Posted by: Troy White
November 13, 2007
Issue #280

Time Control Strategies
for Overworked Entrepreneurs

In this issue:

• Secrets of Super-Productivity from a clutter junkie and ADD mind

• The rarely discussed truth behind being nice to others and “making yourself available”

• 8 kick-butt techniques that allow you to actually CONTROL time … get more done … distance yourself from time wasters … and make a lot more money

• Getting more done in the next 4 months than the last 4 years
• My PERSONAL BEEF with the “4 Hour Workweek” philosophy
• And Much More!
  

Fellow business builder,

Are you giving too much away?

I would say that the biggest complaint I hear from entrepreneurs is the lack of time in a day to get things done. It is my biggest problem – and I would imagine it is near the top of your list as well.

Unfortunately, we cannot create more time in a day – but we can find better ways to manage it … solid time management practices are a newer compulsion of mine.

I KNOW I could be doing better with my time, but I also do feel it is much better now that it was a year ago.

Now, the following list is not meant to be anything but educational. It is not meant to boast but to share.

WHEN you take massive action, and master your time control simultaneously, an immense amount of work can get done in a short period of time.

Here are just a few of the things that I have done in the last 4 months … things you can start doing as well:

• In my second #1 Best Selling Book
• 2 mentions in Dan Kennedy’s paid newsletters (goes out to 20,000+ people)
• Partnership with one of the most successful real estate marketers in the world
• 3 new products launched
• 2 new workshops held
• New teleseminar series recently announced
• Coaching program launched (one member grew her business by 34% in the first month)
• Brand new very specific marketing program being developed for a very unique niche
• 3 vacations (one week each)
• A large number of joint ventures setup with partners to promote my business and products, like the Wild West Wealth Videos which are now shipping
• New team in place for handling the growth in my business
• Major investment in software (and migration) that completely automates ALL of my marketing (except for the actual copy development)
• 5 new speakers lined up for Wild West Wealth Summit 2008
• New client appreciation Christmas Party setup (www.WildWestChristmasParty.com)
• Attended 2 live training events
• New paid newsletter launched
• Written at least 2 blog posts a week, a weekly article for The Total Package, plus my own e-zines
• One free print newsletter a month that goes to my clients and prospects
• And much more which I won’t list here

THAT is the power of massive action and getting things done. It also means I cannot get distracted by things which decrease my productivity.

We all have the same amount of time in a day, and I want to show you how to get A LOT more done IN MUCH LESS TIME – ultimately putting MUCH more money in your pocket.

Some of the things I am personally doing to get more done in a typical day … things you too can find ways to implement:

First, a warning – you may scoff at these ideas, they may seem unreasonable, not feasible for “your kind of business”, and completely out to lunch. I would say that there IS some way you can use this in your business – it may take time to do – and it may need to be modified somewhat for your business – but there IS a way.

1) You must become unreasonable with others when it comes to time wasting activities (phone calls, emails, drop-ins, etc). No one owns your time but you … and you MUST learn to be unreasonable with others when it comes to this.

“I just don’t believe any great business success, or any great accomplishment ever came from being reasonable. Ever.” Randy Gage

You set the rules – and they must abide by them. If they don’t like the rules, or refuse to work with them – move on to other clients who DO respect you. Have a 3 strike rule – they abuse your time, strike one – strike two – strike three … . You’re outta here!

2) No unscheduled phone calls permitted. Find an answering service to field customer requests or complaints – but you should not be answering your phone every time someone calls. This will drag your time through the mud quicker than anything. As soon as you pick up that phone, any momentum you had with the project you were working on … goes out the window.

My phone is shut off and goes straight to voice mail. I check it twice a day – sometimes more if I have a good, productive reason to.

3) Get out of Email Jail! This is my biggest pet peeve right now … and one I am still struggling with. First, have you ever tracked how many TIMES A DAY you check email? Do it! Put a piece of paper in front of you and mark an X every time you check email.

WARNING: This will show you how compulsive email has become. Imagine if you checked your physical mail that many times a day (they’d probably lock you up if you ran to your mailbox as often as you do your email inbox).

The first time I ever did this – 19 TIMES IN A DAY!

I quickly realized how serious of a problem this was.

You need to find a system where someone either checks your emails for you - or someone gets the majority of your emails sent to them automatically.

Hire a VA or an outside firm who specializes in this.

Ideally, not saying I am there yet, you would only view your emails (and those would be the ones you MUST read) once every couple days or so. All the others have been handled by people who handle emails for their job.

ANOTHER NOTE: As much as I loved the book The 4-Hour Workweek, I have to agree with the best statement I heard about this – “Sounds great in theory, and many of the principles ARE what we should be aiming for. But the biggest problem with the idea of a 4 hour work week is that you are dead in the water if your competitors are working 5 hours a week!

The most successful entrepreneurs in the world do NOT work 4 hours a day – they bust their butts to stay on top of their game and to out-perform, out-market, and out-grow their competitors – PRETTY TOUGH TO DO IN LESS THAN AN HOUR A DAY!

4) Work in uninterrupted chunks of time – 30-60 minutes without a break, without changing your focus, without checking email and without anything between you and the completion of the task you are working on. This is increasingly important for those copy jobs. If you let yourself get distracted while putting together your copy and promotions – it will take you twice as long to get each piece done. That adds up to some serious lost time and momentum over a month or year.

Get a little timer and USE IT! Set it for 45 minutes and don’t look up until the beeper goes. Take a 5-minute break – reset the time – get back to it.

There is NO BETTER FEELING than the days when you apply these rules and you get more done in a day than you did in the past week or two!

5) Clear Clutter – HAH! I am a clutter freak and junkie – always have been. My piles are “strategic,” I like to justify to others. But when I have a big project to do, I get my stuff out of my line of sight. At least a tiny little, itsy bitsy clear spot to focus my mind and my work.

I have never been able to figure out those with spotless desks – that seems more of a compulsion to me than the messy office environments like mine. I realize that is just me – and that many people are very much neat freaks and can only work that way.

Me?

4 minutes is about all it takes for me to destroy a room and make it look like a bomb went off.

Works for me.

Seriously, when you need to focus – do what works for you – but a clean spot in front of you may be the key to getting more done in less time.

6) Sub it out! This is also a challenge for me – but am getting much better at it. I have tried surrounding myself with people who can get things done for me. The challenge is finding people who can take the ball and run with it (without having to bother you every 2 minutes with questions).

As of right now, my business partner (and wife) Kari is my front person between me and those who work with us. She understands my ADD, ADHD, ABC, DEF mind – and she knows how to take the ball and run with it.

So I ask her to do something, she deciphers what I really mean, and what I really need done (2 different languages many times) … and then gets the other team members to do their part.

Find YOUR go-to person and use them to distance yourself from distractions and unnecessary explanations or meetings.

7) Profit from tiny little blocks of time. I always carry books, articles, newsletters or critiques with me. When I am sitting in traffic, I am working. When I am sitting at a red light – working. Any time I have a few spare minutes, I fill that time in with productive things – rather than mindless things.

We all need our downtime, but during your productive hours, minimize anything that is not knocking tasks off your to-do list.

8 ) ASK for help. I am awful at asking others to help me. But I am getting better at it. Amazing how many people out there are willing to help you out – if you only ask. I have made a point of asking others for ideas, help, referrals, etc. in my newsletters and phone calls.

You don’t get it if you don’t ask!

I have met some incredibly effective people by doing this, and they have been instrumental in helping me grow my business.

Try these tools and see what happens over the next week or two.

Get in that zone where you get a million things done in a day and your income will rise, and your to-do list will shrink (more like get filled back up again with new to-do items … at least things are getting done though!)

Please let me know your thoughts, and if you have any further topics on this you would like to see discussed.

To your success,

Troy White
Editor, Small Business Mastery
Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE

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A Final Note:

If you have specific subjects you would like addressed, or have any comments on what you have seen here, please submit a comment below and I will see how I can help.

"Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”

–Napoleon Hill

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No Comments »

1. Comment by Jim — November 13, 2007 @ 12:27 pm

   Re:\” But the biggest problem with the idea of a 4 hour work week is that you are dead in the water if your competitors are working 5 hours a week!

   The most successful entrepreneurs in the world do NOT work 4 hours a day – they bust their butts to stay on top of their game and to out-perform, out-market, and out-grow their competitors – PRETTY TOUGH TO DO IN LESS THAN AN HOUR A DAY!\”

   I don\’t think that you would be necessarily dead in the water, assuming you really worked productively in the the 4 hours–or 5, for that matter. It comes down to a life choice: less \”successful\” in one sense may mean more success in another, i.e. time for family, travel, study, and so on. You can simply be content with less money, because you more in other things.

2. Comment by Troy White — November 13, 2007 @ 2:50 pm

   Hi Jim, re: your comment… \”I don\’t think that you would be necessarily dead in the water, assuming you really worked productively in the the 4 hours–or 5, for that matter. It comes down to a life choice: less \”successful\” in one sense may mean more success in another, i.e. time for family, travel, study, and so on. You can simply be content with less money, because you more in other things.\”

   I completely agree - there are days when I get more done in 4 hours than I did in the last 14 days! Then there are those days where a full 9 hour day vanishes into thin air and it is tough to find solid proof that I was actually in the office doing something.

   Focus is key.

   As is balance. I absolutely adore my twin 7 yr old girls - and I am willing to do anything for them. That means I don\’t do much - - if any - - work on weekends, nor between 5 and 9 every night. They are my priority then and I know they will be grown and teenagers in no time - so I am enjoying them to the nth degree right now.

   Great post though Jim - kinda pounded it back into my head on the amount of focus I need to have every minute of the day!

   Have a great one. Troy

3. Comment by Anthony — November 13, 2007 @ 4:30 pm

   Troy-great article. You just have no idea how empowering it is to know that someone else is a:a clutter freak, and b: has those days that seem to vanish without a trace…I am going to use some of these suggesions. I already use a timer (learned from Gene Schwartz) and it is an incredibly great tool. Again, thank you for your ideas and for sharing a piece of yourself!