20 posts categorized "Time Management"

November 17, 2011

The Four Criteria Entrepreneurs Should Use To Spend Their Time

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For entrepreneurs of all types, your time is by far your most valuable asset. 

Are you investing it wisely?  After all, in this competitive and disruptive environment, you can't be late when the barn door opens.  Every day you waste working on the wrong stuff, gives your competitor a day to gain or you or extend his lead.  So how do we best manage time at a strategic level?  Enter Jason Nazar, CEO of docstoc and a (very good) speaker at this week's Startup Conference in Los Angeles. 

His talk (How To Make The Right Business Decisions) revealed a grid (see above) that will help you manage your time effectively.  Too often we have a mega-TODO list that gobbles up our time, and we feel some sense of accomplishment ticking items off the list. That may be OK for some, but if you are entrepreneur, this approach will bury you! 

Here's his formula: Focus on things that have a big upside (money, market share, etc.), you have a way higher than 50% chance of succeeding in this task, it won't gobble up too much time and most of all - it's strategic to the business you are running.  Think for a second about this formula, and how much of your TODO list doesn't qualify for your attention.  He explained that at docstoc, they don't put resources into a product that will increase traffic by a few percent.  It needs to have a 25-50% potential to get his attention.  At Google, this is called the "hundred million dollar idea" filter. 

Too often, we work on low-upside projects that are easy or sometimes we get buried in low upside projects that are hard to finish - and by wasting the extra effort we miss the golden opportunites.  The other thing he warns, is the high success - not strategic trap: Where you achieve a quick victory, but in the end, it has nothing to do with your business strategy.  Sure, it's a win, but for who? 

Try this next week, and be ruthless!  If you adopt the A quadrant right now - Put no efforts on a project that doesn't move the needle significantly, you'll likely ignore over half of what you toiled on this week.  

 

September 20, 2011

Good weeks lead to good years

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Here's a time management & goal setting system I learned 20 years ago: Good Weeks. 

Too often, we measure our progress yearly (annual resolutions and goals) or quarterly (the 90 day treadmill).  The result is often cram-fests at the end of the year or quarter to meet a goal that's "all made up" in the first place.  Those time lines are usually too long to correct, once the finish line is in sight. 

When I was working for Bob May (Pat Summerall Productions) in Dallas, he taught me a simple weekly success system that I use to this day.  His motto was: "Good weeks add up to good months - and good months add up to a great year." 

Each week is a small enough slice to conquer.  Monday and Tuesday have metrics that 'load up the funnel' to produce a successful week.  Wednesday is your review window, where you figure out if you are ahead or behind.  Thursday is the day of finishing things, leaving Friday for clean up or catch up. 

Your weekend means more in this system, because the whole process starts over again the following Monday.  Unlike other methods (annual, quarterly), the finish line is really Friday - so you are less likely to treadmill through your weekends and burn out.  Sure, it's like a never-ending-race, this weekly system, but then again, so is any other system. 

Over the years, I've learned that this weekly focus makes us prone to finishing projects and closing deals with a sense of urgency (by Friday!).  It starts on Monday, and predictably comes to a crescendo by week's end.  A good month is usually comprised of three good weeks (on goal).  A good quarter is a few great months and a good year can be comprised of a few good quarters.  It's all about the highly successful weeks and the shortened time lines for success that we march to. 

Note: The best way to live by this system is to spend some quiet time on Sunday evening or early Monday AM, plotting out what the successful week looks like and how it intersects with established business goals from financial to operational.  As you 'rehearse the coming week,' you'll find it much less overwhelming than trying to visualize success during a more protracted period.  

So get crackin', it's only Tuesday, this week's going to be great!

 

December 29, 2010

Three Lists To Make For 2011

 
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New Years resolutions are often incomplete. 

We make them, thinking that all we need to do is this one thing to have a better coming year.  The reality is that we need to do several things to see year-over-year improvements in our lives.  That's why so many New Year's resolutions are broken - they are all or nothing.  In some cases, we make the same ones over and over again.  What's the point? 

I look at the beginning of the year, specifically the holiday period that precedes it, as a chance to reset. It's like powering down a computer, then rebooting it.  Works better, usually, no?  At Yahoo!, Jerry Yang kept three lists at all times, and these lists are the ones you should draw up this week and execute on over the next three months. 

1 - The Stop Doing List.  What habits, tendencies or activities are counter-productive?  Create a plan with a deadline, and knock these off first. 

2 - The Keep Doing List.  What are our greatest hits from 2010?  What's working, and shouldn't be forgotten?  This is important, because unless you recognize the effective, you might replace it with the novel. 

3 - The Start Doing List.  These are activities, habits or projects that could add value over the coming year.  Consider this list the end of procrastination or the tool that will help you close the good intentions-accomplishments gap.  

For me, personally, here's mine: Stop/Wasting time grazing online.  Keep/Blogging.  Start/Writing a schedule for each day.  Get it? This is how I can increase my personal effectiveness over the year. This isn't my complete 2011 lists, but now you get this point.  What's yours?  

 

November 24, 2009

7 Habits Of Highly Effective Meetings

"How do you feel about meetings? A lot of them!?" 

That was my opening question after Jon finished his power point presentation, pitching his startup. He had a good idea, a great approach to tech and some understanding of marketing. But did he understand how to run a startup, without it imploding under the weight of its people's creativity? 

"I love meetings.  The more the merrier.  Get 'er done!," he replied. 

Wrong answer.  When people ask me what's wrong with corporate America, I often reply "bad laptops and long meetings."  Too many long meetings are killing our productivity at work. Even at Yahoo, a 2.0 company of sorts, meetings could take up your entire (long) day -- leaving you evenings, weekends, plane rides and holidays to catch up on email.  

Why did we have so many meetings? Too much democratization of product development and process improvements.  In both of those activities, there's a misguided notion that you can never have too much collaboration.  Then, add the plague of power point, which usually takes up the first 45 minutes of every meeting.  Given the fact that meetings never start on time, that means you spend your first hour listening.  Then the banter begins, followed by some screeds then topped off with white board stick-company art.  

Somewhere at the 2 hour point, the meeting ends abruptly as several attendees are either late for lunch or their next two hour meetings.  In my experience, three out of four meetings produced no real change in business.  A few of them, however, produced important insights.  Online meeting (email threads, etc.) don't work either -- the channel's too weak to convey intentions.  So we need to meet, but we need to meet much much better.  

If I had a startup, my competitive advantage would be our productivity.  Here's a handful of meeting rules I'd implement: 

1.  Meetings are to be limited to thirty minutes for a strategic meeting and eighteen minutes (like TED) for introductory or non-strategic meetings.  There would be a massive countdown clock in every conference room.  NOTE: There can be exceptions to this rule (see Brett's comment below).  But don't let exceptions become the rule -- and go back to meeting 40 hours a week and working all night and weekend to catch up w/ the workflow. 

2.  Power points will be limited to "must-have" illustrations (graphs, visualizations, diagrams, etc.) The meeting can never start off with a power point - instead, it must start with the WHY? WHAT? HOW?, leading to discussion/presentation of facts/collaboration.  

3.  Meetings always end with two minutes of promise-record keeping.  Action items are fully assigned, with delivery dates to be documented and placed into our calendars. 

4.  Meetings deemed "a waste of time" by the most senior person in the room will have a budget cost to the person who called the meeting.  Think of the chargeback system for corporate training (for no-shows and cancellations, etc.) There are many variations of this rule that can work, but the point is that we have to hold people accountable for calling meetings. 

5. NO ONE is to bring a laptop, black berry or cell phone into the meeting UNLESS there is a specific timing issue that requires them to be "online" during the meeting.  Working on two things at once is considered a sign of poor time management. Advisory: If you can't come to a meeting without a communication gadget to interrupt you, do us a favor and miss this meeting. 

6. Meetings must have a moderator, who's job is to manage agenda, time and documentation.  The moderator must also attempt to manage cross talk, but senior members in the room are expected to help in this regard too.  

7. Director level and up attendees can (quietly) leave any meeting in violation of the above rules. 

For more, read Death By Meeting by Patrick Lencioni

November 20, 2009

Take the weekend off

I shot this video @ home on Monday, but waited until today to share it with you. 

I want you to take some time off this weekend.  As much as possible.  The more you take off, the better you'll be next week.  Check out this video clip for the screed:

The Value Of The Pit Stop by Tim Sanders

December 15, 2008

The true value of time shifting

I swear, digital video recorders have changed my life. 

Take last night (Sunday).  I could go to KROQ's holiday party at the Gibson Amphitheatre and see The Killers, Death Cab, The Cure and Franz Ferdinand OR I could watch the Cowboys play the Giants.  

I chose to do both.  I TIVO'd (the verb, not the equipment) the game and programmed it to record for an extra ninety minutes in case of overtime.  I told my friends at the concert that I was on a 'media blackout' of the Cowboys game so mum the word.  

This AM, when I got up, I only checked my email and ignored the papers.  I sat down and speed watched the Cowboys game (which they won!) in about an hour and a half.   It was just as fun as seeing it live! 

After I watched the game, I turned on the internet, looked at the paper, and went on with my morning.  In the old days, I likely would have missed the game and thought about it at the concert (probably checking scores on my cell phone).  That would have partially ruined the evening.  

So, if you don't TIVO, you should learn to do it soon and take over your life again! 

May 12, 2008

It's not a vacation if you are grazing on work...

When is the last time you unplugged, dialed out and took some REAL time off?

We live in a world where, even during our “vacation”, we constantly check back in with the real world to make sure its not falling apart without us on the wheel. At first, you might say that you’ll only check your email once a day, otherwise vacation. Then you find yourself checking it a few times a day, lobbing in a few phone calls to the office and then BANG: You are working remote.

This is not going to heal you from the work stresses and strains that a true vacation addresses.

Researchers indicate that if we truly take one week completely off, the positive effects can last up to a month! However, if we only partially take the week off, still checking in on things, the positive effects last three days. That is a big difference.

When you take your vacation this year, take the time to set everyone’s expectations that you will not be available. Delegate ‘emergencies’ to someone in your office. If you don’t have an admin – ask a coworker to do it for you and promise to return the favor.

Blow everything off but the present moment for your entire vacation. Live in the moment. When you get back home, everything will still be standing -- and you'll be fit and fresh.

April 28, 2008

One thing at a time

Today I travel to Las Vegas for a talk tomorrow AM.

The advantage of living on the West Coast is that I still get a working Monday (crammed) in. However, it's pretty crazy, being a Monday. A ton of emails and calls are flying in.

It’s easy to let the flow of incoming information bog me down, if I let it. Last week, there was a great article in the New York Times about the idea of setting aside time each day to check/write and manage email. The article tells the story of H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), who answered over 100,000 letters by hand during his career.

He had a simple strategy: He set aside time each day to answer the letters and totally focused on that, and only that, during that time period. By doing so, he was able to mow through a sea of incoming chatter, and still get his work done.

Today, I set aside time blocks to zero in on projects: Answer email, travel plans, blogging, etc. I blocked out from 8am until time to leave for the airport.

Surprise, surprise, I’m getting in a whole day and still making my afternoon flight.

Compare this with the constant-interruption, multi tasking meltdown approach. That leads to a lot of chores getting half done and that gnawing feeling that you didn’t get to all the items on your today list. So bag the “to-do list” and live by a well thought out calendar of single task activities!

February 28, 2008

Don't check your email so often

Tim Ferriss is right -- we need to take control of our email life!

How many times a day do you check your email? Are you working with a hair-trigger set, where an email can arrive and interrupt whatever you are doing?

Unless you are in the instant-response business (not one I'd choose to be in), you are torturing yourself unecessarily. If you want to take back your life, try this: Check your email three times a day and block out thirty minutes per session to answer them. Try 10am, 2pm and 4pm (just like the old Dr. Pepper ad).

While this might sound scary, you'll quickly find out that you are not missing out on anything except constant interruptions. Eventually, you'll wonder why you checked it so often, and how you ever got anything done!

Buy a copy of my new DVD, The Dirty Dozen Rules Of Email Etiquette

February 01, 2008

Easy things first

If you have an unreasonably long to-do list, don't let it overwhelm you.

All you need is a little momentum, a quick win to get your started. I've learned that time management is really a question of energy management. You can mow through almost any task list, much like running a long race, so long as you have 'gas in the tank'.

Often, we dive into our daily lists, trying to tackle the toughest stuff first. We get a little bogged down, the day passes, and we feel like we got nothing accomplished. Reverse that thinking. Look at your list, circle three things that are easy yet important -- and knock them off. Circle two more ez-pezee tasks to tackle right after lunch. You'll find that when you get three things done, you have a sense of confidence. That is when you tackle something harder (creative, emotionally charged, etc.). With some momentum, you'll find that it is doable, and you'll likely get it done. Try this next Monday, and report your results in comments.
Suggested read: First Things First by Stephen Covey

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