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Do you have enough Time?
By Shawn Kinkade | February 26, 2008
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A lot of people I’ve talked to lately have been feeling like there’s not enough time in the day.
Maybe because it’s February (the longest month of the year in my book), maybe because there’s been a lot of gray, drizzly days, or maybe…and I’m just spitballin’ here, it’s because they simply don’t have enough time in the day.
The reality is that most people are trying to get dozens of things done every single day, and if you’re a small business owner you can probably multiply that by a factor of 2 (parents - especially mothers get to multiply it by another factor of at least 2).
So the best answer to this dilemma, obviously is to create more time.
Yeah - I’m not sure how to do that either.
I guess the next best answer is to manage time. Here’s the definition for Manage:
- to direct or be in charge of (e.g., an organization).
- to handle or control, to force.
- So based on that, all you need to do is direct or force time to do your bidding - kind of like Bill and Ted - While that would indeed be ‘Excellent’, it doesn’t actually seem very practical.
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- So if you can’t create time and you really can’t ‘manage’ time but there’s not enough time in the day to do all of your activities, what can you do?
- Maybe it’s time to cut down on your activities…
- Less is more.
- In 1895, Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist noted a natural phenomenon that people in society tended to break up into the ‘vital few’ upper class - the top 20% and the ‘trivial many’, the remaining 80%.
- He later found out that this ‘rule’ applied to all sorts of situations.
- 20% of your activities will generate 80% of your results. In other words, if you have a to do list of 10 things, 2 of those things will be really important (the vital few) and will generate the large bulk of what you really need to do.
The other 80% - not so much.
Another option for handling time
Today’s recommendation then is to figure out what your top 20% of activities are on a regular basis and make sure you do those first. Remember, those are the activities that will supply the most value towards reaching your goals.
You do know what your goals are right?
Put together a list of your common activities, evaluate them against your goals and then make sure you do the most important things first.
As you look through the list and you see things that aren’t important…stop doing them. Just stop.
My friend Toby has created a Subtraction’ challenge this week that ties directly into this idea (he had the idea first…). Subtract something from your business life that isn’t part of your ‘main’ thing.
My subtraction is going to be to stop chasing after networking contacts that aren’t interested / available. Currently I’m following up with people at least 3 times to get a meeting. Even if they are potentially a good contact for me, it’s a waste of time (mine and theirs) to chase something.
What can you subtract? I’d love to hear about here.
Shawn Kinkade www.aspirekc.com
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Topics: Small Business Strategy, Inspire |
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