The Paul Minors Podcast: Productivity, Business & Self-Improvement

Last year was a big year for me and my family. This is why, in 2025, I'm going to take my foot of the accelerator, slow down and I'm not going to set any specific goals for the year.

When you're constantly chasing the next thing, you don't do justice to the hard work you've done to get to where you are and the relentless pursuit of self-improvement can get tiring.

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Welcome to my annual review for 2024! In preparation for this video, I looked back at the video I made last year and I'm pleased to say that I accomplished all of the goals I set out to achieve at the end of last year!

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How you start your day and the habits and routines you adopt genuinely have a big impact on your effectiveness throughout the day. I’m also a big believer in consistency and when you do the same thing each day, these small habits can have a big impact over time. With that said, here are some of the things I do on a daily basis to look after my health, set up for the day and get my work done.

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A crucial productivity mantra that has continued to stick over the years is: “Get it out of your head”. This is an idea I first came across in David Allen’s book Getting Things Done. He nailed it when he said, “Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” That quote really hit home for me, and it’s shaped how I use tools and technology to reduce my mental workload.

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When I first started my business, like most business owners, I was focused on making money. That’s the goal of any business, right? And for me, I simply wanted to earn enough to replace my full-time salary. However, over time, how I view money has evolved. As I’ve talked about before, I now put a lot of my effort into making the business more efficient; optimising our time and the energy required to do our work.

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Knowing what your ideal client looks like is critical if you want to attract the right customers to your business and have successful outcomes. This is not to say you shouldn’t work with clients who don’t exactly fit the profile you’re looking for. But having a customer ‘avatar’ helps you to focus your marketing and filter potential prospects.

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one source of income, you’re opening yourself up to risk if that source of revenue ever drops or goes away. Having multiple sources of income not only protects you but helps you to further grow your business.

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Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

I recently enjoyed this conversation with Ed Sheeran (one of my favourite musicians) on the Theo Von podcast. During the interview, about 58 minutes in, Ed talked about how he always tries to be as honest as he can with people concerning what he’s thinking or feeling.

And this is something I’ve always tried to do. Whether I’m on a sales call, helping a client, or talking to a friend or family member, I usually try to be as transparent as I can.

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A focus is more than a priority. Every day, we have high-priority tasks that we’re working on. A focus is bigger than that. It’s your north star. It’s more like your number one goal. But where you can have multiple goals, I only ever have one focus. Your focus is the main area you're putting time and energy into for the quarter or even the year.

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Over the last few years, I’ve grown my team to help remove myself as the bottleneck and to free up my time so I can focus on other areas of the business. In doing so, it didn’t feel right to continue operating under the PaulMinors.com brand and website. Today, I'd like to introduce you to the new brand behind my consulting business, MinorCo.

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Over the last few years, I’ve grown my team to help remove myself as the bottleneck and to free up my time so I can focus on other areas of the business. In doing so, it didn’t feel right to continue operating under the PaulMinors.com brand and website. Today, I'd like to introduce you to the new brand behind my consulting business, MinorCo.

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Welcome to episode number 300 of the Paul Minors Podcast!

For this milestone episode, I asked my good friend, Dylan Bland, to interview me (similar to what we did for the 100th episode). In the first half, Dylan unpacks my history, how I got started with my business and how I view productivity. In the second half, we discuss a range of topics including productivity, technology, AI and the future of work. 

Enjoy this episode and if you'd like me to record more long-form interviews like this, please let me know!

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This episode is a bit of a ramble. I share some updates on what I've been working on recently and discuss how I prioritise my time.

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In his book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, author Robert Kiyosaki describes three types of income: 1) Earned income (e.g. from your salary or business income) 2) Passive income (Income that doesn’t require active work to generate e.g. income from a rental property) 3) Portfolio income (e.g. capital gains from owning an asset that appreciates in value).

If you’ve earned an income from your business, you could reinvest it to grow your earned income further. But why not invest it in an asset that’s going to generate a passive income or capital gain?

Show n...

In this episode of Minor Updates, I share some of the things I've been focussing on in my business and personal life.

Over the weekend I visited a local hardware store to enquire about purchasing a line trimmer. This is the second time I've been to the store in the last month or so and on both occasions, I left disappointed without making a purchase. I’ve talked to two salespeople now and neither one had enough product knowledge to make a clear recommendation that would solve my problem.

What I need is for someone to understand my needs, talk me through a few viable options and make a recommendation on which option to go with. I want to fe...

I’ve shared previously on this blog that my primary motivation right now (as it has been for years) is to make my business more efficient. Since reading Dan Martell’s book, Buy Back Your Time (affiliate link), I’ve shifted my mindset to focus more on teaching my team as much as I can in order to improve our overall efficiency.

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At the end of last year, I hired an administrative assistant to help process my email and to help with daily administrative tasks. My new assistant, Faith, has been working with me for just over a month now and she’s already helping to save me a tonne of valuable time.

In this episode, I’d like to share the process of how I hired her and some of the steps I took to onboard here. It’s still early days and there’s a lot I’d still like to train Faith on but I'm excited by the pro...

In this episode of the Paul Minors Podcast, I catch up with my good friend, Francesco D'Alessio. Francesco is a fellow YouTube creator. We started our businesses around the same time. We're similar in age and both are young Dads and we get along well.

In this interview, we catch up on some personal stuff and talk about productivity apps, YouTube and how we've built our businesses. Enjoy!

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Almost all of the Pipedrive and Asana clients we work with tell us the same thing - “We’re not getting as much as we can out of the tool”. A big part of getting more out of the tool is learning how to use the tool itself. But an often overlooked aspect is making sure you're inputting good data and keeping it up to date. This is the whole ‘Quality In = Quality Out’ argument.

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Historically, I’ve closed out each year by sharing a summary of how I spent my time that year but this year I thought I’d do something different.

Keeping within the same theme, I’m going to reflect on major achievements this year and will share what I’m looking forward to in 2024.

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Everyone should be trying to improve their communication skills. You can be the most intelligent person in a room but if you can’t communicate your ideas clearly, you are doing yourself a disservice.

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A productivity principle I’ve been following for years now is to always identify my ‘next action’ related to the projects and clients I’m working on.

This is something I discussed in episode 243 of my podcast which I’d like to revisit as it’s such a simple, yet powerful concept that can really help you to be more organised.

The concept of a ‘next action’ was first introduced to me in David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done. I don’t follow GTD strictly, but when I’ve certainly adopted this concept from the book. According to...

Today, I wanted to share a story that illustrates exactly why you shouldn't put all your eggs into one basket. Especially when it comes to your income.

Either as a business owner or a salaried employee, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Meaning, don't get all of your income from one source. You never know when something may happen and the rug gets pulled out from underneath you. By having a few sources of revenue or a side hustle, diversification is the key to protecting yourself.

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In December 2022, I was approached by a company interested in acquiring the Pipedrive consulting arm of my business. The acquisition didn’t proceed but it was an interesting process that forced me to think about the value of my business and my goals for the future. In this episode, I’d like to talk about how I analysed the offer that I received and how I’m looking back on everything today.

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I often get asked about the services I use to accept payments online for my products and consulting support. In this post, I’m going to break everything down (so I can refer people later on).

It’s worth giving some thought to how to accept payments so you can 1) create a seamless experience for customers that makes it easy for them to pay for your product or service 2) reduce the amount of fees you have to pay to middlemen so more of it ends up in your pocket.

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Everyone should be dedicating some portion of their time to improving their productivity. Productivity is about being more effective and efficient; in other words, doing things better and faster. If you can develop a productive mindset, you can apply this to almost every aspect of your work and life.

This is why I’m so passionate about being productive. It’s not actually that I want to be productive. It’s all about the end result. Productivity is just the skill you can apply to get the results you want, faster. For me, that could be growing my bus...

You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 principle before. If you haven’t, you’ve probably heard the general concept. The 80/20 principle (officially known as the Pareto Principle) says that 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes.

The general idea is that 80% of outcomes come from just 20% of inputs; by identifying the correct 20% and optimising these few inputs, we can generate the greatest impact on outcomes. We often talk about the 80/20 rule within the productivity space because this principle is all about getting the biggest bang for your buck (whatever that might be). It's also about identifying the 80% of inputs...

Being more organised is a superpower of mine that helps me to get more done with less stress and wasted time. In this video, I'm sharing some mindset tips and principles to help you cultivate an positive attitude towards being more organised.

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Stopping putting things off until later. Do them now and be done. That way you'll have less of a mental backlog to get through.

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An area of productivity and efficiency that I like to optimise, which I feel not enough people focus on is: high-volume, micro improvements. In other words, optimising small tasks that you do all the time which adds up to big improvements in efficiency.

I’m going to share some examples of things we all do every single day, and if you can do these things just a little bit quicker, the time savings really add up over time.

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If...

Documenting your processes not only helps to improve your efficiency but it’s necessary if you ever plan to scale your business.

By having a checklist or notes on how to complete a specific task, you can get the work done quicker as you don't have to remind yourself of the process each time. And you’re less likely to miss an important step that could set you back later.

I’ve also learned that in order to remove myself as the bottleneck so I can grow my business, I need to have good documentation in pla...

When I created my personal website back in 2014 like most new businesses, I thought to myself, ‘What should my logo be?’ I really didn’t give it too much thought at the time and that’s kind of the point of this story...

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Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

If you’ve ever heard the story or seen the Tom Hanks movie about Apollo 13, you may remember that the crew almost didn’t make it. After a routine procedure led to the explosion of one of the ship's oxygen tanks, the crew had to shut down almost all systems on the ship in order to preserve power which they would need to reenter the earth's atmosphere and land safely. This meant turning off their guidance computer, waste management systems and even the ship's heating system.

This story is a good analogy that helps you understand how to p...

I often get asked about the different tools I use to run my business. Here are the main tools I’m currently using as of March 2023.

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One of the most important contributing factors to a successful client engagement is how you manage expectations. When you’re just getting started in the consulting or freelancing world, it’s tempting to tell the client what they want to hear in order to win a job. I’ve learned it’s better not to over-promise and instead be as realistic as possible with respect to the client's expectations.

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Since 2015, the bulk of my company's revenue has come from consulting services and fees earned as a software partner. One of the great things about being a software partner is that you can earn an income from multiple revenue streams so you’re not reliant on just one source of income. In this post, I’d like to explain how a software partner like me makes money.

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Are you a serial multitasker? Do you pride yourself on being able to juggle multiple projects at once? If so, it's time to rethink your approach. The truth is, multitasking is a productivity myth. In fact, trying to do too many things at once can actually be detrimental to your overall productivity. So why is multitasking a productivity myth, and what should you be doing instead? Let's take a closer look.

Side-Note: As a bit of an experiment, this post was mostly written by ChatGPT and edited by me (here are the requests I used). Let me...

I usually get approached by people who need help with one of three tools: Asana, Pipedrive or Zapier. And because I offer support for a project management tool like Asana, I often get asked if I can help with similar apps like ClickUp or Trello. People tell me all the time that I could grow my business if I offered more services. But I find it very beneficial to offer fewer services and to offer the best support we can for that particular tool.

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I strongly believe that better communicators are more likely to get what they want. Whether that’s closing a sale, convincing someone to adopt your idea or sharing advice with someone.

We’re communicating all the time; via email, instant messaging apps, phone calls, Zoom, social media posts and of course, in-person discussions. Everyone needs to communicate and should be trying to hone this skill.

With this in mind, here are 5 tips that have helped me to communicate more effectively with clients and colleagues in my business.

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It’s that time of year again when we set goals for the new year. And it’s important to have well-defined goals with specific outcomes you can measure (i.e. SMART goals: Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely). I’ve set some goals for the year. But personally, I find it more useful to have a ‘focus’ for the year.

Where a goal defines a specific outcome you’re trying to achieve. A focus is more general and higher-level. A focus defines the overarching theme or area you’d like to improve on.

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For the last few years (2019,2020, 2021) I've shared a breakdown of how I spent my time that year. It’s always an interesting exercise and it’s useful for me to analyse how I’m using my time differently year over year. Understanding how your time is being spent is one of the best things you can do to make better choices and plan more effectively for the future.

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Every week, my Zapier expert, Warwick, and I do a ’weekly review’ where we run down the list of all clients we’re currently working with to determine where we’re at and what we need to do next. During last Friday’s review, we were exploring whether there’s a better way of managing our workload and I said something that has since stuck in my mind.

I said:

“We need to have a policy of zero-tolerance for inefficiency. We need to always be improving how we do things and not put up with inefficiency j...

We make thousands of decisions every single day from what to wear or what to eat for breakfast to how to respond to an email or what to work on next. And we should always be striving to make the best decision we can as efficiently as possible.

I put a lot of my productivity down to not overthinking things. Generally, I make quick decisions and move on. Some decisions require more time. But in general, I like making quick decisions so my brain has less to remember and process. The more things I have in the “th...

As a student of stoic philosophy, I’ve read many times about the importance of focusing on what you can control and how this impacts your happiness and quality of life. The same idea applies to your productivity.

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When you come across a new tool or piece of software, it’s easy to sign up for a free trial only to waste a bunch of time after you later realise you don’t actually need the thing you signed up for.

If you’re a business owner looking to adopt a new project management system, or a solo-operator interested in a new screen recording app, it’s important to ask yourself a few key questions before you sign up to a new tool:

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Like a lot of business owners, I’m concerned about the ongoing inflation that we’re experiencing and how it’s going to impact the economy. If I had to guess I feel there’s a high likelihood that things get worse, not better, over the next 12-18 months (maybe longer).

As I look ahead, here are some of the things I’m going to be focussing on to ensure my business is in the best shape possible going into these uncertain times. I focus on each of these pursuits already but they are things I’ll be doubling...

You’ve probably heard the expression “Perfection is the enemy of progress”. Of course, there’s always a balance with everything and I’m not saying this is an excuse to accept low-quality results. But whatever it is you’re doing, whether you’re choosing what tools to use in your business or you’re setting up a new website, you want to aim for “good enough”. This is the point where you’ve achieved an acceptable result or level of quality based on your requirements but any further progress you make from here, you will probably start seeing diminishing returns. A...

Meditation is a habit I’ve dabbled with on and off over the years. I first downloaded the Headspace app, which was my first exposure to meditation, in 2013. Over the years I’ve gone through periods of where I meditate regularly followed by long dry spells where I don’t meditate at all. As I’ve said on the blog before, I often use habits like meditation and journaling when I feel I need them.

But my attitude towards meditation has changed recently. Rather than using meditation as a way to treat stress or that feeling of being ov...

I was recently reminded of a great quote by Steve Jobs where he said:

“We try to focus and do very few things well. And focussing is hard because focussing doesn’t mean saying ‘yes’ it means saying ‘no’. So we decide not to do a lot of things so we can focus on a handful of things and do them very well”

But this is one of those simple but very important lessons in productivity that often needs repeating.

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In this episode of Minor Updates, I share some of the things I've been focussing on in my business and personal life.

0:45 - Business improvements

3:51 - An unfortunate experience

11:48 - Baby Murphy has arrived!

14:00 - We're building a house

17:57 - Wim Hof breathing and cold therapy

20:20 - Wrapping up

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I was recently chatting to a good friend of mine who’s also a business owner who wanted to know how I’m growing my business. We talked about how I package my consulting services, how I get leads, all the typical stuff. At one point in the conversation I said the

“I haven’t had a sales target in years. I’m not actively trying to grow my business. My #1 goal is efficiency. I just want to make the business operate more efficiently and it just so happens that the bi-product of that is growth”

This minds...

When I was growing up, I never expected I’d be running a business where I help people with their productivity. In fact, there was a time when I wanted to be an architect. So where did this interest in productivity and the desire to start my own business come from? Today, I’d like to share a few personal memories that tell the story of how I ended up in the position I am today.

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Isn’t it frustrating when you’ve planned your time have a clear agenda for what you’re going to work on, only to receive an email or to have a colleague derail your day by coming to you with an issue that requires urgent attention? These ‘fires’ often require us to stop what we’re doing and put everything else on hold so we can deal with this seemingly important and urgent issue.

As someone who values productivity, dealing with “fires” is something I really try to avoid. Not that I ignore them. But I do my best to make...

I run my digital business from New Zealand (GMT+12) and service a lot of US-based clients who are on Pacific (GMT-8) and Eastern (GMT-5) times. That’s a pretty big gap in time but is less challenging than you would think to manage.

In this episode, I’d like to share some of the tips and tricks I’ve learned to make it easier to work with other people across time zones.

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A surgeon is a master at using a scalpel. They don’t just have a basic understanding of the tool. They’ve spent thousands of hours perfecting their skill with it to make sure every cut they make is calculated and accurate.

The point is, whatever your area of expertise, you need to become a master of your tools. Having a basic understanding isn’t good enough if you want to truly be great at what you do.

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One of the keys to better productivity and general happiness is solving problems as quickly as possible. The quicker you can deal with a problem, the less time you have to worry about it and the lower the chance of it coming up again.

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When it comes to productivity, we usually think about how to be more effective and efficient at work or in our business. But productivity isn’t just for getting more done in our professional lives. Productivity is a skill that helps you to be more effective and efficient with everything you do and being productive in your personal life is just as important.

Most people sleep around 7-8 hours a night and work for 8-9 hours a day (including commute) leaving them with about 8 hours for recreation and personal projects. So how do we get the most ou...

Since day 1, I’ve been running my business 100% paperless; meaning I don’t keep any physical files or paperwork. Everything is captured and stored digitally. I could literally work from anywhere as I always have all the information I might need with me wherever I am.

In this post, I’d like to list some of the tools and techniques I use to run my business 100% paperless.

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Inflation is the hot topic everyone is talking about right now. COVID and even the Russia-Ukraine war have taken a back seat as people all around the world struggle to adjust to the rising cost of living.

On this podcast, I’ve often discussed how I try to optimise both my time and income. Earning more is great but not if it’s disproportionate to the time required to earn the income. In this post, I want to unpack how inflation is stealing your time away from you and what you should be doing to try and...

We are spoilt for choice when it comes to online experts and brands that share content. It’s now easier than ever to start a blog, record and host a podcast or create videos for YouTube. This makes it harder to stand out amongst all the noise on the internet.

Since starting my blog back in 2013 I’ve produced 694 blog posts, over 200 Youtube videos and 251 podcast episodes. When it comes to standing out and how to produce good quality content, there are a few things that have helped me along the way.

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Email management continues to take up a huge portion of the day for most knowledge workers. To help deal with this awful problem, I’d like to share some practical tips on how to deal with your email faster. Don’t want to read this post? Listen to the podcast instead.

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2022 is the 7th year of running my consulting business and my processes and approach to making money online has certainly evolved over the years. If you’re a new or aspiring freelancer, coach or consultant then I’d love to help you save some time by sharing some of the advice I wish I’d heard early on (rather than having to figure it out on my own later).

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Welcome to episode 4 of Minor Updates. In this video, I share some updates on what I've been up to over the last few months. Enjoy!

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Over the last 5 years, we’ve watched as the world has become increasingly uncertain. We’ve witnessed controversial elections, a global pandemic, lockdowns, mandates, inflation and now war. Every time I think the world is starting to get back to normal, the rug gets pulled and things get a little crazier. Personally, I think things will continue to get worse before they get better.

What can you do? How do we navigate an increasingly uncertain world?

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Every decision you make comes with a cost. And I don’t just mean a financial cost. I’m talking about costs in the form of time, health, stress, energy and relationships. In other words, every decision you make comes with trade-offs. Our goal should be to make decisions that maximise return for as little cost as possible (whatever the costs may be)

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Intro...

We’ve all experienced the frustration of receiving an email that’s been sent in a rush that isn’t clear. Because the sender didn’t take time to proof their email or read it back, now you need to reply and clarify their intent. This slows everyone down and what’s most annoying is it’s easily avoidable.

In this episode, I’d like to share some simple and maybe even obvious email etiquette rules that are often broken.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/245

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Time is the most important asset we have. It’s the asset we all have equal amounts of, regardless of location, income, race or gender. Time represents true equality. If there’s a meaning to life, in my view, it is to use your time as best you can (however you choose to define this).

Let’s be realistic. You can’t get back time and save it for later. You can only get back time and put it to use on other things. There are 24 hours in the day, 7 days a week and 52 weeks in a year. So...

I love simple productivity tricks; quick and easy things you can do to be more productive and organised.

In this post, I’d like to share the one question I ask myself to be more productive. This is a question I subconsciously ask myself dozens of times a day. This question helps me to identify what I need to work on next. It keeps me track and on time and helps me to avoid ever dropping the ball on a project.

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I often get asked about how I find clients. My philosophy is simple:

Go to where your ideal clients are and be helpful

Following this philosophy means I never have to do any cold outreach to get clients. Everyone I work with comes to me. This is great because it means more of my time can be spent on working with clients and delivering value instead of finding clients in the first place. Not to mention, cold outreach isn’t very fun!

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We all want to be more productive. We all want to get more done and achieve our goals as fast as possible. And there are loads of tools, techniques, habits and strategies we can use to try and improve our productivity. But how do you know if it’s actually working? When you set up a new project management tool, or start meditating in the morning, how do you know if these changes are helping? How do you measure productivity?

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/241

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If you’ve followed me for a while, you may know that Bitcoin is a topic I’m very interested in. I haven’t talked about this much on my blog or podcast but today I thought I’d change that and take you behind the scenes on how I store the money in my business.

I’d like to share why I’m now running my business on a ‘Bitcoin Standard’, what that means and the rationale behind the decision. As this is a topic I don’t cover a lot, please share your feedback in the comments below...

It’s very common for tools and services to offer a ‘free’ tier or to give away their product entirely for free. As a customer, this sounds great, right? You can start using it for free and pay later if you need to unlock more features.

But I hear all the time from customers and clients who have been caught out after signing up for what they thought was a free tool, only to learn it’s not entirely free or they’re forced to pay later.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t use free tools. On...

Feeling overwhelmed and having ‘too much to do’ is a common problem people ask me about. Most of us have a lot going on; work projects, meetings, study, friends, family, social commitments and household chores. When all of these things add up, it’s easy to feel anxious and like you have too much on the go at once.

Whenever I feel stressed out and overwhelmed, I like to plan and organise as much as I can. That way, even though I have a lot to do, having a plan makes me feel like I’m on top of e...

It’s the time of year where most people are setting goals and resolutions for the next 12 months. Having a plan of where you want to be and what you’d like to achieve over the next year is great. But equally important is deciding what NOT to do this year.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/237

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Welcome to episode 4 of Minor Updates. In this video, I share some updates on what I've been up to over the last few months. Enjoy!

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/236

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

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In 2019 and 2020, I shared a breakdown of how I spent my time for that year. It’s always an interesting exercise and it’s useful for me to analyse how I’m using my time differently year over year. Understanding how your time is being spent is one of the best things you can do to make better choices and plan more effectively in the future. So, without further ado, here’s my analysis for 2021.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/235

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There are all sorts of techniques we can use and considerations to make when planning our time; how urgent is the work, what needs to be done first, how long do you need?

Well, I’d like to add one more consideration to the mix:

How much energy do you have?

Depending on your energy and how much effort you can apply to your work, this will help you decide what you should work on.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » paulminors.com/234

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This week, I’d like to expand on an idea I started talking about last week where I discussed prioritising efficiency over growth.

I was recently interviewed for the Adil Amarsi Unplugged Podcast and on the show, we talked about growing your business and income. I shared my philosophy on growth which I actually picked up from Paul Jarvis. I told Adil that right now, I’m more attracted to the idea of working less compared to earning more. It’s not that I don't care about growth or money but it’s not the end goal. Put anot...

We live in a very opinionated world where it’s easier than ever to share your stance on a topic. But sometimes we get nervous about changing our opinions at the risk of sounding flakey; going back on your own words may come across as weak or even unintelligent.

Personally, I don’t have an issue with changing my mind about something. I’m happy to be proven wrong and form a new opinion. I’m even happy to just change my mind about how I view a topic for no reason. This is something that’s only becom...

If you’ve read my blog for a while, you’ve probably heard me talk about time blocking before. This is a technique I’ve been following since 2010 to schedule time on my calendar to work on specific tasks and projects.

While I think it’s a very powerful technique and one of the best methods you can use to plan out your work, not everyone finds this technique easy to adopt.

My colleague, Warwick, is a good example. Since he started working with me full-time in early 2021, we’ve been doing an end-of-week review where we r...

My opinion of social media apps has changed in the last few years. Like a lot of people, I got on Facebook and Twitter around 2007 and I joined Instagram pretty early in 2010. And it’s interesting to have watched public opinion towards apps like Facebook change over the last decade. Facebook used to be liked and enjoyed by almost everyone. Now, more and more people are leaving the app as the company fails in its handling of certain issues e.g. moderating misinformation, user privacy, its impact on democracy and as per last weeks whistleblower, its prioritisation of profit ov...

Conflict is something we all have to deal with. We can do our absolute best to try and avoid conflict but like death and taxes, it is inevitable.

I view any kind of conflict as a massive waste of time; time you could be spending on more productive, not to mention, more enjoyable things.

Conflict is also a source of easily avoidable stress. Even after the conflict has been resolved, the tension hangs around and we feel peeved off for the rest of the day.

Given that conflict wastes our time and causes...

One of the things I get asked about the most is which tools to use and for what purpose. Whether you’re looking for a task management system, sales CRM, online scheduler or email automation tool, there are loads of products out there and a lot of them overlap in terms of functionality.

People ask me about the difference between Asana, and Monday, Pipedrive and Hubspot, Zapier and Integromat. Or they ask whether they even need a sales CRM if a tool like Monday or Asana can be customised to operate like one.

The answer is...

Most businesses want to grow revenue each year. So the business creates new products, conducts marketing campaigns and does everything it can to increase sales. But this isn’t the only way to grow.

Instead of focusing on revenue, growth can also be achieved by improving efficiency.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/227

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Last week I was talking to a client about how to save time during the day and I found myself sharing a common tip:

Whenever you find yourself doing a repetitive task, ask yourself:

“How do I avoid doing this ever again?”

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/226

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Welcome to episode 4 of Minor Updates. In this episode, I share some updates on what I've been up to over the last few months. Enjoy!

If you'd rather watch the video or if you'd like to get the links of the stuff I mentioned, check out the show notes here » https://paulminors.com/225

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

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Last week, my wife Hayley shared a personality test with me and we went through a series of questions to work out what type of person I am. Here are the results and my thoughts on whether I think they’re accurate or not.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/224

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Last Friday, my colleague, Warwick, and I were doing our weekly review where we go through all the clients we’re working with and we prioritise his workload for the upcoming week. During the conversation, he asked me how to deal with ‘urgent’ requests that he gets via email. These are seemingly important tasks that need to be dealt with pretty quickly and put you into a reactive work mode.

If you’re not careful, it’s very easy to react without thinking to these ‘urgent' requests and this takes your time and attention away from your planned, ‘pr...

If you haven’t already, check out part 1 of this series all about how to get started with automation where I discuss the mindset, benefits and how to start thinking about automation.

Once you’ve thought about some of the processes or tasks that you’d like to automate, it’s time to start creating the actual workflows that can do the work for you.

When it comes to automation, there’s no shortage of tools and services to choose from. There’s no one ‘best’ tool. The tool you should use will largely depend on the nature of...

One of the most effective ways of saving time and getting more done is to automate the repetitive parts of your work. By using technology to actually DO parts of your job, not only do you save time but you increase the accuracy of certain processes by removing the potential for human error to occur. As my business has grown, I’ve automated as much as I can and it’s extremely satisfying when things seamlessly happen around you.

If you’ve never done any automation before, stick with me and I’ll help you get started. In this...

Procrastination; the enemy of progress. We’ve all been in that situation where we intend to work on a task or project but can’t muster up the willpower to do the work. Even just making a start seems like a daunting task as you look at what feels like a mountain of work.

Before you know it, you’re scrolling through Twitter, watching YouTube, checking email (again) and doing just about anything besides the actual thing you need to do.

With that in mind, here are 5 tricks to help you overcome procrastination and make progre...

There’s nothing quite like that feeling of being in the zone; that place of flow and focus where you do your best work. If you’ve watched Disney Pixar’s Soul, it shows “the zone” as this generally joyful place between the conscious and unconscious world where you find yourself when you’re completely focussed on your craft or work.

One of the ways I’m able to find this focus and enter ‘the zone’ is by listening to music. When you’ve got a good pair of headphones on and the right music playing, it’s amazing how much mor...

You’ve probably heard about the importance of providing value to potential customers before they purchase. By providing value first, you build trust and credibility that helps leads to eventually justify paying for your product or service.

Free trials and samples are easy. But for coaches and consultants, it’s tricky working out how much free advice to give out without cannibalising your business. The fear is that if you give out too much advice, people won’t need to pay you for your service.

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Yesterday I turned 30. When you have a significant birthday like this it’s natural to look back on how you’ve grown over the years. Heading into my 30s, I’m pleased with where I’m at in life. When I turned 20, I was still at University and had the goal of running my own business. In my early 20s, I had a couple of great jobs which allowed me to learn a lot and develop as an individual. In 2014 I started my blog and began learning about how to make money online by selling my expertise. In 2016, when I was 25...

Forming a new habit can be tough. Whether you’re trying to build a habit related to fitness, personal finances, business or personal well-being, forcing yourself to stop your old methods and start a new habit can feel weird at first. It takes time before the new habit becomes part of your routine and starts to feel normal.

Looking back at some of the habits I’ve adopted, there’s one habit that I’ve adopted that’s helped me when forming other new habits. And it’s this:

Tracking.

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We all have various expressions and turns of phrase that we rely on to make a point and communicate our intentions. However, in this day and age, it’s easier than ever for messages to be misconstrued and taken out of content. Or, if we’re not careful, certain words and phrases can weaken our point and undermine the message entirely.

Whether you’re writing an email or talking in person, here are a few phrases and words I’ve tried to remove from my vocabulary, that you should as well.

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We all like to improve on what we’re doing and how we do things. Whether that’s improving a process in your business, learning a new skill at work or the way you take notes in a class. But the improvement often comes with an adjustment period where it takes time to become accustomed to the change before you can enjoy the benefits. This is why making improvements to the way you work can be challenging. And even though your current process may be slower, doing things the way you’ve always done them is simply easier.

Show...

Out of the box, the Mac is a great piece of kit, but with a few tweaks and some useful apps, you can turn your Mac into an incredibly productive machine.

In this episode, I’d like to list some of the tools and tweaks I’ve made to supercharge my productivity while using the Mac. If you’re a Mac user, I highly recommend spending some time learning about each of these tools. I can say with confidence that tools like these genuinely help me to save time so I can get my work done faster meanin...

If you want to be more organised and effective at managing your time, the key is simplicity. People often come to me for help because their systems are overly complicated and hard to manage. They tell me they spend more time maintaining their system than they do actually doing important work.

As I’ve created and shared videos and blog posts, people often tell me how organised my systems appear to be. There’s no real secret other than I try to make things as simple as possible.

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