think if anyone out there does just roll out and just go straight into the day-to-day, I'd encourage them to just try it. Try it out. Try reading. Try doing some exercise. Try even your cold tubs that you do. I quite enjoy, now that I'm at the David Lloyd, having a minutes just in the sauna just to relax myself before i go into work mode just so i can just have some peace quiet chill meditation if you're into meditation just something that's going to calm you and relax you before you get into the day and i encourage people just to try it out and see if it makes a difference to you though Yeah. Creating the calm, isn't it? It's creating the calm. And some people, you know, people in my immediate vicinity, not in the room, but in my vicinity that might they they are wired by societal norms. And what I mean by that is, is they are busy people. But I look at them and I go, cool, you're getting through a tick list of jobs. But are you being that productive? Are you getting are you squeezing all the juice out of your day or are you just checking boxes? And that's why for me, that bit of calm time and it's, you know, it's been spoken about between us as a group. I'm self-diagnosed, I think, around the whole ADHD thing. I've got a very busy brain, always moving a million miles an hour. There's like one hundred and one different ideas going through my head. So that that morning routine also helps with calming that down and really dialing in on what's important today. We talked in a previous episode, didn't we, about the Kickstarter? And what's important to me today? What, what, what, what is going to, what am I going to get to the end of the day of and reflect back and go, that was a super productive day. Yeah. I think the kickstart was a really good exercise. Um, If I go out for a morning walk or a morning run as well, because I don't have access to my phone, I can't physically do anything because I'm on that run. I've got to get that run done first. I think you're right. It makes me then think, okay, I've had on this half an hour run or half an hour walk, whatever it is, I've had 10 ideas. Which are the best ones? And when I get back, I'm going to focus on those ones first and get those done. And it just gives you that calm, doesn't it? that's i think for me it all starts with with setting the day up right i think creating the right habits when you first wake up i think sets you up for a really good day and what else in terms of your day-to-day in your business james what else helps you stay organized that helps you stay on track helps you stay productive Okay, where do I begin? I, as and I have no issue admitting this, because ultimately, I think us being a bit raw and vulnerable with our weaknesses will help those people that can actually relate to those. So I'm going to be very open around the fact that I'm probably not the most organized person in the world. I'm very much a doer. And I look at it and I go, I want to be productive, but how can I get stuff done now? And sometimes that can create overwhelm because we might be working on projects that require a length of time in order to complete the project. So I'll then look at the project as a whole and go, I want to do it all and I want to do it all right now. So one of the big things for me is working out of my Outlook diary. And so I've structured my diary into time blocks so that I have time dedicated to various projects preceding that. What I've started to do in the last few months is if we're working on a project sitting down, I've obviously got the whiteboard behind me. So I was sitting down or working from the whiteboard and just kind of taking the headline title of the project and kind of going, OK, what are the steps that go into this? and chunking it down so that then I can work on them step by step rather than just looking at the headline and going, shit, I've got loads to do here. So I think having time blocks in the diary is a start point, breaking big projects down. Then if I go to a slightly more granular level, day to day, if I've got something that requires my undivided attention, putting my phone in focus mode, putting headphones on, Listening to binaural beats. So for anyone that doesn't know what binaural beats are, there are different wavelengths that our brain works to. And so you can put on a playlist on Spotify or Apple, whichever your favorite supplier is, and listen to binaural beats for focus. And the way in which it works is that then the sounds that are being played, it's just sounds. It's not music. It's just sounds. So those waves will then just connect with your brain waves. And I do find I find it much easier to focus because I'm wearing noise cancelling headphones. I'm less distractible. And I think for me, it's about removing as many distractions as I can when I'm trying to do focused work. So if it's connected to my local business around doing lead gen, and it might be that I've got to write a letter or I want to write some engaging content for social media or whatever the case may be where I really need to get into it and think about it. Headphones on, binaural beats on, focus mode on the phone. And then one more, there are loads, but I'll give you one more just for now, is there's an app, plenty of them, but there's an app called OneSec. And I find that really useful. So if you have a tendency to be distractible, which I am, then one sec means that you can essentially block apps on your phone. So it stops you from getting into them for a certain period of time. So if you have a tendency to kind of go, oh, this is becoming difficult. I'm just going to have a quick look at Instagram just to give you that little dopamine hit. Might even give me some inspiration. As soon as you try and open the app, no chance. I find that helps. I feel like you can be very disciplined around that, especially with a K-safe that you used to have as well, locking the phone away. Yeah, K-safe. But it's all about measures that I've put in place. So you referenced the K-safe. Because I've put one sec in play, what one sec is teaching me to do, because you can wait a certain period of time and it will then let you in. But because I'm impatient, I won't wait the amount of time. I'm like, actually, it gives me enough time to look at the phone and go, am I doing this with purpose? Or am I doing it to distract myself? And the answer is generally to distract. It becomes a habit, doesn't it, of just picking up your phone and looking at the notifications. And if you can take that time, that extra couple of seconds, then your subconscious is then... It's all it takes. But if I start to get to a point, and this does happen, again, sharing my flaws, there are occasions where I'm like... I want to be distracted right now. I'm consciously making the decision to distract myself. So I'll wait. I'll wait the 30 seconds it takes for the app to allow me in. And I'll sit and just wait. When I'm getting into that headspace, that's when the K-safe comes into play. I put the phone in the case safe and then I'll set the timer. If it's for an hour, I can't get to it unless I smash that case safe up and I'm not going to smash the case safe up. But I put these measures in place because I want to be productive. I don't want to be ultimately look, the way I dial it back is I don't want to be that guy that's still working at 65. So all of the time I can save now by not being distracted and procrastination and everything else is contributing towards my aim of being able to have a choice over how I spend my life two, three years from now. I'm 37. So I'm talking by the time I'm 40, I want to be in that position where I can choose what I'm doing, not 65. So ultimately it comes back to that bigger picture. yeah i think you're very disciplined around that and being open real i'm probably not quite as disciplined um haven't haven't braved buying a calisophia or using the one sec app just yet but i do i do find that i can get everything done throughout the day but i'm probably working longer hours and probably having to work an extra couple of hours in the evening to make sure i can get everything done um so if you can dedicate that time and be disciplined around it then um yeah you can be more productive client And, you know, credit to you for being open about that, because I admire your graft. But because I have a young family now, I used to be that way. But I had to make a conscious decision when we launched the business of what do I want from this? What's really and we're at different stages. Right. So for you, you can commit those extra hours now because you've got eight years on me. So like you're going to be much further ahead by the time you're 37 than I am. It's also, I've probably not got long left before we're going to have to start looking at family. So the pressure's on now. You're putting in the shift now. But that's the reason why I've put the measures in place as well, is that I want to be able to put work down at 5.30 every single day. It doesn't mean that of an evening, once the kids have gone to bed, I might not just clean my day down at half seven till eight o'clock and just clear my emails down, respond to any final messages, et cetera. But... I don't want to be working into the evening. I want to have that time. I refuse to work Sundays. If someone wants to see me on a Sunday, there's more to life. I'd rather spend it with my family. And so having the structure that I've created enables me then to, look, I've not got it right. And anyone listening in, there's so many flaws in the things that I've got in play, but I'm always looking for ways to make them better and make my day more robust. But that's a few of the things that I've got in play. What about you? I think quite similar, you touched on using your diary, Outlook diary. And it's, I think, a big part of helping me stay organised because if I haven't got anything in my diary, then I can very easily procrastinate and the day just runs away with me. Whereas if I've got things scheduled in my diary at certain times, as if they're appointments, then... there is a much better chance of them getting done. And look, in all honesty, they don't always get done on the time, but I'll make sure by the end of the day, all of those things on my list that are in my diary are ticked off before the end of the day. If they had to get moved around, they get moved around, but they get done. And I think that's something we've been working with a lot of our agents on and also our inner team as well, our internal team, the marketing guys, Holly, Michelle, helping them structure their diary up so that they are as productive as possible. And that's probably, I'd say that's probably my biggest challenge biggest golden nugget that i'll share is use your diary and put everything into your diaries if it's an appointment because there's a good chance it's going to get done a lot better um or more efficiently i also we also have um i suppose when it comes to our day-to-day of the of the business Laura and I have a lot of things that we will look to try and do either each day or each week and make sure we've got them ticked off throughout the week. So, for example, we'll send a thousand letters out every single week, sometimes more, but a minimum of a thousand letters each week. We try and hit 40 door knocks every single week, 30 social media posts, 10 Google reviews. And that is literally on the whiteboard in front of me. And every time we add one to the list, we add it on. And by the end of that week, we make sure they're all ticked off and they're all in green by the end of the week. that's one thing we do consistently every single week in terms of lead gen. We started doing a lot of, so every four weeks now as well. And I know you're doing quite a similar, a similar thing in place as well, where we will have vendor contact every four weeks. It'll be a loom video or we'll go out and arrange to see the client or we'll have a phone call with them that every single week we've got. Yeah. It's in the diary to follow it with the clients that we've got on the market with the market update. I just wanted to qualify that for anyone listening because the way you positioned it initially was like you're communicating with your clients once every four weeks. So just to qualify, you're speaking to them, you're communicating with them every week, but every four weeks it's some sort of physical communication. Yeah, so it'd be a revisit or... Yeah, more in-depth, especially for the ones that are on the market and aren't getting huge amounts of interest. Or they could just be unique properties, higher end of the market, and they will take that a little bit longer. And a lot of our sellers understand that. But I think it's really important that we make sure keep them updated on what we're doing so every four weeks we'll send them a five to ten minute video or we'll go around and see them for for 15 minutes half an hour and just go through what we've what we've been doing in the background um also what the market's looking like what the competition's looking like where we sit in terms of price is there anything we need to change um so go into quite a bit of detail in terms of yeah what's happening in the market and also what's been happening with the interest on their property as well which i think The sellers really enjoy that. They like to know that something's happening, something's going on, not that the property just sits down on the property portals and isn't getting any interest. So, yeah, a few things that we've built into our day to day that help us stay on track, help us keep the wheels turning as well, because there's so many different plates to spin. You can have a tendency to go all in on your lead gen at one point and then take your foot off the gas. And then you've got so many clients to serve that are on the market. So you really focus on getting all your stocks sold. Then you want to get it through to exchange and policing. So you spend all your time on sales progression. But I think dividing your week up, and making sure that you've got your lead gen in throughout the week, you've got your vendor care booked in for that week, you've got your time where you're doing your sales progression, if you're doing your own sales progression, and then you can spin those plates a little bit easier. I totally agree. And I think coming back to the diary structure, I think there's a lot more that can be unpacked there. So I think time blocking is one thing. So I think the next thing that you made reference to is that you've got to allow yourself some flex. Sometimes something will happen. A fire will start raging away and you've got to attend to it. So the time block that you've got allocated to a thing that doesn't need to be done immediately will get pushed. But I think what's really, really important for people to then be able to do is have the ability to move it, don't delete it. So if it needs to be moved to later in the day, great. If it needs to be moved to tomorrow, also fine. Give yourself a deadline on it so that you're not just continually pushing stuff back, but just never delete it. And I think that then is and I did this exercise a little while back where it was like, right. I kind of looked at my calendar, started with a blank piece of paper, worked out the hours that I wanted to commit to work. But before that, I put all of the things that were important to me first. So for me, it's about health, family and happiness. And so work then comes after those three. So. putting going to the gym into the diary first. Now for me, going at six, you know, so get up at five, go at six, back for seven, whatever. Spending time with my kids every Tuesday morning when they first get up, I don't come to work until half past 10. So that's then in my diary. And so that then comes first, then working out how many hours you've got in your working week. But my advice to anyone that is looking at implementing this kind of a structure is don't absolutely ram your diary. That's probably one of the biggest mistakes people make. They go from like no diary structure to, okay, I'm going to fill it with 100% of things. My recommendation would be go for a 60-40 split. 70-30 possibly, but 60-40. And the 60% is things that go in the diary. The 40% is then white space, flex, space to move things, space for appointments even. Yeah, we also as well with our local business will overbook the slot. So it might be we might spend an hour and a half at an appointment, but we'll book that a two hour slot so that if it does run over or if we want to spend a little bit more time prepping in advance, we'll extend the slots. We've got a little bit of time of prepping beforehand. Travel time goes into the diary as well because you can stack your appointments back to back. If you've ever done viewings on a Saturday and you're a busy, busy viewer, you've got to make sure you've got time to get to the next appointment. Otherwise, you phone your appointment telling them you're 10 minutes behind. So making sure that you time block and add the time into travel to plan and prepare to follow up as well. If you're following up or you've got time to send your emails or your follow up content after appointments. And that's really important. Like I said, cramming your diary up. you're going to get really deflated by the end of the week if you haven't got everything done and you put some really important things in there so yeah if you can get 80% of your working week done I think that's a successful week I totally agree. It's focusing on the big ticket items, isn't it? So making sure that you understand what, OK, by the end of this week, what is really, really important that I get it done. And it won't be the thing that is a box tick exercise. It won't be. It'll be a much bigger ticket item. Having time blocks in, you know, I suppose to some extent using the laser framework that we've built out. So allocating time in your diary for lead generation. So that might be creating the opportunity. It might be following up on old clients, whatever the case may be, but allocating time in your diary. It doesn't need to be one big block. You've got to work on what suits you. If you're better at working in sprints, then it might be an hour every morning of the week. For other people, they're better at working in chunks of time. So it might be five hours on a Wednesday, for example. So really understanding what works for you. And that then leads on to my next, is it a habit? Is it a hack? Or is it just understanding yourself? I think the next thing I would say is, at what time of the day are you most engaged? Are you most productive? So I'm a morning person. So if I need to do thoughtful work, creative work, then I'm best served doing that between nine and 12. I'm very comfortable switching into people mode. So I can meet clients any time of the day and I'll just turn the, you know, the curtain opens and the performance begins. So I could meet a client. If I'm feeling a little bit more jaded or whatever else at three o'clock in the afternoon, I'm better than being in front of people because I can turn it on. But if I'm trying to do creative work at three o'clock in the And so you've got to decide on what type of person are you? Are you more of a, you know, a night owl? Are you someone that will get super creative at eight o'clock of an evening? I mean, I'm about ready for bed at eight o'clock of an evening. So that is the last time of the day that I'd be doing creative work. You've got to determine what type of person you are and then apply that to your working day. Yeah, I think there's a lot of marketers that, Ben, for example, Tom Byron may agree, but some of them are night owls. They like doing the creative stuff of an evening, late at night. They get their creative juices flowing. Yeah, like I said, some people prefer doing that in the mornings. I think it just depends on what fits for you as the individual. Yeah, as well. So a lot goes into the diary. There's so much more that we could share. And maybe we can come back to it. But is there is there any are there any other sort of habits and hacks that you want? The one thing I've been saving is an app that that we've that we've been using for a little while now, especially each time we go into creating big projects and breaking those projects down. And it's an app called Motion. which is an AI tool as well. So add your projects into Motion, create your tasks that go into that project. And Motion's very, if you connect your Motion to your Outlook diary, it will then look for spaces in your diary and add the time slots in. So if you've got a four hour project, it will add half an hour in on a Monday at 10 o'clock. If you've got a space, it will then add another slot in on a Wednesday and kind of break that project down for you and time block the space in. that you need it also allows you to tick the jobs off it doesn't it doesn't go if unless you've actually completed the project as well all the tasks are it um so it'll automatically move it to the next white space that gives you the time allocation so if you dedicate 30 minutes to a task and you don't complete it what it will automatically do is look at your diary and move it to the next 30 minute slot that's available in your calendar so that's why then if you run your outlook calendar in a really clean way, putting in time to have a lunch break so that you can eat, time to respond to emails and WhatsApps and text messages. I guess it's another hack, but it connects to motion in some ways, is you've got to start reconditioning your reaction to this thing. I'm obsessed with giving advice on the phone. For those that are listening, I'm waving my phone around when I say this thing. Because we are... gluttons for it aren't we you hear it ping like mine's always on silent but i hear it vibrate i'm going to turn in fact i'm going to turn the vibrations off on my phone hear it vibrate and i'm like oh what is it that's why focus mode is really handy i've turned a lot of notifications off on the apps because every single app that you've got will ping you a notification and i find i'm i get one notification i'm looking for it it doesn't tend to be anything important But there's no harm in letting those 5, 10, 8, 20 notifications build up throughout the day, and I'll just look at them all in a quick couple of minutes rather than keep checking it 20 times. But there's no reason why you can't put a 15-minute time block into your diary three times a day to respond to emails, pick up texts, WhatsApps. The clever thing is that this software is designed to... gain your attention that's the whole point it's designed to become a distraction to draw you in that's how they monetize it right but equally a lot of these apps also have ways that you can then control how they work and what i mean by that is whatsapp is a great example whatsapp for business now i haven't got this set right now but the more we're talking about okay i'm gonna put that back in place and that's to have an auto responder thanks for your message Likelihood is I'm in appointments or meetings right now. I'll come back to you as soon as I can. If it's urgent, please ring me. And then you can put the same on an email. And then all of a sudden, people aren't expecting you to respond the way you have done before now. Because if you, for those that are listening in, you could be victim of this. You get a message and you're like, I'm going to respond to that right now. And then habits start to form. But then what happens is, is the person on the receiving end of your messaging, it comes to expect you to respond that quickly. So if you're trying to change the habit, you've got to start to re-educate those people that you communicate with on a regular basis. Portnoy will respond on your emails. I'm the world's worst when it comes to emails. Anyone listening, and if you've ever emailed me, the likelihood of you getting a response within three days is slim to none. And I'm not afraid to admit it. Because if it's an email, it's like I prioritize in my mind the order of priority. If someone rings me, it means it's important. If someone messages me slightly less important, it's definitely less important. Someone emails me, to my mind, it's like they've sent me a letter in second class post. I respond to it in days. Yeah, if you can condition yourself to do that. I think I had a tendency a while back to get back to my sellers straight away, especially on a Sunday. And I remember one seller messaging me saying, really sorry to mess you on a Sunday. I was like, no, it's absolutely fine. And from then on, it was kind of like the green light for them to message me every single Sunday thereafter. But I set a rod for my own back in responding to them straight away. Yeah. So there's one other app whilst we think about it that also helps me stay productive, but also helps me whilst I'm on the go as well. And it's an app that everyone will likely have on their phone. It's the Reminders app. So whilst I'm out and about, if I'm driving around and I've got something that literally pings into my mind that needs doing at some point throughout the day I will literally just talk to Siri and tell it to set a reminder for me at a certain time when I know I'm going to be free to pick it up and that tends to help me make sure I can tick those smaller tasks off as well so motion for the bigger projects and bigger tasks reminders for the smaller tasks as well or even calls that you need to make throughout the day yeah helps me keep on track Yeah, totally agree. I actually, it sounds so simple, but so many people aren't aware. So we obviously share an office with a mortgage advisor and had a conversation with one of the mortgage advisors in the office the other day. In fact, I wasn't having a conversation. I went in there, I just put the phone down to someone, but I was on my way to the kitchen. So as I was walking through the office, I'm like, I'm not going to do it fully because obviously it'll listen to me. I was like, Siri, remind me in 10 minutes to call so-and-so about X. And she's like, what are you doing? Setting a reminder. Can you do that? Yeah, just say just either press the button and hold it and the little thing will pop up or say, hey, Siri, don't do it. Yeah, it's come on. And then tell it. Set me a reminder in 10 minutes to or set me a reminder Friday at five to nine to call so and so at nine o'clock. Yeah, because you might not always be able to make that call or complete that small task straight away, but it's very easily forgotten, very, very easily forgotten. And your phones can be the biggest distraction, but they can also, if you use them correctly, they can also be the biggest support and help to keeping you productive. Totally right. Totally, totally agree. Any other habits and hacks? I feel like there's a lot here. We went into this and you're like, well, I'm not sure that we're going to have a lot to talk about. But the more we go on, we're like, aha, and that. It just reminds you, when you start talking, it just reminds you of some of the things that you do and some of the things that you use. Those are probably my three biggest ones, which is using your diary, whether it's Outlook or whichever diary you're looking to use. Put your personal appointments in first. work your work diary around around that but make sure you structure and put those appointments in as if they're appointments um the motion app which really helps with projects and smaller tasks um and then the reminders app for calls or very small tasks that you need to complete throughout the day those are the three things that really helped me become more productive Love that. Yeah, I'm right there with you using all of those. And then obviously the little bits in the middle there that we've talked about, I think then just help with the day to day. I think the only other thing that we haven't talked about is just getting it off of my screen is having for those that are watching, they'll see for those that aren't having a timer so that you can. I find I'm incredibly competitive. So this depends on your character type. But I think a lot of estate agents, generally speaking, will fall into that competitive category. But I'm also very competitive with myself. So setting a timer when I'm doing a task, if I've allowed myself an hour, I can see the time is ticking down, keeps my brain focused on what it is I'm doing. But it also makes me think, right, I'm going to get this done quicker. Really good example. We didn't use the timer for it. But yesterday we had a leadership meeting, didn't we? For the Avenue. And ordinarily we'll set a day aside. But yesterday we decided to mix it up and we set aside. We had four hours together, didn't we? So we had half the time. Would you agree that in that half the day we were probably more productive than we would have been in historic meetings where we've had a whole day? Yeah, definitely. Put ourselves under a bit more pressure, but we work well under pressure. And that's the thing, isn't it? It's, you know, the diamonds are formed under pressure. So when you've got all day long, it's easy to kind of just float around ideas and what have you and kind of lose your way. Again, full disclosure, that happens. Whereas yesterday, it was like, right, we are on point. We've got four hours. Let's get this done. And we've realised as a leadership team that actually the more pressure we apply, the better the outcome. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that time pressure. But it's Parkinson's law that the task that you complete will expand to the amount of time you give it. So if you say it's going to take me an hour to do something, you will fill the hour. But if you actually go, but what if I could do this in 45 minutes? And again, this is the competitive nature in me that I'm always wanting to push the envelope to either do things better or faster. And so that's why setting a timer works really well for me personally, because I'm like, I want to do this quicker than this time. Someone knocks on my door. Go away. I'm on the clock. Next leadership meeting will be three hours. We'll get it shorter. um but yeah i think this has been a really good episode i'm sure there's more that will come out from the woodworkers we we come offline but there could be a part two when we yeah when we start yeah getting more ideas i'm sure there could be a part two to this potentially and really start picking at it but i guess at the surface level the stuff that's really in our conscious mind is what we've shared today and it'd be interesting to hear for those listening in um do you use any of the strategies that we've shared Do you like the sound of any of the strategies that we've shared? Do you want to try and implement them? If you would like to try and implement them, but you're kind of like, not sure how that would work, pick up the phone to me or Jack, drop us a DM, however you want to get in touch. And equally, I'd be keen to hear from anyone if you've got any little hacks when you're really starting to think about it, little habits. that are part of your day that help you keep on track, that help you create the perfectly repeatable week. So drop us a comment whether you're watching this on YouTube, listening in on Spotify or Apple, watching us in the Facebook group. Be keen to hear your thoughts. But yeah, until next time. I think we got more out of that, Jack, than you expected. It's been a good one. Yeah, a little bit longer than I thought it would be. Brilliant. Mate, I look forward to speaking to you again soon. See you soon.