187. It’s Time To Write Your Not-To-Do List

Hey guys, today we have a really great free guide to help you with exactly what we’re talking about. It’s spring clean your to-do list, and you can get it at fullfocus.co/spring. All right, welcome to the show. I don’t know why I said that.

Nope, it’s staying.

All right, team. So we’re officially a month into spring. The birds are singing the grass and the trees are greening and it is time officially for spring cleaning. I didn’t mean for that to rhyme, but it did. But what are some of your?

You’re a poet and you don’t even realize it.

I don’t even know it, but what are your thoughts? Do any of you have an official spring cleaning practice at this time of the year?

I do but.

I’m sure you would. I was sure of it. I was really telling you.

Question just for you, help us off.

Well, I thought we were going to … I actually thought Verbs was going to bring up spring training, not spring cleaning, which was really a question for you. Although I worked for a ball team.

Ah.

A ball team.

Nice.

Yeah, a baseball team.

Baseball.

I worked … My first job out of college was working for the Nashville Sounds Triple a ball team of our hometown, the one we all live in. Except you Nick, because you don’t live here.

I don’t.

That’s where I worked. I did group cells and let me tell you, I was in a room, maybe I don’t know, I don’t know how to measure things, but let’s just say like a 12 by 12 room, but there were 10 people in that room. I had a tiny little, cubicle would be extremely generous. This was like a workstation. This was really a desk and I would do, if we had a group coming in that got free hotdogs, I would be down there stuffing hotdogs at 5:00 AM. I would be passing out bobbleheads when people came in, but also doing cells. And also, this was at our old stadium that was not good. The Greer Stadium, and constantly you had to be on the lookout for flooding above your desk. There was a drill we had, we would know exactly what to do. Grab your computer equipment, everybody. Get the trash can, push a pencil through the drop ceiling to let it drain down. I mean, we knew what to do. Oh, pulling tarp. I pulled the tarp.

Oh, that’s fun.

No, that is not fun.

I really liked the gesture of handing out Bobbleheads. You look like a real pro during that.

When I look back on my career, I think handing out that the Bobbleheads was really, it was really the pinnacle.

It has to be the second, because my favorite story that you tell Courtney from this season is when you were pulling the tarp once and you were running across the wet field and you slipped and you fell right on your shoulder, your throwing shoulder. And then when you were handing out hotdogs, you realized phm, they were coming out of your hands like lasers, and then you had to be brought onto the team as a starting pitcher eventually. And that was the most amazing summer ever. That’s what I remember.

That’s like the perfect eighties movie.

I might be getting that confused with something, but I’m pretty sure that was you. Pretty sure that was you.

Well, actually, yeah. I mean I was the true story. The movie was obviously based on.

Okay.

Wait, is it really a movie?

Nick is questioning everything right now.

I’m trying to remember. Don’t tell me.

And the audience right now is I feel like I remember this being a thing.

No, I definitely know the movie. I’m struggling. I know exactly how it ends. We all remember how the movie ends, but I’m struggling with is remembering which movie title it is. Don’t tell me, is it? Not like The Wiz is obviously Wizard of Oz. That’s why I’m confused. It’s not the Wizard.

Not the Wiz.

No wizards were in this film correct.

Not the rookie.

But you’re close. A lot closer than The Wiz.

Remember the Titan right?

All of the millennial children of the nineties are screaming into your cars right now.

I can picture him in his office like Zoom.

Rosenberg. All right.

Yeah, so back to spring cleaning. I will say what we do in our house is mainly unlike probably most people, we are focused on the outside of our house because we love being outside. And so we create this big spring cleaning list of all the things we need to do to get the outside of our house ready, like pressure washing, mulch, taking out plants that are dead … This year, I don’t know if y’all have this, we had some major freezing here this year. And so we have plants that are dead that need to be replaced, all those good things. We make a big list and it is kind of fun to check those off. We try to get it done while it’s still a little bit cooler so that we can get as much time outside.

Wow. I’m inspired.

That’s why today we’re looking at the power of a not-to-do list and the benefits of spring cleaning your commitments.

So it was all a metaphor.

Welcome to another episode of Focus On This, the most productive podcast on the internet so you can banish distractions, get the right stuff done. And finally start Loving Mondays. I’m Verbs, here with Courtney Baker and Blake Stratton. Happy Monday to you both.

Happy Monday.

Happy Monday to you.

Do you two?

Do I spring clean?

Yes.

My whole life is either, my life is cleaning. I feel like I never stopped cleaning. If the rest of the recording was canceled and I suddenly had time on my hands, I would be cleaning, that’s the state of our house right now I feel.

That is true, but what about the stuff you don’t normally do like your baseboards.

There you go.

Yeah. The baseboards, they take care of themselves. What’s the mice are for, you just give the mice little brooms and they go and they Woohoo.

That’s tip number one.

My daughter legitimately dressed up like Cinderella and asked me for a bucket of water with soap so she could hand wash the floor. And I was like, great. Yes, let’s go. This is amazing.

My relationship with spring cleaning, I love the idea and the concept of, hey, the weather’s changing. Everything is becoming warm. It’s great weather outside. This is a perfect time to clean the garage. Love the idea and the concept. And I actually wait during the wintertime to not clean the garage in hopes of capitalizing on this spring cleaning concept, but I don’t do it as I should. But I mean, halfway into spring going in the summer, I normally kick in and it’s like, all right, I can’t just waste a spring cleaning moment. Let me at least get rid of some of these boxes. At least.

Mine’s a car clean, obviously. Oh, the days are long. I’m going to get in the driveway, empty out the old car. Makes me feel like a real adult man.

Now, is that vacuuming as well?

Yes.

But just clean it. Okay. Yeah.

Oh, and you better believe the details out there with me too and he hates it.

Okay, I need some clarification here really quickly. I clean my car once a week because if I did not, the two year old and seven year old, it becomes uninhabitable very quickly. So are you telling me you kind of like a couple times a year like, all right, let’s go. Let’s get this thing cleaned.

So we have not had a two year old, seven year old in the car to really muck up everything. So we don’t had just all the crumbs and the things and all the little tiny, that’s not accruing. But I will tell you, I feel pretty confident that as this baby gets older, we probably won’t be doing weekly cleans still. We’re not doing that because you don’t have to, but I’m informing you that we probably won’t even though we will need to. I’m impressed by your weekly clean.

Yeah, no, her real question was how do you live?

In shame. So that’s the answer, just constant shame.

I mean, homework sheets and to-go cups is a lot different than Cheerios and sunflower seeds in the seats.

Oh guys, I found a whole container of a sippy cup full of milk under a seat this week. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been like, it doesn’t smell really great in here. And the alarms start going off.

Yeah. All right, let’s wrap. Let’s move on.

Okay. You don’t want to talk about disgusting spoiled milk anymore. I get it. Okay.

So spring cleaning, I’m glad this is mostly a metaphor because I am far less of an achiever in this realm, but we’re talking about spring cleaning your priorities are we not?

This is true. Your commitments.

Don’t bait and switch on me guys. If we’re talking about cleaning baseboards, I will sign off right now. I won’t get it done.

Yes, we are we talking about your productivity and really taking control over something that can easily get out of control similar to my car, of getting your priorities in order. So don’t worry, stay on board here. You can do it.

Yes. So when we’re talking about spring cleaning your priorities, just like the broom to your garage, we have a tool to sweep away the debris that has probably accumulated or does accumulate in your calendar. That’s mucking up your ability to get the important right stuff done. And this tool is something we call a not to-do list, a not to-do list. So we’re turning it on its head. If you feel like your to-do list is getting out of control, well guess what? We’re going to flip it over, make a not to-do list. And in this episode we’re really just explaining what that is and what those benefits are.

All right, so the first benefit of a not to-do list is better control of your time. And just saying that out loud, it sounds so good. I don’t think there’s anybody that doesn’t want that. And we certainly all probably have had times, maybe more frequently than others when our calendar has gotten completely out of control where we’re just in reaction mode going from one thing to another. I have had this more recently myself as I’ve had a transition with someone on my team and I’ve been filling a lot of seats, a lot of different meetings. And there are times where you get there, when you feel that feeling, it’s time to look at your not-to-do list and get back in control of your time.

So what the not-to-do list is going to do, it’s really going to triage what’s important and what isn’t, pretty clear. This is really going to help you get a better grasp on your priorities and get closer to your ideal week. This is, again, important if you’ve never used the ideal week that is found in the full focus planner, again, this is where it helps to have your ideal week and you can download it at fullfocus.co/downloads. But again, the first benefit of a not-to-do list is better control of your time.

The second benefit of a not-to-do list is increased productivity. Have you guys heard that saying everything you say yes to, you’re saying no to a dozen other things or a hundred other things, right? Every yes is also a no. And with this not to-do list concept, you’re essentially acknowledging that all of these things that I have been doing or that I continually do, I’m also saying no to something else in terms of where my time is going. So when you make a not to-do list, you’re identifying what are the things that I can actually start saying no to so that I can say yes to more relevant, more important, more high leverage things. And that’s where the increase in productivity comes.

It doesn’t come just by hustling harder or trying to fit more into your day. It comes through saying no, which can look like delegation. If something has to be done, it could look like deleting it altogether. If it’s not really contributing, it could look like saving it for later. There may be some things that yes, you want to do that, it’d be nice, but it’s just not the most important thing and it’s a little out of season. So making that not to-do list is going to enable your yes so that you can be more and more productive and make better use of your time.

And benefit number three is setting boundaries by cutting out non-essentials. And this is kind of the way I see this one is a culmination of all those things that we just spoke about and the other benefits is looking at ahead of time, looking at what you have coming up maybe in the month or even as far out as the quarter and really assessing what are the things that you could either delegate, what are the things you may have said yes too quickly, but now getting a full more panoramic view of where you’re at just at the pace of life and the weight of your calendar, your upcoming calendar, what are some things that you may need to go back and maybe pull back on? And Michael says this and it makes so much sense that it’s about making your time for you. And what that basically means is, hey, you only have a certain amount of hours per day and it’s important for you to protect your peace, not just at work, but then also at home.

You only have a certain amount of hours where you’re going to be optimally productive as well. So what does it look like by cutting out those non-essential things, maybe it’s a meeting that you don’t really need to be a part of that you can have another team member go on your behalf or sit in on that meeting if it’s an extra lunch date that you had made ahead of time or at one point where you thought, Hey, it’d be good to catch up with so-and-so. But when you really look back and look at your calendar, is this going to be the best thing to do in this season as you decide what do I need to do to stay, one in optimal health, optimal productivity, all those things, and start to cut back on the things that don’t really need to happen at least by you during that season.

I do find that this one is sometimes harder than it seems for people. And this is where I find that it’s helpful to consult with someone else because you’ll look at the list and you’ll be like, it seems like that might be something you could cut out. And they’re like, oh, but I love doing that. Or I really like, and it’s really like they’re holding on to something that is non-essential. But again, it goes back to by saying yes to that they’re saying no to something else. But again, it helps to have somebody from the outside to help you examine that sometimes when you’re finding it hard to do this step.

Hey everybody, this is a part of the show today where we’re going to just talk about happy apps or useful apps. I don’t know, does your app bring you happiness, Courtney?

I don’t know if it brings me happiness, but it does bring me peace of mind.

Great. That’s actually perfect because mind also brings a different kind of peace of mind. I just learned about this yesterday and I’m obsessed with it, so I cannot wait to spend more time with it. In the scope of productivity, what I’m going to say is this is about mindfulness, it’s about intentionality, it’s about being present. It’s about taking time. It’s an app called Merlin Bird ID. Now, obviously we can figure out some stuff, deals with birds, but here’s kind of cool about it. You can of course take a photo of a bird and in 2023 it’ll identify the bird for you. That’s pretty cool. But that’s not what I’m interested in. What I am interested in is that it has an option to listen to the birds around you and it’ll as you press record, it’ll listen to all the birds. Then it’ll show you like, this bird’s talking now and this finch is talking now and this whatever’s talk, it’ll pop up.

And then once it identifies them and you press stop, you can then select one and play back the bird call. And then you can, this is what I’ve heard from actually was another podcast, you can get the birds to interact with you. They will, because you’re doing a bird call so they’ll like fly over for to you or whatever, that there’s a whole list of them. I have not had that experience yet. I need to be a hundred percent transparent. But the bird calls are very … They have a whole list of them be like, there’s eight different bird protocols for the finch.

I can’t believe you’re talking to me about this. Is there more to this? Because I got to tell you what’s happening in my life.

There is, so I really love this idea. Remember when everybody was playing Pokemon Go for that summer.

Yes. I remember that.

This woman who mentioned this said it was making the real world Pokemon Go. You’re trying to catch and interact with these different birds. She talked about having this hawk come visit her on her patio because she repeatedly was calling it and stuff. And I went walking around and she’s like, I know the different bird calls now I can recognize. And it’s sounds so fun. I’m very excited. If you’re watching a video now, Courtney’s going to explode right now.

I am going to explode. Okay. I little backstory for you. Okay. Everybody listening. Nick and I are very close in age.

Yes.

Three months apart. Okay.

No, no. We’re over at a month apart.

Yeah, a month apart. Yeah. I don’t know. My birthday’s October 10th. Your birthday is.

November 15th.

Yeah. So we’re very close. Same year.

Yep.

We are elder millennials. Okay. So I have been in a book club for almost 15 years.

What?

I mean same.

How has that not come up on the show?

I know. My people, we love each other. We meet once a month. It’s just a really great random group of people that just get together and talk about books. And that group as over the last, I would say couple of years, one by one they have become bird people.

And by bird people you don’t mean that they’ve like sprouted wings and feathers.

No. They have started bird watching. They’re talking about birds. They have all these discussions about this type of bird and that type of bird. And just this week Nick, I am not even kidding you. I sent a text to them that said, I knew when it happened, it would happen quickly. And I sent them a picture of a field guide to bird watching and I don’t know what is happening with people turning 40 and birds, but it has happened to me and now just one week later it is also happening to you. I have bought multiple bird feeders. I’ve been learning about the different food that attracts different birds and now I can talk to the birds. I mean.

I’ll just open up the app. Apparently there was a house Finch nearby, so this is one of the calls and it just keeps on going. It’s very.

It’s a chipper.

Anyway, so it’s called Merlin bird ID. What’s kind of cool about it is it’s through Cornell University and actually you’re doing research by participating and you can set your security.

Interesting.

But it’s helpful for them to know what’s around, what birds are hanging out where, probably helps with migration patterns and understanding that because that’s all changing with the climate. So there you go.

Also did you know, I’m not on TikTok, but there is bird Tok. There’s a whole part of the TikTok world specifically for birds,

So I did not know that. I know book Tok is a big deal. I will say that there is nothing perhaps more elder millennial than to say the following sentence. I don’t have TikTok. I don’t use TikTok, but I know this thing is big on TikTok. There’s a song called Snap, which we were into about a year ago that is now blowing up on TikTok and I feel very validated by it. I really want to befriend crows. That was even before this bird app. I really was like let’s make friends with some crows. Because guys, crows are very smart. They’re as smart as … I could be wrong. They’re problem solving skills are equivalent to a seven year old or something.

It’s crazy.

It’s pretty insane. They’re like, they remember you. They give you a name. It’s pretty crazy. And they’ll tell each other the name.

Okay, well, I also have a total other extreme peace of mind. I have recently, I don’t know if you know this about me Nick, but I’m in meetings quite a bit and pretty frequently a spreadsheet is displayed on a screen and I’m like, Hey, can you make that bigger also, I don’t know, it could be the 40 thing happening here, but I lost my glasses. I don’t know. I can’t remember when. That’s how long ago it was. And I finally got glasses again and I was like, what I’ve got to do is I’ve got to keep these glasses and so I have gone on a little journey of air tagging all the things. So I have an air tag with a sticky thing on it for my glasses. I put an air tag, which everybody might’ve already figured this out, but it was groundbreaking for me on my dog’s collar.

Oh yeah, that didn’t occur. I don’t know why that didn’t occur to me.

They have a little silicone thing on Amazon, so if your dog is mine and likes to be an escape artist, not only can people find my phone number, but I can just go find the dog myself, which feels very empowering.

That’s amazing. That alone is a great tip. I never thought about that.

I have put an air tag in my daughter’s backpack.

Okay.

Yeah, actually kind of in a hidden spot just so it doesn’t get messed with, but also it feels like a nice, another safety feature.

Sure.

Obviously I have it on my key chain, in my wallet. I have just, it is the most frustrating thing to me when you’re looking for something and you’re like, ah, if I had just done the work to, I could actually make this easier for me. And so I’ve been on a little air tag kick over here. So creative ways to use air tags.

So how exact is the location positioning? We’re talking like GPS level.

Oh yeah. Very precise.

So you can walk around your house.

Yes, absolutely. By the way, this is for everybody using Android. You can use a tool, you can use Tiles same way, but with the air tags, if you have an Apple phone, which would be the only way you could use them, it’s in the same system as Find My iPhone. So the same technology to find your phone or your watch or whatever. Another device is the same thing that you use for the air tags. Which is nice. I like that it centralizes everything.

It’s interesting. I never really thought, the dog thing I think is a real game changer alone. I feel like we should say that there are secure, you had to be mindful of how comfortable you are with being tracked. It’s just like, it’s just an awareness thing. But I will say this, you’re already tracked on your cell phone, so you just have to sort of accept that fact already.

This thing.

All right.

We went from peace of mind with the birds to all of a sudden I’m feeling a little anxiety. Just kidding.

All right. Well, two very different ways to find peace of mind. We have the Merlin Bird ID app available, at least on iPhone. I’m sure it’s on Android. And we’ve got air tags to help keep your stuff in order.

And we can post links to those in the show notes. So if you’re interested in the holders that I’ve found for things like your glasses, your dog collar, all that good stuff, we can post those there as well.

All right, so today’s tip to level up your focus is to motivate yourself to spring clean your calendar, create a not-to-do list, and see what activity that you can make time for that you feel like your life has really been missing out on. Remembering that idea that all these yeses are going to push out some of the things that really give you life, but what are those things that you can cut down on? Create that not to-do list and make time for yourself to do the things you really love.

So you might be wondering, how do I know what should be on my not to-do list? Or maybe you’re thinking, Hey, this idea sounds nice, but everything feels urgent, everything feels important. How can I actually cut some stuff out to make time for what I really want to do? Well, we have a free download that’s essentially a guide and a filter that you can use to create your own not to-do list. You could go to fullfocus.co.co/spring as in spring cleaning. Fullfocus.co/spring to download the spring clean your to-do list guide. Again, that’s a free guide to help you filter out what needs to go so that you can hit your goals this season.

Thank you for joining us on Focus on this.

This is the most productive podcast on the internet, so share it with your friends and don’t forget to join our full focus planner community on Facebook. We’ll be back next Monday with another great episode. Until then, stay.

Focused.

Focused.

We did it terrible that time.

It’s awful.

It’s beautiful.

It’s perfect.