In this episode, we discuss the importance of doing tasks faster than the standard pace so you can have more time to spend on the things that actually matter.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons on how to grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so you can have better careers, better relationships, and better personal finances.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
In today’s episode, we’re are going to talk about how in life, the standard pace is for chumps. Life is short, so if you can do something faster than the standard pace and it fits within your goals, then do something faster than the standard pace. You should gulp on life, not sip on it.
One of my goals was to join the Marines and go to school at the same time so I could finish my bachelor’s degree faster. This meant going to school after work and it was exhausting at times but now in my 30s, I’m so glad that I did it because I’m about to get an MBA from Syracuse University and I don’t have to pay for it because I still have my GI Bill to pay for everything. This is going to save me $50k, plus I get $900 a month for living expenses and $1000 a year for books. While I know a lot other of my Marine friends used up all of their GI Bill on their first bachelor’s, I was able to get two bachelor’s and MBA paid for with minimal student loan debt like $2000 because the GI Bill didn’t pay for all of my study abroad expenses in Mexico one semester.
I tried to take as many classes as I could while I was in and it set me up for so much success in the future. I also do this with my learning and work now. I try to go faster than most people, so I get more work done. If you can get your bachelor’s done in 2 years versus four years, this can give you an opportunity to get out to the workforce faster, then make more money, and work on things that can help you get you closer to your life goals. College is just a stepping stone for your future goals. I didn’t take the traditional route to college and some people might say that I missed out on the college experience but I don’t think it doesn’t matter to my overall goal of starting my own virtual financial planning experience. I might have missed out on some things but I feel like I made up for it by doing other things with my life. Going into the military gave me a perspective on life that I wouldn’t trade for anything else.
Overall though, if I can consume information fast, then I will take that path. When it comes to listening to a podcast or watching videos online, I always listening to them at double speed because it saves so much time. You have to realize that people speak between 100 and 150 words per minute but the human mind can comprehend up to 500 words per minute. So if you listen to something on double speed, you can consume the information in half the time. When I listen to a podcast like the Tim Ferriss Show, those episodes can be two hours long. So if I can listen to two episodes at the same time, then I got the information twice as fast. If I get an idea, I can still put it into Evernote and still listen to the podcast at the same time.
It took a while to build up to this level and I’m a pro at it because I’ve been living my life this way for the past five years. So if you do too much at once you can drown. So build yourself up. I didn’t start listening to podcasts at double speed, I started at 1.25 times faster. Once I was good there, then I moved up to 1.5 times faster, and so on until I got to 2 times faster. The app I use to listen to a podcast can go up to 2.25% faster, but depending on the quality of the podcast, it can be too fast because it just sounds jumbled.
If you’re trying to study more, and you’re used to taking two classes, don’t jump into the next semester taking five classes. It could be too overwhelming and you might flunk all your classes and then you’re in bigger trouble. But the idea is that you should train yourself to go faster than the standard pace. You’ll get more done in less time so that you can take that extra time to enjoy more of life. If I can drop my study time from ten hours a week to five hours a week, that will give me time to spend on other things in life like exploring the world and spending time with friends and family.
Time is the most valuable resource that we have on this planet, which is non-renewable and we shouldn’t treat it like it is worthless. One of my goals is to read 36 books a year because that is the average number a CEO reads a year so I also like to speed read so I can finish my books faster. The Amazon Kindle Apps has this great feature called word runner that helps you speed read. Definitely go check out. There is also another app that helps you read pdfs faster by using the same technique as word runner, where you’re shown one word at a time and you can control how fast or slow you see the next word. So you can put down if you want to read at 150 words per minute or up to 1000 words per minute. Use technology to help you get things done faster.
You can also use technology and others to help you finish your tasks faster. I recently got calendaly which helps me schedule meetings faster. It can be annoying to play phone tag with someone to schedule a meeting. Now I just send a link to someone who can view my calendar and decide what fit’s within their schedule. The standard pace is for chumps.
I hired someone on Fiverr to work on my website recently. What would have taken me all week to do the work, took him a day? Now I have all this time to work on revenue-producing activities. If you can delegate a low-value task for yourself to someone else, that will help you go faster in life. If you can learn how to delegate and supervise low-value tasks for yourself, then this will save you the most time in life. You can’t do everything, so give up some tasks to others.
That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, the standard pace is for chumps. Life is too short to take your time on certain tasks. If you’re spending time with family and friends, or enjoy your hobby, just make sure your present for that moment because you’ll never get that time back. So be ruthless in the areas that don’t really matter and indulgent in the areas that matter. Do this and you’ll live a long life.
To get a free copy of my book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and just pay for shipping and handling.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
I’m also trying to do a feedback Friday episode, so if you have a question that you would like to have my answer on the air, just e-mail me at [email protected]
I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
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Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
*Music outro
