193. 4 Types of Automation for Busy People

Verbs, I would consider you someone that’s got a lot of things going on. You are a rap R&B sensation, sweeping the nation. You are a voiceover artist.

No R&B.

You’re a podcaster. No R&B. Yeah. You don’t like R&B, I just do. See, that was me planting that seed. See, I like the R&B track with the rap feature.

Okay.

The listeners didn’t hear this. We just had a long conversation about bridges nowadays, and a good bridge, I think, is a rap feature to it. So I’m going to speak that into existence for you, Verbs. But in seriousness, you are making music, you are working a job, you’ve got three kids, you’ve got home life, you’re involved, you’ve got other commitments and stuff, church and whatnot, things like that. So my question is, man, do you ever feel like you’re just really, really busy or too busy? And how do you navigate that?

Yeah, that’s a good question that I probably haven’t thought about deeply until you just now posed it, but-

I just ruined your day. Sorry.

No, this is good. This is good. It’s helpful. It’s constructive. So I think one of the things is, yeah, recognizing there’s a bunch of different things that are happening, or that I’m a part of, that are segmented portions of my life. Some of them definitely are more life giving than others. Some of the things are just the necessary things of life. But figuring out ways to where now, especially at this stage of my life, at this age, it’s like how can I continue to be effective, efficient, but still be present in those times where I need to be or still be as creative as I’d like to be?

How can I buy back bandwidth, creatively, mentally, parentally, all the alleys, and it’s still not wear myself out and just crash and burn? So yeah, I think it’s being real with ourselves when we know we have full, busy lives of what needs to be eliminated, what can we do to help maybe automate some of those things that we’re doing so we’re not as taxed at the end of the day or at the end of a week. So I’m kind of in that season now is really reevaluating. We’re evaluating some of those things and how to get into that process of making each lift a little bit lighter if possible.

Yeah, I relate to that and I find myself a lot of times using I’m too busy or I don’t have that time to do that as an excuse to not do things that are healthy for me. So usually the stuff that goes first is anything that’s fun or connecting with friends or even physical health stuff. Those are first on the chopping block in the name of I’m just too busy. So I’m looking forward to digging into the four types of automation that we’re going to talk about in this episode. And if you’re listening, you’re thinking automation, some of us immediately just think of, oh, what’s the digital tool or something that can do this for me or easier? There’s actually a deeper conversation, a bigger conversation about automation that’s going to affect your schedule and your brain in really interesting ways. And we’ll get into that with these four types.

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 Blake Stratton, and our producer, Nick. Happy Monday to you both.

Happy Monday to you, Verbs. Good to see you again.

Happy Monday, Verbs.

Good to see you. All right.

Happy Monday, only Verbs.

One specific greeting back is what you’ll receive. All right, so for all the busy people out there, we’re talking about four types of automation that you can introduce to help free up some of that life capacity and some of your time and actually use it for rejuvenation, which is also important. So number one type is rituals.

This is an interesting type of automation, Verbs, because on the face of it, you might be listening and going, how is a ritual an automation? I’m still just right doing the stuff, right? I’m still just doing all the things. Well, here is what you need to recognize. One of the things that can really drain time as well as drain energy, in other words, how long something is going to take because of how efficient or non-efficient you are, is thinking about what to do next, thinking about and deciding, using your executive function to go, what do I need to do next? And this is where rituals can become really important, because it’s going to reduce that drag on having to make those decisions, and it’s also going to reduce the need to be constantly checking on stuff. So here’s an example, Verbs. One of the rituals that we prescribe to people is a workday startup ritual.

Now, a lot of people have trouble keeping their email open and checking their email and getting lost and on a rabbit trail of responding to emails. Well, what we would recommend is put checking your email and checking Slack or internal messages or your task manager, roll all of that into a set apart workday startup ritual, so that you can become aware of what you need to be aware of, decide what you’re going to do, maybe translate some of the to-dos into your full focus planner, and then you can close those apps.

At the very least, close them for an hour, two hours, see if you can make it all the way to lunch, because you have that ritual, it’s done. You go through that routinized process, then you can give yourself fully to the important work. And in so doing, yes, you’re still doing those tasks, right? But because it’s automated in ritual form, you’ve reduced that cognitive load so you don’t have to think about it or make decisions, and you’re also going to position yourself to not dip back into distraction and waste time throughout your day. Does that make sense? Did I explain that okay?

I think that’s excellent. I think what’s important is something that you brought up, something as simple as your workday shut down, because I kind of think of automation as that’s the app that runs in the background. It’s still doing what it needs to do, but just at a lower energy output.

So the idea about having a workday shut down, part of that is it helps you close those loops that you spoke of, because if you don’t have that moment in your day where this is implemented, then a lot of that stuff bleeds over, and it’s not just a task that’s done the next day that you have to do when you get back into work, but that’s also running in your head that I forgot to do this, so now I got to figure out when to fit that into the next day or what’s going to happen if I don’t get to it in time. And all that is still energy that often robs you of that rejuvenation that you probably want to be involved in when you’re off of work and you’re at home and you’re actually trying to rest. So that’s a helpful point that you brought up with that, Blake.

So the first type of automation is rituals. The second type of automation, templates. Templates. Verbs, what do we mean when we say templates and how can you start installing templates to save some time?

Yeah, so these templates are things that are pre-created for tasks that you may do repeatedly throughout the course of the day. Maybe it’s throughout the course of a week. But this takes out the whole idea or it takes out the whole task of trying to recreate something every time that this particular task comes up.

So for example, in the work that I do right now, we have a lot of inquiries that come in for different events and at the top level, our response is pretty much the same every time. We’re going to send them a link to where they fill out a form that tells us about the event and then send that back to us, and then we have another layer of response. And so we often, or what we do now is we use templates. It’s pretty much automated in the sense that we take that language that we’re going to respond with, copy and paste it into the email, send it back. That way we’re not even thinking about it until the moment to where we actually have to start the conversation between the prospective client for the event and our team as well. But I mean, we’re getting 10 to 15 questions or inquiries a week, and this just really helps us funnel that without using that energy that’s actually saved to do other things on the back end.

Absolutely. That’s huge. Having those things that you’re going to reuse over and over again, don’t use the energy and the time to recreate it or to focus on building it up from the ground if you need to. You can always tweak it and customize it, right?

Absolutely.

But that’s so much faster than starting from nothing. In a similar way, you can use templates for your week. So this is a little bit like our first type of automation with rituals, but expanding that out to a pre-organized or set use of your time and energy through the week. We call that the ideal week. So we’ve talked about this before, but if you want to experiment with this, go to fullfocus.co/idealweek, and you can download an ideal week template and you can begin to organize your time and your week and think about where are my recurring meetings?

What are the things I’ve got to do every day? And start to move things around so that you can save time, rather than figuring out every week, when are we going to have this type of meeting? Even we’re recording this podcast right now, and we’d shifted from emailing back and forth connecting, hey, are you free this day, this day? And we’re like, no. It’s the second and fourth Tuesday every month. That’s what we do. And so that’s baked in and that’s become part of our template, essentially, for scheduling. So that’s a great way to save some time, start to use templates.

Yeah. And if I can add, before we go on to this next type, about the ideal week, it helps you say yes to those things that you should be saying yes to, and then also say no to the things that probably don’t need to be a part of your calendar, at least for that week.

That’s a great point.

Because the end goal, right, is we’re aiming for getting that time back for rejuvenation purposes. So sometimes finding that no is hard to do, but that ideal week would definitely help you get the nos in the right place, as well as the yeses.

Okay. The third type of automation is workflows. Workflows. So when we’re talking about workflows, Verbs, processes, plans, checklists, this really builds off the previous point of templates, but instead of, for instance, a template of a contract that you’re have to send or a template of a canned email response or something like that, this is going to reclaim the thinking time that comes from how to go about a certain process or a recurring task that you do. So this could be things like meal prepping each week, to have a workflow of, hey, we do this on Saturdays or Sundays and we take a batch of time and we go through the process of here’s what we’ll have every night for dinner, and here’s ways that we can prep for that so that we don’t have to spend as much time cooking or deciding or shopping on Wednesday, things like that. What other, I guess, workflows come to your mind, Verbs, or plans, processes, checklists people might want to start using in their life to save some time?

Yeah, I’m actually thinking about as we’re recording this podcast and knowing that Nick does this quite frequently, I’d be curious to know, are there processes that he’s implemented in workflows that just help not only get these things recorded, but get them edited and then get them out to the public in an efficient time?

Not only do I have workflows in place, but I actually have aspirational workflows. So I use internally, for myself, and for clients, I use a platform called ClickUp. I’ve been using it for a very long time, because I was sick of reinventing the wheel every time I had a new client. And then there’s actually steps on my workflow that I go one day I’m going to pay someone else to do these steps. They’re earlier. It’s processing steps or collection or whatever. And so, in fact, honestly, I probably should thin them out, because it’s not happening right now, but I see it and I’m ready. We’re positioned for those things. So without a plan, I don’t have a very organized mind. I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m just saying that my mind, by default, is sort of like, let’s grab a bunch of stuff. And I’m can get stuff done, but without a plan in place, nothing would ever get done around here. So definitely having a specific set order of things that I can communicate to anyone I’m working with is very helpful.

Sure. Yeah, and I’ll say, I’ll just add this quickly, I mentioned before, us templatizing the events, the inquiries that we get, and then on the back end we have a whole separate process for when an event is booked and now we’re going to start advancing that event, whether it be a reception of some sort, whether it be a concert, all that goes back into template phase to where we make sure everything is in place, the incoming event knows what they need and what’s needed from us. And that kind of makes that whole thing smooth. So by the time the day of the event is there, then everything is locked and loaded and ready to go. So the templates are part of the process as well.

Type three was workflows. Going on to type number four, which is technology. And we talked a little bit about this before we hit record today, but technology is a fantastic thing to use. It can also be kryptonite at times as well, but there’s a tons of technology out there that can help us in this process. Obviously with the advent of AI being everywhere, there are just incredible things that we can do to utilize technology in this automation process, because there’s an app literally for everything, and it can help you really simplify your daily routine as well. I mean, I don’t know about you guys, but obviously during the shutdown, everybody had access to the Instacarts, your Costcos, your Kroger apps, to where all the shopping is done for you. And now post all of that, I’m sure there’s lots of us that are still on those apps, even if you just say, hey, put this stuff in a box or in a cart from me, I’m coming to pick it up. But what other ways do you guys find yourselves utilizing technology that really helps out your automation process?

An app I live by, I’m glad as more people have started to use this and it’s not weird to send this, is Calendly to schedule events. I have different events that are with clients, with prospects, with even friends sometimes, who just want to connect, and to just reduce the going back and forth of, hey, when’s works for you? Does that work for you? Or Let’s do this. But just send, hey, here’s this link. Would you mind using this to find a good time? I was working with a client recently and she was just telling me she gets all these interruptions, or clients will come in or they’ll want a response on when they can come. She’s a CPA, so a lot of traffic coming into her office and people asking about stuff and some meetings going long, some going short. And I said, “Hey, have you tried using this app that can just automatically confirm when you’re available, when you’re not available, and people can choose what works for them?”

And she was a little nervous about it, and she’s got dozens of clients and she emailed me back a week later. She said, “Blake, Calendly is changing my life. And I only had one client that was a little maybe snarky about it, but this has been a huge game changer.” And it’s just one of those little things, right? There is an app for everything. You don’t need an app for everything, but think about what is really placing a drag on your time and energy, and maybe doing a quick Google search on that or asking a friend how they do that to save some time.

Yeah, that’s good. I think, like you mentioned, just thinking about those trouble spots of things that are taxing your time, that going back and forth to try to lock in a meeting or a lunch, it’s taxing your mental capacity in a way that probably unaware of because you haven’t experienced the freedom of an app like a Calendly. But just thinking through those trouble spots, I think, will help you identify an app that could be a solution for you. Because yeah, Calendly is huge, especially you’re already identifying the times of when you’re not available, and then those available times outside of that is what people can book your time for, which is, again, you don’t even have to think about it outside of preloading it with when your unavailable time is.

I don’t use this app because it does not apply to my life, but when I heard about it, I thought for some people, this feels huge. And it’s not a specific app, it’s a family, because I can’t recommend anything, but there’s several apps that you can sign up for that will actually fill your car up with gas. It’s something that Michael Hyatt has talked about before. And if you’re doing a lot of commuting and you go to work, they’ll come by, and they’ll fill your tank up for you. You never have to go to the gas station. I heard it and I was like, I almost wish I worked somewhere else so that this made sense, because it sounds so convenient.

Hey, but even if you’re at home.

Well, you can do it at home too. We just don’t go anywhere ever. But that’s something, if you’re listening to this on a commute right now and you’re looking at your gas tank and you’re going, “I got to stop on the way home,” perhaps you don’t have to. There’s a way to make it happen where somebody will come by and fill your tank up for you. And there’s several apps for that.

So today’s tip to level up your focus is think through your personal life, think through your work life, and what is it that you do each week that could be a great candidate for automation? How can you automate that thing really to help you get rest and rejuvenation built back into your week? Thanks for joining us on Focus on This.

This is the most productive podcast on the internet, so share it with your friends, your family, your loved ones, and share it with your enemies as well. Maybe there’s not such a big difference, a big chasm between you, as it might feel. Maybe they just are struggling to love Mondays, so share this with them as well. And don’t forget to join our Full Focus Planner Community on Facebook.

We’ll be back next Monday with another great episode, so until then, stay focused.

Stay focused.