Apr 03 2008
Brian Tracy states that the quickest way to improve your productivity and creativity is to tidy your desk area or your office. The very physical act of tidying up not only energizes you into a more creative state but also clears your mind from distractions. Next time you get stuck, try it - you’ll be amazed how effective and simple a solution it is.
Apr 03 2008
Mar 20 2008
Here’s a trick I learned a few years back that seemed obvious yet as with most common sense it’s uncommonly practised - multiply your efforts.
When I launched Inside Property Radio I realized that it’s success could only be realized if it made other people more successful through raising their public profile. Similarly, I found that getting things done as a manager in business meant combining the business goals with the personal goals of the individuals involved.
If our latest graduate had a passion for cultures, learning and travel I made damned sure we gave her plenty of experience in dealing with foreign clients and speaking at conferences abroad.
Not only did it fulfil her ambitions it also freed up time and space for me to focus on the areas of business I really enjoyed too. Too often this process is seen as a quid-pro-quo rather than one that involves two shared objectives.
Mutliplication is simply combining activities to focus all energies on one project.
Traditionally people ask favours from others using a horse trading mentality - eg if you help me draft this letter I’ll update your website for you. If you help me out on this deal I’ll return the favour on that one or if you speak at this conference I’ll spend some time on your training.
Horse trading in the sense that all you’re doing is simple 2+2 - simple leverage but with little vested interest.
Mutliplication means positioning your activities so that the other person also directly benefits rather than the simple payback of a favour returned. Smart multipliers don’t simply ask for help on the deal the involve the other person on it. Asking my colleague to speak in Dubai became not about a favour for me in order that I could spend more time planning the business but about her own training and professional growth.
Why is multiplication essential in the modern age? Goes back to point (20) - Zen. As with the market we are actually only interest in the most rewarding activity at any given time. Helping you out only favours me in the long term so I’m only going to commit my energy and emotion on a low risk basis. However, tie that activity to my own goals and involve me in it, you have my total commitment.
So next time you ask for help in getting something done think about how you position it.
If you need advice from someone could you ask for 30 minutes of their precious time or do you position it as a radio show where you will ask them relevant questions on the subject? Not everyone wants to run a radio show but everyone wants more time to get things done, so create your own story.
Mar 19 2008
D.T.Suzuki, the modern day Zen master, describes the essence of Zen as “doing one thing at a time”.
Life simplified is a life more productive. As the old addage goes “a man who chases two rabbits catches neither” how so our daily lives?
In our modern age where multitasking and being “busy” is no more a moniker or success than it is a prerequisite for social acceptance in the business domain it seems counter intuitive that productivity can stem from being simple. The very word itself evokes images of stupidity, of country bumpkins suited to an agrarian era where blackberries, mobile email, skype and to-do lists an alien concept.
In his fantastic book “The Dip” Seth Godin challenges everyone to be #1 in their field or change their field. The very words echoed the challenge Time magazine’s “man of the 20th century” Jack Welch laid down to the corporate behemoth that was GE.
“If we aren’t number 1 in our field either get out or focus on becoming number 1″ said Welch. Why? This isn’t some megolomaniacal insistence on total market domination this is survival:
Who is the number 2 search engine? The second fastest 100m runner in the world? The second man on the Moon? The second best online book retailer?
Who cares? As Godin says…if you had cancer would you settle for the 2nd best oncologist available?
In our post Google era where markets are possibly less forgiving and our competition a mere click away, the difference between first and second best can be the difference between riches and utter failure.
Some years ago we took a Zen business decision or moreover a business decision that in hindsight reflected the nature of Suzuki’s comments. We stopped trying to do too many things. From trying to be the leading online community for telecoms executives and the number 1 provider of consumer focused telecoms analysis we opted for the market we could confidently master. On the one hand we faced a market that entertained Facebook, LinkedIn and Ecademy. On the other a market woefully underserved by techies that still believed consumers equated faster to meaning better.
Our choice was obvious. In choosing to do less we accomplished significantly more. In the market we sought to lead relationships came naturally, sales were more about account management than constantly feeding the marketing bonfire.
As Godin alludes to in the dip when we play in the global marketplace consumers no longer seek compromises.
If I want to order organic vegan fair trade chocolate muffins I could find half a dozen websites that would supply me rather than settle for the rubbish my local Three Cooks churns out.
Similarly getting more done now requires us to be the passionate specialists that the generalist could never become.
Mar 09 2008
It has been my observation that successful people get ahead in the time that others waste - Henry Ford
Every time I catch the tube in London I look around to see people consuming junk media - The Metro or other free rags handed out at the station. Headlines read “disease, war, sex pests, Paris Hilton, property crash, terrorism, murder”. Why do we read this junk? How can we class this as “news” when we’ve heard it all before? Same applies to radio in many ways.
Use your commute wisely.
30 minutes commute a day is 250 hours a year. 250 hours a year is over 100 audio books. Think what you could learn in that time.
I used to encourage my employees to read books on the train to work. The smart ones would. The dumb ones always found an excuse as to why they couldn’t do it that day. Their problem was that they thought it for my benefit, not theirs as they were still stuck in the “homework” mindset.
If you’re driving buy audio book CDs, turn the radio off. Okay, I listen to the radio once in a while because I need a break. Better still I drive without any noise, it’s good meditation.
There are 100s of audio books out there you can listen to and make better use of your commute. Brian Tracy, Stephen Covey, Jack Welch, Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins are to name but a few. Purchase them on Itunes - they are an investment in you, not just listening material. I spend about £500 a year on audio books from Itunes and other sites because the returns on these long term are significant.
30 minutes with one of these on the train or 30 minutes reading about a psychopath who murdered his girlfriend? We’re all infinite choice makers. Just as our health reflects the food we ingest, our mental wellbeing is a mirror of the content we consume.
Mar 07 2008
Meetings are the lifeblood of any business so how you manage a meeting is key to getting things done. Whether it be meeting a client, investor or business partner you can make better use of your time by following a few basic rules:
1) Always send an agenda beforehand. Not only does it help fix the thought process for both parties it signals to your counterpart you’re not in it to waste anybody’s time.
2) Best Agendas have one point on them. If everyone’s there to address one collective objective chances are you’ll meet it. Be wary of agendas that are comprehensive lists. Ask the other party to name the one point they’d like to address and go with that.
3) If you’ve covered the key point, end the meeting. A good meeting lasts 30-45 minutes max. Once you’re over that unless you’re hammering out legal technicalities, you’re stretching the meeting and the interest of all parties involved. I remember distinctly a meeting I had with a highly effective salesperson. Agenda agreed in advance we covered the key points in 15 minutes at which point he stood up and said, “looking forward to working with you”, shook my hand and then left. Most people would be too afraid to leave early but it sent out a clear signal he valued everyone’s time. Needless to say he was one of the most productive salespeople I have met.
4) Always set clear follow ups and action points. Never end a meeting without agreeing the next steps. If you have, you’ve wasted everyone’s time. Be clear and always follow up with what you’ve agreed to do.
5) Cut the initial chit chat. Save that to afterwards. Don’t be afraid to initiate the meeting. If the other party is stuck in the chit-chat loop then they’ll probably welcome you taking the initiative and starting the meeting. Save the chit-chat to afterwards, you’ll find that it’s far more conducive to relationship building.
Mar 03 2008
Here’s what it looks like in one corner of my home office - plenty of boxes going on there. I started off some time back with one or two and then it just took off. I realized the more boxes I had the better I could organize my admin.
19L boxes from Rymans are £10 each
Here’s the challenge - can you avoid having single piece of paper left out? Using the action it, file it, trash it method your challenge is to touch the piece of paper only once. You’ll notice when you’re into bad habits when you see a piece of paper - a bill or a memo or a letter that’s been out for weeks.
Touch it once and decide there and then what to do with the paper. Action it straight away or file it in one of these boxes. If it’s worthy of neither trash it.
Once you get the hang of things you’ll wonder how you ever survived with such a backlog of paper.
I have an overflow box called my “red box” for backup. Any new post, anything left lying around or general bits & pieces goes in the red box and is dealt with on a Monday afternoon (my “clean up & set up” day). Keeping on top of the overflow box on a weekly basis means keeping on top of your admin.
You can see I’m fond of these boxes - there’s more than £200 worth here, well worth the investment. If that can save you a day or two of time over a year, you’re quids in already…
So my action points are:
1) write down all the different types of paperwork you collect regularly (bills, warranties, company admin, tax, charity, investment, properties etc) then
2) for each category order a box and file everything under that category in there. Don’t forget to order yourself an overflow box (a smaller A4 box will suffice)
Mar 02 2008
A point of order - managing your money is key to staying focused. And it’s a challenge when you don’t have the tools at your disposal to take control of your finances.
It’s quite unbelievable to think that until the last decade, knowing how much you had in your bank account on a daily basis was an impossibility. Even if you wanted to find out you’d have to trek to an ATM or, worse still, queue in the bank.
These days, there’s no excuse. Every bank offers online banking and you should be taking full advantage of it.
But it doesn’t just stop there. You need multiple accounts. Last count I had 9 bank accounts. Setting up a new account is easy just pop into your local branch or better still do it over the phone. Here’s a sample of how I’ve set up some of my accounts:
* Income (for wages and basic payments)
* Cars (to pay for AA, services, MOTs, repairs, fuel etc)
* Short term cash savings (small emergency fund)
* Tax (I regularly put a % of my income into this account payable end of every January. It almost always comes out with a surplus once the accountant’s worked on my end-of-year returns, so this bonus amount can be used elsewhere)
* Household & utilities
* Property (for business purposes)
* Holidays & treats
Anyone can do this and it doesn’t require earning a specific income to have multiple accounts.
What it will do is discipline your money . As Robert Kiyosaki says “investing is a mindset not a strategy“, and good habits form the basis of any successful outlook. Here’s how you can get your shape up habitually.
Using multiple accounts you can follow the discipline preached by Zig Ziglar, Kioysaki and others of “paying yourself first” - i.e. take out a % of your income on a regular basis and save it before you spend it.
Each account will have its own balance and debit card. Use that for the specific purpose of the account and you’ll have a much clearer picture of your financial outgoings.
Set up regular standing orders (you can do this online) between your main income account and your other accounts. So for example, if you calculate your household & utilities (mortgage, water, gas, council tax etc) total £1,500 per month then set up a standing order to come out of the main income account for this amount straight after your regular income is paid in.
The basic habit of managing your money more effectively by exercising discipline over your spending may save you a few pounds through the direct results and thousands through the indirect financial growth you’ll experience.
Action points
1) Document every category of cashflow you currently expend/receive
2) Either online, on the phone or at your branch set up one account for each category. Ask the bank to arrange the D/D transfers where necessary
3) Calculate outgoings for each category and set up a standing order from your main income account to this sub account on a regular basis.
4) Take your debit cards to the ATM and change the PINs to the same number (you can change PIN at the ATM)
Feb 27 2008
Okay, so you thought this list was going to be a cakewalk?
Now we need to start looking at some of the more fundamental distractions in our life.
Real change requires a degree of internal work. There are a 100 reasons why you couldn’t give up TV but just one compelling reason why you should.
3 years ago I threw away our TV. Why? Because I decided there were better things that I could do with my time like family, reading and writing this blog for example.
Since ditching TV I’ve been reading at least 2 books a week every week. Currently I run 2 businesses, write 3 blogs, go to exercise classes 3 times a week as well as look after a family. I don’t think this could be possible if I had a TV. I’d be doing something far more productive - like watching CSI or Whatever.
I’m not anti-TV or on a moral crusade. In a hotel room I’ll happily watch TV. Visits to family mean I’m able to catch up on TV junk that I’ve been missing. Daily use detracts from the novelty of it all.
But at home I’m concerned with the daily habits. If we are to believe the data, we spend an average of 2 hours a day watching the goggle box. (And remember, nobody ever confesses to watching more TV than they really do). Over a week that’s 14 hours. 14 hours equates to 2 productive working days.
Now I know there’s some entertaining stuff on TV these days. But does that merit 2 whole days a week? Or worse still, 3 months in a year? (Or 15 years of your life??).
Apparently the difference between a healthy, non-smoking vegetarian and an obese smoker in terms of life expectancy is 15 years.
What is the point of missing out on some of life’s fineries - cigarettes, alcohol and junk food if all you use your extra time on this earth for is to watch TV? Think about it.
It’s a tough decision but all breakthroughs require break-withs.
Here is an opportunity for you.
We all hear it “If only I could magically create an extra day a week” or even more far fetched “it’d be great if I could survive on just 2 hours sleep a night.”
Ask yourself if you had 2 whole extra days a week what could you be doing? All those plans you’d put on hold suddenly have the necessary daylight to become reality.
Now get back to watching Xfactor or Lost or whatever and ask yourself if it can have the same impact on your life.
Action Points
1) Take TV
2) Throw out TV
3) Repeat until no TVs left in household!
