Free to Focus: An Interview with Michael Hyatt
In this conversation between Michael Hyatt and Get-It-Done Guy, Stever Robbins, Michael offers a wide range of tools to make you more productive, more relaxed, and help you achieve the highest of all goals: freedom.
In today’s episode, I talk with Michael Hyatt, about his new book, Free to Focus. Michael has been a successful CEO, a best-selling author, and speaker on the systems he developed that helped him produce his outstanding business results.
Click on the audio player above to hear the interview, or watch the video version online. Michael shares his top tips for managing your life to get more done in less time.
Here are some of the tips he discusses:
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Scale yourself. You’re only one person. You can’t do it all (nor should you want to). Figure out your strengths, and arrange to spend your time and effort there. If something isn’t your strength, eliminate, delegate, or automate it. If you aren’t a maestro when it comes to mowing your lawn? Let it go. See also:Â
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Find your point of leverage. Leverage is when you can put in a small amount of effort and get a large amount of results. Look for opportunities to find leverage in your life and business. Then put your efforts on those high-leverage activities. When it comes to scaling yourself, you’ll be able to find a lot of leverage by using a Freedom Compass to decide where to spend your time.Â
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Use the Freedom Compass to set your direction. The key to scaling yourself is to use the Freedom Compass. Look for the things you’re passionate about, where your skills are strong enough to make you in demand. That’s your Zone of Desire, the True North on your Freedom Compass. Do everything you can to spend most of your time there. (Listen to the full episode for more about the Freedom Compass and the other Zones.)
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Scope your goals. Goals are things you are excited to accomplish that are outside your comfort zone. Set 10–15 goals for the year. Then use Michael’s 3–3–3 rule to accomplish them. Set three big goals for the quarter, three goals for the week, and three goals for the day. Let those guide your actions.
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Set daily goals. You probably have a task list that’s as long as your arm. You can’t get all that done in one day. So each day, choose three big things to accomplish, and let those guide your day. Those are the last “3” of the 3–3–3 rule.
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Use constraints and boundaries. Limitations force you to get creative. When you have time limits or other boundaries, you’ll paradoxically get more done.Â
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Rest and recharge! No one can go at top speed all the time. You need enough rest to rechange, regroup, and let your brain do the background creative work that will solve the problems that are in your way.
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Understand the nature of investment. When scaling yourself, you have to spend money to make money. If you think you’ll make money and then hire an assistant, you may have it exactly backwards: you hire the assistant first, and that frees you up to make more money.
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Know why you’re doing things. Keep yourself motivated and keep your goals aligned by knowing your highest goals. Instead of simply thinking that you’re working to make money, ask “Why?” Why do you want to make money? Micheal suggests that our highest work motivation is freedom: Freedom to Focus, Freedom to be Fully Present, and Freedom to be Spontaneous.Â
Listen to the full episode to learn more about how to use a journal successfully, what rituals you can set up to keep your life moving forward automatically, and the most common way people sabotage themselves.
Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!
Free to Focus book cover image courtesy of Michael Hyatt.
About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.Â
