- Define
- Eliminate
- Automate
- Liberate
Define
Ask for forgiveness, not permission
Emphasize strengths, don’t fix weaknesses
Things in excess become the opposite
What’s the worst that could happen?
What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
Excitement, not happiness
Defined steps
Unrealistic goals to be effective?
Activities to fill vacuum – doing things, not owning things
Dream lining
Eliminate
What 20% of sources are causing 80% of problems?
What 20% of sources are causing 80% of desired outcomes and happiness?
No work for works sake
Determine characteristics of top customers, pursue similar
Lack of time is lack of priorities
Limit tasks to important to shorten work time
Shorten work time to limit to important
Most inputs are useless
Time is used in proportion to time available
3 times a day at scheduled times ask:
- Am I being productive or just active?
- Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important?
If you were sick and could only work 2 hours a day / 2 hours a week – what would you do?
If this is the only thing I accomplish today will I be satisfied?
Do not multitask
Low information diet
Will I use this info for something immediate and important?
Don’t finish if it has no value
Time wasters:
- Meetings
- Phone Calls
Time Consumers:
- Repetitive tasks
Empowerment Failures:
- Approval to make small things happen
Check email twice a day, 12am then 4pm, then daily
Create sense of time pressure on phone calls
Your job to train others to be effective and efficient
Preference: email, phone, meeting
Respond to voicemail with email, streamline, use if then, avoid back and forth
Meet only to make decisions about problem – use agenda beforehand
Define meeting end time
Don’t permit casual visitors to interrupt
Batch as much as possible to limit interruptions
Automate
Outsourcing to prevent negative cashflow
Automation increases efficiency in an efficient organization, magnifies inefficiency otherwise
Eliminate before you delegate
Delegated tasks must be time consuming and well defined
Rules to outsourcing
- Don’t accept 1st person assigned
- Give precise instructions
- Don’t give license to waste time
- Use time constraints for pressure
- Don’t give too many tasks at once
Ask “could a virtual assistant do this?” Ex. submit articles to drive traffic
Liberate
If you must play, decide on three things at the start:
- The rules of the game
- The stakes
- The quitting time
The simple willingness to improvise is more vital, in the long run, than research
There is more to life than increasing it’s speed
Have I decided on a single meaning for each term in this question?
Can an answer to this question be acted on to improve things?
