Jordan Raynor—a serial entrepreneur and father of three young kids—talks about why so many leaders are too distracted to make a difference. He talks about how to strategically ditch your phone, escape the Kingdom of Noise, get a break from continual inbound requests and messages and how to take meaningful time off.
Welcome to Episode 462 of the podcast. Listen and access the show notes below or search for the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and listen for free.
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World Vision
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Conversation Links
Redeeming Your Time by Jordan Raynor
Getting Things Done by David Allen
The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss
The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working by Tony Schwartz
At Your Best by Carey Nieuwhof
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Insights From Jordan
1. Dissent from the kingdom of noise
The information that we’re constantly intaking competes for our time. The most important thing you do as a leader is choose the few initiatives that are really going to move the needle in the business. So, how do you do this when there are so many devices and people fighting for your focus?
One simple way Jordan practices intentional focus is by disabling notifications on his phone. At 5pm, he closes his laptop and puts his phone in his bathroom until 7:30pm. He then checks his phone for five minutes, and then tucks it away again an hour before he goes to bed. Additionally, he doesn’t touch it again for two and a half hours after he wakes up in the morning.
2. Control when you check your messages with these three steps
Jordan states that it’s impossible to do deep work and to cultivate a truly deep life without taking control over when you check your messages. Here are the three steps he recommends to do this:
- Proactively choose when you’re going to check your messages every day. What matters way more than the number of times you check messages is that you choose when you’re going to check your messages.
- Build a list of VIPs that will have access to you at any time, not just the predefined times for checking messages. That way, when your phone’s on do not disturb, calls from those people, and those people alone, will come through.
- Set expectations about your response time. You can’t just go from responding to texts and emails immediately to responding every four hours. Send a very simple message communicating your new communication habits so your VIPs understand this.
3. Do these three rest practices to be wildly productive
Jordan also says that rest is counterintuitively one of the most productive things that we can possibly do. To practice rest, he suggests:
- Breaks throughout your workday
- Getting eight hours of sleep every night
- A Weekly sabbath
Jordan practices these three habits and has found that they have radically improved his productivity.
Quotes from Episode 462
If Jesus couldn't be in more than one place mentally, at a time, neither can we. @JordanRaynor Click To Tweet We all think we are way more important than we actually are. @JordanRaynor Click To Tweet It is impossible to do deep work and to cultivate a truly deep life without taking control over when you check your messages. @JordanRaynor Click To Tweet Rest is counterintuitively one of the most productive things that we can possibly do. @JordanRaynor Click To Tweet If you work with your mind, rest with your hands and if you work with your hands, rest with your mind. – Winston Churchill Click To Tweet We are children of God that are loved, even when we are not being productive. @JordanRaynor Click To Tweet Success is stewardship. @JordanRaynor Click To Tweet We are called to do good works, we're not necessarily called to look good. @JordanRaynor Click To Tweet Depth is the silver bullet for effectiveness. @JordanRaynor Click To Tweet You are six times more likely to win an Olympic gold medal than you are to be one of the rare people in this world that can operate at 100% on less than eight hours of sleep. @JordanRaynor Click To Tweet I don't do time management exercises to get peace. I do them in response to the peace I've already been given. @JordanRaynor Click To Tweet Proactively choose when you're going to check your messages every day. @JordanRaynor Click To Tweet Celebrate what God has given others, leverage what God has given you. @AndyStanley Click To TweetRead or Download the Transcript for Episode 462
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Read or download a free PDF transcript of this episode here.
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Next Episode: Mark Batterson
New York Times bestselling author and National Community Church founding pastor, Mark Batterson, discusses what many leaders—especially church leaders—have struggled with over the last two years: Discourgement. He shares his personal ups and downs, how he’s motivated himself and stayed encouraged, what he’s learning about habit formation personally and when it comes to church attendance, and how to reframe the future.
Subscribe for free now so you won’t miss Episode 463.
