I just finished reading Dan Kennedy’s No BS Time Mangement for Entrepreneurs: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Kick Butt Take No Prisoners Guide to Time Productivity & Sanity.
Long name, GREAT ideas.
To me, this book is more of a guide-book and a resource that I will go back to time and time again to remember to implement better time management.
I’d like to just share a few of the parts of the book that I took my highlighter too.
Calculating Your Base Earnings Target
Base Earnings Target: $____________________
Divided by (220 days x 8 = 1,760) work hours in a year / ____________________
= base hourly Number $____________________
Times productivity vs nonproductivity multiple(3 hrs for me) X ___________________
= What your time must be worth per hour: $____________________
This is how you can determine how much your time must be worth, for me if I want to make $100,000 a year I’d place that in the base earnings target, then that divided by 1,760 work hours = $56.82 as my base hourly pay. Out of a typical 8 hour day, my MAXIMUM amount of true productivity is 3 hours so $56.82 x 3 = $170.46 an hour.
This is what i’m striving to have as my new hourly wage this year.
Another issue that is common with business is people being time sinks for us and literally wasting hours upon hours of our time on pointless, irrelevant information. As Entrepreneurs, we flat out don’t have the time to deal with people like this and if we are forced to deal with them then we need to learn to cut to the core of the problem and tell them what to do in order to solve the problem.
Put a stop to interruptions: multiply your productivity.
Does that look familiar? I know for me that’s often what my computer screen has looked like and it has caused my productivity to suffer drastically because I was ALWAYS getting interrupted.
You are most likely familiar with the fact that any problem can be solved in the time you allot to it, did you also know that most people ill suck up about as much time as you let them? We’ve got to realize that our time is our most valuable commodity and we can’t allow for time suckers to come interrupt our productive time. If someone is constantly doing this and causing you to not finish what needs to be done in order to build your business it’s a good idea to explain that you don’t have the time to them. You might need to be a little harsh in order to get this point across, but in the end you will be getting more done.
Punctuality
There is a whole chapter focused on punctuality and it’s called: “The Number One Most Powerful Personal Discipline in All the World And How It Can Make You Successful Beyond Your Wildest Dreams.”If you aren’t punctual, you will not succeed it’s as simple as this. The problem with this for young entrepreneurs like myself who are attending college is that I was not always punctual when it came to going to class. In fact, the first 2 and a half years of my college life I would skip classes, go late to classes and not care that it was disrespectful to my professors and it definitely reflected in my grades. (2.14 GPA my first semester )
Being where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be there, as promised, without exception, without excuse, every time, all the time. It really isn’t that hard and once you start to do this, it really affects every part of our lives and people will start to respect our time more. We need to build up this respect by providing it to others. If we want to earn more, we often have to learn to give more. The world works in mysterious ways but I’ve found that if I’ve wanted something in my life, I’ve often found that by helping someone else get it in their life has led me to getting more in my life. (just something to consider)
People who can’t be punctual can’t be trusted.
The last few tips I’m going to leave you with.
- Make and use lists (to do lists, conference planning, a schedule, people to call list)
- Practice absolute punctuality
- Strive to link everything you do to your goals
- Block out your time
- Minimize the unplanned activities
- Take advantage from free-learning time (sitting in a car, going for a walk take your ipod and listen to trainings)
- Don’t do chores during peak hours. It slows you down
- Every time you are doing something ask yourself “Is this going to be worth my time?”
These are just some of the guidelines that I’ve picked up from this book and there is a TON of information on more effective time management so I’d recommend every Entrepreneur pick this up. Even if you aren’t an Entrepreneur the tips in this book will help you with getting more done for your business.