7 Habits for MAXIMUM PRODUCTIVITY in 2023

Summary

• Curate your social media carefully: At age 23, I started unfollowing people on social media who didn't help me focus on my goals. If you're distracted or feeling negative while scrolling, unfollow those who aren't contributing positively to your objectives. Conduct a review to remove distractions and align your feed with your mission.
• Don't text back immediately: I learned to not respond to texts right away when I was 21. This taught others how to interact with me and allowed me to stay focused on my priorities. Being considered a bad texter is a small price for achieving my goals.
• Use your cellphone as a reward: While working, keep your phone out of reach until you've completed a task. This minimizes distractions and helps maintain focus. Create a physical barrier to avoid temptation and stay on track.
• Implement a season of 'No': To be productive, recognize when you need to decline invitations and requests. My partner Alex and I adopted this strategy with Gym Launch, saying no to nearly everything to focus on our business. True freedom lies in the ability to say no to non-essential activities.
• Schedule deep work time: Protect time for focused, uninterrupted work and avoid scheduling meetings that disrupt this. I don't take meetings before 11 AM, using mornings to progress significant objectives. This prepares you to serve others more effectively and prevents constant reactivity.
• Skip obligatory celebrations: I choose not to participate in many traditional celebrations and events. Prioritizing my own goals over societal or familial expectations allows me to concentrate on what's truly important and avoid playing catch-up. Audit your own engagements to determine which align with your priorities.
• Have outcome-focused interactions: When meeting or talking to someone, I always ensure there's a clear goal for our interaction. This avoids wasting time on aimless conversations and ensures the time spent aligns with my objectives. Create rules that make your time investment worthwhile.

Video

How To Take Action

I would suggest carefully curating your social media to remove distractions that can derail your focus on your goals. Do a "social media cleanse" by unfollowing anyone who doesn't help you stay on track with your objectives. This is a quick and free way to improve your mental environment.

Another good thing to do is to not text back immediately. Letting messages wait teaches others to respect your time and helps you stay concentrated on what's important. It might take some practice, but remember your goals come first, not instant replies.

Make your cellphone a reward for completing tasks. This means putting it out of sight while working, and only allowing yourself to check it once you're done with a specific activity. It's a simple change but can greatly boost your productivity.

Implementing a 'season of no' can also be very valuable. Say no to things that do not serve your current objectives, freeing up time for what really matters. Start by canceling one thing this week that doesn't align with your goals—it's okay to prioritize your needs!

Scheduling deep work time is crucial. Block off hours where no meetings are allowed so you can focus on your most important tasks. Try setting your mornings as meeting-free times, and use that for your most challenging work.

Consider skipping celebrations that don't align with your personal goals. Audit your calendar and decide what events truly matter to you. It's not necessary to attend everything you're invited to if it doesn't serve your purpose.

Lastly, aim for outcome-focused interactions. Before any meeting or call, ask what the goal is. If there isn't a clear purpose that aligns with your objectives, it might be best to decline.

These suggestions are low-cost and require little time to implement but can have a significant impact on achieving your personal and professional growth.

Quotes by Leila Hormozi

"Freedom is not the ability to say yes, freedom is the ability to say no"

– Leila Hormozi

"If you're proactive you're focused on preparing, if you're reactive you're focused on repairing"

– Leila Hormozi

"I use that time in the morning to move forward the things that move for the biggest goals I have"

– Leila Hormozi

"I don't go to weddings, I don't celebrate a lot of holidays"

– Leila Hormozi

"I always am asking people what's the point of the interaction"

– Leila Hormozi

Full Transcript

you my top seven productivity habits that have allowed me to grow build and sell three companies before the age of 30 and now run a 200 million dollar portfolio the first habit is unfollow on social media so when I was 23 and we started our first business I had a mentor once tell me that I had a very high tolerance for doing things that were important I would work hours on end from when I woke up to when I went to bed but I wasn't working on the right things and I was doing a ton of different activities that weren't actually moving the ball forward the first thing that I thought of was I really need to make sure that I'm consuming the right thing because what we consume is what we think about and it adds noise in our brains and so I went on my Facebook my Instagram and I unfollowed every single person that I felt wasn't helping me focus on the most important things tasks and goals if you have a huge amount of people that you follow on social media if you find yourself constantly going down rabbit holes getting distracted or noticing negative feelings arising when you're scrolling social media anyone one who doesn't make you feel positively or uplifted or encouraged unfollow them then you go through and ask is this person adding value to my mission is this person and watching their content helping me achieve my goal and then you go through and do a second flush the second productivity habit is not texting back immediately I learned this when I was 21 and I was a trainer and at that point I think I had like 36 clients they would text me all the time at that time I had a coach and I remember telling her about this and I was like gosh this is so annoying I remember she looked at me and she was like Layla why do you think you're obligated to respond just don't I was like what do you mean don't don't respond yes do not respond you will teach people how to interact with you by how you interact with them that was the moment in time where Layla hormozzi became an awful texter because I never text people back immediately and if that means that some people don't like me they think I'm rude oh my gosh that's so inconsiderate you don't text people back right away or you never do I don't care I'm okay with it because I know that I'm gonna get to where I need to go the third productivity habit is using my cell phone as a reward while I'm working during the day I actually put my cell phone on a charger on the other side of the room and the deal that I've made with myself is that I'm not allowed to get my phone until I'm done with whatever the task at hand is the law of the times when we're trying to get things done we're trying to be productive we constantly start distracting ourselves oh I'm hungry oh I'm thirsty oh I need to check my phone I tried to do nothing because I feel like that's my brain trying to get out of the discomfort of focus so the reason this works is because I'm moving the phone out of sight whatever you're trying to eliminate as a distraction physically make a barrier put it somewhere that is hard to reach put it somewhere that is out of sight and you will find that it is much easier to focus the fourth productivity habit is learning to create a season of notes so the reason a lot of people aren't productive is because when they're in a season that they need to grind they need to get done they need to get something off the ground whatever it may be is that they're in a season of yes without knowing or acknowledging it saying yes to dinners yes to vacations yes to friends birthdays and so most people live their life in a consistent season of yes and the easiest way to be productive is to acknowledge when you need to be in a season of know and we did this first of Alex and I when we started gym launch this is a season of no every time someone asks us to do something the answer is no and the reason for that if somebody asks why wouldn't you come to my wedding why wouldn't you go to my birthday party you say oh I'm in a season of no right now it's nothing personal I'm in a season of know now the irony is I've been a season of no for like seven years I think I took like one break for six months but that has helped me tremendously freedom is not the ability to say yes freedom is the ability to say no and what you have to understand is this doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with the people you're saying no to or the opportunities you're saying no to it means that you're saying yes to the most important one and no to anything else that's not contributing to it the fifth productivity habit I have is proactively scheduling deep work time so what happened happens usually is that when you're trying to achieve a really high goal usually you need other people to help you do it and so what happens is that everybody's trying to contribute to that goal but what you start to notice is you start to become reactive your whole day is answering other people and by the end of the day you realize that all your brain juice is gone and you haven't even moved anything forward I realized this when we started gym launch I didn't understand the importance of this because I thought to myself well I'm a servant leader I need to be there for my team but I also didn't realize that on the other side of that was that I needed to be there for the company and if the leader of a company or somebody's trying to get something off the ground can't protect their time properly to move that thing forward you have no chance of surviving if even succeeding I needed to dedicate and chunk time for deep work and I would not allow anyone to schedule anything I don't take meetings before 11. I use that time in the morning to move forward the things that move for the biggest goals I have by doing that I serve everybody else in a much higher way than I do if I'm constant only reacting to people all day if you're proactive you're focused on preparing if you're reactive you're focused on repairing and so creating that time to be proactive and prepare you eliminate all the reactivity in your life in your business and you can continue to stay focused on the thing that you're trying to achieve the sixth productivity habit is not abiding by obligatory celebrations this is probably one of the more controversial ones but I don't go to weddings I don't celebrate a lot of holidays there's Valentine's Day Thanksgiving Christmas St Patrick's Day 17 million people's birthdays there's so many things and what I've noticed is that so many people spend most of their life trying to catch up because they spend all of their time or even just two to three days a week doing those things so what I've learned is that I set my own priorities and what is important for me to celebrate I don't let Society tradition or family dictate what is I let me dictate what is I think that it's almost like creating your own North Star for me me that means I don't celebrate a lot of traditional holidays I don't have traditional obligations I believe that what I'm doing what I'm trying to achieve is much more important than those things and therefore I sacrifice those things go through your calendar and look at all the things that you attended that were obligations or you felt were obligations and then ask yourself which of those things are you still happy that you did use that to create your template going forward so you do know what things you say yes to and what things you say no to I don't attend birthday parties I don't go for drinks our goal is to eliminate the things that are not important to you maybe they're important to somebody else but they're not important to you the seventh productivity habit I have is having outcome focused interactions if I'm going to meet up with somebody I always need to know what is the outcome of this interaction what is the goal of this interaction the reason I do this is because there's so many times that people ask hey can I get a phone call for this hey can we set some meetings to the Hague and I've gone and it's just been utterly pointless there's nothing discussed there's nothing that's really afford it might be just small talk so I always am asking people what's the point of the interaction is now you don't have to say this in a way that's like tell me the goal of the conversation you want to have with me but it could be something a little softer like tell me what you would like to discuss on that phone call it's at least getting you the information so that you know is this a good use of my time if you are asked to do something that person doesn't have a reason for it or an outcome focused it's for them and not for you it's about the opportunity cost of your time and that's what successful people do you have to create rules for yourself that work for you