How I Plan My Day (Maximum Productivity)

Summary

In this video, Shakira shares her personal productivity model for structuring days, weeks, and months effectively. She emphasizes the importance of 'me time' for reflection and idea generation, the necessity of saying 'no' to non-productive activities, and the value of designing one's life with clear goals. Shakira outlines her weekly routine, focusing on core productive hours and maintaining a balance between work, family, and personal growth. She also highlights the benefits of differentiating between non-productive, productive, and super-productive activities, and encourages viewers to experiment with a 'thinking day' to enhance personal growth.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker emphasizes the importance of having a 'me time' day once a month to break from routine and think creatively.
• 📅 The speaker suggests planning days, weeks, and months to increase productivity, starting with an audit of how time is spent.
• 🚫 Learning to say 'no' is crucial for structuring time effectively and avoiding non-productive activities.
• 🔍 Identifying and eliminating time-consuming but unproductive meetings can significantly improve efficiency.
• 🤔 The speaker recommends automating repetitive tasks to free up time for more important activities.
• 📝 Having a clear vision of one's ideal life and business is essential for making effective decisions on time allocation.
• 🏡 Designing one's life involves detailed planning, including envisioning a perfect day from morning to night.
• 💪 The speaker's personal experience shows that defining a perfect day can lead to significant life changes over time.
• 🗓 Planning the year with free slots and vacations helps in structuring the week and defining work hours effectively.
• 🕒 The speaker works four days a week, focusing on two hours of productive work each day, aiming for a total of 8 to 10 hours of focused work weekly.
• 🧘‍♂️ Starting the day with meditation and learning, followed by work, exercise, and family time, creates a balanced daily routine.

Q & A

What is the speaker's favorite day of the week and why?

The speaker's favorite day of the week is Wednesday. They like to break away from regular family life and use this day for personal reflection and planning.

What does the speaker suggest as the first step to increase productivity?

The first step suggested by the speaker to increase productivity is the elimination of non-productive activities and time-wasting tasks through a personal audit of where and how time is being spent.

Why is it important to learn how to say 'no' according to the speaker?

According to the speaker, learning to say 'no' is crucial for structuring time in the most productive way, as it helps to avoid engaging in unproductive or non-essential activities and meetings.

What does the speaker mean by 'designing your own life'?

Designing one's own life, as per the speaker, means having a clear vision and plan for how one wants to live, work, and achieve goals, rather than falling into someone else's plan or expectations.

How did the speaker define their 'perfect day' and what was the outcome?

The speaker defined their 'perfect day' by writing down in detail what they would do from waking up to going to sleep, including work, leisure, and family time. The outcome was that more than 80% of this ideal day has been fulfilled.

What is the speaker's approach to structuring their week?

The speaker structures their week to work only four days, focusing on two hours of productive work each day, and dedicates specific days for family, spiritual activities, and rest.

How does the speaker differentiate between productive and non-productive activities?

The speaker differentiates between productive and non-productive activities by assessing the outcomes and value they bring to their life and business. Non-productive activities are those that do not contribute to the end goal, while productive activities are important tasks that move one closer to their objectives.

What is the significance of the speaker's 'buffer day'?

The 'buffer day' is significant for the speaker as it provides a break from routine, allowing for reflection, idea generation, and inspiration, which contributes to the growth of their business.

How does the speaker plan their day to maximize productivity?

The speaker plans their day with specific time slots for meditation, learning, work, exercise, family time, and webinars, ensuring a balanced and productive schedule with ample time for rest and reflection.

What advice does the speaker give for someone struggling with productivity?

The speaker advises to experiment with taking one day off from routine activities to focus on thinking and reflection, which can lead to growth and the generation of new ideas.

What is the speaker's recommendation for structuring daily activities?

The speaker recommends structuring daily activities with a focus on core productive hours, learning, meditation, meetings, exercise, family time, and webinars, ensuring a well-rounded and efficient daily routine.

Outlines

00:00

🌟 Introduction and Purpose of the Video

In this introductory segment, Shakira speaks from a hotel in Chennai, sharing her fondness for Wednesdays as a day of personal retreat. She describes her habit of taking a day each month for self-reflection and idea generation for her business. Shakira encourages viewers to take notes, explaining that she will outline a model for planning one's day, week, and month to enhance productivity. She emphasizes the importance of 'me time' and highlights the first step in her process: eliminating unproductive activities by auditing where time is spent and learning to say no to non-essential meetings and tasks.

05:00

📅 Designing Your Ideal Life and Week

Shakira continues by stressing the necessity of designing one's life to know when to say no. She shares a personal exercise of writing down her perfect day in detail, which has significantly influenced her current lifestyle. She discusses planning her year by blocking out vacations and non-work days, and then structuring her week to work only four days with two hours of highly productive work each day. This structure allows her to focus on core activities while maintaining balance with family and spiritual time. Shakira underscores the value of having a clear vision and design for one's life to manage time effectively.

10:01

🗓 Structuring Daily Routines for Maximum Productivity

In this segment, Shakira details her daily routine, emphasizing the importance of meditation and learning in the morning, meetings in the afternoon, and family time and exercise in the evening. She explains how this structured approach allows for breathing space and ensures she remains productive and focused. Shakira highlights the significance of differentiating between non-productive, productive, and super-productive activities. By automating and systematizing tasks, she saves time and increases efficiency, enabling her to focus on activities that build for the future.

🚀 Achieving Flexibility and Growth through Systems

Shakira reflects on her journey from a hectic schedule to her current flexible lifestyle, achieved through building systems and distinguishing between types of activities. She explains how non-productive activities, like aimless internet browsing, differ from productive and super-productive tasks. Shakira shares how creating training systems helps her save time and emphasizes the importance of having a designated thinking day to generate new ideas. She concludes by encouraging viewers to experiment with setting aside a day for reflection and outlines the benefits of structured planning for enhancing productivity and growth.

Keywords

💡Productivity

Productivity refers to the efficiency with which an individual or system performs tasks and achieves goals. In the video, the theme of productivity is central as the speaker discusses strategies for planning one's day, week, and month to achieve higher levels of efficiency and output. The speaker emphasizes the importance of eliminating time-wasting activities and focusing on tasks that are 'super productive'.

💡Time Audit

A time audit is a process of reviewing and analyzing how one's time is spent. In the script, the speaker mentions conducting a personal time audit to identify unproductive meetings and repetitive tasks that consume a significant portion of their day. This concept is crucial as it helps the speaker to reallocate time to more meaningful and productive activities.

💡Me Time

Me time is a period dedicated to personal reflection, relaxation, or engagement in activities solely for one's benefit. The speaker describes taking 'me time' to break away from regular life and focus on self-improvement and idea generation, highlighting the importance of solitude for personal growth and business insights.

💡Elimination

In the context of the video, elimination refers to the process of removing or reducing activities that do not contribute to one's goals. The speaker talks about eliminating unproductive meetings and tasks as a step towards better time management and increased productivity.

💡Automation

Automation is the use of technology to perform tasks without human intervention. The script mentions the idea of automating repetitive tasks to free up time for more important activities. This concept is linked to the video's theme of enhancing productivity by streamlining work processes.

💡Saying No

Saying no is the act of declining requests or opportunities that do not align with one's priorities. The speaker advises learning to say no as a key strategy for time management and focusing on what truly matters. This concept is integral to the video's message of prioritizing personal goals and maintaining control over one's time.

💡Life Design

Life design is the intentional planning and arrangement of one's life to align with personal values, goals, and aspirations. The speaker talks about designing their life by outlining a 'perfect day' and ensuring that their activities contribute to this vision. This concept is central to the video's theme of creating a structured and meaningful life.

💡Buffer Day

A buffer day is a day set aside for rest, reflection, or catching up on tasks without the pressure of regular commitments. The speaker describes using buffer days to gain insights and inspiration, illustrating the importance of downtime for mental and creative rejuvenation.

💡Non-Productive Activities

Non-productive activities are tasks or behaviors that do not contribute to achieving one's goals or improving one's situation. In the script, the speaker identifies non-productive activities such as aimless internet browsing and encourages the audience to minimize these in order to focus on more valuable tasks.

💡Super Productive Activities

Super productive activities are tasks that not only contribute to immediate goals but also create systems or processes that save time in the long run. The speaker gives the example of creating trainings and tutorials that can be reused, thus freeing up time for other important tasks and contributing to long-term productivity.

💡Webinar

A webinar is an online seminar or lecture that allows participants to learn or discuss a topic via video conferencing. The speaker mentions conducting webinars as part of their work routine, emphasizing the role of webinars in their business model and personal productivity strategy.

Highlights

Shakira shares her favorite day of the week and her approach to taking a break from regular family life for personal productivity.

The importance of 'me time' for reflection and generating new business ideas is emphasized.

Shakira introduces a model for planning days, weeks, and months to enhance productivity.

The concept of eliminating time-consuming activities and auditing personal time usage is discussed.

Unproductive meetings and the need to qualify them before agreeing are highlighted as time management issues.

Repetitive tasks are identified as a significant time sink and a potential area for automation.

The necessity of learning to say 'no' to non-essential commitments for better time structuring is presented.

Shakira explains the importance of knowing what you want in life to effectively say 'no' to distractions.

The exercise of designing a perfect day is introduced as a tool for life planning and goal setting.

The impact of defining a perfect day on achieving more than 80% of one's goals is shared.

Shakira outlines her weekly structure, focusing on working only four days with two hours of core productivity each day.

The strategy of blocking out vacation days and non-working days in advance for better planning is mentioned.

The differentiation between non-productive, productive, and super-productive activities is explained.

Building systems and creating trainings to save time and increase efficiency is discussed.

Shakira's daily routine, including meditation, learning, meetings, exercise, and family time, is detailed.

The benefits of having a 'thinking day' without meetings or distractions for idea generation are shared.

The importance of physical exercise in maintaining productivity and a balanced life is highlighted.

Shakira concludes with the impact of time structuring on personal growth and the potential for increased earnings.

A call to action for viewers to subscribe, engage with the content, and share it with others is made.

Transcripts

sup folks that's right Shakira is

speaking to you from a boot nice if I

saw hotel here just in Chennai Wednesday

is my favorite day of the week I like to

you know just break out from regular

family life and I like to just come and

think okay I do it like once in a month

so in this video I want to actually

share with you on you know how to how

should you plan your day how you can

plan your week and your month so that

you can be really really productive you

just want to say big hi to all of you

here just checking to see how many of

you are here okay super stuff so just

take note seems you are gonna be

watching a recording of this take notes

because I'm going to share with you a

model which I follow like right now it's

just me time now for me this is me time

I'm on my own I don't have any family

nothing I like to just spend like a

whole day just thinking and then get

back to work okay so that's how I

usually structure my day sometimes I

come and just you know stay on my own

sometimes I just drive out of town the

whole day and that that buffer day gives

me a lot of lot of insights to an

inspiration for me to know with to

generate new ideas for my business okay

so how many of you are excited to learn

just type excited in the comment box if

you are watching this live on Facebook

in our group just have excited so I'm

going to walk you through a step-by-step

process on how you can structure your

your life in a much more effective way

okay let's see how many of you here I'm

just looking at the comments here nice

so the first step is elimination of

things that are eating up a lot of your

time okay so what I did initially was I

did an audit of a personal audit or

we're all my time was going like what I

say yes for meetings would I you know

just like where was at what what is the

time going for you know was i spending

too much time with family was that

spending too much time on my meetings

where was it exactly going so when I did

that audit I realized that there were a

lot of meetings that I was doing but

many of these meetings were really not

productive that means I would

say yes I would have conversations with

people but at the end of it nothing

would turn out from that or for two

reasons one is I just said yes because I

didn't want to make people feel bad but

on the other side I did not qualify them

before saying yes okay some of them I

would have my business meetings out have

many conversations and I'm you know at

the end of that they would be like okay

we won't take this forward or it won't

be leading to some end goal so that was

the first pattern that I observed myself

where a lot of time was going there then

the second aspect is I notice that a lot

of my time was going in repetitive tasks

like I would be doing a specific bunch

of tasks on a daily basis know may-maybe

filling reports adding some you know

interacting with teams and there was

some things which I felt like if I could

automate it so when I did this audit

when I did this detail audit of my life

where the time was going who was I

speaking to

whether product of conversations then I

realize that my productivity had a lot

to do with you know saying no okay so

the first pencil I want to share with

you is if you want to structure your day

your time your week and your month in

the most productive way as we move into

the next year you have to learn how to

say no as simple as that okay if you are

with me on this just type with you in

the comment box tab with you you gotta

learn to say no because there are many

projects many people who will want you

your your time and stuff like that so be

very cautious on who you give your time

to

okay so there's another base element to

what I am just sharing through right now

you can only say know if you know for

clear or if you know for sure what you

really want in life okay

I'll repeat that again you can only say

no if you are absolutely sure on what

you wanted from your lives and what do I

mean by that how do you want to live

your life how do you want to run your

business how much you know you need to

design your life you need to have a

design because if you do not design your

own life you will be you'll be

automatically in somebody else's design

okay

once more I'll repeat that if you cannot

design your own life you will

automatically fall into somebody else's

design so

when it comes to designing life I'll

give you an exercise that I did a few

years back I took her like a lot of a4

sheets and I actually wrote down my

perfect day like what time would I wake

up in the morning what would I do after

I wake up what kind of people would I

engage and interact with how is my job

like in this job in the sense of what

kind of work will I actually do then

what will I do for leisure what how will

I spend time with family how will I

spend time with kids what do i do right

through the day and then her and what

time do I sleep you know the entire day

was defined in a very detailed level

right from where I was staying and all

of that stuff and interestingly more

than 80% of that has been fulfilled okay

at that point of time when I wrote that

that 14 page I wrote 14 pages of my

perfect day okay when I wrote that my

perfect date I was still grinding it in

you know I was still grinding it in my

you know in Bangalore working and stuff

I was like driving three hours in

traffic not much time I was really

overworked okay during that point of

time and I wrote this but luckily today

because of defining that life now it has

changed okay

so just to recap you can only when you

design your life will you be able to say

no okay

and when you have to say no and the more

nose you say the more free time you'll

have for yourself and the more you'll be

laser focused on the products that

you'll you want to do so how do I plan

my my week and the month and stuff

either nd I'll tell you like this okay

so first I look at the month okay I have

I plan my entire your based on okay how

many vacations do I want to take in a

year which are the days that I do not

want to work and which are the days that

I'm going to do no events and traveling

and stuff so as much as possible I like

to travel less and spend more time at

home

but whenever I have to travel I just

block out those days okay so I just look

at this travel dates vacation dates now

coming to the week I structure my week

in a format which is like this so I have

I want to work only four days in a week

okay and on each of those days that I

work I want to work on you two hours a

day

okay that is like my major focus or the

goal and intention that I set for myself

I need to work for

four days in a week and two hours a day

so eight eight forza i means or two or

two forza eight hours eight to ten hours

a week is my core focused super

productive hours that i need to put him

okay so keeping that in mind I

structured my entire business model

around that okay so I work on Monday

Tuesday today's Wednesday technically I

don't do any work okay so I keep

Wednesday no meetings nothing I don't do

any webinars no other stuff okay I'm

just hopping up on Facebook live because

I did I was inspired okay Thursday and

Friday are the other workdays Saturday

family day Sunday spiritual day take the

family to the temple and stuff like that

okay and of course now I'm also doing

some mentoring groups on Sunday as well

okay but in essence that for working

days or cold working days are only four

days in my business where I try to cover

everything possible including meetings

and even it comes to meetings I try to

keep it within 30 minute meetings even

with my team's agency that I'm running

we catch up on Friday so Friday I have

two slots I catch up with the management

team and then I do a training for them

and that's it and the rest of the week

I've set up the system and process that

I can I can evaluate Friday to Friday so

when we close the week and exactly

what's happening in that business on

this business which is my internet

lifestyle hub business freedom business

model my actual time that I work is when

I do webinars so I do two to three

webinars in a week and that's actual

time that I work that's the time I'm

just running ads you know just

monitoring stuff and not doing much if

you actually think about it it's only

learning I spend a lot of time learning

and on Thursdays I do my inner circle

calls only for my team members okay so

in essence once you've planned your year

into the slots that you want to be free

and stuff then you plan your week and

define how many day how many hours you

want to work in a week and then once you

know that your core focused house is

eight hours or say ten hours that you

want to work in a week then you laser

focus on what is that super super

productive activity that you can do in a

week of course it's for me it's not like

I work only eight to ten hours a week

that I work even more than that but it

is it's for the future it's like

building for the future so if I don't do

that work also it's fine but the core

hours is already set and when it comes

to a daily basis how do i structure my

day

is in this particular format so I wake

up early in the morning I'm meditating I

do two hours of meditation in the

morning I do Jafar minute ation so I

chant names of God and yeah some of you

are resonating with that that's cool so

I start my day with meditation then I

drop my kids to school and after that

that morning slot is the most productive

time you know for me I do my learning in

the morning and I do on my video

shooting in the morning when I have to

do YouTube videos or recording courses

and other stuff when I'm fresh in the

morning I you know with I'd like to

finish that up from the morning slot all

my meetings I keep like 11:00 to 1:00 11

to 2 from 2 p.m. I had lunch then I go

pick up my kids from school and that

evening slot if there are any meetings

at that point of time evening I like to

do a 5km walk on a daily basis because

physical exercise is important and then

the night time is my webinars on the

days that I do webinars so I've

structured my day have spaced it out in

such a way that there's a lot of

breathing time in between and the

morning slot is all for learning and

meditation the afternoon slot is for

meetings and the evening slot is for

exercise and you know and family time

and stuff like that and late night is

when I do webinars 9:00 to 10:00 p.m.

11:00 11:00 p.m. so this is the what I

would recommend on how you can structure

your day week and and here if you found

this useful

just type super-useful in the comment

box that's super useful so I'll tell you

what to come to this level there was a

lot of pain that means I did not have

this much of flexibility before I should

drive three hours a day in Bangalore

traffic then spend eight hours a day in

office and it I was literally grinding

it for many many years until I realised

the importance of building systems and

understanding the differentiation

between non-productive activities

productive activities and super

productive activities and I'll tell you

more about that in probably my next

video but in a nutshell non-productive

activities are in earnest browsing your

phone speaking to friends you know

surfing the internet aimlessly all that

would come in a non product or product

would be or your important tasks and

super productive activities would be

those activities which where you're

building systems to actually save more

time so I've created trainings and

tutorials that actually helps me

a lot more time on the core activities

that I do like for example if I do one

training for my my core team I record

that entire thing on Zoom so that so

that I don't have to repeat the same

thing again and again that's a super

product activity because have to be that

activity once and the teams have to

follow it later so things like that okay

so once you're able to differentiate

between these three segments and then if

you're able to define exactly how you

want to live your life and learn how to

say no and then structure it into your

you know weekly monthly and daily you

know if you put that all into a plan

then it gives you a lot more leverage

you love you'll actually start to make a

lot more money and this Wednesday open

day for me is it's helped me

tremendously like I don't do any

meetings I don't like to you know speak

to people I don't like to do anything on

a Wednesday because this is a day for me

to think it's a thinking day and just

try this out you know if you want to

experiment one day how much hour you

know busy your life maybe just just see

if you can cut off one day from the

world and see how fast you will grow I

get some of my best ideas on these days

okay so I'm going to be signing off

right now hope you found this video

useful Cheers

god bless and if you're watching this on

my youtube channel you know hit the

subscribe button hit the bell button and

keep watching out for my videos and

please share this somebody else's Ambria

if somebody that you want to help who's

not very productive who's struggling

with putting things together maybe just

share this video to them and they will

find it useful okay I'll see you in my

future webinars that's linked to my

webinar below and if you are watching

this inside my private group in facebook

there's a post that I did to get your

webinar workbook so get your workbook

complete those at 10 action steps and

we'll meet life okay bye bye