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Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed and unproductive?

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Do you want to achieve your personal and

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professional goals while still having time for things

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you love. The. You need a twenty

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five x productivity system. As. A

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productivity coach with over seventeen thousand. satisfy

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clients or guide you through the T

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framework. And. Twenty five steps to

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productivity mastery: Helping you double your personal

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productivity, be happier at work, and have

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an extra five hours a week of

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free time. So. If you're right

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to become more productive, visit Twenty

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Five X coaching.com to get more

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information on a coaching program. Welcome

0:36

to the Productivity Show A Park has were

0:39

he believes that people like you can get

0:41

the important things and without sacrificing your health,

0:43

family and things that matter to you if

0:45

it's your first time listening. Welcome to the

0:47

Productivity Show! I'm really excited for you to

0:50

be here today! My name is Tim Fan

0:52

I'm the founder and Ceo of Asian Efficiency

0:54

where we help people become more productive at

0:56

work and a life and Tps or to

0:58

protiviti show like a natural extension of what

1:00

we're doing and I always like to do

1:03

is park. As with my co host Brooks

1:05

Duncan, how are you Today I'm. Great! Listeners

1:07

will know that there's two types

1:09

of episodes. I really, really like

1:11

tech episodes and book episodes are

1:13

you can guess I might be

1:15

alone. Excited about today! Fun fact

1:17

that we've endured a park as

1:19

soon said twenty sixteen. so neither

1:21

were in Twenty Twenty Four Key

1:23

Believe It's like eight years now

1:25

and we're still talking about apps,

1:27

books, different productivity philosophies. And speaking

1:29

of, if you're new to us,

1:31

we basically have three philosophies when

1:33

it comes to protiviti. One happy

1:35

people are productive. People and as we're going

1:38

to be talking about different books you going to

1:40

be seeing how this is going to be coming

1:42

up over and over and over again. The second

1:44

one is one tweak a week as all take

1:46

some a massive games and number three we want

1:49

everything that we offer a presents and due to

1:51

be simple an actual so you can be sure

1:53

to expect that this episode is going be simple

1:55

maximal for you here today as well and if

1:57

you ever want to get in touch with us.

2:00

You know that you moss a Park

2:02

has Asian efficiency.com I've enjoyed this episode.

2:04

Subscribe to us if you haven't yet

2:06

and they're We always appreciate a positive

2:08

review on Apple Pie. Cast and Spot

2:10

a Fi As or and helps us

2:12

grow the podcast in the shell know

2:14

why things are also known for his

2:17

we like to start every episode where

2:19

the top three favorite resources and we've

2:21

figured since it's a book episode let's

2:23

talk about. The classics when

2:25

it comes to productivity? So Brooks,

2:27

what are the classics that we

2:30

consider around our industry? Yeah.

2:32

Mean you could go the obvious direction

2:34

in getting things done by David Allen

2:36

over steep work by Cal Newport. Bad

2:38

that I think the three that will

2:40

narrow it down to this time are

2:42

Atomic Habits by James Clear as probably

2:44

a book I recommend more than any

2:47

of the Be One: Number Two, Four

2:49

Thousand and Weeks by Oliver Berkman We've

2:51

talked about it on the show a

2:53

number of times. almost like the anti

2:55

productivity productivity but but in a good

2:57

way. And number three, the One Thing

2:59

by Gary Keller which is basically shows

3:01

that. If you can narrow down on one

3:04

specific thing to focus on a really clears

3:06

up the rest of your life and your

3:08

work. so I think those are the three

3:10

that we're going to select. is our top

3:12

three resources. Yeah, we have links to all

3:15

the books in the shown us of you

3:17

haven't read them Yeah, these are the classics.

3:19

You should definitely check em out. Ah, I

3:21

would say the Four Thousand and On Balls

3:23

or Berkman a few listens. A while back

3:26

ago we actually had him on our podcast

3:28

as well and there was an interesting conversation

3:30

because he's been following his efficiency for. a

3:33

close a decade and so i was in

3:35

sync to have him on our podcasts to

3:37

talk about how asian efficiency has grown and

3:40

my philosophy around productivity has changed over time

3:42

and how a kind of a lines because

3:44

a user can i make fun of somebody

3:46

ideas that we talked about and coming full

3:49

circle we are now both a line on

3:51

a lotta different ideas now so if you're

3:53

like api cassie feel like asian efficiency content

3:55

and i think you're gonna have to do

3:57

love that book as well so fluffy about

4:00

books. I was talking to you, Brooks, about,

4:02

hey, what are some episodes we want to

4:04

do this year? And one

4:06

of the classics episodes we always like to

4:08

do is talk about tools, you know, apps

4:10

and so on, but also books. And I

4:12

know you're an avid reader and I'm

4:15

an avid reader myself. I

4:17

like to read maybe 10 to 12

4:19

books a year. I think that's for

4:21

me most consistent, I would say, and

4:23

also achievable. Sometimes I read more, sometimes

4:25

I read less. How many books

4:27

a year do you typically read, just out of

4:29

curiosity? You know what? I actually have

4:32

no idea. I don't track the number of

4:34

books I read. I should actually figure that

4:36

out because I do keep a list of

4:38

everything that I read. What I do is

4:40

I read a minimum, literally a

4:42

minimum of 30 minutes a day, every single

4:44

day. So I always have a book going

4:46

on. And I've talked about

4:49

on the podcast before, I have

4:51

this weird reading system where I

4:53

rotate between fiction, nonfiction, biography, fiction,

4:55

nonfiction, biography. So right now in

4:57

the cycle, I'm reading Foundation

5:00

and Empire by Isaac Asimov. So

5:02

I'm in the fiction part of my

5:05

cycle. But yeah, 30 minutes a day,

5:07

never miss it. It's one of my

5:09

core productivity morning routines. I

5:11

was really excited to do this episode. I'm

5:13

kind of doing it on hard mode in

5:16

a way, because what I would usually do

5:18

in these type of episodes is I would

5:20

turn around and look at my bookshelf to

5:22

see what books jump out

5:25

at me that I want to recommend. But

5:27

as listeners will know, I'm still out of

5:30

my house living at my mother-in-law's. All

5:32

my books are in boxes in storage

5:34

right now. So I had

5:36

to do some scrounging around and looking through

5:38

my lists. Thankfully, I do track every book

5:41

that I read. So I was

5:43

able to figure it out. Yeah, so I have

5:45

three books to share today. You have three books.

5:48

And I think before we start off, I

5:50

want to say that if you're not reading

5:52

right now, I think audiobooks are fine as

5:54

well. Everyone consumes information a little

5:56

bit differently. And I think the big idea that

5:58

I want to highlight and stretch is that I

6:01

think books and audiobooks included are kind

6:04

of like key codes in life because

6:06

if you think about

6:08

it, some people spend 10 years,

6:10

20 years of their lives to

6:12

figure something out, whether it's research,

6:14

a concept or idea or a

6:16

framework, right? And you and

6:19

I can spend maybe, I

6:21

don't know, two, three hours reading a book and

6:23

get that life experience that took this person 10

6:25

years to do to get

6:27

it in a fraction of the time.

6:29

So if you think about cheat codes

6:31

in life, this is one of the best ones that are

6:33

out there. So if you're not reading

6:36

on a regular basis or listening to an audiobook

6:38

on a regular basis, I think that is something

6:40

that you want to consider for

6:42

2024 to make that a habit. And

6:44

it's also one of those things where I've

6:47

consistently thought about, man,

6:49

all the things that I knew or read

6:52

in, let's just say, like 2014 is actually coming into

6:57

fruition in 2024 because I read

6:59

a book many, many years ago and

7:02

now I see the thoughts and connect them this

7:05

year or in this moment. And so the

7:08

accumulation of reading and

7:10

consuming curated information, and

7:13

that's the thing about books too is oftentimes it's

7:15

a little bit more polished, it's a little bit

7:17

more curated, right? There's a lot of noise when

7:19

it comes to like some other mediums

7:21

like podcasts, for example, because

7:24

part of it is also entertainment, which

7:26

is valuable in itself. But when

7:28

someone writes a book and it

7:30

goes through a publishing house, there's

7:32

a lot of editorial standards that

7:35

are being met. The

7:37

quality of information typically is a lot better.

7:39

I know you have a grip, Brooks, because you always

7:41

like to say that some books that are 250 pages

7:44

could have been written in 40 pages, right?

7:47

But that aside, I do want to stress

7:49

that, hey, if you're not reading right now

7:52

on a regular basis, I think Brooks' habit

7:54

of reading 30 minutes a day is a

7:56

life changing habit. So I Want to

7:58

mention that before we kick things off. There Now

8:00

with that said, I want to start

8:02

with my first book and that I

8:05

don't have You saw this on coming

8:07

works but I wanted to put this

8:09

one here and it's got Lucky Guy

8:11

spells I K I G Ai and

8:13

subtitles the Japanese Secret to a long

8:16

and happy Life by Hector Garcia. Now.

8:19

The reason I wanted to put as bargain

8:21

here is that if you may following his

8:23

efficiency for a while you might have heard

8:25

of this concept called eg. I or if

8:27

he's been studying productivity in general. But if

8:29

your. Brand New are unfamiliar

8:31

with this concept. It's a

8:34

Japanese term and it's roughly

8:36

translated to a reason for

8:38

being or the happiness of

8:40

always being busy. At. First

8:42

glance I might seem like have what

8:44

it would zack's a mean but the

8:47

summary of the bucket is that the

8:49

author basically studied the residents of Okinawa

8:51

in Japan sanders actually Netflix show right

8:53

now to where they talk about longevity

8:55

and as got the name of the

8:58

shell but it's all about longevity and

9:00

assay the study the residents of Okinawa

9:02

Japan because they're mostly known for longevity

9:04

to have the most number of people

9:06

that I live longer than one hundred

9:08

years and centenarians and this book kind

9:11

of reveals his secrets. To Happiness and

9:13

Longevity and I once had a the

9:15

Netflix show is called Blue Zones if

9:17

I remember correctly or thoughtful about the

9:20

Blue Zone concepts. Now if you listen

9:22

to keep yes you know that One

9:24

of things I was like to say

9:26

is that happy people are productive people

9:29

and this catchphrase came from my own

9:31

reading of difference books about happiness, different

9:33

bucks about longevity and as kind of

9:36

learned over the air some running Asian

9:38

efficiency as well that typically the most

9:40

productive people are also very happy. And.

9:43

Productivity is actually a byproduct of

9:45

happiness said. the happier you are

9:47

as a person, the more productive

9:49

you'll be. And I think everyone

9:52

understands this conceptually right. If you

9:54

and I Brooks are similarly skilled,

9:56

we have the same apps and

9:58

tools, but yeah, If you're kinda depressed

10:01

and I'm very happy now be person, Guess

10:03

what? I'm going to be a lot more

10:05

productive than you are, even though we have

10:07

everything else being the same and I think

10:09

everyone kind of gets that. But what can

10:12

you do on a practical basis to be

10:14

happier? On. A day to day. Basis.

10:16

And that's what this book is all about. So

10:19

easy guy. Most people if they've heard

10:21

about this, they know this idea that

10:24

is this intersection right? As you think

10:26

about different circles, concentric circles that overlap.

10:28

Sticky Guy is all about what you

10:30

love. What? You're good

10:32

at what the world needs.

10:35

And. Would you can be paid for? and

10:37

if the overlap those circles that. Middle.

10:40

Spot is what they call eg. guy

10:42

save You can seek out a way.

10:45

To. See. What you love,

10:47

what you're good at, what the world needs

10:49

which is I think often miss and also

10:52

what you can be paid for. That's.

10:55

The whole concept of self and that's

10:57

what this book talks about. This you

10:59

discovering what south is through those different

11:01

circles does other concepts in the bucks

11:03

but I wanted to us are offered

11:05

to spark. Have you have your own

11:08

retrospect? Brooks. Yeah. I have

11:10

read it. Actually, I think they'll learn

11:12

about it from Productivity Academy member Alice

11:14

Ferris, who has been on the podcast

11:16

before as she was psyche by that

11:19

Yes, he did a you Tube video

11:21

all About It which are linked to

11:23

in the show notes as well and

11:25

I thought that was really fascinating. And

11:28

yeah, it is a book I really

11:30

enjoyed. I'm always fascinated by this whole

11:32

Blue Zone concept. I have a Watson

11:34

Affleck so I had sounds Like I

11:37

said and. I think you're right

11:39

that much of the advice out there

11:41

has been like follow your passion, follow

11:43

your bless, and that sort of thing,

11:45

which is. not bad advice

11:47

except that if you're following your

11:50

passion and you're not able to

11:52

do something with it back can

11:54

be a recipe for unhappiness like

11:56

it's anti a guy but if

11:58

you can find something

12:00

that you enjoy, something that you

12:03

like, but also that the world

12:05

needs. I think you're right, that

12:07

is the missing piece. The author,

12:09

Hector Garcia, also wrote a book

12:11

called A Geek in Japan, which

12:13

Marmel from the Asian Efficiency

12:15

team and I both enjoyed as well. So

12:18

that is a completely different book, but

12:21

I really enjoy this author's work. Yeah,

12:24

this book also goes into other concepts

12:28

about happiness. So for

12:30

example, they study the

12:32

habits of the residents of Okinawa

12:34

and if you've ever studied

12:36

happiness in general, you know that having

12:39

community or people around you is

12:41

really important and they talk about this concept as well.

12:44

And so when you read this, it's

12:46

not just about discovering self, but also

12:48

the different habits that they have that

12:50

you wanna consider. So for example, I

12:52

think we all know that exercising on

12:55

a regular basis is a good thing, right? And

12:57

it helps with our brain health, with

12:59

our overall health and focus and energy.

13:02

And it just kinda clarifies those even more.

13:04

And it talks about all the other steps

13:06

as well. So go check out Iki Gai

13:08

by Hector Garcia. All right, my

13:11

turn for my first book. And

13:13

my first book is called Five.

13:16

Where will you be five years

13:18

from today? And it's by

13:20

Dan Zadra, though there is a

13:22

new edition, which has another author,

13:24

Coby Yamada. I've only read the

13:26

old edition, so I'm not sure

13:29

what's new about this new edition.

13:31

But basically what this is, is a

13:33

coffee table style book. And

13:36

it's one of those books where

13:38

you open it up and it's not just a wall

13:40

of text. There's a lot of diagrams

13:43

and tables and exercises and like

13:45

it's really heavy on the design,

13:47

which I think maybe some people

13:49

don't like, but weirdly I'm starting

13:52

to respond to more and more.

13:55

And The general idea is to help

13:57

you think about where you want to

13:59

be. Five years from now

14:01

and also giving you kind of

14:03

exercises maybe not the right word,

14:05

but prompt to go through to

14:07

kind of get into thinking that

14:09

way. And I like it because

14:11

it's. So. Easy for us to

14:13

get stuck in colleague the day to

14:16

day and focusing on our to do

14:18

list. Or maybe we're doing quarterly planning

14:20

which were big fans of here on

14:22

the productivity show or annual planning, but

14:25

we don't spend as much time thinking

14:27

more kind of like long term the

14:29

way I kind of approach. this book

14:32

is. I. Don't think of it as

14:34

like. Coming. Up with five,

14:36

your goals are making a big plan

14:38

for the next five years. It's more

14:40

just kind of like a trigger that

14:42

helps think a little bigger and cause

14:44

I I don't tend to naturally gravitate

14:46

that way. I tend to naturally gravitate

14:48

more in the day to day. So

14:51

something I guess I found really really

14:53

valuable and you might think five years

14:55

doesn't sound that long by. the book

14:57

gives a bunch of a different light

14:59

examples an inspiration like for example a

15:01

quote from the book is that are

15:03

at age thirty Amazon founder. Just be

15:05

those was living in a five hundred

15:08

square foot apartment five years later his

15:10

net worth Ten billion Dollars Select has

15:12

shows you how much can happen in

15:14

the span of five years now and

15:17

I really targeting for ten billion dollars

15:19

by it. Does. Having this idea

15:21

of thinking bigger I think is really

15:24

helpful and what I found really interesting

15:26

to is. This. Is a good

15:28

example of how. The. Context to read

15:30

a book in can really impact. Your

15:33

take away from it does by fluke

15:35

I happened to be reading this book

15:37

on vacation summer with know why fi

15:39

or know cellular service at all so

15:41

I had really nothing to do accept

15:43

focus on those but and my wife

15:45

and I were a like taking a

15:47

lot walk so we use visit that

15:49

prompts in the book to trigger discussion

15:51

and I think that. Helped

15:53

a lot as well. So the have someone

15:56

else in your life. It's a really good

15:58

prompt for discussion. so one of. Criticisms

16:00

of the book is that it's

16:02

kind of short and doesn't have

16:04

a huge amount of contents are

16:06

which is funny cause usually that's

16:08

my criticism of productivity bucks as

16:10

as you mentioned town but I

16:13

think in this case it kind

16:15

of works because it's almost the

16:17

opposite of normal productivity books where

16:19

it's not so much focus on

16:21

the content is focusing on what

16:23

you can do with that information

16:25

and I I think it's a

16:27

good antidote for their the usual

16:29

productivity. Books that we sit there reading

16:32

and they don't really implement anything either.

16:34

Smoke as all implementation. Are

16:37

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16:39

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18:43

Your future self will thank you. Yeah,

18:46

I've never heard of this book. So

18:49

this is something I want to check out and

18:51

to the same point that you mentioned, I'm

18:54

very practical when it comes to day-to-day. I'm very practical

18:56

when it comes to 90 days. I'm

18:59

very practical when it comes to the next six

19:01

months and up to a year.

19:04

But if I think about my five-year

19:06

plan, I'm very much less practical. Having

19:09

prompts is very helpful

19:11

to kind of get my thinking in that

19:13

direction. So, anytime, usually every quarter, I start

19:16

to think about, okay, what

19:18

are some things I want to accomplish in the

19:20

next year or so? That's

19:23

very helpful as well. But imagine

19:25

having a five-year vision for something

19:27

or a plan and being able

19:29

to chip away at it month

19:31

after month after month for many,

19:33

many years. Then

19:36

that compound effect over time can snowball

19:38

into something so much bigger because

19:41

you just keep going at

19:43

it for many, many years. So, having

19:46

a five-year plan, I think, is

19:48

very helpful. It's always

19:50

this tricky balance of, okay,

19:52

it's great to have something so far away, but

19:55

you also have to do stuff today. You also have to do

19:57

stuff tomorrow. You also have to do stuff that... dictates

20:00

what you need to do over the next 30 days

20:02

because we might have to move

20:04

to a different house, we might have to go to a

20:06

conference, we have to go to a wedding, we have to

20:08

do all these different things, but at

20:11

the same time, we also have to

20:13

accomplish some things in a

20:15

little bit of a shorter term so that

20:17

we can keep the momentum going, stay motivated,

20:19

right? That's why I'm a big fan of

20:21

90 day goals because we can have something

20:24

that's a little further away but still practical

20:26

enough to stay motivated, to have a sense

20:28

of urgency to do something

20:30

on a day to day and weekly basis

20:33

to accomplish something. However, if the

20:36

90 day goal is very much in alignment with

20:38

something that you want to do five years from

20:40

now, that's even better. I think that's kind of

20:42

like the masterpiece move

20:44

if we can make it. However,

20:47

having prompts like this book would be

20:49

very beneficial for that. So I think

20:51

I'm gonna copy you and

20:53

say, hey, I'm gonna pick up this book,

20:56

go somewhere on a trip where I'm stuck

20:58

and have no wifi, no connection

21:00

and just sit there with my thoughts and just

21:02

see what comes out of it. Well,

21:05

one thing that was really interesting that I never

21:07

thought about until you just mentioned that is a

21:10

logical next question to this is

21:13

why not now? So for example,

21:15

you come up with your, oh, it would be nice

21:17

to do this in the next five years, a follow-up

21:19

to that could be, okay, well, why don't

21:21

I just do it now? And

21:23

that actually, I forgot about this, but that actually

21:25

is what led to me doing, for example, the

21:28

Trans-Siberian Railway at the time is I went through

21:30

all this and be like, oh, it'd be neat

21:32

to do this sort of thing, that sort of

21:34

thing. And then an opportunity came in up to

21:36

just do it. And so just because

21:38

you come up with these things to do

21:40

in the next five years doesn't mean you

21:42

have to wait until then, it might actually prompt

21:44

you to do it now. So yeah, that's a great

21:46

point. I didn't even think of that. Well,

21:49

actually that brings up the second book that

21:51

I wanna recommend, which is Die With Zero

21:53

by Bill Perkins, because it actually speaks to

21:55

that point exactly. So Die

21:57

With Zero by Bill Perkins. is

22:00

a book I read maybe last year or so in the

22:02

last two years when it first came out. So

22:05

Bill Perkins, he's a hedge fund

22:07

manager and in his book, he

22:09

shares his philosophy around spending money,

22:11

saving money, and financial planning. But

22:13

it's contradictory to what most

22:16

advice is out there. And

22:18

based on the title of the book, what he actually says

22:20

is that life is essentially

22:22

about collecting memories and

22:25

experiences and ideally you die

22:28

with nothing left in your bank accounts. That's

22:30

kind of like his philosophy. And what he

22:32

means with that is if you die with

22:34

zero, you spend all of your

22:36

money maximizing life and fulfillment

22:39

to the best way possible and

22:41

in the most optimal, efficient way

22:43

as well. So the

22:45

example he gives in the book is

22:47

when he talks about the concept of

22:49

utility value of money or in a different

22:52

way, you can think about the opportunity cost

22:54

of money. In the book,

22:56

he talks about this concept of the

22:58

average age that someone receives

23:00

in inheritance. So Brooks, if you

23:03

think about this, what do you

23:05

think is the average age that someone

23:07

receives in inheritance? My

23:10

guess was it probably used to be 30s to

23:12

40s, but I bet now it's like 50s to

23:14

60s. So

23:16

very smart. So I believe in the book,

23:18

he mentioned that it's 61 or 63, but

23:20

it's somewhere in the early 60s. Now

23:23

imagine for a moment that your

23:25

parents left you a million dollars

23:28

of money at age Now

23:33

this is like the typical thing that most

23:35

people do is that their parents or us

23:37

even, we accumulate all this wealth,

23:39

this money, we buy home, we

23:41

have all this property, we have land, we have

23:44

all these different things, maybe even companies. And

23:47

then when we die, we pass it on to our kids. And

23:50

that's very typical. However, if you

23:52

think about the utility value of

23:55

money, if you receive a

23:57

million dollars at any point in

23:59

life, you're like, oh. Oh man, I made

24:01

it, great, right? But at 61, you're

24:04

pretty established in life already. You probably

24:06

have a decent savings, at least I

24:08

hope so. You probably already

24:10

have a home. You probably live somewhere where

24:12

you wanna be at. So

24:15

you're pretty established already. So having another

24:17

million dollars is not gonna be as

24:19

life changing compared

24:21

to saying, hey, if you have a million

24:23

dollars to give to your kids, but

24:25

let's say you give your kids, let's say

24:27

$50,000 when they turn 18, then

24:30

$100,000 when they turn 25, another

24:33

$100,000 when they turn 30, another

24:36

$100,000 when they turn 35. At

24:39

those different stages, you could offer them

24:42

being debt free by going to school,

24:44

for example. You could help them

24:46

get a down payment on their home, which

24:49

might be their first major purchase they ever

24:51

make. It could be offering

24:53

them the ability to travel the world for

24:56

a whole year. And

24:58

you start to see that the utility value of

25:00

money at those different ages is

25:03

so much higher than getting one lump sum

25:06

at, say, age 61, even

25:08

though it's maybe, quote unquote, the same amount of

25:10

money that you give to your kids, right? And

25:14

so it talks about, okay, that's the opportunity cost

25:16

of money. $100,000 you spend when you're 18 is

25:18

very different and

25:21

has different utility value than getting that same $100,000 at

25:23

61. Now,

25:26

anytime you get free money, quote unquote, I think is

25:29

a good thing, right? But if you

25:31

think about the utility value of it or

25:33

the opportunity cost at different ages, you

25:36

really start to rethink how

25:39

you wanna do estate planning or financial planning

25:41

for your kids. And even though I don't

25:43

have kids myself, it made

25:45

me rethink, okay, why hoard all this

25:47

money or wealth till retirement or till

25:50

I die and then pass it on

25:52

when in actuality I can

25:54

spend and use some of that today to

25:57

your point going on the Siberian trip, right?

26:00

Let's just say that cost you $5,000, for example. I

26:04

know from our conversations on the podcast and

26:06

also you and I in between, that's probably

26:09

one of your favorite stories and memories in

26:11

life, like the fact that you went there

26:14

and all the different things that you encountered. But

26:17

if you just saved that extra $5,000 to

26:19

put it in the stock market, sure, you

26:21

might have received an extra 7% a

26:24

year for the last three years or whatever since

26:26

you've done it. It doesn't have

26:28

the same value as you

26:30

doing that trip now compared to if you did

26:32

it 20 years from now because you might not

26:34

have the health to do it. You might not

26:36

have the energy to do it. You

26:39

might not have the same type of

26:41

experience because the example I

26:43

always like to use is going

26:46

to Vegas when you're 21 is a very different experience

26:48

when you're 31 and a very different experience

26:51

when you're 41. At 21, you're

26:53

going out with your buddies, you're having a few

26:55

drinks, you go to the casino, your party till

26:58

4 in the morning. At 31, you're

27:00

like, oh, I have a girlfriend now. I'm going to

27:02

go watch a show. And

27:04

then you go with your wife and now it's like,

27:06

hey, let's stay in till 9 o'clock. We

27:09

call it a night. We did all the fun stuff in

27:11

the daytime. We did all the walking. And

27:14

even though it's the same city, it's a very different

27:16

experience in who you do it with and how you

27:18

do it at the different

27:20

ages, even though it's the same destination.

27:23

All of this is to say what I really

27:25

just like about this book. It just makes you

27:28

rethink about happiness, how

27:30

you use your money and utility value of

27:33

money at different stages of your life. It

27:35

makes you rethink how you spend it today

27:38

versus saving it as well. I

27:40

just was in Vegas a couple months ago

27:42

and I can confirm it was the most

27:44

boring Vegas trip of all time. So what

27:46

you said is exactly true. Yeah,

27:49

so if you haven't checked out this

27:51

book yet, go check it out again.

27:53

I can't stress this enough. My

27:56

philosophy when it comes to Happy people or

27:58

productive people have been influenced by all of this. These

28:00

different bucks and I just circles back to

28:02

the same idea. And so anything we can

28:04

do they increase our happiness is something that

28:06

we should strive for. So what is your

28:09

second recommendation for To that. Yeah,

28:11

my second recommendation is called

28:13

Mindfulness in plain English by

28:15

the Better Ball And a

28:17

polite printer at basically a

28:20

name pretty much sums it

28:22

up. Ah, it's available. As.

28:24

A book on Amazon or is

28:26

also free online will link to

28:29

both of them in the show

28:31

notes. And it's really about the

28:33

concept of mindfulness and meditation, but

28:35

it does it in really simple

28:37

language. It. Just talks about.

28:41

Why? to meditate? the basics, what

28:43

you need to do, then talk

28:45

about what to concentrate on, what

28:47

your body and mind should be

28:49

doing, but what they will probably

28:51

be doing, so how to deal

28:53

with problems and distractions and I

28:55

really like it. I read it

28:57

back in Twenty Eleven he was

28:59

actually I specifically remember this. It

29:01

would is recommended in a podcast

29:03

episode on the Back to Work.

29:05

Podcasts are Back and Twenty Eleven

29:07

and it was my. Introduction

29:09

to this whole concept of mindfulness and

29:11

meditation. I knew nothing about it. I'd

29:14

thought it was for like woo people

29:16

and monks fi decided day. Check it

29:18

out and there's so many resources out

29:20

there about meditation. I don't think there

29:23

are sponsoring this episode but Com for

29:25

example is an app. Both you and

29:27

I love tan and it's a great

29:30

introduction. The meditation by a lot of

29:32

the materials out there kind of feel

29:34

like. You're. Supposed to already

29:36

know what to do. like it'll save focus

29:38

on your breasts but you know what? What

29:41

does that mean? What What happens when I

29:43

start thinking about other things. I've been meditating

29:45

for a week and I don't have this

29:47

like com mind like water state that everyone

29:49

says unfurls the have and I'm supposed to

29:52

be more com. So much of it is

29:54

your spouse the already know what you need

29:56

to do and this is to me this

29:58

book. is one of the

30:00

clearest introductions to people who might be a

30:03

little skeptical about it. For

30:05

those high-fact finders like you and I

30:08

and myself who want

30:10

to know what is involved, this

30:12

is a great introduction to mindfulness

30:14

in plain English. Awesome. That

30:16

sounds like a great book to recommend and

30:18

give to people who want to explore this

30:20

whole idea of mindfulness. I

30:23

personally don't know a good introductory book on this.

30:25

I've read a bunch of different books on it

30:28

and there's a lot of great YouTube

30:30

content and podcasts that are out there

30:32

to talk about this. I

30:36

haven't really found a book where everything is just

30:38

in one place that you can gift

30:40

to somebody because I think that's one of

30:42

the best things that we can do with

30:44

books is giving somebody the gift of a

30:47

podcast episode is not quite the same as

30:49

gifting somebody a physical book that they can

30:51

read and put on their shelf and go

30:54

back to. That's one

30:56

of the, I think still main values

30:58

of having a book is that you

31:00

can gift it because the information that's

31:02

inside can be so transformative for somebody,

31:05

especially if it's the right thing at the right

31:07

moment for them. It sounds like this

31:09

is something I will have to pick up myself

31:11

not because I need it but mostly because if

31:14

I think this could be a good book that I

31:16

could gift to people who would benefit from

31:18

this, that would be super valuable to

31:20

me. All right. What's

31:22

your next choice here? Yeah,

31:24

my third and final book for

31:27

today's episode is again a classic

31:29

but more about team productivity

31:31

rather than individual productivity. This

31:34

book is called The Five Dysfunctions of a

31:36

Team by Patrick

31:38

Lencioni. Now the Five

31:41

Dysfunctions of a Team is a classic.

31:44

I have read it multiple times. I

31:46

actually make everyone at Asian Efficiency read this book

31:48

as well as part of their onboarding. Also,

31:51

we tend to reference this book at

31:53

least once a year. Last time I

31:55

had Marmel give a presentation on this if you

31:57

remember this book. revisit

32:00

this concept because she's our scrum master. If

32:04

you're unfamiliar with the book, it's basically a

32:06

fable about a business and

32:08

the challenges they're running into as they're

32:10

growing the business, specifically the challenges they

32:13

have within the team because the team

32:15

is holding back from being its best

32:17

version it could be and reaching its

32:19

full potential and hence the business as

32:22

well. It talks about five

32:24

different levels of dysfunctions that every

32:26

team pretty much goes through. One

32:29

of them is for example absence of trust. If there's

32:31

no trust in the team, it's really hard

32:33

to perform at a high level and I

32:35

think most people understand that. One

32:38

other one that the author mentions is fear

32:40

of conflict and this is actually a big

32:42

one that we had age and efficiency and

32:45

I think a lot of people struggle with

32:47

this in their own teams and various companies.

32:50

It's this idea that we

32:53

just maybe sometimes take marching orders from somebody

32:55

and we just go, okay, this is what

32:57

we're going to be doing and that's about

32:59

it, right? Whether it's a strategy meeting, an

33:02

annual meeting or just like a one-on-one. What

33:05

Patrick actually argues in the book is that if

33:07

you want to have a high performing team, people

33:10

should feel safe enough to

33:12

engage in discussions and

33:15

maybe even challenge some ideas

33:17

or things that are being brought up

33:19

in meetings or other places so that

33:21

there is no fear of conflict and

33:23

that's how we tend to make better decisions. This

33:25

is how we tend to optimize things better but

33:28

if you think about most teams and companies, I

33:30

would say there is a lot of fear of

33:32

conflict because if you're the one who is challenging

33:35

your manager or your boss or someone else on the

33:37

team, it can sometimes feel like

33:39

an attack or it can sometimes feel like you're

33:41

acting out. In reality, I think

33:44

if we all have the same outcome or goal

33:46

that we're striving for with the team and company,

33:49

you have to have conflict and

33:51

it's not a bad thing to have conflict. Obviously,

33:53

there's nuance to it in the sense that

33:56

you don't want to name call somebody, for

33:58

example, but it's more the idea. of

34:00

having active discussions and sometimes being

34:02

comfortable enough to challenge something when

34:05

you really think or feel that that's not the

34:07

right chess move. So

34:09

that's something that we've implemented through

34:11

the exercises that are mentioned in

34:14

the book. And

34:16

honestly, it has been really beneficial. And I

34:18

always find that this is a book that

34:20

you always want to go back to at

34:22

least once a year, especially if you're an

34:24

entrepreneur or a founder or you manage your

34:26

team in a company. This

34:28

is one of those things where if you just

34:30

make a few tweaks to the different

34:33

dysfunctions that you know are

34:35

there in your team and you just improve

34:37

them, you just

34:39

create so much leverage because it's not just one

34:41

person becoming better. It could be a whole

34:43

team, which could be anywhere from two or

34:45

three people to 10 to 50 or whatever. So

34:49

high leverage. And I

34:52

definitely recommend that everyone checks out this

34:54

book. I feel like after that we

34:56

should be having conflict about this, but I enjoy this

34:58

book a lot too. And

35:01

you were mentioning earlier about books

35:04

and audiobooks. I think

35:06

Patrick Lencioni's books actually benefit a lot

35:08

from being in audiobook format just because

35:10

they are told in a fable and

35:13

a kind of a story setting and

35:15

it lends itself really well to audiobooks,

35:17

although it's a little harder to revisit

35:20

audiobooks on a yearly basis. Maybe

35:23

having the physical or Kindle copy is a

35:25

little better for that, but I listened to

35:27

all his books on audiobook and it was

35:29

a great experience. All right, I'm

35:31

going to wrap it up with my final pick.

35:34

And since I was talking about how I

35:36

do biography, nonfiction fiction, I figured I'd wrap

35:38

it up with a fiction book. And

35:41

the book I'm going to recommend is Kafka on the

35:43

Shore by Haruki Murakami. Murakami

35:46

is my favorite author. I've read pretty

35:48

much all of his books. He's a

35:51

Japanese author. For Those of us in

35:53

North America, we're actually reading a translation

35:55

because his books are initially in Japanese

35:58

and then translated. They

36:00

don't know if it's. Murakami. Writing

36:02

I like or the translators I'm

36:04

not really sure but I'm gonna

36:06

recommend this book because I feel

36:08

that this is a good introduction

36:10

to the world of Murakami. My

36:12

wife and I actually different mess.

36:14

We both love his books. The

36:17

thing about them though as they

36:19

can get pretty weird and so

36:21

it just so happens that I

36:23

gravitate more As is not as

36:25

surprise he taps, I gravitate more

36:27

to the less weird parts and

36:29

my wife gravitates heart of. A

36:31

weird or parts are so for her

36:33

she really likes. ah and iod these

36:36

books to what like the Wind Up

36:38

Bird Chronicle A Wild Sheep Chase Those

36:40

Com Like more out there elements are

36:42

whereas my first markham he was Norwegian

36:44

wood or which is more straightforward and

36:47

I think this book Tough Guy on

36:49

the Shore is a good mix of

36:51

the two and a good interaction of

36:53

the world. It's basically about two stories

36:55

are one of them is a fifteen

36:57

year old that runs away to find

37:00

his missing mother and sister. And

37:02

the other one is about an older guy

37:04

who can talk to cats and as I

37:06

can I buy gives you an idea of

37:08

the sort of thing where I were talking

37:10

about and market me to bucks. I guess

37:13

eight as resonate with me because they're about

37:15

Japan which seems to be a theme this

37:17

episode or but also music is infused a

37:19

lot food and that are definitely different. So

37:21

a tech america me and be cast on

37:24

the sir of the Great Start. I'm

37:26

glad you're recommended a Fiction Books because

37:28

if you look at all the things

37:30

that we've talked about right now they

37:32

were all nonfiction and the as to

37:35

make a confession. I haven't read a

37:37

six bucks since, probably two thousand and

37:39

eleven. So I was perplexed over thirty

37:41

years and I don't. Think. That's

37:44

Patrick who wants the oh nice

37:46

books or section. right? It's

37:48

really a purpose behind that.

37:51

And so am. I don't know I'm going

37:53

to pick up his book Brooks because and

37:55

I think I'm going to keep my streak

37:57

alive. Was just reading a nonfiction books. And

38:01

it's not because I hate on fiction

38:03

books or anything. If I think about

38:05

the utility value of fiction, it's of

38:08

about relaxation, getting your mind off whatever

38:10

is going on in life, right? and

38:12

canal like diving into something that keeps

38:15

you engaged. But I find that I

38:17

can do other things that have the

38:19

same effects. For example, going to the

38:21

spot or a health club. Ah, I'm

38:24

watching tv shows doing all sorts of.

38:26

I like playing a sport like there's

38:28

all these different things. To can have the

38:30

same benefits to me. And

38:33

so when I'm reading, I'm. purposefully,

38:35

Reading to acquire information and knowledge not

38:37

you are kill time so that's my

38:39

philosophy. I'm not saying that's the right

38:41

thing for everybody I know, I gonna

38:43

lie pushback from other people who love

38:45

to resection and I'm say kudos to

38:47

Down and kudos you Brooks for doing

38:49

that. I'd like to spend my time.

38:52

Doing different things that panic at the same

38:54

outcome South If you're making it all the

38:56

way to the end and you disagree with

38:59

me, let me now email me a podcast

39:01

it easier for since either com i love

39:03

to hear your thoughts on it's me will

39:05

do it a different episode on ah maybe

39:08

fiction books that we like and that will

39:10

pretty much be a soul episode. Buy books

39:12

because again I have nothing to at that

39:14

point. So and aca them for today's episode

39:17

is. You. Might have guessed it. Pick.

39:19

Up a book that resonate with you

39:21

here today. If there's a book that

39:23

you like, go check out the link

39:25

that we have. Forty bucks and start

39:27

reading. It's honestly I think Brooks is

39:29

thing as reading thirty minutes a day

39:31

is a life changing habit that everyone

39:33

can pick up. To pick up a

39:35

buck today. Read. It for thirty minutes

39:38

and that's all the commitment or you could

39:40

be making and if you enjoy it's continued

39:42

to it the next day and overtime you

39:44

might end up reading more than ten bucks

39:46

a year from just starting with thirty minutes

39:49

a day is can be that simple. South's

39:51

thank you so much for listen to to

39:53

Productivity Show. We will look forward to seeing

39:55

your back next week and everything that we

39:57

mentioned can be found at the Productivity Show.

40:00

Dot Com and if you liked it,

40:02

Leave us a positive review on Apple

40:04

Pie, Cast and Spotify. And.

40:06

I will see you back next week!