In this episode, we debunk the myth that being productive means grinding it out and feeling like work. In fact, my guest today believes that happy engineers are the most productive engineers!
Meet Thanh Pham, the founder of Asian Efficiency, a productivity training company, where they help people become more productive at work and in life.
He started Asian Efficiency in 2011 and has helped over 16,000 clients. The Asian Efficiency blog attracts over 1 million readers annually, and their podcast “The Productivity Show” is the #1 productivity podcast in the world with over 12 million downloads.
You are going to discover the 3 elements of Thanh’s 25x Productivity System that you can leverage in your career right now. Plus, this holistic approach will help you in relationships, health, and your happiness outside of work as well.
Thanh’s brilliance in productivity, efficiency and time management has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, and Inc magazines, and he gives keynotes across the world.
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The Happy Engineer Podcast
WATCH EPISODE 097: WHY HAPPY PEOPLE ARE MORE PRODUCTIVE WITH THANH PHAM | CEO AT ASIAN EFFICIENCY
LISTEN TO EPISODE 097: WHY HAPPY PEOPLE ARE MORE PRODUCTIVE WITH THANH PHAM | CEO AT ASIAN EFFICIENCY INTERVIEW WITH ZACH’S DEBRIEF
Previous Episode 096: From Hate to Happiness with Dr. Benjamin Ritter | 3 Keys to Engineering Career Fulfillment
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WHY HAPPY PEOPLE ARE MORE PRODUCTIVE
We can’t talk about productivity and not leave you with some very actionable tips to increase your productivity right now without having to change everything about your calendar and all the technology and tools and apps that you use.
Simple ways to increase productivity right now.
Number one, use a timer.
This is an old school approach, but it really works and it relates back to this idea of energy that Thanh and I talked about in the podcast today, and energy management being one of the key elements of productivity in the Lifestyle Engineering blueprint system as well.
Timers are super helpful because they trigger us subconsciously that there is a limit to when we must be complete on the work. And it elevates the intensity and the focus because I only have 17 minutes to work on this.
And even though it’s an arbitrary thing that we set up for ourselves, that slight edge of gamification on our work.
I want you to pick an amount of time that you’re gonna dedicate full focus before you’re allowed to get up from the chair, walk away from the desk, go get water, go get coffee, or anything.
You’re committing to full focus for that full amount of time. So be mindful. Don’t set up. Four hour timer. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about maybe 17 minutes or 27 minutes or 30 minutes.
If you’re not the kind of person who’s really practiced at deep work, then start small. You have 13 minutes, 17 minutes. You’ll find that that’s still a long time.
Set it for 17 minutes and tell yourself, I am gonna get as many emails done in 17 minutes as possible.
Then I’ll come back and decide, am I going to do more email or move on to another task?
That’s simple. Set the timer and then go race yourself.
Number two, first things first.
It’s really important that you keep, first things first.
What do I mean by that? So often we have our priorities. But we let our calendar get filled by all of the default. Recurring things that just happen every week. This could be weekly recurring meetings for projects that you’re a part of.
This could be habits and behaviors of your own, that you always take out the trash at a certain time. You always watch a certain TV show. You always, you know, go to the gym. There’s these different things, right? Well, some of those are good, some of them may not be. The spirit of productivity is putting the first things first where you allocate your time and energy to the top priority before you do anything else.
So the difference is this. Imagine looking at your calendar with all of your week already scattered with meetings and things you’re going to be doing when you sit down on Monday morning.
The whole week’s already loaded with meetings. That’s true for most people. I know when you sit down at your desk Monday morning, you already have 80% or more of your week allocated to meetings, and then you look and say, oh, well what are my priorities for the week?
And you try to fit those in around all the blocks of everything else. Imagine instead if you sat down Monday morning to a blank calendar and you asked yourself, what are my priorities?
What are the things I need to get done? And the first thing you did was allocate the time and the energy that you would need to get those done on your calendar first before anything else happened.
Then you came back and put in all the rest of the meetings. How different would that be?
Go ask yourself that question and make sure that you’re giving the first important priorities, the first in importance, time and energy on your calendar.
Related to this is the conflict that I see where people focus on what they need to stop doing as their mode to create productivity.
And believe me, a stop doing list is very important.
We can talk about that another day.
The key is putting in first things first, because if you pull something out but you haven’t made an intentional decision of what you’re going to put in, nature hates a vacuum, and that space that you’ve carved out of stopping one activity that felt like it was not productive for.
Well, good job. You stopped doing something, but what did you do instead? You just filled in that time with more of something else. That’s also not your top priority, so don’t let that happen.
The best way to become productive is to imagine that you’re starting with this blank slate and filling in the highest priorities first.
This is that old adage of the rocks before the pebbles, before the sand, before the water. All right. Take those two things and ask yourself, how can I apply it this week to become more productive?
Now, in case you’re wondering, does this really work? Is there benefit to all of this productivity stuff, or are people just grinding themselves into the ground and creating burnout?
This is one of the common complaints I hear when I talk to engineering leaders is, Zach, all this talk about productivity.
I’m already working so hard, I don’t need to be more productive. I need less on my plate.
Right. Being more productive isn’t gonna change the fact that my to-do list is a mile long.
If you don’t believe in the power of productivity to overcome that.
Listen to what Matt Seay said. Matt was one of my past clients, and this is reading right off of a recommendation quote that he left on LinkedIn so you could go out to my profile and read this for yourself. But here’s what Matt said first.
He said Zach is one of the best coaches around period.
Matt, thank you for that. I appreciate it. But then he went on to say, through Zach’s programs, I’ve been able to get promoted, launch a business on the side, land a new job, which was another promotion, and be a better partner to my wife because I was able to do all of that without getting burned out.
For those who are interested in the numbers, that’s two promotions and a $50,000 increase in salary in less than a year. To say that I’ve ROI’ed on my investment in Zach’s programs would be a massive understatement. I’m so thankful to have Zach as a coach and mentor.
Here’s what I love about this, Matt is showing you this idea of what Thanh asks us at the end of the interview.
Go after your biggest goal in half the time. Well, Matt came with only one goal, which was to launch that side business and in the same timeframe working together, he also landed two promotions and increased his salary by $50,000 in less than a year. Those are the kinds of outcomes that focusing on lifestyle engineering can create, and that is what we want for you.
So don’t just brush off this productivity conversation, take action, get this implemented into your day-to-day, week to week, quarter to quarter, year to year life right now, and you can experience the same kinds of results that Matt. It’s absolutely possible and I want to see it for you.
So get out there, crush comfort, create courage, and let’s do this.
ABOUT THANH PHAM
LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
- Asian Efficiency Website
- Thanh Pham on Youtube | Twitter | Facebook
- Do you need help in transforming yourself to a successful career and a balanced life? Book a FREE Career Clarity Call now!
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