timesmith: Recent Episodes
Robert Smith
I help busy professionals get 6 hours back per day, get more done, and all with less stress using just their daily routine. My framework is called the POWER Routine™, and I'll teach you how to master it!
A daily routine works how you actually were designed to work, one small habit at a time. And the sequence you do the routine in matters too, that's why I've packaged it all together as the POWER Routine Framework. It takes all the best productivity principles and puts them into an innovative daily routine sequence. This means you can learn it one piece at a time and then practice it each day to slowly but surely deepen your understanding and form it into a habit.
Take back 6 hours a day, get 10x more done, and live an abundant life, all with little to no less! Listen today.
During our open office Q&A session last week, a good friend joined and had lots of good ideas and intentions for his time, but it also felt like he wasn't making progress.
Have you been there? I’m guessing you have. All of us feel pulled in multiple directions. Some of us know a sense of what to do to change it, but why no change? How do we actually make progress on our good intentions?
In today’s episode we’ll learn about a couple awesome and easy tools that will help you know what’s important for your time so you can zero in on what matters most and truly make progress.
Don't forget to download the free quick-start guide at timesmith.work/guide!
Don Miller says to charge clients $10,000 for help crafting a daily and weekly routine. I think it's actually worth that too. I'll help you craft yours on this episode 👊🏼
Hi, I'm Robert, and I help Customer Success Managers get back half their day so they can serve customers better and not be so stressed.
Email me if I can help or you'd like my free resources! Robert@timesmith.work
Today I have a confession...
Then I want to share with you the 5 forces that will keep you from being successful at the POWER Routine.
- Motivation
- Self
- Others
- Character
- Lastly, skills. Aka the POWER Routine
Let's go!
Hi, I'm Robert and I help Customer Success Managers get back half their day so they can serve customers better and not be so stressed. Email me to learn how! Robert@timesmith.work.
This video shows Day 3 of my 10-day course. Interested in learning more? Check out timesmith.work/10-day.
The good life is different for everyone, but it has one main ingredient: doing work you enjoy.
We’ll help you zero in on this within the context of you customer success position in today's podcast using the passion and proficiency matrix from Michael Hyatt. It’s really simple 2 x 2 matrix that helps you
- Cut out distractions
- Determine what to delegate or stop doing
- Where you might need to something into a hobby
- And most importantly, what you should be doing MORE!
Bonus tip: I teach you the exact process that came from this matrix that saved my 7-person success team over 250 hours a month!
Looking for the free guide? timesmith.work/guide
Want help navigating some change you're thinking about? Let's chat with zero pressure to buy anything. I seriously just love helping with this stuff. Email me! Robert@timesmith.work.
I help stressed out digital workers craft a daily routine so they gain clarity and feel progress.
Most coaching programs use the “discovery call” just to get your hopes up and sell you on their product. On ours, you’ll come away with an executable game plan for free. Let's chat! https://calendly.com/robert-timesmith
This is the ONE thing you need probably need the most on your todo list. Stop feeling bad about it!
Listening to this? Let me know! Robert@timesmith.work
If this podcast connects with you, I'd love to hear it. Let me know at robert@timesmith.work.
If you are overwhelmed or not making the progress you want to each day, let's set you up with a daily routine to get everything done you need to and feel in control again. Email robert@timesmith.work for a free session!
Hey there, I'm Robert, and I help overwhelmed professionals prioritize and decrease stress.
Most coaching programs use the “discovery call” just to get your hopes up and sell you on their product. But from a free call with me, you’ll come away with clarity on the cause of your current stress at work, get unstuck, and have a full action plan to take it on.
If you do want help implementing your new action plan, I’m happy to offer a paid coaching service but if not, I’m just happy if you feel relieved and ready to go again. Click here to schedule our free 30-minute discussion!
Hey there, I'm Robert, and I help overwhelmed professionals prioritize and decrease stress.
Most coaching programs use the “discovery call” just to get your hopes up and sell you on their product. From a free call with me, you’ll come away with clarity on the cause of your current stress at work, get unstuck, and have a full action plan to take it on.
If you do want help implementing your new action plan, I’m happy to offer a paid coaching service but if not, I’m just happy if you feel relieved and ready to go again. Click here to schedule our free 30-minute discussion!
If something isn't working, instead of beating yourself up about it and trying again, try a different approach!
Why beat your head against a wall over and over?
Enjoy the episode!
PS my email for the free call is robert@timesmith.work
This is one I'm still working on myself, but if we don't consider it, we're missing a big opportunity to enjoy being human.
Download my free time management, quick-start guide at timesmith.work/guide!
Where do you store your information? I hope you don't use your email as a task list, a "get back to you" list, a follow up list, a meeting list, etc. etc. But if you do, you're like 100% of other people!
Most have 100+ todo list items and something like 40% of them never get done.
Today we are learning about the 3 lists you need. That's right, just 3! (And the good news that there is a VERY CORRECT way to do you todo list which is so much easier!)
In today's podcast, we're taking a day from the 10-day challenge I'm doing on LinkedIn and adding it here. I hope you enjoy!
As always, download the "3 Productivity Secrets to Save 3+ Hours a Day," quick-start guide at timesmith.work/guide.
Today, we'll talk about the top 3 things you can do to beat that feeling of being overwhelmed for good!
Get my free quick-start guide at timesmith.work/guide to get back 3+ hours a day!
When do you leave home for work? This question can increase your productivity like nothing else because it gives you a boundary, and boundaries are where innovation occurs!
In this episode, I'll quickly unpack how leaving at 4 will help you:
- Make better use of your late afternoon time
- Exercise your self-care and relationships muscle
- Enjoy life more
I hope you find it insightful!
Also, here's the link to the guide I mention in the episode: timesmith.work/guide.
The POWER Routine continues to have a huge impact on the lives of those it touches, so I want to help you understand it in more detail.
From this episode you'll learn:
- Details on how to implement each part of the POWER Routine.
- LOADS of quick soundbite productivity tips that each could save you dozens or hundreds of hours of wasted time a year.
- The secret to feeling connected at work.
- How I got to where I am today, from 8 hours of chaos at work to full-time business owner.
- And much more!
See you there!
If you can’t make decisions, you’re not alone. Many of us struggle from chronic indecisiveness. And the result is a TON of wasted energy and creativity every day. Not only waste, but stress and anxiety weigh on us as well as we try to constantly decide all day every day on everything from responding to a chat to quitting a job.
In fact, according to the University of Leicester, we make up to 35,000 DECISIONS PER DAY!
In this podcast, we’ll learn:
- The story of a conversation that flipped my perspective on decisions forever.
- The one golden nugget of decision wisdom that has freed me more than anything else!
- How this plays out in actual life.
- Your 3 takeaways for applying this to your everyday decisions all the way to your most important decisions.
Let’s go!
Hey friends, this is a short episode because I'll be on paternity leave and just wanted to let you all know! I also wanted to share something worth your listen quick though and tell you my story of stopping watching TV and how it's been AMAZING and pretty much happened on it's own.
Talk to you again in a few weeks!
- Robert
How do you know when you are working hard or when you are overworking? Where is the line between them?
Well the line is actually a chasm and there is a HUGE difference.
Research shows that when you overwork, you get less done and all areas of your life suffer.
But when you work hard, all areas of your life prosper!
What’s more, working hard and overwork are actually at odds with one another, not different points in a linear spectrum.
In todays episode, I’ll paint a picture of the difference for you with 12 comparisons, then we’ll round out the discussion with 5 practical ways to start working hard instead of overworking.
Hey, and this episode is only 13 minutes!
Let’s go!
The average person spends a distracted 2.5 hours looking at email only getting back to what is urgent, but what about:
- The important but not urgent?
- Caring for people by getting back to them in a timely way?
- And spending less time looking at email?
Why not spend a half hour of intentional email processing, in one sitting, get through it all, keep things moving, unbury treasure, care for people well, keep your commitments, and stop. the. stress!
Email processing is like riding a bike. It take effort to learn what to do. At first, every muscle is tensed, your mind fully absorbed in making your body work in coordination together. But soon, email processing is like riding a bike! So easy and you don’t even think about it!
When you set out to do something, knowing the importance helps motivate you, today we’ll talk about the top 3 reasons to get through email, as well as my story of how this has helped me so much.
Let’s go!
Have you ever met that person who has important things going on but does not ever seem to be stressed? They just feel like they are in control of their life? And when you meet with them, they are engaged with you, almost as if talking with you is the most important thing they could possibly be doing in the moment?
Well I’m not a betting man, but if I were, my money would be on them already understanding the principle I’ll outline in today’s episode.
This principle is actually the root of a lot of the other things I teach and I would guess causes 80% or more of your stress: micro-commitments.
I’ll also show you the 6 main places that micro-commitments occur and how to fix it.
Let's go!
A student of mine recently asked something like this, “Robert, what do you do when something breaks your focus? Now that I have a lot more focus using the POWER Routine, it’s even harder when that focus is broken. The other day, I was in the zone and my roommate needed something. I tried to get back focused again, but then my roommate needed me again. This doesn’t happen much, but that day, I ended up giving up on the entire Work part of my routine. It was also really hard on me. What should I do in that situation? How should I handle it next time?”
That is a great question and something I want to address in today’s episode with some frameworks to grow in the skill of processing int(eruptions)!
You don’t have to be stressed when interruptions happen!
- Robert
As someone that works on a computer, it’s difficult for you to see your impact, but that is something you need to see.
Like a farmer, that gets to walk out into the morning sun and look upon his seedlings that are just sprouting. Eventually, he’ll be picking strawberries, corn, and cucumbers.
He sees his labor come to life, but for us, the best we get is a neat looking report that is still inside a screen.
But this is an important question, because work is one of the greatest drivers of joy in our life, and if we never take pause to consider whether or not our work is good and real, we are missing out on that sense of “done” and “well done” we long for deeply.
Instead, we find ourselves just scrambling onward and onward, never arriving at done, potentially for years and decades!
In today’s episode, I describe the simple daily habit you can form as part of your daily routine that will help you be “done” and feel that sense of accomplishment.
FREE GIFT to get 2 hours back per day starting tomorrow! timesmith.work/guide
On average, we spend 33% of our time in meetings.
And yet I likely don’t need to convince you that the state of meetings today is not good.
Some managers and leaders seem to spend nearly 100% of their time in meetings.
Now that would be fine, if that was a good use of time. Meetings themselves aren’t necessarily good or evil. They are just a tool.
How we use them determines that. And there are a lot of good reasons for meetings, but the biggest problem is the sheer amount of meetings.
Because we have so many meetings, we:
- Come in late and miss the socializing part.
- We often haven’t had a break and aren’t able to give our best.
- We end up having to “multi-task” during the meeting.
So in the end, others can tell that you’re not giving your best, many of us feel the meeting is a waste of time, and yet no one does anything about it.
In today’s episode, we’re looking at the E-Engage step of the POWER Routine™, and I’ll give you:
- 7 reasons meetings happen unnecessarily so you can spot these reasons and get ahead of them (warning: some of these are culture shifting)
- 5 reasons to have a meeting
- 8 strategies to have a productive meeting
- 8 ways to better engage in meetings (warning: will take courage!)
- 3 ways to hack bad meetings you aren’t in charge of
Let’s go!
Resources:The free guide to buy back 2 hours per day is at timesmith.work/guide.
Please leave a star rating! (On show page, scroll down. On episode page, click back and scroll down.)
Thanks!Robert
Ever wondered how much potential work you can do per day? Ever wondered if work/life balance is all it’s cracked up to be? If we were made in God’s image, what does that mean for how much work we should do? Does part of you say “leave it all on the field” and the other say “enjoy life and live to the fullest?”
Spoiler: we were not meant to only work and prioritizing life actually INCREASES our work output when approached correctly!
Research proven! And anecdotally, it’s totally been my experience as well as the experience of many other amazing people.
So sit back and let me convince you with research that you SHOULD live a full life AND this will give you THE MOST work output your are capable of.
In this research-packed episode:
- How much we work today and why it’s so so little.
- What the potential amount of work could look like.
- Practically where to go from here.
Also see timesmith.work/guide to take back hours a day.
Hope you enjoy!
- Robert
How do you keep track of the stuff? All that stuff you are needing to do, waiting on, needing to discuss… Task lists, sticky notes, email inboxes… your head? Do you try to remember everything? (PLEASE NO)
Do you find all that information too much to remember, too hard to keep track of, and daunting when it’s time to do anything about the stuff? (If yes, you are part of the 100% of the population because our brains can’t remember 1 million things and decisions, so don’t feel bad!)
What if all the information, flying around at you all day from all different sources and in all different places was distilled into just 3 simple categories?
Stuff you are waiting on, stuff you need to do, and stuff you need to discuss with someone?
Pretty simple right? That’s because it is! My system is unique in that it boils down ALL the actionable stuff in your life to just 3 lists.
In this episode, I dive into what each list is, how to use it, examples, and simple pro tips that will put your productivity into overdrive, decrease your email volume by up to 50% or more, and cut down on your email and chat processing time, all while giving you the actionable information you need when and where you need it!
The 3 lists are:
- Next List
- Waiting List
- Meeting List(s)
Don’t forget my free gift to GET BACK 4 HOURS PER DAY at timesmith.work/guide. It has a cheat sheet of the information from this show on the 3rd page.
To your clarity, sanity, and success,
Robert
Sure, there really are good reasons NOT to be on top of your email. Like you have an out if asked about something. Just say it got lost in your email!
Or maybe the time it takes to be on top of email could be spent better in other areas…
BUT I argue that being on top of your email pays dividends in: 1. Time saved - each distraction costs you 23.5 minutes research shows. So instead of constant distractions throughout the day each time you glance through your email, get through ALL email and chat in 15-45 minutes and move on with your day! Imagine over 7 hours of uninterrupted work!! 2. Clarity - go from constantly dodging issue and not knowing what your priorities are or where something new fits in, to having a succinct picture at any moment of what you should be working on. 3. Decreased stress - an always building pile of ____ in your email causes stress because it means we have a million small decisions we haven’t made, or have made and aren't keeping. 4. Dependability - people will respect and trust you to be good to your word by getting back to things you say you will, moving things forward consistently, and not forgetting about things.
This episode is a bootcamp, so get ready! In this episode, we’ll: 1. Set up your chat and email applications for success. 2. Learn the 6 things you can do with any email in order to quickly move it to archive for good. This will become second nature with practice. 3. Get a preview of the 3 lists you’ll need to make information and priorities WAY easier to manage. 4. How to keep your inbox clear for good! Bonus: some tips along the way for huge timesaving email hacks.
I hope you’re as excited as I am!
- Robert
This one change will give you half your day back and decrease your stress by 80%.
He’s waiting…
He’s 7 feet tall, hairy, and a wild animal, and he’s waiting for just the right moment…
When you sit down to start a productive day…
He attacks!
But you don’t fight back, you cuddle up next to Tasksquatch and feed him snacks. All the while you say goodbye to the productive day you were going to have.
Today I’ll talk about Taskquatch, THE #1 CAUSER OF STRESS IN YOUR DAY AND THE #1 KILLER OF YOUR PRODUCTIVITY. We're talking about unnecessary stress! And say goodbye to all those things you started the day excited to accomplish!
Let's discuss how he is killing your day and life and how you can fight back with 3 easy steps.
Hope you enjoy! Robert
Did you know that a todo list should not be the driver of your day? You probably know this intuitively already because it is not working for you and causes you stress day after day. According to research by iDoneThis, if you are like the average person, 41% of things on your todo list never get done! I’m excited to be the one to tell you, there is a much better way!
Instead, would you like a method that uses the momentum and energy you have each day to the maximum, gives you direction in your day with that “done” feeling, accomplishes more, and does it all with little to no stress? Well, it’s right in front of us each and every day. That’s right, it’s your daily routine. Not your morning routine, though can part of it. Your daily routine.
In this episode—my debut episode that I’m so excited for!— You’ll learn:
- How a todo list driving your day gets less done
- How a daily routine is a godsend
- A simple framework to start your own daily routine
Hope you enjoy! - Robert
FREE Guide at timesmith.work/guide
Taking back 4 hours per day was never so easy! Learn about the POWER Routine™ and my products that will launch on January 3rd.