Tag Archives: time management

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3 Reasons You Need a Robot

Stop doing what you hate and maximize your time

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There are certain things I don’t like to do. In fact, if there are minute details involved, I’m probably not very happy.

My wife doesn’t like to vacuum. I’m not sure I know anyone who does. But she likes clean floors. The reality is, she can do much more important things that vacuum our floors.

So for Mother’s Day this year, the kids and I pooled our resources and bought my wife a Roomba. If you aren’t familiar, it is a robot vacuum cleaner. And it is awesome. Remember that big hockey puck on wheels in Breaking Bad – that’s it.

Today, my wife spent the morning volunteering at our children’s school. That is a much more valuable use of her time. And while she was there, our robot vacuum was cleaning our floors. She made a great choice in how she spent her time. She didn’t do a task she didn’t like. And the floors a clean.

You need a robot.

In fact, every person should buy a robot for these 3 reasons.

  1. You have regular tasks you don’t like – This is a quality of life issue. What are the things you just don’t like to do. Make a list. Now which ones of those are recurring? These are candidates for automation. What kind of robot can handle these for you? Maybe it is rules you can set up in your inbox. Maybe you need a virtual assistant. Maybe you need to use the staff in your office better. But if it is repeatable, you can train someone else to do it.
  2. You have better things to do with your time – This is an efficiency issue. Most of you reading this blog likely have an income goal for the year. To hit that goal, you need to make a certain amount an hour. Do you know what that number is? When you spend your limited time on tasks that aren’t worth that number, you are falling behind your pace. You have to know what your time is worth and make decisions accordingly.
  3. Tasks still need to get done – This is just reality. Just because you don’t like it or it isn’t the best use of your time – that doesn’t mean that you can ignore it. I’ve tried. But you don’t have to be the one to do it. Build a system that can handle it.

You need a robot. Your robot could take many forms. It might be an assistant or a virtual assistant. It could just be creating a system for your team to follow. Maybe it is as simple as batching your tasks to maximize your productivity.

Question: What one thing can you identify this week that needs to get done, is a poor use of your time, and that you do not like to do? Now go get you a robot! You can leave a comment by clicking here.

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How You Can Become a Top Producer

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So many settle for mediocrity.  I have done it myself.  I despise that place.  You can see others around you excelling at what they do – what you could do.  You may find yourself asking, “Is it even possible for me to have that kind of success?”  Good question.

The Four  Not-So-Secret

I started playing the guitar when I was 14 years old.  I was looking for something that I could be good at.  I had already realized it wasn’t going to be sports.  I took a few months of lessons and then kept playing.  By the time I got to college, I was OK at best.

Then Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds played a show at my college.  They were incredible.  Two guys with their acoustic guitars on stage playing.  No band.  Just them.

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Why You Should Time-Block to Maximize Your Productivity

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This post is about WHY you should time block. I’ve attached a worksheet at the bottom you can download for free. The worksheet is all about HOW to time-block. It is my gift to you because you rock and I’m thankful for you.

At the beginning of 2014, I posted a reader’s survey which hundreds of you took part in (thank you, by the way.)  One question I asked was which topic that I write about do you enjoy the most.  The clear winner was productivity.

productivity, time blocking, time management

This is me with no margin in my life.

I asked another question about the biggest problem you are facing right now.  The overwhelming winner here was ‘not enough time.’

For all of you who can relate, this post is for you.  Frankly, I often find myself in the same boat.  What I wouldn’t give for 30 hours in a day or 8 days in a week.  Time-blocking is the single most impactful tool I use to maximize my productivity.

Time blocking is the practice of scheduling appointments with yourself, on your actual calendar (whether a digital camera of a DayTimer if you are my mom), and then honor your appointments with yourself.

I believe everyone should maximize their productivity by time-blocking for these 5 reasons.

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5 Podcasts that Will Make You Smarter

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Recently, I was able to connect with one of my closest friends while driving home from a trip to Chicago.  This guy is the kind of friend that everyone needs.  He was in my wedding.  I was in his.  We were fraternity brothers at Murray State University.  He was the quarterback.  I was the receiver.  We even dated the same beautiful Southern girl (not at the same time) who I now get to call my wife.

iStockPhoto via jodijacobson

iStockPhoto via jodijacobson

He is the kind of friend when you haven’t spoken for a year, it is like it was yesterday.  Everyone needs at least one friend like this.  I am blessed to have a couple.

My friend was sharing with me an opportunity he has to leave the corporate world and start a business.  He has created something special that could be incredibly valuable to his customers and himself.  However, he told me that he doesn’t think he’ll do anything because he doesn’t have a clue about starting or running a business.

Fifteen minutes later I had brain-dumped all this information on him.  Now, I have started a business (that failed), and I have owned a business that I sold.  But the stuff that I was telling him surprised me.  How did I know this stuff?

Then it occurred to me that I was repeating a lot of great information that I had learned through listening to some incredible podcasts from businesses leaders across the United States (actually, most of them are in Nashville).

If you are not familiar with a Podcast, it is literally someone recording themselves speaking about some subject.  It is much like a radio show.  However, you can download these podcasts on your iPod, iPhone, or other smart-phone or mp3 player.  You simply subscribe through iTunes – for free – and they automatically download whenever a new episode is published.

Before I share with you which ones I love and recommend, let me share with you how I consume this information:

  • While working out – I can kill two birds with one stone when I engage my mind and my body at the same time.
  • While driving – great content is so much more effective than coffee at keeping me alert.  Not only that, but I can transform my car into a classroom and make the most of every moment.
  • On a plane – I’m actually on a plane as I write this somewhere between Nashville and Atlanta.  Were I not writing, I guarantee that I would be listening to one of the following podcasts.

My Top 5 Recommended Podcasts

  1. This is Your Life, A Podcast by Michael Hyatt – If you aren’t familiar with Michael Hyatt, you should be.  He has a top 100 (in the world!) blog on intentional leadership.  He has recently written a New York Times Bestseller called Platform:  Get Noticed in a Noisy World.  His is by far my favorite blog and his content is amazing.  His podcast is awesome too.  He is authentic.  You end up just liking him.  I get to meet him next month at our company’s National Conference where he is giving the keynote address.  I am also going to his Platform Conference the following week in Nashville.  Can’t wait!
  2. 48Days Online Radio Show by Dan Miller – Dan Miller rocks.  A mentor of mine suggested that I connect with him last year.  I ended up hiring him as a career coach.  He is also a bestselling author of 48 Days to the Work You Love and other books.  His podcast centers around careers, business plans, business models, and other career related info.  You can’t listen to him and not get fired up about what is possible.
  3. Ray Edwards Podcast – Ray probably has my favorite podcast.  He is very transparent and genuine, and he basically let’s you in on his life.  He is a productivity freak (I mean that in a good way).  His podcast is broken up into segments which I love.  He has a main message of each podcast, but also has a tech tip of the week, a spiritual foundations segment, and a segment with Stu McLaren who is great.  Ray is also a marketing genius.
  4. Entreleadership Podcast – I can’t believe that this is 4th on my list, but the others are just that good.  This is the podcast from Dave Ramsey and his main man Chris LoCurto.  Every show has a short message from Dave that sets the theme, but then they move to a guest interview.  The guests are amazing and are a who’s who when it comes to business.  You can’t get this kind of access to this kind of wisdom and experience anywhere else I’m aware.
  5. Podcast Answer Man with Cliff Ravenscraft – This podcast is obviously a little more technical.  I include it because at least the first three podcasts listed above are a result of Cliff’s expertise.  He is the expert when it comes to podcasting.  I hope to introduce my own podcast this year so I have been studying up.  Cliff is also a Kentucky boy like myself!

In one sentence, these podcasts are like being able to sit at the feet of these guys and learn from their wisdom.  And it’s free!

So who do you listen to that I don’t?  Who would crack your top 5?  Let us know in the comment section below!

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How to Shave 30 Minutes a Day Managing Email

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If you are like me, you have learned to hate email.  I remember when email was the “new thing.”  Getting email gave you that warm and fuzzy feeling.  It made you feel important.  Remember the movie You’ve Got Mail?

IStock 000019478701XSmall

Email has now become a drug, and we are addicted.  As a major form of communication in the Commercial Real Estate industry, many CRE practitioners feel like they must check their smart phone every five minutes.  Show of hands:  who checks their phone before they even get out of bed?  Guilty here.

Beyond that, email has become the Great Interrupter of the day.  How often are you plugging away on a task – making great progress – and that beep and corresponding box at the bottom of your screen pops up.  You are derailed and may not be able to regain your focus.  This is why I hate email – always distracting.

It is possible to control this fire hose of hundreds of emails that scream for our attention every day.  And it is completely possible to shave a minimum of 30 minutes a day that otherwise is spent managing emails.  For me, a self-proclaimed efficiency nerd, 30 minutes a day is huge!

Now, you can go the scorched Earth route espoused by Tim Ferriss in his best-seller The 4-Hour Work Week.  His method has more to do with ignoring email and training everyone to know that you only respond to it once a week.  That just doesn’t fit the CRE industry.  Instead, I use a method that I learned and tweaked from the book Getting Things Done by David Allen.

  1. Clear Your Inbox Daily – This is a commitment.  Without this step, the system fails.  Raise your right hand and repeat after me, “I [state your name], do herby commit to clearing my inbox on a daily basis.”  You must change your behavior for this to work, and it will be hard.  I’ve read numerous places that it takes 21 iterations to establish a habit.  Commit for the next 3 weeks to clear your inbox daily.
  2. Read an Email Only Once – My Achilles heel in this system is having that one email that I don’t know what to do with – so I ignore it.  You do too.  Only read an email once, then run this triage.  Can I accomplish this task in 2 minutes?  If so, Do It Now!  Be done with it!  If it would take longer than 2 minutes, then you must decide:
    • Delete It – if it is spam (unsolicited email), or something that requires no action and contains nothing you need later, then press delete.  And don’t just press delete, do so quickly and with gusto!
    • Delegate it – I’m passionate about teams and systems.  If someone else on your team can deal with that email, then delegate.  Delegating anything to anyone that can accomplish the task frees you up to do the tasks that only you can do.  Those tasks should be HDA’s (High Dollar Activities).  The more time you spend on these tasks, the more you will make.  Simple as that!
    • Defer it – Sometimes you get those emails that don’t require something to be done, but is information that you will need later.  In that case, file it.  My filing system consists of two folders.  I have an Actionable Emails folder of emails that will require a task that takes longer than 2 minutes.  The other is the Reference folder.  If an email contains information that I will need later, I dump it here.  Note:  the more complex your filing system, the less likely you are to use it.  Keep it simple!  I use Gmail and the search feature is so good that it allows for an ultra-simple filing system.
    • Do it – Again, if it can be done in 2 minutes or less, deal with that email now and be done with it.
  3. Turn the Notifications Off – This is such a simple step, but it has a huge impact.  Do not allow your emails to be flung at you like darts to a dart board.  You can control when you check your email.  Do so.
  4. Use Filters – As I said before, I use Gmail.  It allows me to set up filters that will automatically weed out the emails that I do not want to see in my inbox.  Pay attention as you are clearing your inbox for the next 21 days.  What emails do you repeatedly not read and just get rid of?  Set up filters (or rules if you are an Outlook user, and I feel for you!) to do the work for you.

What would you do with 30 extra minutes a day?  What other ways do you manage the daily email onslaught?  Join the conversation and leave your comments below.

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