My name is Chad and I have been living remotely in Bangkok while building financial independence. I've been running OE for 3 years now, pulling in double income with 2 consulting gigs. Today, I want to share with you a dead-easy tactic with enormous leverage for your day-to-day efficiency.

J2C is on a new posting schedule, with the first post of the week being something more tactical (today).

I hate meetings. Call me an introvert, but I’d rather get my work done and get out, hanging out with real friends instead of colleagues. Unfortunately, in my consulting gigs, meetings are common. They take up my energy, and force me to switch contexts within Js and between Js.

I’m sure you may agree that some meetings are complete filler in corporate America. To put it in perspective, in a typical week, if you have two 1-hr meetings a day, that's 10 hours (or 25%) of your week gone, leaving you less time and energy on stuff that actually matters. Us remote workers should be paid based on the result, not time sat in meetings.

Here’s the catch — you don’t actually have to I’ve been able to reclaim up to 8 hours of meeting time per week by simply transcribing my meetings. If you already do so, great! You don’t have to read this article; but, if you are working remotely and haven’t yet used this technique, continue reading.

To put it simply, use a tool on your phone transcribe your meetings, while your computer is on loudspeaker. I use Otter.ai and recommend it (it's not a sponsor, but it should be). You get a full transcript, so you don't have to pay complete attention in the moment. For me, this means knocking out easy emails, updating my to-do list, handling low-key stuff from another J, or even eating lunch.

Plus, with a transcript, you save the time you'd spend taking notes, and you can refer back to the transcript anytime. No more trying to remember details or wasting energy on recall. Over a week of 2 daily meetings, this adds up to 8 hours saved – that's a full extra work day.

Bonus: You can also put your transcript into your AI workflow if you rely on these tools to create your outputs. Doing so will help you catch importance nuances and make your boss happy. (Read more here on how I incorporate AI into my workflows)

Today, I had a rare overlap between J1 and J2 meetings. It was bad planning on my end, but it happens, especially since I just started a new project today with my J1 and have not fully optimized my calendar.

I put my J2 call on transcription on loudspeaker and used wired headphones for J1, and kept my camera on for both (most folks in consulting use multiple monitors anyway so I didn’t need to look into the camera).

Obviously, I am not auditorily ambidextrous (is this a concept?), so my brain could only listen to one meeting (the wired earbuds).

After the meeting, I skimmed the J2 transcript after putting it in ChatGPT and caught up with everything in 2 minutes. Realistically, the meeting only had 2 minutes of relevance to me anyway. Without the transcript, it would have taken me 30x more time to get the same information.

Having a transcript saved me from rescheduling or faking an excuse, and I stayed on track for both gigs.

Bonus: I use an iphone and recent models come with a mappable “action button.” I have my action button set directly to start an audio transcription, so I can start transcribing at a moments notice.

OE isn't about being the best employee ever. It's about treating your time like a business asset. You are purely rational and transactional with your time: put in what's needed, get paid, and use the rest for yourself. Transcribing meetings helps with that.

In a single J setup, transcribing meetings is a good practice by keeping you sharp and helping you have details ready. In OE, efficient meetings save you time for more money-making potential.

Some tools cost a bit, say $10-20 a month. But if your time is worth even $3 an hour, those 8 saved hours/week of meeting time and mental bandwidth pay for it easy. For me, it’s a no-brainer investment.

This week’s simple tip aligns with a broader OE mindset. Granted, OE is not for everyone, but for those who are interested, OE is about being transactional with your personal resources, running your life like your own company. Cut costs, save time, and open new revenue streams.

My challenge to you: As you start this week, I urge you to find ways to trim down on one 15 min/day activity this week. By saving 15 minutes per week, you are saving 5 hours per month, almost a full work day. (if you complete the challenge, pls email me with your success stories at [email protected])!

Look at your daily routine: cooking, cleaning, commuting. These activities could also be optimized.

Examples:

Small changes like these stack up. What would you do with an extra week per month? Consider finding a J2 or J3, starting a side hustle, learn a skill, or just relax knowing your income's growing.

Living in Bangkok with J1 and J2, I've outsourced to save as much time as possible.

I get food and groceries delivered, have a maid clean my place bi-weekly, and use Grab (local Uber) everywhere. Meds get delivered to me after online consultations from a local hospital. Using the additional J2 income, I’ve also moved to a more expensive condo that has a shorter commute to my important wellness facilities (memberships at gym & massages).

On top day to day life optimizations, I invest in AI tools (I spend $750 a month on them, see my post on it) that have a positive ROI for my personal LLC, among other daily optimizations.

I dare say that these optimizations around my time and energy gives me an additional week’s worth of productivity each month, without actually working harder or longer. 100% of my resources go into either personal wellness or personal income-building.

If cameras are required on your meetings, don't sweat it. Act natural. check other monitors like everyone else does. And, if someone asks, tell them that you are in fact looking at other screens in your multi-monitor setup.

Whether at work or home, your daily savings compound. With small optimizations stacked over time, you can chase bigger wins. Double your cash flow, build security, live on your terms.

Thank you so much for reading this far. I started this newsletter 3 weeks ago and it has grown to over 500 subscribers. Such growth is thanks to your continued support and feedback. To help me continue to provide high-quality, human-written content, I would appreciate it if you can take just 2 seconds to rate this article 0-10. I trust that this is 2 seconds with a positive ROI 🙂