How Millionaires Schedule Their Day: 1-Page Productivity Tool

Introduction

Hey everybody, welcome back. It’s Ben Berchard, author of the number one New York Times bestselling book “The Millionaire Messenger” and “The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive,” and founder of High Performance Academy. Again, welcome back.

Gratitude to the Community

First and foremost, thank you to the entire community for all the amazing comments we’ve been receiving on this framework. As I’ve been training you on how to approach your purpose, your presence, your psychology, your physiology, your productivity, and your persuasion, in this video we’re gonna go deep right now into productivity and persuasion and help you understand what are the productivity secrets of the highest performing people in the world. And specifically, what are their ways that they approach influence and persuasion that help them inspire the masses, influence individuals, and also help other people follow them, buy from them, and convince them to take action. So let’s jump right into it.

One Page Productivity and Persuasion Secrets

In this video, we’re going to cover one page productivity and we’re gonna cover four secrets to making you a more influential and persuasive person. How’s that for a promise? Okay, so here’s what we’re gonna do. Below this video here, you’re gonna see a download, and you’re going to be able to download my famous one-page productivity planner. Go ahead and open that up, and we’re going to work through this. I’m going to show you how from now on you can become a more productive person because the way you approach your day is going to change. I’m going to get you off of the email data drip, you know what I’m talking about, how you’re kind of going throughout the day but you’re checking your emails sporadically and suddenly you find yourself in a warphole of new links and new things to do and other people’s agendas.

Reclaiming Your Agenda

My famous quote from High Performance Academy is that the inbox is nothing but a convenient organizing system of other people’s agendas. This is going to teach you to get your agenda back in life. And when you get your agenda back, suddenly you feel more in command of your life. And when you feel more in command of your life, you feel a greater charge of excitement and enthusiasm for the world.

Setting the Foundation

So I’m going to explain how to work through this sheet right here on this page, and I’ll return before we do that to our core principles of high performance. And that is, if we can build within you a stronger internal charge of clarity, confidence, and courage, then we can also help fire within you the energy that you need to connect with other people and to contribute to the world. You can become one of the highest performing people in the world at whatever you do if you master your psychology and your physiology, which is what we’ve talked about in previous videos, and of course, you master your ability to get things done and influence others. So let’s jump in.

Morning Routine and Productivity

Here’s how I want you to work through your day from now on. First, when you wake up, your goal is not to go to the computer and check your inbox. We’ve got to tear you away from the inbox, particularly if you are a senior executive, an owner of a business, a person who has major projects that you’re moving forward. If you are a customer service person and your job is to check email all day, then hey, I get it, that’s okay. But for most folks, their real goal is not to check email all day, it’s to be productive and get things done. So unless it’s your job to be on the email drip where you respond to everything within 10 or 15 minutes, then this is really about taking ownership of your life again. And I think those folks who are in that position will also find this to be very inspiring and a wise guide to working more effectively. So let’s get to it.

Starting Your Day Right

Here’s what I want you to do when you wake up each day. Let’s talk about productivity in general. When you wake up each day, the first thing to do is not go to the computer. The first thing to do is go exercise, go for a walk, take a long shower, is to open your body and engage. And in doing that process, whatever it is for you, some people, it’s a long run, some people it’s a longer shower, some people it’s a walk around the neighborhood. When you’re doing that, here’s what I want you to ask yourself a couple of simple questions. First, I want you to ask yourself, “What am I excited about today? Or could I create to be excited about today?” So what is it? I want you to begin your day with enthusiasm. Optimism is the magical formula that creates greater happiness in our lives. To have something to look forward to, steal away someone’s vision for a good future and you’ll quickly see them fall into depression. But when we have a great connection to something in the future that we look forward to, even if it’s just this day, that creates the charge within us. So walk around, take your laps, do whatever you have to do in the morning, but ask yourself, “What is it that I’m excited about today? Or could be enthusiastic about today?” Second, ask, “What am I grateful for in life today? What am I so appreciative of having?” You know, what am I so appreciative of having? You know, I know a lot of these videos I’m talking so fast to you, but as you get to know my work, I’m a pretty soulful guy and I’m an incredibly grateful person for all that I’ve been able to create, all the stages I get on, all the people who come to our seminars, the brands I’ve built, the opportunities I’ve been blessed to have, even the challenges I’ve been blessed to have. And I think that coming from that place spiritually each day really opens you up to something magnificent in the universe. Maybe you agree. And so ask, “What can I be enthusiastic about? What am I grateful for?” And then ask third, “What am I committed to making happen today, no matter what?” If we start from those positions, then we’re in good, then we’re in a good space. Then I want you to drink lots of water and have a healthy breakfast. Lots of water, healthy breakfast. Now we can start thinking about work. Deal? This is the secret to you performing better. We’ve got to get you in the right mindset in the morning. We’ve got to take care of your physical needs of hydration and nourishment. Then walk into the office. Then get ready to work. When you walk into the office, guess what your first action is. Do not open the computer. Instead, print out the one-page productivity, which again, you can download beneath this video. Print it out. And here’s how I want you to go through it, because before we start working throughout the day, we need to strategize what we’re going to work on. The more strategic and intelligent we are about approaching our day, the more we’re able to actually accomplish things. Because remember, the root word of productivity is to produce, right? We’ve got to get back to that, you know? We’ve got to look at our lives and say, what artifacts have I created that even, you know, someone looked at my life from the outside, they could look back and say, “Wow, look at this. Look at what this person has done, right? Look at what they’ve contributed to the world.” And so,

Organizing the Sheet

Let’s get back to this sheet. Here are the different categories, and then I’ll share with you how I want you to work through them. As you print it out, you can see up here, our first category that we’re going to think through is our projects in our life. The second on the sheet is people, and the third is priorities.

Projects in Your Life

Here’s how I want you to think through your day from now on. First and foremost, I want you to list, you know, the one, two, three, maybe four or five projects that you have in your life right now. And I want you to list just what are three simple things you could do or three things you need to do to advance those projects. Now, these do not have to be necessarily your daily to-dos. These are the things that have to be on your radar of things you must accomplish to advance the major projects of your life forward. Let me give you an example. If one of my projects is to write and publish a new book, okay, if that’s it, one of the things I have to do is, you know, as part of moving that forward is: 1. Write book. 2. Find agent. 3. Create promotion plan. Like those are big picture things I need to do. I might not necessarily do them just today, we’ll get to that, but those are things I need to have on my radar to remember that these are the big projects I’m working on and these are the major components of moving those forward. By starting strategically each day and thinking about the major projects we’re working on and how we’re moving forward in life. Again, assuming you’ve studied our previous videos where we talked about having a purpose, right, and thinking about what’s my mission today, then when we get to the project level, it’s just keeping on the burners. It’s helping us understand what are the things I’ve got to make sure I’m working on and paying attention to.

People in Your Life

The second thing I want you to focus on is the people in your life. And of two categories, I want you to brainstorm every single morning. I print this out and I work through this next, this people category. I want you to think through two things. I want you to think of categories of people as one, the waiting on category, and two, the reach out to category. And here’s what I mean by that. I want you to sit and think about every morning who am I waiting on a decision for or information from for me to move forward in any of my projects or ultimately what my priorities would be. In other words, if you just sat and you brainstorm every morning, who am I waiting on, what information do I need from whom, who owes me some data, who owes me something that I’ve been waiting for, and until I get these things, I cannot move forward. I want you to just brainstorm that without opening the computer. Right, we’re not in your computer yet. Say it again, we are not in your computer yet. Okay, I only think about what is, who are you waiting from, and I just want you to write down. It might be like, oh, from Tom, I’m waiting on this proposal, from so and so, I’m waiting on this email, from this person, I’m waiting on the decision about the event coming up. And I’ll just brainstorm that. Often, I can find very easily 10 to 20 people I’m waiting for something from. Then again, do not open the inbox. Then I want to think about who do I need to reach out to today to advance my projects. Why? I need to reach out to an agent, well, I need to reach out to someone who knows about book promotions, well, I need to reach out for someone who knows about this event, I need to reach out from this person who I need to learn from, this person, from that, I want you to think about who do you need to reach out today that would advance the projects of your life and brainstorm all those people.

Priorities

Okay, I’ll talk again how you’re gonna work through these. Next is your priorities. I want you to list five to ten things that you must do today. That’s why it’s a priority. These must be done, know it, do it, accomplish it today, not five days from now. Again, these projects, some of these things you might be able to knock off today, but some of them might be big picture things you don’t.

Priorities and Email Management

Get to priorities, these are must-get-to’s, okay? Makes sense. Okay, now I know you’re itching because you’re addicted and you’re wondering when can I open my inbox, Brendan, I’m ready to work, okay? I’m gonna give you a little taste, but please be cautious of this. What I want you to do, I want you to check your inbox and use your email twice a day, that’s it. Unless you’re in a customer support world or a team that’s working on a project that requires instant feedback from you, and if you’re in that case, please manage it so you can still get productive work done. And here’s what I want you to do, go ahead and flip open the laptop, turn on the computer, and here’s what we’re gonna do, and this has to be done in the morning. I want you to open your inbox. Now, this is dangerous, but I want you to sort it by people, right? By from category in your inbox. And here’s the first thing you’re going to do. Do not look at your inbox. Do not go into other people’s agendas at all. You’re going in for one purpose and that’s accomplishing your goals right now. So, you’re gonna open up, you’re gonna sort from, you’re gonna search and see, are any people you are waiting from in that inbox? Did information come in and you got it? If you got it, it’s a check, right? Great, I got it, I’m empowered to work today, awesome. If you don’t have it and you’re waiting from, you’re going to move that person to your reach out to category because now you reach out to them and you need to remind them what they owe you so that you can move forward, it makes sense. So, if they haven’t sent you an email, then it’s like immediately you’re going to move into the reach out category. Now, here’s what you’re going to do in your inbox, you’re going to send out any of these emails in the morning, the people you need to reach out to, I want you to reach out to them right off the bat, first thing in the morning, just bam, “Hey, I’m waiting on this, hey, I need this, hey, I’d like to meet this introduction, hey, could we do this together,” whatever it is, reach out to the people because communication, obviously, is vital to your success in business or life. Reach out to people, “Hey, I need this, hey, here’s what’s going on, can we do this?” Reach out in the morning. Once you have accomplished that, you’ve looked for who owes you information and you reached out to them, guess what? Close the computer, shut it down, get away from it. Or at least, shut the your mailbox, literally quit it so you don’t see those numbers popping up saying there’s new mail for you. Get out of the gerbil drip, right? Get out of that just waiting for the next thing to hit. So, you know what to do. If you don’t, if you’re waiting on an inbox to tell you what to do in life, your life will always be at the whim of the world instead of the desire of your heart. So what I want you to do is shut that down, and now you’re going to work through your priorities. You’re going to start doing the work that it takes to click all these off, whether it’s running an errand, creating a proposal, doing calling this person, taking this action, creating this thing over here, whatever it is. Now we’re gonna do that. And then if there’s any time left, we’re going to knock off a few of these if we have some time left. If we have some time left. And then again, towards the end of the day, usually for some people it’s three, four, five o’clock at night, whatever it is, go back in the inbox and see, go ahead and see what is it that other people have reached out for, what do they need, did you hear back from people, do you need to reach out to some more people? That’s okay. And so to preface that, it’s okay after you’ve knocked off your priorities to go in your inbox now and see what other people’s agendas are. But knock off your agendas first. Do this first, then maybe midday or mid-morning, see what is it that other people are saying they need from you. You’re welcome to go into their world, but I gotta tell you, manage your world first. So for me, and I advise every single multi-millionaire I work with, every person who wants to become a high performer, every mom trying to manage her day and her schedule, every person I come across on productivity, and I’m one of the top trainers in the space in the world, here’s what I tell them very simply, you know what? Inbox maybe twice a day. Any more than that, you’re on a drip. And when you’re on a drip, you are on other people’s agendas. When you’re on other people’s agendas, you cannot become a high performer. Makes sense? Okay, I hope that serves you. Again, the qualification is, of course, some people have to check their email more often than that if they’re on a crazy deadline or maybe if they’re

Persuasion and Influence

Customer service person, but I guarantee if you’re watching this video, you can minimize the amount of time that you’re in your inbox every day, and that should be a very big priority for you to accomplish more things. Okay, with all that, let’s move on to persuasion. How are you going to become a more influential person in the world? This is always again the conversations we have at High Performance Academy, our live four-day training event where we go deep into each of these areas and give you the most advanced strategies in psychology, neuroscience, high performance, and we teach you what are the needle-moving strategies that are really going to make an a difference in this area. Sometimes they seem very basic, but sometimes the fundamental shots are the most ones you have to pay attention to. So let’s work through persuasion. How do we get you to be more influential? Let me tell you some core concepts, give you a takeaway, and get you rocking, okay?

First and foremost in persuasion, the person who is most present is the most influential. Let me say that again: the person who is most present is the most influential. If you want to be persuasive with someone and influence them, you’d better be there with them fully engaged, fully energized, fully present in this moment. Otherwise, the option is distracted, checked out, half engaged. And let me tell you what people who are distracted and half engaged in the world do not move and pivot the world. People who are half-playing, half-speed, half-interested live half lives. We want you fully charged, fully engaged. So first and foremost, realize if you’re in a situation where you’ve got to go and influence your child to fall in love with school again, if you walk in there exhausted and checked out and be like, “You knew you loved school,” they’re not going to feel it. They need you to be there with them fully present and engaged with them because when you’re engaged, this energy comes back and forth and back and forth. It’s almost palpable. And the greater you’re able to tap into your own energies, to be present and to pull those from other people, to allow them to be present and fully engaged with you, the more you have a rapport and ultimately influence with them. So that’s why we said at the base of the entire high-performance framework is presence, right? It’s really being engaged with people so that you ask yourself multiple times a day, “What level am I right now in terms of my presence? Am I fully physically engaged right here? Am I emotionally vibrant right now, or am I off the charts?” And if you’re going to be in an influence situation, do not go in physically drained or emotionally checked out. You can’t serve at that level. All influence comes from being there and present with the person, first and foremost.

Second, realize that, you know, those who are most clear win. You know, often in a negotiation, when two people sit down to a negotiation table or even a sales table, the person who is more clear about…

Influence Strategies

Where we can go and more clear about the options of what we can do together, that person ends up being the most influential. The problem is most people go into a meeting where most people go into a sales situation or an influence situation and they walk in, they might be present, but they’re completely open and they haven’t narrowed down a little bit of options of where we can go. And if they’re not clear about the future of where we can go together, the future of this relationship, they’re in trouble.

Realize that clarity kind of has two things in an influenced relationship. There’s you and there’s them, and there is this magical space in between called the relationship. So if you’re going to become a person to influence, we need you to be clear on what is it that you want, what is it that you feel, what is it that you desire, what’s upsetting you, what’s inspiring you. You need to think about them, where do they live right now, how do they feel, what do they want, what do they desire, what do they need, what’s their hopes and ambitions and frustrations. So yeah, you’ve got to study to have influence, but you also need to come from a perspective of thinking holistically about the relationship, which is what do we need together, what could we become together.

One of the greatest influence strategies of all time is to raise people’s levels of ambition for who we can be together, right? Great leaders of the past, they’d start these movements, one of the ways they started the movements is they’d raise the ambition of the group to come together to accomplish a greater ambition. And so people would be fully entered like, “I’ve got to join this, I’m excited about this,” and they’d solidify it around a cause and they have ambition not only to achieve more but to be more together. If you want to influence people, you’ve got to get clear on your messaging about who can we be together. And the more you nail that point, the more influence you have. Pretty cool distinction, huh?

Old and New Argument in Persuasion

Third, let’s talk about your ability to have the old and new argument in persuasion. The person who paints the best picture of as is and to be usually wins, meaning old world new world, meaning if you’re going to create a case for change, which is paramount in your priorities and having influence with another person, you’ve got to describe how things are now and how things should be in the future, old world new world. And the greater clarity and the greater resonance that that has with other people, the more you have influence with them. So it’s an argumentation approach to paint here’s where we’re at, here’s where we can go, here’s what’s bad, here’s what could be good. And the better you paint the present case and you pre-present the future case and you motivate people to move from here to there, that’s the pivotal turning point in almost every influenced relationship, whether you’re a great marketer or you’re a great leader or you’re just trying to inspire kids to be better.

You’ve got to help them understand where they’re at and where they can go, and the better you present that case logically and emotionally, the better we can tap into all this, because obviously influence comes from both left brain and right brain, and we’ve got to activate the most. Both matter, as a matter of fact, most people would argue that making this argument itself, if you can come from an emotional and rational space, then you have more ability to persuade.

So let me give you this great takeaway in persuasion so that you can have more influence with other people. People are influenced most by those they, what do you think it would be? I mean, who’s had the greatest influence in your life ever? Think about that person for a moment. Now ask yourself why did they have so much influence with you? What was it about them? How did they impact you? What did they say? Why were they different than anybody else?

Something interesting to study up, I’ve studied this for 15 years just trying to figure out what are the great leaders of our time, how is it that they were able to engage so many people? I mean, 15 years of my life studying leadership, communication, and the thing I found over and over and over again, whether it’s large groups or individuals just like this one-on-one, that people are influenced most by those that they first and foremost trust, but also by those that they admire.

Building Trust and Admiration

These two things, trust, what creates trust? Well, often trust is created by proximity, like you trust the people who are around you a lot and who don’t screw you over, right? The people who are present and engaged with you on a continual basis and who have your thoughts in mind, who care about you, which we’ll get to. But the trust is engaged by, guys, they’ve delivered on a promise that they promised to you, that they have fulfilled what you wanted, that they have been there for you. And trust is very, very, very important. My question is this: how much do your children trust you? How about your teams? How much do your audiences trust you?

You know, I say that if you can master your proximity to them, be around them more often and make promises and fulfill those promises with heart, soul, and excellence and with their good nature, their goodwill intended, then you can have more influence than you ever imagined. A lot of marketers come to a lot of our training events and they’re trying to figure out how to have more influence with people, and I say, well, when’s the last time you reached out to them? And most marketers, they only reach out to people when they have something to sell. And I go, no, no, you need to get in their world, be around them, or proximity, and you need to promise good content or more information or free products so that they can see you fulfill on that, then they trust you more.

Admirable Character and Contributions

Admire, how do you know who you admire in life? Well, I think we admire people based on two things in life. We admire people based on their contributions in life, what they’ve accomplished, what they’ve done, their credibilities, you know, what they’ve given to the world. But we also admire people based on their character. And so if that’s true, then let’s look at your character. I mean, how much are you living your life as a role model so that people admire you? When you’re a role model, people listen to you more, they’re influenced by you more easily, they look up to you, they follow you, they buy from you, they believe in you. So my question is, are you living every day of your life with the intention to be a role model, to be an example of what’s excellent and amazing and incredible in the world, what’s hopeful and positive and directed in new ways that inspire people? I mean, are you that person that’s inspiring people or bringing them down?

I love that great quote from Booker T. Washington, the great civil rights leader and educator. Booker T. Washington said, “There are two ways to exert strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.” Be the person who pulls others to their feet, who raises their ambitions for excellence and for being a good person. Your character counts, your character and your contributions to the world. That’s what people see, they see what you’re doing and who you are being. And based on those two things, they decide: do I admire this person? They decide: will I follow this person, believe this person, buy from them? And certainly, they decide if they will trust in you. And ultimately, people are influenced most by those that they trust, admire, and believe care for them.

You know, one of the things I do often is I’ll help emerging speakers become better speakers, and I get flown all over the place to sit down and watch a speaker. And oftentimes, I mean, it’s pretty obnoxious these days because I do this for a living, so, you know, last time I did this was for fifty thousand dollars, a speaker said, “I just want you to come out and improve my speech because if I can do a better job speaking then I can influence more people and maybe they’ll buy my products or they’ll hire me more, whatever.” And he says, and this is a person, just so you know, this person gets paid fifty thousand dollars a speech. So for me to come out isn’t a big expense to that person, but obviously you can tell how much that person values my expertise. So I literally went out and I watched the person speak for about 60 to 90 minutes, and afterwards they said, “How can I have more influence with this audience? If you could only tell me one thing, what’s this one thing I need to know?” And I said, “Well, you won’t like it,” and he said, “Yeah, I know that’s maybe the case, but that’s why you’re here,” and I said, “Well, here’s the thing: when you’re up there, you’re positive, you’re powerful, you’re courageous, you’re confident, you’ve got the credibility. Here’s the challenge: everything you say is so matter-of-fact and so almost, you know, you toss these ideas aside because they’re you’re so matter-of-fact and they’re brilliant ideas, but you’re kind of, it’s not that you’re not interested in them, but they’re almost like matter of fact or sometimes even flipping about them. And here’s a challenge: the audience cannot tell if you care that they get it or not.

See, if we can just change your tonality in how you’re approaching the audience right now, you’re like, ‘Ah, this idea, whatever,’ you’re throwing things. No, actually, pause for a moment, care and demonstrate that you care if they understand or not, care if they get it, care if they will implement it. You know why you want to have more influence with your child? Demonstrate more caring to your child. You want to have more influence with your team? Demonstrate more caring to the team. Because when people feel that you care about them, yeah, they trust you, yeah, they admire you, but yeah, they care for you and your message and your work and your priorities more too. The greatest way to have a greater connection with people is to care more for them.

I want you to think about all the relationships in your life with your children and say, ‘How can I demonstrate more caring to my child tonight?’ I want you to think about your spouse. When your spouse comes home tonight or your significant other, your partner, and they walk in, I want you to light up for them, be engaged for them, but also demonstrate how much you care about how their day went, demonstrate that you love them. You know, love is impossible without caring, kindness is impossible without caring, altruism is impossible without caring. Caring is the root of some of the basic human drives that make us incredible. And I want you to demonstrate more caring for people than anyone else, because guess what? If you care for them more, if you are more present, you are more clear, you understand how they can change, and you’re more persuasive about that emotionally and rationally, then guess what? You are contributing to them, you are being a role model. They do start to trust you, they do start to admire you, and you start to have the influence you always wanted in life.

I hope this message has inspired you, and I hope this message serves you. Please post your comments below, please get engaged in our community here

, please like us and follow what we’re doing here with the High Performance Academy. And do this one thing for me: think about how you can demonstrate more caring today. That one idea could take you to the next level in every single situation you are in, in your entire life. How’s that for a promise? I hope I’ve served you, I look forward to seeing you in the future. We’re about to open registration to High Performance Academy, it’s my four-day advanced training where we go way more in-depth in all these concepts and we give you the tools, the strategies, and the emotional charge in life so that you can become the high performer in every single area of your life, no matter the obstacles, no matter the stresses that within you, you find a new clarity, a new connection, a new courage to go out and cultivate and create the life you’ve always wanted to live. Please watch for that announcement, every time that we open we close out and shut that event down fast because we sell it out so quickly. It’s become a very famous training, I’m sure you’ve heard about it. I hope to see you at High Performance Academy, our live training event. Hope to see you in the future in your own videos or in mine. Until then, go out every single day of your life, live fully, love openly, and make your difference today.