Alright. Time is something that we would all like to have more of. So we're
going to talk about 10 ways to manage your time better. Okay, so we've got Michelle
McCullough here who is kind of time management guru. -Junkie. -Junkie?
-Guru sounds a lot more. -(Making meditation sounds.) -There we go. So, we've got we've got 10 tips that
we're going to talk about. But we're going to give them in a reverse order. We're going to
save the best for it for last here. So, let's... Let's get into... Let's get into the
nitty-gritty here of how can we use time more effectively? -Okay, number 10 is to
get a good night's sleep. And it sounds silly but we are so much more energetic
and so much better able to accomplish the tasks that we need to accomplish
when we've taken care of our sleep. And a lot of high achievers and productivity
people think they need to sacrifice that sleep to get more done or like while
everyone's quiet and asleep that they should do more. But the reality is is
that you can be better with your awake time if you give yourself permission to
get 8 hours of sleep. -That does make a lot of sense. Can we talk about
when wake up in the morning, if you have that as another pointer can I throw in?
-You can throw it in. -So, this is just for me. But I find, if I go to bed early and
then wake up early, like 4:00 A-M, man, I get so much done. Like my brain just
works so good at that time. In the morning, it's so quiet. Have space to
myself just to think. -And I'm a night owl. I'm going to stay up until midnight and
work and then get up at 8:00. And take on the day. -So find the time then that works
for you. -Mm-hmm. -Okay, what's number 9? Number 9 is figure out when you're
most energetic time of the day is. Now, it sounds like for you right when you wake
up is the most energetic time of your day. That's not for me.
My most energetic time is either right before lunch or right after lunch. And so,
just figure out when do you feel the most energetic? By 3:00 p.m. I am done so.
By 8:00 p.m. my brain is crazy. But sometimes, I can get like a rush of
energy at 9:00 o'clock. When the kids are in bed and I'm like feeling Footloose
and fancy-free. And so I get another rush again about
nine o'clock. Which is one reason why I'm a night owl. But discover when your most
energetic time is and do your hardest brain tasks at that time. So, if you
attach the energy that you have with the brainpower that you need. You can
accomplish more and get the hardest things done than trying to plug on
through one times you're really just not there mentally. -Let's go to number 8.
Number 8 is to think about things that you do on a regular basis. So, a lot
of our to-do list items, we continue to put on the to-do list every single week.
Like grocery shopping or laundry or in your business, it could be making calls.
Or sending out emails. And so figure out the things that you do daily weekly and
monthly and schedule those and remove them from your to-do list. Because then,
you're more likely to do them on routine and it won't be something where if
there's an emergency it doesn't get done. But it's something that you already have
planned in your schedule. Number 7 is always figuring out ways to do things
faster. Now... -Efficiency. -I love the word efficient and I'm glad that you said
that because it's not always about speed. Because we don't want to sacrifice
quality. But be willing to look at new ways you can do some of the same things
over and over but in quicker ways. So, whether that's doing some research or
asking friends, "Hey, how do you get this done?" And your business or at home. And
then being willing to try things in a different way. I think that we should
always be learning and being willing to apply that to our time as well. Yeah, I
love that I love efficiency. I call myself the Master of Efficiency. Because
that's just how my brain works. I like finding something you know, I want to get
something done and I just think what's going to be the quickest way for me to
accomplish that result not worrying about you know, the traditions or what
I'm used to to get it done. -And a lot of times, one of the ways you can do things
faster, isn't not to allow distractions to come in. So, one of the things that I
like to remember on this point is sometimes it's not about hopping from
this thing to that thing to this thing to that thing but it's saying, "Okay, I'm
going to get this one thing done." That takes a long time and
not going to answer my phone and I'm going to turn things things off. It could be but it's not in
my list. -That you got a bonus here. -That was a bonus tip. -To find a way of
removing distractions. -Yes, yes. Time traps, like I call them. -Okay, number 6 is
blocking out time. A lot of people put their to-do lists out there and they
think, "When I have time, I'm going to check things off of my to-do list." But if you
break your main tasks into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks you can schedule them
and block out times to get them done. Or if you still have the onesie, twosie
tasks or the one-off things. Scheduled time and your week, every single week to
work on your to-do list. Don't allow it to be something if you have time, that
you'll get it done. Because we all know you're going to run out of time.
Number 5 is one of my ninja tricks, okay?
I'm all about batching like items together. This works personally at home.
Like when I am in my green smoothie. Work time, I will make a whole week's worth of
green smoothies and freeze them. So, instead of every single day getting out
the blender and washing the blender. I will make a whole week's worth. Freeze
them and let that task be done. In my business, that will look like getting all
of my invoicing done once a week or doing all of my statistics reviews once
a week. Instead of looking at him every single day and really not giving them a
good judge, I'll pick a specific time to batch those like items and put them together.
-So perhaps instead of filming an episode every day, you spent 20 episodes in
one day. -Fantastic advice. I should do that. Number 4. 4, one of my favorite
subjects which I wish we could do a whole show on this. And maybe we should
in some time, is delegation. Being willing to delegate the tasks that are (A) not in
your zone of genius or (B) could be done by someone else. In a business frame of
mind, this looks like of the book with The 1 Minute Manager Meets the Monkey
by Ken Blanchard. He says everything in your organization needs to be done at
the lowest possible pay level. That doesn't mean you don't value what
getting done. But it means that the CEO should not be taking out the trash. And
not because he's too cool for that but because he has other revenue generating
activities. That if he is taking out the trash, he's
being distracted from that .Likewise. if you're the trash take her outer, you
can know that that is part of the company's big profits pattern to begin
with. And that your responsibility is just as important to someone else's
because we need all of those pieces to get done. And here's the thing, if you are
a stay-at-home mom or even a stay-at-home dad, I highly recommend
outsourcing things you don't love doing. Bring in a neighbor kid from across the
street to fold your laundry for you. I mean, some people love that. And if you
love folding your laundry, continue to do it. It is not my favorite thing. And so, I
can pay a neighbor, a neighbor kid 10 bucks an hour to fold all the laundry in
my house. They can get it done in an hour. And it would probably take me 3
hours because I'm going to get distracted with the kids or distracted with a phone
call or distracted with my business. And it's not an effective use of my time. So,
if you can think about the tasks that you can outsource, even for just a small
amount, you'll find yourself that you'll have more time because you're doing the
things that you really rock at. Like parenting or running your business. -So, I
like that. Obviously I talk about outsourcing all the time and I like that
you used the word delegation... -Yes -...to introduce this. Just because it brings on
another perspective. You can use it for personal things. Not necessarily business.
And I talked about outsourcing all the time. So, my team will choose one of my
amazing outsourcing videos and put it right up there. And if if you want to
find out more how I hire people in the Philippines, full-time for between 4
to 6 hundred dollars a month then I'll put a link in the description below for
virtualassistanttool.com. Alright, let's move on to tip number 3. -Tip
number 3 is once you've put all of these things in place you need to honor
your calendar. I tell my clients that time is either your greatest asset or
your greatest liability in your business. I've seen companies with millions of
dollars. Squander it away because their CEO, did not know how to spend their time.
And I've also seen scrappy CEOs with 10 cents to their names, build multi-million
dollar businesses. And the difference is how they honor and use their time for an
investment in their life and in their business. Same thing can be said for your
personal time too. If you're spending a ton of time wasting time online, playing
games, those are fine to like recharge. But if they
become to take over, that's... That's difficult. But if you spend all this
effort to batch like activities and to do daily weekly and monthly tasks, give
yourself permission to honor the calendar. So when a friend calls and says,
"Hey, can you go to lunch tomorrow?" But you are planning to do videos all
day long. Even though you love your friend, it's okay to say, "Hey, I'm booked.
But does this time work?" And to treat even your tasks that you do at home or
at the office just as important as you would a meeting with a client or lunch
with a friend because honoring that calendar will help you feel more in
control of your life than just being reactive about everything. -Let's move on
to number 2. -Okay. -Were you peeking? -I was peeking. Number 2 is it's still okay to
make it to-do list and make sure you write things down. So, while we talked
about batching activities and doing like things together and creating dailies
weeklies and monthlies, whether you're a digital person or you're a physical
writing things down person, have one place where you keep to-do lists. Many
people that are busy will write things on the back of receipts or on sticky
notes or on something that they have in their car. But be committed to having one
place. Whether you have a to-do list on your phone or you take a book with you
everywhere you go. Having one place to keep track of the things that need to
get done is really important. That's actually a big deal because I'm a big
to-do list-er. I do both scheduling in to do this. But a
lot of times, I'll have my notepad on my desk and I'll just write a list and I'll
check out some of those. But then I'll flip the page over and I'll write a new
list. I'll have to go back. -Right? -So recently, I've got an online tool that
I'm using that syncs with my phone and everything in it. Yeah. -Awesome. -It is good,
good. Alright. So, you saved the best for last. -Saved the best for last. -I've heard
you talk about this number 1 tip all the time. So, let's dive in. What's the
number 1 tip? -Okay, the number 1 tip is going to shock you. And that is make a
plan. Just if you want to get things done, make a plan to make it happen. I am make-it-happen
girl but it all starts with creating a plan. And people don't like
that. Because I work with a lot of creatives, And part of me is creative too.
And I'll say, "How's that working out for you?" Just
flying by the seat of your pants. Like, I really would like to get more done.
I think plan is the 4-letter word for success. And while it may make you swear
internally, remember that if you can... I love the old adage that it says, "If you
fail to plan, you plan to fail." Because really we are in control. And part of
making peace with the clock is realizing that at the end of the day, yes some
things can go crazy but more often than not, if you're specific and consistent
about your plans, sitting down and reviewing your weeks, then you will be a
time management rockstar. And you'll be an accomplishment rockstar because
you're getting things done. -Yeah. I mean, it's so true. I think about... My wife and I
are the same on this. When there's a day, maybe there's a Saturday. And we don't
have a specific plan. We get to the end of the day and we just look back like,
we're not happy... We're not happy with the day. It's like where did the time go? But
you know especially, if we're... Our challenge is managing our time and we
have some goals we want to get done, yeah, we just we make a plan. We plan for it. It
makes sense. And it works in your relationships too. I scheduled time with my
kids, I scheduled time with my husband. Weekly date night is just as important
to me as the meetings that I have with the client. And sometimes I get
criticized. I actually had somebody when I was speaking telling about this from a
stage. Like, "I can't believe you have to spend schedule time to spend with your
kids." And you should just do that. And I said, "Yes. And I do. I let some things
happen by happenstance. And of course, I see my kids and I interact with them and
of course I spend time with my employees." But if I can make an appointment to
spend present, non-distracted time with the people that I care about, then I'm
making sure that they fit. Instead of becoming an afterthought. -You know and
I've... I've started doing that recently too. And my kids... So whether it's a
daddy-daughter date that I've got scheduled with with my 13 year old or if
it's a date with my wife, we're looking forward to it. -Absolutely. And... And it's
also a great, great motivation for my son to get his homework done. -Sure. -Because we...
We know we've got this activity plan that we're going to go do. You know what? I'm
a busy guy. -Sure. -I'm a real busy guy. I've got a busy
schedule and planning it make sure that the important things get fit in. But
even though I call that an important thing, it also it gives me a break. It
allows for... We're going to end the video here because we're going away too long.
Thanks so much. Be sure to subscribe. Alright. Any final words of wisdom? -No, I
just think that... I think it's a misnomer that some people are good at time and
some people aren't when the reality is it's just a decision that you have to
make. -We all have the same amount of time each day. -We do. Just depends on how you
invest it. -Alright. If you've got additional tips that you want to add, be
sure to comment below. Add to the discussion. We will see you tomorrow.