Episode 19: How can you become more productive?

Sebastian: You're also fed up with scammy online marketing gurus who promise you superficial hype strategies as a way to success?

Niels: As independent online marketers who call the daily grind their absolute comfort zone, we have made it our mission to expose the online marketing bullshit. With us you get the unfiltered truth about the current state of the online marketing world and which strategies really work.

Sebastian: Your hosts Niels Stuck and Sebastian Vogg will present new online marketing topics in each episode, such as SEO, Facebook Ads, Content and much more to take your online marketing success to the next level.

Sebastian: Welcome to the NO BS Online Marketing Podcast with Niels Stuck.

Niels: Once Again. Hello.

Sebastian: And we me once again. Who thougt that? We have a topic, following up on our last podcast about work-life balance. And today it's about productivity and how we try to maximize productivity in our lives just to work efficiently. Because you always hear a lot of-. What do you always hear, Nils, on Instagram in the entrepreneur game? What is it like that?

Niels: Like productivity is super important. Make to-do lists, visualize. And, and, and. So you still build in, goal, what's it called? (Sebastain: Dreamboards!) Yes, man. Give it your all.

Sebastian: And of course, hustle and work a lot. So because-. And there you have to, I think, a little bit-. So it's all cool inspirations and so. I mean, I'm also now myself-. I have even-. I'm already a Gary Vaynerchuck follower. I wouldn't call myself a fanboy now. But I like to watch it. But in itself, this-. Yes.

Niels: So with the shoes, you're already a bit of a fanboy.

Sebastian: Yes, a little bit. But I just thought they were cool. Okay. We'll leave it-. Okay. We'll cut that out.

Niels: No, go on.

Sebastian: No. It's this whole issue of hustle, hustle, investing a lot of time in the business 16 hours, 18 hours, 20 hours a day like that, I always find a bit excessive. And is also just not sustainable. And I mean, if you do something-. What are your long days, Niels? In terms of hours. What would you say?

Niels: Well, I have to say that I haven't counted it for a long time. For me, it's a bit of a natural process that (Sebastian: Same.) when you're used to working 40 hours, then 60 and 80 are much more noticeable. And that's just an active stress, because you have then somehow. And-, and I think it's also quite common at the beginning that you write to-do lists and that you-, yes, also reflect a bit on what you've done. Because you try to squeeze this "doing a lot" into your everyday life somehow. To somehow make it a habit.

And for that it may be necessary. But I don't do that anymore for a while. Because I have it in the habit, so to speak. So, which is also a thing that's always said: Yes, you have to make it your habit. Like that. But I would say twelve already sometimes. 14? Can in extreme cases-. In extreme cases I also work all day. From morning until an hour or two before I go to sleep. That happens, too. But the question is always: How much do you really get done in the time you spend working? Do you get a lot done, or are you just-, are you just keeping busy?

Sebastian: Yeah, would you say that you're more likely to get more done on days where you put in more time, or if sometimes-. So I can say it from my own experience-. I sometimes have days where I work maybe only eight hours times. And am much faster and more efficient than on days where I work the whole day felt or sometimes I have days where I do something only six, five hours or so. But still more compact and quicker to get into a flow. Theme from last week a little bit. (Niels: Exactly.) And then I also just get the work done much, much faster if you can get it done. If there is something like that.

And there are a few things that I think play into that a little bit as well. How do you make sure that you're efficient when you're working? Or what do you do to just be productive when-. Just working and sitting down you can do if you're extremely self-, very much self-loathing yourself and just trying very, very hard to-. Well, to push. But still, I'm not a big fan of this blatant self-hatred and saying all the time: Yes, I'm torturing myself now. And I'm hunching over now. Because I also want to have fun at work. That's why-. How would you say you make sure you're productive?

Niels: So I have it for me already so a bit-. I say now once, in the gut feeling inside that I must create a certain number of things a day, so that I feel comfortable with it. And that-. I don't pre-define that. I don't have that on any list. But I would say like, three to five milestones like that I kind of have to accomplish a day. Whether it's somehow explicit tasks that I still have to do for customers. Whether it's finishing an audit for you and somehow preparing and completing two or three calls a day, whatever. How do I take care of that? I don't. So-.

Sebastian: You probably only sleep two hours a night or what.

Niels: Well good. I often sleep enough again in the meantime. Like this. In the meantime I was on five, six hours. Now I'm back to seven. How is it with you?

Sebastian: Yes, so the issue for me is halt. What if I don't sleep enough? Boo. Then you can do relatively little with me. Well, sometimes there are days when it works anyway. But then you notice the day after or two days later, when the sleep deprivation slowly catches up with you. (Niels: Yes okay.) There is this good comparison with, I don't know, sleep you can't compensate. If you overdo it once, it's not like you can catch up on sleep now. You have halt. (Niels: Yes, I see.) You just get into debt. So the debts a little bit. And then you have to deal with it. Yes, so that's just a little bit the topic for me. Sleep is very important for me. I don't have the best sleep, I would say. I also go to sleep around twelve.

Niels: Yes, but that still works comparatively.

Sebastian: It goes. It definitely works. But I mean ideally-. I could get up earlier and things like that. There's a lot that can be improved. But yeah-. Otherwise, what else is the thing for me? Well, I just make a very, very rudimentary list. The day before, the evening before. But it's really very basic. And it tells me, for example, which appointments I have. And I have now, for example, when I have calls, I make my notes directly then with purely so that I simply so a bit-. I write something out a little bit.

Niels: That's right. That's right. So-.

Sebastian: But so really extreme to-do lists-like I have now also not everything in it. And yes-. Otherwise, what do I do for productivity? Flight mode on the smartphone in the morning relatively long. (Niels: Hard.) Meanwhile. So I can procrastinate really meanwhile really long. And it's also not so-. Of course, when I have calls, I do it either on the smartphone or mostly via video calls anyway. Then I don't need a smartphone for that. And that has really-, that has really helped me a lot, I have to say. So now I've been doing it for the whole week. I think two to three hours after getting up, no smartphone. (Niels: Awesome.) Well, I think it's great. Yes, I can really say that. So straight-. I find it worst, if I directly in the morning-. So for me. There I notice already somehow like something in me-. I do not know. Together. So I just feel shit when I somehow instagram directly with the smartphone in the morning.

It just feels kind of weird to me by now. That means I've already trained it a bit. And I definitely notice when I'm in flight mode early in the morning and no one is getting on my nerves. If I don't have all these communication channels, except for e-mail and Slack, I can also do the best work. Most of the time it's the most efficient time. Or just later in the evening or on the weekend. Because there's not so much stuff coming in. (Niels: Yes, exactly.) That's the way it is with me. That we also had in the last call, uh last podcast. And otherwise? Yes, coffee. (Niels: Coffee?) ... #00:09:02# Coffee, man. It's just the fucking truth. So coffee also makes a lot of difference to me. I just have to say.

Niels: I can definitely relate to that. I also drink a lot of coffee. I don't think I could do it with the flight mode. I have tried that a few times. But with me it is also programmed to check first thing in the morning. Checking also if I have any annoying messages. Any stuff. But it is also bad. If I have then, then I start actually equal shit in the day.

Sebastian: That'll fuck you right off. Yes.

Niels: Fuck me right off. So. First of all, the interest is so social media short: Okay, what happened? I actually of course, like most actually missed nothing relevant anyway so. Nothing of significance happens overnight. So, it's just the newsfeed again. It's again just a bunch of pictures of people traveling and whatever. So. But-, that's already hard in there. That's already-. And that it's so hard to even imagine. Well, you have to do it sometime. It's actually a simple thing. But you're so addicted to this crap.

Sebastian: So I notice it too - very briefly, sorry if I'm interrupting you now - as soon as I take my phone out of flight mode, dude, the drug comes back in. It's so intense and then something changes in your brain. And then I still try to follow through with that - not using your smartphone as much during the day. But it's much harder than that. It's incredible. So it's like a switch that you flip and you're like, fuck no. This can't be that I'm so dependent on this device. So, that's where I try to challenge myself a little bit like that. But-.

Niels: Yes, I think that's a really important thing. Because I notice it with me now, when we talk about it. I'm also constantly on my smartphone. Because, let's say, I'm doing a small task. You look briefly somehow, I'll say once now, to relax, to now briefly: Okay, I'm looking now somehow in social media. And you probably do that so often. You really have to count how often you-.

Sebastian: The screen time-. Do you have that with you, Niels? On the mobile phone-.

Niels: Yes. But we'd better not check it out now. Or come on, let's both take a look.

Sebastian: Yes, let's look inside.

Niels: Because that will probably be a pretty ungodly number for me in any case. And that's probably where we have the biggest productivity killer.

Sebastian: Yeah, hang on. I'll take a look here. Yeah, we're both gonna be embarrassed by this. But it's-. So it's nothing to ashamed off because most people out there look like that. So-.

Niels: Today. Let's take today. So far. We have 18:24.

Sebastian: It is a Saturday. I have three hours and ten minutes.

Niels: Oh damn. I have three hours and nine minutes. Boo. But you have to add, it's a Saturday. I slow-timed it a little bit today. (Sebastian: Okay.) And because of that, it's actually pretty good. I've got it-,

Sebastian: How much social media? How much social media do you have?

Niels: Of which one hour 50.

Sebastian: Yes, the same also. Also an hour-. (Niels: Gross.) I have one hour 48.

Niels: Crass. Okay. (Sebastian: And then some other stuff.) Like probably for most others it's going to be Instagram. So that's definitely it for me.

Sebastian: Instagram you mean? I just-. Yes. For me, it's WhatsApp.

Niels: Yeah. Rad. Really?

Sebastian: Spotify after. Three minutes of TikTok. Right. Oh, what's also cool is the activations per hour. Take a look underneath. How many do you have there? How many do you have on WhatsApp or Instagram? That's awesome. Boy, that's intense. That's really bad.

Niels: Okay. Announce.

Sebastian: WhatsApp 37. What do you have?

Niels: I have Instagram 40. Whew. (Sebastian: Whew.) But to be fair, today is Saturday. I've just been doing relaxing work today. I wasn't particularly productive today either. I spent a lot of time working. But unfortunately, the tasks today are rather less exciting. Therefore-.

Sebastian: But I think it's blatant.

Niels: -is the variety-. Ah nonsense. The distraction fierce magnet. Fuck. (Sebastian: Damn.) I think that's one of the biggest points to self-reflect on. When it comes to Productivity somehow. Because-.

Sebastian: Yes, because that is the ugly truth. Ugly truth in any case.

Niels: Yes, definitely. Because I think that also keeps you from getting into this flow at all, because you keep pulling yourself out of it. And I can definitely observe that with me today, for example. I have days when I'm in an absolute sprint as far as completing tasks and assignments is concerned. One thing after the other. That's when you kind of warm up. Because two or three things went well. Or you've finished something and think to yourself: Ah yes, and now this and this. And sometimes it just looks like today.

Sebastian: Yes good. It's a Saturday. You're forgiven, Niels. I haven't coughed as much today either as I usually do now on some other day. But that's the joke. That's also the great thing, to get back to productivity and independence. Free time management. You just do it when it works best for you. And then it's also-. Then you can also be productive. And then you might have productivity boots sometimes in the evening. And then sometimes in the morning. Or whatever.

So that doesn't matter at all. So as long as you're not in this hamster wheel of - I'm just working as much time as possible or as much as possible a day. Because that's just BS. So I sometimes catch myself doing that while I'm netflixing, I somehow still have the MacBook there. And then I just do a little bit during that. Sometimes a few good things get done. But in most cases not. In most cases it's just useless. Yes.

Niels: That. I can definitely relate to the Netflix thing. I mean, I used to do that more. Now I really don't do that very often. But when I'm doing text work, where I'm just going through a text or translating it or something like that, these really easy tasks that don't put a lot of mental strain on you. That kind of thing goes on the side. But if you actually have to concentrate in some way-. (Sebastian: Yes, no chance.) Deadly!

Sebastian: Yes, no chance. So that's really deadly, and secondly, it doesn't do anything.

Niels: And what I think is a trap-. So I think it's very useful to write yourself to-do lists. But it's also important to pay attention: What's on it now? If there are things on it now like - great, now I can't think of a good example - meditating or cleaning up or, I'll say now, if it's your business to-do list, there should also be relevant things on it, because it feels good to cross things out.

But if you only write things down to be able to cross them out as quickly as possible afterwards and then 20 irrelevant things virtually cover and outweigh three relevant things and you say to yourself: Oh, I really got a lot done today. But in reality the three important things are still on there, it's very unfavorable. (Sebastian: Then it's bullshit.) And then you trip yourself up.

Sebastian: Sure. Then you just take the piss out of yourself. And you think to yourself: Yes, okay, I've done something. But that means stop.

Niels: Can you think of any other things where you screw yourself in that context?

Sebastian: Yeah, flexing for Instagram and all that bullshit. So that's the classic. Boah, I'm a badass online entrepreneur. Now I'm going to show you how I work all day. If you're working, then stop fucking posting stories. Well, I haven't been doing much lately either, I must say. (Niels: Me too. Super little.) So partly also so little that I think to myself: Yeah okay. That's not so cool anymore. Because I actually already a bit the content also-.

Niels: Sure. Sure. (Sebastian: A little bit-.) That's also a resource in the end.

Sebastian: Sure. But just all this show-off stuff. Today I was there. And then I just do another feed post. And then I was here. And look at all the places I've been. And here we are right now. And we're working on great new projects right now. And yeah, nobody cares.

Niels: Only hustling, never-.

Sebastian: Nobody cares. So it's just really like that. So when I post my content, it's either stupid content or somehow relevant content. (Niels: Yes, man.) Video. (Niels: Amen.) Or just from the feed it's mostly content anyway. So video or podcast. And I think to myself just so: There is anyway already no sow interested in the topic of online marketing really much. There are already a few. But it's not like the whole fucking Instagram community is interested in the topic. And why should I now start to somehow document my life here still blatant? Because: Who am I to think that people are so interested in my life? That's just a blatant ego game. So sure, you can do that. And that works, too. But let me just finish this sentence for a second. But I just see it as-. So what-. You might think it's cool to do that. But revenue? Nope. Don't get any from it. Clients? I don't know if many clients find that cool. And then it's just-, it's just a first-person game. So-.

Niels: Yes, man. Absolutely. I know halt-. So a lot of people who-, or I see a lot of people who just do that. Of course. Because when you see people, they are the ones who do it. The others you just don't see. (Sebastian: Sure.) That's why I have a list full to the brim, for example, in the stories of people who are super, super productive and hustling all day. But if I now take a quick look at the last three years. In the case of the people I might know, there hasn't really been that much movement from A to B yet. In the whole period. And if you believe the social media, then an incredible amount of work is being put into it. An incredible amount of time. (Sebastian: All day, every day, man.) All day hustling my friend. At 24/7. At 25/8. Everything.

Sebastian: Yes. So I think we don't want to say now with this that it's bad that you do that.

Niels: No. No. No. You can absolutely do that.

Sebastian: You can do that. You should just ask yourself: Where are my priorities? If it's just about saying: I'm the hottest hustler and do this well. Then you should think about whether you want to become an influencer instead of doing normal projects. So I mean, I make my posts when I have passed an exam and so.

Sure, that's also in some ways: Wow, I'm a Facebook Product Ads Developer now. Of course. It's all show-off, of course. But no. So I think you just have to ask yourself a little bit: What is my intention? Is there a Facebook profile or an Instagam profile of Sedat Aktas? So a Facebook page or something, or a fan page? Nope. Is he doing any crass videos, how crass he built "Horny Wines"? Nope.

Niels: No. So you're right. I don't want to say that it's fundamentally bad. I think it's perfectly legitimate to be very happy about something. That you can broadcast it to the world for a moment. There ain't no problem. Sometimes it's just good to do that. Sometimes it's fun. But the intention behind it is, as I said, definitely the key. Is it now about: Hach, I'm horny! Find me horny! Like this. Look at this. Or is it: Man, okay, I feel this right now. This is a nice moment for me right now. I feel like sharing it right now. But I don't want you to please-, to build a shrine and worship me please. Me and my awesome grind and my Instagram profile. Yeah man. That's why-. Reflect yourself, guys.

Sebastian: Reflect yourself. Self-reflection is important. Even with productivity. I also catch myself bullshitting myself all the time with any-. Yes, that's important. That's the business, after all. Yes. No. No way. Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Like this.

Niels: Exactly. And where we definitely need to check ourselves, we've definitely established that now in this episode: screen time, social media grind, and how often we unlock that goddamn phone. In an hour. And we have 24 of those a day.

Sebastian: It's just a little crazy.

Niels: I will now take this rose thorn whip and go to confession first.

Sebastian: Yes. And whip you through properly and don't forget to rub salt in the wound afterwards.

Niels: Give it to him.

Sebastian: Nice. (Niels: Nice.) And with that, thank you very much for listening to this wonderful episode. And then we'll hear you again next time.

Niels: Peace Out.