Ask yourself, “What can you eliminate?”

When working with officials at the City of Georgetown, a very nice lady told me she was absolutely “overwhelmed” in her job. She asked me to suggest anything at all that might help her, and I responded by saying, “What can you eliminate?”

This might sound rude on my part, yet I didn’t mean it to be rude and the woman didn’t take it that way. Instead, she listed intently when I told her about the book, “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferris.

Mr. Ferris points out in his book that it’s crucial to keep asking, “What are the things I can eliminate?” because many of the things we work on in our days are not really that important.

Mr. Ferris puts a smile on my face when he says in his book that, “Being busy is most often a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.

He goes on by saying, “The options are almost limitless for creating “busyness”: You could call a few hundred unqualified sales leads, reorganize your Outlook contacts, walk across the office to request documents you don’t really need, or fuss with your BlackBerry for a few hours when you should be prioritizing.”

Mr. Ferris keeps the smile on my face when he says, “In fact, if you want to move up the ladder in most of corporate America, and assuming they don’t really check what you’ are doing (let’s be honest), just run around the office holding a cell phone to your head and carrying papers. Now, that is one busy employee.”

I like what Mr. Ferris says because he makes the point – very forcefully – that a lot of what we work on is not really that important.

How much better would it be for example, to first qualify the leads that will be called, to schedule a time moment to organize the contacts in Outlook, to keep the needed documents as close to you as possible (walking doesn’t just waste time, it invites interruptions), and to forget about the BlackBerry right now since there’s a key priority to accomplish?

I continually tell people that there are four key words necessary for good time management: 1) Plan, 2) Prioritize, 3) Schedule, and 4) Eliminate. The fourth word “Eliminate,” is the one that usually gets forgotten. It’s a crucial word because you can actually “eliminate” a lot of unnecessary things when you plan, prioritize, and/or schedule them.

Consider your cell phone as an example.

Pretend your phone is ringing right now. Do you really need to take that call at this moment? Knowing you receive a lot of calls, why not schedule the times of day when you’ll listen to and reply to them? Why not “eliminate” the habit of answering every call by setting up your voicemail so each caller knows when you’ll listen to and reply to your messages.

And how about all those papers on your desk?

Do you really need all those piles and papers there? Why not eliminate the ones you don’t need today or else they’ll be apt to distract you from the key priorities you need to work on.

The woman who spoke with me thanked me and said, “You know, I’m starting to realize that being “busy” is not being productive. It’s just being busy.”

I loved that comment from her.

My thought for her – and for you — is this: Eliminate what you don’t need for today by scheduling it for another time.

When you “eliminate,” it’s easier to focus on the things that get you closer to your goals. And that’s when you’ll be working at your very best.

Does this make sense to you? Please leave a comment.

Be very, very careful about multi-tasking!

In an earlier post in this blog I urged you to be careful about multi-tasking. I pointed out that “multi-tasking” is one of the hot bywords of today, yet studies by the Federal Aviation Administration, University of Michigan, and UCLA show that multi-tasking can be hazardous to your health and that it can lead to numerous physical problems and memory loss.

New studies announced by John Naish in an article on August 11 (http://bit.ly/rgioC) explains how scientists are discovering that today’s mania “for cramming everything in at once is creating a perilous cocktail of brain problems, from severe stress and rage in adults to learning problems and autism-like behavior in children.”

According to Naish’s article, these studies are made by using advances in medical-scanning technology that enable researchers to watch what happens in the brain when people try to perform more than one complex task at a time.

And, as I said previously, the news isn’t good.

What’s especially interesting in the results of the new discoveries is that multi-tasking makes us less efficient (as opposed to what most of us believe).

Naish’s article points out that researchers are discovering “the human brain doesn’t multi-task like an expert juggler. Instead, it switches frantically between tasks like a bad amateur plate-spinner. The constant effort this requires means that doing even just two or three things at once puts far more demand on our brains compared with is we did then one after another.”

And here’s a key point described in the article:

“The real problem occurs when we try to concentrate on the two tasks we are dealing with, because this then causes an overload of the brain’s processing capacity. This is particularly true when we try to perform similar tasks at the same time – such as writing an email and talking on the phone – as they compete to use the same part of the brain. As a result, your brain simply slows down.”

Naish points out that, “Multi-tasking has rapidly taken over our lives, to the point that we look woefully lax if we’re doing just one thing at a time. We think nothing of texting while also watching television, surfing the internet and talking to our family. Indeed, drug companies are busy developing products to enhance our mental efficience so we can do even more.

And, according to Professor Russell Poldrack, a psychologist at the University of California, “Humans are not built to work this way. We’re really built to focus.”

Dr. Alan Keen, a behavior scientist at Australia’s Central Queensland University, believes multi-tasking is a significant reason why we are witnessing epidemics of rage.

The article suggests that, if you must multi-task:

1) Don’t do so in the afternoon. Researchers say that post-lunch fatigue, added to the strain of multi-tasking, often causes overload, 2) Meditate – because research shows that meditation makes brains more efficient at paying attention, so there is brain power to spare when doing two tasks at once, and, 3) Practice multi-taking with simple tasks.

I’m going to add the following 3 suggestions that I made in this blog last March:

1) Prioritize your tasks. (If you prioritize properly, there’s no need to multi-task).
2) Set deadlines for each task – in advance.
3), Multi-task only with low-level activities such as listening to CDs while exercising and watching TV when cooking.

Does this make sense to you? I’d welcome your comments here.

Take care of your #1 Priority!

Three separate people asked me this week, “If you had just one Self-Management suggestion to make to me, what would your recommendation be?” My answer to all three people was the same:

“Take care of you!”

I’m now making this same recommendation to you:

Take care of you before you do anything else.

It might seem to you as if I’m suggesting that you — and the three people who asked me — be selfish in some way. Selfishness has nothing to do with my suggestion, however.

Instead, I’m saying it’s important to take care of you each and every day because you are your #1 Priority.

Please think with me.

If you aren’t sane and/or healthy, please consider how much more difficult it would be to take care of anyone — or anything — else? I say you want to be certain you are sane and healthy.

To do this:

1) Consider the time of day when you have the most energy. Is it early in the morning, maybe at noon, perhaps late in the afternoon?. Now, please make a note of that time.

2) Decide when you are the most creative. Again, is it early in the morning, at noon, or late in the day? Make a note of that time too.

Now, my thought is this.

Guard those times like they are the gold in Ft. Knox.

You might have to trade those times for your customer, or your associate, or perhaps for your family. That’s OK. What you don’t want to do is trade those times for something as ineffective as simply checking e-mail.

I propose that, when you guard your high-energy time and your creative time, you’re taking care of you.

Next, ask yourself each and every day, “When am I going to have some free time for myself?” Certainly you’ll agree that you’ll make better decisions when you are clear headed. Thus, it’s important to have some time set aside to think, reflect, pray, meditate, and/or develop a creative thought. (This doesn’t have to be a lot of time.) When you do this, you’re helping to take care of you too.

One thing’s for sure: If you haven’t reserved any time for you, you won’t get any. Certainly you’ll agree with that. Too many other things will interfere.

You have a lot to do or you wouldn’t even be reading this blog to learn some time management tips and strategies. Thus, knowing you have so many different things to do, think how essential it is for you to take care of you first.

Never forget that you are your #1 Priority and – for your own sake – I suggest that you take care of you first – each and every day — by following the above suggestions.

Does this make sense to you? Please let me know your comments.

How to save tons of time for entrepreneurs & small business owners!

In the past three weeks I’ve had the opportunity to speak at two different events, both created and developed by Mind Power, Inc. The first event I’m talking about was in Orlando as part of a program titled “Financial Prosperity,” and this week I spoke in Las Vegas at a program titled “Total Prosperity.” Both of these are exceptional programs.

Here’s why I’m telling you about these events here.

My personal mission, which I believe you know from reading this blog, is to help entrepreneurs and small business professionals make the most of the time in their days and/or in their presentations. (Those are the two subjects I spoke about in Orlando and Las Vegas.)

In Orlando and Las Vegas I wasn’t the only person who helped the audiences save time, however. The entire Total Prosperity and Financial Prosperity programs focused on doing that as well. That amazed me — and it pleased me too!

Before I go on here’s some background.

When reading this blog, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that I stay away from the terms “time management” because you can’t manage time; you can only control your portion of the time you have. And, since time management is more about “management” than it is about time, I prefer to call the subject “Self-Management.” Both audiences loved that because managing themselves successfully is the challenge that entrepreneurs have each and every day, and the audiences interacted magnificently when I delivered my “Get Your Ducks in A Row!” and “Capture the Moment” presentations at the Prosperity Alliance events.

Here’s what also happened, however.

Each key speaker led by Marshall Sylver, a highly successful entrepreneur known as “The Millionaire Maker,” covered time saving subject after time saving subject – in every aspect of the audience’s total business — from finances and legalities to specific entrepreneurial and leadership skills! And the material was exceptional (the best I’ve ever seen and heard) and taught in ways specifically designed to help each entrepreneur and small business owner in the audience (including me) avoid the most common pitfalls that business people make (and have made) when planning and growing their businesses.

The reason I’m talking about all this is that attendee after attendee said they learned more at these two events than they ever thought possible And here’s the point.

If you’re an entrepreneur and/or small business owner, I strongly suggest you check out the Prosperity Alliance programs at www.sylver.com. You’ll see – just as I discovered as a speaker for this group — that there are hundreds and hundreds of successful entrepreneurs and small business owners who have attended the Prosperity Alliance programs who will tell you that they saved months and even years of time from common mistakes and lack of information that most business owners start out with.

I am also telling you this because I’ve been in the same boat that you and other entrepreneurs are in and, even though I’m a Self-Management speaker who makes a living by teaching others how to save time and get more done, I began to see ways at the Prosperity Alliance programs to save time for my total business. I love that and, thus, I’m sharing this information with you.

Take it from me. You cannot possibly go wrong by checking out the Prosperity Alliance events. Like me (and I’m saying this with a smile), the folks there will help you save tons of time.

Have a comment? Please let me know.

Here are 2 questions to help you & your team.

When working with ABS in Houston this week, we discussed the differences in generations and the way each generation seems to have a preference for the way they like to communicate.

We agreed that:

  ”Matures” like to use Voicemail.

  ”Boomers” tend to like E-mail

  ”Gen X” like to use Text

  ”Gen Y” (Millennials) like to use social media such as FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, and LInkedIn.

These conclusions of course are not “absolute” because there definitely are exceptions, yet even so, we agreed that there are differences in communication preferences based on age group.

Suggestion: if you work with a team that’s made up of different age groups, you’re apt to discover – just as we did — that it’s very helpful to you and your group to ask each other the following two questions:

1) What’s the best way for us to communicate?

2) What can we do to save time for each other?

When you ask these questions, you are apt to learn that even though you might like Voicemail, your team might prefer Texts. By the same token, you might like E-mall, yet your team might show you how Tweets might be more effective for the group.

The point to all of this is that by asking the above two questions, the answers can help you and the entire team, and — after all – that’s teamwork.

I say that teamwork is time management. Do you agree?

Does this suggestion make sense to you?

Certain software can help you organize yourself!

When speaking at the Financial Prosperity Seminar last week, several people in the audience asked me about software that might help them.

Nearly everyone has heard about Outlook, Act, and Entourage for their PCs (and he or she usually knows how to use their favorite one of these) so I won’t waste your time by talking about them here.

I would like for you to know about Evernote. If you have never tried Evernote, go to www.Evernote.com. I’ve written about Evernote in this blog before and it’s worth discussing it here again.

When you use Evernote, you can easily transfer the files that you need with you (for reference or for working on) into the Evernote software. You can then link the software with your papers included — through use of a “cloud” — to your phone. When you do this, you are able to work on whatever paper or project you have included whenever you want and wherever you are. This saves you the need to carry the papers in their physical form.

Now suppose that you have put an array of sheets of paper into Evernote. When you need the paper or idea you want, you can find it quickly by clicking your own search word. The paper you want will appear immediately. This can save you all those hours of time that you used to lose when looking for lost things, and it will reduce your stress.

I have told a number of audiences about Evernote and they love it. And, best of all, it’s free. (Note: A “premium” version is offered for sale.) Also, it works perfectly with a Blackberry or an iPhone.

Franklin Covey has a number of items to help you too. Franklin Covey of course is famous for their paper organizers, yet they also have software you might want to consider for use with your PC. You can find their software on the FranklinCovey website which is www.franklincovey.com. The website touts their PlanPlus software, which can help you. I’ll leave it up to you to determine if you want it. I find it to be too expensive.

I will tell you that the FranklinCovey ap called FCtasks works very well with the iPhone. It does not link to your computer, however. It does help you keep track of your tasks when you are managing yourself on the move. Best of all, the FCtasks ap has reminder badges that show up on the iPhone screen which remind you of tasks you want to handle.

Speaking about the iPhone, you might want to check out the Toodledo ap. It is simple to set up and use and you can purchase a version that enables you to link to your computer. This software is very easy to use. The drawback that I’ve found is that it doesn’t have reminder badges on your phone that help remind you of unfinished tasks.

The best organizing software I’ve found for a Mac is called “Things.” This software is very easy to set up and it can help you keep track of tasks for today, tomorrow, anytime. It also helps you track your projects. You can find “Things” at www. culturedcode.com.

One of the best things about “Things” for the Mac is that it has a companion ap for the iPhone that links (through a “cloud”) to the Things software on your Mac. The software then puts sensible reminders on your iPhone which call your attention to any unfinished tasks.

There are many, many software items that are being offered today. The ones I’ve listed here are the ones I’ve discovered that work best and I hope this helps you.

Do you have any comments? How about software suggestions you’ve found which help you organize your tasks and/or your papers when you’re moving from place to place? Please let me hear from you.

When traveling, have a back up plan.

Sitting in an airport waiting for a flight that’s been delayed for a long time, I’m reminded how important it is to have items with you to work on — or enjoy – so you get back what could easily be called “lost time.”

I hope you never have a delayed flight, but if you do, be sure you have a book or magazine, your phone, and your laptop with you so you can work and/or make the most of your “delayed” time. I’m in the process of writing a third book so I’m using this flight “delayed” time in the airport to do that.

One other thing: If you ever have a delayed flight (and I hope you don’t), keep your fingers crossed in hopes that it’s with Southwest Airlines because they do everything they can to accommodate you and keep you informed. (They are even bringing in snacks and soft drinka to those of us who are delayed today.) I’m sorry to report that other airlines leave you uninformed and/or misinformed. Not only that, most of the other airlines charge you a fee for your suitcases. Incredible how greedy some airlines can be, isn’t it? Southwest doesn’t do that!

The point to all this is not that one airline is better than another, it’ that, if you travel today, it’s important to have back up items with you so you can make the most of your time.

Does this ring true to you?

Take time to smell the flowers.

I met a terrific man this week. While working on the job, he is being treated for cancer.

I wrote my new friend to tell him I enjoyed meeting him and he just sent me the following e-mail that I’m sharing here because of the helpful, sensible observation he makes:

“Some people think it is odd when I tell them that the cancer was a great gift. It forced me to stop and look at life and make a determination on what is important and what isn’t. Some people go through their entire life never doing this. I was forced to do it at 51 and while you would never wish cancer on anyone I do wish more people understood how many things in life are petty and unimportant and how lucky they are to receive the chance to live each day.”

My new friend is absolutely right. Being a cancer survivor myself, I don’t want anyone to get cancer. I do think it’s important for all of us – just as my friend says so articulately — to stop and think about how lucky we are to live each day.

Make sense to you?

How to “make time” for you (#12):

Know where you’re going!

If you’ve ever used MapQuest or Google Maps, you know how important it is to enter two things in the map-making device: 1) where you’re going 2) where you’re starting. Once you’ve done that, the mapmaking device then lists the steps you need to take to get where you want to go.

The same thing is important for your life. You need to know 1) where you are going and 2) where you are starting. Once you answer both of these questions you can more easily fill in the steps you need to take to get to your desired location.

Sadly, most people who lose time today are unsure of where they’re going and they bounce around from one time-wasting step to another. You don’t want that. You want to know – precisely – where you’re going.

To help you determine where you’re going, consider the following four items 1) Mind, 2) Body, 3) Relationships, 4) Financial. Think about these in detail. For example, what do you want most for your mind (books, thoughts, etc.)? How about your body (appearance, weight, ability), your relationships (who with?) and your financial dream (net worth)?

Next, write down a statement about yourself that incorporates all of your thoughts. A simple way to do this is to start your statement with any of the following expressions: 1) “I am unique because” 2) “I am the only person who” 3) ” I am the best at” 4), “I am known for” 5) “I am recognized as.”

The statement you choose from thinking about this will help you get a picture of where you’re going.

Now think about the one specific person you can picture who best represents your dream and write down their name. (This person now becomes your model so think about what they do, picture how they do it, and this will help you see the steps you want to take.)

Once you’ve determined where you’re going, it’s important to write it down.

If you don’t write down your specific destination, you’ll be working only with an idea and the world is loaded down with millions of ideas that are simply floating around in the universe. When you write down your destination, you’re making it tangible and part of the world.

Nothing great happens when you keep things in your head!

When you write down your ending destination, be sure to write it in the simplest possible terms – no long paragraphs! When you create a simple, easy-to-identify destination, you can remember it not just in your head, but also in your heart.

Once you know where you’re going and where you’re starting from, you then – just like the mapmaking device –can begin to fill in the steps you want to take.

Never, ever worry about taking “perfect” steps. Forget perfect. You want progress, not perfection. Way too many people keep from taking steps towards their destination because they are worried about making a mistake.

If you’ve ever taken a trip, surely you’ve discovered that that every now and then a road you were taking has a detour, which routes you around the road you were on. This is normal.

Mistakes are normal and, if you make one, simply get back on track.We learn from our mistakes and sometimes those very mistakes show us a new point on the trip that we enjoy seeing and never would have known about otherwise.

A clear vision propels you and gives you a sense of purpose. Not only that, a clear vision helps you make time for yourself by anticipating possible roadblocks and eliminating time-wasting routes, diversions, and distractions.

Does this ring true to you?

How to “make time” for you (#11):

Watch out for hurry!

Wherever you go these days, you see people rushing, hurrying, and wearing themselves out. This seems to be going on everywhere and it leads to mistakes, forgotten items, and stress.

Think for a moment of the number of mistakes you’ve made and had to correct, the items you’ve forgotten and had to look for, and the stress you’ve experienced because of hurry. And all of these mistakes and forgotten items, and all that stress steal your time.

Now think how much that stress and lost time totals. It’s a lot, isn’t it?

Let’s also realize that the American Psychological Association reports that 48% of Americans can’t sleep at night because of stress. Are you one of the 48%? If so, that lack of sleep is stealing time from you too.

I’ve looked and looked and there is no correlation anywhere between a fast life and a happy life – no correlation at all!

In spite of the fact that hurry doesn’t help you regain or even save any time, look around and watch how everyone is racing. Clearly, hurry does become a habit – a time-losing habit!

It’s important for you and me to remember that we only get so much time, and any time we lose is time we’ve lost forever.

My suggestion here is for you (and me) to slow down. That’s one way for you (and me) to make time for us.
I’m predicting to you that slowing down will actually speed you up by helping you make fewer mistakes, remember details, and reduce stress.

Yes, I know, I have trouble with this too, but it does help.

If nothing else, simply realize that every spiritual path in the world suggest that we slow down so we can become more clear-headed. That’s good advice.

Make sense to you?