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Justin Esgar:
So somebody in the AT/MSP podcast or AT/MSP Facebook group posted a picture the other day about asking if anybody wants to work in California. And I said that I would tell this story on the podcast, so I'm assuming that this part of me, which is that in seventh grade, 1992, we had these Mac lc. They were like pizza boxes in our computer labs. And I think I told this story on the origin story one, but we got Microsoft Word to install and it was 15 three and a half inch. And so I'd asked the teacher if I could take it home and install it on my own computer. And she didn't know anything about end user license agreements or anything like that. And so I took it home and I installed it on my home computer. And when you first started up and said, what's your name?
And I was like, Justin Esgar. I was like, what are your initials? je? And said, did my install and it worked and fine. And so I came back the next day or whatever it is, and the teacher was like, well, you know how to do this right? And I was like, yeah. She's like, can you just do it on all the computers here? Because clearly she didn't know how to do it. So I installed it on all those computers. And then from 1992 till 1999 when they replaced the computers, whenever you launched Microsoft Word, it said it belonged to Justin Esgar in the Woodmere Middle School district 14 of Long Island. And actually, what's really even funnier about this is friends that I had that were younger than me or friends of people that are my age, their younger siblings, when they would hang out with all of us AOL instant messenger used to have your away message. And one person had their away message being like, do you guys remember Microsoft Word in blah blah blah's computer lab in the middle school? And it used to say, it's belong to Justin Esgar. Yeah, I'm hanging out with that guy today or something like that.
Eric Anthony:
I promise I would tell that story there.
Justin Esgar:
I
Eric Anthony:
Was not laughing because yes, you told me the
Justin Esgar:
Story
Eric Anthony:
Before. I was laughing because in 1992 I was getting married.
Justin Esgar:
I mean, it's weird for a seventh grader to get married.
I had this conversation the other day with somebody where I thought they were much younger than they are. And it's really funny. I don't want to second guess, but I try to guess people's ages. And there are times where I'm way off and I'm like, either you're way younger than when I think you are. You're way older than you are. And that just shows me the level of stress that I have gone through at 43 to be this bald. Clearly I'm either doing something very, very right in my business or vary something wrong in my business, been an ear and ear and an ear.
Eric Anthony:
Please join me in welcoming super ops.ai as our newest premier vendor sponsor Super Ops has shown its support for all things Ms. P by providing financial support to our community. So please welcome them and show your appreciation for that support. Super ops.ai is an AI-powered P-S-A-R-M-M platform designed for fast-growing MSPs that's built for the future and built for growth. We'll be doing a significant amount of content with Super Ops over the next year. So stay tuned for their first office hours episode and lots of great content to come. If you want to know more about Super ops.ai, check out their website at atsp.link/super Ops or click the link below.
Justin Esgar:
What's up everybody? Welcome to the All Things MSP podcast. I'm your host Justin Esgar. With me is my good friend and podcast producer extraordinaire. Mr. Eric Anthony. Eric, how are you today? I'm doing well, sir. Just getting ready for the weekend, getting ready to, it's Tuesday. It's Tuesday, not when we record this suspension of disbelief. Bro, today's episode is going to be a weird one because we didn't actually talk about what we wanted to talk about beforehand, but I have a couple of things that we can talk about. So I want to start with, can we all just be nice on Facebook?
Well, timely topic. Timely topic. I talked about this a couple episodes ago and I don't remember made the cut, but I had talked about how I posted some work that we did. We did a ubiquity job for a client. I posted pictures of what we did and the Unify official Facebook group, the people that are in there were like, this looks good. And they would interject their opinion on my work. And then the people in the All Things MSP group were totally okay with it. And somebody today, because it just irks me that this happens, somebody today installed the new unified Dream Wall, which is, it's a very weird product. It's basically a one inch thick rectangle that you mount to the wall and it's a cover plate, but hanging out of the bottom of it is I think a 16 or a 24 port switch.
So you have all these ethernet wires that come out the bottom and you have the power cord and the main line going in the top. So it's a very odd looking product because there's no, so somebody drilled a hole in the plastic of the piece that way all of the ethernet wires on the switch go through the hole into the wall and hide it, which I thought was brilliant. And yet the garbage trove of comments being like, well, why you install it somewhere more secure and why would you put it there? And this is a stupid product. Why does this even exist? And then ubiquity, who is actually an administrator in their own Facebook group, just wrote Nice job, totally approved. If the company who makes the product likes what people are doing, you, Mr, I'm going to hide behind a keyboard warrior. Don't get to say anything. Knock it off. Just be nice on the internet. It's not hard.
Eric Anthony:
Well, I mean, internet trolls are going to do internet troll things, right? That's what they
Justin Esgar:
Do. I don't think internet trolls, that's the problem. These are normal people like you and me. These are MSPs like you and me. These are installers. They're not. I want to grossly assume they're not like this In real life, if I brought one of these, bleep this one assholes with me to the job site that I did, I would not expect them in person for them to go, well, this looks like garbage. They would be nice about it. Don't let the idea that you're on Facebook blur that from you being a human being. I don't think they're Internets, I think they're just angry. They're just people are angry.
Eric Anthony:
Well, that's a whole different topic because yes, I mean people are not happy.
Justin Esgar:
What keeps people happy? Being prepared, knowing what's coming, not being taken off guard by surprises, knowing what's going to happen. Having to-do lists. I think you see where I'm going with this one being productive and keep feeding the beast. Pick up what I'm saying Eric.
Eric Anthony:
Well, I mean you're talking about productivity.
Justin Esgar:
Oh yeah, we are talking about productivity.
Eric Anthony:
There's a lot of places we could go with that, right? I don't know. It depends on your personality too. Me, I a very, I need to be prepared person.
Justin Esgar:
That's why this episode is hurting you so badly. Inside I
Eric Anthony:
Have a to-do list for Saturdays and Sundays. Okay. There's actually a video out there where I talk about I take a four by six index card, fold it in half, and I actually have a system for my to-do list and my schedule for Saturday and Sunday.
Justin Esgar:
I want to talk about that. But I really also want you to cut in that scene from old school, where Will Farer goes? We're going to go to be Bey and beyond. And maybe if we have time, we're going to go to Home Goods. I'm not sure if we'll have time.
Eric Anthony:
Well, if you're going to Bed Bath and Beyond, you have plenty of time to go to Home Goods now because,
Justin Esgar:
Because they're out of business. Well, they came back, but not really, but whatever. So yeah, let's talk. We have a little bit of time to hit this one. I want to do a real, this is our quick Witt episode. What's your number one productivity hack?
Eric Anthony:
My number one productivity hack, you mean besides pharmaceuticals and caffeine is probably calendar blocking. That is probably the most useful thing for me in terms of productivity hacking.
Justin Esgar:
Try not to have this, I coughed already on the camera. I don't need that sound in there. Calendar blocking is a really good one where for those who don't know, what you're doing is you're literally putting the time of what you're working on on your calendar, not just your appointments. So things you need to do become basically appointments on your calendar. Even menial tests, taking out the trash becomes a thing. This way you can stay the course and make sure that everything gets done because you have it planned out. And yeah, sure, there's always going to be things that get in the way and how can I do calendar blocking? I'm dealing with clients and I never know when they're going to call us. You can calendar block time to deal with clients, you know what I mean? Well,
Eric Anthony:
And you have to give yourself grace. You have to give yourself some flexibility. But the idea is here's the problem and here's the problem that I have. I don't know if anybody else has it, but I definitely had this problem, and this is why I started calendar blocking. It's because if you don't give a task a certain amount of time, it will take as much time as it wants. The task Monster will eat as much time as you give it.
Justin Esgar:
I wonder why you said Task Monster. And part of me was like, is that a feature in Windows? But it's task manager. Yeah. The job will take as much, if you're given three weeks to do a project, you're going to get it done. You're not going to touch it for two weeks and six days. Let's be honest. That's just human nature because we always have other things in the forefront, which is not the best way to function because then you're always on edge. You're always on the cusp of it failing as well.
Eric Anthony:
And the other problem that I would have is that I would give myself too many things to do in a day if I just put them on a to-do list. And so I was consistently getting to the end of the day and feeling bad about my day because I felt like I hadn't accomplished what I set out to that day.
Justin Esgar:
I that I hate when I don't finish my to-do list in a given day. And it weighs on you also, especially because then you go to bed thinking, but like, oh, I could have gotten all these other things done, but instead you're just lying awake as opposed to sleeping. So I like that calendar blocking is, I wouldn't say, I used to think that calendar blocking was like an intro move for a lot of people, but I know a lot of people who are more advanced productivity people than I am that still do it because it's not a novice versus pro thing. It's more of it works. It works for a lot of people. If it doesn't work for you, there's other things obviously, but it works for so many people that I think it's a great one. Alternatively to that hack mine is, it's similar because I don't do calendar blocking, which is when I have a to-do list is to write down how much time I think a task is going to take and then I will do all the fast ones first.
So if my to-do list is like take out the trash, do the dishes, change the laundry, call that client, respond to emails, write up my proposal for new client, I will change the laundry, do the dishes, and take out the trash first because I know I've written those down as no more than five minutes. And I want to get those out of my head and off my docket so I can focus on that client thing. Because if I'm on the phone with a client and I'm thinking about the laundry or thinking about doing the dishes, I'm not going to be fully engaged with that client. So I tend to, that's mine. It's similar. It's similar because I'm trying to, all this comes down to is manipulating time, which I think has been a human trait since we understood what time is.
Eric Anthony:
So time is different for everybody. I realize time's a constant and it doesn't really change, but our view, our opinion of time changes and therefore different things work for different people. And whereas time blocking works for me, you have found another way.
Justin Esgar:
What
Eric Anthony:
I really care about when I'm talking to somebody about personal productivity systems is you have to find your own way. Because what works for me is not necessarily what works for you. I can give you some tips, but whether or not it works for you depends on your personality and how you see time and how you see productivity.
Justin Esgar:
My favorite line from that movie tag is when they're all synchronizing their watches and John Ham's like, all right, synchronize your watch. And one of the guy goes, I don't have a watch. And then Hannibal verse goes, time is a construct and just walks away. Yeah. Yeah.
Eric Anthony:
Well, and it is right
Justin Esgar:
In
Eric Anthony:
One sense of the word, and because that construct can be viewed by different people in different ways, how you deal with it personally has to fit you and the way you view that construct.
Justin Esgar:
Yeah, it's a timing. Why me? We believe wobbly mess. But I mean, I want to know from you, the listeners, do you want to see Eric's productivity tips? Because thinking about doing something, and if you do, just leave a comment wherever you see this and put tips. I see how many people want, I want to see just loads of YouTube comments, just saying tips and throw people off. Productivity is a tough thing because also then it comes down to how do you measure productivity? Because like you said earlier, and we were talking about is if you don't finish your to-do list, were you not productive that day? Well, if your to-do list has a hundred items on it and you did 90 of them and you didn't do 10, you might go to sleep feeling like you weren't productive, but you got 90% of your day done. Right? That's also another thing that really messes with our minds is the concept of was I productive? There've been days where I know I have answered a bunch of support tickets and I've taken a bunch of calls from clients and I've done a bunch of stuff, and at the end of the day I go, man, I didn't do shit today.
Eric Anthony:
Yeah, well, so there's that, which I find that if I'm tracking towards a goal that as long as I know I made forward progress on all the different things that I'm trying to accomplish, then I feel okay about it. Now, there's another thing that kind of fits in here, and we're talking about time. So I feel like this is appropriate. Everybody talks about work-life balance. It's a bunch of bullshit. It's because especially
Justin Esgar:
Entrepreneurs, let's put that out there, right? I agree. It's bullshit, but it's especially bullshit for people who own their own businesses.
Eric Anthony:
Well, I think it's bullshit for everybody, okay? Because you cannot spend equal amounts of time on the different domains in your life. You have work, you have your vocation, you have your avocations, you have your family, you have maybe a religious life, maybe you have something else. You have these different domains, and it's not about spending equal amount of time in each of those. It's about giving each of those what they need frequently enough to maintain your, and this is something I'm still working on, so I don't have all the words right for this yet,
Justin Esgar:
But
Eric Anthony:
I did determine it's frequency. Frequency is a good word for this, but it's giving it enough time so that your status, I'll call it for now, in that domain, makes you feel like you are contributing the appropriate amount of effort,
Justin Esgar:
Not
Eric Anthony:
Time to that domain because you
Justin Esgar:
Have to fill the jar.
Eric Anthony:
You have to fill the jar. Making sure that I maintain a relationship with my parents doesn't take a lot of time. I just need to do it consistently. And that's where the frequency piece comes in. And I've got some drawings that I've put together on this. I'm solidifying something and hopefully we'll take a look at it one of these days.
Justin Esgar:
So if you want to be in touch with Eric's parents and help him balance it, I'm just kidding. Yeah. The work-life balancing. It's funny because I don't know why I didn't know this expression until probably earlier this year, which is an entrepreneur will spend 80 hours of work a week to not do 40 hours of work a week, right? Because
Eric Anthony:
Yeah, we've talked about that before.
Justin Esgar:
We've talked about that before. And I'm a big believer in trying to understand work-life balance, because there is that part where you can't be working all the time. You need to break away. You need to be able to relax your mind because that's where the good, this is why all of your best ideas happen in the shower because you're not in front of a computer screen. I would hope your mind is able to relax. Your body's relaxing with the hot water. You can let your mind, your creativity side come through and come up with new ideas. And that's part of it. Also, the idea that this balance for a lot of us is nine to six. I'm going to do it. I'm going to answer those tickets. I'm going to log that person back into Office 365 for the 17th time this month. But those off times is you have to be able to forget about work because you have to recharge your batteries. You have to recharge your mind. You have to spend time with your family or your parents or your kids or your dog or whatever it is.
And I will 100% tell you right now and tell everyone who's listening, like, I am horrible at this. There are nights where I am work to, not to avoid my family, but I am making work because I didn't feel like I was productive enough that day, and I need to get something else done. I need to hit my internal productivity meter so I can move on to the family life jar or something like that. And it takes a toll on people for sure. It hurts both physically and emotionally and mentally. But as long as I'm not doing this consistently, I think I'm okay. And if you are, call us or seek treatment or DMM a friend or something. But finding that balance between the two, it's not a matter of it being a 50 50 balance. It's a matter of it being a balance for your homeopathic way of living.
Eric Anthony:
So the example that I just came up with while you were describing that, by the way, is we have plants out on the back porch. We have plants inside the house. The plants outside need water more often because they're outside. They're in the sun. It evaporates soon. Same plant can be outside and inside, but the one outside needs more water. Okay? The one inside can't be ignored either. So you're right. It's not about the balance of the two. It's not being equal with the two. It's about consistent frequency with both to the degree that they each need whatever they need,
Justin Esgar:
Be an outdoor plant show lights and screens are no good for your skin. Be an outdoor plant.
Eric Anthony:
No, but I do want to go back to that other podcast you were talking about that you do in the shower. Is that on your only fans?
Justin Esgar:
No, I don't podcast in the shower. I'm not telling people my secret URLs I have spent, if I go away for weekend. I remember a couple years ago I went to a spa retreat place with my wife for the weekend, and I had gotten a massage and I'm in the zen room and there's, and this fireplace and quiet, and it's all dim, whatever it is. And I grabbed a piece of paper and I route out a hundred new ideas in five minutes. Stuff that was, it was just backed up in my brain and I couldn't get it out until I relaxed a little bit and got it out. I think that's a big piece of it. So if you're an MSP and you're feeling stressed, go get a massage is what I'm telling you to do. Go book a spa weekend because those things help spend the money. It's worth it. I know this episode's a little over the place, but to wrap this all with a nice little bow, right? Productivity is not measurable based on a list. Get your stuff done. You'll feel good about yourself. Find time to stop working so you can recharge those batteries to build out the pieces on your business, which will help you become more productive. See, I figured it out. It's a Mobius strip. It comes back around. There
Eric Anthony:
You go.
Justin Esgar:
And if you do it right, you can time travel. If you're interested in learning about more productivity tips and stuff like that, leave us a comment down below facebook.com/group/all things msp youtube.com/at all things msp, listen to us on your favorite podcast, leave a review, hit the bell, notify DMM Eric with the word tip, and let's see how many people want Eric's productivity tips. And we'll put something together for you and we'll talk a little bit more, yep. About productivity coming up. Yeah, that's it. That's Eric. I'm Justin. That's it for us. Bye.
Eric Anthony:
From your hosts, Justin Esgar and myself, thank you for listening to the All Things MSP podcast. Join the All Things MSP Facebook group or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. The All Things MSP podcast is a biz POW LLC production. And even though we drink a lot of it, this podcast is still not sponsored by Liquid Death.