Yoni Ghebrezgi

This post was originally posted on June 7th, 2015 on LinkedIn, and eBestSmartWatches.com, an ecommerce store that I used to run. I just read through it today, and realized that the content still holds weight, and you can still extract value from it. After reading the article myself, I feel like it was a great refresher to be more productive in the day. Being productive is something I’m always looking to improve upon, and quite honestly I’m not that productive. Hopefully I can take my own advice after today 🙂

Don’t you wish there was more time in the day?

We live in a world where news travels instantly. You want to get more done and be more productive, but probably get an insane amount of updates throughout the day.

What you don’t know is that these barrage of updates can lead you into a black hole that sucks 15 minutes out of your day, without you even noticing!

You went to refresh your Instagram timeline, and ended up googling “can an ostrich kill a lion with one kick?”

How did you get here!?

The fact is that people don’t realize how much time they spend on their phones for reasons other than actually calling or texting.

Eliminating “dead time” can help you realize the extra hour that you didn’t know existed.

This blog post will go over the system I put in place to reduce the amount of distractions throughout my day, while still using my smartwatch to give me timely notifications.

Step 1: Identify what consumes YOUR time

How much time do you think you spend on your phone a day?

It’s probably more than you think.

In order to figure out how to gain more time in your day, you have to track what you’re spending your time on, and how much time you’re spending on it. In my case, I needed to find a way to “spy” on myself to see how long I was using my phone for, so I used an app called Moment to track the amount of time that I spent on my phone.

Once you download Moment, you need to be able to “police” yourself, and make a conscious effort to track the time spent in EACH application. For music apps like Pandora, just check how many songs you’ve listened to in the car and add that up. For social media apps, try to check the time before you get sucked into the black hole, and check it again once you escape. If that doesn’t work, then good ol’ fashion estimation will do just fine.

My Results

What I found is that I ended up pulling out my phone more frequently throughout the day, and for shorter intervals at a time as well. For example, I would catch myself responding to a text, then checking Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram before I put my phone in my pocket. It’s as if I felt obligated to check before I put my phone away. Evidently, it ended up consuming much more of my time than I originally thought.

In total,I spent about 2 hours and 18 minutes on my phone per day. I used an app called checky to figure out how many times I pulled out my phone, and it was 142 times. That’s about 58 seconds per phone check! You can see the breakdown below.

Once you figure out how much time you’re spending on your phone, and where you’re spending it, it’s time to figure out ways to reduce the amount of “dead time” in your day.

Dead time kills your productivity

The key to this exercise is that you want to reduce the amount of time wasted on your phone, WITHOUT limiting your access to important info in the social world.

I still want to be notified when a big trade goes down. Just not at random times of the day when it prevents me from getting things done.

This is the happy balance that we need to find within ourselves in order to be productive, while still staying “in tune” with the rest of the world, when it matters.

Step 2: Invest in wearable tech!

Smartwatches are relatively new, and have yet to be realized as a productivity tool for the masses. They can be used as a great tool keep you posted on what’s going on in the world. Think of a smartwatch as a filter to your phone, because it only sends you the information that you NEED to know. For example, you can receive texts and phone calls on your wrist, but you may not want to get facebook and twitter updates. You can turn off those notifications, put your phone in your pocket, and still get the texts and calls that you want, without the possibility of being sidetracked.

If you remove the things that distract you the most, then it becomes much easier to focus.

It’s kind of like fighting an addiction, but succumbing to peer pressure. If you’re addicted to meth, then it’s probably not a good idea to hang out with your junkie friends, right? Your chances of relapse increase dramatically.

Set yourself up for success, and you’ll find it much easier to achieve.

How to use your smartwatch as a tool throughout the day

Using your smartwatch as a filter to receive timely notifications is clearly the value add for people that have a full day’s schedule. You may only want to get texts from your mom, but not updates on photos that you were tagged in . Creating an “if this then that” (IFTTT)statement could be beneficial for further segmentation of your updates. This can help you get important updates that you would otherwise have to waste time and search for. An example could be getting an update from Craigslist, only once an apartment is posted within your price range. Now that’s a useful update to have!

Step 3: Batch up your phone checks

Batching up, or grouping up the times you check your phone for emails, apps, etc is absolutely necessary if you want to save time. Tim Ferriss went into detail on this in his book, the four hour work week, and talks about how email in the morning is a mind killer. He even recommends that we check and respond to email twice a day, instead of throughout the day. I’ve applied this concept to checking “everything on your phone” about twice a day.

Think about it. If you end up checking your email, or apps, first thing in the morning, you’ve already let someone else dictate how you start your day.

You end up reacting instead of attacking. Playing defense instead of offense.

Is this how you want to live?

Instead, try to accomplish your most important task in the morning. This may include creative writing, brainstorming, or even completing a 2 mile jog before breakfast.

The key to this working is that the tasks you complete have to be measurable. Instead of brainstorming topics to write about, try coming up with 5 topics to write about. Putting a number on what you’re doing is a good way to hold yourself accountable. Fight the temptation and get through it. Refreshing your timeline will feel a lot better after.

Once you finish that, then you can go crazy and spend about 15-30 minutes on your phone. This is the time to check what’s happening on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, and what ever else your heart desires. Think of it as a reward system : )

After accomplishing what you needed to to, and checking your phone, it’s time to carry on with the rest of the day. This is where the smartwatch plays a HUGE role in striking that happy balance that we talked about earlier.

From this point on in the day, your phone should not leave your pocket or purse until the night. Trust me, this is important. Of course that excludes making calls, but I’m talking about pulling out your phone just for the heck of it. If you find yourself cheating and checking your phone throughout the day, try deleting the apps after you check in the morning. This will force you to stay focused, and you can easily download them again at night. Configure your smartwatch to get the updates that you NEED to know, and save the rest of the time consuming updates until the end of the day.

In my case, I only got notified when I got a text or call. That was it. By being able to quickly glance at my wrist and determine if the text or call was worth a response, I was able to stay focused and finish what I was doing a lot faster! The advantage of glancing at your wrist for any update may seem unnecessary, but is a huge advantage that is only realize by people who have a smartwatch.

Once you get back home and the work day is done, it’s now time for another smartphone check. Now’s the time to install those apps you deleted earlier in the day if you needed an extra push. I recommend about 7 or 8 o’clock at night for a quick 20 min phone check.

What you’ll find is that it’s more fun to check your social media platforms once those notifications build up throughout the day.

It’s like celebrating Hanukkah or Christmas. Would you rather open up 1 small gift for 8 days straight, or open 8 gifts in 1 day, while getting to do fun christmas activities the other 7 days? I’m only joking of course, but there is some truth to the feeling you get when you get a social media notifications all at one time. It’s a feeling of love. A feeling that you don’t have if you hopelessly refresh your timelines ALL the time.

My results after the experiment

So after a week checking my phone for updates only TWICE a day, I found out that I saved about an hour each day. Most of the time was eliminated from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Emails, because that’s what I would mindlessly check every couple of minutes throughout the day.

My question to myself was: What did I lose by eliminating this time?

The answer? Nothing!

I still got the same updates that I would have if I checked every second of the day. The difference is that I used my smartwatch to keep me posted throughout the day, which eliminates the need to check my phone!

Conclusion

Saving time and being productive means changing the way that you live. It requires you to be disciplined and set up a system to help you accomplish your daily, quarterly, and yearly goals. The possibilities are endless, and leveraging these productivity hacks are critical to squeezing more time out of your day. Remember, the goal is not to simply cut yourself off with the rest of the world. The goal should be to increase your work output in the same or less time as before, while still being connected with the outside world, when it matters. Finding your happy balance between the two is a challenge that you need to face in order to unlock the door to productivity. Go out and make it happen.

In July of 2016, I went to Atlanta and booked a room at the Marriott for the Eritrean Soccer Tournament. I booked it over the phone, and right after I booked, I was redirected to another line for a promotion.

Out of curiosity, I stayed on the line…

I won’t bore you with the details, but basically, I had been offered a promotion to stay at a resort for a 3 night trip.

We’ve all seen this movie before(even though it wasn’t THAT good to be true)

……….but what’s the catch?!

After getting the details ironed out, I was told it that I had to put down $199 to book the ‘free’ trip, BUT, I get the money back when I check out….. as long as I go through a 2 hour sales presentation.

Seemed like a pain, but I would get the money back, so I initially overlooked the presentation.

Fast forward 10 months later, I finally cashed in on the deal. I booked the hotel in Orlando, and made my way over there on a Friday afternoon. It wasn’t a huge parking lot, but mostly occupied when I pulled up. The check in line was ridiculously long too. Seemed like the sales presentation wasn’t the only ‘catch’ at this time.

Got to the room, and everything was great. The sales presentation was the next day, so we had some time to see some old friends in downtown Orlando that night. Erm and I(my homie that went to Orlando with me) ended up sleeping at my old roommates house, and woke up at about 10am. The presentation was at 12:30, and 30 minutes away, so we headed over there. After getting ready, we headed to a resort where the presentation would be held. As I checked in, the lady at the front said it would be a one on one sales presentation, and that the 2 hours would start only when I met with my sales rep.

Sheesh.

These people have this operation running like clockwork.

That was my first thought

One on one pitch with a sales dude for 2 hours on something that I know I’m not going to buy….this is gunna suck

That was my second thought

I waited for about 15 minutes before my name was called. I was greeted by a guy named Angel. Angel was a middle age, hispanic, NY raised, smooth talking fellow that was going to try to get me to buy a timeshare.

2 hour timer has officially started……NOW!

We went to a random table, and he started asking me a bunch of qualifying questions, while also briefly explaining what a timeshare was. Angel was trying to get a sense of my financial situation, vacation frequency, and lifestyle, all to build a case against me at the end, and show me that I need this timeshare package. This questionnaire process lasted about 30min. I didn’t know it at first, but I was dominated by Angel, right out of the gate. I tried to drop hints to let him know that I was just here for the money, and had no interest in buying a timeshare, but he would have the perfect answer for everything.  Any question about price, and he said that we weren’t at that point yet. Amenities that hotels didn’t have, and he would come up with an alternative solution on the spot. It was all a huge mind game. He was winning, and I was drained, 30 minutes in.

It felt like I was playing chess, and he took my queen in the first couple moves.

I had to bounce back, and once we left the table to tour the resort, I became more conscious of his genius on the spot thinking. I put more thought into my questions, and tried to come up with questions/statements, that couldn’t be disputed.

Angel’s big selling point in this presentation was that I am already spending X amount of dollars on vacation. If I ‘reallocate’ this vacation money, and essentially pre pay for vacations, then I can maximize on the money that I put in. The initial 30 min convo we had was to essentially get some numbers on paper, so that in the final stage of the presentation, he can corner me into saying that I already spend X amount of dollars, I cut that number in half, over Y number of years. Will this interest you?

As soon as I realized his tactic, I focused less on hassling him about price, amenities, etc, and focused more on disproving that the value proposition behind a timeshare like this, doesn’t necessarily align with the way I think about vacation. That is something that is true, and extremely hard for a sales person to dispute. Things like living amongst the poor, living in spontaneity, being in rural areas instead of the obvious lavish spots, are all things that I enjoy on vacation. To set the record straight, I’ll go to Beverly hills any day of the week, but I more so enjoy learning about new cultures, and living exactly how a foreigner lives in their home country.

This doesn’t align with IHG’s interest, which are to give it’s guests luxury for 1-5 weeks out of the year.

Even though I was always planning to say no at the end of the presentation regardless, I was glad to have something in my back pocket that would essentially ‘Trump’ him(sales people are too pushy to just accept ‘no’).

After the mental breakthrough I had midway through the presentation, we went to watch a video on the benefits of timeshares. After that, we headed into the same room that we started the presentation, but Angel had one thing on his mind.

…close the deal

He started by reviewing the questions I answered earlier, and started mapping out the cost structure behind a timeshare. When I brought up that I don’t think this program aligns with my travel interests, he didn’t seem to have the perfect answer, as he often did earlier in the presentation.

He answered things like “who doesn’t want to live luxurious?”, “You’ll be able to find something that fits your needs”

Those answers didn’t cut it for me, and I knew I had the upper edge. He lost his composure, and felt the sale slipping away. I pressed on the issue for the remainder of the presentation, and he proceeded to concede, and pass me on to the person who would pay me out.

Finally!

It felt like I just beat bowser and saved princess peach!

Little did I know…she was in another castle.

All jokes aside, the man who was suppose to pay me out, offered me another ‘special promotion’ that only people that attended the presentation. I smirked, and said no. He lowered the price again, and I said no. He did it one more time before I just said “I’m here for the money…I’m not interested in any other promotion.”

He said ok, and passed me over to a lady in front of a register. I cashed out my voucher for $199, and left.

I was exhausted, but it was an eye opening experience.

Being in the digital analytics/conversion optimization world, I’m always thinking about the science of getting people to do what you want. The presentation started off great(from his perspective), because he took the time to understand my needs, and use that info to tailor the right package for me. Although I had no intention of buying, Angel’s pitch made me think about the different possibilities/use cases, and how I can benefit from one. My imagination started to run wild, and this is exactly what he wanted. The pitch took a wrong turn when I expressed my concerns on if I can get all the value of a resort, because of the way I travel. Instead of generic answers and seemingly giving up, he should have took the time to better understand what I meant, and spend the majority of the time seeing how the program can help me out. If he would have taken the next 45min to research different places, and see how we can make this work for my specific use cases, instead of talking finances prematurely, I would have been WAY more attentive in the finance part.

I guess the point is that if you really want convince someone to do something that you think is worthwhile for them, you have to truly understand what they’re looking for, be able to step in their shoes, and solely focus on that. If you don’t have/offer what that person is looking for, a better answer might be to say that you don’t offer that, but show interest in working with them to solve the issue in the future. Picking your customers is pretty important too. I imagine the conversion rate for the promotion is pretty low, because IHG recruited a bunch of cheapos like me.

Thanks for the hotel IHG 🙂 …. learned a lot, but NEVER again.

Wow..it’s been a long time since I last posted. I’ve been busy for the past months, but that’s really no excuse. It wasn’t until yesterday that I took some time to really reflect on what I’ve been doing for the past 6 months, and how I was spending my time. I realized that I wasn’t using my time out of work effectively, and none of my ideas were coming to fruition. I missed that feeling of taking baby steps, to accomplish a bigger goal with purpose.

Part of me not spending time on things like writing, reading, and video editing, is due to me saying ‘yes’ to too many things. Living in the moment can’t be confused with living with purpose, and I had these mixed up recently.

Some big realizations have come up in my life, and I will hope to reflect on this moment in time as an inflection point in my life story.

Stay tuned

The beginning is always rough. In any new skill that someone attempts to learn, the beginning is where most end their journey. The end goal seems light years away, and the initial grunt work feels impossible to overcome.

It’s easy to say “stick with it” when you get that overwhelming, angsty feeling of quitting before you start.

But HOW?

Just start………….

The best way to learn something is to actually have a small project in mind that demonstrates the skill/skills you want to learn. Having something tangible, as a result of your learning, is a huge motivator for moving forward. Take pride in the early small wins, because they will open your eyes and extend your limit capacity for that skill.

It’s a great feeling, no matter how bush league your work is.

And don’t worry, it’s expected that you suck your first time at anything.

In this specific case, making videos is something that I wanted to learn about. I had a few clips on my iPhone, downloaded Premiere Pro, and was ready to make something. Admittingly, it’s pretty shitty. But that’s OK. The purpose of the project was to have something tangible to help learn about filmmaking, and gauge my interest in learning more. That’s pretty much it. After making this, I realized there are so many things I could have done to make the video better (like holding my phone sideways!). This small project generated interest in learning more, and that’s what it’s all about.

Wow. What a day. A 60 point performance and a win, in mamba fashion. You will never know what impact you had, and will continue to have, on my life. Ever since I was a kid, I watched you play. You were the reason I’ve always been a lifelong lakers fan. Your work ethic and will to do whatever it takes to accomplish your goal is inspiring, The way you transformed over your career is unlike anyone else in sports. In your interview after your last game, you were asked if you will ever be as passionate, or as good as, anything besides basketball. You said that you had a passion for storytelling. You speak Italian and Spanish, and are well versed in the philosophy of life. That is what I will remember, beyond the court. You are not only limited to being known strictly for basketball, which makes you special. It plays to the fact that you shouldn’t let people label you by what they think you should be. Be a jack of all trades. I will never be afraid to go against the status quo, and to dream epic. Thanks, Kobe.

I didn’t know what to expect. All I knew is that the ticket was $180 round trip, and the AirBnB would come out to around $100 for a 5 day stay. My good friend Karlyle told me about the ticket price, and I had to jump on it. This is what I’ve been working for. Being able to work on the go, and enjoy the flexibility of just “getting up and going,” wherever I wanted.

With no expectations set, I packed my things in a backpack, and headed for the airport. I spent my time thinking about what to expect. Immersing myself in a culture that I’m totally unfamiliar with seems great, but only if I put myself out there and make a true effort to connect with the locals. I was curious about the difference in lifestyle. How do the locals spend their time? What do they value? That was my goal.

When I first got to Bogota, I realized that it was a bit tougher to breathe. The high altitude (about 8,000+ feet), really caught me off guard, and almost felt like I had a waist shaper around my chest! Nonetheless, I took an Uber from the airport to meet up with Maria Clara, my AirBnB host. She was extremely friendly, spoke english, and made herself available on Whatsapp, pretty much directing me exactly the best way to get to her house. Maria lives in Zona Rosa, which is a pretty lively part of Bogota, known for nice restaurants, shopping malls, and an exciting nightlife. Once I got to the apartment, I met up with my friend Karlyle, who I planned the trip with. Maria showed us around her apartment, offered us food, and gave us a typed out list of place to see and things to do. Hospitality was world class, and she really helped me get organized with a list of things to do in and around Bogota.

Karlyle and I spend the first day getting acquainted with Zona Rosa. The architecture of the buildings was unbelievable, and the city looked in a very much progressive state. There were many high end fashion retailers, american restaurants, and nightclubs in the area. My initial concerns of safety were put to rest. We had lunch at Archie’s, an Italian restaurant (I know, I know), then wondered around the outdoor and indoor malls. I couldn’t get over how developed the area was. It looked like New York for goodness sake!

El Museo del Oro

El Museo del Oro, or the Gold Museum, was the first “touristy” place that I visited. It was located right in front of a lively skatepark, where over 70 kids were riding around and doing tricks. The museum was filled with different gold artifacts, each accompanied by a story. Here are a few pics.

Zipaquira/ Catedral de Sal

Located in Zipaquira, Catedral de Sal, or Salt Cathedral, was definitely an experience to remember. Know for the underground Roman Catholic Church  built within the Salt Mines, Catedral de Sal was decorated with different types of crosses, icons, and statue reenactments of certain biblical events. The architecture is what was really impressive, seeing that they use eucalyptus and salt to strengthen the walls and ceilings of the mines. It was truly a one of a kind experience, especially since I’ve never been in a mine, and pictures won’t do the experience justice. With that being said, here are a few I took in the salt mines.

Monserrate

Monserrate is a mountain in Bogota that you can see from pretty much anywhere in the city. The backdrop is one for a postcard, and the only place I knew I had to visit before I left for Colombia. Due to a recent landslide on the mountain, I had to take a ski lift to the top of Monserrate. The mountain is 10,000 plus feet, and I instantly felt the pressure in my forehead once I walked up the stairs, leading to the cathedral at the top of the mountain. Pushing through it, I walked around and saw they had a Church, restaurant, walking trails, and an insane view of the city.

Takeways

This trip was eye opening. I met a lot of cool people, and experienced the world from a different lens. Before I came to Bogota, I knew that I wanted to make connections with the locals, in order to better understand their views on life (What’s important to them, how they spend their time, etc). I will highlight a story with a man I met named Ricardo.

Ricardo is someone I met at Maria’s house, coming back from a walk in the city. He was born in Bogota, but lives and works in San Francisco as a management consultant for many different fortune 500 companies. He had said that he was mourning the loss of his father, and came back to Bogota to be with his family. To my surprise, he said that he has only met Maria 2 times before I saw him. He looked so comfortable with Maria in conversation, like they had known each other for years. It was obvious that friendships are highly valued, and was unexpectedly refreshing to see. We talked for a bit, and exchanged info. He invited us to meet up for the upcoming Warriors vs Spurs game(Which was a huge game in the states!), and of course we accepted. I didn’t think much of it at first. Usually if you meet someone for the first time, you close the convo with “we should meet up and ………” 9/10 times, the person that offers the invite doesn’t really want to hang out, but instead offers a gesture of kindness. This was different. I could tell by his body language and interest in our conversation that he was serious. It was very refreshing, and something that I took a mental note of.

We ended up meeting at a Hooters in Zona Rosa the next day to watch the game. We grabbed a few beers, realized they weren’t playing the game, then left. Ricardo picked up the tab, and we went on a quest to find a place that was playing the Spurs v Warriors game. After asking a dozen doorman and the local bars, we decided to take the loss and head to a place called Andres DC. Andres DC is a traditional bar/restaurant/live music type of place, and had a really cool and authentic Colombian vibe. We grabbed drinks, empanades, and talked for a few hours. We covered everything from family, work, life goals, the value of life, and so much more. I’ve never really opened up about those topics that quick, but Ricardo had a way of expressing genuine curiosity that made me want to explore those topics with him.

Expressing genuine curiosity and interest of learning about another person is something that I myself must work in. It’s a skill that isn’t practiced enough in the states. Empathizing with others is what allows us to see life from different viewpoints. Essentially, we are expanding our horizon, every time we genuinely engage with another person, no matter where they are from. We can’t learn what we don’t know, and you put yourself in a position to learn something new, every time you connect with someone on a deeper level, regardless of age, gender, ethinicity, status in life, and anything else that society classifies people as.

That experience with Ricardo, and in Bogota, has refreshened my self awareness on kindness. Always be kind to everyone, and take the time to engage in meaningful conversations with all types of people. Follow up on those empty invites that you send out to people, and don’t look for an excuse to avoid meeting up. Chances are that whatever else you’re doing isn’t that important. It’s time to value frienships and insights from others higher on the totem pole, because it is what really matters in life.

Adios!

I’m writing this post at the Crocante Bakery in Coral Springs. It’s down the street from my house, and a great spot to be productive, while enjoying a latte. I had an eggs benedict and a yogurt parfait, and it was amazing! I will be going to Colombia for the next 4 days, so I’m using this time to get myself organized.

Some basic things that I want to straighten out before I leave (besides writing this post!), is being able to effectively manage my day to day tasks, regardless of location. This trip is a quick one, but the possibility of extended travel isn’t possible, unless you’re able to continue with what you’re doing, while you’re on the go. This trip should give me some insight on the feasibility of extended travel. Of course, experience the Colombian culture and subjecting myself to their daily life is most important, but I really want to use this trip as a social experiment.

More details coming soon.

Until then,

Adios!