SPEAKERS

Clint Murphy

Clint Murphy  00:00

Music.

Clint Murphy  00:10

Today, we’re going to talk about a philosophy that drives my life: laziness, because I think it can be a superpower. In fact, it’s how I was able to become a CFO, complete an Ironman, complete an ultramarathon run every day for one and a half years and become a multimillionaire. 

Clint Murphy  00:33

So tune in to see how you can use laziness to become your superpower. 

Clint Murphy  00:39

Now, when people hear lazy. They think of inaction, procrastination or a lack of ambition. But what if I told you my laziness is the driving force behind my achievements? Everything you just heard me talk about from the outside, people say I’m very productive. When I hear them talk about what I’ve achieved, whether it’s personal, professional or financial, I realize they’re probably right. I’ve already told you. I’ve been a CFO. I’m a father, an Ironman, an ultra marathon runner, a first time novelist, podcast host, and I’ve started a real estate development business. I’m also in a 29 year relationship, and have achieved a high net worth. 

Clint Murphy  01:32

So if I’m objectively productive, why do I say being lazy is my superpower? It doesn’t mean I don’t do anything. After all, I’m an insanely driven person, and we just objectively listed a lot of the shit I’ve done. 

Clint Murphy  01:49

It means I don’t like to waste any time, energy or resources in these areas. I’m stingy, or, as I like to call it lazily efficient, and it results in some outcomes that could improve your life. 

Clint Murphy  02:07

Let’s dive into the secret behind my lazy efficiency.

Clint Murphy  02:12

Number one, no. 

Clint Murphy  02:14

It all starts with the simple word no. If you always say yes, your calendar becomes too full and you don’t have enough lazy space, as I like to call it. Derek Sivers once coined the idea that if something isn’t a hell yes, it’s a no. But being a bit more vulgar, like Mark Manson, I prefer to call it the law of fuck yes or no. For many no can be a hard response to make. 

Clint Murphy  02:44

So here are some tidbits that make it easier. 

Clint Murphy  02:47

No is a sentence. I was listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast once where they talked about a coach who wasn’t just playing by a different set of rules, they were playing a completely different game. The secret they talked about was she treated no as a complete sentence. It doesn’t need a qualifier, a modifier or an explanation. You don’t need an excuse. Just say no, thank you. 

Clint Murphy  03:14

Remember, you don’t owe anyone, whether it’s a DM, an email, a phone call or a real life conversation, unsolicited asks are just that they are unsolicited. When I learned this one, it was super powerful for me. You don’t owe anyone a response. Unsubscribe, block or simply say no, thank you. Choose you. Don’t choose work, effort or grief over saying no or doing nothing. We’re trying to get ourselves some lazy time. We’re trying to open up our schedules. 

Clint Murphy  03:51

What if the ask was tomorrow? Take a step back. What if the ask was tomorrow? It’s easy to say yes when something is on the horizon. It’s far enough away that there seems like there’s space. But ask yourself, if this were happening tomorrow, would you say, fuck yes. If not, then you know the answer. No, hank you. Let’s talk about automation. Some of you may know I’ve been a lifelong PC user. As a CFO, accountant, finance guy, we’re generally PC users. Recently, as an entrepreneur and content creator, I flipped to a MacBook Pro, so everything I have now is Apple, which makes it a nice ecosystem for me in my office. I’ve got a killer, lazy setup with the best Mac Logitech mouse, a nice Mac keyboard and two 35-inch curved monitors. I love it, super efficient laziness. But last week, I was frustrated. Apple doesn’t let you move any screens onto a monitor if you’ve maximized something on it. Super annoying when you’re working with multiple PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, word docs and other applications. 

Clint Murphy  05:03

Here’s the difference, I’m lazier than most, so I found a solution within minutes. As a lazy person, I know there are other lazy people who’ve already solved my problem. That’s why I emphasize if there’s anything you do repeatedly, automate it. Whether it’s with AI macros, Zapier apps, or third party plugins, just automate. 

Clint Murphy  05:28

Above all, don’t be penny wise and pound foolish. If something saves you time technologically, buy it. If you can’t automate it with technology, maybe you can automate it by having someone else do it for you. Which brings us to number three, delegation. 

Clint Murphy  05:47

Delegation is the key to lazy efficiency. Who’s better to do something than me? If you answered anyone, you’re right. Anyone doing something 80% is better than me doing it 100%. Here’s how it looks. In the workplace, hire your replacement, train and empower them. Focus your time on what you love to do and what adds the most value to the company. If it doesn’t meet those criteria, outsource it. It starts with hiring driven critical thinkers who are team players. Load them up with everything you don’t want to do, and let them grow personally, professionally and financially, and you’ll have them on your team for a long time. When it comes to training and empowerment, train your team to make their own decisions and empower them to carry through on all the small stuff. After all, if you’re lazy like me, you don’t want them to come back to you with their problems. 

Clint Murphy  06:43

Here are two ideas to help. The first is the 10-80-10 rule by my friend Dan Martell. Be involved in the first 10% of idea generation, outsource 80% of the work, then return for the final 10% to get it across the finish line. Laziness at its finest. 

Clint Murphy  07:03

Let me give you an example. If I’m writing an article and I need some research done, I may talk with my wife, who’s on my team, and one of our content managers. I’ll tell them roughly what I want to write the article about, what some of the bullet points I’m thinking about are, what some of the titles in the article are, and I’ll ask them to do some of the research and pull something together that I can turn into an article. They’ll come back to me with a reasonably finished product. They already know how I think. I’ve already created SOPs and ideas and taught them. This is how Clint thinks. This is how he writes. This is his style. I can then take their finished product, put my finishing touches and voice on it, and now I’m done in 20% of the time that it otherwise would have taken me. 

Clint Murphy  07:51

Let’s talk about the 1-3-1 rule also by my friend Dan, you should get his book, Buy Back Your Time. If you want to be lazy like me., buying back your time will definitely help. This one’s called the 1-3-1 rule, when someone comes with a problem, ask them for one clearly defined problem, three potential solutions and one specific recommendation. They do the work, you give them the credit, then go home early and watch TV. Just kidding. That’s not what you’re gonna do. 

Clint Murphy  08:22

Buying back your time or creating lazy space isn’t about doing nothing. It’s about using those wasted spaces. So let’s talk about wasted space, whether it’s habit stacking or wasted spaces. I think of this as lazy, efficient time management. Take this conversation we’re having. It came from my newsletter. So right there I’m being lazily efficient. I wrote a newsletter which my wife and content manager turned into a script. My involvement with this script was reading it and changing the voice for video. That was my sole involvement. I wrote the newsletter. They turned it into a script. I edited the final product. A bit of 10-80-10, if I must say so. 

Clint Murphy  09:03

So normally I write those newsletters at night, the night before I publish it, but the day I wrote this one, I had some wasted space. My wife and I were on a flight back to Vancouver from Las Vegas, where we were at a hockey tournament with our youngest son. So I wrote that newsletter by hand, mostly from memory. So everything I’ve said before, the reason, if I’m you watching this, that I find it valuable, is it was coming from lived experience. It was coming from my memory of how I’ve lived my life and how I was able to achieve the things that I talk to you about. 

Clint Murphy  09:41

So here’s how I use wasted space. In the AM, I go to the gym with my oldest son, which covers fitness and father son bonding. After the workout, I hit the sauna and then a five minute cold shower, hot and cold exposure all in the sauna and shower, I meditate and do box breathing, and I think about my family and business partners while I’m doing that meditation, which is generally a loving kindness meditation. May you be well, May you be safe, May you be loved, May you be happy and healthy, May you be peaceful and productive, May you be successful in what you do in your life. So I repeat that mantra over and over, each time it takes about five seconds, so I time that as part of my box breathing, and I’m picturing either my family or my business partners. 

Clint Murphy  10:26

So before work, I’ve bonded with my son, I’ve meditated. I’ve done box breathing to calm down my system. I’ve worked out in gotten hot and cold exposure. Not bad for a lazy guy. 

Clint Murphy  10:39

Walk and talk. Another favorite is walking and talking. Often, I’ll do this with my business partner while wearing a weighted vest. We get two hours together. My dog gets a long walk, and we improve our fitness. Business and relationship. It’s a win win win. When we’re trying to be easily efficient, we’re looking for Win, win win, and maybe even win win situations like the gym one I had in the morning. 

Clint Murphy  11:05

The last part I’ll talk to you about is minimum effective dose. This is something that was really popularized by Tim Ferriss. Let’s talk about what it looks like. I always ask myself two questions, what’s the exact minimum I need to do to achieve my desired outcome. No more, no less. That’s one thing. The second thing is, how can we re engineer the process using first principles to achieve our goal as effectively and efficiently as possible? Let me repeat that one again. How can we use first principles to achieve our goal as effectively and efficiently as possible. Remember, effectively is working on the right things. Efficiently is working on those things the right way. By examining your role activities and processes from these angles, you will free up time, and with that time, you can engage in what you love during your lazy time. For me, that’s reading, writing, podcasting. I binge watch a fair amount of TV shows, usually while I’m doing some of those other things, or playing hours of pickleball. Seriously, it’s the greatest sport ever. 

Clint Murphy  12:16

So there you have it. Lazy efficiency isn’t about doing nothing. It’s about doing the right things in the most efficient way possible. It’s about freeing up time, energy and resources to focus on what truly matters to you. Until next time.

Clint Murphy  12:39

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