as implied by the 20-minute investor

time is a precious resource for both of

us 20 minutes is all I had every single

day to do anything that I wanted to do

in the real estate space I was not

willing to jeopardize time with family

time with a spouse There is a way to

build in time after factoring in the

things that you don’t want to give up

Welcome back to our special podcast

series The 20-minute Investor where we

bring you actionable nuggets and

insights from our real estate investing

journeys in bite-sized 20-minute

episodes I’m Aaron Amin My wife and I

built a portfolio of cash flowing

rentals across three states while

working full-time and raising a young

family And I’m Nathan Mirthth I’m a

husband father tech executive who built

a portfolio of cash flowing rentals

across two states from over 2,000 m away

Together we co-founded the remote real

estate academy where we coach investors

on how to build their own portfolios of

cash flowing rentals from anywhere in

the world Today we are going to talk

about one of our favorite topics and one

that we work on quite a bit with our our

clients and that is time management and

productivity So this is actually one of

the things that Nathan and I think

originally bonded over was that we had a

very similar approach to how we tackle

our our real estate investing And as

implied by the 20inut investor time is a

precious resource for both of us So

we’re leaving this pretty open-ended but

I know we both have a lot of opinions on

it So let’s let’s start with you Nathan

Yeah Interesting topic One that comes up

a lot and I always fear when this topic

comes up that I’m just going to have the

most boring answers possible Yeah Uh I

so I mean you touched on it with the the

20-minut investor thing or the 20 minute

kind of theme that’s going on in both

the podcast the academy kind of the you

know the stuff that we talk about in

general but for me it started with that

just being my reality and being my

constraint that the 20 minutes is all I

had every single day to do anything that

I wanted to do kind of in the real

estate space right a real estate

investing space because I was not

willing to jeopardize time with family

time with a spouse as as you know right

Aaron you and I both have you know

full-time demanding jobs that I’ll speak

for myself but I love I love what I do

and I’m very fortunate that way and

they’re very demanding so I’m not

willing to jeopardize any of that and

not willing to jeopardize things like

you know hobbies and health and things

like that so that just resulted in well

how can I make this work mindset well I

can find 20 minutes that I know and then

it’s a question of figuring out how to

do things in these you know 20 minutes a

day increments that actually help move

the needle forward So I want to say it

started with that just the mindset of

I’m not going to let it be more than 20

minutes because I don’t have it and I

don’t want to sacrifice the these other

things and just sticking to that and

figuring out how to make it work in

these 20 minute you know increments And

then my comment about kind of giving a

boring answer cuz in in a way I truly

think it is a boring answer but it’s

frankly also what works I think would

work for a lot of people as well is I

just use my calendar and I try to

schedule everything that I do in a day

from all my W2 meetings to kiddo time to

husband and wife time to real estate

time to exercise time to reading time

and all that I just have those blocks

put in my calendar so I know what to

expect I know when they’re coming up I

know what I can do when and what I can’t

do And it just gives me permission to

focus and to say no to stuff And I stick

to my calendar So yeah people typically

come up and they’ll see it on on a

screen see my calendar and be like “Holy

crap this is chaos.” It’s the opposite

of chaos It’s like everything is there

and structured and yes the calendar is

full but it’s also full with go outside

for a walk for 10 minutes or whatever it

is right so I really have absolutely

everything in there And to me it starts

with what I was just saying like the

mindset of this is what I have I’m not

going to give up other stuff so that I

can do this thing in this case real

estate investing and then scheduling and

building my life around that and putting

that in a calendar so that I know what

it is It’s you know predictable I know

when it’s coming I know what I can and

can’t do And it gives me permission to

say no to a whole lot of things Yeah So

I mean within that answer is the two

components of kind of how we ended up

ultimately building our program right

which is there’s the mindset piece and

then there’s the execution The mindset

is just getting the idea out of your

head that you don’t have time for

something And you know I feel I guess

like you and I are qualified to say

something like that because we have

young kids we have jobs and yet we still

find time for real estate You can

generally make time for things that

you’re willing to prioritize But I think

what you said that you know is one

component that is less obvious is that

you your strategy was to work backwards

from the things that you knew you were

not willing to give up And I have a same

thing and I I I’ve kind of put a label

on that of um you know protect your

non-negotiables where I’m not willing to

negotiate that you know I’m going to

have a lot of quality time with my

family I’m not willing to negotiate that

I’m going to get myself you know in

trouble or not perform at my job I too

enjoy my job and I enjoy that you know

I’ve been able to grow both my earnings

my responsibility and my development you

know at my job So that’s a

non-negotiable It’s also what provides

for our family you know for the most

part Health hobbies things that you know

make you enjoy your life right those are

things that you don’t want to

necessarily give up just to go pursue

something on the side that can make you

money and build long-term wealth So

there is a way to build in time after

factoring in the things that you don’t

want to give up And that’s where the

mindset meets the tactical And in your

case you mentioned time blocking There’s

this idea Parkinson’s law which I think

you know most people probably have heard

of If you haven’t right is that the idea

is that you know a task or a deliverable

will fill the space that you allow it So

the best example is in college probably

most people can relate to this you get

that assignment at the beginning of the

semester and um you wait until a week

before it’s due to actually put any

substantive work in and all of a sudden

you’re at the library at 3:00 a.m And

this was a perfectly avoidable problem

but part of it was the amount of time

you were given Not saying it’s the

college’s fault it’s the individual’s

fault for sure but um but the idea is

that if you only give yourself that

constrained amount of time in our case

in this program is 20 minutes a day then

you build your tasks and you build your

workflows to fit within 20 minutes a day

And so that’s where the the mindset

meets the execution So it’s that

Parkinson’s law like create the amount

of space that you truly have to to

afford and then figure out how it works

for you to execute So I think we tackled

the mindset part pretty good You

mentioned time blocking I know we have a

whole workshop dedicated to how we do

how we parse out 20-minute tasks across

our real estate flows but I’m just

curious other other than the time

blocking like what are some other

tactical ways that you adhere to this

philosophy yeah the I don’t know how

much this is time management versus well

maybe it is indirectly or directly not

sure but a lot of again back to kind of

constraints and then let’s say I I have

these 20 minutes that I’ve blocked off

every day there in my calendar All the

stuff we just talked about Now the

question is you know how can I be

productive and get stuff done and get as

much or an increasing amount of stuff

done done sorry in those same 20 minutes

then it all becomes you know tools tips

you know optimizations you know things

like that to try to plow as much value

in those 20 minutes as I possibly can

And that that developed over time It’s

not like oh I found my 20 minutes and

now I have all the solutions to be

productive You know for a long time I

you know I’d argue probably those 20

minutes were spent I don’t know if

wastefully is the right word but not in

an optimal fashion And over time you

build practices processes tooling

automation things like that to help you

get as much value as possible you know

in those 20-minute increments One of the

things that I like to do is and I’ve

said this in the past but I very

intentionally try to forget everything

Not remember I try very intentionally to

forget everything because I don’t want

the clutter in my head And when I say

forget I’m not forgetting And then you

know stuff falls through the cracks What

I’m saying is every opportunity I get I

will put it in a reminder app somewhere

or on a notepad or I’ll put it somewhere

to get it out of my brain as I know it’s

a thing that I need to do and come back

to at one point That’s why I love the

reminders app on my phone any generic

reminders app It’s not a special app by

any means but I use that little I don’t

know Android well enough but little

shortcut uh or share icon on the phone

whatever it is in an email calendar

event Twitter tweet a x post whatever

they’re called today Say that I want to

get back to you at some point and just

do the share You can share it to your

reminders app and then you can set a

date and time and then that way just get

this stuff out of my head

uh don’t I don’t take up any space to

have to remember it again I give me

permission

to forget about it temporarily because

it’s not what I’m focusing on now I’m

doing something else but I also have it

saved quote unquote in a system that

lets me get back to it at the right or

opportune time So I do a lot of that

especially you know similar to that is I

I guess it’s you know a slight tangent

but similar to that is I I try to

practice like inbox zero as much as I

possibly can Meaning if I have something

in my inbox that is not archived or

deleted or whatever is means it’s

something that I have to get back to at

one point So I don’t I don’t have to

question it I don’t have to remember it

I just know if it’s there I still have

action to take on whatever that thing is

Um and you can do the same in Slack You

can do the same in you know WhatsApp or

whatever Arguably WhatsApp has issues

but we’re not going to rabbit hole there

Uh but that’s one thing that I try to do

to really just

optimize to be productive in those 20

minutes I’m smirking because

unfortunately Nathan has to share an

inbox with me for uh the academy and and

he’s seen my personal inbox So I’d be

lying if I said I was inbox zero But

what I will say is the whole idea of

capturing ideas getting them out of your

head That’s also one of my core

productivity philosophies There’s a

gentleman named Thiago Forte who wrote a

book and ran a course called building a

second brain And not everything from

that book is easy to apply A lot of it’s

pretty dense if you’re not very

organized But he has a framework called

code which is capture organize distill

and express And so capture is a lot of

what Nathan was describing which is like

you get a thought you get an idea you

remember a task that you’re supposed to

do and the idea is to just capture it It

can be a sticky note on your desk it

could be a notes app it could be

whatever As long as it gets out of your

head and somewhere so that it doesn’t

have to live in your brain and just like

percolate there with everything else

going on in your life because once it

gets you know you get a little stew

going on in your head you can’t make any

sense of it So once you’ve captured it

then in whatever interval works for you

it could be every day you look at your

notes app or your your sticky note

wherever you wrote your ideas down and

you just organize them a little bit and

say “Okay this was a content idea This

was something I need to do for my

rentals This was something I need to

order on Amazon for the house.” Whatever

it is right put it in the appropriate

place Distill I mean this is a little

bit more you know if you’re creating

something or if you’re working on like a

strategic level project or something

that would require you to go one step

beyond organize Sometimes you don’t have

to go beyond organize You just do

whatever it was But distill is where you

start to like pull in the themes of you

know what it was So in our case when

we’re building the course like we had

all these ideas we were bouncing back

and forth and we just have all this

loose stuff floating around in our Slack

We’d have calls little AI notes from our

call recordings just a hodgepodge of

stuff You have to actually distill it

into something that makes sense And uh

and then of the fourth one is express So

again using the content example is the

easiest one So you’ve organized it in

your own head and you know between your

team or your your partner or whomever it

is Now it’s time to you know figure out

how to express that into an idea that

you can actually act upon or get some

value out of So that’s I I really like

that framework That book again has a ton

of different ideas and concepts Some of

which are easier to apply than others

but that code framework I think uh

explains a lot of I didn’t realize I was

already doing some of that but once I

heard the framework it was easier for me

to follow the the different steps Um

yeah that’s a that’s a good call

out What else we got i I think I know I

know one that I use a lot and I think

you used to which is the Eisenhower

matrix which is there’s four quadrants

of activities There’s the urgent and

important important but not urgent

urgent but not important and not

important and not urgent And that’s

another way of organizing your tasks to

try and understand And you know usually

people gravitate immediately towards the

urgent on both sides even if it’s not

important And so the idea I think there

is that if you really actually take the

time to organize your tasks and and

paying close attention to the ones that

are important but not urgent Those are

the things like you know keeping your

bookkeeping up to date so you don’t get

over drowned in tax season That’s stuff

like your health where if you eat poorly

for four days in a row you might feel a

little sick but you don’t you don’t feel

the compounding results of that bad

behavior until long down the road

sometimes Things like that that are easy

to defer So that’s another like

framework that I have used a lot is

trying to understand where things fall

within those four quadrants and then

being aware when I’m working on stuff

that feels urgent because it has that

kind of dopamine component but it’s not

important Do you use anything like that

not not as structured or formal I guess

Maybe implicitly in my mind when I kind

of organize and and look at these tasks

or set you know reminders because I’ll

use the flags to say how important

things are or not But I’m not not super

diligent or structured around that

because I I think over time and with

practice I got good enough to keep

myself in check around what’s important

what’s not what’s urgent what’s

not And with kind of this discipline

time blocking life constraints and

things like that Um I feel fine

And like I mentioned a few times now

give myself permission to say no So I I

go through this mental exercise of oh

yeah there’s this thing that I need to

get to It’s not really important so I’m

going to get to it Hey you know what

weekend morning if I get time drinking

my coffee or this is urgent or this this

thing is important so I need to set as a

top priority and get back to it in my

20-minut chunk tomorrow right um it’s

not great But the another I guess slight

tangent but I guess it falls into kind

of productivity time management and

whatnot I’m a big fan and worked very

well for me but I’m a big fan of Hal

Lrod’s Miracle Morning book which I

would recommend to everyone read as well

But there’s more to the book that we can

discuss in two or three minutes here But

the thing that worked best for me was

the concept of front-loading and

starting your day with all these

important things that you want to do and

need to do before the day gets out of

control and life happens and you know

your school teacher calls you cuz your

kid’s sick and you got to go pick them

up and stuff like that happen So

frontload it start early in the morning

and do all the important hard stuff in

the morning as soon as you can before

the day kind of gets out of hand So

that’s why I get up between 5 and 5:30

in the morning and start my day then uh

because I have four solid productive

hours three and a half whatever solid

productive hours before I I’m full-on in

my W2 for example So that’s another

thing that I I really really like or

worked very well for me I should say And

something that operates kind of at the

intersection of everything we’ve talked

about right now is also doing something

called like an energy map And I know I’m

naming a lot of frameworks and exercises

but believe me I do not sit down every

morning with an Eisenhower matrix and

the word code on a postit Like I’m not

that’s not what I’m talking about here

These are mental frameworks where you

kind of train yourself to think a

certain way and then you build whatever

system you want Like not everyone can

time block Some people that would be

very anxietyinducing

But this concept I like called energy

map Not everyone has the luxury of doing

things at the optimal time that they

feel But even within a W2 job like the

miracle morning is a good example of how

you knock out your personal tasks I’m

pretty sure if I remember right that’s

where your 20 minutes a day of real

estate fit in You got your you know kind

of personal time where your mind’s a

little more quiet maybe before the kids

get up That’s great That’s you being

very conscious of when you are best

equipped to face those types of tasks

even within a W2 I think people can

recognize like if you have a lot of

focus work I’m a consultant right so I

have a lot of stuff that’s deliverable

based that’s dense and a little more

strategic And then I also have times

where I have to just field emails I have

direct reports There’s sometimes where I

need to have you know conversations with

them and really pour into them and

understand their problems Those are all

different levels of expending energy and

they’re different ways of engaging your

mind And so being aware of like when is

the best time to have one-on- ones and

check-ins when is the best time to catch

up on emails when is the best time to do

the focused strategic work to the extent

that you can control that Obviously

there’s other people that you might work

with whether it’s in your day job or

extracurriculars Just being aware of

like how you function best and trying to

to the best of your ability build around

that I think is also another good call

out And I’ll share too I’ve been I’ve

been finding myself working a lot late

at night recently mostly out of

constraint And it’s not ideal It’s kind

of out of necessity but I also recognize

that that’s like when I can usually get

a certain type of work done So instead

of trying to do like very deep focus

work then like that’s when I’ll you know

catch up on all my administrative and

mindless stuff So just being aware right

yeah Yeah And there’s a great just

dropping a whole bunch of books here I

guess but there’s a great book on that

very topic that you’re talking about

Aaron uh by Daniel Pink called when the

scientific secrets of perfect timing And

it talks all about exactly when we

should all do what kind of activities Um

and it also does a great job kind of

explaining how we typically each person

typically will fall in one of two very

standard patterns in terms of how the

that the productivity curve uh you know

is drawn for them throughout the day

It’s very very interesting book So I

also read that and adapt what I’m doing

based on that cuz I know what curve I

fall on and therefore I know when I

should do what kind of work and for me

it’s mornings and then evenings

Yep Absolutely So you got some homework

if you listen to this episode We got a

bunch of frameworks and books Snuck them

all into 20 minutes But at the end of

the day you know the goal here is for us

to share we live life with a lot of time

constraints We’ve been able to work in

stuff that’s important to us you know

that serves us in the long run and also

allows us to still be present for our

families and and perform well at our

jobs So this is us just trying to share

some of the stuff that has worked for us

Every person walks an individual journey

in this world and uh we hope that

there’s maybe something here that can be

useful for you and would love to hear if

other people have ideas or things that

have worked for them So you can reach

out to us uh via email or comment on the

video whatever you’d like We’d love to

hear from you So we’ll see you next time

Take care Thank you for making it to the

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