272: Productivity with Purpose

Extraordinary is a choice. Take that in, soak it up because of the hustle grind, repeat mantra that society has been touting for decades and had it all wrong. I’m Tanya Dalton. I’m a seven figure entrepreneur best-selling author, keynote speaker, mom, and rule-breaker I’m here to help you live to your fullest potential. That’s what this podcast is all about. The Intentional Advantage is doing live on our own terms, define the status quo and seeing ourselves outside of the tidy definition. Society’s name for us. It’s intentionally choosing to step back away from the chaotic rush of your every day and choosing, choosing to see that it’s your world and it’s filled with opportunities. Let’s challenge the bedrock beliefs that so many have wholeheartedly trusted because we were told they were truths. Let’s have a healthy disregard for the impossible.

Let’s choose to be extraordinary. Hello? Hello everyone. Welcome to the Intentional Advantage podcast. I’m your host, Tanya Dalton. This is episode 272. This is the very first episode of our brand new season on purposeful productivity season 23, which is kind of crazy because when I think back way back to season one, I thought to myself, how in the world am I going to have enough to talk about, to fill up a podcast? And here we are 180 3 seasons later, still on fire for what we’re talking about. Lots of ideas. And here’s why I’ve got so many ideas. Honestly, that summer break I took was amazing. First of all, it was so fun to go back and revamp and refresh some of those popular episodes. 

That was, gosh, honestly, it was really eye opening. We have talked about in the past, how we all wear that backpack on our backs. We talked about that a lot last season. Can we have this backpack? We were on our back and we just pile in our experiences and our knowledge and our traumas and our failures and all those things. Right. I had a lot in my backpack from the podcast… getting to go back and dig into the archives was fascinating.

First of all, what an amazing way to see my own journey of how I have really evolved and grown through talking about productivity and living a purposefully productive life. Right. But what was also amazing was to see, oh, here are several things that keep coming up again and again and again. And I think it’s because these are common stumbling blocks or issues or sticking points, whatever you want to call it, that people experience. So that was a lot of fun for me. But the other thing that was really amazing is I was able to get some white space in my life. We’ve talked about white space here on the show, quite a bit that we need that white space. It’s a chance for us to step back and take a deep breath and really think, ask yourself the questions. Like, why am I doing this? What do I think of this? Oh my gosh. So much has been happening behind the scenes because of that beautiful white space that I had. I don’t just talk about you needing white space. I need white space in my own life, right? So behind the scenes during the summer,

I launched a brand new website, which has the same address as before TanyaDalton.com , but lots of new things in there that I’m really excited about. I’ve revamped all the old podcast pages. Let me tell you how much fun that was, how it was, that was not summer break worthy. But I went back through now, all of the podcast episodes have full transcripts.

If you want to go back and revisit them, they’re much more searchable, so many great things happening there, but I was also able to really step back and ask myself some questions like, okay, our five minutes to peak productivity download is one of our most popular downloads. It not. One of it is the most popular download. How can I make that more interesting, more exciting, more actionable. So I’ve actually revamped that during my summer break. I now have the take five challenge, which takes that five minute activity and breaks it down and puts it into a five minute challenge, five days in a row. You’ll be able to find that on my website. And I’ll share more details about that during our little mid episode break.

But I also was able to step back and ask myself, Hmm, let’s think about first of all, 270 some odd episodes, right? Or really, it was like 260 when I sat back and I started really looking at it. I started to think about how I really talk about what I talk about, right? You’ve heard me talk about the idea of redefining productivity.

I have talked about that for years, that productivity isn’t about doing more, it’s doing what’s most important, right? And I am on a mission to redefine productivity. So people can stop feeling like they’ve got to chase busy and really do the work that matters most. And when I talk about work, I’m not just talking about it’s your job. I’m also talking about your work in life,right? I want you to really find meaning in your life. And I think that’s the heart of what I talk about is finding meaning. So you’re going to notice on the new website, I talk about finding meaning at work, finding meaning in your relationships, finding meaning in your life, because that’s what good productivity does for you. So I was thinking about that.

What, what is it that I actually talk about that encompasses all of the things, because I don’t just teach you how to do more things quicker, right? Easier, faster, better, smarter, or whatever. I also talk about you as a person, living your best life, thinking about the six pillars of you, who you are emotionally, spiritually, financially, mentally, all those different things. Right? And I wanted to really come up with an idea that encompassed all of that. And when I took that white space, I was really able to dive into that. And I realized that what I teach is purposeful productivity. I’m not just somebody who talks about productivity. I want it to be intentional…Intentional Advantage. It’s been here right underneath my nose all along. That’s I think that’s a funny thing. 

When you step back and you start looking at these kinds of things, you’re like, oh, how have I not been tripping over this all along this idea of purposeful productivity, because that’s what true productivity is. If we use that definition of mine productivity, isn’t about doing more, it’s doing what’s most important. We can’t be doing what’s most important if we’re not purposeful. If we’re not living with intention. When we do that, that’s when life really does become so much more meaningful, so much deeper and richer. So when you go to my new website and I really hope that you do go check it out at tanyadalton.com,

You’re going to notice that I talk about this idea, this concept of purposeful productivity. And I have a little conceptual model there. I love conceptual models. If you have read any of my books or looked at any of my products that I have sold in the past, you know, I’m really into making abstract ideas, physical, and I think models are a great way to do that.

I have so many different graphics and designs and ways to get you to think about productivity in the books as a visual, because I think it really helps things hit home. So I wanted to have a model of what purposeful productivity really looks like. And when I broke it down, I realized it’s made up of three things that I talk about all the time, beliefs, boundaries, and behaviors. So your beliefs are how you view time, how you feel about time, your relationship with time. Do you feel like time is just streaking past nonstop, right? Flying by, or do you feel like time is crawling by slowly really looking at that relationship? So that’s your beliefs. Your boundaries are how you treat your time.

How do you prioritize your time? How do you treat the time that you’ve got right? And then you have your behaviors, how you behave, how you act in the time that you’ve got. So beliefs, boundaries, and behaviors. Now, it’s really interesting. And you’ll see this. If you look at the model, your beliefs, they influence your boundaries.

How you view time, how you feel about time, that influences how you prioritize, how you treat the time that you have, right with your boundaries, your boundaries influence your behaviors, which then of course reinforces your beliefs. So you have this great circle, right? The cycle of beliefs, leading to boundaries, leading to behavior, which leads back to your beliefs again.

But here is what sets purposeful productivity apart. Those behaviors that are influenced by your boundaries and your beliefs, don’t just affect you. They affect others and their beliefs, which of course influences how they treat their time, their boundaries, their behaviors. This is the infinite impact we get with purposeful productivity. It doesn’t just transform you. It transforms the world around you.

We’ve talked about those halo effects before that, when we do things in a way that feels really healthy, it affects us. And it changes the people around us. If we start eating healthy, the people around us, our friends, our family, our coworkers, they start getting influenced by that as well. Right. And it’s the same thing with purposeful productivity.

So that’s what I think is amazing is it creates this infinite impact. And that’s why I wanted to do an entire season diving into purposeful productivity because I think it is so powerful. Could I use more peace? Here’s the thing I think so often we think of ourselves as just one person, right? Where this one person in a world of, of millions, but we all have this incredible, amazing blast radius. I did a whole episode on your blast radius back in episode, I think it was 142. I’ll put a link to that in those brand new show notes episode 1 42, where we talked about this idea that you actually have the ability to impact the lives of 80,000 people, 80,000 people over the course of your lifetime.

Let me break down that math for you, which I do back in that episode 142. But let’s talk about that here. I have a graphic of it. See, I love graphics. I have a graphic of it in on-purpose where I talk about this idea of your blast radius, that we really do have an opportunity to make an incredible impact in the lives of others.

You live for an average of, let’s say like 80 years, right? But your years of impact, we’ll say are about 73 years. So for about 73 years, you’re out there meeting people, interacting with other people and sharing and spreading whatever message is important to you. Well, on average, we meet about three new people a day. Sometimes more, sometimes less depends on what’s going on, but about three people a day from the person at the grocery store, who’s checking you out to the other people in line at the carpool or the people at the office next to you, right? So you made about three different people a day, 73 years, there’s 365 days a year times meeting three people a day that ends up being 80,000 people, which is enough people to fill a major sporting stadium. I think it’s big enough to fill up like Texas stadium. It’s crazy how many people you can impact. And if we’re living our life, that feels intentional. That feels purposeful

 If we’re truly being productive in that sense of doing what matters, most art, all those 80,000 people going to be impacted in an amazing, positive way by you. And if you are doing this and you spread it to other people, they start spreading it to other people. And before you know it, we’re living in a world where we stop chasing busy, where we live in a world where we feel good going to bed at night, satisfied, successful, significant, instead of chasing busy all day long, slipping into bed and asking ourselves, oh, why didn’t I get more done? Even though we were busy all day long, right? That’s that is ultimately what I’m doing here. That’s, that’s really the heart of my purpose and what I am here to help you do so we can help others finding that purposeful productivity, making that impact, letting your blast radius be filled with the message that is important to you.

And I think that’s the thing that we really want to talk about because here’s the thing. And this is what I love about purposeful productivity, that it is the small, huge movements, small, huge movements, simple to implement, easy to manage yet monumental in the impact it can make in your daily life. Think about how you would feel about your days.

If you were doing the work that mattered most, this is the thing shifting how you feel about your time, your beliefs, your boundaries, your behavior. It feels gradual until one day you look back and you realize, oh my gosh, I don’t even recognize who I was before, how you were wasting time, energy and focus without even realizing it.

This is shifting to living with intention. This is not just about being more productive. It’s transforming the way that you live. So life feels more meaningful. Life is more on your terms and yes, life feels easier. Doesn’t that sound good? That’s what I think is so amazing. That’s what purposeful productivity can do for you. I mean, can living a life of purposeful productivity improve your relationship?

Can it help you make more money for secure more money? Can it help you find more meaning in your job or your work? Yes. Yes, absolutely. Without question, it can, purposeful productivity is all about how do I become more productive, right? In a way that feels meaningful in a way that feels intentional in a way that helps me know that the work I do matters, all of those things that I just mentioned, your job, your work, your money, your relationships, all of those are connected with how we feel and act with the time that we’ve got. This is about creating a life you love right now, living a life you love right now and in the future, because the seeds you’re planting today, those are going to be an investment in your future.

And I know that feels like maybe that’s a bold promise. It is a bold promise. I can tell you that right now, but it’s a promise I can back up in my own life. But here’s the thing. You have to be willing to make the change, to do the work. None of it’s difficult, small, huge movements. It’s not rocket science.

None of this is complex. None of it is difficult to follow or hard to understand. It’s amazingly simple. And you know why? Because it’s really about the choices we make and the mindset that we create for ourselves. The hardest part of the entire thing, honestly, is making the decision to start, ah, starting is always the hardest step, but that’s what we’re going to be doing throughout this season is taking the steps, making it really simple so you can live purposefully productive. So you can feel really good about your days. So you can transform your relationship with time. I mean, what does that even look like? What does that mean to transform your relationship with time? Okay. Here’s, here’s the hard truth. Are you ready for this? It doesn’t mean getting more time.

I cannot help you there. I cannot give you an extra hour in the day. I know that you wish that I could, but it’s just not possible, right? We all have the exact same amount of time. You me, Beyonce, we’ve all got the same 24 hours a day, the same 168 hours a week of all the things in our world that are in equal that are unfair.

Time is the one thing that is doled out to every single one of us equally. Doesn’t matter how rich you are or how smart you are, how skinny you are, or how, whatever you are. We all get the same amount of time. So it’s choosing how we’re going to spend the time we have. It’s choosing to be more than the status quo and live a life that feels meaningful.

Purposeful productivity is clearing away the clutter, getting to the heart of life itself and what you want. Cause that hustle mantra for the masses, oh, that doesn’t need to be the rhythm that you live. Let’s choose the rhythm that you want. And that’s where it all starts. It all starts with figuring out what is it you want? What are your priorities?

What are the things you value? What is most important to you? If we’re saying productivity isn’t about doing more, it’s doing what’s most important. Let’s figure out what’s most important. So let’s do, let’s do a little activity. I’ve got a quick and easy little exercise to help you get a little clarity on that. I’m going to do that in just a minute.

Let’s first take a quick little break. I’m going to talk to you about the take five challenge. As I mentioned at the start of this show, we’re really focusing in on purposeful productivity. I think being purposeful with our productivity is so important. One of the things that I do every single day is an activity that I’ve talked about in the joy of missing out.

I’ve talked about it here on the podcast. It’s my most popular download that I called five minutes to peak productivity, but I noticed that a lot of you are getting really excited about it. And then you were like, ah, I just need a little help implementing it. So I’ve created a quick, simple, easy take five challenge. And I call it the take five challenge because we do the five minutes to peak productivity over the course of five days.

Each day. I have a little video for you. I walk you through with the exercises and every video is designed to be five minutes or less. Didn’t I mention small, huge movements, simple to implement, easy to manage monumental in the impact. That’s what I was looking for here. So I created the take five challenge. So it’d be really easy for you to set this healthy habit for yourself.

And at the end of the day, you’re checking in, you’re doing a little assessment, a little reflection on how you feel so you can make adjustments for the following day. That’s the take five challenge it’s really easy to do. And the best part is you get it for free. Just go to my homepage, TanyaDalton.com. 

You’ll see a little sign up halfway down the page that says,take five challenge, sign up. You’ll get your very first video right away. Five days to help you get to your peak productivity. This one exercise doubled my productivity. Once I started doing it regularly. So simply go to TanyaDalton.com and join the take five challenge. All right, let’s get back to that idea of what is most important. What is it you want?

I think that’s the million dollar question here. Isn’t it we’ve talked about in the past. Some, some different strategies, some different activities to help you really get clear. I want to share with you an activity that was brand new. To me, it’s an exercise that I did recently and I felt like it was really telling it really helped me clarify some things.

So you’ve heard me talk in the past about Alfred Nobel. I wrote about how death was an advisor for him in my book, the joy of missing out how, when he saw his own obituary, he dramatically shifted from being seen as the merchant of death, into being one of the most famous philanthropists of our time. I mean, who hasn’t heard of the Nobel prize, right? And this happened because death felt more real to him. So I don’t want to retail that whole story and get into that. It’s chapter three of the joy of missing out. Definitely give that a listen again, because to me that story was really impactful for me. When I first heard it. What I want to do for you today is a little riff on that story.

I want to do an exercise to use death as an advisor, to help us get clear on what it is you really want. So yes, we’re going to talk about death. And I know for some people that is like, Ugh, I don’t want to think about death. Take a deep breath. Here’s the thing with this activity that we’re going to do.

What I’m looking for here is your gut reactions. I don’t want you to overthink. I don’t want you to get caught up in what is the right answer? I don’t want you to get caught up too much in the emotions of, oh my gosh, death, right? The right answer is whatever answer you give. This is us tapping into that intuition,tapping into what it is we really want when we move through and get rid of all that noise in our heads. So I’m going to go through this exercise kind of quickly. What I want to do is to tell you this, you are free to hit the pause button at any point during this activity, but don’t give yourself too long with the button.

Pause I want you to listen to what your instincts tell you. The answer is. I want you to listen to your intuition. All right. Okay. So get yourself comfortable because here we’re ready to dive in. Let’s say that somehow some way you get a message and this message tells you with absolute certainty, the date of your death. And you know,

without question the data’s correct. There’s not going to be any pain or suffering with this death. It’s just a quick and painless ending of living on this planet. So let go of any fear, let go of any worry. Just know that you know exactly how much time you have left. Okay? Take a deep breath. I want you to just take that in.

Okay? The note tells you that the date of your death is in exactly 24 hours. Now you are living the life that you’re in right now. Your bank account is the same. Your lifestyle is the same. Your family is the same. Your relationships are the same. Everything is the same. But your mindset of course, because now, you know,

you have one day left on this earth. So if you have one day, what would you do? What would you not do? Who would you talk to? Bigger question. Who would you not talk to? Where would you go now? I want you to keep that in mind. It’s 24 hours. So we can’t fly across the globe. Unless, unless of course you want to spend half of the time you have left on an airplane. Totally your choice, but focus in on, how would you spend these next 1,440 minutes that you have left? What would you say to people? Who would you say it to? Who would you forgive? How would you make sure those people that you love feel that love?

What would you say knowing this is the last time I’m going to talk to this person. I want you to feel free to pause the podcast and take just a minute. You might feel slightly emotional and that’s okay. Emotions are good. Emotions are really good here. Give yourself a second to acknowledge how you feel and then think about how you would spend your time?

Okay. Let’s say you get a different note. Let’s say your note this time, it says you have a week to live. Does that change anything for you? Do you go anywhere different? Do you maybe widen the circle of people that you reach out to? What kinds of things do you do in this week? Now, if you wanted to, you could jump on a plane, right? And go halfway across the globe. What do you think you do? Okay. What if you had a month? What changes then? Or even a year? What if it was five years or 10 again, feel free to pause the podcast and really think this through what would you do with 24 hours or a week or a month or a year?

Five years, 10 years. What would you make happen? So you could check it off your bucket list. Who would you spend the time with? What activities would you do? You certainly wouldn’t fill it full of a lot of nonsense, right? Like saying yes to everything you wouldn’t say yes to all the things that feel like obligations or irritations. You probably push some things off your plate.

Wouldn’t you, you get a little more focused on what’s most important. Don’t you think? So again, if you need to take a moment to pause the podcast, because I think doing this exercise for me was so enlightening because I realized the things I wanted to do in the 24 hours were really the things I wanted to do in the 10 years. Exactly the same things.

And it’s funny how those things that I really wanted to do in the 24 hours just became bigger versions over the course of 10 years, how I could make them more impactful, how I could really deepen those relationships more. And I want you to think about that. What was the same as that 24 hours? What was different? What did you discover when you thought about what would it be like if I died tomorrow or a week from now or a month from now,

what became glaringly obvious? Like no matter how much time was left. Yeah. Those are my priorities. I guarantee there were some things that were like, definitely without question. Those are the things that are most important to me. You discovered a lot just by thinking about what if I have a limited amount of time left. And the truth is you do have a limited amount of time left.

We all do. We don’t know if maybe 24 hours from now is the last day for me or you or someone we love. What if it is a week or a month? We don’t know. And if productivity isn’t about doing more, it’s doing what’s most important now, you know, what’s most important now, you know what you really want to do because true productivity.

And this is something that I’ve talked about again, and again is all about customizing it to work for you, creating systems that work for you, that play to your strengths and play to your weaknesses and put you and your priorities front and center productivity is not one size fits all because one size fits nobody. I’ve yet to find a one size fits all T-shirt that actually fits me. You’ll remember in the joy of missing out how we talk about that whole process of discovery, clarity, simplicity, and harmony. And that’s really part of what we’re going to be going through with purposeful productivity. We’re going to use this as our springboard. We’re going to continue to discover throughout the season, but we just discovered what was most important to you.

And then we’re going to clarify how to make it easier. And we’re going to simplify because life is already too complicated. Let’s make it run easier. Let’s feel very productive while not feeling like we have to do all the things and stretching ourselves thin. This is what the season is all about. This is what purposeful productivity is all about this season.

We’re going to be diving into and talking about how to figure out what you want. I’ll be sharing strategies and tips on how to prioritize. We’re going to dive into how  can I  find meaning in my life, how can I find meaning in my job or my work. We’re going to get really clear on how to be more productive, more purposefully, productive, how to make living with intention feel easy. All of that is heading your way, this season of the podcast. Now, remember if you’re already ready for next steps. And I have a feeling that you probably are. Go ahead and sign up for that free take five challenge that I’ve got. It’s just on my website, TanyaDalton.com. It’s five minutes a day for five days in a row to get you started doubling your productivity, feeling purposely productive. We’ve got an amazing season heading your way next week. We’re going to be talking about how do we start with the end in mind when we don’t know what the end looks like? You’re going to create a vision for yourself. So get ready because we are going to be purposely productive. We are going to feel amazing about our days. That is my vision for this season with you.

Because when we are purposefully productive, when we do the work, that truly matters to us when we slip into bed at night and think, oh, today was an amazing day. That’s when you know you’ve got the Intentional Advantage. 

**This transcript is created by AI, so please excuse any typos, misspellings and grammar mistakes.

Tanya Dalton is considered a top female keynote speaker and productivity expert. Her books on time management, habits and purpose have been named a best business book of the year. She offers speeches, trainings and workshops to corporations, businesses and entrepreneurs.