A good friend of mine who owns a $300 Million dollar
company recently interview me on productivity and
time management so he could share it with his staff.
Now, I find it funny that a guy who’s generating more
than a quarter billion a year is having productivity
and time management problems, but that’s a story for
another day.
I personally never pegged myself as the most productive
person in town.
But I guess looking back on all I do at any given time,
I can see why people might get that picture.
– I co-own Fit Body Boot Camp – the biggest training
and fitness boot camp franchise.
– I Put on two HUGE events a year for the fitness industry.
– I own multiple info products, and software platforms.
– I run four coaching and mastermind groups.
– And I co-own a publishing company.
I guess I do get a lot done and I have a unique way of
doing it where I can still have free time and an actual
life.
So, I’m gonna share my secret with you, like I did with
Mr. $300 Million Dollars, okay.
Now, like I told him, I’ll tell you. What I’m about to share
with you is most certainly going to come off politically
incorrect and possibly even arrogant.
BUT if you want to get a lot done, and not do it all yourself,
and still have a life, then this is what you MUST do.
1. Define and delegate. What I mean is, define your five
percent, the 5% of things that YOU should be doing personally
that drive your business forward with massive leaps and bounds.
And stick to only your 5%.
Delegate the rest to others.
When I first started teaching my 5% rule to others (about 4 years
ago) the concept was way over everyone’s head.
I guess the idea of letting go of control and ONLY focusing on the things
you like and the things that make you money was foreign to a lot of
people.
2. Don’t entertain bad ideas. Look, you’re an entrepreneur,
people what to leach off your business, “take a few minutes of
your time” or pitch you an idea.
Don’t meet with anyone.
Instead, have them email or text you a short pitch and you
decide if it’s worth pursuing.
Trust me, if the idea is that good, they will be able to explain it
to you in a short text message.
If it’s not worth pursuing, don’t spare their feelings, or entertain their
bad idea just becuase they are friends, or you feel for them.
The BEST thing you can do for them is to tell them NO, so they
can move on to a better idea or think up something new.
3. Work off lists. I can say this till I’m blue in the face and people
still don’t do it.
Freak’in baffles me!
Look, I know you think you’re smart enough to remember the
things you have to do today. I know you think you don’t need
a list to work off of.
Trust me, I’m a pretty smart dude. I make a lot of money and
I make it look easy, and I AM NOT SMART ENOUGH TO
REMEMBER EVERYTHING I NEED TO DO TODAY.
Go to Staples. Get a steno pad. And each night write up a list
of the things you have to do the next day to drive your business.
This is more than just to remeber.
First off, and I don’t know why this happens, but when you write
something down, a deeper mental commitment is made to that
thing.
Secondly, once you look over your list the next morning you’re
gonna see two things…
1. Things that are NOT in your 5% and so you’ll delegate them
to others.
2. You’ll see that you were missing a few things and so you can
add them on there.
Plus, nothing feels as good as crossing things off your “to do” list.
** RANT **
Do you want to know why I think most people don’t want to make
and work off lists?
They’re lazy.
And by making a list and not getting anything done on it YOU PROVE
your laziness to yourself.
Don’t let that be you.
4. Find the zone. When I lift, I’m most in the zone at about 11:00 AM.
When I write emails or blog posts to you, I do it now, at about 9:00 AM
before I head on over to the HQ.
I’m most creative when I’m driving or when I’m chill’in at Starbucks.
I don’t let anything take me out of my zone. If I wrote an email to you
late at night, it would be in poor thought and have or spelling and
grammatical errors then it does now.
If I lift at night (and I sometimes have to), the workouts are always less
effective.
Figure out what your best zone times are and work in them.
5. Cut all distractions when you’re in the zone.
Facebook – off.
Twitter – off.
iphone – sound off, phone out of reach.
Emails – off.
Door – closed.
And GSD! (Get Sh1t Done).
6. The art of ignoring things.
About a two months ago I drove through a car wash and a bolt popped
off the washer arm and smashed into the hood of my GT-R.
A $100K car – with a dent and scratch on it. I DON’T CARE.
I got the info for the car wash and ignored them (they were in a panic and wanted
to repair the car as quickly as possible), I ignored my insurance agent, and the
repair shop that kept calling.
I was busy.
I’m not gonna stop my day to talk to a few jokers and visit a repair shop for a
$3000.00 repair.
I’ll get it done when it’s convenient for me and then send them the bill.
Actually taking time to speak to them, pay a visit to the repair shop and insurance
agent would have easily cost me $30-50K.
I hope you got the moral of the story here.