Fulfilling Work, Meaningful Life with Anthony Craiker

How Much Is Your Time Worth? (with Lenny Richardson)

• Anthony Craiker | Fulfilling Work, Meaningful Life • Episode 16

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In this week's episode of Fulfilling Work, Meaningful Life, host Anthony Craiker sits down with Lenny Richardson (aka Leviticus Rich). Lenny shares how his experience of getting kicked out of college and being unable to make rent led him to understand what it takes to create a flourishing life. Tapping into ancient wisdom, Lenny realized that one of the keys to having a productive and meaningful life is time management. This conversation will inspire you to pursue excellence and be intentional with your time in order to achieve your goals and flourish in life.

00:00 Introduction: Defining Your Future
00:46 Guest Introduction: Lenny Richardson's Journey
03:30 Lenny's College Struggles and Turning Point
10:45 Discovering Eudaimonia: The Path to a Flourishing Life
17:57 The Importance of Time Management
22:11 Practical Tips for Effective Time Management
28:29 Productivity Accelerator: Helping Others Succeed
31:55 Conclusion: Final Thoughts and Parting Wisdom

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About Lenny Richardson:

Lenny, also known as Leviticus Rich, is a dynamic force who has consistently shattered expectations and forged new paths. As one of the top podcasters in Northern Virginia, his show "Meeting VA" has become a platform for influential figures in the DMV area. In addition, Lenny is the head of business development at a leading medical laboratory franchise and the top productivity trainer in Northern VA, helping professionals unlock a "Better Lifestyle" through his comprehensive program, Productivity Accelerator. 

Lenny is also a published author and has been featured on numerous podcasts and publications. He is passionate about helping others achieve a better lifestyle through building what he refers to as the Pillars of Eudaimonia.

Connect with Lenny:

Learn about Lenny's Productivity Accelerator here.

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[00:00:00] Lenny: I think for a lot of people, if you were to really sit there and ask them, what do you wanna do in the next 5, 10, 20 years? And we've all heard these questions before.

[00:00:08] Lenny: But despite that, I think a lot of people haven't really sat there and thought to themselves, what do I want to do? Like, what decisions do I wanna make? What does my future wanna look like? And is that future based on what my spouse wants me to do? Is it based on what my boss wants me to do? Or is it based on what I personally want to do.

[00:00:30] Lenny: So I think once those two things are kind of understood what goals you have and how much you value your time or how much your time is worth, we can call it. I think once you kinda get those two things down, a lot of people can manage their time more appropriately. 

[00:00:46] Anthony: Have you ever hit a point in life where everything feels like it's falling apart, financial stress, no direction, maybe even a sense that you just can't keep up with everything? My guest today, Lenny Richardson, has lived that story. Kicked out of college, working late shifts at a gas station and battling depression,

[00:01:06] Anthony: Lenny hit rock bottom, but instead of staying there, he used that pain as fuel for transformation. In this episode, you'll hear how philosophy, time management and grit helped him rebuild his life and launch a successful and meaningful career. If you've ever felt stuck or unmotivated, this conversation will remind you that a flourishing life is possible.

[00:01:30] Anthony: If you're willing to take that first step. Stay tuned. This is fulfilling work, meaningful life, the show that helps you find and create greater meaning in the most important aspects of your life.

[00:01:44] Anthony: Welcome everyone, to another episode of Fulfilling Work Meaningful Life. I'm your host, Anthony Craiker, and I am joined today by Lenny Richardson, AKA Leviticus Rich, entrepreneur, author, and, uh, podcaster, right? 

[00:02:00] Lenny: Yes. Yeah. Actually , I'm trying to get my podcast back up and running. I used to have a, a podcast called Meeting Virginia a few years ago.

[00:02:09] Lenny: And I took, I kind of took a temporary hiatus just because moving around, I was in the process of getting married. Wasn't sure where we were gonna settle down. Um, yeah. But now I'm back in Northern Virginia, so that'll get. Launched again in the near future.

[00:02:26] Anthony: Very cool. That's the nice thing about podcasting is you can kind of stop and start depending on, , what, what's going on in your, in your life.

[00:02:33] Anthony: Right. Well, , so first of all, what, tell us what's the Leviticus rich thing that explain that , to, 

[00:02:40] Lenny: um, you? So it's, it's not that interesting of a story. Um, pretty much Leviticus Rich, when I was in college, I had a friend who was kind of a, kind of a frat guy. And, uh, he would call me Lenivitus as a joke.

[00:02:54] Lenny: Okay. And one day, just 'cause we thought it'd be funny. I don't know what our humor was back then, but I changed my Facebook name to Lenivitus Rich, and my dad, for whatever reason, couldn't pronounce it. So he kept calling me Leviticus Rich. And then so Leviticus Rich. I was like, that sounds way cooler than Lenivitus Rich.

[00:03:13] Lenny: And then it kind of stuck. So from that point on, I figured, you know, Leviticus sounds a little bit cooler. I feel like it sticks people's heads more than Lenny does. Uh Right. So that's kind of my internet. Name, I guess you can call it. 

[00:03:28] Anthony: Gotcha. Gotcha. That's cool. Well for my audience who may not be familiar with you, tell us a little bit about your backstory.

[00:03:35] Anthony: 'cause I, I understand you, you went through a pretty rough period, , some years ago with depression and some financial difficulties. I think , you actually got kicked outta college, , right. , to just kind of give us , , the background story of, , Lenny Richardson. 

[00:03:49] Lenny: Yes. , absolutely. , yeah, so Lenny Richardson is my name. , currently I have a business called Productivity Accelerator. I try to help young busy professionals get more done in less time. , sort of , the origin for me creating that business is, it is kind of a. I guess you can call it the combination of a lot of experiences I've had since college.

[00:04:09] Lenny: , like you mentioned, when I was in college, I went to Penn State University, mm-hmm. Got kicked out twice and I tell people I got kicked out and I think the first thing that comes to mind is, oh, maybe he was a bad student or some kind of academic reasons. It was purely financial. , on both occasions.

[00:04:26] Lenny: I just couldn't afford the tuition and. the reason not to get, I guess, super deep into it, , unless you'd like to, but, , the reason why I couldn't afford the tuition, I had a scholarship for engineering to get into Penn State and mm-hmm. Around sophomore year when I had to declare, , the official major that I wanted to go with, I thought it through and I figured engineering wasn't the best path for me in the grand scheme of life.

[00:04:51] Lenny: so I dropped engineering and I chose. I think initially it was psychology as my major. Then I switched to criminology. I was kind of jumping around. I went from yeah, psychology to journalism, to criminology, and kind of stuck with that. but because I switched my major, that made me ineligible for the scholarship.

[00:05:08] Lenny: , which I hadn't thought through 'cause I was a sophomore. Yeah. , and so they pretty much said, they sent me kinda this very polite letter. I think it was around December, um, I forget the exact year, maybe 2012, 2013 ish. I forget the exact year. Um, but pretty much it said, you know, you don't have enough money to pay for your tuition, so don't come back next semester.

[00:05:31] Lenny: Um, oh, wow. So, went home for a little bit towards the end of December. Tried to figure out what I wanted to do. I didn't wanna stay at home with my parents, went back to college, kind of just had an apartment and. I kind of got launched into the, the work life that I wasn't really prepared for. Had to work a lot of retail jobs and worked at a gas station trying to make ends meet.

[00:05:52] Lenny: , they didn't meet. Um, and sort of that prompted me to kind of really go through, , I guess a personal development phase for the first time, really , in my entire life. Mm-hmm. Really, I guess actively going through a personal development phase and. To kind of make a long story short, that led to me reading more learning about finances, , philosophy.

[00:06:13] Lenny: I got really deep in philosophy, , fitness, things of that nature. And as so eventually I went back into college. Um, I did eventually graduate after many years of trial and error. And I kind of took the things I learned in those in the few years where I was kind of bouncing back and forth into college.

[00:06:36] Lenny: Um, and some people would say to me, you know, over the course of X amount of years, 10 years or so, you seem to have done a lot. You wrote books, you have the podcast. Um, you're working all these jobs. That's not the simplest thing to do. How do you do it? And that led to me kind of creating productivity accelerator to help people kind of manage their time structure the day effectively.

[00:06:59] Lenny: Um, pretty much, because the, the, I guess the, the thesis you can call it. That I had was no matter what goal you have, time management is sort of that, that glue that makes it a reality. If you wanna get in better shape, time management, if you wanna make more money, time management's necessary. If you wanna have better relationships or just have time for hobbies or just have time to, yeah, chill and just watch tv.

[00:07:25] Lenny: Guilt free time management is that thing that makes it happen. Um, yeah, 

[00:07:30] Anthony: Yeah. Time time's something I actually think about a lot as I get older, , because it really is the most precious commodity that we have, right?

[00:07:38] Anthony: it's the one thing that we're, we're always running out of. And so the way that we use our time has a lot to do with, , how fulfilling and meaningful our our life is gonna be. was there a particular point. you know, like a turning point for you.

[00:07:55] Anthony: , I know you said you were kind of working , these jobs that weren't making ends meet. did you kind of hit a rock bottom point or was it just a kind of a cumulative thing where you realized over a period of time that you needed to make some changes in your life?

[00:08:08] Lenny: Yeah. , so , it was very gradual. , sometimes when I tell these stories, it sounds like it's an overnight process. , it was definitely gradual. I'll say one moment that really made me kind of, I guess it, what's a good way to put this?

[00:08:22] Lenny: It really made me realize that I wasn't in a point where I was happy. Um, I think that's kinda where the depression idea really clicked for me. I. And it sounds, this is gonna sound maybe a little bit silly, but for me it was a really, I dunno, it was a very emotionally heavy situation. Um, so there was, there was one time in particular I was working at this gas station called Snappy's.

[00:08:47] Lenny: And again, to make ends meet, I would take pretty much every shift I could, that they would allow me to take. And one of the shifts I took frequently was, I think it was from 6:00 PM to 2:00 AM. No one wanted to do it. And it was a college town, so any college student that wanted to that was working didn't wanna work the late shift, especially on from Friday through Sunday.

[00:09:09] Lenny: Yeah. That's when the parties and the bars are happening. Um, so I remember one night, I think it was a Saturday, and it's kind of hard to describe, but where I would stand as the cashier, there was sort of this big window to the right of me.

[00:09:23] Lenny: Where you could see outside. So you can see people walking past the, the gas station. And I remember there was one night, it was probably about 10 or 11, all the college kids come in, they all get their Gatorade and their drinks and other miscellaneous items that probably don't need to be discussed on this podcast.

[00:09:41] Lenny: but they're pretty much going out to party. And it sounds, again, this sounds, so, this probably doesn't sound super. Yeah, interesting. But I remember at that moment, I kind of realized I'm falling behind and it kind of just put everything into awareness that I'm not where I wanna be in life. Uh, mainly because in my mind I'm thinking I'm in college and I should be having fun, but I'm working every single day constantly still not making enough money to even pay for rent.

[00:10:06] Lenny: I was still behind in rent. And actually I know for a long time I would continuously get eviction notices and of course that made my roommates mad at me at the time. 'cause we all had a collective. Lease. , sure. But yeah, it just put into perspective that I need to do something in my own life in order to get outta the situation.

[00:10:23] Lenny: And I think from that point on is really when I started to invest more in just reading more, trying to just answer questions that way. Ideally I'd set myself up for, I guess, long-term success. Um, so that wasn't like the only moment where something like that happened, but that's kind of the, one of the bigger moments that.

[00:10:42] Lenny: Stands out in my memories. 

[00:10:45] Anthony: Yeah. And so as you were going through this process of learning and discovery, , you came across the, , idea of, eudaimonia, a Greek philosophical concept. Tell us a little bit about that. 

[00:10:57] Lenny: Yeah. , so yeah, actually it was literally around that exact time where I found that that concept of eudaimonia, , so.

[00:11:03] Lenny: Pretty much what I would do is around that time I didn't have anyone around me to really give me any good answers. . Everyone around you is in college, they're just focused on their classes or hanging out, partying, whatever. and I didn't have any mentors or anything at the time to give me feedback.

[00:11:20] Lenny: And I remember one of the main questions I had was, how do I make more money? 'cause I had no money. Yeah. And that sort of led me to go to this local library that was off campus. I got a library card and I would just read and I would read about finances. And then you read stuff about finances. It sort of will reference another book about personal development.

[00:11:40] Lenny: You read about personal development that might lead to a book of philosophy or fitness and you kind of just go down this rabbit hole. Yeah. And I remember literally, I would like take books and go to my job at the gas station and I used to work as a dishwasher. And during my free time, I would just read the books or try to hide it underneath the counter 'cause you're not supposed to be reading at work.

[00:11:59] Lenny: , but I tried to make every moment count. And one of the philosophy books, I think it was a book, I don't, I wanna say it was The Republic. I don't remember the exact book. But he referenced Eudaimonia and he kind of referenced Socrates, who I guess coined that phrase, Eudaimonia. Okay. The idea behind eudaimonia, at least as told by Socrates, is that it's sort of the, I guess the framework for the fulfilled life or, just kind of the good life essentially.

[00:12:29] Lenny: Mm-hmm. And his thought process is, if you want to have a fulfilled life, you need to have three aspects of Eudaimonia developed. I call them pillars. There's no real particular order, but the first one is essentially health. The second one is wealth, and the third one is relationships. And by having all of those, they don't have to be perfect, by the way, for anyone listening, but his thought process was there needs to be sort of an active pursuit of these three things.

[00:12:59] Lenny: And by pursuing these three things, you become happy. And then if you're happy, then your life is fulfilled. Um, so that was kind of the idea behind it. And it, it sounds so simple when people hear it, and I thought the same thing. I thought, oh, this is basic. Just be healthy, have money, and know people. Very simple.

[00:13:19] Lenny: But then at that time, when I thought about it, it kind of clicked and I was like, I, I, I realized I didn't have any of those three, three things. Um, my, my health was terrible at the time because I was just working so much. I was relying on fast food and it was cheap. I didn't really have money to afford much.

[00:13:35] Lenny: I didn't know how to cook. So health wasn't that great. Money certainly wasn't that great. I think at the gas station I was making about 7 25 an hour and oh wow. I remember this one time they bumped me up and they really, they really hyped it up and they said, oh, you're gonna get this great promotion, this great raise, and I'm excited.

[00:13:54] Lenny: And they said, oh, your raise is $8 and 25 cents now. So now you. But, so yeah, I had that and then at the gas station, or I'm sorry, at the bar that I worked at, I think as a dishwasher, I made about $11 an hour and I had little things on the side. I did, kind of like journalism for the startup, but it wasn't really paying the bills at all.

[00:14:17] Lenny: Yeah. Um, but yeah, so money definitely wasn't there. And then relationships also was pretty much non-existent. I wasn't dating anyone at the time. I. I think if I tried to date anyone at the time, I'm sure every girl I would've talked to would've rejected me. Um, I didn't really have good, a good social circle with friends just because I was working so much.

[00:14:37] Lenny: I didn't have time to go out to the bars. I didn't have time to sp, you know, to go to events with friends. I'd have time to make friends. Um, so I kind of read that idea of eudaimonia and thought I'm failing in all three of these categories. Let me try to fix this. And that's sort of what I tried to do. I.

[00:14:56] Lenny: Leaned into it more, tried to learn more about money, health, relationships, um, speaking. 'cause at the time too, I was super anxious, couldn't look anyone in the eyes if I wanted to. So I really put a lot of effort Once I understood that idea of eudaimonia into, I. Building up those pillars, so to speak. 

[00:15:16] Anthony: Yeah. You mentioned the concepts are simple. Like, it's not super complicated, but one of the reasons that I started this podcast is because one of the observations I've made is that there are a lot of people who are just kind of going through the motions of life and, and they're not, you know, they're not finding meaning in the most.

[00:15:38] Anthony: Important aspects of their lives, right? Health and relationships and financial stability, you know, work and so even though the concepts might be simple, the practical application isn't always that simple, right? And it's easy to get, just kind of get caught up in the the flow of life and, and kind of not focus on the things that matter most.

[00:16:01] Lenny: Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:16:02] Lenny: I always tell people, I think most of the best things are pretty, I guess, simplistic to understand, but the hard part is the execution and yeah, sometimes it's a discipline thing. I think sometimes it can also just be, we understand what we should do, but we don't always understand the exact steps to take, I guess, to get that thing done.

[00:16:26] Lenny: But I think more often than not, I think the things we're supposed to do is relatively easily comprehended or understood by most people. I know I have, I have some friends who eat fast food a lot, and I'm guilty of this myself. I still eat fast food from time to time, but I think most people can understand something along the lines of, I shouldn't eat fast food 'cause it's probably not healthy, but.

[00:16:50] Lenny: We justify reasons why we continue to eat fast food. Uh, yeah, and I, this is not towards anybody in particular. I'm guilty of this myself. Up until, I think this last year I had a minor addiction to McDonald's and Taco Bell. So, so I, I, this is 

[00:17:07] Anthony: my son is a big Taco Bell fan, so it's 

[00:17:10] Lenny: delicious. Can't blame them.

[00:17:13] Lenny: But I think for most people that, you know, if you, if you were to say. Do you think Taco Bell's healthy? I think most people would say no, it's, it's not healthy, but I like it 'cause it's fast. I like it 'cause it's cheap. I shouldn't be eating it. It's, it's, or I like alcohol. A lot of people, even if you're not like someone who drinks it a lot, you know, you can probably say to yourself, beer is super unhealthy, but I like it.

[00:17:35] Lenny: For whatever reason, it makes me feel good or I just like it. Should I drink it? No. Am I gonna stop? Probably not at no time soon. Um, but yeah, so it's. I think a lot of things in life though, um, simplistic in nature, we can understand it pretty easily, but there's something that prevents us from doing it or getting it done.

[00:17:56] Anthony: Yeah. So you mentioned earlier, , time management. What have you learned about time management and how to manage your time so that you're making the most of these pillars as you call 'em, of Eudaimonia. 

[00:18:08] Lenny: Yeah. So as far as time management goes, I, one thing I've noticed for, I'll say two things I've noticed for a lot of people.

[00:18:14] Lenny: the first thing is I think for a lot of people, because we don't see time, it's easy for it to kind of get lost, if that makes sense. Mm-hmm. And kind of just to, I guess to illustrate that point a little bit better, I saw a movie a few years ago, actually, my girlfriend, she. Thought about me and and productivity accelerator.

[00:18:38] Lenny: And she said to me I know this movie with I forget what it's called it's with Justin Timberlake. And she said, you should watch this movie. 'cause it reminds me of the stuff you talk about. And the whole premise of the movie is that they can see, I think time, I forget the exact. Movie, but they can see time above their head, I believe, or Oh, oh yeah.

[00:18:56] Lenny: The pretty much the, the poor people of the movie, they sell their time for things and the rich people are able to kinda like buy time from other people, if I'm saying that correctly. So the rich people pretty much have tons of time. Yeah. Literally have like tons of time. The poor people are always like, have they always have days to live?

[00:19:16] Lenny: So they're always scrambling to do things to get a little bit more time to kind of prolong their lives as long as possible. And I told her when we were watching this, I was like, if people had that above their head, everyone would make some, like, the decisions everyone would make on a daily basis would be better.

[00:19:32] Lenny: Yeah. Like imagine you're scrolling through social media and you're, I don't know, you can see time above your head and you start. Like, I don't know, when you scroll, you can see that you've spent an hour or two hours or three hours just scrolling. You might go, oh man, let me not scroll, because that's, I got five years to live.

[00:19:51] Lenny: I just, hopefully not, but I have five years to live and I just spent a good fraction of it just scrolling this year. That was probably not the best use of my time. Yeah, so I think that's one of the first mistakes I tend to see people make is a lot of people just don't think about how much time they have.

[00:20:09] Lenny: And so it's easy for it to get wasted. Second thing with time that I've noticed is I noticed this actually really recently. I have a, on my newsletter, I sent out a survey and I was asking about different ways people are trying to accomplish their goals, and I was surprised a lot of people responded and they said, I don't even have goals, so I don't have a way to, to complete the goals because I never really thought about what I want to do.

[00:20:36] Lenny: In the first place. So I feel like that's the second thing I see a lot. A lot of people don't have goals for themselves that they wanna accomplish. I see a lot of people where they have goals for other people. Like if you're an employee in a business, you might have a goal that's based on what your boss wants you to do.

[00:20:52] Lenny: , yeah. Or if you are a student at school, you might have the general goal of, I need to complete this test, or I need to graduate. Which is fine, but. I think for a lot of people, if you were to really sit there and ask them, what do you wanna do in the next 5, 10, 20 years? And we've all heard these questions before.

[00:21:08] Lenny: But despite that, I think a lot of people haven't really sat there and thought to themselves, what do I want to do? Like, what decisions do I wanna make? What does my future wanna look like? And is that future based on what my spouse wants me to do? Is it based on what my boss wants me to do? Or is it based on what I personally want to do.

[00:21:30] Lenny: So I think once those two things are kind of understood what goals you have and how much you value your time or how much your time is worth, we can call it. I think once you kinda get those two things down, a lot of people can manage their time more appropriately. 

[00:21:46] Anthony: For sure. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:21:47] Anthony: Somebody mentioned to me, I can't remember who it was, but some, somebody mentioned that movie to me recently, with Justin Timberlake, and I was like, that sounds like a movie I need to watch. So I'm glad you brought that up. It reminded me that I need to find, I can't remember the, the name of the movie either, but it sounds, sounds interesting.

[00:22:01] Anthony: But yeah, that idea of. Time running out. Right. it can really change your perspective and help you to focus on the things that are most important in life. So what kind of tips or tricks or whatever, what do you do to help you manage your own schedule and time day to day?

[00:22:21] Lenny: Yeah. So personally, what I like to do, and this is what I recommend to everybody, I'll say the first two things first, get an idea of what your time is worth. I tend to find that people are very, I don't want, stingy is not a good word. Maybe clingy with money for the most part, sort of in the sense that mm-hmm.

[00:22:42] Lenny: If you looked at your bank account, maybe not you personally, but anyone in general, if they were to look at their bank account and they saw that $5 was gone, they'd probably freak out and they go, where did that $5 go? Like, I don't remember paying for this thing. Did I get scammed? And it puts them into action to try to figure out where that $5 went and to figure out can I get it back or, you know, what's going on?

[00:23:06] Lenny: That same level of anxiety in my personal opinion. Should be applied towards time. And I think the way you do that is by having I an idea of what your time is worth. So the first thing I would recommend to anybody, and this is what I do myself, is I always have an idea of what my time is worth.

[00:23:23] Lenny: And I try to, I suggest to people, make it as objective as you possibly can. Make it realistic. Don't just be that person who. No offense. People that work at McDonald's, I've worked at retail before, so it is no shade. But if you're someone that works at McDonald's and say, you make $10 an hour, don't walk around and pretend like your time is worth $200 an hour.

[00:23:41] Lenny: Um, sure, I think that's a bit extreme for someone in that situation. But if you are that person that works at McDonald's and your time is worth $10 an hour in your mind, consider your time to be worth $25 an hour and then start making decisions based on your hourly rate. So I give this as an example. If you want your time to be worth $25 an hour and say someone calls you on the phone and it's a really pointless conversation that you don't even wanna have, it's not entertaining, it's not fun, it doesn't get you anywhere.

[00:24:13] Lenny: It doesn't help you accomplish goals. None of that. Don't entertain that hour long conversation because that's essentially the same as you giving someone $25, or even worse. It's more like they're taking $25 out of your bank account. And I think for most people, when they frame it that way, they would think.

[00:24:30] Lenny: I would want some random person taking $25 outta my bank account. So my thought process is cool. Don't let people waste your time. That's essentially what I'm suggesting. Don't let people waste your time. Um, but if you're thinking about how much your time is worth, it's easier to prevent that from happening.

[00:24:47] Lenny: So that's the first thing. Have an idea of what your time is worth. Second thing that I do, I do this almost every day, is I script out my entire day. Use a planner. I recommend a planner all the time. I tell people. Mm-hmm. If a planner's too expensive or if you just don't like it if you don't like writing it down, that's perfectly fine.

[00:25:04] Lenny: Most phones nowadays have Google Calendar, or Google Calendar is actually separate from the phone. It's free. If you have a Gmail account, I believe. Yeah. But use a calendar app, Android, iPhone, I'm pretty sure every phone has a basic calendar app. Just use that. Schedule your day. I recommend starting from the time you want to wake up, put that in first.

[00:25:26] Lenny: Second, put in the time you plan on going to bed. And then the third thing, just to not make it overly complicated, whatever your goal is, reverse engineer what the goal is and find just one thing that gets you closer towards that goal and then schedule some time to put that in. , and the reason why I suggest that is because everyone has different schedules.

[00:25:46] Lenny: If someone who might be in a more. Say they're an entrepreneur and they might have more flexibility of their time, it might be easier to put in multiple things in their calendar. That's fine. If someone's listening to this and they're, they work at a nine to five it's harder. 'cause nine to five is blocked up every day and you don't really have a, a say in that timeframe.

[00:26:05] Lenny: That's fine too. Right. But from six to eight or six to seven or six to nine, whatever. Depending on, you know, what the goal, what the task is, and when you wanna go to bed, all that. Just schedule one task, one thing that gets you closer to your goals. And I think if most people just did those two things had an idea of what their time is and scheduled their day within a month, most people I think would get so much further ahead.

[00:26:32] Anthony: Yeah, I think so. do you do that scheduling in the morning? Do you do it the night before? Do you, like, do the whole week? Like when do you normally do that for yourself? 

[00:26:41] Lenny: I usually do it, I usually do it the night before. So what I've done lately, and this is just kind of something that I do for myself.

[00:26:48] Lenny: And if someone schedules their day frequently, I would recommend this too. What I do is I take every, so I schedule every day in advance, just kinda on repeat. So months ago, pretty much what I did is I make Mondays kind of like podcast days or days where I might reach out to publications to get pr, something like that.

[00:27:08] Lenny: So Mondays is very specific. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my video editing days, and I put, I literally, I can almost probably show you, I, I'm not gonna do it right now, but I can show you like in my Google calendar, I. It's on repeat every single week. I forget what Thursdays and Fridays are, but so I set everything up on repeat ahead of time and then the night before, what I do now is I just review to make sure nothing's changed or if I have to change something around, I will.

[00:27:34] Lenny: Last night I made sure on my calendar that I had the podcast today, 'cause I forgot over the weekend when this podcast would be. So the night before, I just check everything to make sure. Everything looks good for the following day. 'cause it's easier to check it and then at a glance, move things around.

[00:27:54] Lenny: But if you're not at that position yet, then yeah, I would recommend the night before, just schedule your day. And I think for most people it sounds like a lot of effort. Once you do this one or two weeks, it'll get super consistent and you'll find that you're doing the exact same things every single week anyway.

[00:28:12] Lenny: So it's not really that much effort after the first. One or two weeks of you doing it. So it's 

[00:28:17] Anthony: more about developing the habit of Exactly. Scheduling out your time. Yeah, exactly. 

[00:28:22] Lenny: You'll just build up a habit. So it's not that bad. A lot of people gimme pushback on that, but it's not that bad.

[00:28:28] Anthony: Yeah. So you have a program called the Productivity Accelerator. Tell us about that. 

[00:28:34] Lenny: Yes. So so the main thing that we offer is sort of one-on-one training. We do group trainings as well, but I think the one-on-one training's a bit more effective. Mm-hmm. And so essentially the one-on-one training, it's about 30 minutes to 45 minutes every single week.

[00:28:48] Lenny: Ideally the client gets the schedule when they want to do it. I almost always recommend they do it every single week, but some people like to do it every two weeks, once a month. That's fine, but it's one-on-one training essentially, we kind of go over your schedule for the week. We try to sit down with you, figure out what your goals are, figure out what you're currently doing to reach that goal, and essentially sort of almost consult you and suggest ways to kind of make the goal easier to accomplish or things you might be doing that are hurting you.

[00:29:21] Lenny: Like we have a lot of people who. Social media, it just kills so much of their 

[00:29:27] Anthony: time. So it's such a time suck. Yeah. It's crazy how much time we spend on social media, myself included. it's ridiculous. Yeah, me too. 

[00:29:35] Lenny: Me too. but for someone who's like really chronically, I. Struggling to not scroll through social media.

[00:29:41] Lenny: We might suggest, Hey, when you're working and I do this to myself, 'cause social media gets me, I'll take my phone and just put it in a different room, face down airplane mode, no alarms. Because if you hear that ping or if you hear someone call you, or if you hear that text message, it'll compel you to pick up the phone.

[00:29:58] Lenny: Then you kind of forget what you were doing in the first place. You open the text, you start scrolling through social media. 45 minutes go by and the thing you are working on has still not been completed. Yeah. So, and it sounds simple, but it, it happens the most to a lot of people. The engineers at Meta are very good at manipulating our psychology.

[00:30:20] Lenny: Yeah. Yeah, they are. But yeah, so that's one thing. If it's, it kinda just depends on where the person is, what their goals are and what they currently do. But we suggest strategies to help people break out of whatever negative routines they have and. Kind of build up better habits to achieve their goals.

[00:30:37] Anthony: That's great. So where can people find you and connect with you? And if they wanna learn more about your program where can they learn more about it? Mm-hmm. 

[00:30:46] Lenny: So for the program itself they can just go to productivity accelerator.org. That's the best place to go for that program.

[00:30:54] Lenny: And we all right now, I think recently we just came out with like a seven day training. It's free by the way. It's a seven day training that walks you through kind of what I would consider the three secrets to success just based on science and just kind of spoil it, if you don't mind. Pretty much those three things are iteration, consistency and grit.

[00:31:15] Lenny: If you have those three things, you can pretty much according to science, at least be successful in any goal you have. But for that productivity accelerator.org is the best place to find that. If anyone wants to contact me directly, my website, Lenny richardson.online is probably the best place.

[00:31:33] Lenny: And if you're someone who's on social media a lot. Then Leviticus Rich on Instagram is the the best place. And I'm on social media a lot too, so I'll probably respond faster on, on Instagram than. 

[00:31:48] Anthony: Cool. We'll be sure to drop all those links in the show notes, or our listeners can find you if they want to connect and learn more about your program.

[00:31:55] Anthony: Well, this has been a great conversation, Lenny. I appreciate you sharing, your story with us and the things that you've learned. I think there's a lot of value here. I love the idea of Eudaimonia. I studied a little bit of philosophy in college and I enjoy reading philosophy, so

[00:32:10] Anthony: It resonates with me and certainly the ideas of Socrates and Plato and Aristotle about living a flourishing life or something I've thought about over the years. So definitely some great stuff there. You know, listeners, if you, if you wanna learn more about it and, and you're willing to spend some time, reading

[00:32:27] Anthony: some sometimes difficult text to understand, but always interesting texts. Some of the great philosophers of ancient Greece. It's certainly worth your time. Any parting words of wisdom for my audience before we sign off? 

[00:32:40] Lenny: Yeah. Just try to keep better track of your time and have goals, and I hope everyone listening has a.

[00:32:48] Lenny: Flourishing life. 

[00:32:50] Anthony: Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Lenny. I appreciate you joining us today on the show. 

[00:32:54] Lenny: Thank you so much, Anthony. I appreciate it.

[00:32:57] Anthony: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. Please remember to check out my website, fulfilling work meaningful life.com to sign up for my monthly newsletter, meaningful Insights. When you do, I'll send you a free digital resource that will help you find or create a fulfilling career. Until next time, let's make it a meaningful week.