How many useless tasks do you do everyday? which to eliminate?

Hello, My Friend…

As Management Consultant since 1963, I’ve preached time management to all levels and kinds of people! But, many years ago, I was appropriately put in my place by a self-made industry mogul telling me he was too busy to manage his time. He directed me to other industry friends who he knew just too well they would be helped …they really needed my advice!

I thanked him for the referrals and asked him when would be a good time for me to sit down with him for him to tell me how he was able to accomplish so much in his short life. He said any time after Tuesday 11:00 hours or perhaps during lunch, at the plant’s lunch room. Then, he reached over to his book case and handed me a book he said I should read before we met! His favorite, by his favorite author: Zig Ziglar!

He then offered any other book from his bookcase I might want to read. I chose Dale Carnegie’s How to Make Friends and Influence People. My choice just flabbergasted him and he asked WHY?

Out of common good manners I didn’t want to tell him, I had attended both seminars, got the books and already read them. But, beyond that, all I could say was that he had already influenced me so I would like to make friends with him!

He then flabbergasted me by asking his Office Assistant to hold all calls, to order his usual lunch for 2, since it was almost 11:00 hours anyway!

He also asked his OA to update his things to do for the following day …to make up for the changes he just made!

Fortunately, I had no engagements for lunch, but to give him a chance to back out, I asked him how could our visit be meaningful for him, if I had not yet read the books? His response was: Take them, read them and we’ll discuss them at a later visit!

I had never before met a client too busy to manage his time that was already doing exactly what I had chosen for him to do should he want to pay me to tell him how!

MY CLIENT SHOWED ME:

1.-How to write down the important things to do;

2.-To break important things into smaller tasks;

3.-To put a timeline on each task;

4.-To do the critical things first;

5.-To squeeze any task not finished today ahead of the first task for the following day; and,

6.-Unless you can’t help it, not to allow distractions from the task at hand;

7.-He insisted the key is NOT to take too many tasks at one time and to take things one step at a time; and finally,

8.-my client was adamant that I should fix the numbers of hours to work per day; and, to make the total allotted timeline for all tasks stay within hours allocated for the day!

HOME AND ONLINE BUSINESS IS PERFECT TO CUT DOWN ON OVERTIME!

Whether you contemplate to write content for a Blog Post, a Web Page or E-mail campaign, there are certain minimum steps, related to managing time you can count on needing for a good Post:

2.-Create the structure of the Post;

3.-Do research on the subject matter and the structure;

4.-Think of potential images to reinforce the narrative;

5.-Draft the Post content; and

6.-Edit, Review and Edit again …

7.-Allocate 6 to 8 hours total for these tasks; and,

7.-PUBLISH THE CONTENT!

Once you make a sincere effort and put time into managing the time you spend on getting things done on your Home Business, you’ll be surprised to find that many tasks creep up on you that are really just part of main tasks you have already or will soon do. These lesser or sub-tasks can be eliminated or combined with the main task …It’ll make your life less frantic, save time, do less work; and, perhaps even prevent panic attacks!

NOW THAT YOU KNOW…

Be smart with your time, My Friend! Empower yourself by fixing a limited time for the entire project or per day to work on the business. Organize the essential tasks. Put a timeline on each task, but never allow the total to become greater than you allotted time for the day or project at hand.

Unless you are naturally inclined to theories and expert studies, don’t overburden yourself by getting bookish on time management. I learned from my industry mogul that there are actually more theorogeons and expert studies on the subject than there are practical experts to help plain folks like you and me. That’s why Zig Ziglar, Dale Carnegie and even Earl Nightingale still resonate with the over 65 crowd today!

--Felix C. Guerrero