In this episode of Money Talk with Tiff, host Tiffany Grant dives deep into productivity hacks with John Briggs, a CPA and productivity expert. John discusses his revolutionary "3.3 Rule," which is designed to help individuals enhance their productivity by working up to three hours at a time followed by a 30% recovery period. This flexible rule allows for personal adaptation and helps you maintain a flow state without burning out.

John also shares interesting historical insights behind our conventional work schedules and provides actionable tips tailored for both employees and business owners.

Check out thee full show notes: https://moneytalkwitht.com/podcast-show-notes/3-3-rule-productivity/

Key Takeaways

• The Origin of the 40-Hour Work Week: The traditional work schedule was created by Henry Ford to sell more automobiles, not based on scientific evidence of productivity.
• Understanding the 3.3 Rule: Work for up to three hours, followed by a 30% break to reset and rejuvenate your mind.
• Adapting the Rule: The rule is flexible and can be adapted to one's individual tasks and flow state.
• Science Behind the Rule: Insights from Alejandro Lleras' research on attention and the need for periodic breaks to maintain focus and productivity.
• Effective Break Activities: Engage in activities that don't stimulate the brain in the same way as work, such as tactile tasks, nature walks, or watching comedy.
• Benefits of the Rule: John shares testimonials, including a story of someone who incorporated the rule and experienced not just increased productivity but also health benefits.

Resources Mentioned

• Book: "The 3.3 Rule: New Workday Standard to Get More Done by Working Less" by John Briggs (https://amzn.to/3BY3Qpd)
• Book Website: 33rulebook.com

Where to Find John Briggs

• LinkedIn: John Briggs, CPA
• YouTube Channel: Insights Tax on YouTube

Connect with Tiffany

• Website: moneytalkwitht.com
• Social Media: @MoneyTalkWithT on all platforms

You know what it is? That's right. It's time to talk money with your money

nerd and financial coach. Now tighten those purse strings

and open those ears. It's the Money Talk with Tiff

podcast. Hey,

everyone. I am so excited because I have John Briggs on the line now.

He's here to talk to us about productivity. And y'all know I love

some productivity hacks, so let's just hop right into it. Hey, John, how

are you doing? Great, Tiffany. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thank you so much

for coming on. So you mentioned before we hit record

that you have a 3.3 rule that

can boost productivity. So let's hear more about that. Okay,

let me start with a bit of a history

trip. Back in the 1800s, people were working

like 100 hours a week on average. And

then this guy comes along and he's trying to sell

these motorized carriages. And he thought,

you know, who doesn't want to buy motorized carriages? People who are working

100 hours a week. Exactly right.

He created a weekend, what we still call the

weekend. People were working Monday through

Saturday and only having Sunday off. So he's like, I'm gonna let my

workers have Saturday off as well. And so that they have

energy going in to this Saturday, Sunday days

off, I'm only going to have them work eight hours a day. Now all of

a sudden, people are like, wow, I actually am not exhausted and I've always wanted

to go to that place. And oh, my gosh, with this motorized carriage, I could

go even further and see more of the world. And so Henry

Ford selling automobiles created what we still use

today as the standard 40 hour work week, solely

based on the need and desire to sell more cars.

There's no science behind it. There's no rhyme or reason to it other

than just, let's sell more cars. Luckily, between then

and now, a lot of science has been done on how we

work as humans, how our brains work, our ability to focus changes.

And so we can get into all the science you want, Tiffany. But the science

that I looked at backed me into what I Now call the 3.3

rule, which states the most efficient work day

consists of working up to three hours at a time,

followed by a 30% recovery period. So the three.

The first three, and the 3.3 says up to three hours,

and the 0.3 is referring to the 30% recovery time we should

take after working. Okay, so you just dropped a ton

and I am a nerd. So I love the history lesson.

And I'm just like, oh, My gosh, capitalism at its finest. He's

like, let's sell some more cars. How can we sell some more cars? Make sure

people are less tired so that way they can drive. I love

it. So that is so interesting. But going back to

that though, it is very crazy that we still

abide by that same rule. And now people are talking about four day

work week, so it might be getting even shorter. So let's dive

into this 3.3 rule because it sounds interesting, but it sounds like a lot of

math. So let's back into it for the audience. So you

said work for up to three hours. So are we

doing the whole three hours or should we take breaks? Because one

technique that I use a lot is the Pomodoro method. So is

it the full three hours or we taking breaks in between?

Yeah, the reason I set it up as a rule

so it's like guidelines that we can use to adapt our behavior is

because we are all completely different and

to say so I like the pomodoro technique and I talk about it in my

book, the 3.3 Rule. The challenge with the Pomodoro technique is what if

I'm actually really just in the zone when the

timer goes off after 20 minutes, I have interrupted my flow

state. So not only are we all different, but even the tasks that we do

each day are different. So for example, I'm an

accountant, I'm a cpa. I have an accounting firm. I love

forecasting. If you gave me someone's financial statements

and said, hey, can you do some forecasting with this? I would geek out

on that and I would be, I could just, I love it so much. But

I'm also introverted. And if you said, hey, John, can you get on the phones

and answer all the phones? That's going to take a lot more out of

me. And all of us are different. I have some team members who love being

on the phones and would not want to touch a spreadsheet for the life, for

their like if their life depended on it. So that's

why I set it up as guidelines. So that's why it's work up to

three hours. So if I'm on the phone and I'm feeling like, man, I'm actually

just, I think my focus is, you know, waning

a little bit. I'm getting a little tired, then that's a sign that

let me just take a 30% break. Oh, I worked an hour. I'll take

20 minutes off if I'm geeking out on

a spreadsheet. And doing forecasting. Then

at three hours, I know as much as I love it that the science

shows my productivity for sure is going to drop off after three hours. So at

that point I'd take a break and 30% of the three hours would be a

full hour off. And then whatever that 30% time period is

allows our brain to reset so that when I come back

to try to focus again, my mind is actually ready

to focus again instead of this arbitrary nine to

five, sit your butt in the seat and work for

eight hours straight. Or I mean, obviously people have to take lunch breaks, but you

get what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And you know, I'm glad you

mentioned that because sometimes you do get into that flow

where you're like, ooh, like let me keep going. I'm like that with

websites. I'm like, ooh, like as soon as I get started, I'm right, like I'm

on it. Right? Yeah. But there's other things like you

mentioned where I'm like, I really don't feel like doing this, but I have

to. And so I like that it's just a guideline where you

can take as much time as you need, how however long you're in that

said flow and then just taking that 30%

afterwards. So yeah, I think that's pretty neat. Yeah.

Yep, that's, that's exactly why we do it. Because like you just

said, I mean, websites aren't my thing, so that would be hard

for me to do. And if you think about all the different tasks that have

to go on, whether I'm an employee or a business owner,

most of the time there's a variety of tasks that we're responsible for.

And so it's just good to know like at the end of the day, what

I love about the rule is it allows us to be so self aware,

it puts us more in tune with our own likes and

dislikes. Because it is a matter of acknowledging

I've been doing this, whatever the task is for this long. I

just, I'm like, I can tell that I'm being slower, I can tell that

I'm not focused. That's a perfect sign to say, boom, let me get up

and take a 30% recovery period. Because the best thing about this is the

recovery period. In order to be the most effective, you

can't do any work related things. You have to let

your brain and mind get a rest from that. Gotcha. Now

when you say that, do you think like no

screens at all or is it like, oh, you can go on social

media or what have you. Like, do you have any stipulations around that? But as

long or as long as you're just not doing that task that you are working

on. Yeah. So great question to answer that. Let me tell

you about the kind of. One of the biggest

keystones of this research that I found. There is

a guy at the University of Illinois, his name's Alejandro

Lleras. And at the time he was doing a study, everybody

was. Everyone wanted to try to figure out what's the magic number of

attention span. They felt like, if I could be the scientist that

discovers what is the real human attention span, then I'm

going to be famous. He actually stopped and paused for a second

and said, wait a minute, is this the right question?

Because if I'm daydreaming, my attention is still on something.

It just may not be on the task or activity I need to

have it on. So he's like, it's not an attention span. If we're awake, our

attention is on something. So he first kind of put his

foot down with, okay, maybe this isn't the right question. And then he saw this

other study that was related to physical stimulus.

Our minds will neutralize a

constant physical stimulus. So think about the clothes that we're wearing.

Everyone listening. This probably has clothes on, but

you kind of forgot until I just mentioned it. Now you can feel the weight

of it. If you wiggle your shoulders a little bit, you can kind of feel

the friction against your skin. It's because the pressure

of the clothes on our skin is a constant stimulus that our brain

neutralizes. And now he's putting these two ideas together of

attention span and this constant stimulus. And he wondered, I wonder if

it's the same thing to do with our attention.

If our mind is focused on the same thing for so

long, will our mind actually neutralize that

stimulus? And that is what he discovered in his study.

And so I give that science behind. Now, when we look at the break,

what can I do on the break to make it the most effective? It has

to be unwork related. And we have to make sure

that we're not doing things that stimulate the brain the same way

working would do. So screens aren't off limits. However,

if, for example, media these days, everything

that's related to the political world is very biased

and is written in a way to generate

extreme emotions on either side, whether it's complete

euphoria and you support whatever's being said, or you're really mad because you

completely disagree with Whatever's being said.

So on my break, it would not be smart for me to read something like

that that's going to stimulate my stress or anger or, you

know, those types of things. But like, you know,

comedy is really great. Laughing is really great. And so if I'm

using a screen to watch comedians,

like maybe I set up a YouTube channel or you know, have a

playlist there, that's a bunch of comedians, that's totally fine. And so we

just have to be smart about what exactly we're doing.

I have an example for you. We have a team member going through some things

where she had to move places and talking

to your spouse or really a colleague, just about life.

That's normally good. But in this case there was so much stress in her

life going on that when she was taking a break, she was talking to her

spouse about the things that they're stressed out about

and that didn't actually end up giving her a very good break. And she

didn't come back to work with the same type of focus that someone

who took a better break would have come back with. Yes,

yes. I love this because I've noticed over the years

that, you know, since most of my work is on the computer, I

noticed that whenever I take a break and do something physical,

so like making something or just something that I can,

that's tactile, it's a real stress reliever for

me and I'm able to do a different

type of attention and focus on something else. So

I definitely agree with what you're saying there. And also when

I was working in corporate America, I would always

use my 15 minute breaks and 30 minute lunch to go outside,

just get some nature. And I felt like that was

very energizing as well. Yeah, you're.

I mean, your observation is right on. For most

people, something tactile and even creative

is a really great outlet. So whether that's drawing,

painting, journaling is actually really

good. You know, my kids love to color. As an adult, I haven't done it

as much. Not that I don't. I mean, if you enjoy doing that, shouldn't feel

like it's a kid's activity. Coloring is a really great activity to

do. And then what you mentioned, getting out, walking around,

those types of things are really good. One of the guys who was

a beta reader to my book, he had sent me an email

like 4 months after I sent him the beta version of my book, before

I published it. And he's like, hey, I wanted to thank you. I've lost £20.

And I'm like, hold on, wait a minute. I'm like, I did own a gym

a few years ago, but he was never a member. I'm not connecting in my

mind the weight loss to anything that I would have done for him.

He said, no, but it's great. I go to work from

9 to 12 and I'm focused the whole time. So I take a whole

hour off. And now that I'm taking a whole hour off

for my lunch break, I've decided I'm going to walk my

dog. And because I have so much time off, I actually walk my dog a

couple miles in that time period. And then when I come back and I'm

ready to eat lunch because I just did something physically. One,

I got extra physical fitness in that I wasn't getting before. I'm bonding with my

dog. I'm outside in nature, and when I come down to sit and

eat, I'm not eating the same junk that I was eating. Which

means when the 2 and 3 o'clock time period comes around where normally

I was crashing, I don't need to snack on sugary things

to keep my attention up. Because I'm following this rule and because of it,

I've been living the principle and I've lost 20 pounds. I'm like, well, that was.

I wasn't what I was thinking was going to happen when I wrote the book,

but that's, that's freaking awesome. Good job. Yeah. And

I mean, it makes perfect sense too, because once you start changing up

what you do, I feel like most of our lives we just live on autopilot.

So I feel like if we just switch up certain things

in our routine, it'll do a domino effect. Like in his situation,

it just a domino effect. And all of a sudden you're losing weight because

you implemented one thing and that was taking a longer break or taking

a break and doing something which was walking the dog.

So I think that's pret cool. So you mentioned a

book, though. So tell us more about your book. Because I want to lose

£20. Yeah, it's. It's called the

3.3 rule. New workday standard to get more done

by working less. It's on Amazon.

We have a website,33rulebook.com

the first part, the first half of the book, I talk about the science,

I talk about why I wrote it. Which quick summary is

as an accountant, there's a lot of things going on in the accounting industry

that aren't great. We don't have a very good trend with people who are going

to retire and new people wanting to be accountants. And I think one of

the reasons is because accounting firms, like a lot of other

companies, kind of force their team members to. They just, they

treat them like they're a disposable asset instead of a human being.

And the science supports that. You need to give them breaks and they'll

actually produce more than what they were doing

compared to when you're not doing the breaks. And so the first part talks about

the science, it talks about the rule, how to implement it in

general ways. And then the last half of the book was written

primarily for small business owners. It goes through what I call the 3.3

system that talks about the different areas of

your business over the my career

growing a firm from just me in a windowless

office to a team of 220 plus team members, with team

members almost in every state. I think we're in

about 30 states right now with team members, but we work with all

clients. What were the things that I discovered that moved the needle the

most to have the most success? Because at the end of the day for me

it's always about how do I maintain work life harmony, how do I increase the

profitability of my business? And whether I'm a business owner or an

employee, the 3.3 rule applies because you will be more

productive. And guess what? If you're more productive as an employee, you're likely to get

promoted and you surely are going to have a

much better life outside of work. Which at the end of the day, that's what

it's about, right? We don't, we don't live to work. We work so that we

can live. Amen and amen. Thank you so much, John.

I'm definitely interested in this book, especially when you said the last part is

for small business owners. Because I'm like, I want to grow my team to 200

and something people too. So thank you so much. Now if

people were interested in learning more about you or following you on

social, where could they find you? So I'm on LinkedIn. That's probably the

primary place you could find me at. John Briggs, CPA on LinkedIn.

A lot of the stuff that we do is kind of wrapped into my

accounting firm. So if you wanted to find out stuff that way,

like most of the videos I put are on our accounting YouTube

channel and it's Insights Tax and that's spelled like

to cause a riot, insider riot

incitement. If you Google Insight

tax or the 3.3 rule or John Briggs, CPA. Chances are you can find me.

Perfect. Perfect. And I'll make sure I have all of those links in the show

notes. So if you're listening and you didn't have time to write all of that

down, don't worry, it's in the show notes. So thank you so much John for

coming on the show today. This was very inspirational, insightful and eye opening. I

think I'm going to start implementing that today. Thank you Tiffany.

Bye. Thank you for listening, joining and being

a part of the Money Talk with Tiff podcast this week. You can check Tiff

out every Thursday for a new Money Talk podcast but if you just

can't wait until next week, you can listen to previous podcast

episodes@moneytalkwitht.com

or follow TIFF on all social media platforms forms at Money

Talk with T. Until next time. Spend wise

by spending less than you make. A word to the money wise is

always sufficient.