November 27, 2011 Client Newsletter

While I was cleaning my locker at the Y last week I found a gem of a book I completely forgot that I was reading for some reason. Buried way deep under a pile of old books I read when spending time working out on the cross trainer was “No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs” written by one of my favorite small business gurus Dan Kennedy. Although my copy was written in 1999, a new update edition is now available.

It’s clear why he brands his books “No B.S.” — he pulls no punches! There is quite a bit of no-nonsense practical advice in this book (along with the occasional rant), but I have to admit that I’m still scratching my head at how Kennedy has practically eliminated the use of cell phones and emails from his business life as methods of communication (he opts for faxes because he says people put more thought into the content of them).

Inside this book are several great nuggets of wisdom about time management and success….words worth typing up and posting on your wall or somewhere else where you can see them and remind yourself regularly.  Not burying it in your locker at the Y.

Some of my favorites:

- Self-discipline is the magic power that makes you virtually unstoppable.
– Delegate or stagnate.
– No one who is good at making excuses is also good at making money. The skills are mutually    exclusive.
– The more decisions you make and the faster you make them, the more productive you are.
– Good enough is good enough.

Kennedy talked about a technique he uses to focus and avoid majoring in minor matters: Identify and write down the three most important, most significant, most productive, most valuable things you can do to foster success in your particular enterprise. Then translate them into three actions you can take on each day. He noted that even though some people may find writing down lists to be confining, he’s never known or met a successful entrepreneur who wasn’t a list maker.

To illustrate the importance and benefits of taking massive action, he shared a story about how a dentist with a struggling practice made a list of 300 things he needed to implement to turn things around. He simply did 10 items from the list each and every week for 30 weeks and without increasing marketing or advertising expenses he managed to QUADRUPLE his business!

We all know that sometimes we fail to hit our goals. When we do fail, some people will reset the same goal with a new deadline and others may create fewer aggressive goals.  However, Kennedy handles these situations a bit differently by creating a similar but bigger and more exciting goal with a new deadline. This way he’s able to stay motivated and focused rather than lower the bar or waste time with disappointment.

I would like to share Kennedy’s excellent definition of productivity and four of the many time management techniques discussed in the book. I suspect you’ve heard some or all of these before but it never hurts to remind yourself because we can all do better with our time management!

Definition of productivity: Productivity is the deliberate, strategic investment of your time, talent, intelligence, energy, resources, and opportunities in a manner calculated to move you measurably closer to meaningful goals.

Four Time Management Techniques Really Worth Using

1. Tame the phone: Take few if any incoming calls. Return calls at your convenience. This is the number one source of interruption and distraction for most people.
2. Block your time: Make inviolate appointments with yourself. Block out time to handle specific recurring aspects of your business. If you block time for important, high-value functions you perform, you prevent demands of others from moving these activities from number one to number ten on your list over and over again. This one technique has enabled Kennedy to write at least one book per year publish two monthly newsletters for eight consecutive years.
3. Practice absolute punctuality: Being punctual gives you the right — the positioning — to expect and demand that others treat your time with respect. Kennedy feels so strongly about this one that as a general rule of thumb, he will use a person’s punctuality (or lack thereof) to decide whether he wants to do business with them.
4. Profit from “Odd-Lot” time: Turn driving time and waiting time into educational times to learn a foreign language, improve your memory, or essentially learn about any and every topic from experts. Take advantage of audio books and pod casts.