The Five Keys of Time Management

1. Create a Habit Machine: Lower the Bar

A stable routine is always helpful, which is why having a habit machine is essential for those who are trying to maximize the efficiency with their time.

Your habit machine, which is simply a system to help you build positive habits, will help you to begin adding more value to your daily routine. The first step is a little counterintuitive to some: lower the bar. Tell yourself, "I'm going to do this a minimum of one minute today, two minutes a day tomorrow." Set the bar low, but continually raise it to build momentum, which grows and accelerate when you are consistent and persistent.

2. Save 4 Minutes a Day

One of the practices that I've instituted into my habit machine is every day I set a goal or an objective to figure out how I can save four minutes a day. Four minutes a day is a magical number for me because I know it represents three full days of productivity each year.

Most people are productive for 8 hours or less every day. If you can save 4 minutes every day that is 24 hours of time, which is 3 full days of productivity. I know any positive habit that I can create or any system or process that I can implement that saves me just four minutes a day has a compounding effect on my results.

3. Be a Student of Your Calendar

One of the biggest changes in productivity came for me when I started studying my calendar. This isn’t taking a look at what you have on your schedule, there are three areas to focus on: Study the things you have planned for the day. For the tasks that you regularly plan, look to create efficiencies with your habit machine. For example, I have a 5/20 Rule where I try to schedule five-minute phone calls and keep my in-person meetings to twenty minutes, creating situations where the people that I interact with are ready for our interaction and focused. With a predominance of virtual meetings today, instituting something as minorly different as a 4/19 Rule could allow for more production, creating an extremely effective way to save 4 minutes a day, which results in an extra 3 days of productivity during the year.

4. Master Prioritization

As you're studying your calendar, you it helps to understand what I call the “Do It Now” rule. There's an old saying, “Ask a busy person to do something for you and you'll be much more likely to get it done.” It goes beyond that, though.

You have to evaluate your tasks by urgency and importance in order to determine priority. You do this by analyzing the actuality of the situation or event considering your own personal values, not the urgency perceived by others.

5. Eliminate Distractions

What you focus on, or what you pay attention to and give intention to, will create coincidences in your life, whether you want them or not.

One example is I was once given the opportunity to drive around at a real track, in a real race car, with a real professional driver. They had cones set up for us to maneuver around and I kept hitting the cones. My driving instructor told me to stop looking at the cones, to which I replied, "Well, I don't want to hit the cones." He told me to look at the road in front of me, focus on where I wanted to go and not where I didn’t want to go. After that, I didn’t hit a single cone.

If you're focused on the distractions you face, you're going to put attention and intention on it, eventually receiving the coincidence of the distraction. Pay attention to what you want for yourself and your business, as well as the tasks you need to accomplish in order to get those results. Stay focused and realize that you will hit the cones if all you're looking at is the cones.

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