5 Time Management Tips

by Michael Griffiths
My Small Business Marketing Guru

Low Information Diet

We live in a world full of information and the temptation exists to digest as much information as possible. Information is time consuming and most the information you consumer is either negative or irrelevant to your goals. (Think newspaper, TV, Magazines, Social Blogs.) Time management is really about making better use of your time. Living on a low-information diet is one way to do this

For the next week:

No reading emails before 11:00am. You may quickly scan for urgent emails if required by your role. Use this time instead to achieve one of your most important goals for the day

Avoid newspapers, magazines or talk-back style radio

Stop visiting news and non-goal related blogs and websites. No web surfing

Limit your television viewing to one hour of relaxation viewing only

Before you digest any information, ask yourself - Will this information help me achieve one of my immediate and important goals?

With all the free time this will create you can complete your daily actions that will move you closer to your 90 day goals.

Parkinson's Law of Perceived Importance

If I gave you 24hrs to produce a report on the impact of room temperature on staff productivity, the time constraints would force you to focus and take action. If I gave you a week, you would spend five days considering options and two days preparing the report. If I gave you a month it would sit on the 'back-burner' for two weeks, then you would call a meeting to discuss, send a series of back and forth emails and create the final report in the last two days, am I right?

Parkinson's Law states that "a tasks perceived importance and complexity will increase in relation to the time allotted for its completion." In other term, the longer you allow for a task to be completed, the more complex and important that task is perceived.

The solution is simple. Shorten time frames to reduce the perception of complexity of tasks.

Saying No

Even more powerful than setting short time frames, is just saying no. It works like this:

Do you think you could put together a report on the impact of room temperature on staff productivity?"

Reply: "No."

If you are a bit of a 'softy', you could replace the 'no' with, 'I would be happy to help you, but I need you to show me how this will help us achieve our goal of (Insert important agreed upon business goal for which this task is not relevant)."

Hour of Power

Want a tip to help you get out of bed each morning? Every night before bed spend 30 minutes setting your actions for tomorrow. Decide what actions you will achieve tomorrow to move you closer to your 90 day goals.

80/20 Rule

I put this one last because it's one of the more common time management habits and you may have learnt in the past. That said, it's far too powerful to leave out and worthy of a reminder.

The 80/20 rule states that 80% of outputs are the result of 20% of inputs. For example, 80% of profit is the result of 20% of customers. This also means that the remaining 20% of outputs are the result of your other 80% of inputs. (i.e. the other 20% of profits is made up by 80% of customers.)

To take back your time you must identify the 20% of inputs that create the 80% of outputs. For example, cold calling 20 clients per day for two hours per day produces one new client per week, whereas one phone call to a local business partner asking to meet and discuss a joint venture takes two hours in total and leads to 10 new clients.

80% of the results you have achieved this year are the result of 20% of your actions. Identify what's creating the most output and scrap the rest.

Michael Griffiths is the CEO and Founder of Secrets Of A Super Life, providing individuals with

personal development strategies to increase their purpose, passion, happiness

and life fulfilment. For your free Life Success Resources visit http://www.mysuperlifetoday.com

Article submitted Tuesday, April 26, 2011 & read 36 times.

Michael Griffiths is a a respected aurthor, speaker and entrepenuer with 4 small business himself he helps small business owners with marketing and lead generation strategies. Through relationship based marketing Michael helps clients get more leads, more clients and greater profits.

To get 7 free marketing resources visit www.mysmallbusinessmarketingguru.com.au

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