Tips From The Business Coach For Mastering Time

33.1 – Time Management Mastery Super Moves From The Business Coach
Now that you are equipped with a fire hose of knowledge, action items, and steps to build a more scalable business, you may be wondering, “How in the world am I going to find time to implement all this?” IT IS GOING TO TAKE TIME. Most business owners are so busy working IN their businesses that they rarely have time to work ON their businesses. On those rare occasions when they finish their work at a respectable hour when the sun is still out, they are usually too exhausted to deep dive into creating documents, systems, and processes, which all require close attention to detail. By scheduling time to work ON your business, you will slowly begin to transition your business to one that can operate without your direct involvement. However, just like any other appointment, if you don’t put it on your calendar, it will not get addressed.
Business owners who are already working 70, 80, or 90 hours per week in their business can’t stomach the thought of tacking on an additional three hours per day to work ON their business. Well, take heart! I have provided you five Super Moves for effective time management that will free up the needed time to work ON your business.

Time Management Mastery Super Move #1 from the business coach – Don’t ever hesitate to blow up items on your to-do list

As a business coach, I’m going to teach you the specific moves that you can use to blow up certain items on your to-do list, but it’s important that I take a moment to verify that you are truly tracking with what I am saying here. You must become very comfortable with simply saying “no” to things other people try to put on your to-do list. When someone says, “Call me and remind me to do this or that,” you need to respond in a nice tone of voice, “I believe in your ability to remind yourself and if you can’t, I’m not going to be responsible for reminding you to do things.”

“This is not about managing your time. It is about keeping your life under control. Plan the life you want or live the life you don’t want.”
-Lee Cockerell
(Former Executive Vice President of Walt Disney World Resort)

1. Delete that funk. Many times activities get e-mailed to you or put on your calendar and you just need to delete that stuff. Every day, I get an e-mail from a person who didn’t invest the time needed to ensure that their message is grammatically correct, telling me that I need to call them back about X, Y, and Z because of A, B, and C. If the person is not my wife, one of my business partners, or a customer, I simply delete that funk.
2. Don’t do anything. Sometimes people want to give me updates about updates, and updates about the updates, and everything that is being communicated has zero impact on my life or the status of our business. This basically describes the agenda of a typical networking event. Some dude gets up and makes some announcement about some esoteric legislative mindset, and then some other dude gets up and talks in generalities about the state of the economy, and then some sincere lady gets up and talks about her vision for a cleaner community. As for me and my wallet, we are not going to sit through those kinds of gatherings just so I can pass out my business card to the 76 multi-level marketing professionals, three realtors, and two insurance agents who are guaranteed to be in attendance.
3. Delegate it. There are many things that you should delegate. In my office, I am always asked to get involved in stupid stuff that doesn’t matter. The decision of whether to order our paper towels online or directly from Office Depot is one such instance. True, if we order them online, they will take longer to arrive, but if we buy them direct from Office Depot, our paper towel budget will be about $4.00 per week more. Seriously? This is an example of something I should delegate to somebody who is empowered to make the decision while protected by Guardrails. This person knows what towels should cost and knows that it is not acceptable to ever run out. If the person in charge of the towels shows that they do not have the mental capacity to make this decision, then I need to find a new paper towel ordering person. Don’t embroil yourself in stuff that does not make highest and best use of your time.
4. Create a system enhancement that makes the repetitive questions disappear forever. – If you get asked the same questions from customers every day, it is probably because the sign indicating where your customer restroom is located is not large enough. Lee Cockerell, former executive vice president of Disney World Resort, once told me about how much time Disney had invested to ensure that the signage at their properties is clear and obvious. The people at Disney World see over one million guests per week, so they knew they had to create a systems enhancement that made the repetitive questions disappear forever or everyone would spend their entire vacation asking where the bathrooms and the gifts shops were.

Time Management Mastery Super Move #2 – Stop listening to the feedback of people who are not your ideal and likely buyers and who are not truly experts

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”
-Dr. Seuss
(Bestselling children’s author and illustrator who sold over 600 million copies of his books before his death)

As a business coach, I have learned most people do not like their lives and do not have successful businesses, thus you should not listen to most people about most things related to your business. Simply cut off at the pass people who are negative or become an excellent selective listener.

Mystic Statistic:
A Gallup survey shows that 71% of workers are “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” from their work.

Mystic Statistic:
According to Bloomberg, 8 out of 10 entrepreneurs who start businesses fail within the first 18 months.

Time Management Mastery Super Move #3 – Ordain your destiny daily

As a business coach, I recommend that each day when you first wake up, look at your to-do list (not your text messages, your social media updates, or your e-mail) and write down the items that you definitely will get accomplished that day. Then schedule a specific time to get those tasks accomplished. When you begin your day by ordaining your destiny, deciding what items you are going to get done, and blocking out the time needed to get those items done, you will find yourself becoming DRAMATICALLY MORE EFFICIENT, FOCUSED, AND EFFECTIVE.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
-George Bernard Shaw
(Famous and successful Irish playwright who was able to block out the time needed to write 60 plays)