Time Management

Rich people have 24 hours a day and poor people have 24 hours a day. The difference is clearly how we use those hours. How are you managing your time?

It is far too easy to spend time answering personal emails, organizing the desk, and answering calls which were not urgent. Productivity equals income. Being busy but not productive usually means being broke.

I'm a big believer in lists. At the close of the business day, write out the 5 most important tasks to be accomplished tomorrow. Put them in priority order. Organize them into specific time slots in your day. For instance if you have a business, you might return calls from your most important clients or call leads or call to follow up with recent purchasers. Set a specific time to accomplish this such as 8 am to 9 am. Select the next item on the list and slot it on your calendar for 9 am to 10 am. Continue this until all 5 items on the list are completed.

If you are designing a new web site or some other time consuming project, you may choose to schedule two hour blocks.

Give yourself a 5 or 10 minute break every two or three hours to keep yourself fresh and alert.

Personally I work out on the treadmill from 6:15 am to 8:15 am and then stretch until 8:30 am. It is just as important to maintain a flexible body as it is to have strength or cardio training.
My next task is our 8:30 am conference call followed by the 9 am conference call.

Next I start my business call backs until 11:00
There are Executive Committee calls and Mastermind calls on various days of the week from 11 to noon.
From 1 to 3 is my gym time.
At 3:30 I resume by working on my marketing until 5 or 6 each day depending on the project.
From 6 to 9 there are various calls on various days so I leave that time slot open for calls as needed. Sometimes I am conducting training calls in this time slot for my company or my marketing firm or my team. It varies from day to day.
I answer personal emails and personal calls during non-productive business hours.
Since my weights workout is every other day, I schedule errands etc which must be done during business hours on the off-gym day.

Some authorities have said that they tell themselves "If I had to leave town tomorrow for a month, what is the most important thing to be done before I go?" That is number 1 on the priority list. If I have time for one more, what would it be? Then add a second, third, fourth and fifth.

Your time is so important. Use it wisely.