Kyle Gray: (00:37)

Hello and welcome to the Story Engine Podcast. My name is Kyle Gray, and I’m just finishing up a really interesting and fun day today. You see, I got to interview two really great people. First was Nir Eyal, who you probably heard last week, and the second was Adam Moody. There’s been a lot of conversations today about either being distracted (and the cost of that) or being indistractible. Adam’s going to teach us about simple systems, routines, and habits that can save you an extra five minutes a week. What I mean by that is that you don’t just get an extra five minutes every week, but you get an additional five minutes. So each week you’re saving more and more time, which can turn into a whole work week, 40 hours of work.

Kyle Gray: (01:33)

And he’s going to talk about these little systems that can add up to these really great results, which I think would define as traction. And you’re going to get an extra special treat on this one. Adam, as he begins sharing his story, reaches out to you (the listener) and asks for feedback. I decided to stand in and give him a little bit of feedback on his origin or opening story, a story that you would use to share on a podcast like this, or maybe open up a speaking gig or a webinar.

Kyle Gray: (02:09)

I talk about some of the key elements of what a good opening story should do and then give him some direct feedback. So if you’re looking for some good storytelling coaching, you’ll get a little bit of that in there, along with some great ideas on productivity. So without further ado, let’s hand it over to Adam. Adam Moody, welcome to the Story Engine Podcast.

Adam Moody: (02:34)

Hey, thanks for having me, Kyle. Super happy to be here.

Kyle Gray: (02:37)

So Adam, there’s a lot of really cool things that we’re going to discuss today about creating more time in our lives. But first I’d love to get to know you a little bit better and hear about a time in your life that’s defined you and how you show up in the world today. Tell us a little bit about your expertise and how you share that in the world.

Adam Moody: (03:02)

Definitely. This is going to be something that hopefully your listeners can give me some feedback on because this is something I haven’t told too often. But it definitely defines me. So we’ll go back to around 2013, 2014. I was working as an engineer (my background is in physics), and over time it became clear that the company I was working for was not where I wanted to be working the rest of my life. I didn’t really get along with the leadership at the company, and I eventually came to an ethical dilemma. I said, I’m a human being who needs to pay the bills and be able to eat.

Adam Moody: (03:47)

I ended up talking to my immediate superior and said, “Hey, here’s these things I see going on. I think there’s some issues. Can we work on fixing these?” And the answer was a pretty quick no. I said, “Okay, then here’s what I think we could do about it. If this doesn’t change in 90 days, I’m going to have to call it quits here.” So 90 days came and went, and I ended up having to quit that job. I had never left a job on a bad note before. I had moved or switched positions, but leaving a job was a pretty big deal for me. At that point, I started asking myself, “Who am I spending the most time around, what am I absorbing, and what am I doing with my life? They were all big weighty questions that led to me quitting my job, but that allowed me to open up the door for opportunities, such as building websites on the side and learning about SEO. That got me into sales funnels, email marketing, and all sorts of interesting stuff. It all goes back to the people I surround myself with. It’s been really important to me and one of the companies, Semantic Mastery, that I’m a partner in. We worked together and had a business, generating a good amount of revenue, for several years before we ever met each other in person.

Adam Moody: (05:16)

It’s great to have this kind of flexibility and to be able to respect each one of my partners. That’s the kind of thing that’s extremely important to me. Even talking to you – you’re someone I look up to, and I’m interested in talking to you. I’ve read your books, and it’s really cool now that I have this opportunity in my life to talk to you. 

Kyle Gray: (05:35)

Absolutely. You are a brilliant researcher, and the listeners might give you feedback on your story. I can also help out a little bit too. What you’ve got is called a three-act play. So the first act is that you’re dissatisfied with this job. One of the cool things about a good opening (like a good origin story) is that you get to talk a little bit, and tell us about yourself in a sideways way. What I would love to hear is a little bit more detail, specifically about your personal values and wants. Then, show us why that was a conflict in your job. 

Kyle Gray: (06:29)

It would at least capture people’s attention. For example: “My journey started out by me getting fired, but it turns out it was a good thing.” 

Adam Moody: (06:39)

Yeah, that’s a good hook.

Kyle Gray: (06:41)

Show us why you were dissatisfied instead of saying, “I was going to do this and that happened.

Kyle Gray: (06:49)

Take us into a specific moment or a singular conversation. In that moment in that room that you’re in, describe a little detail. “I heard his ceramic mug clink on the table,” or something that can bring us a conversation that encapsulates your dissatisfaction. Or perhaps that moment that you realized, “I’m probably not going to be in this job much longer.” This is serious, and there’s two different parts here. Then, we have act two, which is the pivot. You’ve left your job, and you’re digging in and learning about all of these new things. I think what’s cool and what we’re going to discover more about you is that you’re great with tools and systems. That’s probably how we connected since The Story Engine is a very systems-oriented book. 

Kyle Gray: (07:48)

In act three, what’s cool is being around people that inspire you, who are creating good and better things in abundance. It’s hard to imagine some of that in our past lives and in our past workplaces. These tiny little conversations or these tiny little sensory things that encapsulate it. But I think that it’s good. You’re showing us why you’re ordinary and why you’re relatable.

Kyle Gray: (08:46)

Then you’re bringing forward your extraordinary values, showing what you believe in and why you’re different. That makes a huge difference. You can show a little bit more of your expertise and demonstrate how things have come through in act three. That’s one interesting thing before I belabor this too much. But hopefully this is something, at least you’re enjoying and probably the other people listening. It’s a coaching moment.

Adam Moody: (09:16)

Yeah, no, this is good. For everyone listening, I’m going to be another listener down the line. Once you put it out, I’ll be like, man, I got to go back and do this.

Kyle Gray: (09:23)

There we go. That’s how we get those download counts up on this podcast. 

Adam Moody: (09:29)

Learning moments. I was about to say this is how you guys can do it. You’ve got to get on Kyle’s podcast and then you can get some great advice too.

Kyle Gray: (09:36)

There we go. So one of the things that you want to figure out is what your values are and what you want this story to tell. When you’re in act one, in the shitty job, you need to describe a few things. Give me three qualities of why that was a shitty job. And then in act three, you run your own business. You might say you’re doing your thing, learning your stuff, and providing your services. So, “I was overweight, sleepy, and mad at myself,” to, “I’m in the best shape of my life, stoked all the time, and very clear-minded.” That was obviously very simple, but if you can bring that all together in your three-act play, then what people will want to hear and learn from you (plus invest in), is the transformation that you described in act two.That’s who you are, and that’s how you make people better.

Adam Moody: (10:44)

That makes sense. Try this one on. I remember driving my usual 15-minute commute one day in upstate New York. I had just woken up, but was in a fairly good mood. As I drove to work, I remember coming to a stop light, laying my head on the steering wheel, and then punching the steering wheel with both of my hands. and punching

Kyle Gray: (11:13)

Oh yeah, there it is.

Adam Moody: (11:14)

I was just like, “Where am I going in my life? What am I even doing?” I’m glad I wasn’t next to a cliff or something because, at that moment, I might’ve just yanked the wheel and gone over the edge. So anyways, yeah, that’s the one. That’s a true story, to be at that point. Thankfully I haven’t had that feeling since then.

Kyle Gray: (11:35)

Of course. Thank you for sharing that with us. That’s one of the magic things about this process. I do workshops like this all the time. People have all of these stories, and they know they have them. When you ask, “Hey, do you have any stories?” that just doesn’t always come out so smoothly or efficiently, which points out maybe a strange reason why I asked that question. Once you start to understand the motive of a good story, you can start describing the purpose. Then it helps categorize because when you mention, “a story,” a person could have thousands. When you start to put parameters on it, such as, “Tell me about a story of a time when you really wanted to take action and you almost didn’t,” that’s the stuff right there. 

Kyle Gray: (12:34)

Like, “I wanted to wake up early to go on a hike to watch the sunrise, but when I woke up, I thought, “Oh, there’s no way I want to, but in the end, it was the best sunrise ever.” Then you can make these same kind of points. You teach the moral of that and you show, “Hey, like a lot of us, we don’t want to make these investments in ourselves.”

Kyle Gray: (13:00)

Bells signify waking up early, but they reward us in the long run. Yeah, that’s some good story stuff. But I want to get some coaching from you now. I don’t know if you’ve done yourself enough justice by describing what you do. You’re a productivity expert and you’ve got tons of systems for all kinds of things in your life where you  constantly ask yourself, “what can I automate,” and “what can I delegate,” which is actually something you mentioned. You have a certain Tuesday ritual. Would you like to share what that ritual is?

Adam Moody: (13:47)

I’d be happy to. When Kyle and I were talking earlier, I mentioned a very short story that I had shared at a small live event a couple of years ago. I was talking about automation and systems to a small group of digital marketers. One of the points of the story was how they could save time in their businesses. I asked them a few questions and realized that a lot of them weren’t spending any time on themselves. They would look at their business and say, “I need to put a system in here. Do this or that.” So I shared with them what I do. It’s relatively simple, and it’s one of these things where you hear it, and you’re like, “Oh yeah, this is really, really easy. Why am I not utilizing that?” So here it goes.

Adam Moody: (14:37)

Every Tuesday, I block out 30-60 minutes, and I get out of the office. Since I work from home, I make sure I, at least, get outside or to a coffee shop. If the weather’s bad, I’ll maybe go to a different room. I’m breaking free and that becomes my new location. It puts me in the mode of, “Hey, I’m not in my normal work mode.” Then, I have a little spreadsheet in Notion, where I ask myself three questions. The important part of this exercise is that I actually write down the answers. I don’t just think about it.

Adam Moody: (15:23)

The first question I ask myself is, “what’s working well for me right now and how can I get more results like it?” And the second question is the opposite, “what is not working well right now and how can I do less of it or get rid of it?” The third question is, “what is one thing that I can automate, delegate or delete?” So a little bit similar to question two, but I find that they have different answers.

Adam Moody: (15:46)

The important part is I don’t rush myself, but I make myself write an actual answer to every single one of those.  Sometimes, just like anything else, you can get stuck or you’ll come up with something that maybe isn’t that great. Once in a while though, you’ll get these real golden nuggets where maybe it’s the beginning of an idea or it’s just something small that adds up.

Adam Moody: (16:07)

Going back to that conversation at the small live event, let’s say you spend 30 minutes a week and you do this every week for a year. Let’s say that the only thing you get out of this is five minutes, but that five minutes is saved every week. I’m assuming you could automate, delegate, or delete a task that takes five minutes of your time each week, and you keep doing this. In the end, you’re investing 30 minutes, and you’re saving five minutes recurring.

Adam Moody: (16:39)

Over the course of one year, you’ll end up with something like 115 hours of savings. You’ll get back a week, two weeks, however you want to define it. It’s just a crazy amount of time, because you’re saving that time over and over and over again. It’s just stacking.

Kyle Gray: (17:01)

It’s like a compound interest of time.

Adam Moody: (17:04)

Exactly. Yeah.

Kyle Gray: (17:05)

Yeah. It’s a very worthy, worthwhile thing. In some ways, it’s like a punch in the gut of truth right now, especially when you’re running an agency or business, or you’re doing anything that seems like it’s a job and it’s important. There are so many urgent things that are like, “No, but what about these emails from the client?” Or what about this thing that you… the post. You need to write or the… Whatever. The world seems to want to, more than ever, rise up to create opportunities to do anything but ask quiet, important questions, and then actually write them down on a piece of paper.

Adam Moody: (17:50)

Definitely, and there’s so many parts to that. I think that, like I said, the writing it down part is important, and I do that on a computer. By just getting it out of your head, it really starts to clarify it into an actionable result. And then, like you said, taking the time and it’s tough. I work with clients, and I’m a partner in a couple of businesses. So you can say I’m busy, but I make this time somewhat sacred.

Adam Moody: (18:16)

I’m a realist. I never expect anyone to say no matter what, every single week, 52 weeks out of the year. Immediately when I hear that, the red flag goes off. It’s like, “Man, nobody does that.” But so long as maybe you’re adhering to the 80/20 rule, and 80% of the time you do this, you’ll see the returns are great. I know I just shared this with a friend of mine and a previous podcast guest of yours, Adam Bensman. Adam was putting together a course, and I was talking to him about time management. I shared this with him, and he’s already had some great results. I don’t have any I can share. It was kind of personal stuff, but he’s like, “Yeah, this is so great. Why haven’t I been doing this?” And I said, well you know that it doesn’t matter why you haven’t been, it’s that you keep doing it. It’s consistency. These things build up over time, which I think is another really important part of this.

Kyle Gray: (19:04)

Absolutely. So, is your way of thinking, you mentioned you’ve been reading Atomic Habits as well. Is your kind of philosophy a very habit driven, routine driven, all across the board? Is this how you solve most of your productivity problems?

Adam Moody: (19:26)

I do and I don’t. I see routines as being really freeing, and this is important. This is so funny. This came up with my wife. So, we have been married a couple of years, and before we were married, we’d been dating for a long time. As I was getting more into systems and processes, my now wife asked me, she’s like, “Adam, do you ever feel like your life is run by routines?” And the sub-context there is, isn’t that boring? Do you feel locked in? If you just have all these routines, isn’t your life lacking spontaneity? And I think some people see this from the outside, and they say, I don’t want to become so rigid that my life is run by routines. But, I see it as the opposite. If you’re not using routines and forming good habits, then you’re spending all this time dealing with loose ends, dropping the ball, having to wonder if, maybe there’s a call you should be on, things like that.

Kyle Gray: (20:18)

And the noise.

Adam Moody: (20:19)

Yeah, exactly.

Kyle Gray: (20:19)

You’re lost in noise, yeah.

Adam Moody: (20:21)

Yeah, and so I see it as just being focused, and then so you can do what you want to do. If I didn’t have my routines down, I didn’t have a workflow, then I wouldn’t be able to have my Tuesday afternoons free to go and do the planning, which allows me to do even better things, and create more value, do what I want to do. So, yeah, I see it as routines and habits are great, but it’s not the only thing in my life. It’s just what enables me to do the things I want to do.

Kyle Gray: (20:47)

Now, you mentioned you work in several different businesses right now, in some, I’m assuming, maybe you’re the owner, others maybe you’re a partner, and in this world, I think this is a very common thing. I think a lot of people listening to this, maybe they’re a virtual assistant with a couple of gigs, or a freelancer with a couple of other gigs. We often have to divide our time between many different things these days. I think it becomes challenging when several things are like, “we’re all really important right now,” and they all see themselves as the most important thing. But it’s hard, and it may not exactly be clear for you. And so, I imagine there’s been cases where you’ve had to navigate this, and this might be even a process of your reflection. But, how do you use your systems and your habits and keep everything balanced?

Adam Moody: (21:50)

Gotcha. Yeah, I think that’s a really good question, Kyle. I think that everyone has that. And I would really quickly, I’m going to ask you, do you feel like you have to deal with this yourself, like you have conflicting interests and it’s something you need to deal with?

Kyle Gray: (22:03)

All the time. Yeah. I help out. I travel up to Milwaukee, Wisconsin right now to… I help teach workshops for another company up there. Up until recently I was coaching with another company on copywriting and storytelling, and it was rewarding. It was great. It was right in my niche and with a lot of people that I worked with, but it took most of my Tuesday afternoons to do that. I started things in my own business. The team and the clientele all started to grow. And so, I stepped away from what was a good secure gig for that. And then, there’s even clients on a smaller level that, one of them’s got this coming up, and they expect this. And then, another one’s got that coming up, and it comes into conflict with the copywriter, which is things, I think, this could fall under the purview that stuff sounds like the Tuesday afternoon reflection, that kind of stuff.

Adam Moody: (23:09)

Definitely. I definitely think it can be part of that. The other part of this that I recommend to anyone is a daily review and getting in that habit. For everyone it’s different. I have my way of doing it, which I’ll explain, but just like with the weekly reflection or review, it’s simplicity and making it so it works for you. So, what I do is just getting all of my tasks together, and almost starting with a Getting Things Done, or GTD method. I just like to make sure that I have everything. If you used to do lists, if you use Wunderlist, if you use Notion, Evernote, whatever it is, making sure you know what those things are, and getting them all together in the morning before you actually start getting sucked into work. Because I guarantee you the moment you open Slack, you open email, whatever it is, you’re going to get carried away. I mean, it’s human nature.

Adam Moody: (24:00)

I do it, so I keep myself out of that stuff, and I start my morning review, which involves going through all these. What are the actual things I need to do today? Look through my calendar, hey, what’s going on today so that I’m aware, so that I don’t, for example, miss a podcast in the afternoon, so that I don’t miss a client call. I just have awareness of what’s going on. And from that point, I can then do a little bit of a triage in the sense of saying, “hey, what’s important today? What are the actual things that need to get done?” I’ve got 15 tasks. I’ve got four free hours. Which ones? Maybe the two or three are the ones that are actually going to get done.

Adam Moody: (24:35)

So, that’s a really pared down version of it. But if you aren’t doing this, I highly suggest doing that day-to-day, and adding in a little bit. Again, I am not endorsed by Best Self Journal, but that’s what I use right now. And part of what they have is listing out your goals every 90 days, and saying, “Hey, what is the one overarching thing you’re trying to do, and how are you going to do that?” And I find that that also helps, and you don’t need a journal to do this. You could just write it down.

Adam Moody: (25:03)

But, at the beginning of the day then saying, “Hey, this is my goal. Here’s what it is I’m working towards right now.” Now when I go and look at all my tasks, and I sort everything out, I should have an idea of which ones are important and help drive that goal forward so that you’re not spinning your wheels working over here in something that isn’t going to move your main goals forward.

Kyle Gray: (25:23)

That makes a lot of sense to me. I have the Michael Hyatt Focus Planner.

Adam Moody: (25:27)

Okay, cool.

Kyle Gray: (25:31)

And yeah, I think it’s nice. It’s hot. It’s really nice to have something physical to write on to navigate the day. And I’m very good at the morning routine. I’m very structured. I can get up, prepare my mind, and then open up my Focus Planner, and make sure I’m writing throughout the week, and making sure everything’s in there. Where I’m weak, where I’m particularly weak, I must say, is the work

Kyle Gray: (26:00)

Close down [crosstalk 00:26:01] your routine. Do you have some work close down routines? Because for me it’s like, “Okay the things done. I’m going to get out of the house and go for a walk. I’m going to turn on the television, but I just kind of tear myself away.”

Adam Moody: (26:18)

Yeah, I’ve got a few thoughts on this and it’s funny, I really was doing this very regularly for a long time. The last quarter I stopped and I had just stopped because I stopped doing it. And then I said, “This is interesting. I’m stopping it. So there is some resistance internally to doing this. So I’m just going to stop doing it and see what the results are.” And so the jury’s still out on that. But that’s part of all of this is making it work for you and it’s more for me about what the results are then just doing it to do it.

Adam Moody: (26:47)

So if you just stopped doing the end of day routine and it has no negative impacts, then maybe it’s like, “Hey that that can go.” You know? Do what works.

Adam Moody: (26:56)

So I will say though, for anyone who’s looking into this, Cal Newport, the author of Deep Work has a really good article on the end of day routine that I love. And I basically completely modeled what I did after him. And including, he says, I forget the exact phrase, but he says something to himself. He does a quick review of his remaining tasks. He looks over his calendar for the next day, he gets prepared and then when he’s done he says, “I am done for the day.” And that’s the mantra that kind of releases himself.

Kyle Gray: (27:23)

That’s the magic spell, turn off-

Adam Moody: (27:25)

Yeah.

Kyle Gray: (27:25)

… turn off the anxiety. We’re good.

Adam Moody: (27:27)

Yeah. [crosstalk 00:27:28] But without going into the, “Hey [Geel 00:27:30] , just feel better.’

Adam Moody: (27:30)

I like to loop this around back to why and the results you can expect. And the reason people might want to do this is to keep that stuff from building up in your head. If you just say, “I’m done.” Or you’re tired at the end of the day and you just walk away. But maybe you haven’t looked at your calendar, you don’t know what’s going on. Maybe you didn’t finish your to do list and there’s still things hanging out in the open. So it’s wrapping that up so that your brain isn’t worried about it on your off hours. And you can go be present in what you’re doing. Maybe you’re going out with your friend, maybe you’re having dinner, going out on a date night or something. So the idea there again, is just to get better results.

Kyle Gray: (28:06)

Mm-hmm (affirmative). I’ll argue for it even though I said I don’t do it. But another good thing is you get to reward yourself. That’s another thing about the physical books and really writing a real check is infinitely better than clicking a box check.

Adam Moody: (28:22)

Yeah.

Kyle Gray: (28:23)

At least as far as my experience goes. But you can be like, “Yeah I did the thing.” And you just are, it’s like an affirmation of what I said I was going to do. And it helps you build trust in yourself. And I think that’s really important because otherwise often I think at least for me, things like ambition get in the way. Because you’re thinking like, “Oh well, I could be doing all these things. I could be this much better, I could be growing.” And you see out onto the horizon of things.

Kyle Gray: (28:54)

But if you’re not grounded in, “Wow, look at all this progress I’m making right now.” And you just kind of tear away and then you don’t even acknowledge the good day and the success that you’ve had. It can feel like a treadmill even if you’re making progress.

Adam Moody: (29:13)

Oh I totally agree. And I think it’s good to remind yourself even when you come out at the end of the day, even if it’s a rough one, you’re just like, “Man, I am just destroyed. Today has been rough.” But no matter what, even on our worst days. Right? We’re getting things done, we’re moving projects forward. There were good things. And so I think it’s good to remind yourself of that.

Adam Moody: (29:31)

And I will add onto this that, especially writing this stuff down, not just acknowledging it. But I don’t care if it’s in paper or again, if it’s a Evernote or Notion. But writing down on paper real quick, what went well today? What didn’t? Don’t take more than 30 seconds, just output what comes to mind. Because then what you can do is build onto this. And maybe at monthly, 90 day or even year long intervals, you can go back and look at this stuff.

Adam Moody: (29:56)

And so this is where some of the, I’ll call it “advanced techniques” with some air quotes. But if you start doing some of these basic things, like a daily review or a weekly reflection and then you’re able to save that and review on a longer timescale. Then you can start to see some patterns and it’s really cool. And say, “Hey, what are these things that I keep writing down that aren’t working well? And how can I either reconfigure things or get around those or get them off my plate?’ So there’s a lot of power in this if you’re writing it down.

Kyle Gray: (30:25)

Wow. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me.

Adam Moody: (30:28)

Yeah, it’s good. I want to reiterate though as we talk about this, that I really do mean it when I talk to people about this is, just keep it simple. I know some people I use the term are afraid of having some of these routines because they don’t want their lives to be run by routine. But I always just say, look at the results. Try it out. Suspend your disbelief, try it out for a couple of weeks and see if it helps you. If it doesn’t, then don’t use it. But I can guarantee you most of this stuff works for the vast majority of people out there. And then you can add onto it and customize it and make it work for you like we’re talking about here.

Adam Moody: (31:05)

End of day review, I heartily recommend it just like you do. But at the same time, if we’re not doing it and it isn’t affecting us, then that’s okay.

Kyle Gray: (31:12)

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Adam Moody: (31:13)

We can move on without.

Kyle Gray: (31:19)

Mm-hmm (affirmative). And just to add in my argument for habits and routine. I think it’s liberating in a lot of ways because in order to create these successfully, you have to find the meaning. And you have to know, okay, these things are valuable to me. Waking up every morning and writing so much every day is important. Or going to the gym or whatever the routine is formed around. And you have to understand and know and can have that and you cut away all of the less good options. And so it liberates you to do what you want and to grow in the you want. And to move forward and actually make progress and measure progress instead of being in a world where I think a lot of people are.

Kyle Gray: (32:11)

There’s a satisfaction to it, but of just being like, “Yeah, I did the day’s work and now I’m done.” Not ever asking questions of like, is this what I want? Is this valuable? And, and yeah, so anyway, that’s what I have to say.

Adam Moody: (32:26)

Yeah, I really think that’s true. And I don’t think you have to chase that extra 1 or 2% gain. This provides a huge ROI, getting started and then, like I said, customizing it to you. So I really do encourage people to give this a shot. And I’m kind of interested if people leave comments or reply about the podcast. Who does this too? A lot of people I know have some sort of daily routine or they think that they do, but they’re not really consistent with it.

Kyle Gray: (32:54)

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Adam Moody: (32:55)

So it’d be interesting to me. A lot of what I can do and what I try to help people with this be realistic and actually do it. Because there is just a staggering amount of information out there about how to be productive. But if you’re not putting it into use consistently, then like a lot of other things, it doesn’t matter. So yeah, making yourself. [crosstalk 00:33:15].

Kyle Gray: (33:14)

So.

Adam Moody: (33:15)

Go ahead.

Kyle Gray: (33:16)

When working with somebody, I imagine you do this in a coaching format if not for also with your team members and your businesses. But you look at an individual and you can assess who they are and their habits or their ideas or their motivators. And be like, “These systems would work better for you than these ones. And this is how you can be productive.”

Adam Moody: (33:43)

Yeah, definitely. And you can do this, happy to talk to people about this, but where people can do it on their own. And a lot of this is being honest with yourself and I’ll say cautiously, it’s a learned skill because we get in the habit of telling ourselves certain stories. And so writing it down can be a little shocking. But something I recommend people do is time-tracking. Grab a sheet of paper and for the next two days, in 30 minute intervals, write down what you are doing. Don’t go crazy with it. But just write down one line, one quick sentence about what you did in the last 30 minutes. And I think that that can be really eye opening. It’s something I do from time to time, once or twice a year. You don’t have to do it very often. But you may think I’m pretty good. I don’t actually go on Facebook that much. And then when you look back on that piece of paper and you’re like, “My gosh, I went on Facebook six times today.” And I opened my email 20 times and I checked my phone, I stopped counting at 50 or something.

Adam Moody: (34:38)

And so it was just being honest with yourself. And that applies again to the weekly review, the daily review. And nobody’s going to look at this unless you decide to share it. But writing down what you think is true and what’s actually happening and being honest with yourself.

Kyle Gray: (34:54)

So you mentioned there are stories we tell ourselves.

Adam Moody: (34:57)

Yeah.

Kyle Gray: (34:57)

What are some of the common false stories that you hear about people and productivity?

Adam Moody: (35:06)

That’s a good one. To be honest Kyle, I don’t have a lot of stories. I’ve heard from other people that I have found out to be not true. But I will share my own personal ones.

Kyle Gray: (35:15)

Yeah.

Adam Moody: (35:19)

I’m a systems person. That’s something I told myself for a long time. And it’s really funny I think because I mentioned at the very beginning of the podcast that I’m an engineer by trade. Went to school, backgrounds and visits, I worked as an engineer. And it turns out that that’s actually not my strong point. I’m certainly competent at it, but it turns out that I just recognized the strength of those systems and the results they provide. That’s why I like them. But there are people who are so much more systems oriented and who really get into the processes and enjoy it just for what they are.

Adam Moody: (35:55)

Whereas I look at them and see, okay this is what’s going to get me the results, so I’m going to go and do that. So for a long time I told myself like, “No, no, I’m a systems and process person. I just love these.” When in fact it’s, no, I just liked the results. I don’t want to be the person actually doing this unless I need to. So that was one.

Adam Moody: (36:13)

The other one, I think maybe this does apply, I guess I’ll partially reverse my response to you. Is that people feel that right routines and habits are going to rule their lives when in fact, it’s something that kind of frees you up. And I really do believe that’s true. And it’s one that people see once they start implementing some of this and saying, “Oh yeah, this is great. I’m getting amazing results. I should do this in different areas and reap the benefits.”

Kyle Gray: (36:40)

Well said. Very, very good stories and good, good strong points. Well, Adam it’s been a total pleasure exploring a lot of these different elements and systems. Where can we go to learn more about you and to dig into some of your research and brilliance you have written these things?

Adam Moody: (37:01)

Well, thank you. That is a very nice word. But yeah, if you want to find out more just head over to productivity.academy You can find out more about me there as well as anything to do with productivity, time management, automation and team building. And then I recommend if you don’t have a daily routine, you could check out a 14 Day Challenge. You can find that @challenge.productivity.academy. And I think that that’s probably the best place for people to get started.

Kyle Gray: (37:29)

Awesome. Adam, thank you so much for joining us today.

Adam Moody: (37:31)

Thanks Scott.

Kyle Gray:

Thanks for listening to the Story Engine Podcast. Be sure to check out the show notes and resources mentioned on this episode and every other episode at thestoryengine.co. 

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