FILM PRO PRODUCTIVITY

      As the current year ends, you are likely promising yourself that next year is going to be the best year of your life. Now I don’t want to burst your bubble but the chances are that you will find yourself living the same life as always and according to Business Insider 80% OF NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS WILL GET BROKEN BE FEBRUARY. In this episode, though I’m going to discuss HOW TO KEEP YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS AND PLAN FOR YOUR BEST YEAR YET.   Jinny Ditzler, the author who I will be talking about a little later says, when talking of the year that has passed, that “The principal value of our mistakes and failures is our ability to learn from them”.   And it’s with that idea in mind that I present this episode as it’s in alignment with the higher level of thinking that I encouraged you to adopt in episode 1.   American author of self-help books, Melody Beattie, says that “The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. “ And that “We can help write that story by setting goals.”   In the last episode I talked about setting goals and to some extent, this show will expand upon that topic. I’ll add here that although this episode is launching at New Year, I REALISE THAT YOU MAY BE LISTENING TO IT PERHAPS HALFWAY THROUGH THE YEAR and if that’s the case just remember that You don’t need to set new goals at the break of a new year. Let your new year be tomorrow or a week from now if you feel you need a run up to it.   You don’t need to passively sail through your life. You must learn from the mistakes of the past and strategize your journey through the year ahead.   So the next chapter of your life is yet to be written and I need you now to take control and engage your higher level thinking self in helping you to shape it.   ANECDOTE   This year, on a number of levels, especially professionally, has been my best year yet. I directed fights on 6 or 7 high-level UK television shows, which amounted to 65 episodes in all, on a couple of short films and on 3 features and by utilising the Pareto Principle I made more money with less effort than I had put in on previous years. In addition to that, the short film which we’d made in Hong Kong a year or so ago has at latest count I think won 32 or 33 awards and been nominated for a further 20. I also, through the use of a 12 week year (listen to episode 11 for more on that) launched this podcast with its first 15 episodes, 16 including this one which goes out just before New Year and successfully created and launched the associated social media accounts and official website. I topped the year off by co-producing, co-directing and arranging fights on another film in Hong Kong which if the footage is anything to go by, will be quite a spectacular action piece.   With all that said and done I must admit that I veered away - last minute - from the episode which I’d been planning for New Year, which was about dealing with and recovering from burnout – GIVEN MY PREVIOUS LIST THERE I THINK YOU CAN UNDERSTAND WHERE I WAS COMING FROM ON THAT ONE – but I redirected my efforts into what you are listening to now partly because I felt my own burnt out feeling would have dragged this episode down somewhat and partly as, let’s face it, looking forward to a new and even better year is a far more appropriate and positive topic for a special episode.   THE LESSON   So all that I achieved last year came about before I’d even heard of a book entitled Your Best Year Yet by Jinny Ditzler, but I’ve discovered that it aligns nicely with my own philosophy and it’s something I am using to plan my own year ahead. Jinny Ditzler presents simple and straightforward strategies based on a structure of self-questioning and if you do her exercises, you will be one step closer to changing your life with a strategic action plan based on the data you collect from your own self-analysis. BTW I must thank my friend Gillian Dick of the Goto agency who introduced me to Jinny’s book at this point. Gillian takes great pride in telling me that she has fallen asleep listening to this show on occasion so hopefully, she’s not nodded off listening to this one yet! Thanks, Gillian, just give yourself a shake, it’s halfway through already.   Jinny Ditzler’s now fairly famous book, which I’ll link to in the show notes of course, is titled Your Best Year Yet! But it’s more fully titled as Your Best Year Yet!: Ten Questions for Making the Next Twelve Months Your Most Successful Ever - And it’s these ten questions I’m going to discuss today.   Please buy the book via AMAZON my affiliate links. Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2QRnuuk Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/2Rly5gU   The book says that if you take 3 hours out of your life to answer these 10 questions you will DISCOVER THE LIFE YOU COULD BE LIVING.   It goes on to say that answering the 10 key questions about your expectations, accomplishments and dreams for the future, will aid you in creating an effective plan for realizing your most important goals for the next 12 months.   I’m not going to pretend that in this short podcast like this I can cover the depth of detail of the book but I’d like to introduce the questions to you here and encourage you to think about them.   1. The first question the book asks is What did I accomplish over the past 12 months? What do you feel good about? Often we are so busy in our lives that we don’t take a moment to congratulate ourselves on our successes – so it asks what have you done that you can be proud of, in life, in work, in learning, in your relationships, or charitable work, or earnings, fitness or whatever? Jinny starts with a leading question about your accomplishments as this leads us in a positive direction AND POINTS OUT THAT WE RARELY THINK ABOUT WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED IN A DAY LET ALONE A YEAR. She uses a diagram called the CYCLE OF PRODUCTIVITY, which as a productivity junkie I was immediately attracted to. In this diagram she points out that missing out the acknowledgement or praise section of the cycle is a dangerous shortcut as without it, IT DEGRADES OUR MOMENTUM IN THE CYCLE OF PRODUCTIVITY AND MAKES IT MORE DIFFICULT TO START AGAIN. To take new action and start future work. Especially after a difficult year, it’s really important that you take time to RECOGNISE OUR SUCCESSES.   2. The second question is What were your biggest disappointments? James Joyce said that “Mistakes are the portals or discovery”, and I believe we have to embrace our mistakes and forgive them so that we can move on. So what dreams did you miss out on in the year past, what expectations weren’t fulfilled? Did you miss out in love? Put on weight, or even just fail to lose any? Whatever your disappointments you must list them here. Again I’ll batter on about the fact that if you put things in writing you are 80% more likely to do them SO DON’T MISS OUT THE WRITING PART IN ALL THIS. By writing these disappointments down you will clear them from your mind. Jinny describes this as pulling the weeds of disappointment and failure from your mind. Again writing them down helps you to recognise and deal with them. Letting them go puts you in a place where your self-assessment, which is the point of these ten questions, is NO LONGER PRIMARILY BASED ON FAILURE. By listing them she wants you to forgive, forget and learn from them. To bin, that excess baggage, dissipate resentment and FINALLY JUST LET GO.   3. The third question effectively asks of the previous two questions What did you learn? The book encourages us to ask, what was the secret of my success? What worked? What did I achieve? And, What didn’t work and why? What would have worked better? What’s the lesson? Taking that further Jinny asks What do I need to change in the way I operate? How can I do things differently? What advice can I give myself? Have I been honest? Etc and from that she asks us to turn the answers into personal guidelines. She lists some of her own guidelines as PUT MY FAMILY FIRST, ASK FOR HELP WHEN I NEED IT, RELAX, DO WHAT I KNOW WHAT TO DO, FACE THE MUSIC etc. ---- Even three questions in I’m hoping that you guys have started considering buying the book. This simple approach could change everything for you.   4. With Question 4 Jinny asks How do you limit yourself, and how can you stop? This is a powerful question and it’s not something I think that I’ve ever considered. It’s simple but if you’re honest in answering it then the answer will be very enlightening. She further asks here - What has it cost me to limit myself? In what ways have I benefited from it? And - Am I willing to stop limiting myself? This is quite an involved chapter so I’m not going to say much more here. Getting through these questions and assessing the answers will perhaps be the key to unlocking your special powers in the year ahead. BY NO LONGER LIMITING YOURSELF, or recognising it when we do, YOU CAN SHAPE YOUR FUTURE FAR MORE PRECISELY AND REFRAME YOUR MIND INTO A NEWER LESS LIMITED ONE. We must recognise our limiting actions and re-write them with a new paradigm that cancels out the limiting factor and allows us to move on. A simple example of this could be that your limiting paradigm is to believe that only you know what is best and the empowering paradigm may be that you succeed more quickly and achieve more with the support of others.   5. The next of the ten questions is What are my personal values? WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU, WHAT VALUES REPRESENT WHO YOU ARE? What values do you want to demonstrate, and what effect do you want to have on others? Now, this is a topic which I’m going to delve into even deeper in another episode as I think that as time goes on and as we have our ups and downs in life our values can become a little lost. If you feel that way too, then hang on in there and I’ll get an episode about that and about how we can utilise affirmations to help reshape out values somewhere down the line. SO MUCH TO DO, SO LITTLE TIME. For now, though that was question 5 of the Best Year Yet, but…   6. Question 6 asks What roles do I play in my life? (Father, wife, teacher, student, writer, consultant and so on) This question is asked so as to get an overall view of all the aspects and responsibilities of your life. If you find yourself chasing your tail on your to-do list then redefining your role may help you to gain focus there. KNOWING YOUR ROLES IN LIFE PROVIDES DIRECTION, it places who you are, your values etc – at the centre of your life. This self-awareness of role and values puts you in that driving seat that I keep battering on about.   7. Following on from this question 7 asks Which of your roles is going to be your major focus for the next 12 months? Ahhhh you were wondering the point of question 6 perhaps? Well, here it is. You are being asked to narrow down those roles and that’s not perhaps as easy as you thought. This chapter, however, presents you with various means of narrowing down the options and focusing on the one that matters. Intuition is perhaps the strongest part of this but if you have trouble deciding the book will help you out. It poses questions such as - IN WHICH ROLE DO I WANT TO HAVE A BREAKTHROUGH? If I could put one problem behind me, once and for all, what would it be? And the answers to these questions, amongst others listed there, can inform your decision process. DECIDING WHAT TO FOCUS ON INSTEAD OF TRYING TO BE ALL THINGS WILL ALLOW THAT AREA OF YOUR LIFE TO FLOURISH.   8. Question 7 is very much tied to Question 8 which asks, What are your goals for each role? Now my last episode was all about setting and achieving goals so you should be all over this one, but I’ll talk a little bit about Jinny’s angle here. She starts by pointing out that which we have discussed already –that PEOPLE WHO HAVE GOALS, ACHIEVE MORE RESULTS IN THEIR LIVES. Jinny’s system of goal setting, however, is quite rightly tied together with the values she asked about earlier. She points out that “People whose goals are aligned with their values achieve more satisfaction and fulfilment.” And that lesson is of great value here. I’ll say it again - “People whose goals are aligned with their values achieve more satisfaction and fulfilment.” That’s something that can certainly be lost as we drive our way through life or through a career. She goes on to say that “When you change from wishing and whinging to setting powerful value-driven goals, you move to a more positive and productive life” and goes on to talk about being specific in your goal setting as I suggested last week. She further pins these goals down to a time-specific deadline with not just annual goal deadlines, but monthly, bi-monthly & quarterly ones too. Jinny splits these time-specific power goals into Result goals and Process Goals. Something which I’m going to try and do myself. An example might be Result Goal: Make a feature film by this time next year. Process goal: Write a page a day for the next 90 days to get the first draft by three months from today. Check out my episode on creating Habits (I think its episode 13) to find out about more about that one. This chapter is huge so I have to move on but as I’ve said before this is a book I encourage you to buy to find out more – So without further ado, the book next asks…   9. Number 9 - What are my top 10 goals for the next year? You probably have a ton of goals and subgoals on your to-do list and Chapter 9 helps you to further narrow them down and to limit them to a top ten. A shortlist of ten you see gives you a map with which to plan your year. You can begin to reduce these goals by reviewing again the first 7 questions and reminding yourself of your new paradigm, your re-written plan to circumvent the limitations you have previously placed upon yourself. With your values and primary role or roles in mind, you will, THROUGH A PROCESS OF PRIORITIZING AND ELIMINATION, form your list and it's with that top ten that you can start to plan YOUR BEST YEAR YET! This plan will take the form of a simple page which includes guidelines derived from your earlier answers, a new paradigm to rewrite an existing limiting one, a major focus or breakthrough you are going for and your top ten goals for the year.   10. Finally, question 10 asks How can I make sure that I achieve those goals? Well, you’ve written it all down and that’s a great place to start but the book offers what it calls THE FOOLPROOF SOLUTION, and presents 3 questions to ask yourself at any time you are uncertain. Firstly you must ask yourself What’s the next step? And simply identify what actions are required and just take those steps – and the advice on moving forward once this is done is to JUST DO IT. It next asks Who can give you the support you need to achieve your goals and shift to your new empowering paradigm? There may well be someone you know that can advise you. And lastly Does the way I see the problem limit my achieving it? Removing the internal limiting factors and focusing on your new paradigm, should receive as much attention as the goals themselves. This chapter also covers pitfalls such as negative thoughts which disempower us and the negativity of others, and urges us to be aware of end goal thinking – something I’ve suffered from myself and instead reminds us to try and enjoy the process. It goes on to cover prioritizing and other topics which if you are a regular listener to the show you will already have some awareness of.   The book ends with a workshop chapter which lists the ten questions in a format in which you can easily follow and answer in the blank spaces provided. In short, this is a simple guide with powerful results and for the sake of a few quid and a few hours of your time, you will find that it can pay back quite considerably.   Jinny’s ten questions are ones that I encourage you to answer and even if you think you are doing well and don’t need the help. She says that “The coming year is just your best year so far - they can get better and better as the years go by.” Her point, of course, is that EVERY YEAR THAT COMES CAN STILL BE YOUR BEST YEAR YET. You thought last year was good? WELL WAIT TILL YOU SEE WHAT’S COMING!   SUMMING UP   Get yourself a copy of the book via the links on the show notes for this episode on filmproproductivity.com and I’ll get a bump back from the sale, which in turn will help to support the podcast. Well, I say that but to be honest it’s not happened yet – but I live in hope. Jinny is also active on some social networks so I’ll add links to those too. The book is a real keeper and you will find yourself using it again and again and if you are anything like me, buying copies of it for others too. – Michael Josephson said “Approach the New Year with the resolve to find the opportunities hidden in each new day. ” and I hope that the lessons of Your Best Year Yet will enable you to find that resolve. Everything is easier with a plan, and Jinny Ditzler’s book is one of the quickest ways of creating one.   H Jackson Brown said “DON’T LET WEEDS GROW ABOUT YOUR DREAMS” so keep that in mind as you move forward into the new year. Ending   I didn’t recap on episode 15 today as this topic wasn’t far off from that one, but I will do when I launch season 2.   As you may be aware, the previous 15 episodes were batch recorded, and I did that to ensure that when I said in episode 1 that 15 episodes would make up the preseason and season 1 that what I promised to release would absolutely happen. I like to think that I have a reputation for reliability and so if I say I am going to do something I really try to guarantee that it happens. Batching btw is an excellent tool for any similar tasks that you may want to do yourself. But what it meant though is that this is the first episode where I’ve had the opportunity to respond to the feedback of the first 15 episodes and I have to say that the response to the show has been outstanding. This is still only a fledgeling podcast but I’ve got a good strong core group of subscribers and have had in the region of 30-40 messages of support since launch. From experienced screenwriters and filmmakers to just people who love the content, the response has been excellent, which is good because if it wasn’t I probably would have thrown in the towel. Creating these shows is a hell of an undertaking as it’s expensive to maintain in both cash and time terms.   I’ve been especially pleased to hear that the show has pushed several filmmakers on to shoot and complete their own films too with 3 films completed from what I hear due to inspiration is drawn from Film Pro Productivity. That’s not something I ever thought would happen so I’m really pleased to hear about that sort of thing. Please continue to interact with me on the social networking pages or through the official website as hearing from you really does, as Clint Eastwood is fond of saying, make my day.   On that note I have a plan for the next season with topics such as Dealing with Stress, why you shouldn’t collaborate, manipulators and other toxic people and drive but if you have a particular subject that you’d like me to cover, if you are struggling again and again with the same problem and don’t know how to solve it please do get in touch and tell me all about it. I will do my best to cover the topic in a future episode. I’ve only had two speak pipe messages since launch but why not give it a try and leave me an up to 90-second audio message on Film Pro Productivity dot com’s Contact page.   Finally, I want to plug the podcast of fellow filmmaker Ian O’Neill which is called How They Did It Filmmaking. In his show, Ian interviews awesome filmmaker guests in a casual and engaging format which I just love. Ian launched his show perhaps two or three weeks before I did and I see him as a kindred spirit in this creative podcasting world. He even interviews me along the way so obviously, that’s a particularly gripping episode! You can subscribe to his show on all the usual podcasting apps or catch him on twitter @Hfilmmaking or @ianwrites and you can also track him down on Facebook @howtheydiditpodcast and Instagram @howtheydiditfilmmaking if you prefer those platforms.   You may have noticed that I’m letting episodes sit now at round about the 20-minute mark. That’s a deliberate change which I’ve made to the original format. I found ten minutes just too tight to get the lessons across, and unlike in film where we so often tighten up the edit, I have come to the conclusion that when editing a podcast, just a few beats more silence after points have been made ALLOWS THE LISTENER TO FULLY UNDERSTAND AND PROCESS THE INFORMATION. So I speak a little slower, ramble a little more and pause on occasion, but it all adds to a more engaging format and that’s what really matters in the end.   I’ll finish today’s special episode with a quote from the great poet Alfred Tennyson who said “Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’…”   Thanks once again for giving me your time and Please - Take control of your own destiny, Enjoy planning your own BEST YEAR YET, keep on shootin’ and join me once again for season two, sometime in late February, on Film Pro Productivity.   · The music you are listening to right now is Adventures by A Himitsu · You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website at filmproproductivity.com · And subscribe on the podcast app of your choice on android and apple devices · You can follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @filmproprodutivity or catch my personal accounts on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director · Please support the show by subscribing, leaving an AWESOME review especially on iTunes and by spreading the word. If you can get just one more person to listen it would make a huge difference.   Thanks: A Himitsu Image: Main Photographs were taken on the Giordano UK shoot by Bryan Larkin. Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsu https://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A Sources: https://www.facebook.com/jinny.ditzler https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/1-habit-inspiring-leader-jinny-ditzler https://blog.12min.com/your-best-year-yet-summary/ https://theinvisiblementor.com/your-best-year-yet-by-jinny-ditzler-10-tough-questions-to-ask-yourself/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jinnysditzler?trk=author_mini-profile_title https://twitter.com/Jinny_S_Ditzler https://www.businessinsider.com/new-years-resolutions-courses-2016-12?r=UK&IR=T

    In this, the final episode of season 1, I’ll be talking about one of the most powerful weapons in the productivity-ists arsenal GOAL SETTING.   Before I go into that though, last week’s episode introduced 5 free productivity apps which I do encourage you to try. I chose to highlight 5 but I could probably have found 25 if I’d put my mind to it. For every great productivity app though there are 100 more that will steal your time and slow you down and distract you, and even with productivity apps you can get too much of a good thing. One of the very best productivity tips I can offer is to switch your phone off every now and again. Try and form the habit (listen to episode 13 for advice on that one) of restricting your phone use for an hour before you go to bed and an hour after you wake up. This will allow you to focus on all the things you should be doing instead of checking Facebook, or twitter, or getting lost in clickbait, watching YouTube vidoes or opening up your work email. The American motivational speaker Daymond John believes that “the last thing I read at night will likely manifest when I'm sleeping. You become what you think about the most.” Unquote… So take a bit of time out to relax and enjoy life while you can, avoid the phone at night. If you banish the phone form your bedroom in fact you’ll sleep better as a result. Oh and if you use your phone as an alarm, as I often do myself, putting it in another room will give you very good reason to get out of bed sharpish the next morning.   Now with Season 2 coming up soon, I’m very interested in including your thoughts and comments within it. I’d love to hear what productivity techniques you are adopting or what matters that you are struggling with out there. You can send me your thoughts via the contact page at filmproproductivity.com or by catching me on Twitter @filmproprodpod.   Book Recommendation: Your Best Year Yet! A Proven Method for Making the Next 12 Months Your Most Successful Ever.   This book has come very highly recommended. If you'd like to support the copy please purchase through one of my Amazon affiliate links :-)   US: https://amzn.to/2EwGhWr UK: https://amzn.to/2IWauwC   ANECTDOTE Mark Twain wrote that: “To live a fulfilled life, we need to keep creating the "what is next", of our lives. Without dreams and goals there is no living, only merely existing, and that is not why we are here.” Unquote. When I first set out to create this podcast and I know I’ve referred to it before here - but I FAILED. I would say I failed because I was unspecific and uncertain in what I wanted to do. More recently though I dusted myself down and I tried again, and I did a few things differently.   Firstly - I knew EXACTLY WHAT SORT OF PODCAST I WANTED TO MAKE, and…   Secondly - I GAVE MYSELF A DEADLINE, and I have to say that date that you know is looming ever closer, really puts a rocket up your backside when it comes to drive.   Next - When I assessed the goal I was trying to achieve I created a tactical action plan to achieve it, and I stuck to it.   And this endeavour has not been easy at all. It’s been far more costly than I’d thought possible, the learning curve has been sharper than I’d imagined and, and it’s taken far more time too. Researching and recording a single episode doesn’t take just a few hours – it takes days… but I did it anyway.   YES - This is a vastly time-consuming thing for me, but the last main reason that I think that I have succeeded is because – well - I WANT TO - because I absolutely believe that it WILL HELP creatives, filmmakers, and other film professionals to move toward a BETTER, HAPPIER LIFE, and that in turn gives me great satisfaction.   THE LESSON   Have you thought about what you want to be doing in five years' time? Are you clear about what your main objective at work is at the moment? Do you know what you want to have achieved by the end of today? The world renowned motivational speaker and life coach Tony Robbins says that “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” – I’ve left the topic of goal setting till now as it is such an important part of the productivity landscape that it deserves its place in the final episode of the series. Goals are essential, and whether they are large or small, daily, weekly, hourly or for life - without them we tend to meander along and settle for where we are.   With New Year just around the corner, and a whole load of productivity lessons behind us, I figured this would be the ideal time to delve into the topic.   I covered it to some extent in episode 11, THE TWELVE WEEK YEAR, but let’s look a little bit closer.   The SMART acronym which is also known as the 5 GOLDEN RULES OF GOAL SETTING is where we will begin. SMART translates to: · SPECIFIC. · MEASURABLE. · ATTAINABLE. · RELEVANT. · TIME BOUND.   By SPECIFIC we of course mean that your goals must be clear and well defined. Without a precise direction to travel in, you will get lost trying to pin down your vague, unspecific and ever changing goals - and that will simply mislead you and short circuit your endeavour. By defining precisely where you want to end up, you have much more realistic chance of getting there. An example of a specific goal might be, to write a first draft of your new film by a date exactly 6 weeks from today. That goal in turn could be part of a larger specific life goal.   And your goals MUST also be MEASURABLE. Unless you are precise about each element of the goal, and include dates, potential costs etc then you will find it difficult to measure the degree of your success. If your goal is simply defined as "To lose weight" how will you know when you have been successful? Without a way to measure your success you miss out on the opportunity to celebrate your win.   The SMART acronym says that you MUST also set ATTAINABLE Goals. In Episode 13 I talked about Stephen Guises MINI HABITS. In that system he aims to ensure that the habits you set out to create are achievable as the damage caused by failure, can be very destructive to your will power – your willingness to try again. But Stephen Guise was talking about HABITS and that’s NOT what this episode is about. We are talking about GOALS – And although you can certainly aim small and achieve the little wins, the goals I encourage you to consider should make you want to "raise the bar" and aim for greatness. I think I have probably use this Peter Drucker quote before but it’s a very important point - He said that “Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.” I mention this as these goals MUST be RELEVANT to the direction YOU WANT YOUR LIFE AND CAREER TO TAKE. You simply cannot allow yourself to get distracted by the unimportant. You must engage your Higher Level Thinking and narrow down your focus. If you don’t you will waste your time and mental energy on the unimportant. As Bruce Lee once said - “‎The SUCCESSFUL WARRIOR is the AVERAGE MAN, with LASER-LIKE FOCUS.” Finally your goals must be TIME ORIENTED. So set a deadline for the specific goal: for next week, in three months, or six months. Setting an end point for the goal gives you a clear target to achieve. Remember Parkinson’s Law though - "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion". – Make your time frames realistic but don’t let them be too flabby. Push yourself a little. When you are working on a deadline, your sense of urgency increases and that gives you drive.   Put it in WRITING   I’ll follow up the SMART system by urging you to write your goals down. MINDTOOLS.com makes this point a follows. “The physical act of writing down a goal makes it real and tangible. You have no excuse for forgetting about it.” As you write, Mindtools tells you to use the word "will" instead of "would like to" or "might." For example, "I will produce the pilot episode of my next series by the 1st of February next year” not "I would like to produce the pilot episode of my next series by the 1st of February next year " The first goal statement has power and you can "see" yourself shooting that episode, the second lacks passion and gives you an excuse if you get sidetracked.”   They also suggest that you write yourself a TO-DO LIST that has your goals written at the top of it. You can do that in the TO-DOIST app I mentioned last week btw. You can create titles for each list, and they can be your goals.   I’d add to this that when you set goals for yourself, it is important that they motivate you, that they are important to you, and that there is some value to you in achieving them. If you have no interest in the outcome then the chances of you putting in the work to achieve these goals are very low. As Elon Musk said though, “If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.” Can I suggest too that you build in reminders to keep yourself on track, and make regular check-ins to review your goals – put them in your diary – I have them in my Google calendar app and they pop up every 6 months. Sometimes perhaps through changes in circumstance you may even alter your long term goals along the way – that’s perfectly fine – just be sure to re-define the new goals and keep on moving. Your GREATER GOAL may remain similar over the long term, but your strategic action plan to achieve it might change significantly. That’s just life. It’s OK.   SUMMING UP   I hope that this episode has been helpful because without goals you will undoubtedly lack focus and direction.   I’d now like you to consider your GREATER LIFE GOALS. These are the larger outcomes you will achieve when you dedicate YOUR TIME and YOUR THOUGHTS and YOUR PASSION to reach them.   Tony Robbins sets out three steps to setting these larger goals. You may want to re-listen to this section when you aren’t busy, and have a pen in hand.   · In Step 1 he says: Take 6 minutes and brainstorm a list of anything you’d like to achieve, create, do, have, give and/or experience in the next 20 years. Write as many things down as fast as you can in this time. · In Step 2 he asks you to go back through your list and write 1, 3, 5, 10 or 20 years next to each goal to indicate how long it will take to achieve them. You have a minute and a half to get this done, so be quick and go with your gut. · In Step 3 he asks you to then review your list. Choose your top four 1-year goals. These are goals that make you really excited. Write a paragraph for each goal explaining why you will absolutely achieve this goal within the next 12 months. This should take you about 15-20 minutes total.   Now, if you have the chance to share what you’ve written down with a friend, family member or other person you trust, do so. If not, just say them out loud to yourself. Tony Robbins is at the top of his game in this field and it’s for good reason - I’ll put some links to him in the show notes.   Now achieving these goals won’t always be easy - Booker T. Washington said that “You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you have to overcome to reach your goals.” So things will get tough - but goal setting will allow you to navigate the correct path and provide you with a benchmark for determining whether you are actually getting there. I’ll finish up now with the words of CS LEWIS “You are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream.” Having goals is for everyone, it’s not just a game for the young. In whatever path you take and whatever goal you set out to conquer I wish you well.   CALL TO ACTION   So that is now the end of series 1. I encourage you to look back over the previous episodes and see if there’s anything that you missed. This season has been kinda structured to help those that are feeling overwhelmed in their life and work, and much of it has been aimed at stemming the flow of lost time and energy. In episode 1, I introduced the concept of HIGH LEVEL THINKING, and the principle of working ON your life and career at the same time that you find yourself living and working IN it. By now, I hope that this concept has had a bit of an impact on you and that you have been able to, at least in part, take back control of your life.   In season 2, I’ll continue to introduce even more productivity topics. I’ve got a good idea of where I’m heading with it, but I’d love to include YOUR thoughts and comments within it. If you want to help, please let me know what you are struggling with by leaving short voicemail message on the speakpipe recorder on the filmproproductivity.com contact page. You can always send a written message but if you leave a voicemail I may include it in future episodes.   ENDING   I feel that before I go I should explain perhaps why I’ve chosen the seasonal format. That fact is that in order for me to avoid my own OVERWHELM, and to allow me to go and SHOOT my OWN new CREATIVE PROJECTS, I just can’t commit to delivering an episode of this show every week of the year.   And it’s a choice I made before I started. My SPARE time, my days off between paid fight contracts or the stolen hours on shoot days when I find myself hanging about waiting to be called to set, when I’ not writing risk assessments, is currently dedicated to researching and writing these episodes. I now HAVE to commit these lumps of spare time to a DIFFERENT creative project.   As if I did say yes to releasing a new episode EVERY week, I’d be saying NO many other opportunities.   But don’t worry – I will be back. I will return in just a few months with a new 12 episode season.   If YOU would like to SUPPORT this podcast, then please buy from one of my AMAZON AFFILIATE LINKS listed in the film pro productivity.com show notes. I think the way it works is that you don’t have to actually buy what I suggest, but if you go to Amazon through my links and buy anything at all, I get a supportive bump for directing you there.   You can even hit me up using the DONATE button on the website too. It’s at the bottom of each page.   Just as important though, I’d like you to keep telling people that the podcast exists, keep leaving awesome reviews and generally spread the word. Knowing that this podcast is helping people is perhaps the greatest reward of all.   For now though - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’ and join me next season on Film Pro Productivity.   · The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu · You can view the show notes for this episode at filmproproductivity.com/epsiode15 · Please follow me on Twitter @fight_director or follow the show @filmproprodpod · Finally I’d like to thank fellow podcaster Stephen Rowan, of THE STEPHEN ROWAN SHOW who produced the 1st two episodes for his knowledge and advice in guiding me to a better podcast. I’d also like to thank The DAVE BULLIS PODCAST, PODCRAFT, SCHOOL OF PODCASTING, The NO FILM SCHOOL PODCAST, The FILMMAKERS PODCAST, and INDIE FILM HUSTLE for the inspiration. · Thanks for supporting the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review. Sources: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_90.htm https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/287870 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zLtfzsaP58 https://www.mindtools.com/page6.html

In this episode I will present 5 awesome apps that you should download to boost your productivity.   Last week’s episode was all about habits and habit forming. One of the reasons that I started this podcast was to get back into the HABIT of creating again. It took drive, it took focus and it took vision, but once I got into the swing of it, I just kept on going and here we are. You wouldn’t be listening to this now if it wasn’t for the power of habit, so if you have a NEW HABIT YOU WANT TO FORM or a BAD HABIT YOU WANT TO BREAK and you missed that show - do check it out.   Every episode of the show can be accessed directly via filmproproductivity.com or you can find it on any number of podcasting apps out there.   Feel free to get in touch and let me know how you are getting on, or if you have a moment, go to the contact page and let me know what you are struggling with. I’m very interested in what productivity techniques you are adopting or what matters you are struggling with, whether industry wise or personally, so that I can tailor future episodes to tackle them.   THE LESSON   The format this week is a little bit different as I want to offer you suggestions on productivity apps which you can use to make your day to day life and work just a little bit easier. I’m not sponsored by any of these apps, at least not yet – anyone want to sponsor me? These are just the ones that I genuinely find useful and that I actually use. Sadly I’ve not discovered any app to research and create podcast episodes, which I still do it one word at a time, but luckily there are a few awesome and mostly FREE apps out there that will make our lives easier along the way.   I’ll put links to the apps that I talk about in the show notes on the website so don’t panic, you can always grab them there. I’ll give the exact address at the end of the episode. Peter Drucker the American-Austrian educator said “Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.” GOOGLE CALENDAR: https://www.google.com/calendar   And one of the greatest apps out there for managing time, in my opinion, is GOOGLE CALENDAR. It’s free, it works cross platform on PC and apple desktop, and on android and apple devices. I use it every single day, probably 10 times a day or more.   I use Google Calendar for all of my work bookings, all of my travel arrangements for jobs and all of my important deadlines and meetings. I stay on top of it and if a date moves and as soon as I get that information and I login and make the change.   I have several calendars for several email addresses. And they all can come up on the app simultaneously or you can toggle through them. For example you could have a calendar for work, which I have for my fight directing work, a calendar for family, for picking up kids and getting them to swimming lessons, dentist appointments or whatever and a calendar perhaps for your own projects.   You can even donate different colours to each calendar so you can tell at a glance what is what.   Google calendar also sends you reminders. There are reminders on mine that tell me 24 hours before something is going to happen and again 30 minutes before.   In order to get the best from Google Calendar you have to keep it updated, but it’s kinda like my old Filofax, which I updated religiously, and if you do commit to using it, it will make your life easier. Not having to retain the details every single date and time and place you have to be makes this app invaluable. Whatever you can say in a meeting, you can put in an email. If I have questions, I'll tell you via email. - Mark Cuban Following on from that, my second free productivity resource is Gmail. Yes Gmail. I get swamped by emails on my fightdirector.com address. Most things come through that, but when I set up a new project, like this podcast for example, before I do anything else, I set up a Gmail account.   GMAIL: https://www.google.com/gmail/   And why is that good for productivity? Because everything I have set up for this podcast is in the same place. My podbean account, my itunes account, my spotify, stitcher, blubrry, envato, speakpipe, mailchimp, twitter – everything to do with THIS PODCAST goes through my filmproproductivity@gmail address. And anything that doesn’t, there’s a few that got tied to my fightdirector account as I had a pre-existing relationship with them like wix - I just forward those to the podcast Gmail account so they are there too. So if I need anything to do with this podcast, I go to the gmail account, login and it’s there. I don’t have to hunt and hunt in my main address. It just makes everything easy. I do it for films too, and when I finish that film and no longer need it and when emails to that account become few and far between, I set up a forwarder in the gmail settings and it send any new emails to another kinda catchall address that I’ve set up. And if anything comes to these email addresses I get a nod that it’s there through my phone - Yeh, Gmail is my second awesome productivity app, and if you are clever about how to use it, it will save a lot of headaches   Next on my list, and it’s another app I use every single day is DROPBOX. I have all of my important – oh hold on – that’s my calendar app telling me that my friend Alasdair is picking me up in 30 minutes – see I told you it was good – where was I yes, DROPBOX is where I have all of my current work folders, all of my recent documents and also a few shared folders.   DROPBOX: https://www.dropbox.com   You get your first 2.5gb for free when you sign up and for some of you that may be enough, but I’ve actually got my free allotment up to 21.2 Gb by recommending friends and taking on various free offers that came up along the way. You can of course pay for it but I’ve not had to yet. I actually also use the other free app GOOGLE DRIVE which is similar to dropbox but different for overspill items I might need. With it you get 15gb free at first so you may prefer it.   Dropbox though is my weapon of choice as its simple I’m used to it and I like it’s format. I mainly use it on desktop when writing fight risk assessments but I also at least once a day access it through my phone app.   If I go into it now, I have a few random images and PDF’s dotting about, but I organise it quite specifically and have folders for every film and show that I work on. For example I have a folder for BBC Scotland’s River City which contains all of my risk assessments for the previous season and the current one. Previous seasons I’ve moved to backup folders in he google drive as I don’t need instant access to them. Last season has 20 episodes which contained fights, and so far this season has 9 episodes - each with it’s own sub folder which contains PDF’s of the scenes and my risk assessments for them in word format. I can access these anywhere and make alterations if necessary.   As I have set this up to view by date I have the podcast folder, with 15 sub folders containing notes and scripts etc for each episode, plus folders for music and show notes and marketing etc - all easily accessible and up to date. I have a folder for the TV show Shetland which I was shooting this week and last and a folder for Bannan which I shot this week and continue on next week, and folders for my feature films in development in Hong Kong with friend and colleague Bryan Larkin as well as in development for myself. It’s a very lively place for my very lively schedule. It’s not unusual for me to be shooting maybe 5 or 6 productions in any one month and dropbox in combination with the other free apps here keeps me on top of it all.   I have two shared folders here too. One is a family album created by my niece who is researching the family history and another which is created and updated by River City production as that is a very regular gig. In that folder my line manager updates a fight schedule and every time a date moves, or disappears or a script update is made that might affect me, rather than emailing me or calling me about it, I get an update via dropbox. It’s a very efficient system.   Dropbox, really is an essential productivity tool as far as I’m concerned. Self help author ― Patti Digh says “Sometimes our STOP-DOING list needs to be bigger than our TO-DO list.” That’s another quote I can’t help but agree with. Check out last week’s habit podcast for more advice on that or episode 2 which talks about the power of saying NO.   The quote does also have relevance to this list though as next up I suggest you try the free productivity app TO-DOIST – “To do – ist”   TODOIST: https://todoist.com/   I discovered recently that you can tie this app, even the free version, into Google Calendar and that makes it all the more amazing. TODO-IST is a to do list organiser and reminder app.   If you have a list of things to do, grab this app and type them up. You can create separate lists within it based on your lists topics. What to do ist does though is not just hold onto your list, and allow you to cross things of fthat you complete, but it will remind you every day of what is still to be done. That daily reminder helps you to maintain the drive and will power required to complete them. For that reason and because I’ve been using it now for about 2 years, TODO-IST is number 4 on this list. Mrs Beeton who wrote The Book Of Household Management famously said that there should be “A place for everything, and everything in its place” So with that in mind the final App that I will recommend today is POCKET. It’s yet another free app which is available, like everything else on this list, across all platforms and its purpose, as Mrs Beeton says, is to give you a place for everything – everything on the web that you want to save and view later that is…   POCKET: https://getpocket.com   I use it every day when saving web pages, articles and YouTube vids that I’d like to read later or that might be useful for this podcast. I still do favourite and bookmark pages using browsers, but if it’s a quick read that I don’t want to lose, I drop it into pocket, where later on I can easily find it and view on any device without searching. You can install Pocket on your mobile device or add it as an extension to Google chrome, which is my recommended browser incidentally – So - if there’s anything you see that you don’t have the time or the inclination to read then and there, you can simply save it to Pocket. If installed, it comes up in an option for you to save to in android and apple devices, and it’s a clickable button on the toolbar of Google chrome. I know there are similar apps around but for me the standalone Pocket app which is fast and simple and free, tops the list.   SUMMING UP Martha Stewart said that “Life is too complicated not to be orderly.” …and these 5 apps will definitely make your life more orderly and productive if you use them. They are tried and tested and if you are willing to embrace them you are going to love them. That said, please remember that many apps are as bad for your productivity as these ones are good. As you try out some of these suggestions, perhaps you should think about losing some of the apps on your phone that really disrupt your productivity, or at the very least take them off your front page so that you have to hunt for them in the app menus instead. Make them a little less easy to access and perhaps you’ll eventually stop using them altogether.   I’ll have to do another one of these episodes as choosing the ones to talk about here has been really difficult. There are desktop extensions which are also awesome but I’ll leave all that for season 2.   I feel I should put a full stop on all this with a quote, and although the episode is a bit more factual than inspirational today I’ve got one that I rather like. It’s another by Peter Drucker, who said “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” He also said that “Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.” So I’ll leave you with that.   CALL TO ACTION   A link to every App that I’ve talk about here, and a full transcript of this episode is available at filmproproductivity.com/home/episode14   Go there, try them out and see how they work for you. They’re all free but some have some in app purchases which can be used to expand their capabilities. I however only use the free versions.   ENDING   Next week’s episode, episode 15, will be the final show of season 1, and I’ll be discussing the topic of setting and achieving goals.   Until then, take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’ and join me next time on Film Pro Productivity.   · The podcast music is Adventures by A Himitsu. · You can view the show notes for this episode at filmproproductivity.com · If you’re struggling with something you think I can help with or would like to tell me how you are getting on then please get in touch via the contact page on the website. Alternately you can get me on Twitter @fight_director or follow the show @filmproprodpod · Please support this podcast by subscribing, leaving an AWESOME review and spreading the word. If you can get just one new person to tune in I’d really appreciate it.

    In this episode I will be discussing the topic of habit-forming and how forming new habits and, just as important, breaking old ones - can move you into a better life, a stronger career and a happier place in general.   In the last episode though I was keen to get into and raise your awareness of time wasters as I’ve been tripping over them for years – and they can really mess with your productivity if you let them.   I’ve interacted with more than my fair share of time-wasting people over the years – quite often someone invites me into their project as a filmmaker/ collaborator, which if I agree to do, often leaves me to pick up and drive their project to completion as they sit in the passenger seat. It’s not true of everyone that asks me to join them, but it’s freeloaders like that who waste your time and distract you from your own goals and vision –   You need to find truly brilliant people to work and collaborate with, and avoid having to carry someone else’s project forwards because they don’t have a clear vision of where they are going. That sort of time waster can take years off you and in the end walk away with the project as if you were really only a small contributor to it.   I’ve gotten better at dodging that particular scenario nowadays as I’m more and more aware of how little time I actually have free – and no matter what age you are - time wasters need to be avoided. If you missed the episode then check it out. And if you can suggest any more time waster archetypes please drop me a line at filmproproductivity.com   THE LESSON   Today, I will be tackling the topic of habit forming. Sean Covey the American businessman and author of several books on this topic states that “We become what we repeatedly do.” But to be fair, he stole that from Aristotle who more fully stated that “We are what we repeatedly do. So excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” Somewhere along the way, I became aware that I had gotten out of the habit of doing something I really loved. READING. I hadn’t picked up a book, to read anything purely for fun, in years. I decided that reading was something I had to start again. So I did - but I had to put a bit of work in to get back into the habit.   At first I’d pick up a book and read one or two pages a night, and I found it really quite tiring, and I struggled.   So I changed my tack. I decided to re-read books I’d already read when I was younger, which were predominantly fantasy novels as it happens but good for getting lost in and introducing new wider worlds and situations. So I picked up JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit. It wasn’t quite what I remembered but I got through it much more quickly. Reading more like 10 or 15 pages a night, till just a couple of weeks later it was done. I picked up a heftier endeavour, but one I’d read before and I’d loved the films which had been made more recently. I re-read LORD OF THE RINGS and it pulled me in. I was up nearer 30 to 40 pages a night. Then I moved on to Game Of Thrones - I hadn’t read those before but I’d been watching the series and that made it a little easier for me to follow the names and locations - I battered through those books in a couple of months and they were brilliant by the way despite the huge page count. Following that I tried the Harry Potter books which again I’d not read, but I’d seen the films and this meant again that I didn’t have to work too hard. By that time, a good 6 months after I’d struggled with one or two page of reading a night, I was in the habit of reading between 20 and 50 pages a day, not just at night when I was tired, but during the day in stolen moments too and the habit of reading was set.   I now read every day, I make room for it and I enjoy it. It’s inspiring and engrossing and relaxing and all the things it used to be when I was younger. It’s now an established habit for me to read and so I do. I don’t think about it, I just do it. You too can form a habit with a little bit of effort and a little bit of commitment.   THE LESSON The nineteenth century author William Makepeace Thackeray wrote that “Successful people aren’t born that way. They become successful by establishing the habit of doing things that unsuccessful people don’t like to do.” We can use habit forming systems to build strong consciously formed habits of any type and you have to start by being quite specific in what habit you are trying to form. Have a think about what habits you’d like to break or replace or form.   How about a fitness habit like Walking every day - you might solve that by parking further away from where you work and walking in the last ½ mile, and ½ mile back, or you might want to change a mental habit like Stopping Yourself from being negative, which would start by increasing your awareness of when you are negative perhaps, then realising it and acknowledging it each time. You might want to form a habit to relieve stress, which could be something simple like sitting outside in the park for 5 minutes every day and letting your mind wander, or a personal habit –one I’m trying to break is to not have a biscuit or a cake with every coffee that I drink. I’ve gotten into the habit of having a coffee and a… (fill in blank space with cake type here) Now I’m putting effort into just having the coffee, or sometimes exchanging coffee and a cake for a bottle of water and a piece of fruit… The productivity habit I’ve put work into is waking early, and I’ve managed it. Strange shooting schedules have done some real damage to that endeavour in the last few weeks but I’m getting back on that bus and I find it very useful. I think that one deserves it’s own episode though so I’ll leave it for season 2.   GETTING STARTED   The most important part of any new habit is getting started — not just starting on day one of the habit, as that’s the easy day, but starting each and every day to form that habit and making it stick. Consistency makes the habit – without consistency there is no habit.   I think where most people fall down in this scenario, as time goes on, is in the area of MOTIVATION. Your will power can be rapidly depleted whilst trying to build new habits but there are ways around this. Former Olympic athlete Jim Ryun said that “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” That’s a very clear statement of this problem, and it leads us in the right direction. I’ll say it again - “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” Habit forming does require motivation at first but eventually that inner drive is replaced by routine, and when that routine becomes set it frees your motivation - YOUR WILL POWER which is a limited resource to be placed elsewhere.   MINI HABITS   Please support the show by purchasing a copy of this book through one of my Amazon Affiliate links. I get a small cut of anything bought from Amazon, via one of my links.   UK: https://amzn.to/2A937iy US: https://amzn.to/2CffXwV   You’ll recognise the name Steven Guise from an earlier episode. He wrote the book how to be an imperfectionist, but he also wrote another book called MINI HABITS which I believe in absolutely and which I’ll detail a little of here. The sub title of mini habits is SMALLER HABITS / BIGGER RESULTS, which is the big message for me.   I talked briefly on this topic on my episode on 4 HACKS TO GET STUFF DONE, what was that? Episode 9? With the example of the two minute rule. On that show I posed the question, Can all of your goals be accomplished in less than two minutes? No, but every goal can be STARTED in 2 minutes or less. And small accomplishments like this start to become a habit after a time…   STEVEN GUISE’s book MINI HABITS, makes habit forming easy, by making the habits that you want to form, as he calls them - STUPID SMALL. He sets out to banish the days of unreachable goals and perpetual disappointment. As always I highly recommend you read the books I refer to here and this one will be linked to in the show notes for you. It’s a quick read and it’s just brilliant.   Steven’s strategy in creating habits is to make them so simple, so small so easily achievable that it is almost easier to do them than not to.   He says that “Doing a little bit is infinitely bigger and better than doing nothing (mathematically and practically speaking)”. He says that   “Doing a little bit every day has a greater impact than doing a lot on one day”. To him the system is more important than the goal… He says that “We’re quick to blame ourselves for lack of progress, but slow to blame our strategies” and his strategies are designed to support your self-belief. He says that “When you add good habits into your life, it illuminates another possible path, restores your confidence, and gives you hope”. And I believe in that one so much I created this episode to back it up! Steve Guise’s MINI HABITS don’t require a load of willpower. They are achievable and through them you can form the habit of what you want to do, and improve on it later. For example lets say you want to do 100 push ups a day. That’s a fast road to disappointment. What if that goal was one push up a day though? Could you do that? Of course you could. And if you do one, just maybe you’ll say - That wasn’t so bad. I’ll just do another. And every day you just aim for one. In a couple of weeks it wouldn’t be surprising if you found you were sneaking in a dozen push ups or more. In 30 days (and the number will become relevant later) but in 30 days maybe you’re doing 20 a day, but you’re only trying to get one done, and 100 a day isn’t in the picture - yet. Once your habit is formed, you can build on it. In a years’ time, or in six months even, I suspect you might be doing those 100 pushups a day, and you’ll have got there by thinking tactically and aiming for the stupid small. SMALLER HABITS / BIGGER RESULTS. Make the goal, the habit forming goal, so small that you literally cannot fail. Somewhere along the line you see, NEWTON’S 1st LAW has come into play. An object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity… The hard part of that law is moving from rest to motion. The mini habit, the mini goal, gets you rolling – it moves you into motion and once you start you can start doing bonus stuff like that extra push up, or more and as the rolling continues you achieve the bigger goals too . Steven has 8 mini habit rules.   And they are:   1. Never, Ever Cheat 2. Be Happy With All Progress 3. Reward Yourself Often, Especially After a Mini Habit 4. Stay Level-headed 5. If You Feel Strong Resistance, Back Off & Go Smaller 6. Remind Yourself How Easy This Is 7. Never Think A Step Is Too Small 8. Put Extra Energy and Ambition Toward Bonus Reps, Not A Bigger Requirement   The 30 DAYS I mentioned a minute ago is relevant as everything I’ve read about HABIT FORMING says that you must commit to Thirty Days because THIRTY DAYS - Three to four weeks is all the time you need to make a habit AUTOMATIC. If you can make it through the initial conditioning phase, it becomes much easier to sustain. So choose a month to create and establish a habit of your choice.   What happens when you pass that point is that psychologically YOU CREATE A CHAIN GOING THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO BREAK, and that will add a little drive to your habit that can’t do any harm. Benjamin Franklin said that “It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.” and I can’t help but agree. From my own experience I’ve noticed that BREAKING BAD HABITS is far more difficult than FORMING NEW ONES, so you could think making of an exchange instead of just forming new habits. It’s like I was saying earlier, I can exchange my coffee and a cake habit for water and a piece of fruit habit. I could exchange a sweety addiction, that’s candy for all you non Scots that are tuning in - but I can exchange candy for fruit. When I want a piece of candy I go instead to the fruit bowl. This exchange is made far easier by not having any candy in the house of course.   Once you’ve established your habits whatever they may be, things will start to run on autopilot and with a small amount of initial discipline, you can create a new habit that requires little effort to maintain.   A few final suggestions I must make are   1. Write it Down – Writing your resolution is important. Writing makes your ideas more clear and focuses you on your end result and the act of doing so, as I mentioned in the 12 week year episode makes it 80% more likely that you will do it! No kidding. Science says so – and you know science – it knows stuff! 2. Consistency is critical if you want to make a habit stick. If you want to get into the habit of reading again, like I did. Read a little every day. Picking a book up a couple of times a week really won’t cut it. Try also reading at the same time, and in the same place for your thirty days. I read in bed at night, you may prefer the morning or at lunch. Whatever works for you. 3. A couple of weeks into your habit forming commitment you might get lost or distracted. Post reminders about it around you. Next week I’ll talk about some apps that will help with this. 4. My final tip - Remove Temptation – throw out the cigarettes – flush them down the loo, don’t stash a packet somewhere close at hand, it will only make you fail. Take the Candy and give it away or throw it in the bin. Remove the distracting app form your phone. Give yourself the best chance possible to succeed so you won’t need to struggle with your willpower later.   SUMMING UP “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.” ―Aristotle With my schedule up and down like a yo-yo and almost daily shifts to my get up time and return home time due to strange working hours, some of my good habits, specifically in the area of health and fitness, have taken a bit of a beating lately and have begun to slip. With this episode I’m going to get back on track with that, set brand new habits for myself and STICK TO THEM. Frank Hall Crane says that “Habits are safer than rules; you don’t have to watch them. And you don’t have to keep them either. They keep you.” One of the reasons that I started this podcast was to get back into the habit of creating. Here I sit with a 15 episode season starting in 4 days and the habit of creating is strong. It took drive, it took focus and it took vision, but once I got into the swing of it, I just kept on going and I’ve succeeded. You wouldn’t be listening to this now if it wasn’t for the power of habit.   I urge you now to create habits that will bring you closer to your goals. Don’t try to change just to make other people happy or because you feel pressure to change from some other quarter. If you want it, know why you are doing it and believe in the positive change that your efforts can bring about you will succeed...   In the words of ― GANDHI Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values, Your values become your destiny.   CALL TO ACTION   Thanks again for listening –   At the end of each episode I like to remind you that you are the master of your own destiny and by that I mean that you can take control. If you want to kill a bad habit, and replace it with a new one then do it. That’s this week’s call to action.   You probably know already what habit you want to kill or introduce. When this episode finishes, just after you’ve left an awesome review on iTunes or wherever, ha! Write down the habit you want to form. Block out the next 30 days in your calendar, and decide on a stupid small step that you can take on each of those 30 days to form the habit. Got it?   ENDING   In next week’s episode I’m going to introduce 10 POWERFUL APPS FOR APPLE AND ANDROID that you should GRAB to BOOST YOUR PRODUCTIVITY.   But until then, GOOD LUCK IN THE WEEK AHEAD. Take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’ and join me next time on Film Pro Productivity.   · The podcast music is Adventures by A Himitsu. · You can view the show notes for this episode at filmproproductivity.com · If you’re struggling with something you think I can help with or would like to tell me how you are getting on then please get in touch via the contact page on the website. Alternately you can get me on Twitter @fight_director or follow the show @filmproprodpod · Please support this podcast by subscribing, leaving an AWESOME review and spreading the word. If you can get just one new person to tune in I’d really appreciate it.   Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdKUJxjn-R8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwDzCSO77Cs

  On today’s show I will be talking about how to deal with people that waste your time and distract you from what is important.   But before I go into that, on last week’s episode I explored the topic of achieving larger goals by focusing them into Twelve Week slots using Brian Moran’s productivity system - The Twelve Week Year. It was a hefty episode and covered some pretty big questions. As it ended I asked you to think about how that system could work for you and for you to start making a few decisions about where your own life and work is going. Deciding on your larger life goals is something that doesn’t necessarily take ten minutes, especially if you’ve not really considered it before, but if you can do that, you can begin to tailor your life and work to get you closer to them. The famous American motivational speaker, Earl Nightingale says simply, that “People with goals succeed because they know where they're going.” Unquote. And I gotta back that up. It’s not some hippy dippy dreamlike collection of words, it’s a statement of absolute fact.   If you want to achieve your goals you need to start deciding exactly what they are. If you missed the episode do go back and check it out, and if you have an opinion, as ever, I urge you to get in touch and tell me how you’re getting on.   You can get in touch via the speakpipe recorder or by email on filmproproductivity.com’s contact page or on twitter @filmproprodpod and if you are struggling with something you think I can help with then I’ll do my best to feed back to you in future episodes.   THE LESSON   · Today I’ll be going into a bit of time management, and it’s another quite large topic so buckle up. · TIME you must never forget is one of your most valuable commodities. If not that then it is the most valuable of all. Don’t lose track of that. · You only have a certain amount of it in your life and it doesn’t matter how old you are you need to take it seriously, because you can’t get it back – and therefor you need to guard it. · Would you let someone walk over to you, pick up your wallet or your purse and start removing your hard earned cash and putting it in their pocket? Of course not, but that’s exactly what these sorts of people are doing with your time and you need to stop it. · Its ok for YOU to waste time, that’s a different matter for a different episode on procrastination perhaps, and sometimes you have to slow down and relax as that’s important for your health, but what I’m talking about is when other people waste your time. That is one of the very biggest obstacles you will find to being productive and efficient and unless your higher level self, recognises it and stops it, it’s just going to keep happening. · You can't afford to waste time on what seems important but isn't. · You can't let anyone else control our schedule and invade our boundaries. · Remember that your time is for your family, your own business, your own goals etc and if YOU want to waste it that’s absolutely fine. But when other people impact on it, and steal it away, it’s an entirely different matter as far as I’m concerned. I’ve wanted to tackle this subject for a while now, as it is something that I am more and more aware of. I’ll detail here a few of the more common types of time waster, many of whom are not intentionally wasting your time, but if you allow them to do so, they will. It's smart to watch for the warning signs someone is about to waste your time, and cut off these time leaches before they get their teeth into you. So let’s start with the seemingly inoffensive…   SMALL TALKERS   It’s a strange world out there and some people really want to talk about stuff that just isn’t important. It’s a very human thing I know but if you’ve not got the time to sit and shoot the breeze with someone, which when you hang about a film set I recognise that sometimes you do, then you need to confront these SMALL TALKERS and get rid of them. I think we have all been guilty of this at some point or another, and I still am on occasion, but these ramblers are the 1st and perhaps most common form of time waster. “More of your conversation would infect my brain.” ― William Shakespeare, Coriolanus I won’t generalise, but many a time I have been sitting beside the extras and listened to some of the most inane chat I have ever had the misfortune to hear. I find it really distracting when someone is talking nonsense within my earshot let alone directly to me. If you’re stuck near them on a film set then remove yourself and if you have work to do then set up somewhere else and get to it.   If you want to be productive then you must recognise small talkers, get ON YOUR MISSION and not let them distract you!   A sub division of SMALL TALKERS are the GOSSIPS/ RUMOUR SPREADERS   Gossips, are obviously people who talk about others behind their backs but in effect they are just small talkers who like to make themselves feel superior by talking others down and spreading negativity – and of course if they’re talking about others then they will no doubt be talking about you.   You can just say STOP I DON’T WANT TO HEAR THAT if you have to, although I don’t say it nearly enough myself. I did put pain to a rumour earlier this year when someone said they’d heard that a filmmaker I know was a con artist. I explained that I knew the guy and that I’d never seen such behavior. They in turn explained that they didn’t actually know the person they were gossiping about and so the rumour ended there. I don’t think they’ll spread that it again in a hurry. Resisting the temptation to badmouth other people is one thing, but when a friend is launching into an offensive story about someone you know, your best tactic is to ask why they’re telling you. That will be their first alert that you’re not happy with the discussion. I try to be supportive in the things that I say but you have to be careful you don’t become that which you oppose. As George Wither said “Little said is soonest mended” Unquote. I’ll balance that with the famous Oscar Wilde quote: “If there is anything more annoying in the world than having people talk about you, it is certainly having no one talk about you.” But either way, gossip is just negative small talk and it will suck up your time if you let it.   Another sub set of the small talker is the WANDERER   They are unaware of time and don’t know how to manage the clock. They are people without goals, and if you are not careful they will take your time and suck you into oblivion. They either can't or don't want to differentiate between the important and unimportant and will side-track from what is important onto their own, often trivial chatter. They will also interrupt to tell you just about anything, no matter how trivial and the best way to deal with them is to avoid them at all costs.   Which brings me round to INTERRUPTORS   Interrupters are those people that take up you time on the phone, or by accosting you in person.   Often the best way to deal with a phone call when you are busy is to not pick up. Let them leave a message and listen to it when you have a moment. Reply on your terms and schedule.   If you do pick up however, or meet them face to face then you must quickly try and to interrupt an interrupter before they take up too much of your time: Don’t get into a run of small talk with them. Also you must train yourself to avoid saying that they can call you later or promise to get back to them as that just delays the time wasting exercise - Get right in there, jump ahead – and ask them WHY THEY ARE CALLING or WHAT THEY WANT FROM YOU.   You simply can’t allow people to have unlimited access to your time - so ask them what they want and if they don’t know, then re-class them as a WANDERER and then get rid of them – you don’t have time to let them hum and haw until they decide. Even if they do know, and it’s something that interests you, you can ask them to detail it in an email and you can schedule a more suitable time for the discussion.   IF IT INTERESTS YOU, and only IF IT DOES, you can say - I have a very busy week at the moment and, I’m dealing with immediate problems. Can I get back to you this? I find I have to do this all the time at the moment and it’s not my intention to be rude when I do. I just want to give the things that interest me or that are important THE PROPER TIME and if I know I can’t look at something and give it real mental energy and time until the following week I will just be straight up and say that. It goes hand in hand with the doing one thing at a time strategy I talked about in episode 11.   On many occasions btw the matter raised has turned out to be trivial and certainly not worthy of my stopping what I was currently doing to deal with it. I feel that it is your responsibility to be clear about your intentions and vice versa. People appreciate it.   BTW the interrupter can also get you at a distance and every time they have a question they’ll send you an email or text you. Be careful not to form the habit of responding to everything. That email will distract you from what you are doing just as surely as a phonecall, and by the time you tune back into what you were doing 15 minutes or a half hour will have slipped from your fingers.   With cold callers, just move on as quickly and politely as possible and if that’s not working hang up.   Another sub set of the interruptor/ wanderer is the CAMPER   That’s what coffee shop employees call the customers that buy one drink and nurse it several hours without buying more. They take up space in your office or wherever you have set up to work as an uninvited visitor and they just won’t go away.   You need to cut these people off or they will trap you. Explain that you are working and politely ask them, if they are after something to get to the point. If you have an office you don’t need to let them in. Stand in the doorway and confront them. Ask them what they want without inviting them in. If you let them in then you can say goodbye to the next several minutes at least and they will come back. If you feel that you must help them out, and it can often seem that way especially if that person is a colleague, a friend or family member, and then you can say - I'm busy right now. Let's meet at say 1pm for 15 minutes and we can discuss everything then.   This stops them getting in and setting up camp and "teaches" them a new discipline. Eventually they’ll get it. It also means that your have capped your time with them and put you in control.   For me the most impactful damage to my free time comes from FREELOADERS or TYRE KICKERS as they are known in the sales world.   I’ve fallen for these idiots time and time again. They play on your freelancing necessity to work, or your keen-ness for involvement in what appears to be a large or interesting production or your passion for what you do and they often only want to scam you for your advice and time for free.   They lead with a statement saying they want to hire you months from now but need information or advice first. Sometimes they are just whimsically considering making a film or TV show and want to bring you on board, but more often than not those types just want to make themselves feel important and suck you dry of your creative energy. And the shows they are talking about never happen as they go from one pro to the next talking about what they plan to do rather than actually doing it.   There’s a mid level tyre kicking producer working in Scotland that contacted me and asked me to look at a film he’d shot maybe 10 years before that. He wanted to re-use some of the action footage which involved large scale battles and, here’s where I should have had alarm bells ringing, re-purpose that footage into a new film which he’d get me to shoot. Simultaneous to that he wanted me to work on a new film idea he’d had, based on his half-finished script, and take that to a shooting draft…   …and btw this guy is a millionaire – but my experience of working with millionaire’s like this guy is often that they have achieved that status as they will not put their hand in their pocket for anything. They are absolute skinflints.   I eventually dodged this guy and drew a line under it, but only after spending just over 10 days working things up with him. At that point I got what was happening as I wasn’t the first guy he’d done it to and it turned out he actually had someone else working on the same projects at the same time. I turned up to a meeting and lo and behold some other poor sod had done a bit of work on it already… I scarpered sharpish and haven’t looked back. I later mentioned the experience to a friend of mine and BAM - discovered that he’d also wasted that guys time too.   It’s my experience that these types NEVER hire you – and a year later, you discover they've stolen, sorry 'used' all your ideas.   As a fight director I have done several very detailed breakdowns of the fights only to not get the job at a later date because they never had any money. Then when you look into it their pal has done it.   So if people don't have the funds to hire you right now, tell them you can have a conversation and answer some questions when they are ready but don't, whatever you do, get suckered into a situation where your precious time is drained by someone promising future business where there is none.   I know a guy that tried to hire Steven Fry to do a voice over. He spoke to him on the phone and Stephen said, do you have a budget in place? He didn’t. He’d approached Stephen so early that he really didn’t have much in place at all, and when he said No, or not yet or words to that effect Stephen said well call me when you do and ended the phonecall. It sounds kind of harsh but Stephen Fry had the right idea. He’s a busy guy. He simply didn’t have time to waste on a project that was not able to give him that sort if information. He’s clearly learned not to have his time wasted by maybe productions ltd. On another level of this I quite often get social media messages, emails, even calls from people who want advice and if I’m free I will quite often give it, but these requests seldom lead to new business. Don't let the freebie chasers waste your time just because they follow you on twitter. If you’ve been around as long as I have you can smell this sort of thing a mile off.   You have to get wise at spotting the signs – they normally don't reveal how much budget they have to spend; they normally don't bother with an initial meeting and they're normally very vague.   One thing you can do to counter the tyre kicker is to prepare a standard email response that asks the important questions. Email them your options – Spend a bit of time on a questionnaire that answers the questions that you know you need to ask. You can use this to figure out if a follow up is worthwhile.   A sub set of the FREELOADER is the NON PAYER. That’s someone who has you do the work and then disappears without paying you. There are one or two people out there that have in effect stolen my time and my work with the agreement to pay and not paid up in the end. For these I reserve a special place in hell. In the UK you can get your union involved and EQUITY has helped me out more than once, but sometimes people are just crooks and do a runner because they never intended to pay you in the first place.   The MUST MEETER   I’ve complained about this type of time wasting activity before.   If you are a freelancer, then meetings have a real impact on your time but some people seem to do nothing but organise meetings because being in meeting is a way to feel important. It's also a great way to hide from making and taking responsibility for decisions, and to harvest the ideas of others. The greatest organisers of meetings are in public office and they get paid to attend meetings, it gets them out of their office and interacting with real humans for a change. They will milk their meetings to the death and they will always want another one.   I urge you - before you set up a meeting or accept your next meeting invitation, stop and ask yourself: Do I really need to be in -- or hold -- this meeting? Is there a more time-efficient way to handle this? A conference call? An email? Anything but another meeting. But if you do have to attend one you must do these 4 things.   1. Have and communicate a clear, achievable objective for the meeting. 2. Circulate a written agenda in advance. 3. If you must attend a meeting, you also have a plan to get what you want out of it. 4. If you know that there is nothing more to achieve at the meeting then you can ask to leave early. Have an exit strategy or best of all GIVE A PRE AGREED END TIME FOR THE MEETING.   The next time waster you will have likely faced already is the HATER/ The JOY STEALER   Haters are trolls and bullies – and they are another long range time waster usually raising their ugly heads online. They’re only purpose in life is to wind others up and they don’t deserve any of your time whatsoever. If you respond at all to these time-wasters then they have won.   If you are giving them attention, they are wasting your time and you are letting them away with it. Assume that when you make any comment, or raise your head above the parapet in any form of social networking or creative endeavor that somebody somewhere will say that it’s a pointless exercise and that you have no talent. They’ll then take a potshot at your looks, at your mental health and insinuate that you are likely a Nazi or something equally horrible.   If you know its going to happen, and it will, you will be able to laugh at these people and move on. If you don’t, and take it to heart, and start interacting with them then you’re going to lose a lot of time on brooding about it and ruminating over something you can’t control. The Christian author and speaker Joyce Meyer says to “Watch out for the joy-stealers - Those who gossip, criticise complain, find fault, and have a negative, judgmental attitude.” Unquote - I agree. The penultimate TIME WASTER that I face as a FILM PRO is the AVAILABILITY CHECKER, but this one is easier to get over.   Availability checkers ask me for availability and I quite often find myself calling round and clearing the decks of other jobs, pinning them down to make myself available for jobs that I don’t ever get booked for. There’s a production coordinator in Scotland that’s done this to me like 5 times in a row and I’m more cautious about the whole thing now. I don’t tend to do any work clearing decks now until I have more info on the job. This one can be sorted by asking a couple of questions. You can even ask am I the only person you are considering for this if you have to. It’s kind of a problem that comes with the freelancer territory. My biggest issue with the availability checker is that in my mind I start thinking about the job and then when I don’t get booked I feel that I’ve missed out.   The final timewaster is YOURSELF, but I’m not talking about watching TV or lazing in the sun. “Regret for wasted time is just more wasted time” ― Mason Cooley He also said that The time I kill, is killing me which is true.   There’s a great Youtube video about this which I’ll add to the show notes, but in short it points out that time spent being angry or having regret is just wasted time. Try and let these things go. As I’ve said before on this podcast. Everything is going to be alright. There’s another 5 minute rule which salesmen have to get over the annoyance of not making a sale, which can be applied anywhere really. It’s NOT the 5 MINUTE RULE I covered a few episodes ago. This rule says if you are annoyed about something, or have regrets, give yourself 5 minutes to be angry annoyed and worked up, then move on. 5 minutes is all it needs. Give yourself a break.   SUMMING UP   To sum up - This is a business – never forget that! – and it's crucial that you spend your time wisely, so you make good money, allow yourself some downtime and get the most out of every day. Each of us gets only one life to live. We have 24 hours in a day and seven days in a week and how you spend that time affects every area of your life. Every day that passes is one you are not going to get back. Waste it or invest it. And time is money.   Be more selective and don’t allow people to waste your time . You must engage in a higher level of thinking as it's all too easy to get sucked into a time wasting situation when you think it could lead to future business – so don't let that happen. Treat your time with the value and importance that it deserves. If you can - only grant access to people once you know they are in alignment with your own objectives.   And IF YOU ARE GIVING YOUR TIME AWAY because you choose to, because you want to volunteer for something or because you just want to help someone out then take my advice and schedule it – it will pay back, but don’t write anyone a blank cheque on your time as that – you will live to regret.   CALL TO ACTION   I hope that this episode has been helpful to you and that recognising the ten time wasting archetypes that I’ve identified here will be helpful to you.   All I ask as a call to action is that you don’t waste a moment of it. Your time is evaporating even now. So think of Robin William’s in Dead Poet’s Society and SEIZE THE DAY! ENDING   Thanks again for listening - Next episode I’ll be talking about achieving excellence through habit forming where you will discover that we are what we repeatedly do. Until then, don’t waste a moment, take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’ and join me next time on Film Pro Productivity.   · The music that you are listening to right now is Adventures by A Himitsu. · You can view the show notes for this episode at filmproproductivity.com · If you’re struggling with something you think I can help with or would like to tell me how you are getting on then please get in touch via the contact page on the website. Alternately you can get me on Twitter @fight_director or follow the show @filmproprodpod · Please subscribe on the podcast app of your choice and if you are in the caring/ sharing mood then I’d really appreciate it if you would spread the word and leave an AWESOME review.   https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/here-there-and-everywhere/201204/31-quotes-gossip https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/300469 https://www.rd.com/advice/relationships/stop-gossiping/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEVLDEdVqD4  

  EPISODE 11 – Committing to a Twelve Week Year   “Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” — Fitzhugh Dodson On this week’s show, I will be discussing the concept of the twelve week year, how I used it to get out of a creative rut and how it can be used to focus your vision and complete goals quickly. It’s a bit longer than usual episodes but it’s filled with valuable and important stuff. Before I go on to that though, in last week’s episode I set out to discount the myth that multitasking is somehow a more productive way of working than just doing one thing at a time. The ONE THING AT A TIME PHILOSOPHY is not the easiest thing to do, and I perhaps find that especially true for creatives. As we constantly find ourselves thinking of more and more things we could develop or work on within ourselves or our creative projects, be they films or whatever, we often trip over the last idea we had with a fresh new one and short circuit it. Multitasking does exist of course, as any mother or father working from home with a toddler at their heels will confirm, but in productivity terms, it’s incredibly inefficient and as we get older we simply become less and less able to pull it off. If you missed the episode do scoot back and have a listen as it’s got some good food for thought in there but if you did and have been giving it a try, as always please get in touch via twitter or the website links and let me know how you are getting on. If you have a particular element of your life or work that you are struggling with then please get in touch and I’ll see if I can work up a new episode to help you to deal with it. ANECDOTE Sadly I lost my brilliant dad at the start of 2017 and just a few months later I lost my amazing mum too. It was not a good year and by September I found that I was struggling to get things done in both life and work. I always seemed to be a step behind and I was firefighting my way through everything last minute, that’s if I got things done at all. I’ve talked about firefighting a few times here and YOU CAN WORK THAT WAY BUT what it does is that it takes your attention away from larger problems and those problems play heavily on your mind. It also makes your goals secondary to whatever the current problem is that you are dealing with. It got to the point several times in the years leading up to my own first twelve week year where I had to just stop and those that follow my twitter feed will know this, I have to shut it down to allow me to focus on what is absolutely vital. The white noise that I talked about in episode 3, just saturated my thoughts with 10’s If not hundreds of small to large sized tasks and commitments and I got heavily bogged down and kinda lost. Of course, now I have ways to avoid this, but that’s really because I was able to get myself out from under a host of problems by committing to a 12 week year and in turn that started me on my way to high-level thinking. It’s worth saying that even productivity systems can become white noise if you try to follow too many at once, but I found the 12 week year and basically, with a fairly thin understanding of it I threw myself in. I’ll go into it in detail a little later but I usually describe it to others as taking your new year’s resolution, what you want to achieve by that same time the following year instead of putting it 12 weeks away. For example, let’s say you want to make a short film. You say. I want to write, shoot and edit a short film by this time next year that’s my vision, that tells a story that I want to tell, or you want to learn how to edit by this time next year, or you want to make a change in career by this time next year, or you want to lose a few pounds or here’s one, you want to launch a podcast by this time next year. Instead of saying by THIS TIME NEXT YEAR, the traditional way you instead put that goal just 12 weeks away. So a twelve week year simply takes the focussed energy at the start and end of a new year’s resolution - The first six weeks and the final six weeks of the year and misses out the middle bit. The 9 months of the year where you got distracted from your vision. It focuses your time and energy and makes achieving your goals a real possibility. “People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going.” — Earl Nightingale My goal when I set my own 12 week year up was to clear the decks of incomplete projects, unfinished personal matters and promises to help others out within that time and I largely succeeded. I successfully killed off projects that were going nowhere, completed tasks that had been lying unfinished for well, some of them, years and I either end lined or escaped from all but two other matters. One was a project I’d been dragged into and that the producer simply wouldn’t let go, and I found myself in the end, out of politeness, agreeing to extend my involvement – I shouldn’t have done it but I did, and the other was an insurance claim for water getting into my house which in the end I simply had to concede to as a kind of half agreement with them a few weeks later – by that stage it had been two whole years unresolved and the 12 week year put real pressure on them. I learned that corporate matters like an insurance claim are very difficult to get working to your speed. Everything else though and I’m talking some 11 or 12 quite complicated matters, as well as many many smaller ones, got resolved within the 12 weeks. Of note is that NONE of the people that I gave deadlines to for the release of my voluntary creative involvement, actually completed or indeed really even started their projects within the 12 weeks I gave them to do so. These were creative projects which I can only assume were started by people on a whim, and they had called me or invited me on board and this was before I taught myself to say no of course, but they never went anywhere. It’s not that they couldn’t keep up with the pace that I set, THEY COULDN’T EVEN TAKE THE FIRST STEP ONTO A PACE – THERE WAS NO PACE. I’d been sweating and giving up mental energy to these projects when the people who apparently were driving them were really just waiting for me to do it for them. That realisation and my higher level self’s acknowledgement of it made saying no to future involvements all the easier. I did try another 12 week year just after the first, trying to pull together within it both this podcast and a web series and that 12 week year failed, well kinda failed and the reason was that I was 1 – Uncertain of exactly what I wanted to do with this podcast and my goal was therefor unspecific, And 2 – That the project I’d let slide on the previous 12 week year slammed right into my one and took all of the spare time that I’d worked so hard for, off of me. I had to manhandle that project to completion and if I hadn’t it simply would never have shot. In effect, I dropped my own project in favour of someone else’s and killed my second 12-week plan myself. All really out of politeness. I’m quite aware as I work on these episodes that at times I may sound harsh, or unsupportive or negative even but I have deep regrets from wasting my time and energy with experiences like this, and I must tell you that giving up your own hopes and dreams to commit to furthering someone else’s vision, no matter how nice they are, is not a good thing for the soul. I’m currently nearing the end of my 3rd 12 week year, and my goal with this one – to launch a podcast on the subject of productivity by the end of September 2018. How am I getting on? THE LESSON So committing to and completing a 12 week year is really pretty difficult but if you can get through it, and NOT GET DISTRACTED you will achieve a hell of a lot. I present this episode as I know just how powerful it is and I absolutely believe in it. The TWELVE WEEK YEAR IS a PRODUCTIVITY SYSTEM created by BRIAN P MORAN and his business partner MICHAEL LENNINGTON, outlined in a NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING BOOK (link in the show notes) and an accompanying website of the same name that debunks traditional goal setting, using annual goals, as an ineffective goal-achieving approach. The 12 Week Year Is Not About Mustering More Discipline, Willpower, Organizational Skills, or A better Mindset, it is simply a focussed approach to goal setting which takes your long-term vision and brings it closer. Please buy your copy through one of my Amazon Affiliate Links. I get a small cut and it helps keep teh podcast costs down a wee bit.  AMAZON US: https://amzn.to/2RUaj98 AMAZON UK: https://amzn.to/2yfN3tW RESEARCH ON NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS suggests that when you set one and commit to it on the 1st of January that it is very likely that you might put in a good effort towards that yearly goal for 5 or 6 weeks at the start of the year, hitting the gym or writing down ideas etc. but by the time you are 6 weeks in, that LIFE AND WORK AND OTHER MATTERS will have taken your focus and frayed it, diluted it and you’d probably have abandoned your goal to deal with what was immediately on your plate. It goes on to suggest that maybe towards the end of the year you pick it back up again, and say to yourself, well I must do that thing that I said I would, and you might return to the gym, or perhaps you may have decided just to let it go. AN IN DEPTH LOOK AT THE TWELVE WEEK YEAR The 12 Week Year is a highly practical guide for taking you from thinking about the things you should be doing to push your business or your project or your life forward to actually doing those things. I’m basing my next section on an article by Carrie Dils called How to Squeeze a Full Year out of 12 Weeks. I did a good bit of additional research but I really liked her conclusions. There are 4 stages to this: Firstly you must SET “PILLAR” GOALS “Goals are dreams with deadlines.” ― Diana Scharf Now I’ve kind of avoided getting specific on goal setting so far in this podcast but the time has come for you to start thinking long term. The whole point of higher level thinking is to intelligently move yourself towards your own goals be they short or long term. And you need to start thinking about it if you haven’t already – The question is this - What is your long-term vision for your life? Where would you like to be true about your life in 10 years. Would you like to be debt free? Would you like to have a family? Would you like to achieve a certain salary? Own a holiday home? Move your career to a significant place? This will be your pillar goal. Take your time with this. Get to grips with it. I’ll revisit goals again and again on this show. For now, the idea is to pick 2-3 core goals for each 12-week cycle that serve your larger vision. Did you know that - If you write a goal down the probability of you doing it goes up 80%? Write a compelling vision of the ideal future that you’re working towards. The second stage is to GET RID OF ANNUALIZED THINKING Imagine getting a week’s worth of progress made in one day. Think critically about the tasks that are truly most important to your goals and spend your time on those things. What can I focus on in the next 12 weeks that are in service of my Pillar goals? Plan the daily or weekly tasks that serve those 2-3 primary goals and if your daily activities aren’t supporting those goals, you’re doing the wrong thing. Create habits to make taking regular action as easy as possible. Here are some examples that serve my current goal of creating this podcast. Create the website that supports the podcast. Learn how to submit to iTunes. Create test episodes to learn from. And how have I tackled these? I stopped my involvement in other peoples creative projects in order to focus on my goal. I tried three different word press designers, wasted time with them, and I eventually took over and built it myself in Wix. I researched how to get onto iTunes by following you tubers and listening to podcasts that talk about the subject. I hired a friend with a podcast to advise me on creating this one, and I recorded tests and rerecorded episode 1 three times before settling. I narrowed my focus, out with the day to day work of fight direction which is incredibly busy this year I must add and I focussed only on my podcast goals in my spare time. I deliberately avoided being drawn into other ideas and projects that took my fancy. Thirdly - DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE IMPORTANCE OF PLANNING. Planning is some of the most productive time you can have. You have to set focused tactical goals. Plan what strategies and actions will move you closer to your goal and your future success. To achieve a year’s worth of work in the next 12 weeks requires a style of planning and execution that forces you to shed the low-value activity that keeps you stuck. Engage with the word tactical and don’t be afraid to say no to things that will distract you or slow you down. You have to make a detailed plan, with dates to hit - and stick to it. My detailed plan for his podcast has three elements to it: 1 Be ready by the 12th of September – My ideal launch date. 2 Have 15 episodes researched written and recorded by that date. Today is the 7th and I am on episode 11. I will put off recording 12-15 as I’m not in Glasgow so cannot complete. I will however complete by the 20th. 3 To launch with a website which will support the show and is simple to look at but offers the opportunity for expansion. The website planning is very complex in itself. I have been getting up early - between5.30-6am in order to complete a little bit of work on the podcast every day. As I near the end, it is slotting into every spare moment that I can find, between risk assessments, travel and fights. Lastly – YOU SHOULD KEEP SCORE Make your goals SMART That is (Specific. Measurable. Actionable. Relevant. Time-sensitive.). If you can’t measure progress, how do you know how you’re doing? Keep score so you know what’s working and what’s not so that you can make adjustments along the way. It enables you to celebrate wins and consciously identify problem areas. Here are some common problems that you may face along the way. COMMON MISTAKE #1: Trying to change everything at once - This is the number one mistake people make. Start with one thing and do it well. Once you get a few wins under your belt, you’ll gain skill and confidence with the system and you’ll be able to achieve even more. COMMON MISTAKE #2: Not having a strong enough “why” You absolutely MUST have a compelling personal vision. This is the “why” behind what you want to accomplish and achieve. It provides the motivation to follow through and take action, even when you don’t feel like it. Don’t get caught up trying to please someone else or copy someone else. Find your own why. COMMON MISTAKE #3: Not tracking your actions. This is important because you are what you repeatedly do. You are always building habits, either by intention or by accident. Tracking is a daily reminder that you’re growing. COMMON MISTAKE #4: Going it alone - If you’re serious about achieving your goals, the best thing you can do is tell others about it. There’s an African proverb that says, “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” So share your vision & goals with a friend or a colleague. In the productivity world, there’s something called an accountability partner. I’m sure if you put some effort into it you can find someone who it would be mutually beneficial to share with. SUMMING UP Brian P. Moran says in the 12 week year that “the number-one thing that you will have to sacrifice to be great, to achieve what you are capable of, and to execute your plans, is your comfort.” I’ve gone into some detail here but the book covers this topic very well. Follow the link in the show notes to get yourself a copy. It’s got so much value in it that I’ve really just had time to touch upon here. In the interest of honesty, I have to admit that I have deliberately put back my launch of Film Pro Productivity from the 12 September to a bit later in the month. The reason for that? I’m directing fight sequences simultaneously on 3 different television shows now and one is on the Island of Shetland at the top of Scotland, one is on the Isle of Skye to the North West and the other is in Central Scotland, In Glasgow. I simply can’t make my own launch date as I have to follow the work. If I launched on the 12th, which tbh I can, then I would not be able to promote it. I have delayed a little to gain a lot. This twelve week year episode is my first foray into the subject of goal setting. I hope that you’ve found it useful and inspiring. “One part at a time, one day at a time, we can accomplish any goal we set for ourselves.” — Karen Casey CALL TO ACTION I’m not going to suggest that as a call to action for next week you begin a 12 week year – all I ask is that you think about how it could work for you and start deciding on your life and work goals. That’s enough for now. ENDING Next episode I’ll be talking about Timewasters and How to deal with them – I’ll try and make it a shorter episode! For now though, thanks so much for listening – and I urge you to take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’ and join me NEXT TIME on Film Pro Productivity. The music that you are listening to right now is Adventures by A Himitsu. You can view the show notes for this episode at filmproproductivity.com/episode11 If you’re struggling with something you think I can help with or would like to tell me how you are getting on then please get in touch via the contact page on the website. Alternately you can get me on Twitter @fight_director or follow the show @filmproprodpod Please subscribe to the podcast and if you are in the caring/ sharing mood then I’d really appreciate it if you would spread the word and leave an AWESOME review.   Sources: https://carriedils.com/book-review-the-12-week-year/ https://12weekyear.com/ http://www.asianefficiency.com/systems/12-week-year-mistakes-2/ Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsu https://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A

Show Notes EPISODE 10 – MULTITASKING (The myth) Transcript Thanks again for clocking in and listening to the show. I really appreciate the fact that you are willing to give this podcast your time from whatever hectic schedule you find yourself in. If you like what you are hearing and want to help the show then the best way to do that is to just tell people about it, subscribe to it, and to leave a great review. I want to build an audience and although I’d be happy to know that it helps just one person out, good audience numbers will, in turn, help me to have faith that it’s all worthwhile. On last week’s show, I gave you 4 productivity rules to hack procrastination and get things done. If you missed that episode then check it out as it’s a doozy. As usual, I’d love to hear how you are getting on with the techniques and concepts that I talk about here and you can get in touch via the contact page on filmproproductivity.com. Why not leave a message for me on the speakpipe voicemail service I have there? H you in person would be really quite amazing. One other thing I want to say at this juncture is that I will do an episode on goal setting towards the end of the season or maybe even at the start of the next as without clear long-term goals, much of these productivity techniques effectively become tools for fighting fires as it were – Tools for dealing with the more immediate problems that come up in our life and work. Once you have a vision and a goal to reach they will in turn support that and help you to move towards it. I look at this 1st season, and the preseason too as kinda being themed for those suffering overwhelm and burnout so I have that in mind as I choose topics. The tools for fighting these productivity FIRES that come with overwhelm will buy you time to stabilise your position and starting looking towards those long-term goals.  THIS WEEKS INTRO This week I am talking about multitasking and why it’s a bad thing for productivity. You’ve likely heard the old adage that HE WHO CHASES TWO RABBITS, CATCHES NEITHER – or maybe you prefer SHE WHO CHASES MANY RABBITS CATCHES NONE. Simply doing one thing at a time is the most direct way to be EFFICIENT and ultimately PRODUCTIVE in what you set out to do. If you “chase too many rabbits” or too many “goals and objectives” simultaneously then you will likely find that you end up with none of them at all. To choose to follow one idea when our brain is churning out a 10 new thoughts a minute though, can be very difficult, but until you can get over that hurdle and get yourself focussed on one thing then you’re guaranteed to dissipate your energy and slow down your journey towards whatever goal you have in mind. ANECTOTE I personally don’t find this easy by the way but I’m getting better at it. Even as I sat down to write this episode I had to stop myself from doing too much at once. Although I have a clear idea of what I wanted to say I found myself with a copy of Garry Keller and Jay Papason’s awesome THE ONE THING book at my side, about 8 or 9 different tabs on the subject opened on Google, and social networking pings and addictions luring me to look at my phone every 2 minutes – I was jumping from one the other to build up the episode and offer new things and new ideas but it was slowing and slowing and the episode was going nowhere. I’ve had to stop and take on my own advice. Now the phone is off, the book and tabs are away and I start again with only one thing in mind. To create an episode on this topic that will make a difference. Just before I go onto the lesson I just want to say that the book, THE ONE THING I mentioned a minute ago is awesome, and I will do an episode review of it somewhere down the line for sure. I’ll put a link to it in the show notes but although I’ll touch on some it’s key messages here it covers way more than these basic concepts and I can highly recommend it. Gary Keller points out in THE ONE THING that “Multitasking is a lie” which is kinda where I’m going with this episode. THE LESSON Messing two things up at the same time isn`t multitasking” The constant jumping about of the mind really slows us down. That’s one of the fundamental problems with the multitasking. Every time you switch, you need to refocus on a new thing, and that in turn takes a bit of time. When I first looked into this I heard this example. If you count, 12345 you can do it in like 2 seconds. And if you go through the alphabet a,b,c,d,e, then maybe 1 or 2 seconds works, but if you have to do both at the same time, 1a, 2b, 3c, 4d, 5e then the total time is nearer 5 or 6 seconds. For me, in that one example, that’s multitasking proven to fail. And a win for the DO ONE AT A TIME ideology. Concentrating on a single task is one aspect of something called FLOW, or the FLOW state of mind. WIKIPEDIA says about this, quote “In positive psychology, flow, also known as being in THE ZONE, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting loss in one's sense of space and time.” Put simply then, if you are jumping about you really will never hit any sort of flow. New York Times Columnist David Brooks points out that “A person who is interrupted while performing a task takes 50% more time to complete it and make 50% more errors.” I used to think that multitasking was something I was good at, and I had a sort of pride in it, but I have come to realise now that it just slows me down and if anything it stops me from achieving my goals. I might feel busy and productive but the reality is that I still jump about between tasks and with every jump I slow down and lose more and more time as I tune back in. I can kinda multitask “a bit” but only on a very basic level. For example, I can walk the dog and listen to a podcast, but to be honest, that’s maybe slightly unfair on my dog Angus who demands somewhat more attention than at times I want to give. You’re almost guaranteed too that 5 or six times in the walk I’ll yank the headphones out of my ears or their socket when I throw a ball, and I have to reset it. But by doing this I am kinda doing more than one thing at the same time. If I multitask on most things, however, I am literally just doing a bit of one and a bit of another and then returning to the last one and doing a bit more. When multitasking, the quality of your work goes down, and your understanding and comprehension goes way down with it. More often than not when I meet a new person I instantly forget their name – because my mind is somehow distracted and unable to process or retain the new information. I’m terrible for this and I really have to work at it. So multitasking short circuits the short-term memory, meaning that very often we have to revisit things which if we’d done one thing at a time we would have managed. When doing several things at once, your mind is divided between them and it’s guaranteed that your mistakes will multiply. The name forgetting thing is a good example. An AD introduced himself to me on set yesterday and I was straight in and working out a fight and I had to covertly ask his name a wee bit later. I’d totally not taken it in. You see when I'm multitasking: I can listen, ignore and forget at exactly the same time. And today’s fast-paced digital world where we have phones pinging every couple of minutes and apps to which we become addicted makes focusing on just one thing all the more difficult. Maybe you have more willpower than I do, but if you want to stop procrastinating and get stuff done. Let's start by putting that phone far away – like in another room, and by using the do not disturb function, by just deleting the apps that suck your time away time and time again or even by turning it off! Yes, I went there – turn your phone off, then your productivity will increase as your focus on the task at hand narrows in. I have a freelancer stress thing about my phone that goes beyond the app addiction btw. It’s a hang on from the days when I really needed the work. I feel that I can’t miss a call or that if an email comes in I must answer it right away. I’ve basically had to deal with that. I know it’s a thing. My higher level thinking self, knows it’s not that important and so when it comes to meetings or even visiting family or friends I try to switch my phone off. Unless I know that I am expecting something important. The thing is EMAILS generally DON’T NEED RESPONDED TO RIGHT AWAY and unless that important CALL is expected, you can ALWAYS just CALL SOMEONE BACK. We can chill out. Everything is going to be alright. We all know too that checking your phone whilst you are in a meeting or with friends, then it’s kinda rude and disrespectful but can find ourselves doing it nonetheless. In a meeting, it means you are not on the ball and if you a professional then you should bring your “A game”. Flight mode, silent, do not disturb or preferably off are all better options than checking your Facebook feed whilst the director talks about their vision. Have a notebook and a pen. That’s what you really need. And you can always doodle if you have to. Just give others your full attention and show respect. Be IN THE ROOM. If you are running a meeting then ask people to turn their phones off. I know many go paperless now on ipads etc but they can still have their devices on flight mode if you ask them to. Before I wrap this all up I need to talk a little bit about mindfulness here. This is a productivity pod but I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that saving time and energy is not really about fitting in more and more work. Becoming more productive simply means to be more efficient and effective. I said this in episode 1 and its important – it’s kinda the whole point in fact - If we can be more effective , save time, be better, be more productive we will move forward in our goals and as we do that and achieve great things, it will free up more time for family and friends, and for us to think about our health and ultimately improve our outlook and spirit. Never lose sight of that. Buy yourself a break. I’m open to the possibility that you do not like what you hear here or that you totally disagree but if you genuinely want to be more productive, significantly more productive - then you just have to learn to do one thing at a time. SUMMING UP Gary Keller says that SUCCESS DEMANDS A SINGLENESS OF PURPOSE but even knowing all this I still find myself checking emails when I should be working, and checking Twitter and Instagram when I should be paying attention to the people in front of me. And I still end up on Youtube watching cat videos and the knight rider theme played on the Banjo (Which is awesome btw but I digress). If you can do one thing at a time and not get bored by the focused effort, not check your twitter feed or play a game every couple of minutes and interrupt whatever, then you are far more likely to succeed. CALL TO ACTION I’ll be revisiting this subject now and again as there’s a little more to it that I think will be useful for you. I don’t want to overload you with too many applications of this. In learning, as I learned myself when I became a fencing coach many years ago, we all need a period of reflection on a topic, to think about it and ingest and consider it before bringing in more. Take these gaps between episodes to consider what I’m introducing and try the techniques out. Try to kill that nasty multitasking habit you’ve gotten into, or your forever distracted by technology way of working you have developed once and for all. This episode covers a simple but powerful message. Give it a try. You’ll thank me later. ENDING So thanks again for tuning in - Next episode I’ll be talking about my TWELVE WEEK YEAR and how I used it as an escape plan to move out of an overwhelmed rut and onto the path of productivity. For now, though, take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’ and join me NEXT TIME on Film Pro Productivity. The music that you are listening to right now is Adventures by A Himitsu. You can view the show notes for this episode at filmproproductivity.com/episode10 If you’re struggling with something you think I can help with or would like to tell me how you are getting on then please get in touch via the contact page on the website. Alternately you can get me on Twitter @fight_director or follow the show @filmproprodpod Please subscribe on the podcast app of your choice and if you are in the caring/ sharing mood then spread the word about the show and I’d really appreciate it if you would leave an awesome review. References:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2017/02/06/want-to-be-more-productive-stop-multi-tasking/#59de681955a6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)#0 https://www.ics.uci.edu/~gmark/chi08-mark.pdf  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4bmWPM_LWU Thanks: A Himitsu, Stephen Rowan, Dave Bullis Podcast, Podcraft. Main Photographs taken on the Giordano UK shoot by Bryan Larkin.   Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsu https://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A

Show Notes EPISODE 9  – FOUR COOL HACKS TO BEAT PROCRASTINATION Transcript   So I’m a good bit into the podcast now and I feel that I’m doing alright. I hope you’re finding possibilities in what I’m presenting here and that they are working for you. I think that any early troubles with the Podcast feed or syndication have been dealt with now but if you ever do have trouble with it then grab the Podbean app from the link on my website. Film Pro Productivity is syndicated all over the place but Podbean is my media host and will always have the new episodes first. It’s a free app and it’s available for IPhone and Android. I also post the latest episodes on the website as they launch and you can grab them there if you prefer to listen on your desktop. Last week I introduced the very simple 5 second rule and talked about how it can be used to overcome obstacles, and cheat the brain into conquering your fears. I’ve been trying that one out and it certainly does work if you can buy into it. THIS WEEKS INTRO Procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder. Mason Cooley This week I’m going to squeeze in 4 more productivity “rules” that I know will make your life easier and continue to help you to beat procrastination and just get things done. I’m talking about the one-touch rule, and it’s close cousin the two minute, then I will move on to the 5-minute rule and the 10-minute rule. These rules have much in common but if you can get to grips with them individually they’ll help you to decimate your task lists and kick procrastination right in the mammy daddy button. ANECTOTE My fightdirector.com email address receives a vast number of messages every day and if I don’t pay attention to it overwhelms me. On many occasions, I’ve found myself having to stop everything else just to work back through those emails and deal with the backlog. The simplest productivity technique of all is the DELETE button but once it’s done its job I’m left with a plethora of small to mid-sized replies, links and follow-ups to deal that just can’t be avoided. I started looking for solutions and ways of thinking that could help me clear my backlog of incomplete tasks quickly and efficiently and s. I’ve been messing about with these sort of things for a few years now - some float to the top and get used more than others and a few start to become habit - Nowadays I find them coming into play in day to day life without me consciously considering them. The four rules that I am introducing today are solutions to procrastination problems. It needn’t be emailed, it could be telephone calls or just simple jobs about the house - It can even be larger tasks that you’ve split up into chunks. That’s called chunking btw and that in itself is an awesome productivity method. THE LESSONS Firstly I want to introduce to you The one touch rule which simply means that you must process a task the first time you touch it. YOU MUST PROCESS A TASK THE FIRST TIME YOU TOUCH IT. It was formalised by Productivity consultant Ann Gomez and it’s more of a guideline or a hack than a rule but if you adopt it, you’ll find that most of the little tasks that can clog up your vision, and deplete your mental energy start to disappear. Ann also points out that it builds the habit of starting things only when you're ready: She explains and I quote, “It's a simple trick to help you batch your work into scheduled, focus blocks: you won't open an email until you're ready to give it your full attention, or you'll decline to accept your co-worker’s rough draft until later when you know you'll have the time to sit down and do it.” I use this all the time now, especially when collaborating on scripts with my colleague Bryan. I ask not to be sent updates as they come up but I schedule time to look at new drafts and complete my work on them at one sitting. It’s immensely useful and saves both of us from wasting time. Beyond that specific use, I use it to blast small tasks like email sorting right out of the water, to generally prioritize better and I force myself to stop leaving tasks half-finished. That just clogs up my brain and messes me up. The two-minute rule is another simple strategy. I first saw it in David Allen's bestselling book, Getting Things Done and I threw it out there at the end of the 1st episode in very basic terms as I felt I should introduce at least one technique before asking listeners to join me on episode 2 - but here it is in a little more detail. It’s also an anti-procrastination hack. All of these small rules can be used in that way but there’s a bit more to them. They can generally be used to tackle tasks that aren’t actually that difficult to do. The 2 Minute Rule overcomes procrastination or as it’s sometimes known laziness by making it SO EASY for you to start taking action that you can’t say no. It’s surprising how many things we put off that we could get done in two minutes or less. That’s the rule in action - if you have a task that takes less than two minutes, just do it now. You got an email to respond to? Do it now. You got an online payment to make? Do it now. Need to pack the dishwasher. Do it now. Need to send an invoice, or send a thank you text, or make the bed or whatever you have to do, just do it now and it’s done, and it's behind you. If you don’t then these small easily doable jobs build up and suddenly you’re looking at 10 or twenty of them and they’re on your mind and they’re a mountain of work. If you shoot them down as you go, then they are gone and you’ll be able to focus on the stuff that matters. Doing them as you go has the fringe benefit of giving you an on-going feeling of accomplishment and this buoys your spirit and brings confidence and positivity into your life. A good example and its something that I do every day is just to make my bed. Now this, like many of the productivity techniques I adopt, might seem to be unimportant but think of it like this. That minor achievement, every day, means that I am leaving the house, even with early starts on film shoots with at least a small sense of accomplishment before I leave the house. My day actually starts very early and I achieve usually a lot more, but we’ll talk about the 5 am miracle at another time.  Can all of your goals be accomplished in less than two minutes? No, but every goal can be STARTED in 2 minutes or less. And that’s the point. Small accomplishments like this start to become a habit and large jobs split into small parts, become after time, a sum of their parts, and complete. So that’s the basics of the two-minute rule. Give it a try to see if it’s something that will work for you. Get your head in the right space and see what you can either deal with in two minutes or that you can begin or chunk into two-minute bites. Once you’re sitting down to do something you may find, kinda like the one-touch rule that you complete it in that sitting. Thinking of it as a two-minute commitment though will possibly trick you into doing more. My next rule again links into that and it is known as The 5 Minute Rule. Kevin Systrom the billionaire CEO and co-founder of Instagram came up with this simple trick to tackle procrastination. It’s similar in many ways to the 2-minute rule but is worth tackling separately. Kevin’s 5-minute rule states that “If you don’t want to do something, make a deal with yourself to do at least five minutes of it. After five minutes, you’ll end up doing the whole thing.” According to Psychology Today, we procrastinate because of. LACK OF STRUCTURE. Without knowing why we are doing something or when it is to be done by we find ourselves putting it off. We find ourselves checking Facebook instead of doing work and today's easy online access makes this easy. I’m a terrible addict of Youtube, but when I’m focussed on a specific task with a deadline my focus becomes much sharper. UNPLEASANT TASKS. Any task we consider unpleasant, boring, or uninteresting is one that we can find ourselves putting off to another day. Here procrastination occurs when you postpone tasks because they are not imminently important. If there is good reason to put them off, for example, because you have higher priority tasks to deal with first, then that’s fair, but if not, why not just deal with them and move on? SELF-CONFIDENCE. When difficulties arise, people with low self-confidence develop doubts about their ability to accomplish the task at hand, while those with strong beliefs are more likely to continue their efforts. I cover this topic in the episode about the inner voice. Episode 6. If self-confidence is a problem then check that one out. I think this is particularly true of some creative roles in the film industry. A close cousin of lack of self-confidence and one I know all too well. Avoidance is a well-known form of coping with anxiety. Procrastinators will postpone getting started because of a fear of failure and evidence also indicates that procrastination is associated with high levels of stress. To relieve stress procrastinators shift their focus away from the future toward more immediate rewards in order to avoid challenging high-priority tasks. …and I personally can take procrastination much further - I’m a black belt in procrastination. I’ll procrastinate over even the opening of an email, because I’m frightened and anxious that it will cause me bother, like clash with a job I have already started or create more unnecessary work for me. If I have things running smoothly, I get the fear that an email or the returning of a phone call will upset my finely organised day or week and I’ll try and dodge it. So the five-minute rule tricks our brains into thinking that we can dip quickly into a task, but once we are in there it also makes room for us to re-assess our position and, after ultimately overcoming the initial burst of effort to get started - it allows us to choose to give it more time. You might not want to do it at first, but once you have started and committed just 5 minutes, you will likely decide that you might as well get it finished. The momentum created by starting a task is carried forward should you choose to give it more time. And once you’ve started, you just might find that you have a more positive attitude toward the task than you thought beforehand and actually want to give it more time and mental energy. Also if the task you have started at first seemed vast, then once you are into it, it may feel more achievable and less impossible just because you are moving forward. So that’s the 5-minute rule, but wait a minute did I not do a full episode on the 5-second rule in episode 8, then how many rules can there be? And can you handle one more – If yes - what is The 10-minute rule? Well, put simply it states that - Every task on your to-do list should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. If tasks longer than 10 minutes, then break them down into smaller tasks or delegate it to someone else. This rule involves setting the alarm on your phone or a stopwatch to go off after 10-minutes and that in turn focuses your efforts into a very tight timescale. This isn’t about tricking your brain, this is about setting yourself forced deadlines to complete specific tasks. To help you to follow concept this let me talk about Parkinson's law - Which is the adage that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion" – This is an awesome concept and is so true it makes me laugh. It goes hand in hand with my episode on perfectionism too. If I say give myself a week to write notes on a script I’ve been sent, I can guarantee you I will take a week, but if I’m given 4 hours to do the same job I bet ya I can get it done. No, it might not be perfect but I’ll get it done. That’s Parkinson's law in action. It’s incredible to see what you can achieve when you consciously commit to the ten-minute rule. It’s like an extension of the High-Level Thinking I batter on about and all it takes is a bit of conscious effort to make this work. I want you to find those easy ten minute tasks or break a larger project into ten-minute bites and set a timer. It can be an email reply, a phone call, a brainstorming session - whatever. This stuff is always easier of course if you remove any distractions so get your phone and that time destroying app you find yourself on all the time, you know the one, and either delete it or get it the hell away from you. Actually yeh – delete that app in fact as you’ll need the ten-minute timer on your phone. That app’s a great distraction, isn’t it? Get rid of it. You know I’m right. And that do not disturb function on the phone is just a click away remember. Hit that too. Now set the timer and get to work. That’s all you need to do. SUMMING UP I always like to end episodes with a quote a Brainy Quote threw up these, Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy. Wayne Gretzky a Canadian Athlete came up with that one and I love it, but more commonly I hear “Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.” ― Mark Twain Not everything is urgent and not everything needs done today, but if you know you have a problem with procrastination and you can feel things getting on top of you then grab hold of these techniques and start applying them - You’ll find that life will get a little easier and as a side effect you might find yourself a little happier too. CALL TO ACTION These rules really work btw but you need to engage in them and commit. You might be asking yourself, how does this work? It doesn’t make sense. Well suck it and see. That’s all you need to do with the things I discuss here. There’s a lot of info in this episode and I’ll detail all of it with links to resources in the show notes, which can be found at filmproproductivity.com/episode9. Take just one or all of these techniques and give them a test drive. The one-touch rule, the 2-minute rule, the 5-minute rule and the 10-minute rule. All are similar but different. All are highly effective if applied correctly. Abraham Lincoln said that “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” If procrastination has snuck up on you and you are in a bit of trouble then grab one of these rules, apply it to your life and work today and things will get easier. ENDING Thanks again for listening - Next episode I’ll be talking about MULTITASKING AND WHY DOING ONE THING AT A TIME IS A FAR, FAR FAR BETTER OPTION. For now, though, take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’ and join me NEXT TIME on Film Pro Productivity. The music that you are listening to right now is Adventures by A Himitsu. You can view the show notes for this episode at filmproproductivity.com/Episode9 If you’re struggling with something you think I can help with or would like to tell me how you are getting on then please get in touch via the contact page on the website. Alternately you can get me on Twitter @fight_director or follow the show @filmproprodpod Please subscribe on the podcast app of your choice and if you are in the caring/ sharing mood then I’d really appreciate it if you would spread the word and leave an AWESOME review. Sources: https://lifehacker.com/stop-leaving-tasks-half-finished-with-the-one-touch-ru-1626933101 https://jamesclear.com/how-to-stop-procrastinating https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-10minute-rule-it-seems-crazy-but-it-will-revolutionize-your-productivity https://qz.com/work/999979/the-five-minute-trick-that-helps-instagrams-ceo-crush-procrastination/ Thanks: A Himitsu, Stephen Rowan, Dave Bullis Podcast, Podcraft. Main Photographs taken on the Giordano UK shoot by Bryan Larkin.       Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsu https://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A  

Show Notes EPISODE 8 – The 5 Second Rule Transcript On this week’s show, I will be talking about MEL ROBBINS 5 SECOND RULE and how you can use it to cut through indecision, Beat fear and uncertainty, hack procrastination, Become confident, Share your ideas with courage, Stop worrying and feel happier. Before that though, in the last episode, I detailed how the Pereto Principle can be applied to our lives and work, to save time and effort on the wrong things. Have you been able to identify something in your own life or work in which the 80/20 rule can be applied? If you have then have been able to make it work for you? I’d really love to hear from you so please remember that you can call into the show using the speakpipe recorder on filmproproductivity.com’s contact page or get in touch via twitter @filmproprodpod if you want to report in. THE LESSON I’ve got so many anecdotes about missed opportunities and risks not taken in my life that I could fill out a full episode just on that, but amongst them all, it’s very probably opportunities missed when working with people that I admire that I regret the most. It took me three times working with John Gordon Sinclair for me to actually pluck up the courage to discuss Gregory's Girl with him, a film that I absolutely love. TBH it was my friend Fin that told him I was a fan in the end. I directed fights on a movie with Idris Elba and Clarke Peters in it too, it was called Legacy and was shot by Black Camel Pictures in Glasgow. I regret not asking for my photo with these two amazing actors. I talked myself out of it. I talked myself into just sailing along and not engaging too much as I was in awe. When all is said and done I should have asked one of those amazing actors if they’d consider being in one of my films. I didn’t ask, and I have regrets… This week I decided to try a new productivity hack. It was to listen to the audio version of a book rather than reading it. I chose Mel Robbins 5 Second Rule, which I listened to on Audible whilst I was driving to and from work and at the gym. It was an excellent exercise and the content was strong - I figure that while it’s fresh on my mind I should bring it to you – I’ll also post a link to it in the show notes as it’s got far more to it than I can possibly go into here. I’d also like to say that Mel reads the book herself on Audible and it’s a great listen.  She is passionate and enthused about the technique which she first raised on a Ted talk that you can view on Youtube. That was in 2011 and I’ll put a link to it in the shownotes. Right up front, I’ll clarify, just as Mel does, that we are not talking about a rule for picking up dropped food. But Mel’s 5 Second Rule is simple. If you have an instinct to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill it. I’ll say that again If you have an instinct to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill it. This Rule is a simple, one-size-fits-all solution for the one problem we all face—we hold ourselves back. The secret isn’t knowing what to do—it’s knowing how to make yourself do it.  Mel’s Ted Talk is called How to stop screwing yourself over and I love that title, as I do think that we sabotage our own efforts time and time again through politeness or upbringing or fear of letting others down. The thing is, if you watch the TED Talk, The 5 Second Rule is something she says literally in the last two minutes, but it’s so essentially simple, and actionable that it’s spawned a book and a whole ethos. Mel explains that The 5-second rule is a way of harnessing “activation energy”.  That’s a chemical term, but it’s one that serves Mel’s productivity rule well. She says that the moment you feel an instinct or a desire to act on a goal or a commitment, use the Rule. When you feel yourself hesitate before doing something that you know you should do, count 5-4-3-2-1-GO and physically move towards action. Through little acts of courage, the 5 Second Rule makes you less afraid over time. But the “right time” might never come, so you just have to start. The 5 Second Rule helps to override your feelings, a tactic which is called psychological intervention. There is a window that exists between the moment you have an instinct to change and your mind killing it. It’s a 5-second window. And it exists for everyone. So - How does this work? Just start counting backwards to yourself: 5-4-3-2-1 – Mel tricked herself into getting out of bed when she really didn’t want to, the morning after watching a rocket launch – and how did she do it? How did she stop herself from hitting snooze again and again on her alarm clock. Well she counted down 54321 and took action. It’s as simple as that. In whatever you are doing, as soon as you reach “1” – push yourself to move. The counting down focuses you on the goal or commitment at the same time that it distracts you from the worries, thoughts, and excuses in your mind. 5 seconds is all it takes. But if you don’t act on an instinct within that 5-second window, that’s it. You’re not doing it. She breaks this down further and explains that there are 5 elements to the rule. “The moment you have an instinct…” which Mel defines as any urge, impulse, pull, or knowing that you should or should not do something because you can feel it in your heart and gut. These instincts are the urges. They are the “knowing” that you should do something even if you don’t “feel” like doing it. “To act on a goal…” and her point here is that it’s an instinct that’s tied to a goal. The “gut feelings” when our hearts and minds are trying to tell us something. And usually, these gut impulses are tied to greater goals. “You must push yourself…” The Rule is about pushing yourself even when you don’t want to. It’s about taking control of your own life, one push at a time. The moment comes. You feel the instinct. You know it’s tied to a goal. Right now. It’s a window of opportunity. Your brain wants to shut this instinct down. It’s going to do it. But, in that moment, you take control. “To move within 5 seconds…” Physical movement is the key. All you need to do is move in the direction of your instinct. If you do not take physical action WITHIN 5 SECONDS, your brain will kill the instinct. You do your countdown. 54321 And then you GO. You take action. This could mean a number of things. It means saying something you’ve been holding back. Speaking up at a meeting. Putting on your running shoes. Grabbing that healthy snack. Holding your tongue instead of saying something mean to your partner. Sending that email to a potential client or mentor. Anything that’s related to your goal. These 5-second windows, as she calls them, are the critical moments between you changing your life and your brain stopping you. “Or your brain will kill it.” If you don’t physically move within 5 seconds, your mind WILL kill your dreams. Your brain is like an overprotective, irrational, “helicopter” parent. It has 3 basic jobs. It narrates your life as you live it and catalogues your memories. It operates your body’s functions. And it protects you from danger. How does it protect you? By keeping you from doing anything that feels scary, hard, or uncertain. So the 5 Second Rule is a way to outsmart your brain by changing hesitation into ACTION. The book is full of real-life stories of the 5-second rule in action, with examples such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King to those that follow Mel’s lead these days and use the rule in their day to day lives. It’s a tool that creates massive change. Those 5-second windows add up. In almost any situation, there’s an application for the Rule. SUMMING UP Mel Robbins also points out that “from each small act of courage, more courage follows. It compounds and says that hopefully when you’re old, you will be able to look back on a courageous life.” Much of this episode uses the words of Mel, but I felt that was a good quote to end on. CALL TO ACTION Before you doubt all this, try it out. Try it yourself. Mel Robbins rule first touted in that Ted Talk just 7 years ago, allows you to create great drive in yourself, find courage where there was none and to seize the opportunity when it arises. In this week’s call to action, I urge you to get to grips with the 5-second rule. When that alarm goes off, don’t hit snooze. Count 54321 and get up. When you see an opportunity to talk to someone you admire, count 54321 and talk to them, don’t let your brain take over. When you are stuck and need to make any decision hit 54321 and you will find the decision has been made, subconsciously for you and you will be able to move on. ENDING Thanks again for listening - Next episode I’ll be talking about The One Touch rule and other systems which will allow you to deal with the day to day slog of getting stuff done! Until then - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’ and join me next time on Film Pro Productivity. The music that you are listening to right now is Adventures by A Himitsu. You can view the show notes for this episode at filmproproductivity.com/episode8 If you’re struggling with something you think I can help with or would like to tell me how you are getting on then please get in touch via the contact page on the website. Alternately you can get me on Twitter @fight_director or follow the show @filmproprodpod Please subscribe on the podcast app of your choice and if you are in the caring/ sharing mood then I’d really appreciate it if you would spread the word and leave an AWESOME review. Mel Robbins Ted Talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp7E973zozc Thanks: A Himitsu, Stephen Rowan, Dave Bullis Podcast, Podcraft. Main Photographs taken on the Giordano UK shoot by Bryan Larkin.   Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsu https://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A    

  EPISODE 7  – APPLYING THE PARETO PRINCIPLE Before I go on to that though, thanks again for choosing to spend your time here with me. I really do appreciate it. Last week I spoke about silencing the INNER CRITIC and how to use your positive inner voice to fuel your drive and put you firmly in the driving seat. I would love to hear how you are getting on with that and any of these techniques I raise here. Also about what you are struggling with out there, so if you have a moment to spare click onto the contact page at filmproproductivity.com and leave me a message. Your feedback will be very useful in helping me to plan future episodes. I’m slowly refining the podcast and if I can understand what other pros are struggling with then I can create new episodes to cover those topics. The speak pipe on the contact page allows you to leave a message and your message could be included in future episodes. THIS WEEKS INTRO On today's show I’ll be looking at one of The Productivity Worlds most effective strategies – often referred to simply as the 80/20 rule. ANECDOTE In January I started applying the Pareto Principle to all of my fight directing work. My premise was this. I was tired of having my time wasted by low paying fight days, and even more tired of jobs which were a pain in the ass and messed me about. I, therefore, started saying NO (a premise I detail in episode 2 of this season) to any work that I didn’t want to do. If it’s not a HELL YEH, then it’s a NO, remember? I also decided to not hunt down work on which the communication with potential employers was bad. If I was availability checked for example, and then left hanging, I stopped phoning them and asking for info. If they want me they will find me. The result so far, and as I put together this episode its August, well the result is the I am doing less work, for fewer companies and I am getting paid more money. I’ve had people knocking down my door to ask me on board, and yes once or twice I’ve still had my time wasted but overall I’ve owned it and had the best financial year of employment I’ve had in the last 10 years or so. To further prove my point, do you think I would have produced this podcast if I’d been fannying about with time wasters and amateurs? The Pareto Principle works, but what’s it all about? If you enjoy this episode and would like to know more about the Pareto Principle please support this podcast by buying the book The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch through my Amazon Affiliate link. I get a small bump for any sale made (Doesn’t have to be what I am linking to either!)   US: https://amzn.to/2DktgOX UK: https://amzn.to/2OI3dCF   THE LESSON The Pareto Principle is also known as the Pareto Rule or the 80/20 Rule. It was named after economist Vilfredo Pareto originally referred to the observation that 80% of Italy’s wealth belonged to only 20% of the population. He became somewhat obsessed with this ratio, seeing it in everything. For example, he observed that 80% of the peas in his garden came from 20% of his pea plants. It is sometimes referred to as “The Law of the Vital Few”. The basic principle that 80 percent of consequences come from 20 percent of the causes or an unequal relationship between inputs and outputs has been drawn into the productivity world and has had a massive impact. So roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Let’s apply that to my anecdote there. I realised that 80% of my income was coming from 20% of my clients. By effectively ignoring or giving minimal time to everyone else I was able to focus and give a better commitment to my remaining well-paying clients. Adversely I’d say that 80% of my hassle comes from 20% of my clients, so the added benefit of not chasing them down or deliberately side-lining them was that I no longer had all that hassle. I had hassle with well-paying jobs but then that was well paid. It was worth a bit of hassle, but any poor paying big hassle jobs went in the can and I at the other end got lots more time off to work on what I want to do. Do you get it? Do you see why The Pareto Principle is awesome yet? Let’s look at it in more detail. AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT THE PARETO PRINCIPLE It must be noted that the Pareto Principle is the observation (not law) that most things in life are not evenly distributed. It can mean that: 20% of the workers produce 80% of the result 20% of the customers create 80% of the revenue 20% of your clients cause 80% of your heartache 20% of your effort creates 80 % of the finished work 20% of criminals commit 80% of the crimes. 20% of pub-goers consume 80% of the alcohol. 20% of car drivers cause 80% of the accidents. Or looking at it another way: 80% of value is achieved with the first 20% of the effort 80% of work is completed by 20% of your team We spend 80% of our time with 20% of our friends. From my personal point of view I can say that: 80% of my fight work uses 20% of the techniques and skillset that I have. 80% of the time I spend on the phone is virtually useless. If I didn’t enjoy Twitter and interacting with the community there I would shut it down, and occasionally when things start to get on top of me I do. If you’re interested in speed reading then you might agree that 80% of the value in a book can be gleaned from 20% of its content. I wear 20% of my wardrobe 80% of the time. I’ve done a bit of a Steve Jobs on this in recent years and tend to wear the same style of shirts and jeans and boots every day. I have multiple sets and I just don’t have to think about it anymore. That’s really a comment about decision fatigue which I’ll get into on a later episode. As a final example and if we are to believe Woody Allen: 80% of success is just showing up – that makes some sense if you consider that "showing up" is 20% of the effort… Richard Koch, who wrote the book The 80/20 Principle explains the common misconception that the numbers 20 and 80 do not need to add up to 100. They are cause and effect – meaning they are not of the same denominator. It just so happens that the observation made by Pareto was 80/20 - I’ll quote from him here as he is the main man when it comes to this and I’ll put a link to that book in the show notes. “The numbers don’t have to be “20%” and “80%” exactly. The key point is that most things in life and work are not distributed evenly. It doesn’t have to be a literal 80-20 ratio — for example, 70% of the effects can be contributed by 15% of the causes or 60% of effects can be contributed by 30% of the causes. The percentages of effects and causes don’t have to add up to 100% either — 80% refers to the effect while 20% refers to the cause, meaning they are not of the same denominator. It just happened that Pareto’s observation was 80-20 (rather than 70-20 or 60-10).” I watch a lot of YouTube, frankly too much YouTube – I’ll have to do an episode on YouTube addiction once I figure out how to beat it. There’s a guy on there that talks about language hacking and I only speak English so I’m useless when I’m anywhere else so I’ve watched a few of his - His whole system and he’s released a lot of books on this - is based on the principle that the 20% of the words in any language account for 80% of our usage. By making a list of words organized by how frequently they’re used, and studying just those, he can account for a significant portion of daily usage. He also had another hack which effectively says that a lot of other languages use versions of English words and that you should learn them first, but that’s me getting side-tracked. Very interesting though and its a terrific real-world example of The Pareto Principle in action. So let’s look at how this can actually be applied to our life and work in the creative industries. If 20% of your tasks bring 80% of the results – on any specific goal – then this means that we can accurately find the tasks which must be made a top priority. We can prioritise these tasks over other less important work to achieve maximum results with the least effort. With that knowledge, we can become highly efficient with our time and prioritise with that knowledge For me, the whole 80/20 principle thing is a way to prioritise. It allows me to focus on the vital - the 20% high-value tasks, rather than spreading myself thinly across everything. It allows me to say, my time is not worth that effort – whatever it may be – and I can delegate the less important work, automate it, postpone it or just remove it altogether. Look to episode 3 if you want to know more about prioritising. SUMMING UP So let me sum up. Richard Koch says that: “Conventional wisdom is not to put all of your eggs in one basket. 80/20 wisdom is to choose a basket carefully, load all your eggs into it, and then watch it like a hawk.” I can’t believe I’ve done this many episodes without referencing Tim Ferris – well here we go at last. Tim says “Doing less is not being lazy. Don't give in to a culture that values personal sacrifice over personal productivity.” What a great line eh?  Why the personal sacrifice – what is it getting you? Heartache? Stress? Let it go. Value your own time more. Listen to Dale Carnegie who said  “Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.” – That’s the 80/20 rule in action. CALL TO ACTION So if  The Pareto Principle is the prediction or observation that 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. Can you assess any aspect of your own life or work where you can apply it? If the answer to that is yes, then what are you waiting for? That’s this week’s homework. Assess your own task list and apply it – I am certain you will find something in there to which this applies. ENDING Thanks again for listening - Next episode I’ll be talking about Mel Robbins’ 5 second Rule and how you can use it to cut through indecision, Beat fear and uncertainty, hack procrastination, Become confident, Share your ideas with courage, Stop worrying and feel happier. For now, though, take control of your own destiny, silence those negative thoughts, keep on shootin’ and join me NEXT TIME on Film Pro Productivity. The music that you are listening to right now is Adventures by A Himitsu. You can view the show notes for this episode at filmproproductivity.com/episode7 If you’re struggling with something you think I can help with or would like to tell me how you are getting on then please get in touch via the contact page on the website. Alternately you can get me on Twitter @fight_director or follow the show @filmproprodpod Please subscribe on the podcast app of your choice and if you are in the caring/ sharing mood then I’d really appreciate it if you would spread the word and leave an AWESOME review. Sources: https://www.amazon.co.uk/80-Principle-Expanded-Updated-Achieving/dp/0385491743 Thanks: A Himitsu, Stephen Rowan, Dave Bullis Podcast, Podcraft. Main Photographs taken on the Giordano UK shoot by Bryan Larkin.   Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsu https://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A    

    EPISODE 6 – DEALING WITH YOUR INNER CRITIC   In this episode, I’ll be talking about negative and debilitating thoughts and how to handle them. Last week I left you with my thoughts on perfectionism and why it’s a really bad thing. I wanted you to stop trying to be perfect and start living your lives. That was your homework. I have a feeling that for those of you who tried it will have given some real results. Are you aware of your inner voice or inner monologue – The part I’m talking about today is more aptly named the inner CRITIC – it’s that voice in your head that will troll you and put you down at every opportunity. It’s talking to me right now, literally right this second. It’s saying. This is a waste of time. No one cares. It’s saying, what if I get this wrong? I don’t know how to launch a podcast. People are not going to be happy about me giving out advice – what makes me so special? It’s saying Film Pro Productivity is a terrible name for a podcast anyway. It’s saying lots and lots of negative things about everything that I do, everything that I plan and everything that I create. It’s more persistent than any internet troll, any annoying idiot on a forum and any film critic out there. The film critics that think they are cutting when they review other peoples work, are nothing NOTHING compared to that inner voice that’s whispering in our ears during every step of the creative process and saying this, whatever it is you are doing – just ain’t good enough. This inner critic can be totally self-destructive. If we listen to it. THE LESSON I have my own opinions about the topics I raise on Film Pro Productivity but I do a good bit of research on them before I bring them to you so that I can bring you a more rounded opinion. On this topic, however – and I think this s particularly relevant to those working in creative industries such as film - there wasn’t much. I mean it’s out there but it’s thin on the ground, it’s sometimes disguised under different headings, but you have to dig. I found good information in some online articles aimed at women as it happens, although this is definitely a problem which both sexes have to face, and I think particularly for CREATIVES. One article details a survey that Activia did where they asked women what was holding them back from reaching their dreams? 80% of the time, the answer was themselves. There are of course positive and negative voices to our inner monologue. On one shoulder we have a devil with a pitchfork and horns but on the other we have an angelic saint wearing a halo. At least that’s what they look like in the cartoons. Each one is saying don’t listen to the other guy, whispering in our ears and influencing our lives. Of course, in truth, they are far more complex characters. I’d go for a sarcastic internet hater (the ones that lurk on forums just waiting for you to say something they can disagree with) versus a sensible guiding mentor, teacher or even a supportive parent but the visuals for them are a lot more complex. If I split our inner monologue into three different parts though: The INNER VOICE – is the positive voice that supports, calms and reassures us - born from our sense of right and wrong and our sense of goodwill, family and friendship. It gives us drive and is fuelled by passion. This inner voice should be considered as our guide. It’s the voice that says Let’s do this. Get up, brush your teeth, pay your bills, write that script, go to the gym, phone your mammy and don’t worry. Everything’s going to be alright. It’s the voice that calms you, allows stress to wash over you and that says well done, good job and sometimes, lets you just walk away. The much quoted Derek Sivers line - if it’s not a HELL YEH, then it’s a No, comes from that inner voice advising us that maybe this job or task or invitation is not good for you – It is looking after your wellbeing. You won’t ever get this voice mixed up with the inner critic as the inner critic will be grabbing you round the throat and whispering poison in your ear - but you might feel that you have lost touch with reality a little and there are solutions to that. I’ll do a future episode on affirmations which will go into this in a bit of detail. Consciously curated affirmations can act as a crutch for those feeling lost out there. The second element would be what I have talked about in detail already - The INNER CRITIC –If we let this bully take control, it will feed our self-doubt, pick on our weaknesses and say we’re not good enough, not worthy enough, not charming enough, not experienced enough and if we start listening to it we are going to stop ourselves before we even start. There’s a third part to this perhaps which I’m going to tackle in a mini-episode which I’ll release just after this and that’s Rumination. It’s like an extreme form of the inner critic but it’s not so much an inner voice, more a replaying of experiences emotions or thoughts in an endless loop that keeps you awake at night and wears away at your soul. I’ll talk about it separately as it needs a bit of time to get into, but we can tackle it and we will. DEALING WITH THE INNER CRITIC The way I see it, there’s a fourth part to all this. The part that listens to the negative voice. The silent partner that passively gives the critic an ear in which to catastrophize... You. Let’s give permission to that silent partner to speak up. My favourite example of a creative overcoming their inner critic is.  JK Rowling - Harry Potter was rejected by 12 publishers before BLOOMSBURY picked it up for an advance of just £1500 quid. It’s now sold over 450 million copies worldwide. If she’d listened to her inner critic she’d not have persevered and the world would have missed out on an absolutely cracking set of stories. I’m certain that JK Rowling had a few moments along the way where she said to herself – What am I doing? But she persevered, shut down that negativity and drove what she believed into completion. Support this podcast by purchasing anything at all through my affiliate links. The Harry Potter Complete Collection is not a productivity book but it's still awesome... :-)   US: https://amzn.to/2MSFBtk UK: https://amzn.to/2I5bZbh   What can we do to combat the inner critic? It’s easy to say just ignore it, but perhaps trickier in practice – what we can do once we have recognised that it is there is to implement strategies to live with it or disrupt its influence along the way. In time you will build habits that will give you back control. First Things First - How’s about you just give yourself a break? Don’t concede to the enemy within. If you recognise what I’ve been talking about where you can handle it - this podcast will help you to recognise when the critic is in the driving seat and it’s then that you can say no to the negative voice and take over. Building up our belief in ourselves and our self-worth is key. I get a LOT of fight directing work in the UK – It’s how I pay my bills - but it took a visit to China and after just a few minutes of watching the amazing Donnie Yen direct a fight sequence for me to realise - that wow – He works exactly the same way I do. I’d forgotten how good I was as I almost always work on my own. It’s easy to forget how good you are at what you do if you live and work in a vacuum. It’s also too easy to stop yourself before you start. One of the principles of good mental health is to get out there and experience the world. If you find your inner critic gets to be just too much – try going for a walk. Hit the gym. Meet a friend for a coffee. Just the change of environment can make the difference and help you to remember that you are in control. You can also defeat the inner critic before it starts by planning ahead. Define what your tasks are very specific. Plan what you want to achieve and don’t want when you start on something. One article I read said that the inner critic will make incomplete and undefined tasks an “amorphous blob of un-do-ability” which is a wonderful description. That’s what your inner critic will make of unspecific tasks. Listen to my episode on prioritising and use the brain dump technique and prioritising strategies to define exactly what is important. With a written plan you can save yourself a lot of time and give your work focus. That plan might allow you to break larger tasks down into a series of smaller more edible tasks, to effectively make them a sum of their parts. Parts so small that the inner critic will find it harder to combat. Using the techniques from my episode on perfectionism will also allow you move on. Don’t catastrophize! I used to be really bad for this. Stop yourself from dwelling on worst-case scenarios, and all the things that could possibly go wrong and look towards what is realistic. I had an unbelievable conversation with a young assistant director at the Edinburgh Film Festival this year. He’d convinced himself that no one wanted to hire him but the reality was he hadn’t actually sent out a Resume or told anyone out there that he was available for work. It’s amazing how debilitating that critic can be. His solution was to take action, and I advised him to do so. In the words of Winston Churchill – Success is not final – Failure is not fatal – it is the courage to continue that counts. Taking action is my solution to many of these debilitating situations, and to do that you need to develop Drive. A subject which I’ll commit an entire episode to later on. It goes hand in hand with the self-belief that I mentioned a minute ago. Constant unchecked movement will create a snowball effect and allow you to develop a habit of work that your inner critic will be unable to stop. One other action you might take if you have reached an impasse with your inner critic is to share your thoughts with someone else. Getting out of your own head; Like I talk about in my earlier episode on Prioritising in fact, and hearing feedback from someone else that you trust will silence your inner critic quite effectively. Talking it over with a friend will give almost always give you a realistic perspective if what you’ve been doing is catastrophising - presenting a situation as considerably worse than it actually is. SUMMING UP The Psychologist William James said “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” The weapon therefor and the choice of how you wield it is yours - You are the master of our own destiny. CALL TO ACTION Use the techniques I’ve talked about today to tackle your negative inner thoughts and you will find that you will have a more productive and happy life as a result. Next time it happens. Catch yourself and question it. Use your positive inner voice to fuel your drive and put you firmly in the driving seat. ENDING Thanks again for listening - Next episode I’ll be talking about THE PERETO PRINCIPLE and how it can be applied to our work in the creative industries. For now, though, take control of your own destiny, silence those negative thoughts, keep on shootin’ and join me NEXT TIME on Film Pro Productivity. The music for this podcast and that you are listening to right now is Adventures by A Himitsu. You can view the show notes for this episode at filmproproductivity.com/episode5 If you’re struggling with something you think I can help with or would like to tell me how you are getting on then please get in touch via the contact page on the website. Alternately you can get me on Twitter @fight_director or follow the show @filmproprodpod Please subscribe on the podcast app of your choice and if you are in the caring/ sharing mood then I’d really appreciate it if you would spread the word and leave an AWESOME review. Sources: https://joshkaufman.net/getting-things-done/, https://tinybuddha.com/blog/5-immediate-and-easy-ways-to-silence-your-inner-critic/, https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/compassion-matters/201305/4-ways-overcome-your-inner-critic Thanks: A Himitsu, Stephen Rowan, Dave Bullis Podcast, Podcraft. Main Photographs taken on the Giordano UK shoot by Bryan Larkin.   Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsu https://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A        

  EPISODE 5 – PERFECTIONISM & WHY TO AVOID IT On this week’s show, I will be talking about how PERFECTIONISM is NOT the way forward if you want to be PRODUCTIVE and HAPPY. Before we start though last week I detailed the 5 a day for good mental health system which I had attached to the acronym ALIVE. I hope that it’s been a good topic of discussion for you and its helped a few people along the way. If you missed it you can access it right now on the podcast app of your choice or at filmproproductivity.com/episode4 THE LESSON Leo Tolstoy in AnnaKarenina says “If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.” so this is no new topic of discussion In productivity terms, PERFECTIONISM, or dealing with the problems that arise as a result of perfectionism, could have been split over two episodes as it’s a huge topic. It is something that tied me down for years - I have found it a major hindrance in my life. Good was never good enough and good enough was rarely PERFECT. Now I’m ABSOLUTELY NOT saying here that we shouldn’t have high standards but perfectionism is a trait which will more often than not leave you frustrated and dissatisfied with your work even if it’s excellent. It can incapacitate you if you let it, create strain on your relationships, damage your health and leave you constantly unhappy and disappointed. I used to think that my perfectionism was a strength, in fact at one point in my life it was on my Resume for like 2 years. I was obsessed with getting things right, I still am, to be honest, but I am no longer a perfectionist. International productivity author Stephen Guise wrote a book about this called How to be an im-perfectionist – That’s a far better description of how I see myself now. Stephen says If you don't manage to reframe perfectionism as a damaging and inferior mindset, the illusion of its superiority will thwart your desired changes. You can support The podcast by buying the book How To Be An Imperfectionist by Stephen Guise (or indeed anything else via this link) from Amazon. I am an Amazon Affiliate and get a supportive bump back for the podcast from any sale. Alternately hit the DONATE BUTTON at the bottom of the page :-)   US: https://amzn.to/2xGP9lp UK: https://amzn.to/2OI0ARj   Shortly after I made my feature film, I had a colossal breakdown and only then did I begin to realise that perfectionism was what had put me there. I was diagnosed as having a dissociative disorder and PTSD – Yes PTSD – who would have thought that making a low budget feature film would lead to similar mental stresses to those returning from war zones? During my recovery, I signed up for health classes the STEPS organisation, which I think are now called Wellbeing Glasgow.  One was called Dealing with Stress – and every 6 weeks in Glasgow at that time 130 new people started with that class – stress today is an epidemic and it is killing people. In the hand-outs that we got with the classes, there was a list of things that led to stress, anxiety and depression. Top of that list was the word PERFECTIONISM. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The thing that I had always thought was a positive trait was, I suddenly realised, the likely reason that I had gone bananas. My obsession with getting things perfect, and rarely achieving that goal, had been destroying me. It’s not PC to say this anymore, but I was having a nervous breakdown. I couldn’t remember things, I had no confidence left, my perception of reality was skewed and I was frightened and totally burned out. But the realisation that everything doesn’t have to be PERFECT is something that many people find hard to swallow - I mean what’s wrong with wanting things to be perfect right? Well – wanting things to be perfect is normal, but becoming obsessed with achieving perfection can be paralysing. It cramps your life and leads to anxiety, depression, eating disorders, stress and other mental health issues - and all of that, in turn, leads to damaged relationships, a problematic work-life balance and ultimately loss of joy for life. You see as a perfectionist. There can be no room for mistakes. They spend a crazy amount of time correcting tiny mistakes that ultimately don’t make a difference. They are hypercritical, taking the finish of what you are doing to a level far beyond that which others would deem excellent. Things have got to be done their way, and that’s a very specific way. They find it very difficult to find good people to work with and many people won’t want to work with them for fear of miss-footing and drawing their wrath. As a result, they disregard their health, compromise relationships, take on more and more and all of that leads to more and more pressure, lack of sleep and stress. Even if they delegate, they keep worrying about it. They micro-manage, even when things are going well. They become obsessed with the end result. They don’t care what it takes to achieve the goal, and if they don’t make it, they feel like a failure. They even get hung up on past perceived “failures” because they just can’t let go even years later. They can’t stop thinking about work, because they are afraid everything will fall apart without them. Their, what I would call, inner critic is forever trolling them and comparing what they are doing with what someone who has done it for years has done. So they are immensely hard on themselves. Because their standards are so high they become huge procrastinators– I don’t know the number of filmmakers out there that have made films and not even released them as they have lost faith in what they are doing. It’s not perfect so it has no worth. They become perpetually locked in a state of preparation, waiting for the right moment to proceed. For the perfect alignment of the stars which will result in the perfect product. It’s crippling. No matter what they do, it’s never enough. Success is never enough for that inner voice I mentioned earlier. It’s a motivation killer because they hold themselves to unachievable standards and much of the time they don’t even start. It is ALL or NOTHING. We're constantly worried about your work being judged – which is not surprising as in this social networking age we will be. And finally they leave themselves no room to get better – They have forgotten that we all need to make mistakes in order to learn. SO LET'S TALK ABOUT HOW TO BEAT PERFECTIONISM If you see yourself in what I’ve just been describing then fear not, WE CAN BEAT THIS ADDICTION TO PERFECTION, REPROGRAM OUR VIEW OF REALITY and STILL ACHIEVE BRILLIANCE IN WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO. I beat my addiction to perfection with this simple premise - I asked myself in whatever it was I was doing: Is this perfect? NO Then I asked myself - Is it good enough? and my good enough is really very good btw – and if it isn’t good enough I will do more but if my truthful answer is YES - if it meets my minimum standard – Then I will give myself permission to move on. I just won’t allow myself to get hung up in a perpetual loop of micro improvement and I will proceed with imperfection. I’ve seen that this is also the conclusion that many others in this field have come to. Stephen Guise’s solution is effectively the same as mine but adds another level. He has a floor and a ceiling to his high standards. His im-perfectionist lives between the floor, or the bare minimum standard for it to be ok, to be good, passable, and acceptable and a ceiling – which is a magical dreamlike perfection, the highest possible standard. He explains that the perfectionist who seeks the highest possible standard makes that their floor, and in turn that makes their ceiling unachievable – On that basis, the PERFECTIONIST will NEVER REACH PERFECTION. Changing your standard from the unachievable to a very high standard frees you up from all the other problems that come with it. Try going for 80 or 90% of perfection. That’s a much more achievable aim. Eliminating perfection from your life is NOT a THAT’LL DO philosophy. It allows you to set high achievable standards. As we embrace imperfection we need to kill the ALL OR NOTHING MINDSET by accepting that there is a natural progression to things. We can advance my question by asking - Is it good enough FOR NOW? Can I let this stand FOR NOW and improve it at a later date? Writers will do it in their drafts and redrafting process, gradually improving. Students will study to get better and as their understanding of a topic or skill broadens they will improve. The best analogy is perhaps the one of learning to ride a bike. You have to practice to get better and eventually the training wheels will come off. You can’t immediately achieve brilliance – You should work your way towards it. On that same topic, we must stop comparing ourselves to others. Applying constant pressure on yourself to meet the unrealistic standard that a competitor or mentor that has 20 years more experience than you sets is the ultimate route to procrastination. Fear of your work not being of a high enough standard will simply make you stop because you are holding yourself to an ideal they can't possibly reach. Yet. We also need to focus on the positive and on the things we are doing well. We can’t linger on our doubts and allow the inner voice to paralyse us. Switch off your negative self-talk. We must also make health our priority and stop sacrificing rest in the name of work. Care for yourself. Make fitness and eating priorities in your life and don’t let stress creep up on you. One that I am trying to figure out right now and I am having some success with is that we should embrace the process and not be so target oriented. Stay in the moment and enjoy the task. Don’t make your happiness depend on whether you hit a goal or miss it. Having goals is a truly great thing but if the bar is too high then it will just be demotivating. We must figure out our work/ life balance and not go down the slippery slope of obsessing over our work at the cost of missing our families or our partners. We must value our relationships and personal life. If you put 100% of your energy into work you will leave no room for anything else, including your own downtime. We must learn to delegate, and that’s something I’ve raised in earlier episodes of this podcast. You may feel that it’s easier and faster for you to do everything yourself but that’s not really the case. It may be done a little differently from how you would like it done, but if you find good reliable people to work with, and relay your instructions well, then whatever task you delegate will get done. Here’s a secret that I use to get great work done by others. I only work with brilliant people. You’ve got to hunt for them, but they are out there. We must prioritise our tasks and ignore the less important. A perfectionist will try to do it all and dissipate their energy. If you can prioritise, and I spoke about that in my last podcast, then you can focus on what is the most important without being hung up on the small details. SUMMING UP My all-time favourite quote on this topic is by ― Ernest Hemingway who said that “The first draft of anything is shit.” I’ll balance that last quote with one by Lao Tzu who says that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. I love this one as it captures the spirit of recovery. When you understand the ideas that these quotes demonstrate, and realise that DONE is better than PERFECT, it opens the door for us to write that first draft, or make our first film, or record our first sound or paint our first painting or even – as I am proving here – create your first podcast. I’ve spent a lot of time on my podcast but it’s anything but perfect. I know that, and I am releasing it anyway. I don’t compare it to the awesome podcasts that are already out there but I do allow them to inspire and educate me. I celebrate them as I put this one together. I silence my inner critic and release my imperfect Podcast to the world, and I do it with courage. No one is going to hear it if I don’t release it so here it is. Completed and out there. I’ve fought through my procrastination, launched with imperfection and know that I will get better as I create more and learn from my mistakes. For now, though I hope that it has been useful to those who have listened and that you will be able to take the ideas which I have presented forward and into your own life and work. That filmmaker that’s frightened to release his film as it doesn’t compare to Spielberg’s latest masterpiece CALL TO ACTION How many of you have slaved over the wording of an email for example – working at it to be perfect? Was that email really that important that it deserved an hour or more of your time? Probably not. That’s a tiny example of perfectionism intruding on your time and mental energy. Spot this perfectionism and work round it. TEACH YOURSELF TO CARE A LITTLE LESS. I just want you to stop trying to be perfect and start living your lives. That’s the homework. ENDING If you want to tell me how you are getting on with the productivity concepts that I talk about here then I’d love to hear from you. Get in touch via the speakpipe recorder on filmproproductivity.com’s contact page or on twitter @filmproprodpod. If you can take a minute or two to tell me what is working for you and what you are struggling with then I’ll do my best to feedback in future episodes. Thanks again for listening – This has been a big episode so Next time will be shorter – I’ll be talking to you about ALIVE - a simple acronym to improve your mental health. But for now, just take control of your destiny, keep on shootin’ and join me next time on Film Pro Productivity. The music for this podcast and that you are listening to right now is Adventures by A Himitsu. You can view the show notes for this episode at filmproproductivity.com/episode5 If you’re struggling with something you think I can help with or would like to tell me how you are getting on then please get in touch via the contact page on the website. Alternately you can get me on Twitter @fight_director or follow the show @filmproprodpod Please subscribe on the podcast app of your choice and if you are in the caring/ sharing mood then I’d really appreciate it if you would spread the word and leave an AWESOME review. Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8pti-Swh_E&t=59s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAoakO64ixA, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/better-perfect/201611/9-signs-you-might-be-perfectionist Thanks: A Himitsu, Stephen Rowan, Dave Bullis Podcast, Podcraft. Main Photographs taken on the Giordano UK shoot by Bryan Larkin.   Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsu https://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A    

  Show Notes EPISODE 4 – 5 A DAY FOR GOOD MENTAL HEALTH A.L.I.V.E. This week I’ll be talking about 5 simple steps to a happier life through mental well-being using the acronym ALIVE. ANECTOTE We have designated Mental Health Awareness Weeks every year. In Europe it’s in May, in North America, it’s usually the end of September into October. World suicide prevention day is on the 10th September every year. 1 in 5 people across the world suffer from some form of mental illness. It’s a topic that we need to talk more about. We need to eliminate the stigma about mental illness and talking about it is a great way to start. I first came across the 5 A Day for good mental health system when I was attending stress classes run by Glasgow’s STEPS program, now called Wellbeing Glasgow. In that 6 evening course, it was raised and presented as part of the class and detailed the books that accompanied it. Later on, I went on to volunteer with the course leader Dr Jim White on media matters. The 5 a day system had made a great impact on me but as I questioned him on it I couldn’t recall them all. At that time. Neither could he. It was some weeks later when I travelled with my brothers to Moniaive in Dumfriesshire to attend my Aunt Jean’s funeral, that my brothers and I came up with the acronym ALIVE to remember the system. If anyone ever wonders where this episode was born, it was there in that car, and this podcast is my first effort to get it out there. THE LESSON Before I go into my own interpretation for this let’s talk about 5 A DAY FOR MENTAL WELLBEING. It was borne of a European Union survey on mental health which for the life of me I’ve never been able to track down. Now, this 5 a day system is touted everywhere, and quite rightly as it’s a brilliant and effective system. It consists of 5 elements.   Connect Connect with the people around you: Your family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. Spend time developing these relationships. Put five minutes aside to ask someone how they are Arrange to meet up with friends that you haven’t seen in a while Join a local group or club and meet new people in your community   Be active You don’t have to go to the gym. Take a walk, go cycling or play a game of football. Play Pokémon Go! Find the activity that you enjoy, and make it a part of your life. Go for a short walk at lunchtime Discover a physical activity you enjoy and one that suits you   Keep learning Learning new skills can give you a sense of achievement and a new confidence. So why not sign up for that cooking course, start learning to play a musical instrument, or figure out how to fix your bike? Sign up for a class and learn something new Rediscover an old interest, such as cooking or gardening Take on a new challenge to make or fix something   Give to others / or Volunteer (your time) Even the smallest act can count, whether it’s a smile, a thank you, or a kind word. Larger acts, such as volunteering at your local community centre, can improve your mental wellbeing and help you build new social networks. Volunteer your time for a cause you are passionate about Spend time with someone who you know has been having a difficult time   Take notice Be more aware of the present moment, including your feelings and thoughts, your body and the world around you. Some people call this awareness “mindfulness,” and it can positively change the way you feel about life, and how you approach challenges. Set aside time to practise mindfulness or take up yoga Take notice of how your friends or colleagues are feeling Spend time outdoors, enjoy the fresh air and notice what’s around you So these are quite simple steps which we should all be aware of, but how do we easily remember them. ALIVE My system uses the appropriate acronym ALIVE. A - Stay active, keep moving every day. L – look about, observe the world about you, watch a sunset, smell a flower, I – Interact with others, get out of the house, V – volunteer your time, you don’t need to start a podcast, just help someone with the little things like lifting their shopping, mowing a lawn, or just lifting up the phone and lastly E – Educate – Keep learning – that is the key to your future. Try Udemy or listen to more podcasts. Keep that brain active and keen. If a specialist doctor couldn’t remember these off the top of his head then I can assure you that we need this. It’s my gift to the world. Take it – fly with it – spread the word. Just telling people about this will make you feel much better about your own troubles. It’s a great conversation starter and it really helps those in need. Productivity is as much about gaining a happier, healthier life as it is about getting more done. Having poor mental health is as sure to stop you working as anything else. SUMMING UP “When your mind is in a dark place it is difficult not to think in shadows.” ― Charlie Hasler, Words From An Unlikely Poet With one in five people suffering this means it is likely that you or someone in your immediate family or someone you work with is struggling with their mental health. Can you imagine them having to deal with that stigma? A stigma that causes people in need of help to keep it to themselves! Dealing with mental illness is extremely hard on its own, doing so in silence makes it that much harder. CALL TO ACTION This week's call to action is - if you know someone with a mental health concern, reach out and talk to them. Let them know that while you may not understand what they are feeling, you are there for them and are supportive of them. Share this podcast, or the ALIVE acronym to help get the conversation started. There will be a full transcript on the website. I want you to memorise the ALIVE acronym and talk about it often and keep spreading the word. ENDING Thanks again for listening and for giving me your time. I’d like to thank Doctor Jim White and the STEPS team in Glasgow for helping me in my own struggles and I dedicate this episode to my old friend and creative colleague Keith Munro who we lost some years ago. Next episode I’ll be talking about PERFECTIONISM and how it can be applied to our work in the creative industries. For now, though, take control of your own destiny, silence those negative thoughts, keep on shootin’ and join me NEXT TIME on Film Pro Productivity. The music for this podcast is Adventures by A Himitsu. You can view the show notes for this episode at filmproproductivity.com/episode4 If you’re struggling with something you think I can help with or would like to tell me how you are getting on then please get in touch via the contact page on the website. Alternately you can get me on Twitter @fight_director or follow the show @filmproprodpod Please subscribe on the podcast app of your choice and if you are in the caring/ sharing mood then I’d really appreciate it if you would leave an AWESOME review. Sources: https://www.livingwell.org.au/well-being/five-ways-to-mental-wellbeing/ https://www.samh.org.uk/about-mental-health/self-help-and-wellbeing/five-ways-to-better-mental-health Thanks: A Himitsu, Stephen Rowan, Dave Bullis Podcast, Podcraft. Main Photographs taken on the Giordano UK shoot by Bryan Larkin.   Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsu https://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A  

   PRIORITIZING In this episode, we will be looking at how to prioritise your tasks and gain clarity of mind that will allow you to move forward. Before we start though: have you been actioning the word NO from last week’s episode? I started with NO for good reason – it’s going to stop you sliding down whatever slippery slope you are on. Whatever time-consuming rabbit holes you have found yourself in. This week’s topic is prioritising because saying NO to the wrong things means that you can start saying YES to the right – Saying NO liberates you from non-essential commitments and makes much more room for you to say yes to what is meaningful and important to you. It opens up free time by giving you choices. NO being one that will stop the influx of new commitments, MAYBE which will buy you time to think about a commitment and YES which comes from knowing that commitment is something that furthers your end goals something you really want to do or perhaps just something that pays the bills. But how can you decide what’s important and what is not? THE LESSON I nearly called this episode WHITE NOISE AND HOW TO NAVIGATE THROUGH IT as that’s often how I feel when I get bogged down in my THINGS TO DO list – It’s a foggy buzzy place where I can get lost and sometimes I find myself obsessing over things which when all are said and done, are just not important. That fog, no matter how driven you are, can drop down and, in productivity terms at least, hide from you what is important, and cause you to slow down and meander into a rhythm of unproductiveness. About a year ago I picked up 6 retro  VHS camcorders from a college that was getting rid of them. I had them sent to me and all in it was about £200. Great deal and I had a plan for them. I was going to give them to fellow filmmaker friends with a challenge, I’d give them a camcorder and a single tape which costs about £2, the means to capture from them which was another £10 and I was going to ask them all to make a short film to a deadline with a prize of keeping the camcorder and something more for the winner – It would be fun right? Wrong. I ended up chewing over how I would do this for months, and it was always on my mind. I had a Ton of other far more important things to do, fight contracts that required constant attention, relationships, I had just got a puppy, I had my own films I was trying to develop and a load of house-related problems and personal matters that needed my time and time. When I stopped for a moment and looked at what I had on my todo list it was probably 6 months later and I was drowning. Within two minutes of assessing what I had to do, I realised I had to dump this camcorder idea. As I stopped and took stock I realised it was a total waste of time and money. I mean if I’d been a millionaire playboy with plenty of free time maybe I could have done it with my friends one weekend, but I’m no millionaire. By simply eliminating this task not doing it I was able to: Save a load of money. Save a load of hassle - communicating and organising an idea which other filmmakers would likely not have the time to actually do anything with. These people have businesses and families. Save a load of time. This project wouldn’t have taken 5 minutes. It would have taken weeks and possibly months of time I didn’t have. Free up my mind for more important things. Getting what’s on your mind and onto paper, or on to a whiteboard as that’s my preferred medium, allows you to honestly assess what is important and what was not. My time consuming altruistic camcorder idea which would ultimately led to me giving away my those camcorders just didn’t fit with what I was about at that time. I only realised that though when I stopped and assessed all that I had on my mind. Prioritising starts with what I call a BRAIN DUMP. Get a whiteboard or a just a piece of paper, but whiteboards are cheap and really give you a good chance at tackling this sort of thing. I actually have 4 large whiteboards in my office and one at home for doing this sort of thing. Get that whiteboard and Dump whatever is on your mind onto it. Get it all out there. Any incomplete task, anything that’s on your mind and anything that is slowing you down. If you’re using a whiteboard and run out of space you can always photograph it and type it up and start a new board btw. If you enjoy this episode and would like to support the show, please buy whiteboard through my Amazon Affiliate link. I get a small bump for any sale made (Doesn’t have to be what I am linking to either!) Thanks! Whiteboard US: https://amzn.to/2xGP9lp UK: https://amzn.to/2NvDMro   Now the task of getting everything onto a whiteboard or a piece of paper starts to make a difference to your mind. That working space that’s been holding these ideas and worries starts to free up. That RAM or headspace can be put to better use than remembering all these incomplete tasks. Just having that host of tasks in your head will actually tire you out. In 1927 a Russian psychologist called Bluma Zeigarnik found that waiters remembered orders only as long as the order was in the process of being served. When we hold multiple things in short-term memory, we have to rehearse them continuously, otherwise, they would disappear. This requires a lot of cognitive effort and the more things we are rehearsing the more effort. The Waiters had better recollections of still unpaid and incomplete orders but after the completion of the task — after everyone had paid — they were unable to remember any more details of the orders. This trick now known as the Zeigarnik effect is very well applied by soaps and serials. The episode ends, but the story doesn’t. Thus you get stuck in a cliffhanger. Software designers do the same things with games. The point is that this is a thing, it’s been understood for years and it’s something you can deal with. HOW TO SAY PRIORITISE So now that we know that we have gotten these tasks out of our short-term memory and on a whiteboard or a piece of paper we can now apply one of several systems to help us to prioritise. The "Eisenhower Method" stems from a quote attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower: who said "I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent is not important, and the important is never urgent." I’ll detail that system in the show notes but my preferred system is Rory Vaden’s focus funnel. The way this works is - If you can imagine a funnel wide at the top and getting tighter as it goes down, you would run you to do list through this. This dilutes your list into a priority list. ELIMINATE – What can you get rid of. For me, it was, amongst other things, the camcorder thing. It was an incomplete task or loop in my head and it took up space for no good reason. AUTOMATE – Examples DELEGATE – Dog Walking. PROCRASTINATE – till a later date CONCENTRATE – This is the dilution of what is important.   SUMMING UP The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule but to schedule your priorities. Stephen Covey I’ll look at the bigger questions of life purpose and life goals which will, in turn, inform your priorities in a later episode but the combination of a Brain Dump and the Focus Funnel system will help you to navigate your way through the white noise of everyday life and work and start to get back on top. Straight off the bat, decide what of your to-do list can be eliminated – combine that with a  bit of honesty in yourself and the word NO I talked about last time, and you are well on the way to escaping that overburdening feeling of obligation you may have gotten yourself into. CALL TO ACTION Let's get that white noise out of your head and onto a piece of paper, or a whiteboard. Apply the focus funnel, which again will be shown as a diagram in the show notes and you will soon get back control. Remember that you are driving the bus, not some unimportant commitment or incomplete task. ENDING Thanks again for listening - Next episode I’ll be talking about PERFECTIONISM and why it’s a really bad thing. Good luck in the week ahead. Buckle up, take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’ and join me next time on Film Pro Productivity. The music for this podcast is Adventures by A Himitsu. You can view the show notes for this episode at filmproproductivity.com/episode3 If you’re struggling with something you think I can help with or would like to tell me how you are getting on then please get in touch via the contact page on the website. Alternately you can get me on Twitter @fight_director or follow the show @filmproprodpod Please subscribe on the podcast app of your choice and if you are in the caring/ sharing mood then I’d really appreciate it if you would leave an AWESOME review. Sources: https://www.southwesternconsulting.com/roryvaden/blog/the-focus-funnel/focus-funnel-from-procrastinate-on-purpose-by-rory-vaden/ Thanks: A Himitsu, Stephen Rowan, Dave Bullis Podcast, Podcraft. Main Photographs taken on the Giordano UK shoot by Bryan Larkin. Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsu https://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A  

    Show Notes Episode 2: HARNESSING THE POWER OF NO Transcript THIS WEEKS INTRO In this episode, I’ll be talking about how the word NO can turn your life around and get you on the road to success. ANECTOTE Saying no is very near the top of the productivity techniques that I use most often – Learn to say ‘no’ to the good so you can say ‘yes’ to the best. John C. Maxwell Too many commitments that do not serve your own goals and objectives in life or within a specific project only lead to overwhelm and burnout. I should know. I’ve been there – My first feature film was shot before I’d ever heard the word productivity. During that project I found myself picking up and dealing with every incomplete task that came my way. Given that I was already Exec Producer and Director on the film and had more than enough to worry about, this had a predictable outcome. I put myself under so much pressure and strain that after it all ended I had what they used to call a nervous breakdown. I made many mistakes on the film, but if I’d just said NO more often and avoided the evil they call PERFECTIONISM, (which I’ll be talking about in episode 4) then I’d have had a happier life, an even better film and certainly a healthier outcome. I eventually realised that for want of a better word I had to start being more SELFISH – or to put it more kindly I needed to be less ALTRUISTIC. THE LESSON Learning to say NO is a lesson that I learned the hard way. Avoiding burnout starts by saying NO often, and meaning it. It seems simple, but why do so many people find it difficult? For me saying YES seems to come from an internal need to be Nice - to be incessantly agreeable. You may find yourself saying YES because you want to impress, or gain favour, or maybe because you have an inherent fear of rejection and don’t want to disappoint people, make them angry or just appear unkind. Perhaps you say it just because it’s your default answer – you might not really understand why you say YES – If it’s just born out of habit then it’s one that can be and must be changed if you are to give yourself the best chance for success. If you say yes to everything that comes your way you’ll never be productive. If you say yes to things that really don’t light your fire, or that don’t further your dreams and goals then you are doing yourself a disservice. You’re likely spreading yourself so thin that you’re doing the person you’ve said yes to a disservice too. You’re not only setting yourself up to fail but that in turn will get you stressed out and create feelings of anger and resentment for the person that’s you’ve said yes to. It’s a bad route to follow. Saying NO starts by STOPPING yourself from saying YES and you can do that if you put a bit of work in. We’ll be talking about getting our priorities straight in episode 3 but you really have to know what you want and work towards your own goals, without getting side-tracked or manipulated to further other peoples priorities above your own instead. By saying NO to any unimportant tasks, requests and even thoughts we can avoid a lot of angst and if you’re already in over your head - begin to reclaim your life. So: First of all, you need to DECIDE WHAT YOUR PRIORITIES ARE and make YOUR OWN goals, objectives and prosperity your first priority. I’ll be working on this in episode 3 but for now… STOP BEING NICE – Guard your TIME by saying NO to unnecessary requests. Other people’s goals, that don’t in turn further your own in some way, are NOT your responsibility. STOP BEING NICE – Guard your MONEY by refusing to be the easy touch. Other people's financial problems are NOT your responsibility. Make NO your default answer. One thing to absolutely be aware of is manipulators. They are out there and many might not even know they are doing it but they use a series of underhand diversion or set up tactics which the less aware amongst us may fall for. Manipulators will say things like, this would be really good for you, but you can question that – will it really? Why? They’ll use flattery to pull you in. Oh, I really love your work, I’d love you to be involved. They will try and guilt you into it, saying things like well you said you would help, or even blame you for something not working out unless you come on board – this is sometimes called blameshifting – without you, this won’t work. I need you. YOU will ruin their #Blank if you don’t help. Or I helped you, and now you owe me – This is something which may also not actually be true – Did they help you or did they just think they helped you? Even if they did and you want to help, what cost will it be to your life, your work, your relationships? How’s about the term gaslighting? Are you aware of this one? Some people will entirely make things up and try and convince you that you said or did something that committed you to their purpose. The less aware amongst us will out of politeness accept what is said, but it must be challenged. Some people will out and out threaten you. If you don’t help me then I’ll use your competitor for example. Manipulators are everywhere and their tactics are diverse. Avoid them. If you get in with these sorts of people and say YES, then be prepared for your involvement to NEVER END. They will move the goal posts and pull you further and further in. HOW TO SAY NO. Learning to say no was not an easy road for me. I still struggle with it but I am aware and I am getting better. When I first started thinking about this – I’d actually googled it in stressed out state and Google started me on the path - I  stood back and looked at where my career and my bank balance was going it as a result of my non important commitments to other people films and lives and that made saying NO much easier. This is something you need to practice so start small by using it in your day to day life, I found it really difficult, and still do, to be honest, but I practiced it when ordering a coffee – would you like to upsize that? NO, and then just started making a definite no, without an appended apology to more important matters. Of course not every opportunity has a yes or no answer but, you can buy yourself time by saying I’ll think about it and get back to you if you are uncertain. SUMMING UP I’ll end this episode with a quote from Akiroq Brost “Learn to set boundaries. In short, learn to say no. Don't guilt and shame yourself. Say no to people and things you don't want. Just say no. It is your right, it is your time, it is your energy.” ― Productivity starts with you taking control of your own life, your own destiny. Remember every time you say YES  to one thing you’re saying NO to something else. CALL TO ACTION If you have difficulty with saying no, then start practicing it today. Your homework for this week is to do just that. Practice with the small things and work up. By applying this rule and making NO your default answer, you’ll start to recover time, and stem the flow of lost energy which you give to other people. The hours here and there which you’ve given to other people, will become yours, the money you’ve loaned out to never see again will stay in your pocket and the creative energy which gets dissipated by playing someone else’s tune will remain yours to invest back into your own creative projects, your own work life and relationships. ENDING Thanks again for listening - Next episode I’ll be talking about getting your priorities straight and getting what’s on your mind into a system which will help you to, on a very simple level, clarify your thoughts and identify your priorities. That episode is available right now as I launch so buckle up, take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’ and join me next time on Film Pro Productivity. This episode was produced by Stephen Rowan and the music is Adventures by A Himitsu. You can view the show notes for this episode at filmproproductivity.com/episode2  If you’re struggling with something you think I can help with or would like to tell me how you are getting on then please get in touch via the contact page on the website. Alternately you can get me on Twitter @fight_director or follow the show @filmproprodpod Please subscribe on the podcast app of your choice and if you are in the caring/ sharing mood then I’d really appreciate it if you would leave an AWESOME review. Sources: https://psychcentral.com/lib/learning-to-say-no/, https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-say-no-to-anyone-even-a-good-friend Thanks: A Himitsu, Stephen Rowan, Dave Bullis Podcast, Podcraft. Main Photographs taken on the Giordano UK shoot by Bryan Larkin.   Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsu https://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A