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

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

By Paul Minors

Hi, I'm Paul. This is my podcast where I teach people about productivity, business and self-improvement. I'm completely obsessed with productivity, automation, optimising my time and income so I can live on my terms. I now earn a living as a “virtual consultant” and love sharing what I've learned about how to grow successful and productive businesses. Enjoy the show!
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Currently playing episode

PMP #173: 5 Year anniversary of my first online sale

The Paul Minors Podcast: Productivity, Business & Self-ImprovementApr 28, 2020

00:00
10:36
PMP #244: How you can "get back time"?
Mar 13, 202214:21
PMP #243: Ask yourself this question to boost your productivity
Mar 06, 202208:36
PMP #242: How I get clients
Feb 27, 202213:55
PMP #241: How do you measure productivity?
Feb 20, 202209:46
PMP #240: Why my business is on a 'Bitcoin Standard'
Feb 13, 202230:30
PMP #239: Be careful of ‘free’ tools
Jan 30, 202210:12
 PMP #238: 5 Questions to help you beat overwhelm
Jan 23, 202213:48
PMP #237: What's on your 'not-to-do' list for 2022?
Jan 16, 202210:11
PMP #236: Minor Updates: December-2021

PMP #236: Minor Updates: December-2021

Welcome to episode 4 of Minor Updates. In this video, I share some updates on what I've been up to over the last few months. Enjoy!

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/236

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

Dec 19, 202116:58
PMP #235: A detailed summary of how I spent my time in 2021

PMP #235: A detailed summary of how I spent my time in 2021

In 2019 and 2020, I shared a breakdown of how I spent my time for that year. It’s always an interesting exercise and it’s useful for me to analyse how I’m using my time differently year over year. Understanding how your time is being spent is one of the best things you can do to make better choices and plan more effectively in the future. So, without further ado, here’s my analysis for 2021.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/235

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

Dec 12, 202115:57
PMP #234: How to plan your time based on energy
Dec 05, 202112:26
PMP #233: Optimising for easy
Nov 21, 202110:36
PMP #232: 5 Things I’ve changed my mind on

PMP #232: 5 Things I’ve changed my mind on

We live in a very opinionated world where it’s easier than ever to share your stance on a topic. But sometimes we get nervous about changing our opinions at the risk of sounding flakey; going back on your own words may come across as weak or even unintelligent.

Personally, I don’t have an issue with changing my mind about something. I’m happy to be proven wrong and form a new opinion. I’m even happy to just change my mind about how I view a topic for no reason. This is something that’s only become more frequent with age and experience. How I view and run my business now is quite different from when I was getting started.

So, here are some examples of things I’ve changed my mind about in the last few years.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/232

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

Nov 14, 202112:16
PMP #231: Time blocking my colleague's calendar

PMP #231: Time blocking my colleague's calendar

If you’ve read my blog for a while, you’ve probably heard me talk about time blocking before. This is a technique I’ve been following since 2010 to schedule time on my calendar to work on specific tasks and projects.

While I think it’s a very powerful technique and one of the best methods you can use to plan out your work, not everyone finds this technique easy to adopt.

My colleague, Warwick, is a good example. Since he started working with me full-time in early 2021, we’ve been doing an end-of-week review where we run down our list of clients and plan what needs to be done next for each one. Warwick would then schedule time on his calendar for this work. While he was good at making his initial plan when it came to updating his calendar and making time for new work that comes in during the week, he started to fall behind and his calendar quickly became out of date.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/231

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

Nov 07, 202109:37
PMP #230: A healthy relationship with social media

PMP #230: A healthy relationship with social media

My opinion of social media apps has changed in the last few years. Like a lot of people, I got on Facebook and Twitter around 2007 and I joined Instagram pretty early in 2010. And it’s interesting to have watched public opinion towards apps like Facebook change over the last decade. Facebook used to be liked and enjoyed by almost everyone. Now, more and more people are leaving the app as the company fails in its handling of certain issues e.g. moderating misinformation, user privacy, its impact on democracy and as per last weeks whistleblower, its prioritisation of profit over user wellbeing.

There are pros and cons to using every social media channel. I’ve been thinking more and more about my relationship with social media and I’ve questioned whether I should delete my accounts multiple times.

I’ve concluded that I can continue to use social media if I have a healthy relationship with it. This means getting what I need from each service with as little effort and loss in productivity as possible. So, how do you cultivate a healthy relationship with social media?

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/230

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

Oct 17, 202115:17
PMP #229: How I deal with conflict
Oct 10, 202111:37
PMP #228: How to choose the right tools
Sep 26, 202110:05
PMP #227: A better way to grow
Sep 12, 202109:04
PMP #226: How do I avoid doing this ever again?
Sep 05, 202107:36
PMP #225: Minor Updates September 2021
Aug 29, 202113:36
PMP #224: The results of my personality test

PMP #224: The results of my personality test

Last week, my wife Hayley shared a personality test with me and we went through a series of questions to work out what type of person I am. Here are the results and my thoughts on whether I think they’re accurate or not.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/224

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

Aug 16, 202112:40
PMP #223: How to balance being ‘reactive’ and ‘proactive’
Aug 08, 202108:15
PMP #222: Automation Tools (Part 2)

PMP #222: Automation Tools (Part 2)

If you haven’t already, check out part 1 of this series all about how to get started with automation where I discuss the mindset, benefits and how to start thinking about automation.

Once you’ve thought about some of the processes or tasks that you’d like to automate, it’s time to start creating the actual workflows that can do the work for you.

When it comes to automation, there’s no shortage of tools and services to choose from. There’s no one ‘best’ tool. The tool you should use will largely depend on the nature of what you’re trying to do. In this episode, I’m going to explain some of the tools I use to automate my business and I've linked to resources that will help you get started with each one.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/222

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

Aug 01, 202117:33
PMP #221: How to get started with automation (Part 1)
Jul 25, 202116:17
PMP #220: 5 tricks to instantly stop procrastinating
Jul 18, 202111:41
PMP #219: My favourite music for getting in 'the zone'
Jul 04, 202113:36
PMP #218: How much free advice should I give out

PMP #218: How much free advice should I give out

You’ve probably heard about the importance of providing value to potential customers before they purchase. By providing value first, you build trust and credibility that helps leads to eventually justify paying for your product or service.

Free trials and samples are easy. But for coaches and consultants, it’s tricky working out how much free advice to give out without cannibalising your business. The fear is that if you give out too much advice, people won’t need to pay you for your service.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/218

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

Jun 27, 202110:09
PMP #217: 30 Life - Lessons learned before turning 30
Jun 20, 202125:14
PMP #216: The One Habit That Helps You Build Other Habits
Jun 06, 202111:54
PMP #215: 6 phrases to remove from your vocabulary
May 30, 202111:58
PMP #214: Improvement requires short - term pain
May 23, 202109:45
PMP #213: How I've maximised productivity on the Mac

PMP #213: How I've maximised productivity on the Mac

Out of the box, the Mac is a great piece of kit, but with a few tweaks and some useful apps, you can turn your Mac into an incredibly productive machine.

In this episode, I’d like to list some of the tools and tweaks I’ve made to supercharge my productivity while using the Mac. If you’re a Mac user, I highly recommend spending some time learning about each of these tools. I can say with confidence that tools like these genuinely help me to save time so I can get my work done faster meaning I can handle a larger capacity of clients and go home earlier if I want.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/213

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

May 16, 202123:32
PMP #212: How to keep your productivity system simple

PMP #212: How to keep your productivity system simple

If you want to be more organised and effective at managing your time, the key is simplicity. People often come to me for help because their systems are overly complicated and hard to manage. They tell me they spend more time maintaining their system than they do actually doing important work.

As I’ve created and shared videos and blog posts, people often tell me how organised my systems appear to be. There’s no real secret other than I try to make things as simple as possible.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/212

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

May 02, 202110:33
PMP #211: The realities of earning a passive income
Apr 25, 202111:33
PMP #210: Why priority labels don’t work (and a better way to prioritise your tasks)
Apr 18, 202112:22
PMP #209: How I decided to hire my first full-time contractor

PMP #209: How I decided to hire my first full-time contractor

On my recent episode of Minor Updates, I shared that I’ve now hired my friend Warwick as a full-time contractor within my business. I’ve been working as a solo-operator since I started my business in 2015 so this is a pretty significant change to how I work. Many of the people who follow my work are freelancers or consultants, like me. So I decided to share how I went about making this decision in case you’ve ever considered doing something similar.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/209

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

Apr 11, 202114:05
PMP #208: Life Profitability With Adii Pienaar

PMP #208: Life Profitability With Adii Pienaar

I was recently contacted by the author, Adii Pienaar, wanting to share his new book all about 'life profitability'. As someone who prioritises building a business that supports the lifestyle you want, this concept of 'life profitability' really got my attention!

Adii mentioned that he'd been in contact with one of my online business heroes, Paul Jarvis. You might remember that I interviewed Paul on the podcast all about his book 'Company of One' and building a business that doesn't prioritise growth. This was all the convincing I needed so I decided to get Adii on the podcast to chat about his ideas!

Adii is a family man, entrepreneur, writer, runner and wine-drinker from Cape Town, South Africa. He was the co-founder of WooCommerce which he sold to Automattic in 2013. He then co-founded the conversion rate optimisation agency, Conversio, which he later sold to Campaign Monitor in 2019. And now he's working on an email marketing platform, CM Commerce.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/208

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

Apr 04, 202152:17
PMP #207: Minor Updates: March-2021

PMP #207: Minor Updates: March-2021

Welcome to episode 3 of Minor Updates. In this video, I share some updates on what I've been up to in the first quarter of 2021. Enjoy!

Linked and resources mentioned in this video

  1. This is the eufyCam 2C 2-Cam Kit that we set up at the front door and back garden.
  2. Check out Ark and Sea where you can purchase a t-shirt that funds the removal of 1kg of plastic from the ocean.
  3. Currently reading Ready Player Two.
  4. Here's the Material Dock from Studio Neat that I now have on my side-table.
  5. Here's where we did the knife making course in Clevedon, Auckland.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/207

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

Mar 28, 202120:13
PMP #206: Tips to get less email

PMP #206: Tips to get less email

Email continues to be one of the main time-sucks for the average knowledge worker. Every morning I’m greeted by about 20-30 new messages. This is a lot less than some people and I still have to schedule time each morning to process my inbox.

In the past, I’ve shared some tips on how to save time on email. In this week’s post, I’d like to drill down into one point in particular, how to get less email.

Because if you can reduce the volume of email coming in, this makes processing your inbox a lot quicker.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/206

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

Mar 21, 202108:54
PMP #205: What are the fixed costs on your time?
Mar 14, 202108:51
PMP #204: Why I like to 'Float' once a month
Mar 07, 202113:08
PMP #203: How I decide whether to use a new tool
Feb 21, 202112:13
PMP #201: Productivity is simple (but not always easy)
Jan 31, 202107:21
PMP #200: What I learned recording 200 podcasts
Jan 24, 202110:16
PMP #199: 5 Core principles of organisation
Jan 17, 202117:09
PMP #198: Macro Happiness

PMP #198: Macro Happiness

Over the holidays I was listening to an episode of Simon Sinek’s podcast, A Bit of Optimism. And in an interview with Derren Brown, Derren gets you to think about happiness as a verb, something you do, rather than as a noun, something you have.

And as I was listening I had one of those moments where the penny dropped and I suddenly realised, of course, you can’t be happy all the time. And yet, as we go through life, we’re lead to believe that if you’re not happy, something must be wrong. We’re taught that happiness is something we need to find and hang on to for as long as possible.

But this is completely unrealistic… You can’t be happy all the time and to think otherwise is setting yourself up for failure.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/198

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

Jan 10, 202107:20
PMP #197: Minor Updates: December 2020
Dec 20, 202013:55
PMP #196: A detailed summary of how I spent my time in 2020

PMP #196: A detailed summary of how I spent my time in 2020

Last year I published a summary of how I spent my time in 2019. It was a fascinating exercise and I received positive feedback on the analysis. Understanding how your time is being spent is one of the best things you can do to make better choices and plan more effectively in the future. So, I thought it would be worth repeating this exercise again this year.

NOTE: This analysis covers the period from January 1st to December 7th. So, although the year isn’t over, it gives me a pretty good idea of how I’ve spent my time this year.

Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/196

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo

Dec 13, 202016:55
PMP #195: How I'm winding down for the year
Nov 29, 202014:15
PMP #194: 8 Tips for hosting better zoom calls
Nov 22, 202013:39