How Google Executives Become More Productive

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2:21executives on how to manage their time. A lot of times I'm working with someone who's already productive. Obviously, they're an executive at Google, but I'm brought in because they're maybe moving teams or they just brought in a new chief of staff and we're figuring out workflow and things like that. And her process is super fascinating. She starts by asking executives to identify their top three priorities. What are the three most important things that they should be devoting their time to right now? Where do they need to be the most productive? And once she has that, she pulls out a printout of their calendar from the past few weeks and gives them a highlighter and asks them to circle every meeting or task that was on the calendar that was actually connected to advancing their top three priorities.

3:09Now, imagine for a moment doing this yourself, identifying your priorities, then looking back at your own calendar to see if you were actually spending time on your priorities. What do you think? Would you be spending your time wisely? For me? I'm not so sure. Which is perhaps why my days always feel like they're spinning out of control, and my to-do list always feels like it's growing. Always adding things to it, not checking enough of them off. This is why I was so interested in Laura's new book. It's called Uptime, which reflects Laura's more holistic feelings about how we spend our time and how we should think about productivity.

3:48To her, all our time cannot be task-oriented productivity time. That is just too exhausting. There has to be an uptime and a downtime. And she wants to make you appreciate both. Uptime in the computer world means the time that a computer is on, running, operational, working. And so when you think about your own life, I like to tell people if you actually think about that time, however fleeting it is when you're thinking, wow, I'm really on top of it. I'm killing it. I'm doing things. I'm feeling good. I'm thinking of new things. That's what I'm defining as uptime, the time that you're operational on it, productive, and how to hit that zone more often is what the book is all about.

4:29And then it really goes into not only the nitty gritty, because I wanted that. I did not want a productivity book that was just high level, like delegate, take a walk from your desk when you're stressed. That's not helpful when you're in the weeds, which I certainly am with three young kids and a full-time job and all of that. So I really wanted, that's why practical is in the title, practical things to do, like you said, the list funnel. But then it also talks about downtime and how downtime sounds like the opposite of uptime, but it's actually an integral part of it. So we don't think of our best ideas in our 10th meeting of the day.

5:03We think of them on a walk. We don't think of them when we're doing email. We think of them on our commute. And so downtime is not only important to prevent burnout and for that longevity, but it's also truly a huge part of productivity. And so that's where the uptime downtime explanation comes in. And that's the basis of the book. Today on Problem Solvers, we're going to help you with your uptime. I'm going to have a conversation with Laura in which we delve into the very beginning steps of her process. It's really the early stages of her book, where we're talking about identifying priorities.

5:36We're talking about clearing out all the other demands on your time, the stuff that just doesn't advance you, how to do it, how to say no. And then a really interesting and helpful concept that she has called a list funnel. It is a to-do list like you've never seen before. At the end of this, you are going to be more productive. I already feel more productive. And it's all coming up right after the break. Entrepreneurs, we all love a problem solver. So did you know that Hertz Rental Car has a free membership program to help small and mid-sized businesses save whenever they hit the road? It's called Hertz Business Rewards.

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7:01Additional terms and exclusions apply. Visit hertz.com slash business rewards to learn more. All right, we're back. I'm talking with Google's productivity expert, Laura May Martin, author of the book Uptime. And to start, I just want to have you hear from her on the subject of priorities. Really important. And I feel like everything that she has to say and do is really oriented around that because it's not just about what do we need to do now, but rather how can we make ourselves most effective at the things that are most important? One thing I read, or I don't remember where I read it or heard it, but is that really successful people know how to say no to really good things so they can say yes to really great things and do them really well.

7:51And I think that's really hard for people, especially from an entrepreneurship lens, which I actually have a ton of friends and cousins that are entrepreneurs. And I did a lot of interviewing them for this book because I certainly did not want it to have this view of, you have a corporate job. This is much easier to do these things. I really wanted that lens. But I think it's difficult to say, what am I doing that in theory sounds good? And I thought of it and it's on my to-do list, but getting really strategic about intention and saying, is that moving the needle? Is that the best use of my time?

8:24Is that the thing that's going to push me forward? And just for example, I was coaching like a certain level of executives at Google and the demand started being so high that I had to basically say I'm only working with VPs. I had to make that cut. And it was really hard because did I have these hour slots on my calendar? Sure, I had them, but I was burnout. I wasn't thinking of the best ideas for these VPs. So by doing that, I actually came up with a scalable program for directors that's focused on the top things I was coaching on. And that was really good because I took some of the workload off.

9:01So I had to say no to that. It's just about that muscle of looking at your list of 16 hours worth of things to do and saying, what can I not do? What can I ask someone else to do? What could I pay someone to do? What could I do half as well as I want to just to get it done and do the job right? And I think that's truly a skill that comes with time and just being aware of that tradeoff mindset. Anything I pick up, I'm putting something else down. So I have to make sure that whatever I'm doing is the absolute best use of my time. And speaking of making the absolute best use of your time, I actually did two things with Laura at the same time.

9:41And I'm telling you this now so you have a little context for some of the comments that will be made later in the conversation. So I spoke to Laura for this podcast, but I did it live inside of a community that I have, which is called One Thing Better. It's part of my newsletter. You can learn more by going to one thing better dot email. It's a lot of solopreneurs, small business owners and people building amazing careers who want to learn from each other. And we have calls like this where we bring on experts like Laura and I talk and then with the person and then community members can ask questions and we make it interactive.

10:14It's a lot of fun. You'll be hearing from Laura. You'll also be hearing some questions that I bring in from community members who are watching on Zoom. So with that said, let's now dive into Laura's process. Like I said at the beginning of this episode, when Laura starts working with a client and therefore really the beginning of the process that she's suggesting you go through if you want to make yourself more productive and efficient and wrestle down your time management problems, then where you need to start is with priorities. and you want to pick three of them. Obviously, we're all going to have more than three things we're focused on at any time.

10:49But it's the rock, jar, sand, pebble analogy, where if you're putting all this sand in your jar and then you say, I have these big rocks, these are the things I care about, trying to shove them in, it's already full of sand. So you had to identify these big things first so that they're constantly on your mind. And it helps with, oh, I have these three things I know are my focus. Something comes in my desk and it's asking me to join this new committee. I want to. It seems good. It seems like something I would normally do, but it's not in my top three priorities. Is it really something I can fit in the jar right now?

11:21And so it just gives you that lens. And I give the example in the book of a time I was particularly overwhelmed. And my husband said, what are your top three priorities? And I listed six. That was a quick way of realizing I was trying to do way too many things. And just that one question let me believe, OK, I've got to shave down some of these things. I've got to deprioritize so I can focus. And so it's just a good question to start with. And I always say, if someone stops you on the street, you should generally have those outlined. And it's not work and then personal. If you have a personal priority right now, like moving your family across the country, that becomes one of the big three.

11:54There's only one you. So there's only one set of priorities. So the next thing that you do that you wrote in the book, which I like the priority thing is like, oh yeah, that makes sense. But then this next part made me step back and think about this for myself. And I bet we'll for everybody, which is that you then have executives take those top three priorities and then look back at the past few weeks of their calendar and identify how much of the time that they have spent in the past few weeks actually matched those priorities. Tell us about that exercise. Yeah. So I secretly print because I think if I say, hey, here's what we're going to do, I'm going to ask your priorities, then you're going to tell me what you've been doing.

12:34It just gives them too much heads up where there might be too much thought around it. So it's that moment of, all right, let's see, because I tell people, don't tell me your priorities, show me your calendar because where you're spending your time is your priorities, hands down, no matter what you're saying. And so by having their calendar secretly printed, it's just a good way of saying, all righty, let's put that to the test. Where are you spending your time? What are you spending your time on? And a lot of times it really does match up, which is good. And then a lot of times it can be, oh, wow, there's this thing that I spent a full day and a half on that was some side project.

13:06And that actually ended up being a lot of hours is when you're looking at a two-week period, and that's not one of my top three priorities. And so how often is that happening? And there's no exact science to it. It's not, has to be this certain percentage, but it's just a good eye-opening exercise to say, where am I spending my time? And the other thing it does is it gets into the nitty-gritty of a priority because let's say your priority is reorganizing your team. That seems super high level. But when you start looking at the calendar, you wanna say, that actually looks like me meeting with my HR partner, me doing skip level meetings with my team, me interviewing external people about how they organize a similar team.

13:46So you want to not just know what's the goal, you want to know how does it show face on my calendar so I can recognize how my time should be spent. I'm going to read something from your book because it's just such a great tip. And then you can expand upon it. We're still talking about priorities. So Laura writes, one of my favorite ways to start shaving things off my list is to do a brain dump of everything floating around in my head that I believe I can or should do. Then I identify roughly a third of the things on the list that are the lowest priority. Those are usually the things that have been in my brain for a while and keep getting carried over without getting done from list to list.

14:20Then for each of those bottom third items, I ask myself, what is the worst thing that would happen if I never do this? Is there any other way for this to get done without my doing it? Is there any way for me to have to do this and move on from it. What I loved about that is just how incredibly liberating it is to think that things that have been on my to-do list maybe just shouldn't get done. I think that's part of the power of finding those things that are better not done. I always give the example of my linen closet is just like a mess and people are thinking, you're so organized. Why don't you fold your towels perfectly?

14:56But I've identified that as a waste of my time. I've said, no, that's not a good use of making sure every towel looks perfectly folded. And so I'm leaving that as is. And so that's what you're doing with those bottom third. It's by flexing that muscle to say, this is not a good use of my time. I keep carrying it over, which means that it's not truly a priority. And so what does it look like if I just never do it? So it's just a mindset shift to help you let go of that. We talked about just looking at the things, the eight hours of things you can't do. It's just a way of thinking, if it never gets done, probably fine, my business will go on.

15:31What have you found works really well for people saying no to things? That's where you move to next in the book, either finding good ways to decline things, finding good ways to build into your calendar the expectation that things will go wrong and that there will be emergencies you need to address. Let's move from setting the priorities to then applying the priorities in an actual busy ever-shifting life? So I think that when you identify the priorities, then it's okay. Yeah. How are these all going to fit in? So that's why I immediately went to how to say no. And later in the book, I talk actually about setting boundaries up front, which makes saying no less often and less awkward.

16:10And the example I give in the boundary setting chapter is setting from the positive versus what you don't do. So let's say you're a photographer. That's actually one of the friends I talked to a lot about this book. And she said that she sometimes feels bad because she schedules all of her Tuesday, her pictures, Tuesday and Thursday, so she can edit Wednesday because that's a perfect day for kids, whatever. And then she shoots weddings on Saturday. She she says not when someone emails her and says, can you do my family pictures on Saturday? She doesn't say no, I don't do Saturday family pictures.

16:42She says, I do Tuesday, Thursday family pictures. So immediately she's shifting their mindset into what she does do. So that That one, like setting those boundaries up front makes it easier for you to keep those priorities and schedules. But then if something comes around where you want to say no, some people say no is a complete sentence. That just doesn't work for me. It feels awkward. I feel like I'm a recovering say yeser. So just saying no is big for me. So then I have to do it in a way that feels good. And so in the book, I put actual sentences. And this is because of one of my emails at Google that went viral about how to say no to a meeting.

17:17once I sent it out, people sent me forward me emails that these little sentences I gave as examples were being used all over the company. And I loved it because people were like, I only invited this person because I thought they'd want to be invited. And now they're saying no to me, which is great because they didn't need to be there. So this removes a lot of inefficiencies. And there are examples like no, because for example, I was asked to speak at an event on Halloween. I have three kids under five. I knew I couldn't miss Halloween. So I didn't just say, no, I can't. I said, no, I have young kids, included a picture of them from Halloween last year.

17:48Immediately, I have that vulnerability. She understands. She's on my side. She'll probably ask me to speak again. Or no, but I can't speak. But here are a ton of resources that I've put together and other speakers or not right now. I can't commit to this fully at the level that I would want to give you because of my current set of priorities. So let's check back in three months and we'll see if it's something I can do. So actual sentences to copy and paste, because I think that people just have a hard time of how do I say no, but also maintain that social capital and that friendliness and that approachability.

18:20And certainly as an entrepreneur saying no, but still leaving people open to my business and setting boundaries at the same time for myself. So I think that that's just a skill, again, that people have to learn. I love that. I do a similar thing when I'm negotiating speaking fees, which is when people are trying to get me down below the threshold by which it's worth me getting on an airplane and leaving my family and going to speak, instead of just being like, no, I can't take that amount of money, I always say, look, I would love to come and do this for free because I just enjoy it. And it sounds really fun.

18:59But the reality of it is that I have two little kids at home and my wife and I have an agreement that me traveling and creating stress for the family works when it covers a certain amount of the mortgage. And so I, this is the amount of money that, that allows this to work for my family. And I found people are always responsive to it. And, and usually the number goes back up. So exactly. Because you've shown that no, because you've said, this is my vulnerable. This is actually where I'm coming from. You're being completely honest and no, as a complete sentence would have probably lost you that and a future speaking engagement because of it.

19:36So I think that you've nailed the no because. Yeah. Thanks. All right. Laura, let's talk about the list funnel, because this is a complicated idea and I want to save time for it. Because as I read through it and understood what you were doing, I thought this is really smart. And then I thought this is going to be too time consuming. And then funny enough, right afterwards, you address why it's not too time consuming. So explain the list funnel. Yes. So the list funnel came from me doing so much coaching and just realizing that people, they want a good to-do list system and it's just never that good.

20:11It's some mix of things that they know they're not going to do and things that they have to do and things that they want to do. And for example, I thought of something that I want to do in the fall when my son goes to school and I'm, should I add that to my list today? That seems stupid because that's things that I'm actually going to do before five. And it's this idea of separating everything you want or could do from things you'll actually do. And it helps your brain feel better about the things that you're not doing because you've chosen to not do them, but you know that they're there and they're not getting away from you.

20:44So it starts with what I call the main list. This is exactly what I literally used to do. I've been, I've done it for years, creating these buckets of things to do. The one that's in the book is exactly what I had on my desk when I was writing the book. So it says summer camp registration and everything. Again, there's no work you and personal you. There's just one brain. So it's one list. And it's things that grouped based on what you need to do. So all the calls I need to make, all the physical errands I need to run, all the computer items that I need to do that are personal, all the work computer things so that when it comes time, and I'm at somewhere early, and I can pull up my calls list and make all of those calls instead of it being all mixed together.

21:23And so you start with that, which is the top of the funnel. And then you move down to the daily list. Laura, I'm just going to interrupt you because I just threw this up on the screen. I hope it works as people can see it. So this is from Laura's book. And I just, I thought it was really helpful to see how you divide the main list up by type. So you've got groupings of computer work, computer personal, you've got calls that you've got to make, call swim school to schedule makeup. So you've got things to do around the house to buy an errand. So those are, that's your group. And just to be clear, when we're making a main list, are you basically taking literally everything that needs to be done and just trying to categorize it?

22:04Yes. So that it's out of my brain, because that's the biggest thing. Stress is something that's stuck in your brain. So when you put it on a piece of paper with a deadline, it gives your brain that relaxing piece. Even though you haven't done it, you get some relief that it's documented and you know when it needs to be done. and then from that main list, you're making a realistic weekly plan of what you can actually pull off that list. So maybe I have a ton of travel this week. Those things need to stay there unless I can actually do them this week. This is seconds of time because you've made this one time, the biggest time commitment is this one time brain dump of a main list.

22:39But then from there, you're just pulling things off of it and saying, what do I need? Oh, I have, this is due next week. So I need to do it this week. You're aware of deadlines. You're pulling it off and saying when biggest productivity downfall, I would say, is things that you have to do with no plan of when to do them. That's what I run into all the time. So instead of saying I need to return the bathing suit at the mall because it's expiring, when do I actually plan on doing that? Now I'm looking at my calendar. OK, Friday afternoon, I'm planning on driving home from work and it's on the way home.

23:08I'm doing it then. So getting really into the nitty gritty. And you could even go just from the main list to a daily list. If you're weak, if you don't think of your weeks like this and you just want to pull items off every day, you can do that. But then you go down to the daily list, which is truly an hour by hour contract with yourself. It's saying, what am I doing tomorrow at seven, tomorrow at eight? And all kinds of studies show whether it's to manage anxiety about a day, to get the most of your time. An hour by hour plan is just to get you to work out. Like all of these things, planning ahead of time, how you plan to spend each hour has immeasurable benefits.

23:42And so this is the way that you're saying, I said I'd do it was on my list. But the best part is, let's say you put something on this list and you don't get to it. Again, things happen, 10 o 'clock rolls around, you didn't get it done. It's still on your other list so that you don't forget it. You look at that and think, oh, I actually didn't do that on Wednesday. So I need to do it Thursday when I'm making my Thursday list. So it's a ironclad system. And I think the most important one that isn't on isn't exactly part of the funnel, but what feeds the funnel is your capture list. So again, all the ideas of these things I need to do about rescheduling swim class, that comes to me when I'm driving home from work, not when I'm sitting at my desk and can call swim class.

24:22So how do I get that out of my head into that list? And that's where the capture list comes in. I would say that's probably the most important. It's just one note, whether it's a phone note, I recommend something like Google Keep or Apple Notes where you can speak to a device and say, hey, Google, add this to my capture list, which I probably do 15 to 20 times a day, whether I'm driving, whether I'm just coming out of the shower and thought of 15 things I need to do, but it's some way of capturing it. And then when I go to make my main list, I'm actually going to the capture list and saying, okay, let me get everything that came out of my brain that needs to be done.