🎙️Boost Your Productivity with Professor Margo Berman’s 5-Step Process

Hi there. My name is Avil Beckford, and I am the host of the One Problem podcast. We know there are tons of problems in the world, but we're going to tackle them one problem at a time because we don't want to get overwhelmed. As you know, most of the people who come on this podcast, I have some connection with them. My guest today, Margo Berman, someone introduced me to her. Now, Margo is a professor at Florida International University. Over to you, Margo.

Margo Berman

Thanks, Avil! And thank you so much for inviting me. I'm very excited to be here. I used to wear a button that said, prone to bouts of enthusiasm. So I can't contain myself. I'll do my best to chill and slow down. And I often remind myself, slow it down, take it easy, because I'm very geared up all the time. So let me solve the problem that many people have asked me.

How do you get more done in less time? I do a lot. And people go, how do you do all of that? I'm writing my 16th and 17th book. I have three apps out. So people go, How do you do that? I have the same 24 hours a day you have. Here are my five steps to maximize productivity.

Number one, create, then protect, priority time. What is priority time? I used to have an office, and I had a staff of people and I created a little sign. And it had two words, “Priority Time”, and I would pass the sign through the office. Each person would have the sign for one hour. I found out they loved this because during priority time, nobody can talk to you, ask you anything, interrupt you, even to take a phone call.

The One Problem with Margo Berman

Unless the building is burning and your kid has, God forbid, an accident, you cannot be approached, spoken, nothing, not even waved to, nothing. Your sign, and if someone bothers you, you hold up your sign, “Priority Time”, and they leave you alone. So that turned out to be extremely effective because it's your time, totally your time.

Margo Berman

And we often get distracted. Oh, there's an email. Oh, there's a phone call. And we don't follow priority time. Carve out with a chisel, just like you're carving out stone, priority time. And remind yourself this is your time. I have often said, “Don't even talk to me.” My poor husband, when I'm writing books, I'm like, “go away.” He knows, he sees, “go away.” And those two words are great. So number one, set and protect priority time.

Number two, extremely important, get focused, be organized. You go, “Well, that's not hard.” Oh, yes, it is. Focus is everything. And people have said you have such powers of concentration. That's true. I can just shut everything out. I've had to work in hallways when they had too many people for the jobs and they needed writers. And I was in the hallway writing it.

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People are talking to you. Ignore all of that. So be focused and be organized. Your files are privileged documents. They're sacred. Your files have to be written in a way that you can find them in an instant. It's like when you lose something, a low jack for your car, you have this thing that you know where your stuff is. If you're spending time looking for what's the name of the file, where did I put the file, and what did I do with it? That's time that you could spend doing it. You shouldn't be looking for it. So first get your priority time. Second, get focused and organized.

Margo Berman

Number three, chunk it down. The biggest building is not built all at once. It's built in little bricks, little things. Your cornerstone for me is your outline. Once you get your outline put together, you can chunk it down into little pieces. Tiny pieces are manageable. If I said, “go build a 40 story building tomorrow”, it's just not going to happen. And oftentimes, we have an unrealistic expectation of how long anything should take. So chunk it down into little pieces. And as soon as you finish that little piece, you feel accomplished.

You did something. Wow! And also learn to delegate some of those little pieces. If you're a good delegator, give people stuff you don't do well. Let them help you do it. So chunking it down.

Okay, number four, start with the hard stuff. I lie to myself. Everything I do is hard, so I lie to myself. See, it's all hard stuff. But I go, I'm going to start with the hard stuff, and then I pretend it's the hard stuff because it is really hard stuff. And so when I'm doing the hard stuff, as soon as I finish that little piece, that little chunk, I go, See, I did the hard stuff. The next thing is, this is hard, but I lie to myself. I go, See, this is hard, but not as hard stuff because you did the hard stuff first. So I always lie to myself. So we'll go, one is priority time, two is get focused, be organized, three, chunk it down, four, start with the hard stuff, lie to yourself.

Margo Berman

And the last one, number five, stay the course, be a postage stamp. Stick to one thing till you get there. You may have heard it, live it.

So you need to stay with that project, not till you're almost done. To the very last second, until it's totally finished. And it's funny when you produce radio, for example, the hardest thing is the end because you're listening. And putting it all together and checking the sound and that's when people get lazy and they get tired. You can't be tired. You should be energized at the end because there's the finish line. Don't give up yet. You didn't cross that finish line. Don't get fatigued. Don't think about how tired you are. Think about how much you did and one little push will get you over there.

One, create and protect priority time. Number two, get focused, be organized. Know where your stuff is. Number three, chunk it down into itty bitty pieces. Number four, start with the hard stuff. Lie, it's all hard stuff. Five, stay the course, be that postage stamp, and don't quit till you arrive at your destination. Now, thank you so much for inviting me, and over to you, Avil.

Avil Beckford

Thank you so much. I was taking notes because I was going to wrap it up. But you did a fabulous job. I love that metaphor of the postage stamp. It brings it to life and people get what you're saying.

Margo Berman

The first time I heard that, I said, “Oh, my God, that is fabulous.” I didn't write it, but I stole it and said, this is fabulous. Stick to one thing till you get there. And it's so true. Don't give up the ship. People say, “You really always finish stuff.” I go, oh, that's a big thing for me. I don't want to start it until I can finish it. And in my head, it's already done. I just need to do it.

Avil Beckford

That's so good.

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