Video summary
The core message of this video is that time itself is not the primary obstacle to productivity; rather, the real enemies are a lack of focus and poor prioritization. Since everyone receives the same twenty-four hours in a day, the key to success lies in how intentionally we utilize that fixed container of time. The speaker argues that mental energy is a limited resource, similar to money, and must be spent on activities that yield the highest return rather than simply crossing items off a list. This approach shifts the mindset from being busy to being productive, ensuring that attention—the true currency of life—is directed toward tasks that significantly move the needle in one's personal and professional trajectory.
To achieve this level of efficiency, the first technique discussed is the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, which states that 80% of results come from 20% of efforts. The speaker emphasizes that not all tasks are equal and that individuals often confuse busyness with productivity by avoiding difficult but high-impact work in favor of easier, low-value tasks. By identifying the critical 20% of actions that align with long-term goals—whether in business revenue, fitness, or relationships—and focusing exclusively on those, one can minimize distractions and optimize cognitive resources. A practical application involves creating a short list of only three top priorities for the day and committing to completing just the number one task before moving on, effectively ignoring the rest of the list to maintain deep focus.
The second strategy introduced is batching, which involves grouping similar tasks together to be completed in a single session rather than scattering them throughout the day. This method leverages the brain's ability to thrive on rhythm and flow, reducing the detrimental effects of context switching that occur when jumping between unrelated activities. For example, the speaker dedicates specific days or blocks of time solely to creative work like recording podcasts or social media reels, while reserving other times for analytical tasks like meetings or coaching sessions. By clustering related activities, such as administrative duties or content creation, individuals can maintain a consistent mental state, allowing their brain to stay in a deep work zone without the constant interruption of shifting gears between different types of thinking.
The third and final technique is the Pomodoro method, a time-management approach that structures work into focused intervals followed by short breaks to prevent burnout and maintain high-quality output. The standard practice involves working intensely on a single task for twenty-five minutes followed by a five-minute break, though the speaker notes that this duration can be extended over time as focus becomes a trainable skill. Crucially, during these breaks, one must avoid looking at phones or screens; instead, the brain should rest by going outside, closing eyes, or simply allowing thoughts to wander without digital stimulation. This disciplined cycle of single-tasking and genuine rest trains the brain to resist distraction, ultimately enabling individuals to sustain deep focus for longer periods and accomplish more in less time than ever before.
Read the full video transcript
Let's be real here, just me and you,
right? You know, you waste a lot of
time, right? Like you feel like you're
busy, but I know and you know that you
kind of waste a lot of time sometimes.
Look at your screen time on your phone.
That'll give you a pretty good idea of
about how much time that you waste. We
all do it, though. It's not just you.
So, don't worry about it. Time or lack
of time is not the enemy. It's really
lack of focus and lack of priority that
is really the biggest enemy here. It's
not time itself. It's that you're not
focused and you're not prioritizing
everything that's the most important.
And all of that turns into you not being
as productive as you want. And listen,
we all want the perfect life. You're
here, you're listening to this podcast
episode because you want to be better.
You wouldn't listen to a podcast called
the mindset mentor unless you knew there
was something inside of you that you
wanted to improve because you knew if
you improved your life would improve. So
that means there's a part of you that
wants to improve your life. But we all
get the same 24 hours in a day. That
will never change. You cannot control
time. You can't control how much time
you get. The only thing that we can
control is how productive you are in the
amount of time that you're able to work.
I like to think of time like a
container. You can't make the container
bigger, but you can be more intentional
about what you put in that container
itself. And so today, we're going to
dive into three different steps, three
different things that I use in my life.
I've been using for years that help me
get way more done in less time. And I'm
going to teach you some stuff that's
based off of psychology and neurology
and studies to teach you that these
things actually work in your lives so
that you can have a really clear
understanding of how to leverage these
three techniques to help you get more
done. Let's dive into it. Technique
number one, I guess you could call it,
is something that's called the Pareto
principle. It's called the 8020 rule.
And I learned this probably 20 years ago
at this point. Our brain has a limited
capacity to process information. You
can't just throw a million bits of
information and just hope that it all
goes through. And so with that, we also
have very limited energy throughout the
entire day. And so the question I always
think about is, okay, I've got very
limited energy throughout the day and
I've got limited processing from my
brain. So, how can I make sure that in
the moments when I sit down to get work
done that I'm moving the needle as much
as I can and I'm pulling the biggest
levers in my life and in my business
that I can? How can I bring as much
brain power to what matters most? And
let me tell you this, I'm just going to
be fully honest with you. I make to-do
lists. I have never in my entire life
ever finished a to-do list. I don't I've
never finished it. But what I do is I
focus on the things that are the most
important. That's where the 8020 rule
really comes in. What you're doing is
you're focusing on this thing that's
called cognitive budgeting. Like money,
your mental energy needs to be spent on
what gives you the highest return, not
what's easiest just to cross off of your
to-do list. So taking charge of what you
dedicate your time and attention to.
Attention is a currency and so where you
spend it determines your life's
trajectory. And so the Pareto principle
or what's also called the 8020 rule says
that 80% of your results in anything
come from about 20% of your efforts. And
we will be right back. Hey, if you're
looking to get to your next level and
you realize that it's not another
strategy, it's not another book, it is
found by you conquering the version of
you that's holding yourself back, then
you need to be at my live event this
December 3rd, 4th, and 5th called
Freedom Live. We're going to find out
exactly where you want to be in life,
why you're not there yet, and then find
and break the unconscious patterns,
limiting beliefs, and fears that are
holding you back and capping your
success without you even knowing it. So,
if you want to live to your full
potential, but you don't know how to
break through, this is the event to be
at. You can go to freedomlive2026.com
or you can go to this QR code, scan this
right here. There's currently a $50 off
coupon right now. So, go ahead and scan
that and I will see you live in Austin,
Texas. And now back to the show. That
means 20% of your tasks on your to-do
list will produce 80% of your progress.
Okay? 20% of your clients will create
80% of your income. Like if you look at
a business and you just look at, okay,
this business has a hundred clients.
There's 20 of them that bring in the
most revenue. So, if I'm a smart
business owner, I should really focus on
developing the best relationship with
those top 20, knowing that they're
bringing me 80% of the revenue. 20% of
your habits in your life shape 80% of
your life. So, you've got to start to
think about this. If I make a to-do list
with with 14 things on it that have to
be done today, what are the most
important 20% on there? Because those
most important 20% are the ones that are
going to move the needle in my life the
most. So instead of trying to do
everything, which I know there's so many
people that are planners and to-do
listers that want to get everything done
and then when they don't because it's
actually impossible,
they get stressed out. So instead of
trying to do everything, I don't care
about doing everything. I want to focus
on doing the right things. That's how
you get more done in less time with way
less stress. What we want to do is we
want to identify and concentrate on the
tasks that yield the most significant
results in our life, in our businesses,
in our fitness, in our diet, in our
relationships. By focusing on the
critical 20% of tasks, we minimize the
distractions in our life and we optimize
our cognitive resources which are very
very limited throughout the day. And so
research in behavioral economics
confirms this and they it confirms that
not all effort in your life is equal.
Often we confuse being busy with being
productive. When you look at it, when
you think that you're you're busy versus
being productive, it's like when you
finish a day, you worked your ass off
all day long. In the end of the day, you
lay on your couch, you're like, "God, I
still don't feel like I did anything."
Lots of times because you're focusing on
just crossing things off your to-do list
and being busy versus being productive.
When in reality, what we're doing in
those cases, we're usually avoiding the
deep work that really moves the needle
in our life. And so, how do you use the
8020 rule to enhance your productivity?
You make your to-do list. And in your
to-do list, you identify the high impact
tasks. Those are often the ones that we
avoid. We procrastinate. We feel
resistance towards, right? We usually
don't do them because they demand more
from us. They usually demand more brain
power, more effort, more focus, but they
usually bring the biggest ROI. And so
the first step to implementing the 8020
rule is to determine which of these
tasks contribute the most significant
amount to our goals. The ones that align
with our long-term success. You create a
list of all of the tasks. And then what
you do is you circle the ones that are
the most urgent and important to
achieving your goals. And what I
recommend is you ask yourself this
question. If I could do only one thing
today that would create the most impact
in my life, what would it be?
That's usually part of your 20%. And so
what I do every single day, I've said
this for years, is I will make my to-do
list. I take an index card, a 3x5 card.
I write number one, the most important
thing that needs to be done today. I
write number two, and I write number
three. I rank my three most important
things. I throw my to-do list off to the
side, and I don't look at it usually
ever again the rest of the day. And I
put that index card in my back pocket,
and I just focus on taking action on
number one. If I just get the number one
thing done every single day, usually
over the course of a year, that's a very
productive year. That's the first thing.
Make sure you're prioritizing correctly
using the 8020 rule. The second thing is
something that's called batching.
Batching is really taking things that
are kind of like very similar or the
exact same thing and doing them all at
once, like once a week, putting them all
together. Because your brain, what
happens is it thrives on rhythm. when it
gets into a flow, it wants to stay in
that flow. And when you're batching and
putting all of these tasks together, and
I'll explain exactly how to do this and
what it means, it reduces something
that's called context switching, and it
protects your deep focus zones that you
get into. So, for me, creating content
is one of the things that is most
important for me, creating these podcast
episodes, creating reels for Instagram,
and creating anything else that we need
to create for my business and marketing
and all of that. So, I want to focus on
putting as much effort as I can. I want
as much of my brain power as I can into
that. So, today woke up, did my morning
routine, did everything that I needed to
with the family, with the baby, all that
stuff. And then I plan two podcast
episodes back to back. And then I record
two podcast episodes back to back. And
then if I need to record reels, I'll
usually plan and record four, five,
seven reels for the day and then record
them. Because when I'm in that creative
headsp space, I want to stay in that
creative headsp space versus record a
podcast episode today and then record
another one on Wednesday and record
another one on Friday and record one on
Saturday. I'm like, no, no, no. I want
to take my energy since I'm in this flow
and continue to stay in the creative
space. So, that's what I do for my
creativity. for times when I need to sit
down and work and really get things done
and have Zoom meetings. That's usually
the way like my Monday, Tuesday is my
coaching sessions that I have for like
Mindset University and and all of that
and also my Zoom calls with my team. My
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday are my
creative days to create stuff and the
energy is tends to flow better when you
do that. So maybe you don't have work
days and then creative days, but what
would you be able to batch together?
what would you be able to to use?
Because your ideas kind of stack. And
when you do that, your execution becomes
easier because you're not going from
this thing to another thing to another
thing and they're all completely
unrelated. So, I recommend you figure
out what you can batch together. And
then what you do is you spend as much of
your time as possible in that deep work
working on just a couple things that are
all very related. And it just allows
your brain because creativity is one
part of your brain. Focus and execution
and being productive and and thinking
about business and numbers and
analytical is another part of your
brain. How can you use parts of your
brains? Batch them all together to get
things done. So that's number two is to
batch. And then number three is when
you're sitting down to work, use
something that's called the Pomodoro
technique. The Pomodoro technique is
very, very simple. You sit down, you
have a timer. If you've ever been on a
Zoom call with me, I usually show it. I
have a timer that lives on my desk and
the timer will time for 25 minutes. The
Pomodoro technique is 25 minutes on, 5
minutes off. 25 minutes on working on
one thing and one thing only, 5 minutes
off. And the reason why is because this
is the thing that's called single
tasking. People think that they should
multitask. They people are like, I'm a
great multitasker. There's really
detrimental effects of multitasking. Uh
there was a study that was done by
researchers at Stanford University that
found out that people who are heavy
multitaskers actually perform worse on
tasks that require attention and memory
than those who focus on one task at a
time. And the reason why is because
their brains struggle to filter
illrelevant information and they're more
likely to make mistakes even when they
thought they were being efficient. And
so when you look at multitasking,
multitasking is you switching from one
task to another. You're never doing two
things at the exact same time cuz your
brain can only focus on one thing. So
when you do the pomodoric technique,
what you're doing is you're going,
"Okay, I'm going to focus on one thing
and bring as much of my brain power as
possible to getting this one thing
done." Would you really want to bring
50% of your brain power to trying to do
something? No, you want to bring 100% of
your brain power. How do you do that?
You focus on one thing and one thing
only. So what I recommend is you sit
down at your desk if you're going to do
some deep work for a Pomodoro technique
and you sit down at your desk. You put
your headphones on, you have your
coffee, you have whatever it is you
need. Put your headphones on, you're
noise cancelling, you zoom out of the
entire world, and you're literally just
in this one thing. And all you start
doing, you put on your timer, you work
for 25 minutes on that one thing, and
then take five minutes off. Here's
what's really important. The reason why
it's important to take 5 minutes off is
first off, the first couple times that
you do this, I will tell you, it was a
complete struggle for me to get to 25
minutes without my brain wanting to go
everywhere. my brain would want to go
here and here and oh my god, I got to do
this and I got to text this person back
and I've got to make sure that I do this
thing. What you're doing is you're
trying to train your brain to shut the
hell up, right? Like our brains are so
all over the place. And so when you
first try to take your brain and say,
"Sit down and do one thing," your
brain's going to fight. It's like a
monkey that just wants to throw crap all
over the place. And you're like, "Nope,
you got to sit down. You got to" It's
the same way that you train a dog. Dog
pees inside, you take him outside. Pees
inside, you take him outside. you do
this enough times, the dog goes, "Oh,
okay. I pee outside." The same way where
it's like, "Oh, when I sit down to work,
my brain eventually goes, "Oh, okay.
Yeah, that's what we're doing. We're
being productive." And what you're doing
is you're doing 25 minutes on, 5 minutes
off. The 5 minutes off, you don't want
to look at your phone. The best thing
that you can do is try to rest your
brain. How do you do that? Two ways to
do that. Go outside, sit on your
backyard furniture or sit on a park
bench, whatever it is, and just allow
your brain to wander. Just look at
trees. Just do whatever it is that you
can do. Next best thing that you can do
is just close your eyes and just do some
breathing for 5 minutes until your timer
goes off. You're giving your brain a
fullon rest in those in between stages.
Full-on rest. The worst thing you could
do is look at your phone. There's a
whole lot of reasons why. I write about
it inside of my book of the reasons why
you shouldn't look at your phone in the
in between time of a Podora technique.
But 25 minutes on, five minutes off is
what you should know. Then you can go
into something that I put inside of my
book that's called Pomodoro Plus is it
used to be a struggle for me to get to
25 minutes. Now I can breeze to 25
minutes. And so what I started doing is
I went from 25 minutes on to 30 minutes
on to 35 minutes on to 40 minutes on to
45 minutes on. So now my Pomodoro
techniques is 45 minutes on 10 minutes
off which is crazy because it shows you
that focus is a skill set something that
you can build over time and that worked
exactly for me. It was hard for me to
get to 25 minutes. Now 45 minutes is
usually my sessions that I do. You're
focusing on one task and one task only.
Multitasking is not a skill and the more
that you do it the more that you
fragment your focus and dilute your
results. And so if you want to be more
focused and get more done, focus on
these three things. Number one, the 8020
rule, the Pomodoro the excuse me, the
Pareto principle. 8020%
of what you do brings 80% of your
results in your life. 20% of the actions
you take bring you 80% of your money.
The second thing is you batch as many
tasks that are similar as you possibly
can. And the third thing you should do
is use a Pomodoro technique to make sure
that you focus as much of your brain
power to getting your most important
things done anytime that you sit down to
get them done. Hey, thanks so much for
watching today's video. If you love this
video, click this one right here. This
is the one that you need to watch next.
And if you want to make sure you don't
miss any more of these episodes, click
that button right there. Make sure you
subscribe and check out the next