Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - YAPSnacks: Top 3 Lessons of Young and Profiting Podcast with Hala, Jordan and Shiv |Human Behavior

Episode Date: November 29, 2019

Just in time for Thanksgiving leftovers, Young and Profiting Podcast presents #YAPSnacks!  Introducing #YAPSnacks, a new series of bite-sized and actionable content where the YAP team goes deep on topics covered on the Young and Profiting show. For our introduction episode, we're joined by YAP's host Hala Taha, producer Shiv Dutt and newly onboarded co-host, Jordan Paris. Tune in to: Discover David Allen's open loops concept and how to stop them to boost productivity Get a 101 understanding of Robert Greene's Law of Irrationality and Law of Narcissism And learn Justin Bariso's clever media player-themed tricks to boost your emotional intelligence  Join the millions of students already learning on Skillshare and get two months free when you sign up at skillshare.com/yap If you liked this episode, please write us a review!⁣ Follow YAP on IG: www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting⁣ Follow Hala on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/⁣ Follow Hala on Instagram: www.instagram.com/yapwithhala⁣ Follow Jordan on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordantparis/ Follow Jordan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/j_paris_/ Follow Shiv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shiv-dutt-a7190619/ Check out our website to meet the team, view show notes and transcripts: www.youngandprofiting.com  

Hey everyone, you're listening to YAPSnacks, a new short series of bite-sized, digestible, and actionable content hosted by the YAP team. I'm Halitaha, and today I'm joined with my producer Shift Dutt and my good friend Jordan Parris, who has come on board as the Yapsnacks co-host. This is our intro episode, and we're sharing our top three lessons from the Young and Profiting Podcast. Each show will be different. Sometimes we'll do solo episodes. Sometimes it'll be just two of us, but each time it'll be valuable. So let's kick it off the top three lessons from the Young and Profiting Podcast. Shiv, why don't you start it off because you've been producing the show for about a year and I'm sure you've got a lot of great content to cover. Cool. Yeah, so one of the

first episode I listened to was episode number five with David Allen. And one of the concepts that really stood out to me was this topic of an open loop, which is essentially a commitment made to yourself with another person that hasn't been fulfilled. And so kind of like those apps on your phone that aren't closed, they hang out in limbo in your brain and train energy without you even realizing it. You know, what are some open loops that you, Hala and Jordan, have? Well, for me right now, it's Thanksgiving week. And this Saturday, actually, I'm going to London for work for the rest of the week. And I've got so much to do. I've got to do laundry. I've got to clean my apartment before I go. I've got to pack all my clothes. Make sure that I have everything

that I need for the trip in terms of preparing for work. And I've also got to accomplish everything else that I do during the week for my podcast for my day job and to help Thanksgiving with my family. So super stressed out and that's been running in my head all week. Well, I'm traveling also to Colorado tomorrow in less than 12 hours. I've been thinking about packing all week, but haven't even started. So got a lot of work to do, got a lot to think about, a lot of open thought loops. Cool. Those are some great examples, exactly what open loops are. So what is David Allen's method for dealing with these open loops? He essentially gives us a four-step process, you know, where we first identify what can be done very quickly in two minutes or less and just do it. Then we figure out what can be delegated and delegate it. Then we block out time for key discussions. And finally, we find the best times to work on bigger projects. Do you guys have any other techniques that you use?

Yeah, the most thing that I remember from that episode in terms of open loops was his concept of an external brain and writing things down. So that one really stuck with me. And anytime I have a thought, a task that needs to be completed, I try to write it down in the right place so that I can get it out of my head and schedule it so that I can do it at another time. Yeah, I have three examples of an external brain or brains in my life. whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed, which happens maybe once a week, maybe every other week, I feel really, really overwhelmed. I'll take a yellow note card from my desk and write down the four or five X number of things that I need to keep on top of. And even if I'm just, even if I'm laying in bed at night and I can't fall asleep thinking about all these things I got to

think about and worry about once I get up, put it down on the note card, bam, I can go to sleep. another external brain of mine is my calendar. If it's not in my calendar, it doesn't get done. I actually mentioned in my interview with Forbes last month that my calendar is like my mom. Something pops up that I need to do something and it's like, oh, okay, I'll do it, you know. So my calendar has been invaluable. I do everything. Everything is in my calendar, like schedule sinking is what Nira Yao talks about.

And another example, another external brain of mine is when I was writing my first book, Growth Mindset University. I wrote down all the topics that I wanted to talk about. I wrote about 50 different things down in my notebook. And then from there, all those topics became my chapter titles, my headings, my subheadings. And in that way, I had all the steps laid out. So what did I do? I just walked up the steps.

It was really easy. Yeah, I totally see what you're saying. They're kind of just breaking down your project into smaller chunks so that it's more manageable. I do something similar. I have this 10 minute role where if something is really intimidating me, if I'm procrastinating a project and I need to get it done, I'll just tell myself, I'll try to convince myself that I'm just going to do it for 10 minutes. I'm just going to try for 10 minutes. And before I know it, I'm, you know, rocking and rolling and I end up going for an hour or two and I finish my project. So that's my little secret. Cool. I think that that covers most of what I wanted to talk about David Allen. All right. So let's move on to lesson number two, Jordan. What do you got? Hey, so what really stuck out to me in Robert Green's episode, episode 43 and 44, the two-part episode, was the law of irrationality. I love human behavior, human nature. It's my favorite thing to study. So I've actually been, I've actually been reading, I'm a slow reader, I've been reading his book for the past two and a half months and, you know, because it's over 600 pages. But I remember reading

irrationality a long time ago and I heard it in, you guys were talking about it in the episode. You know, it's so funny how we all think we're rational, we're exempt from, you know, oh, we're so rational. We're, we're not narcissistic. Other people are, though. Other, it's always, you know, we're all good, you know, but we think we're exempt. But the reality is that none of us are exempt and that the first step to becoming rational is to understand our fundamental irrationality, as Robert Green would say, nobody's exempt. And so I've taken this on a day-to-day basis. I just continually tell myself that, you know, I at least keep in mind how irrational I can be and how imperfect I am.

And I become aware of my blind spots, so to say. I think I'm a narcissist, too. And the funny part about thinking you're a narcissist, people will keep telling me, you know, Jordan, just because you think you're a narcissist, it probably means you're not a narcissist. I think that just being aware of this stuff really, really helps. You hit the nail on the head.

It's self-awareness. Everything Robert Green talked about was simply being self-aware and being aware of your animalistic tendencies and these instincts that are basically coming from thousands and thousands of years ago and have no place for today and being aware of how those emotions are driving your day-to-day decisions in the modern world and that you need to kind of look at your surroundings, look at how you're feeling, and try to just look at it from a place of non-emotion, you know? At Yap, we have a super unique company culture.

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Indeed.com slash profiting. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, Indeed is all you need. Absolutely. So, Hala, do you have a lesson from an episode? Ooh, you're turning the tables on me. Shib, did you have anything to say about Robert Green? No, I completely agree with that point. And there's so many actually fascinating perspectives on why that is the case and, you know, evolutionary theories and, you know, such. But, you know, that's for another time. Yeah. Well, just one last thing.

I wanted to touch on the law of narcissism. Yeah. So as Robert Green stated, mostly everyone is a narcissist. We focus on and admire ourselves more than others. And it's the truth. When you're talking to somebody in a conversation, how often are you thinking about, something else. Probably 50% of the time.

And if you're thinking about something else when somebody else is talking. I'm sorry, Holly. Did you say something? Exactly. That means that you think what you're thinking is more important than what this person is saying. And sometimes, like, you'll be in a very important meeting and you're thinking about other things.

You are a narcissist if that is happening. And so this hinders our success in our relationships. Once we accept that we're a narcissist, we'll be more present. We'll have better relationships because we are more present. We'll be more respectful of people's time because we're self-aware and we understand that like, hey, if you see your mind drifting when you're supposed to be present, you bring yourself back. So the key is that you need to transform self-love, which is narcissism, into empathy. That's the key. Absolutely.

All right. So my turn. Lesson number three. I picked episode number 40 featuring Justin Briso. Justin Briso wrote a book called EQ Applied, and I think he's very underrated. So I loved my conversation with him. I think when it comes to emotional intelligence, he was the first person. A lot of people talk about it.

He's the first person that talked about it, and I thought that it made complete sense, and it wasn't just like, you know, woo-woo stuff in the sky. Really, what he taught me is to not be a victim to your emotions and to basically use your emotions and treat them as a set of controls on a media player. So he gave basically these tricks to be more self-aware. And self-awareness is obviously a red thread throughout this whole episode. So one of the first things he says is to use the pause button. So take time to think or take a walk before you speak or act when you feel like your emotions are getting out of control. And then make a decision only after you calm down. So I always do this. If I'm upset, I never

never make a decision. No. I never, if I'm upset, I don't talk to anyone. I never write an email when I'm upset. I got fired from my first job for doing that. So never write an email when I'm set. Never make decisions when I'm upset. Make it after you calm down.

Then the second one is fast forward. So take a moment to think about the consequences of your actions, both short and long term, before you say or do anything. Ask yourself, how will this decision impact me in a month or a year? So this is super important. It's basically just thinking about your consequences. Like how is this going to impact me? It might feel good in the moment, but how is this going to impact me in the future?

Again, think about the letter that you write to your boss when you're angry. Never do that. Just never do it. And then lastly, to record. So engage in concentrated listening to uncover the root problem. And as you tune in, don't judge or offer advice. Instead, focus on how the other person sees you, how they see themselves, and how they see the situation. So again, it's getting out of your.

your own emotions, getting out of your own narcissistic ego, and thinking that you're right about everything, and really trying to focus on what the other person is saying, having empathy, understanding them so that you can start to relate to them and hopefully resolve whatever situation. Sorry, Jordan. What were you saying? Well, I was going to say that it's great confirming evidence to my own self-belief that, you know, because I've done this before where, I mean, this is how I operate. Like, I don't make decisions when I'm upset, as you had mentioned. I, even, you know, for those days that you feel depressed, like, I don't make big decisions then. If I'm angry, I don't send that email. I don't send that text. I sleep on it quite literally.

And it's like, hey, I'm really rational. Look how rational I am. Look how right. I am. Oh, wow. Using that confirmation bias that Robert Green also talks about. Totally. Awesome. Well, this brings us to just about time. Thanks for listening to Yapsnacks, a new short series of bite-sized actionable content. This is Hala, Jordan, and Shiv, signing off.