How to Get Clarity So You Can Be More Productive w/Mark Struczewski

Ever feel like you're spinning your wheels, trying to be more productive but not making real progress toward your goals? Then this episode is for you.

Listen as Mister Productivity, Mark Struczewski talks about how to cut through the noise, revealing how simplifying your approach and focusing on the 'why' can lead to true productivity gains.

Mark also shares personal stories, such as his unwavering commitment to running and his strategic decision to outsource lawn care, to keep his sights set on his work and passions. By prioritizing tasks that are in line with our aspirations, we find that productivity isn't about doing more—it's about doing what's right.

But we don't stop at productivity; we also get personal about the power of clarity in managing life's cacophony. I recount my transformation from being submerged in demands to creating focused, clear goals at any point in the year, proving that January 1st isn't the only time for a fresh start.

Discover how batching tasks can streamline your workflow, as we demonstrate the podcasting process.

Finally, Mark reminds us of the critical role self-care plays in achieving a positive and productive lifestyle. Prepare to rethink your daily grind, embrace self-improvement, and harness the power of productivity, and avoid burnout.

Bio: Mark Struczewski Empowers Executives to Eliminate Distractions, Prioritize Tasks, and Gain Daily Clarity so They can Live the Productive Life.

Connect with Mark: The Mister Productivity Podcast | Website | Twitter

Transcript

Mark Struczewski: 0:00

January 1st is just a date on a calendar. It's not a magic date. Start today. Whenever you're listening to this podcast, Start today.

J. Rosemarie (Jenn): 0:10

This is Tools of the Podcast Trade, where you can learn about the tools and resources you can use to start and grow your podcast Tune in this week, as we talk about the help you need to remove the mystery from podcasting so you can become a successful podcaster that can reach your audience where they are. My guest today is Mr Productivity Mark Struczewski. Thank you, Mark, for coming and speaking to us today on Tools of the Podcast Trade.

Mark Struczewski: 0:41

Well, thank you for having me here. I'm excited to get started and to provide value for your listeners.

J. Rosemarie (Jenn): 0:48

Yeah, I appreciate it. Well, before we get into what you do, could you tell us who is Mark?

Mark Struczewski: 0:55

Well, I am an only child and I realized a couple of weeks ago that I am now orphaned because both my parents have passed away, one in 2022 and one in 2023. I am married to my wife for over 20 years. We live in Houston, texas, and I absolutely love what I do. I am 58 years young and I have been running at least one mile every day since August 29th 2017. So that's a little bit about me.

J. Rosemarie (Jenn): 1:26

Oh, thank you, and I appreciate you sharing those you know personal little bits and pieces. Yeah, thank you. All right, so let's get into productivity. It seems simple, but it's not right.

Mark Struczewski: 1:40

Well, it's funny you ask that because I'm a big fan of simplicity. I believe that complexity is a gateway to procrastination. So I have a lot of tips, but I try to make them as simple as possible because if I know, I know if I can make a tip simple, more people are going to do it. Because I know I have a podcast, like you do, and I know that people are probably walking the dog, doing the dishes, they're on a bike ride, they're on a plane and they're not gonna remember complex ideas. And so I remember that and I always wanna give whatever podcast I'm on, whether it's yours or mine give people simple ideas that they can remember and, most importantly, that they will do.

J. Rosemarie (Jenn): 2:29

Okay, all right. So, in the grand scheme of things, productivity sounds like you're telling me to do more. Right, explain that. I mean, am I wrong? It's productivity doing more, or something else?

Mark Struczewski: 2:51

I believe productivity is doing the right things that are going to move you towards your goals. So first of all, you gotta figure out what your goals are, and I would argue that before you can create goals, you gotta find out why you're doing what you're doing. So it starts with a Y, which leads to your goals, and then, once you have your goals in place, then you go okay, what do I need to do today, tomorrow, this week, next month, whatever that are going to push me toward those goals? So productivity means different things to different people, and I think that you should focus on reaching your goals, and when you are doing things that are bringing you towards your goals, then you're being productive. So let's say, my goal is to make $10 million next year If I cut my back lawn. Is that being productive? No, in my opinion. So what I do is I hire some guy. He cuts my lawn, does a much better job than I ever could, and so he gets paid doing what he loves to do, and I'm in the house getting paid for what I love to do. That's where I think productivity comes down to it.

J. Rosemarie (Jenn): 4:10

Okay, all right, thank you for clarifying that. So then, it's the reason why I mean, this is a show about podcasting. Expert thought leaders encourage podcasters to focus on what they're good at right, focus on their passion and let somebody else do all the rest. All the other work, right. It's that. That's why, right, okay, all right, thank you Now I see it here, from overwhelming to clarity. I think that's your personal story. Can you share that with us?

Mark Struczewski: 4:51

Yeah. So in our world today, we are so overwhelmed with everything going on. We have the notifications on our phone, we're having all these things going around in our world, whether it's people or the government or whatever it is, and we are becoming more and more overwhelmed with all these things. And one of the keys to get out from being overwhelmed is gaining clarity. This goes back to what I just said. You need to figure out what do you want to accomplish this year? And I don't care if you're listening to this in 2024 or 2025, 2027, it doesn't matter, even if it's in middle of the year. You need to stop and think okay, what do I want to do this year? So let's say, someone's listening to this show and it's August 10th of 2024. Well, and you had a really you didn't do much. You had a really poor year this year. Well, start today and go. Okay, how can I finish strong? See a lot of people once the year gets started and they go off the rails. They go. I can't do anything until January 1st.

J. Rosemarie (Jenn): 6:05

It's too late. Get clarity today.

Mark Struczewski: 6:08

Get clarity today and don't wait. Too many people are they look at. January 1st is just a date on a calendar. It's not a magic date. Start today. Whenever you're listening to this podcast, start today.

J. Rosemarie (Jenn): 6:23

Yeah, yeah, that makes absolute sense because it's a procrastination, right? We? We? We complicated with this new year's thing and that caused us to relax until January 1st, right, yeah, okay, all right, thank you. Now I was listening to a little teeny bit of your podcast and I caught the term task batching. Can you explain what that is to us, what the benefit is to a podcaster, and how context switching, which is the other term you use, helps a podcaster to be more productive? So I'm asking you a lot.

Mark Struczewski: 7:10

What it pulls down to? Yeah, it's okay, we'll unpack it. So what task batching is is you try to do Similar tasks all at once. So, in my sense, like you, I have a podcast, so I record my podcast. Now, this is not the prep. I've already done the prep. I've already done my show notes. I'm not talking about that. When I do my show, I will do my show and I, unlike you, I don't do interviews anymore. I only do solo episodes, which is just me, so I will record it. When I'm done recording it, then I upload it to the One site that will actually make the audio sound better, and then I upload it to the company that distributes the software to the episode around the world, and then I take the transcript and I run it through Otter AI, get a transcript and I use chat GPT to create a readable blog post on my website. Now, all those things all happen around the same time, so I don't do like the podcast and the next day I'll do the transcript, the next day I'll do the blog. I do it all at once so when I start a podcast from the time I hit record. So the time I'm done, I want everything done. I don't. I don't like these things hanging out there. So I try to get everything done and you can do this and anything. If you're gonna create up a YouTube video, you're gonna write a book, you're going to it literally the. The list is endless of the possibilities. But you take a bunch of tasks that are similar and you do them all at the same time. Now what context switching is is when you switch from one task to another, you have some residue on the first task, so maybe working on task B, but your mind is still a little bit thinking about task a. That's why, if you take tasks and they're all similar, like creating a podcast episode, you're gonna have less Attention, revenue, context, revenue whatever term you want to use because the tasks are all similar. It's all about your podcast. But if you go from creating an episode to Scrolling on social media, to writing on your book. Well, there's gonna be more residue there because they're different. But if you're like recording the podcast, then you are going to do this. You know the transcription. Then you can do chat, cbt now all the tasks are similar. You're still gonna have residue, the context residue but it won't be as great Because now the tasks are more similar. Does that make sense?

J. Rosemarie (Jenn): 9:39

That makes absolute sense. Thank you, and and what? What? You were explaining the context, switching from task to task to task or dissimilar task. I See the cartoon character Rushing from place to place and there's this, there's this kind of flame following him, right, and I am see, yes, I have this. Strange, that's what I'm thinking about. All right, thank you. These are concepts that we can grasp, that can help us to be more productive and To do better work as podcasters and business people. So I appreciate it. So tell us what you do for your clients and how we can get in touch with you.

Mark Struczewski: 10:27

Well, you mentioned you asked me about clarity earlier, and that's the single thing I do with my clients. My clients come to me because they're overwhelmed, they're like my life is spinning out of control, I, I don't know which ends up, and, and so the first call we we go on the journey, as you will, as it starts is let's get clarity, because most people don't have clarity. They're putting out fires all day long, and so I like to help people Gain clarity. And the analogy I use because you use the, the cartoon and the fire, after the guy, the. We all have these Apple headphones. Remember the Apple headphones that used to be with the cord? And they used to get tangled up and when you try to untangle them, it's like it gets more tangled. That's what I'm trying to do and it's it's a process, because there's no coach in the world that can just snap their fingers and say Do this, one thing in your life is gonna be great. It's a journey, it's a process. So what I help people do is Untangle their headphones to gain clarity, and before I can actually give them tips, I got to find out where, where have they been, where are they now and where they want to go.

J. Rosemarie (Jenn): 11:41

And here's the thing, jen Most people never think about this.

Mark Struczewski: 11:43

They think about, okay, I'm on this podcast right now. They don't think about, okay, how am I gonna prepare for the podcast episode? What am I gonna do when it comes out? We think about the here and now and you should be fully present, but all you're doing is being in the moment. Well, do you have a vision? I sort of vision? You clear on it? Not really. And so, whether you're talking about productivity or creating a podcast or writing a book, it comes to clear, comes down the clarity. You got to get clarity and I tell you my secret weapon. I have two secret weapons which I'll tell your listeners that I use for gaining clarity. One is I like writing on my whiteboard. I went out and got myself a whiteboard and there's something about writing your ideas. And you seen your ideas and like, yeah, now, if you don't have a whiteboard, you can use a notebook, you can use a piece of paper. When you take your pen and you write your ideas down, all of a sudden now your eye sees the words. It sees the sentences like oh, wait a minute Instead of doing this one, or move this over to here and now, because people try to do it in your head. It doesn't work in your head. You got to do it on paper or on a whiteboard, and that's what I tell people to do. That's my secret to gaining clarity is to write things down. Don't use an app, don't put it on your notes app on your phone. Write it on a piece of paper. I promise you the clarity will zoom in the focus for you.

J. Rosemarie (Jenn): 13:19

Yes, that makes absolute sense. I know Russell Brunson is a fan of the whiteboard and I always watch him doing all that stuff on it. Yeah so yeah, thank you. Thank you for that tip, and which brings me to Can. Can you tell us your favorite productivity tools?

Mark Struczewski: 13:37

having said right now, Well, it changes all the time because life changes all the time. But right now, right now, I'm telling people we're spending too much time in front of our screens. You need to get up and you need to go outside and you go outside and not be on your tech. Jen, I want people to understand Don't get on your tech, go outside, look at the trees, breathe in the fresh air, look at the birds, listen to the birds. If you do this two to four minutes every hour, you are going to find yourself to be in a different space. Okay, so many people go from one screen to another screen, zoom to zoom, google Meet, the Google Meet podcast, and we're sitting down looking at these screens and I'm telling you give yourself a break and go outside. Now, I get this question all the time. Someone goes what if I'm on a two hour training? Do you know what I do? I will actually turn my camera off and I will get off my chair and I will walk around the room and maybe I do some jumping jacks or do some squats. We were not designed, we were not created to sit behind computers all day. So I encourage people whether you're on a training, call a meeting, get up every hour. You can even let the people know if it's a small like group coaching call to say, hey, yeah, you know, as we get toward the top of the hour, I'm going to turn my camera off. I'm still listening. I'm going to be doing moving around the background. You need to do this because it's going to keep your body fresh and it's going to help you be more productive.

J. Rosemarie (Jenn): 15:15

Yeah, that's true, thank you. All right, I appreciate you more. I'm coming and talking to us today and, oh, tell us how we can get in touch with you, like your links, and how we can connect on social and stuff like that.

Mark Struczewski: 15:29

I'll make it really easy for everybody. Just go to MisterProductivity. com. There you can find out anything you want to know about me my podcast, my blog, my coaching everything is at MisterProductivity. com.

J. Rosemarie (Jenn): 15:47

Okay, thank you, and that's the name of the podcast as well MrProductivity, all right.

Mark Struczewski: 15:52

Okay, thank you, and I even trademarked MrProductivity because I wanted to be all fancy.

J. Rosemarie (Jenn): 15:59

Pretty cool, all right, okay. So before I let you go, give us three tips on how to be more productive while working remotely.

Mark Struczewski: 16:12

I'm sort of a digital nomad, so this one is of interest to me, okay, well, I'm going to cheat and use the one I already told you to go outside, walk around at least once every hour, okay. Number two don't jam pack your days. Okay, don't go wall to wall to wall. You need to have space where you can maybe go spend some time on social media not a lot, but a few minutes. You need to break it up during the day, okay. So go outside, don't pack your day. And number three be okay with saying no. Be okay to say you know what. I can't do any more today. I'm going to move some things around and take the afternoon off. Don't push that rope. So many people think I got to work through it. Got to work through it. But if you're not in the right state, if you're angry, if you're frustrated, you're overwhelmed, maybe you're not feeling well, then take the day off. It's okay if you take the day off and take care of yourself.

J. Rosemarie (Jenn): 17:15

Yeah, all right. Okay, I appreciate you. Any parting shots?

Mark Struczewski: 17:21

You get one shot at this thing called life, and it's up to you, it's nobody else's responsibility for you, to live your best life. Too many people are playing the blame game, too many people saying well, if so, and so did this, I would feel better. Look, it's your job. It's your job to take care of your health Spiritually, emotionally, physically. It's your job. So stop playing the blame game. Stop criticizing other people and instead focus on how you can live your best life, instead of blaming other people.

J. Rosemarie (Jenn): 17:55

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Max Drew Chesky, for coming and talking to us today. I appreciate you.

Mark Struczewski: 18:02

I appreciate you having me on my show and I hope you and your listeners stay productive and stay positive Awesome.