How To Methodically Cut Unnecessary Work To Find Sanity

00:00:00.000 | I just, I wanted to do a case study.

00:00:02.880 | I like doing case studies so we can see some of my ideas and action in the real

00:00:08.580 | world. So I have a, a written case study here from Liz.

00:00:12.980 | And so I'm going to read what Liz sent me.

00:00:16.080 | Thanks to your books and podcasts.

00:00:19.240 | I doubled my income while cutting my hours in half.

00:00:22.960 | I am a freelance copywriter working in the advertising space.

00:00:26.660 | I came up through the ranks working the 60 plus hour weeks that advertising is

00:00:30.780 | known for.

00:00:31.620 | But along the way I created some commercials and campaigns that got national

00:00:34.980 | recognition and earned me enough career capital to go freelance after the birth

00:00:38.620 | of my first son.

00:00:39.460 | That career capital was enough to get me clients as the new freelancer,

00:00:43.420 | but not enough to get me the lifestyle I was hoping for.

00:00:47.100 | I was still working crazy hours and feeling burnt out.

00:00:49.820 | This is where your ideas changed my life.

00:00:54.300 | I began implementing office hours with my clients via

00:00:58.900 | Slack and devoting large chunks of my day to doing uninterrupted writing.

00:01:03.300 | This immediately increased my quality of work while cutting my hours by at least

00:01:07.380 | 30%, if not more.

00:01:09.500 | My clients didn't bat an eye because I was still agreeing to use their preferred

00:01:13.660 | method of communication,

00:01:14.740 | which was Slack and I was responding promptly to them during my next office

00:01:18.740 | hour.

00:01:19.620 | It also didn't hurt that I framed those office hours as a way to maximize their

00:01:24.460 | money.

00:01:25.140 | Because at the end of the day,

00:01:26.380 | every client will acknowledge they aren't paying me to talk to them on Slack.

00:01:29.460 | They're paying me to write good ads.

00:01:32.060 | I also quit all forms of social media,

00:01:35.420 | which has given me so much more mental clarity than I ever could have imagined.

00:01:39.660 | And I think has increased my overall productivity just as much as time

00:01:42.620 | blocking and office hours.

00:01:44.100 | Since going freelance,

00:01:46.260 | I have raised my rates twice without losing any clients.

00:01:49.100 | Right now I am on retainer with two different agencies for a total of 40 hours.

00:01:53.860 | But since implementing your practices has allowed me to work so much,

00:01:57.580 | much quicker,

00:01:58.460 | I often complete my work in half that time.

00:02:01.620 | I spend this extra time picking up odd freelance jobs for extra income,

00:02:05.860 | reading books or going on phone free walks.

00:02:09.340 | I also stop work at 3pm every day to be with my older son when he gets home from

00:02:13.180 | preschool.

00:02:14.020 | It's exactly the lifestyle I had imagined with going freelance and I couldn't have

00:02:17.580 | done it without you. Thank you.

00:02:19.340 | So Jesse,

00:02:21.900 | I love this case study for multiple reasons because it has

00:02:26.140 | multiple ideas we talk about working.

00:02:29.540 | And so I'm looking at my notes here about this case study.

00:02:32.660 | First,

00:02:34.020 | is this the,

00:02:35.660 | the career capital framework?

00:02:37.740 | I think that was absolutely the right framework for Liz to think about her

00:02:40.660 | career.

00:02:41.260 | Yep.

00:02:41.700 | So her ultimate goal was to be freelance with flexible hours with good

00:02:46.340 | compensation.

00:02:47.460 | But you know,

00:02:48.220 | I'm done with work by three.

00:02:49.540 | And so she got enough career capital to go freelance by being so good.

00:02:53.940 | She couldn't be ignored.

00:02:54.660 | She had some ad campaigns that won awards,

00:02:56.820 | got national recognition,

00:02:57.820 | but it wasn't yet enough to get her to the schedule she wanted.

00:03:01.580 | And so there she threw in,

00:03:02.900 | she had the capital for it.

00:03:04.340 | Then she threw in tactics.

00:03:05.420 | So it's this combination of career capital and tactics aimed at the

00:03:10.220 | particular vision you have of your lifestyle.

00:03:12.020 | So she put that together really nicely.

00:03:13.820 | If she had only done one and not the other,

00:03:16.460 | it would have been a problem.

00:03:17.260 | If she had only focused on career capital,

00:03:19.060 | as we saw,

00:03:20.460 | she was still crazy busy,

00:03:22.300 | even after she was nationally recognized.

00:03:24.300 | And if she had only focused on strategies,

00:03:26.820 | she would have had trouble because if she wasn't doing work that was being

00:03:31.260 | nationally recognized,

00:03:32.340 | no one cares what your time management strategies are.

00:03:34.140 | They're not going to hire you.

00:03:34.980 | And so I thought that combination was very powerful.

00:03:37.740 | Second thing I noticed here,

00:03:39.980 | um,

00:03:40.980 | was this notion.

00:03:41.820 | I talk about this in a world without email.

00:03:44.820 | People are afraid of if I put structure to communication with clients,

00:03:48.900 | they will not tolerate it.

00:03:50.260 | They demand accessibility.

00:03:51.780 | I always argue that's not true.

00:03:53.740 | Clients don't need accessibility.

00:03:55.580 | They need consistency.

00:03:57.860 | They need to understand if I need to contact you,

00:04:01.740 | how does that work?

00:04:02.900 | And if they understand how that works,

00:04:05.380 | the accessibility is not so important.

00:04:07.020 | Accessibility is only important if there's no other system.

00:04:09.100 | So if it's just,

00:04:10.260 | I don't know,

00:04:10.620 | we just slack back and forth,

00:04:12.540 | then I really need you to answer my slack right away because otherwise I have to

00:04:15.260 | like sit around and wait and I don't know what I'm going to get an answer.

00:04:17.900 | But if you have something that's consistent and clear,

00:04:20.260 | like office hours every day,

00:04:21.820 | that's when I will answer you.

00:04:23.940 | That's completely fine because what you're providing for the client is clarity.

00:04:29.460 | Oh,

00:04:30.740 | okay.

00:04:30.980 | So Liz,

00:04:31.580 | I can't just slack her right now.

00:04:32.980 | Um,

00:04:34.300 | but at three o'clock or two o'clock or whatever I can,

00:04:36.700 | and she'll answer,

00:04:37.300 | or I can send this to her now and expect an answer at two.

00:04:40.140 | Great.

00:04:40.700 | I have clarity here.

00:04:41.500 | It's consistent and clear.

00:04:42.580 | I don't have to worry about this.

00:04:43.740 | Let me move on with all these other things I care about in my life.

00:04:45.820 | I don't care that she answers my slack right now.

00:04:47.860 | I care that I know and can trust when she will.

00:04:50.580 | And so this clarity over accessibility is a theme that comes up often.

00:04:54.460 | Liz lived that out.

00:04:55.780 | Her clients were fine.

00:04:57.340 | Yeah.

00:04:58.140 | Okay.

00:04:58.340 | I can wait till office hours.

00:04:59.100 | I don't care.

00:04:59.540 | Just tell me how I do this.

00:05:00.580 | Great.

00:05:00.780 | Office hours.

00:05:01.260 | Good.

00:05:01.500 | Let's roll.

00:05:02.060 | And so she lost no clients doing that.

00:05:04.300 | Um,

00:05:05.540 | I also like she quit social media.

00:05:07.940 | We often see this as two different magisteria.

00:05:11.780 | There's your personal life being on your phone.

00:05:14.180 | This is like digital minimalism applies.

00:05:16.900 | And then you have your professional life and it's about email and slack.

00:05:20.900 | And that's where books like deep work in a world without email apply.

00:05:23.460 | They're not so separate.

00:05:25.300 | And as Liz learned,

00:05:27.700 | especially as a freelancer,

00:05:28.820 | what she was looking at,

00:05:30.500 | at her phone,

00:05:31.100 | the distraction that engendered though,

00:05:33.980 | not coming from clients and not directly related to work,

00:05:36.260 | distracted her from her work.

00:05:38.900 | And it was taking her much more time to get things done.

00:05:40.860 | So when she got rid of social media,

00:05:42.060 | she's locked in when I'm working,

00:05:44.460 | I'm working and you don't have this back and forth.

00:05:46.340 | I think that's a big part of my own success is my lack of social media use

00:05:51.060 | means I'm working.

00:05:52.460 | I'm working.

00:05:52.980 | This is why a lot gets produced,

00:05:54.860 | even though I work a very standard number of hours.

00:05:58.060 | And the final thing I'll say,

00:05:59.780 | I really liked about Liz's case study is that it is lifestyle centric career

00:06:03.380 | planning.

00:06:04.180 | She was a copywriter working big hours.

00:06:08.460 | Instead of just saying,

00:06:09.340 | I just want to quit or I want to make more money.

00:06:11.260 | She said,

00:06:11.660 | what lifestyle do I want?

00:06:12.940 | She wanted autonomy.

00:06:14.940 | She wanted to be done by work by three to spend time with her kids and have

00:06:20.060 | similar compensation to what she was getting for working 60 plus hours.

00:06:23.380 | And there wasn't a switch she could flick the mint tomorrow.

00:06:26.820 | I'm going to have that,

00:06:27.660 | but she knew what she was working backwards from.

00:06:29.980 | And she changed after change.

00:06:32.420 | Let me get really good.

00:06:33.500 | So good.

00:06:33.820 | I can't ignore you.

00:06:34.420 | Let me go freelance.

00:06:35.220 | Now that I'm freelancing,

00:06:36.060 | let me throw in tactics.

00:06:36.860 | Let me tame the way I deal with clients.

00:06:38.380 | Let me work with distractions,

00:06:39.220 | work,

00:06:40.100 | work,

00:06:40.300 | work,

00:06:40.460 | work all towards this eventual goal.

00:06:42.100 | And then she hit it.

00:06:42.780 | So she started with the lifestyle and that drove all of these decisions.

00:06:46.620 | And she finally got there.

00:06:47.700 | And as she says,

00:06:48.940 | it's exactly the lifestyle she had imagined.

00:06:50.700 | So Liz,

00:06:52.100 | I really liked that case study.

00:06:53.860 | This is my advice and action for crafting a deep life.

00:06:57.460 | Make and double the money too.

00:06:59.060 | Oh yeah.

00:07:00.660 | So I had that wrong.

00:07:01.580 | Yeah.

00:07:01.700 | She's doubling.

00:07:02.420 | Yeah.

00:07:03.780 | She's raised her weight rates twice and she's on a 40 hour a week retainer.

00:07:07.540 | Yeah.

00:07:07.700 | So she's probably making more bank than she was doing 60 hour weeks.

00:07:11.220 | I like it.

00:07:13.220 | Yeah.

00:07:13.780 | All right.

00:07:15.700 | Well, good work Liz.

How To Methodically Cut Unnecessary Work To Find Sanity

Chapters