Full transcript
0:00hey everyone Sam Evans here and today I
0:02just wanted to make a quick video called
0:05designing for optimal defaults now what
0:09that means is you know designing your
0:12life and your environment and your
0:14routine so that the default that you go
0:18to you know the path of least resistance
0:20is the right thing to do and you know
0:24the most productive thing to do in order
0:26to achieve the goal that you want to
0:27achieve now right now I just got back
0:30from doing my mastermind event in New
0:33York City and you can probably hear my
0:35voice is a little bit different I ended
0:37up getting sick and the mast might went
0:40really well
0:41and you know the mastermind that I've
0:43got we've got a group of about 6070
0:46people and I think about four of them
0:49are making eight figures a year and more
0:52than half the people they're making
0:54seven figures you a lot multi seven
0:56figures and you know it's a it's a
0:57really advanced group of people and you
1:00know they're doing really big things and
1:02a lot of the people in this mastermind
1:04alike you know influential people with
1:06with masterminds of their own and what's
1:09always amazing is that you know I think
1:12a lot of people believe that these
1:15masterminds are going to hold really
1:17advanced information and if you go into
1:19one of these masterminds it's going to
1:21be like the most advanced stuff ever
1:23like which color you know which color
1:26should I have this button or you know
1:28how many milliseconds should this pop-up
1:30wait before it loads you know all of
1:33this advanced technical stuff but really
1:35there couldn't be any further from the
1:37truth
1:37you know these masterminds pretty much
1:39what we spent the entire first day doing
1:41is just trying to become more productive
1:45and this is a funny thing because a lot
1:49of people would think what you join a
1:50mastermind to become more productive or
1:52time management skills are just you know
1:54time everyone knows time management
1:56skills everyone knows about productivity
1:58so why would I join a mastermind group
2:00to learn about time management and being
2:02productive I want to get the advanced
2:03stuff right that's what a lot of people
2:05believe but here's the thing you know
2:09it's always the simple things in life in
2:12ambers
2:12that get the main the major results and
2:15to give you a perfect example if we look
2:18at you know fitness health and fitness
2:20if you want to be healthy and if you
2:23want to be in good shape and and over
2:26there and be first all you really need
2:28to do is number one get sleep get a good
2:32amount of sleep seven eight hours number
2:33to drink water be hydrated
2:35number three exercise and number four
2:37just eat well that's it that is all you
2:40need to do you do those things
2:42you'll be fit and healthy but you know
2:45the whole world goes and complicates
2:46this whole damn thing and they're like
2:47oh and I need this special raised shoe
2:50or I need this new Nike watch that tells
2:53me what time it is even though you know
2:55really I know I should just be going to
2:57the damn gym but now I need this Nike
2:59watch all this new Nike app you know
3:01people just complicate the hell out of
3:02this stuff but really when it comes down
3:04to it those are the things you need to
3:06do and so why is it that people you know
3:10want to think or want to believe that
3:12it's something else and the reason I
3:15don't actually know the answer to their
3:17to find you the answer to that then you
3:19know I would be able to solve the human
3:21condition
3:22but really what I think it is is humans
3:26don't want to accept that it's the hard
3:30thing you know if someone's overweight
3:32they don't want to accept that it's just
3:33the fact that they're you know living
3:35like they don't want to accept the
3:37fact that they don't exercise and they
3:38eat like crap and they sleep like crap
3:40and no wonder they're fat all right they
3:43they want to accept that it's something
3:45else it's something more complicated and
3:46I find this is the same in business as
3:49well you know people know that they need
3:52to just work harder more intensely more
3:56focused they need to keep things simple
3:59and they need to work on things
4:01consistently for long periods of time
4:04and you know they need to just do this
4:07relentlessly day in day out just
4:09repetitively for years to achieve the
4:12results there's the truth but they
4:16believe that or maybe it's just you know
4:18something a little bit more something a
4:20bit nicer something a bit more palatable
4:21but it never is and so
4:25on the first day of the mast mind this
4:27this time around I completed two main
4:30exercises with everyone to really help
4:33them find where most of their time is
4:36being wasted and how to fix it and also
4:40how to optimize their environment so
4:42that they design for optimal default and
4:46that this is what this video is about
4:48how to design your life and your
4:49lifestyle in your environment so that
4:51your default the path of least
4:53resistance is the right thing to do so
4:56first of all I'll tell you how to really
5:01manage your time and this is a very
5:04simple thing to do so all you need to do
5:05is for seven days you can do this
5:07starting today measure where your time
5:09goes every third every 30 minutes just
5:11have your timer on your on your iPhone
5:13or whatever go off every 30 minutes and
5:15then just keep a notepad out and then
5:17just write down where your time goes and
5:19do that for seven days and do it in your
5:22personal life and when you're working
5:24and if you're asleep you know for eight
5:26hours just write sleep and do that for
5:28seven days then at the end of those
5:30seven days what I want you to do is look
5:33at all the areas where your time went
5:35and then I want you to define some
5:38categories or some buckets that you know
5:41that can contain you know similar types
5:44of time spend so for example if you
5:48spend a lot of time browsing you know
5:50Facebook whatever you can just bucket
5:52that into social media and then social
5:54media within that could have you know
5:56Facebook Instagram whatever and so then
5:59what you do is you categorize the major
6:00areas where your time goes and then you
6:02assign a number of hours to each bucket
6:05so how many total hours did you spend on
6:08social media on email on driving on
6:11Fitness on reading on watching Netflix
6:13all of that and then once you've written
6:16all of that down what you want to do is
6:18then define your goal so what is it that
6:21you're actually trying to achieve and
6:24this is an important one and a lot of
6:26people are like oh wow I don't even know
6:28my goal well you know you you really
6:31need to know what you're trying to
6:32achieve otherwise it's kind of like
6:33going to the airport and being like I
6:35don't know where I'm supposed to go but
6:38I
6:38just get on a flight and you know you
6:41will end up someplace but whether
6:42they're places we actually want to be
6:44mmm that's a different question all
6:46right so you have to know where you want
6:47to go
6:48so once you've defined that goal let's
6:50say it's to make like you know a million
6:52dollars for the year right and once
6:55you've defined that goal now you want to
6:57look at all the different categories
6:59where your time is being spent and you
7:01want to think well which of these
7:05categories contributes towards achieving
7:09my goal and which of these categories
7:12does not contribute towards achieving my
7:14goal it's very simple it either
7:16contributes or it does not contribute so
7:20what I want you to do is go through that
7:22list of categories and write negative or
7:25positive next to them all right so class
7:28them negative or positive and then once
7:31you've done that then what I want you to
7:33do is weigh each category so if
7:38something is a negative let's say social
7:40media and it doesn't help you achieve
7:41your goal now weigh it you know how
7:44negative is it how much of a distraction
7:46is it if it's really a distraction then
7:48weigh it's like 90% and if something
7:52like doing sales calls or working on
7:54your Facebook ads or creating you know
7:56more content for your course or your
7:58program or helping your clients get
8:00better results if it's very constructive
8:02and if it contributes towards your goal
8:04then what I want you to do is weigh that
8:06category and you know if it contributes
8:09a lot you probably going to weigh it at
8:10about 90% and the reason why you want to
8:13class these things first and weigh them
8:15second is because we need to know of the
8:19things that help us the actions that
8:21contribute to our goal which ones are
8:23most potent and powerful and of the
8:25things that distract us from our goal
8:27and how and basically you know are
8:30things that we expend energy and time on
8:33but are of no value to us well how bad
8:36are these things all right because
8:39something isn't just good or bad or
8:41positive or negative they have varying
8:43degrees and that's what we use the
8:44weight function for and so once you've
8:47done this exercise you should know
8:49exactly where your time goes on a weekly
8:51basis
8:52and you should know which things
8:53contribute which things detract and also
8:56the potency of each thing once you know
8:58this then it's very simple what you do
9:01you simply eliminate the negatives and I
9:05really mean it you eliminate them you
9:08know there's nothing better than just
9:09getting rid of it and a lot of people
9:13think oh no I don't want to get rid of
9:14this thing I just want you know just try
9:17and work an extra ten minutes a day and
9:18I can just fit this little thing in here
9:19get rid of it
9:21stop hanging on to this you
9:23honestly there's nothing quite like
9:25getting rid of something it's one thing
9:27to automate something it's another thing
9:29to delegate it it's another thing to try
9:31and create a system to fit it in but
9:33nothing works as well as just
9:35eliminating it and that's one of my
9:37favorite things to do just to get rid of
9:39it
9:39so get rid of all of the things that you
9:41do that don't serve your goal and then
9:44once you've done that then if you can't
9:48get rid of things completely then what
9:51you want to do is you want to minimize
9:53them as much as possible all right and
9:57do them at least frequently things like
9:59that right you want to get rid of things
10:01thin and minimize things get the
10:04negatives is small you want to try and
10:06get rid of the negatives or if not
10:07possible to get rid of them make them as
10:09small as possible
10:10now the positives what do we do with
10:12these value actions these actions that
10:14we do that contribute towards the
10:16achieving of our goal well we want to
10:17find the most potent ones the ones with
10:19the heaviest way waiting and then we
10:22want to try and do these things more
10:24often so if we're doing it once every
10:26two days why not daily if we're doing it
10:28once every week why not daily and if
10:30we're doing something daily then how
10:32many hours are we doing it for if we're
10:33doing it for one hour why not eight if
10:37you're doing it for eight we're not 12
10:38all right if you find something that
10:40works do it until it can no longer be
10:43done exhaust the thing all right one of
10:46the you know one of those skills and
10:48strengths I've picked up over the years
10:50is to really get good at finding the
10:53things that well I've really gotten good
10:55at determining signal from noise so
10:58finding the things that really don't do
11:00anything which is most things by the way
11:02and in finding the very small few things
11:05that
11:05actually contribute and add value and
11:07and help growth and then what I do is I
11:10just lock like I put a terminated gaze
11:13on the thing that adds the value and I
11:15just don't let go of it and I just
11:17execute on it relentlessly as much as I
11:21possibly can I just unleash hell on this
11:23thing and that might mean you know
11:26working on at 12 hours a day six days a
11:29week for years on end and it might even
11:32mean hiring other people so that they
11:34can add their energy to it too and then
11:37unloading money and investment capital
11:39on this thing so we can really just
11:40hammer it in when you find something
11:43that works just do it more do it until
11:45it can no longer be done and when you
11:48find something that doesn't work get rid
11:49of it you know really my system can be
11:52described pretty simple it's just do
11:56more of what works less of what doesn't
11:58that's really it and that's the system
12:00that I use I just described it to you do
12:04an audit of your time seven days measure
12:06where it goes write it down categorize
12:08that put it in two buckets then assign
12:11either a negative or a positive label to
12:14each one of those buckets then weigh
12:16each bucket and then do more of what
12:18works less of what doesn't that's it now
12:22that is my method for like time
12:24management and it works really well and
12:26the beauty of this thing is that no
12:28matter how many times you've done it no
12:31matter how how wealthy or successful you
12:34are in business right there's still more
12:36and so you might think about somebody
12:39making a million dollars a month three
12:40million dollars a month they don't need
12:42to know about time management or that
12:44system that's not true I still applied
12:48this thing probably once or twice a
12:50month and I still find more waste the
12:52weight you can never there's always more
12:55efficiency to be squeezed out of
12:58something and you want to be relentless
13:00in your pursuit of perfection and you
13:03always want to be looking to squeeze
13:04more even when people are like oh my god
13:07this thing could not be any more
13:08efficient surely this thing couldn't go
13:10any harder I want more and I'm looking
13:14to squeeze more and it never ends it is
13:17a never-ending rolling
13:19this pursuit for years on me and for
13:22life that's how you make something
13:23powerful by never ever ever stopping
13:26improving it and optimizing it now
13:29that's my method for you know finding
13:32out where your time gets wasted and
13:35optimizing it and just on this one thing
13:37you can make yourself a lot of money
13:39just by performing this one activity the
13:42second thing which really contributes to
13:45the first thing is optimizing your
13:48environment now what a lot of people
13:51don't understand is that you know human
13:53beings what we're really we're really
13:57influenced heavily by our environments
13:59and what I mean by that is you know if
14:03we're in an environment where all of the
14:05defaults and all of the easy paths for
14:08us to take are not you know constructive
14:11then we are much more likely to go down
14:14one of those paths for example you know
14:17if I may give you a very very simple
14:20example to make my point here so let's
14:23say that I let's say I want to lose
14:26weight right and I if I keep like
14:30chocolate and ice cream and an unhealthy
14:34food in my in my kitchen and if I keep
14:36beer and alcohol and all that in there
14:38then I'm much more likely to go and eat
14:41and drink that and if I do that then I'm
14:44much less likely to lose weight so if
14:47you're you know your environment
14:49influences your decisions a lot of the
14:51time we think how willpower is is you
14:54know really responsible for us making
14:57decisions or not but it's not so much
14:59how willpower it's it's more the
15:01environment and willpower you have to
15:03work on that - it's like a muscle you
15:05have to really work it out you have to
15:07grow the thing but from my observation
15:09the environment is the easy place to to
15:13intervene and and to make changes and so
15:16what I've noticed with me is if I'm
15:19trying to focus it's very hard to just
15:21sit and try to focus all right and so
15:25instead what I seek to do is invert
15:27focus and what does focus when it is
15:29inverted it's
15:30distraction and so if I don't do
15:34distraction then I'm doing focus all
15:37right so what I seek to do instead is
15:39not do distraction so what I try and do
15:42is I find all things that are
15:43distracting and I eliminate them so I do
15:46that on my time audit I find out where
15:48all my time goes the things that are
15:50distracting I eliminate them I try to
15:51get rid of them and then what I do is I
15:53perform an audit on my environment and
15:57this is a fascinating thing for people
15:59to do and it will change your life when
16:01you do it so what you do as you walk
16:05around your house and your office and
16:07your apartment or whatever and you do an
16:11audit of every single object that you
16:13have in there so you know your desk your
16:16laptop you know your let's see but a TV
16:19or you've got I don't know what you have
16:21in your house just list all of it maybe
16:23you've got some different toys and your
16:25garage different things just write an
16:27audit of everything every single object
16:29that you have and interact with on a
16:30day-to-day basis write it down you can
16:33put this in a Google sheet or something
16:34write list it down now once you've
16:37you've identified all the objects in
16:39your environment the second thing you
16:41want to do is class them are they
16:44negative or positive and how do we
16:46define their well an object would be
16:49deemed positive if it was if it
16:52contributed to us doing some action that
16:57was constructive towards our goal all
17:00right so let me give you an example if I
17:03have my desk in a really good spot in my
17:06in my office or in my house where I'm
17:08likely to see it and likely to want to
17:10go and spend time there and if I have my
17:12laptop on my desk and then if I have my
17:15to-do list next to my laptop planned the
17:18night before listed down then I am much
17:22more likely when I just see this disc
17:24notepad laptop just sitting there in the
17:27morning I'm much more likely to go over
17:29there sit down and do what's on that
17:31list right so some objects are positive
17:37they're more likely to to inflow us
17:40influenced us to do behavior that is
17:43constructive towards
17:44right and some objects are negative and
17:48by that I mean they're more likely to
17:50influence us to do an action that is not
17:55constructive towards that goal example
17:57you could have an Xbox and in a TV right
18:03now if in your living room you've got a
18:05massive TV in this Xbox sitting there
18:08and all these games and controllers and
18:10whatnot and if you're more if you're
18:12more likely to notice your Xbox and your
18:18TV then you are at your desk in your
18:20computer then which thing do you think
18:23you're more likely to do each day you
18:26are more likely to default to playing
18:27that damn Xbox and watching that TV and
18:30so a lot of the time it's not building
18:33up willpower to try not to play the xbox
18:37and to do the work instead I mean you
18:41can do that but it's hard and you'll
18:42you'll fail eventually like it'll get
18:45you so really what you want to do is
18:47both fix the environment by eliminating
18:50the apart Xbox get rid of the damn thing
18:52get rid of the TV and then also work on
18:55your willpower to go to your computer
18:57each day and you know complete your work
19:00and so you want to go through every
19:04single object in your environment and
19:06find out whether it's positive or
19:09negative and then you also want to weigh
19:11each item so how positive is it if it's
19:14really positive give it a 90 or you know
19:17an 80% if it's really negative then
19:20weigh it as well and some examples of
19:22some very negative things are you know
19:24one alcohol having lots of that in the
19:26house that's not good there's very very
19:28I can't think of anything more diss I
19:32can't think of anything more distracting
19:35and harmful towards achieving a business
19:37goal then alcohol so you know that's one
19:40that I'd get rid of another one would be
19:43video games you know get rid of those
19:46because they're very addictive and time
19:48consuming TVs get rid of those damn
19:49things you know when I just moved into
19:51my new place here in LA there was like
19:54five TVs on the walls around the house
19:56and so on
19:58like the second day we were here I just
20:00started walking around in the house with
20:02like a socket set and I just took all of
20:04them off the wall and just got rid of
20:06them and then I called up the cable TV
20:10company I was like yep turn this thing
20:12off don't want it and then also
20:14unplugged all of the home lines although
20:16the home phones got rid of them all
20:18right because I don't want to see TVs on
20:21my wall each day I don't want to even
20:24think about watching TV and then even if
20:26I do think about it I don't want to be
20:28able to I don't want to have a cable
20:31connection I don't even want to have a
20:32TV I want to get rid of those damn
20:33things and this is what you've got to do
20:36you've got to optimize your environment
20:38so that your default behavior is more
20:42likely to be good because if you don't
20:45keep bad food in the house all right
20:47you're much more likely to eat good food
20:49and if you don't have video games and
20:53TVs and things in there you're much more
20:54likely to focus if you put your office
20:57and your desk in a room that is
20:59enjoyable to be in and you like being in
21:02there you're much more likely to work
21:03because you know you're you're attracted
21:07to things that you know you enjoy and
21:11you're comfortable doing and you're also
21:13your environment heavily influences this
21:15- I see some people that put their
21:17offices in these horrible like their
21:19home offices and these horrible little
21:21caves with no windows or they I saw one
21:23dude put one in his laundry he has a
21:26stand-up desk in his laundry just no
21:28windows with fluorescent lights
21:30flickering just next to like a washing
21:32machine and a dryer going well yeah he
21:34he's not going to be very likely to go
21:38in there and complete work because he's
21:39not going to want to be in there and so
21:42you want to put these things in places
21:44where you're likely to want to go and by
21:48doing this you're training your mind to
21:50to enjoy work enjoy doing these things
21:54that are good and constructive towards
21:55achieving your goal and you're also at
21:58the same time as training your mind to
21:59do the things you should be doing you're
22:01removing the things that it shouldn't be
22:03doing and making it less likely for them
22:06to happen in the first place so we're
22:08winning on the upside and we're winning
22:10by removing the
22:11on site both on our time and on our
22:14environment which influences our time so
22:17just by doing these two things you
22:19really do pick up a huge amount of
22:22productivity and efficiency and it's
22:24quite insane really how much more you
22:26can get done if you do this sort of
22:28stuff and to give you some quick wins
22:30like quick things you should probably
22:32get rid of a huge one is your phone like
22:36delete all of the apps off your damn
22:38phone
22:39turn your phone on airplane mode and
22:40then put it in your drawer you'll
22:42destroy it and close it you do not need
22:44to have your phone next to you to make
22:46any money you know it people who have
22:49their phones going off all the damn time
22:51and they're looking at them all the damn
22:52time they're either insane or poor or
22:56both and so you know when you see people
22:59who are very successful they're not the
23:01phones don't own them you know they
23:04don't care about their phone there
23:05they're building something they're
23:07working on a project that has some
23:09meaning much more meaning than just
23:11being distracted by you know some tweet
23:13some person did or or you know just a
23:16random message about someone saying hey
23:18what are you doing like get rid of all
23:21of this crap and another one is when you
23:25go to bed at night turn your phone on
23:28airplane mode and set your alarm and
23:30then plug it in to charge and have it
23:33away from your beard have it like out of
23:36your room or just by the door of your
23:39room as far away as your beard as far
23:41away from your beard as possible and why
23:43you want to do this is number one when
23:45you go to sleep you're much you can't
23:48just grab it from your side table and
23:50start like reading crap so you're more
23:53likely to go to sleep on time and you're
23:54more likely to have a good sleep and
23:56number two is when your alarm goes off
23:59in the morning it's going to be going
24:01off somewhere where you have to go and
24:03walk to get it and turn it off and this
24:06is a good thing because it'll force you
24:09to stand up and get out of bed you can't
24:11just reach over and turn it on to snooze
24:13so you have to get up and you stand up
24:15and you walk over there and by the time
24:16you actually get over there and you turn
24:18it off
24:18even if you think about going back to be
24:21a hero huh I'm already up anyways so I
24:23may as well just keep going and there's
24:25is what I do and it works really well
24:26and the other good thing is that it gets
24:29you up out of beards so you don't just
24:31decide to lie there and just have a
24:33scroll around your email and things like
24:35that so this is this is designing for
24:39default you know designing to make us
24:41more likely to do things that are
24:45constructive towards our goals and more
24:46likely to help us achieve the things
24:48that we want to achieve so two things
24:52remember the first one audit your time
24:53we does it go map it for seven days
24:56assign it into different buckets
24:59different categories then rate each one
25:02is that negative or positive then weigh
25:03each one out of 100% and then do more of
25:07what works less of what doesn't and then
25:11look at your environment audit all of
25:13the objects in your environment then
25:15list each one is that negative or
25:17positive does it contribute to the goal
25:19positive or does it detract from the
25:21goal negative and then weigh each one
25:24out of 100% and eliminate the objects in
25:27your environment that distract you get
25:29rid of them or if you can't get rid of
25:31an object in your environment then move
25:33it away from you as far away as possible
25:36get it out of sight you know you if you
25:38have to keep it then put it away out of
25:40sight put it in a drawer or something or
25:42put it in another room and proximity to
25:45move it out away from you you want to
25:48draw closer to you the things that are
25:50going to help you achieve your goals and
25:52make them much more visible and likely
25:54to see and you want to hide and move far
25:58away from you the things that are going
25:59to distract you from your goals this is
26:01how you optimize your environment and
26:03when you work on both things
26:05optimizing we--or time goes and your
26:07environment and then back to your time
26:09and then back to your environment in a
26:11never-ending loop you will turn into a
26:14machine and I mean like a real man
26:18machine human machine you will get a
26:21hundred times more things done than most
26:24other people and they will look at you
26:25and be like whoa what is this person
26:28doing and really it might look fancy and
26:32kind of amazing from the outside but
26:35from the inside is very simple it's just
26:37doing more of what works they support
26:38and completing those two exercises that
26:41I just explained to you in this video
26:43now if you liked this video then just
26:47click that like button and also leave me
26:50something in the comment section below
26:51just give me some feedback let me know
26:54what you thought of this video if you
26:55liked it or whatever and also subscribe
26:57to my youtube channel I release a video
27:00like this every single week and I also
27:02release customer interviews with some of
27:04my students as well
27:06so thanks for watching this video and I
27:08look forward to seeing you in the next
27:09one next week