What Makes Humans So Great?

What’s the easiest way to become more productive and better manage your time? That’s what we are considering this week.

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Episode 243 | Script

Hello and welcome to episode 243 of the Working With Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host for this show.

I have a confession to make. I cyber stalk very productive people. In particular, I stalk authors who publish books every year without fail, content creators who never fail to publish a podcast, blog post or YouTube video every week (or more frequently in some cases) and business leaders who manage multinational companies and still have a private life. 

I’ve also had an interest in the people in the companies I’ve worked with who were the top managers or salespeople. 

I am fascinated with how they do it. How are they so productive with the work they do? 

The truth is, they all share something in common and this week’s question relates to this commonality. 

So, without further ado, let me hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week’s question.

This week’s question comes from Martine. Martine asks: Hi Carl, you’ve mentioned in a few of your blog posts and videos that you get a lot of inspiration from highly productive people. What I want to know is, are there any special habits or tricks these people use that most people don’t?

Hi Martine, Thank you for your question. 

You are right; there are a few tricks these people follow that the vast majority don’t. I suspect that the reason most people don’t follow these tricks are multifaceted, and they are not easy to follow. 

First, there is an inherent human characteristic that will always prevent you from becoming more productive, and that is the need to be liked. We have this need to some degree or another. 

The so-called “culture wars” are a great example of this. People are queuing up to be a part of their chosen tribe, and social media has given them a voice. They want to be liked by their tribe so much, that they will say increasingly wild things. 

Left or right, there seems to be a rush to be the most outraged because someone had the audacity to disagree with something their tribe believes “passionately” about. 

Yet, what makes humans so great is our diverse opinions. It’s fascinating to learn why someone believes the things they do. Learning about those beliefs and thoughts behind those beliefs has helped the human race to progress at an incredible speed. 

However, this desire to be liked means we will sacrifice our dreams and goals and the things that are important to us, so we can be a part of the crowd. 

I saw this a lot when I first arrived in Korea twenty years ago. I was told that family was very important to Korean people. Yet, when I arrived here, I discovered that the majority of married office workers thought nothing about staying late in the office because their boss and co-workers were staying. 

Nobody would leave the office until the boss left. It caused me to stop and question how could their family be so important when they put being in the office until 10 or 11pm as a higher importance than getting home to be with their family. 

Over time I was educated. These office workers (mainly men in those days), felt that earning their salary and getting promoted and ultimately getting more money was their way of taking care of their family. Nobody questioned this thinking back then. 

Now, I should caveat this. This is generally no longer the case. The younger generations who have now come through into the workforce don’t do this in most cases. But in some small to medium-sized companies, that sentiment is still living and breathing.

It was another example of being a part of the tribe. The time was an extension of their family. 

Now the most productive people I’ve met do not subscribe to this mentality. They are driven, focused and know precisely what they want out of the day. 

A few months back, I watched an interview with Sylvester Stallone. While most of us see Sylvester Stallone as an action hero actor, he’s also a prolific writer. 

Every day, he’s working on writing a script. 

The thing that stood out for me about him was each day, he will spend four hours writing—with his phone switched off, and he’ll spend ninety minutes to two hours exercising. That six hours a day is taken up with the things he loves doing. 

After that, he’ll eat with his family and socialise. But nothing gets in the way of the two things that are important to him. 

John Grisham, the author, writes every day. He wakes up early, goes to his writing room and will spend the next four hours writing. Once again, no phone, no interruptions. From 6:30am to 11:00am nobody can reach him. He’s working on his next novel. As he gets closer to finishing the book, he wakes up earlier and earlier, often beginning his writing at 4am. 

Stephen King, another great author, does something similar. He writes for a set period of time each day. 

Now, when you analyse this, there’s nothing difficult about it. They know what they want to do, and they get on and do it. 

I recently finished learning about Charles Darwin. He also had a set routine. He’d wake up early, go into his study, and for the next four to five hours, he would research and write. Nobody was allowed to disturb him. 

Now for most of us, we may not have the luxury to spend our days doing the things we love in the same way Sylvester Stallone, John Grisham, Stephen King and Charles Darwin have been able to do. But, that misses the point somewhat. 

What these amazingly productive people know is that if you want to produce work that you are proud of, you need to spend time each day working on it. No excuses. Thinking, planning and dreaming produce nothing concrete. It’s only by committing time each day to working on your craft that you will become incredibly productive. There is no other way.

Now for the majority of us, not answering a colleague’s email message within a few minutes or instantly responding to a text message would be unthinkable. I mean, what would you colleague or friend think of you if you didn’t reply instantly? 

Then there are those people who believe their purpose in life is to wait around for the next contact by a client and to be instantly available for them—I mean, isn’t that excellent customer service? 

Well, perhaps not. You see if you are constantly being interrupted, how will you ever be able to deliver the real service your client wants? Your client wants results—however, they interpret that—I mean, how many people say oh customer service is excellent, they answer the phone immediately? 

Answering the phone immediately is not great service. Great service is delivering outstanding results for the client. If the client needs to wait an hour or two while you finish delivering real customer service to another client, they are not going to complain. They will have the confidence that you will deliver the same level of outstanding service for them. 

It always amazes me that people with degrees, PH.Ds and MBAs see outstanding work as being measured by how fast you respond to an email or message. 

No, that’s not outstanding service. That’s wanting to be liked by the tribe. 

The first step to becoming more productive is to know, at a task level, what is important to you professionally and personally. It’s no good being one dimensionally productive—that is being productive at work and Never working on your own personal projects. It’s about knowing what’s important. 

That could be supporting your kids in developing their sporting abilities by taking them to practice two or three times a week and being present—not sitting in your car responding to emails. Or it could mean taking your partner out once or twice a week to do something new. You know, being present with them and not doing it out of a sense of obligation. Doing it because you want to spend time with them. 

It could be about dedicating Saturday to doing odd jobs around your home. Planning the week ahead and getting some fresh air. That’s being personally productive. 

When it comes to your work, this means knowing what your core work is. It’s just like Sylvester Stallone knows his core work is to develop scripts and stay in good shape so he can continue to act. He knows he needs time each day for this work. There can be no excuses. If he does not do this core work, the work will ultimately dry up. 

That same principle applies to you too. I know you are not Sylvester Stallone, or John Grisham or Stephen King, but you do still have core work. What is it? Make sure that however much time you need for this work, you protect that time. Allow no interruptions while you are doing it. After all, it’s what you are paid to do. 

This means, when a colleague, a client or even your boss is messaging you, you don’t allow it to interrupt you. They have to wait. We are not ignoring them. We just know our priorities, and whatever your core work is, you get that done, then you attend to your messages and calls. 

When I was teaching, I always made sure my phone was off. I was employed to teach. My boss could wait until I finished the class. Teaching my classes was my core work. It would have been wrong for me to stop my class while I took a call from my boss. It’s equally wrong for you to allow any interruptions while you are doing your core work. 

Attending to your core work is not going to take you long. You could break things up. For instance, writing a blog post takes me around an hour. After I finish writing, I will respond to messages and process my email inbox. Then I get back into my next core task—planning this week’s YouTube videos or writing this script. What are we talking about here? Two hours tops before you need a break. Use those breaks to respond to your messages. 

It might not make you the most popular person in your company, but you were not employed to be the most popular person. You were employed to do a job. Do that job first. You will always be judged on your results. Not by how nice everyone says you are. 

The number of people I’ve worked with who lost their jobs and couldn’t understand why is countless. The usual cries of but I was always helping my boss and colleagues with their work. How could they fire me? Well, while you were helping all those other people, you were not doing the job you were employed to do. 

So there you go, Martine, that’s the secret. Be selfishly obsessed with getting your core work done to highest possible standard. It won’t make you popular, but it will get you results. 

And also never neglecting the important people in your life. Your work is one thing; your personal life is what stays with you. Make sure you are spending an adequate amount of time with the people that matter most to you.

Thank you for your question, and thank you to you too for listening. It just remains for me to wish you all a very, very productive week.