The Most Powerful Productivity “Tool” I’ve Discovered

Thanh Thinking time

If there’s one thing that led to exponential growth in my personal life and at AE, it’s being young and Asian.

Hence, Asian Efficiency.

In all seriousness, it’s a new thinking tool I’ve learned about two years ago that I want to share with you today that will change your productivity game. It’s called Thinking Time.

This was something I learned from Keith Cunningham, a business coach who has a net worth of hundreds of millions. and My circle includes other entrepreneurs. As the name implies, it’s time carved out for thinking. It’s one of the most powerful tools you can have to solve problems and It is the reason I have had my greatest wins in the past 12 months.

For example, in the trailing year I’ve been able to:

Stay in Tokyo for 2 weeks and completely disconnect yourself from business and When I returned, we generated more revenue that when I left.
Purchase a business-class flight from the United States to Vietnam for my father so he can see his parents in Vietnam when they are sick.
Every Saturday I have a massage/cupping/acupuncture, or a float tank treatment to take care of my body.
Hiring my first executive assistant to assist me in the day-To-Day and You have the freedom to use your time.
These were impossible before I implemented Thinking Time. This tool took my Productivity Score to new heights (take the quiz to see what’s yours).

You might be able to see that a lot of the items on my list are not mine. “cost” money. Thanks to Thinking Time I’ve been able to leverage my time much better which resulted in making more money that I’m reinvesting in either myself or the business.

Being Asian Efficient allows me to achieve my goals faster. and With a higher success rate. This is what I’ve been obsessed with all my life. How can I make things happen faster? How can I make sure that I get exactly what I want? How can you make my life more easy? and What’s more convenient?

Most importantly, what will make you happier?

Happy people are productive, as I like to say.

Happy people working

This is where the real challenge lies: optimizing your business. your life: we ignore the time to think about what’s actually important on a regular basis.

As life gets busier, that’s when we need Thinking Time the most. That’s when we need to be able to take a step back and actively think about what we’re doing next and How to make adjustments.

I’m not talking about doing a weekly review and Follow a checklist to ensure you are always on top of everything.

Thinking Time allows you to be creative and start again every time. and All you know, question it.

Don’t confuse this with reflection. Lisa, one our Dojo members put it this way:

“Reflection is looking backward whereas thinking is about looking forward.”

Lisa, you are right.

(You may recognize her as one our star students at Escape Your Email. She used to spend 7 hours per day on email and She was able to save over six hours after she took our course. Here’s her case study.)

When you’re going for a walk or sit still on the couch, that’s reflecting. You can let your imagination run wild when you allow yourself to be enlightened. your mind wander, that’s reflecting.

Thinking is very different. It’s when you try to solve a challenge or problem and You will need to think for a long time before you can come up with an answer. To be able to think clearly, you need to be free from distractions. your Brain works at maximum speed to solve the problem. It’s not about doing a Google search to find the answer. It’s about understanding. your Problem and It is possible to find solutions.

What you’ll often find is that the problem you’re facing is actually not a problem, but a symptom. This is something I’ll clarify with you on podcast episode 162 of The Productivity Show that’s coming out in about a month but here’s a simple example.

Many Asian Efficiency readers are plagued by procrastination. They just can’t seem to get started on important stuff even though they know they should be doing it. You’ve been there.

Get your instant download AsianEfficiency Finisher’s Fastlane – Increase your productivity and Focus

Procrastination and Urgency

They believe the problem is “procrastination” In reality, procrastination may be a symptom. It’s the symptom of a lack of clarity. You have complete clarity. your Goal andProcrastination, or vision, rarely manifests itself.

If it’s not lack of clarity, it’s usually related to energy. It could be a sleeping or diet problem. I once worked with a client who claimed that his procrastination was the reason he never achieved his goals. As soon as he told me that, I knew right away that procrastination wasn’t the real problem. I suspected “procrastination” This was a symptom.

I discovered that the guy had poor sleeping habits after digging deeper. The guy was sleeping 4–5 hours a night and Every morning, I feel cranky. When you don’t get enough sleep, the most common symptoms of that are procrastination and It is easy to get distracted.

He reacted immediately when I said that we would be working on his evening ritual. “Thanh, why would I need to do this? This doesn’t help me get this important work done.”

After explaining the reasoning behind it to him, he was willing to try it. He set up his evening ritual and began sleeping on time. and getting a good 7–8 hours in every night. A few days later, I checked.-He had a profound transformation when he was there.

Procrastination wasn’t an issue anymore. He had the energy and motivation to get on with the important stuff. We eventually got there because we didn’t address the symptom but fixed the root problem.

(And if you’re curious about how to get better sleep, we have an audio program on that.)

I could have easily shown him the Eat That Frog strategy or my favorite anti.-procrastination technique, and It would have helped him. But it wouldn’t fix the real problem. It was a band.-Assistance solution

(As an additional side note-Note: As a teacher and coach, I will often give these solutions to people to give them momentum while we’re addressing the root problem at the same time. By the end of it they’ll have the real problem fixed and They can also learn new tools that they can use when the symptom arises in the future.

Don’t get me wrong, the quick tactics and These techniques work. They work. I still use them. and then whenever I’m procrastinating and I must get something done. I’ll use one of the tactics outlined in our Finisher’s Fastlane Course as a Band-aid.

In the back of mind, I also know that I either need to address the clarity around my work or look at what’s wrong with my energy. It’s especially important if this happens more than three times. That’s when the 3 Times Rule will kick in that we teach in our courses. When something happens more than 3 times, it’s a sign of a systemic error so we need to address it at its core.

I hope by now you realize that a lot of things you deal with on a daily basis aren’t really problems. These are symptoms. Thinking Time has helped me to understand that they are symptoms. “problems” I thought I had weren’t really problems.

This tool gives me the ability to see clearly and feel like Neo in The Matrix. I can see with clarity what’s happening with other people and For me, it’s possible to take a step back and Analyze what is the most productive and effective move for you going forward. It’s kind of like being able to catch yourself on a cognitive bias before it kicks in and derails you.

Reflection

If you think you have a problem…think again.

I’ll bet you my precious MacBook Pro that it’s not a problem but a symptom.

Once you have clarity, and Once you are certain that you have identified the root cause of the problem, the hard part is coming up with a solution. It’s just the process of getting to the real problem is hard.

I’ll walk you through a process on this in episode 162 on our podcast The Productivity Show that’s coming out in a month. I’m also finalizing a mini-This course is offered in the Dojo, our private group and Training library will be available soon.

For now, here’s what you can do.

Write down 3 problems that you would like to be solved.
Accept the fact that each problem you list is just a symptom. It’s not the real problem but a symptom of something else.
Think for 15 minutes about what could be the root cause for your problem. your problems. What causes the symptoms?
Keep questioning every assumption that comes up until you can’t anymore. That’s probably what the real problem is.
What can be done to solve the real problem?
Try it right away. I’m confident that you’ll uncover a lot of things you’ve never thought of.

Subscribe to the podcast now to be sure to get the Thinking Time podcast episode. Open up your podcast app, search for “the productivity show” and Subscribe now. In case you’re wondering, my favorite podcast app is Overcast.

Update: The podcast episode has been posted.

Next week I’ll show you how I plan my week. This is a system I’ve been fine-As my role at AE has evolved from creator to chief executive officer, I have been listening for the past 12 months. If you’ve ever wondered how a CEO plans a week, stay tuned. It’s very atypical but you’ll get to see The behind-the-Scenes of my planning system, which allows me to have more time and Finish every day at 5pm (without stress).