(Note: Here’s this week’s suggested read for our followers; “Procrastinate on Purpose: 5 Permissions to Multiply Your Time.” )
If there’s anybody out there that feels like you have too much to do and not enough time to do it? Then investing a little bit more of that illusive time of yours would be well spent reading Rory Vaden’s new book, “Procrastinate on Purpose: 5 Permissions to Multiply Your Time.” He reminds us that we all have 168 hours in our week, 2.09 of which we spend per day at our jobs doing non-work related activities. If that’s not enough, he states that the average executive spends up to three hours a day going through their 116 (national average) emails that arrive daily.
Here’s the practical advice I gleaned from the book:
- The three main points:
- People need to rethink time management – time cannot be managed, only prioritized
- Those who are successful at saving time and money have learned to be a “multiplier”
- Time is more valuable than money
- My favorite quotes from Vaden, (a.k.a., my favorite “truths”):
- “As a leader, you will be the recipient of people’s problems [which are] always going to seem urgent to them.”
- “When we prioritize, we aren’t creating more time; we are borrowing time.”
- “Your life is your responsibility – any commitments you have were either made or allowed by you.”
- “The more successful the person, the more intentional and protective they seem to be about their time.”
- “There is no such thing as time management; there is only self-management.”
- There are two important concepts you need to grasp before tackling his “5 permissions”:
- Understand your MVOT – your money value of (your) time. If you’re a salaried person, take your annual salary and divide it by the hours you work per year. This will give you you’re hourly wage, that is, the value of your time. If you can hire someone to do something (personal or business) that is less than your hourly wage, do it!
- Add a third category of “significance” to your time evaluation methodology – most people think in two dimensions about tasks when it comes to time; 1) “how much” (it’s importance), and 2) “how fast” (it’s urgency). Add significance to help you prioritize. Significance is “how long something is going to matter”. In other words, make decision
Multipliers multiply their time by giving themselves permission to the do the following “ate” (pun intended) things:
- Eliminate – the things that don’t matter…consider eliminating these….
- long emails
- excess changes in work products
- giving unsolicited advice and opinions
- double and triple checking things
- over-volunteering
- Automate – every process you can…
- Set up your household bills for automatic payments online
- Scan your receipts
- Set up automatic computer data backup systems
- Delegate…
- Doing it yourself is faster only once
- Let go of your “perfectionism” – Vaden says this is the real core issue that keeps people from delegating
- Procrastinate – “productively”
- There is a difference between putting something off and waiting for the right time
- Multipliers will wait until the deadline is near because they know circumstances could change, thus avoiding wasted time
- Concentrate – what’s your one, single priority?
- “You can’t really have multiple priorities”
Lastly, Vaden does a good job reminding us of Stephen Covey’s “Time Management Matrix” from his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”:
- You should classify your tasks in one of each of the following ways:
- Important and Urgent (where too many executives get caught, causing them to lose focus)
- Important but Not Urgent (where most individuals should focus their efforts – here you build relationships, creating strategies and new opportunities)
- Not Important but Urgent
- Not Important and Not Urgent
Stop saying you’re “too busy” and start prioritizing. Vaden has spent his time giving you the secrets. “Multiply” your time by putting his suggestions to work…today!
(To purchase the book click here: http://www.amazon.com/Procrastinate-Purpose-Permissions-Multiply-Your/dp/0399170626)
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Bill Edmonds is an Executive Coach and Consultant who works with leaders to help them reach their full potential by specializing in areas of organizational and personal development. He spent 24 years in leadership with Merrill Lynch until his retirement in 2014, where he lead a $100+ million per year revenue business unit as a Director with the firm.
