Calendaring Tools

We estimate you could save hours per week by improving the way you use a calendar.

There are 3 key techniques that will dramatically improve your productivity related to calendar management and execution:

DEFAULT CALENDAR

Blocking out time on your weekly calendar for consistent, repeatable activities. Block out time to work ON your business – systems, training, marketing, personal growth.

17 Minute Sprints

We can get paralyzed by the size and scope of a project or work effort – and therefore fail to act. Sometimes we simply need to start.

Michael Heppell presents a very effective technique in his Book “17” – setting aside time for a short 17-minute sprint dedicated to focused delivery on a small piece of the work effort.

CALENDAR REVIEW

Taking 5-10 minutes reviewing and planning for tomorrow at the end of the day before you leave will add significantly to your productivity.

How do we know?

Think back to the last time you took a vacation – did you build a list of things that you needed to get done prior to taking time off?

Were you more productive that day than the average day?

What would happen if that were every day?

Execution Management

We estimate you could save hours per week by improving the way you handle tasks on a daily basis.

Below are some of the most effective methods to help:

Email Management

Handle new email effectively and efficiently by touching only once. From her book “Take Back Your Life”, Sally McGhee encourages us to take one of 4 actions with every new inbound email:

• Delete It – junk mail, spam, distractions
• Do It – if it will take less than 1-2 minutes, do it immediately
• Delegate It – is this a task that it better handled by someone on my team?
• Defer It – is this a bigger task than I can address immediately? Schedule an appropriate time block on your calendar to complete that work.

Eliminate multi-tasking

The effectiveness of multi-tasking is a fallacy.

Every time you switch between tasks, you lose time and focus.

Dedicate time to executing and completing a single task before moving on to another.

Goal setting and execution

Without a clear set of goals with defined plans for the year and quarter, you are destined to continue to relive the same year – year after year.

Know your baseline, set a target, and measure progress against those goals.

Top priority for the day

What is that one thing that you must get done today?

Can you complete it to start the day?

From his book, “Eat That Frog”, Brian Tracy encourages you to do that least desirable item first – so that you can enjoy the rest of the day instead of dreading that activity for the entire day.

 

Focus / Delivery

We estimate you could save hours per week by improving the way you focus on tasks at hand. Below are some of the most effective methods to help:

Task Prioritization

From the book “First Things First” by Stephen R. Covey, we get the decision matrix of Urgent vs. Important.

The goal is to focus your priority and efforts on those two quadrants of Not Urgent, but Important and Urgent and Important.

Reduce your time on those tasks that are Not Important.

Delegation

Delegation is not only a time management technique, but should be used for both training and rewards of strong performance.

There are many tasks that can be delegated – not because you don’t like doing them, but because it will build a stronger team when you’re not the person completing them.

Daily work

Your task list for a given day will always be plenty long – make sure that you complete today what is needed for today.

Carrying tasks over to tomorrow is not efficient and can be demoralizing.

Stay on top of your list.

Balance

Maintaining a well-balanced lifestyle will benefit you in both the short and long term.

You may feel more comfortable with the word “harmony” over “balance” – there will be days when you are not able to be balanced, but over a series of days or weeks you should have harmony across all aspects of your life: physical, mental/emotional , spiritual, financial, family, social, community, etc.

Review / Reflection / Gratitude

We estimate you could save hours per week by taking some time to reflect and review each day.

Below are some of the most effective methods to help:

Daily review

How was your day?

To improve an activity, you need to review and reflect on what worked well, what didn’t work well, and how you will improve next time (think sports game film review).

The same is true for your daily activities.

Take 5 minutes to evaluate your focus, your top learning from the day, when you were at your best, top challenge from the day, and your top focus for tomorrow.

Daily affirmations

Starting and ending your day with daily “I AM” statements will radically change your mindset and approach.

Start each day with the top five affirmations for the work you must get done – “I AM a great leader”, “I AM focused and deliberate”, “I AM flexible and open to new ideas”.

End each day with longer term aspirational statements “I AM building a world-class organization”, “I AM seen and respected as a leader in my community”, “I AM an entrepreneur that offers my opportunities for others to grow and develop”.

Gratitude Journaling

Start each day capturing those things which you are grateful for that day – family, faith, team, etc.

Gratitude promotes humility, humility promotes gratitude.