The Paul Minors Podcast: Productivity, Business & Self-Improvement

For my final podcast of 2018, I’d like to end the year with a review. I’m going to discuss my achievements, what went well, what didn’t get well and what I’d like to focus on for next year. Show notes » PaulMinors.com/110 Download my productivity blueprint and learn the processes and tools I use to be more organised and achieve more in my business and home life. You'll also get my FREE 3-part vide...

The headline of this post is meant to be ironic because here’s the secret - there is no secret. There’s no silver bullet that’s going to solve all your problems. There is no #1 tip I can give you. Sorry to burst your bubble. Next year, if you want to be more productive, more organised, to start or grow a business, all you need to do is to sit down and do the work. Stop looking for secrets and 'hac...

One of the ways you can massively increase your productivity and be more organised is to follow a simple rule - do your future self a favour. The key principle here is to think about what you can do now to save yourself time later. Show notes » PaulMinors.com/108 Download my productivity blueprint and learn the processes and tools I use to be more organised and achieve more in my business and home...

A few weeks ago I caught up a friend and previous customer of mine, Gareth Pronovost. Gareth purchased my How to become a "virtual consultant" program after being laid off and is now an Airtable Consultant. What's amazing is Gareth made over $10,000 in his first month of consulting. It's been great following Gareth's progress to see what's possible in the world of "virtual consultin...

In this podcast episode,  I'm very excited to be interviewing one of my favourite online people - Paul Jarvis. As well as having a super cool first name (yep, I went there), Paul is someone I've looked up to for the last few years. Paul has been operating a company of one for over 20 years. He comes from a web design and development background and now spends his time helping people to grow better...

Having worked with hundreds of clients to help optimise their productivity tools, I keep coming across some common mistakes that people tend to make with notes. The issue I see is that people tend to overuse notes. That’s right. I think people consider notes to be “everything apps” that can handle everything to do with their productivity (read more about why you shouldn’t overlap your productivity...

If you've followed me for a while you'll know I'm all about living a happier, healthy lifestyle where I can live on my terms. And part of living on your terms involves getting control of your personal finances. Money is one of the biggest things we worry about. But remember, it's not the money that's important, it's what the money allows us to do that really matters. To take control of your person...

Our little boy Jay is now just over 4 weeks old. I can safely say that the last month has been a rollercoaster of emotion and there really is nothing that can prepare you for becoming a parent. In this episode, I'd like to share my experience of what the last 4 weeks have been like and how I'm adjusting to my new role as a Dad (seeing that word, "dad" on the screen and associating that l...

When you sign up to my email list, as part of my onboarding emails, I ask subscribers a very simple question: What does “success” mean to you? I love this question as it gets so many different responses. And it’s great to see how often “success” has very little to do with fame and fortune. Show notes » PaulMinors.com/102 Download my productivity blueprint and learn the processes and tools I use to...

Get to work and focus on making small amounts of progress each and every day. But look up every now and then to make sure you’re still on track and heading in the right direction. On a daily basis, don’t worry about your big goals and how far away they seem. Instead, concentrate on making a little bit of progress. Show notes » PaulMinors.com/101 Download my productivity blueprint and learn the pro...

Wow… Here we are at the 100th episode for the podcast. I wasn't really sure what to do for this episode. As a bit of a milestone, I thought I should do something special. Then, right on cue, my good friend Joseph Fenity, asked if he could "hijack" my show and interview me for the 100th episode. I was a little hesitant at first but gave in after Joseph wouldn't quit. If you've been listen...

There’s a big misconception out there that you need loads of money to start a business. In fact, I think a lot of people use this as an excuse NOT to start a business to disguise the real reason why they’re not starting (often out of fear). Today I'm going to talk about my views on this and how much money I used to start my business. Show notes » PaulMinors.com/99 Download my productivity blueprin...

Last week I took part in a side-hustle discussion panel where myself and a bunch of super smart online entrepreneurs got together to talk about the challenges of starting a side-business. The panel was put together by my friends Tom Morkes and Cary Richards. What's more, Cary recently invited me to contribute to his "Side-Hustle Toolbox". This is a collection of e-courses and resources d...

I get asked all the time about what apps and tools I use to be more productive and to run my business. And I’m a big fan of using the right tool for the right job instead of overlapping your tools and creating a confusing productivity system (which is why I created my productivity blueprint). This is my list of my absolute favourite productivity tools. I’ve grouped them by free and paid apps, alth...

As an independent worker, learning how to properly price your service is MUST. Since starting my consulting business back in mid-2016 I’ve experimented with a number of different pricing methods. In fact, just last month I started experimenting with a completely new way of pricing my services. Pricing is a tricky topic. There are loads of ways you can price your services and the pricing method you...

Last week I talked about how to track your time. The premise here is that time tracking is a great way of measuring how productive you're being and identifying sources of distraction. However, you need to track your time and put this information to good use in order to make the effort of tracking worthwhile. The same is true of life tracking. “Life tracking” is my term for tracking the broader asp...

In this podcast, I’m going to explore the benefits of time tracking and some options for getting started. Show notes » PaulMinors.com/94 Download my productivity blueprint and learn the processes and tools I use to be more organised and achieve more in my business and home life. You'll also get my FREE 3-part video training series where I'll explain 1) 4 simple steps to supercharge your productivi...

I often get approached by readers or clients who are having trouble maintaining their productivity system. I get asked about how and when to use email, notes, task lists, document folders and the calendar and whether it’s okay to use your email as a to-do list or notes for sorting documents. The problem here is that your blur the boundaries between when to use notes vs. tasks or email vs. the cale...

One of the ways I try to increase my effectiveness and efficiency is by “multiplying outcomes”. I literally just made up this phrase but what I mean is when you do some work, you can multiply the benefits of that work by making the outputs go further. The idea here is that you’ve already done some work and this is now a “sunk” cost. In economics, this is a cost that you can’t get back. So, how can...

You probably know that I’m someone who’s very organised. I live by my calendar, not just for client appointments but I block out time for most of the tasks I’m working on as well. But now we have this baby on the way. Hayley is 33 weeks pregnant and realistically the baby could decide to come early. For all I know, this time next week we could have our baby. As someone who’s lived by his calendar...

Getting new clients is one of the hardest parts of going out on your own as a freelancer, consultant or coach. This is the part of the job that often holds people back. Especially in the beginning, it’s hard asking for money when you’re new to freelancing and don’t have an established track record. In the last 2 years, I’ve completed 369 “introductory calls” in Pipedrive. And in this time I’ve exp...

The Productivity Podcast is now The Paul Minors Podcast. As my business and website has grow to include more topics, it's time the podcast reflects that. Show notes » PaulMinors.com/89 Download my productivity blueprint and learn the processes and tools I use to be more organised and achieve more in my business and home life. You'll also get my FREE 3-part video training series where I'll explain...

Unfortunately, when we think about how to be more productive, we usually think about the tools and tactics we can use to save time and be more organised. But all this stuff is just the tip of the iceberg. The real skills you need to develop in order to be more productive are the principles, habits and mindset you apply to your work. Tools are just a way of applying these principles. Show notes » P...

It’s such an amazing time to be alive. Technology has made it easier than ever to start a business, generate an income online and even work for yourself full-time. Naturally, this is very exciting, but before you make the leap to becoming a freelancer, consultant or coach, let’s discuss the pros and cons of becoming an independent worker. Show notes: PaulMinors.com/87 If you want to be more produc...

A few months ago, I asked members of the Better Book Club: Have you ever read a book that was impressive and powerful that your opinion/perspective on something was drastically changed? I'd love to hear what book changed you and why! We had some great responses to this question but I realized I didn’t actually give my own answer to this question. So, here goes… Show notes: PaulMinors.com/86 If you...