(no holds barred, kick butt, take no prisoners guides to business success)
Time Management
Dan Kennedy
Don't Count Time, Make Time Count!
Tick…tick..tick…can't find enough time? Find out how to use it far more wisely by the man who successfully runs multiple business ventures simultaneously. Dan Kennedy has been called the "Professor of Harsh Reality" because he doesn't deal in glib, pabulum solutions and eye-rolling clichés you've heard incessantly on time management.
He takes on the world of cell phones, PDA's, faxes, emails and every other communications device that pervades our life, suggesting when to tap it and when to give it the heave-ho. This entrepreneur-consultant-author-speaker has a whirlwind business life, yet manages to fit everything in using a handful of home-brewed time tools he swears by.
He shows how to maximize your time with a fresh take on the mantra that "time is money." It's all about using disciplined productivity strategies he's devised over 30 years of managing highly-profitable businesses with only minimal help.
Sample Chapter Chapter 3
Stopping "Productivus Interruptus" Once and for All
My life is one long obstacle course, with me being the chief obstacle.
-Jack Paar
Interruptions destroy many office- or desk-bound individuals' productivity.
Put a stop to interruptions: multiply your productivity. It is that simple.
After reading a study claiming that the average business owner is interrupted once every eight minutes, I had three of my clients who spend all day on their business premises put a watch on it for a day. One reported a better average: once per ten. The other two, six, and the third hollered, "Hey, I need a stopwatch."
When I used to go to my offices in a place where I was under the same roof with my staff, I found that to be about par-if I let it happen. And, as a big thumb rule, the more employees or associates you've got, the more you get interrupted. Some years back, I suddenly wound up with a staff of 42 people thrust upon me. For a while, I was interrupted every eight seconds, not every eight minutes. It was embarrassing to ultimately realize that this was all my fault. I permitted, even invited the interruptions. And I learned to stop them.
There are many reasons for these interruptions, and almost none of them have to do with necessity! If you're going to achieve peak personal productivity in such an environment, here are the five self-defense, time-defense tactics you'll have to use:
1. Get lost
2. Don't answer the phone
3. Fix the fax
4. Set the timer on the bomb
5. Be busy and be obvious about it
Get Lost
Your first tactic-simple inaccessibility. When I was in the office I got asked lots of questions that I knew the people figured out for themselves when I wasn't there, so my being there, and being accessible, actually diminished their productivity as well as mine. The answer is not to be there at all. Some entrepreneurs think they have to set a leadership example by being the first person there, to turn on the lights, and the last person to leave, to turn off the lights. I made this mistake, and it IS a huge mistake. Leadership is not about outworking everybody.
I learned by traveling that my people functioned just as well or better with me as an absentee leader as they did with me onsite. When I was on the road and inaccessible, they handled 80% of everything on their own, most of it satisfactorily, some with excellence, and a little bit unsatisfactorily but almost always repairable. And they asked me about the other 20% quickly and efficiently, in brief phone conversations or via fax. Since that worked okay when it had to, there's no reason it couldn't work all the time. So, I stopped going in to the office, period. I had a fax at home and at the office, so when I was in town, I stayed at home and worked there largely interrupted. When necessary, I faxed or phoned in; they phoned or faxed me.
Today, I live and work at my Ohio home more than anywhere else. I have only one staff person, and she is in the office-in Phoenix. About as far from underfoot as can be. Almost without exception, we talk by phone once a day, usually for less than 20 minutes; I get truly urgent faxes once a day; and once a week I get a nicely organized box of other faxes, mail, and a list of questions. She is far better organized in dealing with me than she'd be were I there or more accessible. I am far better organized in dealing with her. I'm certain it equates to at least two hours of productivity saved per day for both of us, and in my world, that's a whole pile of money. A lot more than the weekly FedEx bill.
Dozens of my clients have mimicked these practices, with very good result. In fact, I can name more than 30-some running small businesses like mine with only one or two staff, others running businesses doing as much as $30 million a year-who have offices they seldom visit-from no more than once a week to as seldom as once a month. Chet Rowland, who owns one of the largest and most profitable pest control companies in Florida, as well as a marketing, training and coaching company serving the entire pest control industry, has sales, administrative, technical, and in-the-field, on-the-truck employees. He goes to the office no more than twice a month. His right-hand person comes to his home for a meeting once a week. He gets daily statistics and information electronically. He works in a home office at his sprawling lakeside home or at his beachfront condo. He travels often with no anxiety about being away from the office, because he's always away from the office. He gets so much more accomplished than he would if in that office eight hours a day, it can't even be measured.
I have a friend, a CEO of a $4 or $5 million-a-year business, who can't work at home; he has six kids, two dogs, one spouse. So he has a small $200-a-month office in town, about halfway between his home and his manufacturing facility. It has no phone and no fax. And he spends most of his time there.
He and I agree:
Dan Kennedy's #3
No B.S. Time Truth
If they can't find you, they can't interrupt you.
No BS Time Management
Dan Kennedy
Contents
Preface, x
chapter 1
How to Turn Time into Money 1
Can One "Number" Change Your Life?, 3
How Low Can You Go in Valuing Time?, 9
chapter 2
How to Drive a Stake Through the Hearts of the
Time Vampires Out to Suck You Dry 11
"They're in a Meeting," 13
Playing Trivial Pursuit, 15
Oh Boy, It's Soap Opera Time!, 16
Are There Other Time Vampires?, 17
chapter 3
Stopping "Productivus Interruptus" Once and for All 20 Get Lost, 21
Don't Answer the Phone, 24
Fix the Fax, 30
Set the Timer on the Bomb, 34
Be Busy and Be Obvious About It, 35
chapter 4
The Number One Most Powerful Personal Discipline
in All the World And How It Can Make You
Successful Beyond Your Wildest Dreams 37
The Tragic Case of the Doctor Who Couldn't Tell Time, 38
The Telling Connection Between Punctuality and Integrity, 39
A Simple Way to Favorably Impress Others, 41
Are Even a Person's Deepest, Darkest Psyche
Secrets Revealed by Punctuality?, 43
chapter 5
The Magic Power that Makes You Unstoppable 45
How a "Little Man" Reminds Us of "The Magic Power"
8,000 Times and Counting, 46
How to Make the World Hand Over Just about
Anything You Ask, 48
The Inextricable Link between Time Management
and Self-Discipline, 52
"Success Leaves Clues," 52
chapter 6
The Ten Time Management Techniques
Really Worth Using 54
Technique #1: Tame the Phone, 55
Technique #2: Minimize Meetings, 56
Technique #3: Practice Absolute Punctuality, 57
Technique #4: Make and Use Lists, 57
Technique #5: Fight to Link Everything to Your Goals, 59
Technique #6: Tickle the Memory with Tickler Files, 61
Technique #7: Block Your Time, 63
Technique #8: Minimize Unplanned Activity, 65
Technique #9: Profit from "Odd-Lot" Time, 66
Technique #10: Live Off Peak, 67
chapter 7
How to Turn Time into Wealth 69
"On the Other Hand . . .," 71
A Wealthy Man, 73
How Much Is Enough?, 74
chapter 8
On the Road Again. I Just Can't Wait to
Get on the Road Again. 76
Jam as Much Business into Each Business Trip as Possible, 77
Where Are those "Friendly Skies," Anyway?, 79
Battling for Productivity in Your Hotel Room, 84
Communicating while Traveling, 86
The Extinction of the Travel Agent, 87
As You Head Out the Door . . ., 89
chapter 9
How to Handle the Information Avalanche 90
How Do You Handle All This?, 91
Specialize. But Not too Much., 96
Know What You Are Looking For, 97
How to Organize and Manage Ideas, 99
How the Well-Trained, Conditioned, and Fit Subconscious
Mind Helps Handle the Information Avalanche, 100
chapter 10
Fire Yourself, Replace Yourself, Make More
Money, and Have More Fun 103
"We're Overpaying Him, but He's Worth It," 104
"Delegate or Stagnate," 105
Going Beyond Delegation, 109
"They Gave Me a Lifetime Contract, Then They
Pronounced Me Legally Dead," 109
What to Do with the Time You Liberate, 111
chapter 11
A Baker's Dozen of Productivity-Builder
Tips and Ideas 114
Lie Down with Dogs; Wake Up with Fleas, 114
Mañana, 115
How to Use the Home Office to Increase
Personal Productivity, 117
How to Drown in Opportunity and Success, 119
Short-Term, Medium-Term, and Long-Term Thinking, 121
Get Rid of Nuisances, 122
Do Not Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth. Get On,
Hang On, and Enjoy the Gallop., 123
chapter 12
The Inner Game of Peak Personal Productivity 126
Psycho-Cybernetics and Getting More Value
from Your Time, 126
Creating a Peak Productivity Environment, 128
"A Clean Desk Is a Sign of a Sick Mind," 129
Now What the Heck Is Feng Shui?, 132
Finally-the Militant Attitude, 134
chapter 13
Reasons Why a Year Passes and No
Meaningful Progress Is Made 135
Majoring in Minor Matters, 138
Breaking the Code of Extraordinarily Successful People, 140
chapter 14
Commonly Asked Questions and Answers
About Peak Personal Productivity 143
Resource Directory, 155
Time Truths, 160
Preface to No B.S. Business Success, 162
Preface to No B.S. Sales Success, 169
Index, 173
Special Free Gift #1 from the Author, 181
Special Free Gift #2 from the Author, 182
Don't Count Time, Make Time Count!