Download - Make the most of your time!
MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TIME!
Spend your time doing things
that take you to the objectives
that make you happier and more
effective
WITH THANKS TO…
• Many of the principles described are derived from Dr Stephen R Covey’s book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”
• A truly excellent book, the other six principles are well worth exploring too
• Also Tim Ferriss whose “The 4-Hour Work Week” is a modern business classic
ARE YOU MOVING FORWARDS?
• This will help you if: You never have enough time
You never have time for you
You want more time with people precious to you
You have endless ‘to-do’ lists
You wonder where time went
You can’t make progress towards what you want
CONCEPTS: FOCUS ON THE THINGS THAT MATTER AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE
DEFINITION
• Time management is: A set of principles, practices, skills,
tools, and systems that work together to help you get more value out of your time with the aim of improving the quality of your life
• If you were at your own funeral, what would you want to be remembered
for?
By your partner and family?
By your friends?
In business?
What difference would you have made?
• And then:
What one thing could you do that if done regularly would make a tremendous
positive difference in your personal life?
What one thing in your business or professional life would bring similar results?
• And then:
How do you make the time to do this consistently?
ASK YOURSELF…
TIME MANAGEMENT TRUTHS
• Remember 80% of results come from 20% of
effort and time
What you do is more important than how do you do it (perfectionists take note)
Don’t use busy as an excuse for avoiding uncomfortable ‘important’ actions
Once time has gone, you can’t get it back
Lack of time is often synonymous with lack of clear objectives
FOUR GENERATIONS OF TIME MANAGEMENT
• First generation: Get things done
Notes, checklists, to-do lists
• Second generation Schedule to get things done
Diaries, calendars, appointments
• Third generation: Prioritise and schedule to get things
done
What’s important?
• Fourth generation: Prioritise and schedule to do the
things important to you
Managing yourself, building relationships, getting results
URGENT OR IMPORTANT?
Urgent tends to be reactive – event driven by somebody else
Important tends to be proactive – results driven by you
Don’t confuse ‘busy’ with ‘effective’
URGENT AND IMPORTANT
Significant results that demand urgent attention
Risk of more and more activities until you burn out
Reactive or proactive - who is setting the agenda?
Activities: • Crises • Pressing problems • Deadline driven projects
Activities: • Planning • Recognising new opportunities • Relationship building
Activities: • Trivia, busy work • Time wasters • Some mail and calls
Activities: • Interruptions • Some calls, email, reports • Some meetings
Urgent Not Urgent
Imp
ort
ant
No
t Im
po
rtan
t
URGENT, BUT NOT IMPORTANT
Short term focus, crisis management
Reacting to other people’s agendas
Often feel victimised and out of control
Activities: • Crises • Pressing problems • Deadline driven projects
Activities: • Planning • Recognising new opportunities • Relationship building
Activities: • Trivia, busy work • Time wasters • Some mail and calls
Activities: • Interruptions • Some calls, email, reports • Some meetings
Urgent Not Urgent
Imp
ort
ant
No
t Im
po
rtan
t
NOT URGENT, NOT IMPORTANT
No impacts of any significance
Busy doing things that don’t matter
Dependent on others
Activities: • Crises • Pressing problems • Deadline driven projects
Activities: • Planning • Recognising new opportunities • Relationship building
Activities: • Trivia, busy work • Time wasters • Some mail and calls
Activities: • Interruptions • Some calls, email, reports • Some meetings
Urgent Not Urgent
Imp
ort
ant
No
t Im
po
rtan
t
IMPORTANT, BUT NOT URGENT
You are in control of your time
Characterised by planning, results and relationships
Time spent in this quadrant has maximum impact on things that matter
Activities: • Crises • Pressing problems • Deadline driven projects
Activities: • Planning • Recognising new opportunities • Relationship building
Activities: • Trivia, busy work • Time wasters • Some mail and calls
Activities: • Interruptions • Some calls, email, reports • Some meetings
Urgent Not Urgent
Imp
ort
ant
No
t Im
po
rtan
t
SUMMARY
• The best way to spend your time is in the “important but not urgent” quadrant
• You’re doing the things that matter and are important to you
• Your actions are aligned with your objectives
• You achieve better work-life balance
ACTION PLAN: GET RESULTS BY TURNING THEORY INTO ACTION
THE PROCESS
• Define personal objectives
• Define goals to take you to those objectives
• Schedule time to complete the goals
PERSONAL OBJECTIVES
• What are my major objectives? For myself?
For my partner and family?
In business?
Major ObjectivesDate:
Personal Objectives
Partner and Family Objectives
Business Objectives
OBJECTIVES INTO GOALS
• What goals take me towards my objectives? Each objective will have a series of
goals to complete
These goals become specific actions
Then plan to complete those actions
Major ObjectivesDate:
Personal Objectives
Goal 1
Goal 2
Goal 3
Goal 4
Partner and Family Objectives
Goal 1
Goal 2
Goal 3
Goal 4
Business Objectives
Goal 1
Goal 2
Goal 3
Goal 4
PLAN WEEKLY
• A weekly plan is better than a daily plan: All actions – personal, family and
business – can be systematically planned
Looking at a week rather than a day makes plenty of time to complete important actions
The weekly plan can be adapted daily as required (but don’t lose the important stuff!)
TIME MANAGEMENT TACTICS: MAKE TIME FOR YOU
DELEGATE!
• Without delegation, your achievement is limited to what you personally do
• With delegation, results become limitless
• Step past the traps: Think this way, and you end up doing
everything “By the time I’ve explained it, I could
have done it”
“I could do it better myself”
I don’t have staff (Don’t think org chart, think capability)
Problems often solve themselves if you stop yourself being a bottleneck and empower others
DELEGATE RESULTS NOT TASKS
• Delegating tasks means: Methods focus rather than results
focus
Micro-management
Those completing the task aren’t motivated
• Delegating results means: Specifying what needs to be
accomplished, not how it should be done
Scope for creativity
Results ownership leads to greater motivation
JUST SAY NO
• Learn to respectfully say ‘No’ to urgent activities If I do this, does it move me closer to
my goals?
Who is this urgent for?
Who else could do this?
Are there other ways it could be done?
GET PARKINSON ON YOUR SIDE
• Parkinson’s Law states any task will expand to fill the time available
• Schedule tasks with very short and clear deadlines
INTERRUPTIONS
• To minimise interruptions, tell people how you prefer to communicate.
• In order of preference: Email
Phone
In person
• Email eats time your time responding to other people’s priorities Switch off the audible alarm and auto
send/receive (or if that’s too painful, make it every two hours)
Set an autoreply that says you look at email twice a day – lunchtime and end of day. And do that
Do the same with your BlackBerry
You’ll be amazed how people start to take their problems elsewhere
SCREEN CALLS
• Calls eat time your time responding to other people’s priorities Let calls go to voicemail, unless you
know who it is and what they want
Like email, schedule two windows a day to batch calls when you’ll get back to people
When you do take or make calls, keep them brisk
MEETINGS
• Meetings can eat huge amounts of time Meetings should be held to take
decisions, not define problems
If a meeting doesn’t have clear objectives and an agenda, don’t go
Always define an end time – and leave at that time
Choose less obvious times to meet – e.g. 9.20 not 10.00 (An ‘on the hour’ meeting is assumed to last an hour)
SOUNDS HARD?
• Think you’ll hurt feelings? You won’t – it just needs to be done
courteously and consistently
It’s your job to educate those around you to treat your time (and also theirs) with respect
SUMMARY
• Have clear objectives about what you want
For you
For your family
In business
• Break those objectives into manageable goals
• Schedule the actions that will complete the goals
• Delegate to increase your effectiveness
• Use time management tactics to minimise interruptions
SUMMARY
HELPFUL?
• If you’ve fund this helpful and want to learn more, schedule an hour’s sales coaching with me to help you apply the principles to your situation.
• Go to Sales Coaching at Sales Success and More!
• Mike McCormac founded Sales Success and More to help professional sales people selling high value services achieve more. He has an MBA and his sales background includes over 15 years success selling IT services and outsourcing. Mike works mainly in the UK and Cyprus.
• Connect on LinkedIn
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• Email me
• Phone +357 99 860725