Order of Man - Daily Efficiencies, Practices, Planning, and Systems ｜ ASK ME ANYTHING

00:00:00.000 One of the first things that this book says, as a quote, is it says, that which is measured

00:00:04.560 improves.

00:00:05.840 So if you said to me, Ryan, I want to eat 2,500 calories per day, good, good tactic,

00:00:12.080 very measurable.

00:00:13.460 How are you going to measure it though?

00:00:15.780 Do you have an app?

00:00:17.120 Do you know how many calories are in what?

00:00:19.640 Do you have a scale that you can measure your protein with or measure out the rice or the

00:00:23.500 vegetables that you're going to have?

00:00:25.340 I mean, we need to get down to the nitty gritty and start measuring this stuff because it's

00:00:28.740 very easy to deceive ourselves and to say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm doing it.

00:00:33.840 You're a man of action.

00:00:35.440 You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart your own path.

00:00:39.820 When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.

00:00:44.260 You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong.

00:00:49.360 This is your life.

00:00:50.440 This is who you are.

00:00:51.860 This is who you will become at the end of the day.

00:00:54.460 And after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.

00:00:58.740 Gentlemen, welcome to the Order of Man podcast.

00:01:02.820 I am Ryan Mickler.

00:01:04.100 I'm your host and the founder of this movement to reclaim and restore masculinity.

00:01:08.200 This is our Ask Me Anything episode.

00:01:10.380 I run these each and every week on Wednesdays.

00:01:12.580 Usually I have my good friend and fellow co-host, Mr. Kip Sorensen, on the podcast.

00:01:18.380 He sent me a message a little bit ago, said he's not feeling well.

00:01:21.100 He's under the weather.

00:01:22.600 It's probably a man cold. 0.92

00:01:23.840 If I had to guess right now, he's probably eating some chicken noodle soup and having

00:01:29.620 some saltines and maybe watching The Price is Right for the rest of the day.

00:01:33.760 I don't know.

00:01:34.820 That's what I did when I was a kid.

00:01:36.120 I don't know if the kids are still doing that these days, but he's down and out.

00:01:40.020 So you're going to hear from me for better or worse today.

00:01:42.020 And specifically on today's podcast, we're going to talk about systems, structures, organization,

00:01:48.960 efficiency, daily planning, et cetera, because this is so crucial.

00:01:54.040 So many men leave so much on the table because they lack the systems and they're inefficient. 1.00

00:01:58.440 They're ineffective.

00:01:59.360 And even when they are busy, it seems like they're just pumping their pedals, but they're

00:02:05.840 not really getting anywhere.

00:02:07.280 And I want you to get somewhere.

00:02:08.720 I want to know for me personally, that if I'm going to put forth effort, that it's actually

00:02:13.100 going to produce and yield results in my life.

00:02:16.420 I imagine you do as well.

00:02:17.920 So I'm going to jump right into questions today.

00:02:20.180 I am running a little bit short on time.

00:02:22.260 Speaking of efficiencies and productivity, obviously with it being Labor Day weekend, I got thrown

00:02:29.180 off a little bit because I took the day off, a rare day off I took.

00:02:33.620 And so I'm catching up today.

00:02:35.360 And by the way, thank you to all of you who are serving your communities, you're working

00:02:39.720 hard, you're serving your families, you're building this country, you're building your

00:02:43.260 city.

00:02:44.320 You're doing the work of men. 0.97

00:02:45.780 I want to thank you.

00:02:46.800 We are standing on the shoulders of those men who came before us, who put forth the blood

00:02:51.580 and the sweat and the tears to make this the most prosperous country that has ever existed

00:02:56.260 in humankind.

00:02:57.040 And sure, we've got a lot more work to do, but it's those of you who are out there doing

00:03:00.900 the work, putting in the work day in and day out, sacrificing so that you can provide for

00:03:05.620 your families and build up your communities.

00:03:07.580 I want to honor you on that.

00:03:09.160 All right, guys, let's jump into this.

00:03:10.860 Again, we're talking about efficiencies for planning.

00:03:12.900 The first one comes from a member of the Iron Council.

00:03:16.260 I just talked with Aaron just the other day, and him and I are supposed to have a call later

00:03:19.480 this week, in fact.

00:03:20.700 But Aaron Polito, he says, how and when is it appropriate to build in flexibility or how

00:03:26.400 best to balance structure and flexibility for those with dynamic work situations that

00:03:31.780 force reactivity during working hours, best practices on how to protect time or how to

00:03:38.020 effectively schedule deep and focused work, best practices for instilling daily checkpoints

00:03:42.860 to identify when the day is off track, and those three would be the most helpful specifically.

00:03:48.080 Well, here's what I do, Aaron, first and foremost, and I do this, and I don't have the

00:03:52.760 same sort of reactivity that you may have in your work schedule based on what you're

00:03:57.940 saying right here.

00:03:58.860 I plan out my day to the T using our 12-week battle planner.

00:04:03.880 If you go to the store, store.orderofman.com, you can pick these up, and you can just pick

00:04:07.940 up the inserts, which are really inexpensive, unless you wanted the leather binder like I

00:04:12.020 have there.

00:04:13.040 So I plan out my day, but the best thing that I've ever been able to do regarding my

00:04:17.600 planning is to build in buffers.

00:04:19.640 And a lot of the times, people think when you build in a buffer for appointments that

00:04:24.340 it's going to make you less effective, and I've found the exact opposite to be true.

00:04:28.860 So for example, if I have an hour-long meeting, I always schedule a 90-minute block.

00:04:35.020 So if my meeting starts at noon, in my calendar, I put on there that I will be done with that

00:04:42.100 particular meeting at 1.30.

00:04:44.080 That way, if something goes over a little bit, it's fine.

00:04:47.280 It's no problem.

00:04:48.040 I've got the buffer.

00:04:49.340 If it goes to the exact right time, to noon, for example, that's good too, because now

00:04:53.900 I have a half an hour to catch up on any emails, put out any little fires, make a phone call,

00:05:01.440 reprioritize this calendar, this schedule based on whatever might come up.

00:05:07.920 So that 30-minute block, people think, well, you lose that time.

00:05:11.880 No, you don't.

00:05:12.680 In fact, the shorter the time, you're able to actually cram and fit a lot in there because

00:05:18.700 you know you're pressed for time.

00:05:20.780 That's a principle.

00:05:22.120 I can't remember what it is right offhand, but work expands to the time allotted.

00:05:27.540 But if that's true, then I think it's safe to assume that work contracts to the time allotted

00:05:33.140 as well.

00:05:33.640 So we can get a lot done in a short amount of period of time.

00:05:37.460 If we are crunched for time and we know that, for example, in my previous scenario, I've

00:05:42.440 got a meeting at 1.30, that means I've got a half an hour to bust it and get a bunch of

00:05:46.820 work done.

00:05:47.340 So I build buffers into every meeting.

00:05:49.920 Deep and focused work, I think, comes with, number one, creating an environment where you

00:05:54.660 have that undivided attention.

00:05:56.140 If your doors are always open or you share an office with somebody else or you have your

00:06:02.500 phone by you and your email is pulled up when you're trying to do deep work, it's going to

00:06:06.300 be less likely that you're going to be deep and focused on what needs to be done.

00:06:10.440 You're going to be distracted by other conversations.

00:06:13.440 For whatever reason, people think if I'm on the computer in a public place or with friends

00:06:18.720 or family and I'm on the computer and I'm typing away, people just naturally assume that

00:06:23.600 they can come talk to me because there I am in their proximity.

00:06:27.140 But if I'm in my office, it's organized, it's structured, it's free of clutter, it's

00:06:31.520 free of chaos, the door is closed, then it's going to be less likely that people come in

00:06:36.220 and I was going to say bother me, but that's not really it.

00:06:39.940 Just distract me while I'm trying to do deep and focused work.

00:06:42.860 But I would also set those conversations.

00:06:45.380 You know, as a man who works at home, when my kids were here at the house all day, I told

00:06:51.120 them, if my door is open, you're welcome to come in.

00:06:53.600 If my door is closed, you can knock lightly.

00:06:57.720 If I answer and say, come in, you're welcome to come in.

00:07:00.280 If I don't answer, don't keep knocking and don't start yelling.

00:07:03.700 It means I'm doing something.

00:07:05.560 Maybe I'm in the middle of a call.

00:07:07.740 I might be on a podcast.

00:07:09.560 I might just be doing deep and focused work like you're talking about.

00:07:12.840 But the more that you can set that up with individuals and then once you set it up, uphold

00:07:17.440 the boundaries because they are going to try to cross them.

00:07:20.060 If you say, hey, from noon to two, I'm unavailable because I'm doing X, Y, and Z, somebody is

00:07:26.420 going to come in at 1205 and say, hey, you know, Aaron, I could really use your help on

00:07:29.740 this thing.

00:07:30.720 You actually have to be able to uphold the boundaries so people get it.

00:07:34.620 It's going to take some time.

00:07:36.080 And so you might say to that individual, hey, Joe, I appreciate that you have this issue.

00:07:40.520 Uh, I told you I'm unavailable between noon and two, which means I can't address that

00:07:46.040 right now.

00:07:47.020 Uh, so if it's not an emergency, go talk with so-and-so or sit on it for a couple hours or

00:07:53.180 maybe move to this.

00:07:54.100 But the more that you can uphold that boundary, the more people start to realize that you're

00:07:58.800 serious about it.

00:07:59.740 Because if you're not willing to protect your time, I guarantee other people will not protect

00:08:04.660 it as well.

00:08:05.500 Um, and then the best practices for daily checkpoints is again, the buffer.

00:08:09.920 If you have that buffer, then you can go in.

00:08:12.300 When I was doing financial planning, I would do the same thing, 90 minute meetings for an

00:08:16.160 hour long meeting.

00:08:17.140 And what I would do at the end of that meeting is I would just take some notes based on the

00:08:21.360 client meeting, write down what we talked about, what we discussed, what recommendations

00:08:25.060 I made, what they implemented.

00:08:27.780 Not only was I legally bound to do that because I was a fiduciary for my clients, it was just a

00:08:33.220 good practice.

00:08:33.780 And you can do that if you have a buffer, you can go through and say, okay, was that

00:08:37.260 meeting productive or was that project what I needed to get done?

00:08:40.820 Or what do I need to tweak and change in the rest of my daily pilot plan to ensure that

00:08:45.680 I'm productive moving forward?

00:08:47.760 So that's how I do it.

00:08:48.680 And I hope that gives you some help.

00:08:50.660 A similar vein on this next question is this one comes from Chris Chivers.

00:08:54.920 He says, there are many men who work some variation of a beyond Monday to Friday, eight to

00:09:01.140 five type job.

00:09:01.920 For example, alternating shift work, multi-day short-term shifts, longer weekday shifts,

00:09:07.480 extended shifts, et cetera, et cetera.

00:09:10.100 With the ever-changing daily weekly routines and structures, what systems or suggestions

00:09:13.680 do you have to help ensure consistency executing multiple daily and non-negotiable tactics?

00:09:18.960 Additionally, find time to focus and tackle larger, more goal-oriented tasks.

00:09:22.900 So very rarely is somebody completely unaware of how their day is going to go in advance.

00:09:30.760 Now, I realize depending on your work, you might have emergencies come up or you might

00:09:35.620 get called out very quickly.

00:09:37.460 And I get that.

00:09:38.880 But that, for the most part, is going to be the exception, not the rule.

00:09:42.740 So even with alternating shift work, there's still a schedule with that.

00:09:46.900 Even with multi-day short-term shifts, still a schedule.

00:09:50.960 Longer weekly shifts, still a schedule.

00:09:53.360 And so you might be an individual who has different types of days.

00:09:57.060 Not different days, different types of days.

00:10:00.000 So one day, you might be in from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., let's just say, hypothetically.

00:10:07.880 And that's every Monday.

00:10:09.740 And then you have Tuesday off.

00:10:11.480 And then every Wednesday, you take a noon to 7 shift.

00:10:17.040 And then you have Thursday off.

00:10:18.140 And then Friday, you have maybe it's a graveyard or a midnight shift.

00:10:22.860 And so you've got from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. the next morning.

00:10:28.220 But you know that those are three different types of days.

00:10:32.420 And I would categorize them like that.

00:10:34.500 So maybe it's an A day is your day.

00:10:36.800 A B day is an afternoon schedule.

00:10:38.360 And a C day is your evening or your graveyard shift, whatever it might be.

00:10:42.540 Now that you've classified and categorized your day,

00:10:45.940 you can say, on A days, I work out when I get done with work at 4 o'clock, whatever I said.

00:10:53.480 On B days, I work out before work at 11 o'clock.

00:10:57.540 And on C days, I work out when I get home, which is at 5 a.m.

00:11:03.140 And you can toy around with it to figure out what's going to work best for you.

00:11:07.400 But if you can create a schedule for those different types of days,

00:11:11.700 I think you're going to have a lot more success.

00:11:14.460 Because a lot of guys will say, well, I can't go work out at 6 a.m. every morning

00:11:17.740 because sometimes I'm working.

00:11:19.020 Yeah, I know.

00:11:19.520 But maybe your schedule is that you're going to get up two hours before you work,

00:11:24.920 whenever that is.

00:11:26.920 And that'll help you get into the gym, do your workouts, and then get on with your day.

00:11:32.520 Or maybe it's on a lunch break, on a B day, that's when you do your workout.

00:11:38.260 And so you know I'm going to pack my lunch or I'm going to prepare my meal ahead of time

00:11:42.960 so that I can go eat it real quick, do my workout for a half hour, and just get after it.

00:11:48.660 Or maybe on those graveyards, it's really difficult for you because you have to get up late.

00:11:52.860 Maybe you've been up all day and you don't want to do it after work

00:11:55.640 because you're going to be beat and ready for bed.

00:11:57.300 Okay.

00:11:57.560 So maybe you do on a C day, a very short workout, and it's not going to the gym.

00:12:04.460 It's just doing some body weight movement at the house.

00:12:07.180 It doesn't have to be perfect.

00:12:09.100 I think that's the problem a lot of men have is they believe that their day needs to be planned

00:12:13.760 to the T and they need to do whatever it is they're going to do to the nth degree every single day.

00:12:21.040 And look, if that doesn't work, it doesn't work.

00:12:23.640 So create a schedule, even though it might not be 100%,

00:12:27.020 you can create a 90% schedule.

00:12:29.800 And I'm talking about 90% efficacy.

00:12:32.680 It would be better for you to go to the gym three, four, five days a week and lift heavy weights,

00:12:37.500 but that might not work for your schedule.

00:12:40.160 So maybe you do three heavy lifting days and the other couple of days you do body weight workouts

00:12:46.600 and that's just what you have to do because that is your schedule.

00:12:51.340 So figure out what your non-negotiables are.

00:12:53.580 Start categorize your days, A, B, and C days or however you want to do it and then start plugging

00:12:58.960 the non-negotiables in there.

00:13:01.100 If reading and journaling is a non-negotiable but you happen to get sidetracked or your day

00:13:06.320 gets away from you, plug it in somewhere.

00:13:08.360 It's a non-negotiable.

00:13:09.940 You know, maybe you do have a buffer.

00:13:11.260 We talked about that.

00:13:12.120 You've got a 30-minute buffer between meetings.

00:13:14.120 So there's 30 minutes you can read.

00:13:16.860 Maybe instead you get a 45-minute lunch.

00:13:19.540 Maybe you eat for 15 minutes.

00:13:21.060 I mean, how long does it take for you to eat if your meal is already prepared?

00:13:24.100 If you have to go somewhere, get it, drive somewhere, yeah, it's going to take longer.

00:13:28.260 But if your meal is already there, you have it in the fridge at the office, you throw it

00:13:32.500 in the microwave for a couple of minutes.

00:13:34.080 You eat it.

00:13:34.700 It's going to take you five minutes, 10 minutes tops to eat your food.

00:13:37.560 And now you've got 35 minutes to do a workout.

00:13:40.540 Maybe that's even in your office, at your cubicle or in your office, and you're doing

00:13:45.100 push-ups and air squats and sit-ups or jumping jacks.

00:13:49.200 Or maybe use that time to read or to journal or to plan the rest of your day.

00:13:52.920 But I think the buffers will also help with the variation of the schedule.

00:13:57.380 But again, categorize your days, figure out what non-negotiables are, and put those in

00:14:02.160 order for your A, B, and C days and have some flexibility because things will change.

00:14:05.560 This one comes from Noah McLaughlin.

00:14:10.660 He's from Battle Team Galt.

00:14:11.920 He says, what tactics do you think we can utilize in our daily planning for tasks and

00:14:16.920 goals to ensure continual growth, progress, and make sure we don't step back into old

00:14:22.360 tendencies, habits that did not serve us well?

00:14:25.360 Well, part of the beauty of the battle plan, again, that's this tool, if you're following

00:14:29.240 along on YouTube.

00:14:30.080 And by the way, we've got like 350,000 people.

00:14:34.300 Maybe it's a little bit more now.

00:14:35.900 I'd have to look, but about 350,000 people over on YouTube.

00:14:39.300 So if you're not over at youtube.com slash order of man, do it.

00:14:43.040 But I'm holding up the battle plan right now.

00:14:44.920 The beauty of this is that it's not just about execution because anybody can be busy.

00:14:50.660 Every man can get busy.

00:14:52.040 Go ask a hundred guys today.

00:14:53.680 Hey, how you been?

00:14:54.520 And 99 of them will say, oh man, I'm doing really good.

00:14:58.560 I've been really busy.

00:15:00.760 Have you ever met somebody who's not busy?

00:15:02.860 We're all busy.

00:15:03.520 It's not a matter of busyness.

00:15:05.540 It's a matter of effectiveness.

00:15:08.320 So the beauty of this battle planner is that we have tools inside of this to make sure that

00:15:13.760 you're effective.

00:15:14.760 And the first tool is what we call an after action review.

00:15:19.000 And an after action review is analyzing your day.

00:15:22.640 And I do this at the end of every day.

00:15:24.280 I look at what I got done.

00:15:25.960 I look at what I did not get done and roll it over to tomorrow.

00:15:28.920 I look at what I did well.

00:15:31.080 Maybe I made all the phone calls.

00:15:33.040 Maybe I was positive and really effective and efficient.

00:15:36.640 Maybe I had high energy today.

00:15:38.720 And then I look at the things that I did not do so well.

00:15:41.720 Maybe I did get distracted with somebody else's problem.

00:15:45.020 And it detracted me from accomplishing more.

00:15:48.300 Maybe I took a few phone calls and something went wrong and I handled it incorrectly.

00:15:54.840 And then the fifth question I ask is, what am I going to do tomorrow to ensure that it's

00:15:59.320 a productive day?

00:16:00.140 So I map out my next day, the day before.

00:16:03.180 So that's the first one.

00:16:04.340 After action review.

00:16:05.480 That's always, always going to help you.

00:16:07.840 Number two is we look at checkpoints.

00:16:09.580 So if my goal, we'll make it easy.

00:16:12.480 If my goal is to lose 30 pounds this quarter, then the 30-day checkpoint should be I'm down

00:16:20.960 10 pounds.

00:16:22.820 The 60-day checkpoint should be that I'm down 20 pounds.

00:16:26.040 And then that way in 90 days, if I stay on the same trajectory, then I'll be down my goal

00:16:30.580 weight and I'll be down 30 pounds.

00:16:32.520 So the checkpoints are huge.

00:16:34.200 Now, you don't have to wait until 30, 60, and 90 days to do those checkpoints.

00:16:38.400 We just had a guy in the Iron Council who, he goes by Frosty and he was talking about

00:16:44.760 his weight loss journey.

00:16:45.740 And I can't remember the totals, but he's like five pounds or something away from his

00:16:52.740 goal weight.

00:16:53.700 And he's been losing weight rapidly with the eating, with the nutrition, with the working

00:16:58.080 out.

00:16:58.560 He's been losing weight rapidly.

00:17:00.220 And so he's had to adjust his battle plan to make it harder because he's doing so well.

00:17:06.460 So now he's implementing new things, new tactics into his daily planning.

00:17:11.240 That's going to help him far surpass what he originally thought he'd be able to do.

00:17:15.300 So that's why the goal, excuse me, the checkpoints are so powerful because they allow you to see

00:17:21.540 where you are.

00:17:22.120 Now, you might find that you're far behind.

00:17:24.780 And if you're far behind, you have to critically ask yourself during the after action review,

00:17:28.780 am I really doing what I said I would do, right?

00:17:33.540 Because if you say, hey, I'm going to, I'm going to live on a 2,500 calorie diet each

00:17:39.580 day.

00:17:40.100 That's my tactic.

00:17:41.080 Like, okay, but you're not losing any weight.

00:17:45.120 So where's the discrepancy?

00:17:48.500 Outside of very, very rare medical conditions, if you reduce your caloric intake, you're going

00:17:54.680 to lose weight.

00:17:55.980 It's just going to happen if you have a deficit, calorie deficit.

00:17:59.080 So what's probably happening is not that you have some rare medical condition where you

00:18:04.500 can't lose weight, but what's probably happening is that you're actually not consuming 2,500

00:18:10.700 calories.

00:18:11.180 You're consuming 3,700 calories and you're letting little snacks and little too much portions in

00:18:18.480 your meals add up.

00:18:19.640 And you're not tracking it or acknowledging that you're not actually sticking to it.

00:18:23.320 It feels like you are, but you're not.

00:18:25.340 Now, one of the first things that this book says as a quote is it says that which is measured

00:18:30.360 improves.

00:18:31.620 So if you said to me, Ryan, I want to eat 2,500 calories per day for the next 90 days, that's

00:18:38.080 a, let's, let's say it's a 500 calorie deficit each day.

00:18:43.460 Good, good tactic.

00:18:45.080 Very measurable.

00:18:46.460 How, how are you going to measure it though?

00:18:48.820 Do you have an app?

00:18:49.940 Do you know how much calorie, how many calories are in what?

00:18:52.620 Do you have a scale that you can measure your protein with or measure out the rice or the

00:18:56.520 vegetables that you're going to have?

00:18:58.360 I mean, we need to get down to the nitty gritty and start measuring this stuff because

00:19:01.560 it's very easy to deceive ourselves into saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm doing it.

00:19:05.180 Why?

00:19:05.640 Because you didn't have the diet Coke you normally have this morning.

00:19:09.060 There's no calories in that.

00:19:10.480 So you're not actually losing any calories if you just stop drinking diet Coke.

00:19:16.000 Now, would it be better?

00:19:17.140 Probably for your health.

00:19:18.100 I would argue that it could be better for your health, but it's not really what you're

00:19:22.500 after.

00:19:23.160 So you have to get crystal clear and you have to be able to measure it.

00:19:27.160 And so those are some tactics that are built in.

00:19:29.840 All right.

00:19:30.300 This one comes from Andy Smiley.

00:19:32.800 That's his nickname in the Iron Council Collins.

00:19:34.880 He says, how do you, I'm going to open this up a little bit.

00:19:37.660 He says, how do you handle, let's see, how do you handle in your normal weekly structure,

00:19:43.240 the unexpected, uh, I found having routine before mornings or before end, uh, to be beneficial,

00:19:49.440 but sometimes an unexpected event or occasion occurs.

00:19:53.340 How do you make up for whatever it is you had to put aside for such an occasion?

00:19:56.980 I feel like I answered this particular question a couple of times already.

00:20:00.520 Again, just to recap, building in buffers is huge.

00:20:04.380 After action reviews are huge.

00:20:07.120 Um, not stacking your day to the brim is going to be beneficial.

00:20:10.840 Some days are just like that, but you don't have to have every day like that.

00:20:14.600 Um, making sure that you recap at the end of the day, that fifth question, what am I

00:20:18.880 going to do tomorrow to make sure it's effective?

00:20:20.660 That's where you would put into the next day.

00:20:22.620 Hey, I had this emergency come up, so I have to evaluate, I have to adjust and have to

00:20:27.240 reprioritize tomorrow.

00:20:28.460 And then you can do that at the end of the day.

00:20:30.480 So you can get back on top of it.

00:20:32.240 I would also suggest to you that what we often say are emergencies aren't really emergencies.

00:20:37.780 Just because somebody else has a problem, it doesn't have to become your priority.

00:20:43.100 Just because somebody else isn't doing what they're supposed to be doing doesn't mean

00:20:46.820 you need to jump in all the time and save them.

00:20:48.960 There might be moments and reasons why you should do that, but it doesn't necessarily

00:20:53.560 mean that you have to in every single case.

00:20:56.640 So be aware of that.

00:20:58.280 Build the boundaries.

00:20:59.260 Don't let people step over those boundaries.

00:21:00.940 And also, depending on what line of work you're in, if you're in law enforcement, for

00:21:06.480 example, you know you're going to get called in on a case.

00:21:09.700 You know that you're going to have to go do work.

00:21:11.900 You know you're going to get a call or the fire department or a paramedic.

00:21:15.340 And those are emergencies, right?

00:21:16.700 But you know they're there.

00:21:18.860 And the better off that you can anticipate what type of emergencies might come up in your

00:21:23.780 line of work, the more capable you are of dealing with it.

00:21:27.220 And I would also say to you that if your job is one where emergencies and unexpected things

00:21:33.320 come up, then you need to be hyper efficient with the way that you're doing your work when

00:21:38.160 it's not an emergency.

00:21:39.840 Because if you're allotted, for example, if you've allotted yourself an hour of time blocking

00:21:47.000 to check emails, get it done in a half an hour.

00:21:51.600 Because if you get it done in a half an hour, then you just recaptured 30 minutes of your time.

00:21:56.480 And that 30 minutes doesn't mean now all of a sudden you can start scrolling on your

00:22:00.500 phone and go take a 30 minute bathroom break. 0.99

00:22:04.820 It means that whatever was supposed to be doing, you're supposed to be doing next now

00:22:09.100 rolls into that 30 minute slot so that you're hyper efficient.

00:22:13.080 And I would suggest that we try to get away from as best you can.

00:22:19.460 I realize if you're an employee, this is difficult.

00:22:21.320 Get away from the whole time constraint thing.

00:22:24.700 Like my day is done when I've put in eight hours.

00:22:29.460 Instead, I would say my day is done when the work is done.

00:22:33.040 So if it takes me six hours to do what takes other guys eight hours to do, then I'm that

00:22:39.860 much more efficient than those individuals.

00:22:42.880 And I can still put in the eight hour day, but now I'm going to start taking other tasks

00:22:46.260 and put them in top on top of what I've already done.

00:22:49.240 So be hyper efficient.

00:22:50.780 I feel the same way about money, by the way, guys, like I can't tell you how often a man

00:22:55.160 will reach out to me and he'll say, you know, the transmission on the car went out or one

00:23:02.000 of the kids broke their leg at school and we had to pay this deductible or we had a tree

00:23:10.260 fall on the garage and now we need to replace the garage or now we're left without a car

00:23:15.000 and we need to get a rental.

00:23:16.280 There's financial expenses that come up.

00:23:18.400 Or another one I often hear is that they hate their work and their employer asked them to

00:23:23.100 do something that goes against their morals.

00:23:26.140 If you haven't handled your financial situation, then that's going to be a really difficult day

00:23:31.160 for you.

00:23:32.380 But if all the while you've been paying off debt, you've been budgeting, you've been prudent

00:23:37.360 with your financial decisions, you've been stashing money aside, you've been investing,

00:23:41.240 you've been learning about how to handle your money.

00:23:43.540 When you have to hit a $5,000 deductible on your vehicle because something happened,

00:23:48.920 you know, it's going to be a bad day, but it's not going to wreck you financially because

00:23:53.120 you've been preparing for it the entire time.

00:23:56.040 So the best thing that you can do to ensure that when emergencies, whether they're

00:24:00.140 natural disasters or financial emergencies or medical emergencies come up is to make sure

00:24:05.920 you're doing the work you need to be doing now, today, so that when they come up and they

00:24:10.600 will come up, you're not going to be completely side railed by whatever happens to be going

00:24:15.520 down.

00:24:16.580 So do your work right.

00:24:19.760 Be efficient now and you won't have to worry about it later.

00:24:23.120 Dennis Abrams, he's our executive officer over on Team Navarro.

00:24:26.780 He says, what's the best way to become an early riser?

00:24:30.560 The snooze button is my go-to in the mornings.

00:24:34.060 Well, I think number one, it's a decision and that's really easy to say.

00:24:37.580 You just make a decision.

00:24:38.940 It is that, but let me give you some other tactics here.

00:24:42.860 So number one, go to bed earlier and you might have to force yourself to go to bed earlier

00:24:48.140 initially because you're not an early riser.

00:24:50.680 So you might not be as tired at the end of the day, but go to bed earlier.

00:24:54.640 You're going to have to do it for a week or so before your brain and your body start to

00:24:58.860 recognize that when you get in that bed, it's time for bed.

00:25:02.020 The other thing I would say is that the bed is only for two things, sleep and sex, nothing

00:25:07.280 else.

00:25:08.180 You don't need to be playing video games in your bed.

00:25:10.440 I don't really try to watch TV.

00:25:12.280 I have a TV in my room.

00:25:14.660 Very rarely do I watch it before I go to bed.

00:25:17.960 In fact, I'll probably just take it out of my room because I don't want to watch it at

00:25:20.800 all.

00:25:20.900 I don't want to condition my body to think that when I get in that bed, it's something

00:25:25.040 other than sleep or sex.

00:25:26.680 That's all it is.

00:25:28.380 So I want to condition my body to believe that when I get in bed, it's time for bed or time

00:25:33.040 to get down and that's it.

00:25:34.540 Okay.

00:25:34.880 So that's number one.

00:25:38.300 Number two, think about your quality of sleep.

00:25:41.240 Everybody talks about quantity, but very few people talk about quality of sleep.

00:25:45.040 I've gone through in my room and I've taped up all the little LED blue lights and all

00:25:48.920 the flashing little trinkets and lights and everything else.

00:25:52.040 I do have some podcast equipment that sometimes I forget to unplug, but I try to unplug it because

00:25:57.180 I don't want those lights blaring in me.

00:25:58.820 I've got blackout curtains.

00:26:01.280 I've set the temperature where it needs to be set based on how I sleep best.

00:26:05.640 My bed is comfortable based on how I sleep and the way that I sleep.

00:26:09.020 And so I'm really aware of that.

00:26:12.360 And that seems to help me sleep better, which means that I actually wake up rejuvenated and

00:26:17.540 ready to go.

00:26:18.500 The last thing that I'll tell you, Dennis, is outside of what I've already shared, is

00:26:23.160 make sure you have a plan for the morning.

00:26:25.380 If you haven't thought about the night before, what you're going to do the next morning, you're

00:26:30.240 going to be way more likely to hit that snooze button because you're going to wake up when

00:26:34.000 that alarm goes off and you're going to say to yourself, oh man, I wanted to go to the

00:26:40.080 gym, but I got to get my workout closed.

00:26:42.340 I got to get my pre-workout ready.

00:26:45.260 I've got to drive to the gym.

00:26:46.940 I don't really know what workout I'm going to do when I get there.

00:26:49.520 You know what?

00:26:50.100 I'll do it today or tonight or I'll start tomorrow.

00:26:53.520 And that's what people do because they have no routine.

00:26:56.940 They have no drive.

00:26:58.740 They have no ambition and they have no way of knowing what it is they're waking up for.

00:27:02.920 Why would you wake up if you have nothing to wake up for that excites you and makes you

00:27:07.860 ecstatic about getting after the day?

00:27:10.200 So for me, I like to get up.

00:27:12.360 I like to get moving.

00:27:13.840 I might have a very light breakfast, very light.

00:27:17.180 Sometimes I'll have some hard-boiled eggs or a couple of fried eggs, try to get some water

00:27:21.880 in me, try to get my workout in.

00:27:25.080 And then even before I get to working, I plan out my day.

00:27:29.720 Excuse me.

00:27:30.500 Plan out my day.

00:27:32.920 I do a little bit of reading.

00:27:34.800 Sometimes I'll listen to something instead of read if I'm crunched for time and just a

00:27:38.800 little reflection on what the day is going to look like.

00:27:40.940 But that excites me.

00:27:42.160 That actually gets me going.

00:27:43.720 And I have a plan for the day.

00:27:45.400 So I know I need to start getting after it because if I don't, I won't be able to get

00:27:49.060 my plan done.

00:27:50.040 So this battle planner is huge.

00:27:52.860 Hopefully, Dennis, that helps a little bit.

00:27:54.380 And then consistency over time.

00:27:55.720 And that should be able to lock it in for you.

00:27:58.600 This one comes from Zach Halsinger.

00:28:00.740 He's on Battle Team Mars.

00:28:03.400 He says, how do you make daily planning become a ritual?

00:28:07.220 I've tried to set reminders on my phone, but it seems to have the opposite effect.

00:28:10.640 Well, I like your use of the term ritual.

00:28:15.520 Most people would say, how do you make it a habit or a practice?

00:28:19.920 And that's fine too.

00:28:21.400 But I like that you use the word ritual because when you think of what a ritual in the traditional

00:28:26.580 sense of the word is, it's a ceremony.

00:28:29.020 It's a process.

00:28:29.940 There's some level of honor in what you're doing.

00:28:37.620 It's deliberate.

00:28:38.600 It's intentional.

00:28:40.520 It's meaningful.

00:28:42.060 And you're actually diving deeper into making sure that it's an experience rather than just

00:28:46.020 a habit.

00:28:47.540 I like to do it that way.

00:28:49.300 And so to go back to what I was saying earlier is if you want it to become quote unquote ritualized

00:28:54.840 Zach, like you're talking about, the best thing that you can do is a couple of things.

00:28:59.940 Have an environment.

00:29:00.960 Number one, have an environment.

00:29:03.220 Don't just do your daily planning at the kitchen table or in the living room sometimes, or if

00:29:07.800 your kids are bouncing off the walls and they're getting up and they want cereal and they want

00:29:11.220 to watch cartoons and you're trying to do your daily planning inside of the living room,

00:29:16.580 that's not going to work.

00:29:18.240 Instead, find a good place.

00:29:20.980 Maybe it's a home office.

00:29:22.480 Maybe it's in the garage.

00:29:24.820 Maybe it's in your own bedroom and your wife knows that this is your daily planning.

00:29:28.620 Maybe you do it before the kids get up and you do it at the kitchen table, or maybe you

00:29:33.000 have a desk in a common living area where you can do it and you've got your computer

00:29:37.680 pulled up in front of you.

00:29:38.740 But wherever it is, make sure the environment is conducive to focus.

00:29:43.340 Conducive to focus.

00:29:44.280 Also, make sure it's an environment that you like.

00:29:47.760 If it's an environment where you have a chair and it's uncomfortable and it's awkward and

00:29:53.640 it's stuffy and you don't like being in there or the room's too hot or it's too dark or too

00:30:00.060 light, whatever.

00:30:00.860 Make it an environment that's actually somewhere you like going and like being.

00:30:06.800 If it's something you enjoy, then you're going to do it.

00:30:09.320 And that's why I would say, you know, find a good chair.

00:30:12.280 If a chair is important to you, find a good chair and use that chair and reserve that chair

00:30:17.400 for you, by the way, and for your planning.

00:30:21.440 You know, don't let your wife take it and use it as an extra chair at the kitchen table 1.00

00:30:26.180 when visitors come over.

00:30:28.260 And I know that sounds weird, but we're talking about ritualized practices here.

00:30:32.400 That chair is for that purpose.

00:30:35.060 And then you can go buy her an extra chair that actually matches your kitchen set when

00:30:39.280 guests come over.

00:30:40.820 Don't let your kid take your office chair and go roll it around and do races in the living

00:30:45.940 room.

00:30:46.140 Although that sounds fun and I would probably get down with that too.

00:30:50.220 That chair is yours.

00:30:51.760 Make it part of your practice and make it important and significant and mean something.

00:30:57.060 I would also say making sure that you have things set up the day before, like we've

00:31:01.460 talked about, so that you can be efficient in the morning.

00:31:06.260 I think just being efficient and not having this droned on long, monotonous, boring process

00:31:13.540 will make it more likely that you'll do it.

00:31:16.140 I would say enlist the help of other people.

00:31:18.760 And that might be explaining to your wife that at 6 a.m. to 6.30 is my daily planning.

00:31:24.220 And I don't want to be interrupted that time.

00:31:26.580 So I can get up before and I can put coffee on the pot or whatever.

00:31:31.120 I don't drink coffee, so I don't know.

00:31:32.940 But I can put coffee on or whatever, turn it on, whatever you do with coffee, pour it.

00:31:38.180 I don't know.

00:31:40.440 Or after.

00:31:41.800 You can help with the kids.

00:31:42.760 You can help them get ready for school.

00:31:43.880 But from 6 to 6.30 is your time to do your planning.

00:31:48.420 The more committed you are to it, the more reverence, that's a good word, the more reverence

00:31:54.380 that it has, the more it becomes a ritual and it becomes something you enjoy rather than

00:32:00.520 a chore.

00:32:01.340 And then the last thing would be to do that after action review at the end of the day,

00:32:04.100 because that's going to help you tie your daily planning to results.

00:32:07.820 So if at the end of the day, you're like, what did I do well?

00:32:09.780 And you're like, you know what?

00:32:10.680 What did I do?

00:32:11.220 Oh, you know what I did different today?

00:32:13.080 I actually planned out my day.

00:32:14.780 I mapped it out.

00:32:15.760 I knew what I was going to do.

00:32:16.980 I had it organized.

00:32:18.000 I built in buffers.

00:32:19.780 I adjusted where I needed to.

00:32:21.460 And it was a hyper effective day because I planned it the day before.

00:32:24.300 And when you start marrying your actions with the results, you're going to be more tempted

00:32:28.660 to continue in those actions.

00:32:31.000 So that's what I would suggest there.

00:32:34.080 So guys, on the topic of efficiencies, I've had to pivot and adjust today.

00:32:38.160 So this is going to be a shorter meeting than it normally is.

00:32:40.860 But we had some good, good questions.

00:32:43.360 I've got a bunch of questions over on Facebook as well.

00:32:45.700 And when Kip is here, when he's recovered from his little man cold, we'll get him back

00:32:50.700 here on the podcast.

00:32:51.440 And I would love to get his take on some questions from Facebook.

00:32:55.200 So guys, a couple of things for resources.

00:32:57.360 Number one, I talked about this quite a bit on today's podcast, the 12 week battle planner.

00:33:02.300 You can get the leather cover that I have here, or you can pick up just the insert.

00:33:06.380 It's a lot less expensive.

00:33:07.800 If you go to store.orderofman.com, you can check it out.

00:33:11.480 And if you want to know how to use this in the most effective way possible, or maybe you

00:33:16.400 have your own tool or want to create your own tool, there's a free program that we have

00:33:20.440 called 30 days to battle ready.

00:33:22.960 It's free.

00:33:24.100 It's a series of emails that you'll get that walks you through the exact planning system

00:33:28.060 that I have developed over 10 years of doing this work that has produced maximum results.

00:33:32.740 And when I'm slacking in my life and I'm not as efficient and I've messed up and made

00:33:37.460 mistakes, I'll tell you, it's because I deviated from that system.

00:33:41.580 So if you go to orderofman.com slash battle ready, orderofman.com slash battle ready, you

00:33:48.400 can get signed up for the program and you'll get your first email immediately.

00:33:52.880 And you'll get 17 other emails that are going to walk you through in a course of 30 days,

00:33:56.860 how to use this and how to maximize and leverage your efficacy and efficiency in your life.

00:34:02.860 All right, gentlemen, there you go.

00:34:04.260 Great questions today.

00:34:05.160 Thank you to my iron council members.

00:34:07.400 Appreciate you guys.

00:34:09.200 We're going to be implementing some new programs and some new features for our iron council members

00:34:15.600 that I'm very excited to announce to them.

00:34:17.060 They don't even know yet, but they're going to be cool.

00:34:19.660 So if you want to check that out, you can go to orderofman.com slash iron council.

00:34:23.560 All right, guys, we will be back on Friday.

00:34:25.600 Until then, go out there, take action, be efficient, and become the man you are meant to be.

00:34:35.440 Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast.

00:34:38.400 You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.

00:34:42.440 We invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.

Order of Man - September 03, 2025

Daily Efficiencies, Practices, Planning, and Systems ｜ ASK ME ANYTHING

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