How much time does it really take?

I was talking with a colleague this evening. We were discussing how much time things really take. (Always either far more or much less than many of us think.)

I am always astonished when I hear someone commit to something without really looking to see if they can deliver on what they are promising. For example, one person will schedule a seminar they are going to lead six weeks into the future, without confronting the fact that they will be away or otherwise occupied for five of those weeks. Leaving them one week to get all the preparation done. Not to mention the marketing, sales and registration.

How well do you think that is going to work? Yep, not very well. And I suspect there is a whole lot of overwhelm on the horizon.

I know she thought six weeks was plenty of time. After all – it is SIX weeks. However, when we looked at her schedule she could see that even though it was six weeks in the future – she would only have a few hours available the week before the target date to work on her preparation and making the seminar extraordinary. So, we shifted the schedule.

When you start to approach your planning with this in mind it can really look like you won’t get very much done. After all, you won’t be able to say yes to more than you really have time to do well. But, trust me, in the end you will get MORE done this way, and you will have far less stress to deal with while you are at it.

Which would you rather do? Cram 40-60 hours of preparation into a week where you already have a full schedule, or plan exactly when you are going to do your preparation – taking the bigger picture into account?

Happy New Year and those pesky resolutions

At the end of the year, I usually rearrange some part of my office. In the process, I create a vision board for the new year, and spend time with a legal pad writing out my goals and roughly planning out my year. (I don’t make resolutions. I plan my accomplishments.)

A funny thing happened the other day. I was sitting at my desk, and a piece of paper on my vision board (on the wall beside my desk) began to flutter in the air from the overhead vent. I looked at the piece of paper – since it had caught my eye. It was the short list of  8 key outcomes for 2008 that I created at the end of 2007. This piece of paper has been in my view all year long. And, like many things that you see everyday – I had stopped really ’seeing’ it. (Has that ever happened to you?)

Anyway – I turned my head to read the page. It was absolutely fascinating! Of the 8 key outcomes I created last year, 4 have been fully realized, and the other 4 are well underway. Not a single one of them has gone out of existence over the past year!

Full disclosure – I missed my target date for some of them, but never stopped the action.

So, I will be spending New Year’s Day sitting in my very comfortable chair, with my notebook, dreaming up my desired outcomes for 2009. And, like last year, once I have finished creating the outcomes, a copy of them will go on the new vision board, and I will be figuring out exactly how* I am going to get them done.

* OK, I can never figure out exactly how I am going to get them done, but I can figure out the first several steps to take. So I will plan out those steps, and will go from there…

What are you going to accomplish in 2009?

Do you slow down at the end of the year?

Are you one of those people who slows down as the end of the year approaches? Do you keep on going at the same pace as before? Or do you pour on the gas, and go full speed ahead?

I hear people saying ‘it is the end of the year, everyone is already in holiday mode, so there is no point continuing my marketing’.  Really??

In an earlier post I said you get what you focus on. I am focusing on business. I am focusing on how I can make a difference for my clients. I am focusing on what my clients need now.  As a result, I have more business coming in, more business to do this month, and am already scheduling work in January and February. Happy Holidays indeed!

It has been a LONG year, and in many ways a very tough one for many of us (me included). When I look around, what I see got me through was a clear plan, and an absolute refusal to allow the circumstances to dictate my results. My approach may have been modified to dance with the circumstances, but the point is I modified the approach – I didn’t abandon the plan!

How is your plan coming?

Giving Thanks

It has been said many times – the more you give thanks, the more you will have to be thankful for. Very appropriate thoughts at this time of year, I think.

You can make yourself nuts reading the papers or watching the news. All the doom and gloom, fear and frenzy could completely derail you from your plans. The focus is on what isn’t working, on what’s going wrong, and on the impact of prior decisions and actions. Which seems to lead to more of the same.

So, you could pay attention to what past actions produced, or you can give yourself a moment to review, refocus and correct and adjust your plan.

I have noticed that people with a plan are rarely swayed by the current circumstances. They aren’t even paying much attention to the circumstances. There are always circumstances. Successful people know that there is power in action, and so they keep their focus on the results they are committed to producing and the actions they are planning to take.

It is up to you. You can focus on the doom and gloom, or you can focus on the opportunities in front of you. I know which things I am paying attention to.

You get what you focus on…

Do you have a book in you?

A client connected me with Mark Amtower of Amtower & Company  this week. One of the first things he asked me was “Have you written any books?” I told him that was definitely in my plan but not yet reflected in action. And I thought I might be ready for one next year sometime.

Then he said something that completely turned my thinking on its head. He pointed out that if I had given two, three or four presentations, I most likely already had enough material to create a book – and have it done fast! To illustrate, he gave me a copy of his book “Why Epiphanies Never Occur to Couch Potatos” which was based on a 20 minute presentation he had made.

Well, I  have done several presentations. And, I have conducted 8 workshops and a teleseminar, all on a particular topic and recorded all of them. So – now I am getting the transcription of all those recordings done, and am already working on the book.

Do you have a book in you? More importantly, do you think it might already be done (except for final polishing)?

Never-ending lists

A colleague asked recently “can you be successful without a solid schedule that time blocks for specific tasks?”

My answer:

Short answer – yes, you can be successful without time blocks. And, it will be harder and more stressful.

The most successful people I have studied and worked with all have a combination of time blocks and flexible time in their schedules. Many rely solely on to do lists. Others have a combination of task lists and scheduled items.

And the most productive have either scheduled in the tasks on the to do list, or delegated the tasks entirely.

I used to keep a notebook titled “neverending list of 5 minute projects”, and I would go to the notebook when I found myself with some unexpected down time (a meeting or call ended early, or I was waiting for someone to call or for a meeting to begin). This was used only for those open ended projects without deadlines. And it really helped keep me sane.

I think we all have those never ending lists. There is power in calling it what it is. All it took to manage mine was a small notebook and a pen. Everything that fit (no deadline) got written there, and there was quite a sense of accomplishment in crossing items off as they got done.

Now is a great time to delegate!

As tight as the economy is, and as scarce as new business can seem to be – now is a great time to delegate those tasks that take up your time and bring in no money!

Here is just one idea.

Since I practice what I preach – I recently boxed up the cards I have collected since my assistant went back to school, and sent them off to a fabulous virtual assistant. Very shortly I received back a spreadsheet with the data on 645 new contacts all entered and checked, ready for uploading to my customer relationship management software. That means 645 more business people I can easily be in regular communication with. That will bring in some bucks! And, quite frankly, my investment for 12 hours of the virtual assistant’s time was less than what I get paid for one hour with a client.

If you are regularly networking (and I bet you are), you probably have at least that many cards cluttering up your office. What good are they doing in stacks on your desk?

What are you going to do?

Seems like everywhere we look today, there is uncertainty. What is going to happen with the economy. How is this going to affect me? What will it do to my business? How are my clients coping?

It is a cliche that many business pull back in hard times – stop marketing (or cut back), become more cautious, cut expenses. Is this really the right course of action? Maybe. Maybe not. I think the answer depends more on whether the course of action is coming from a reaction or a response.

What is the difference?

A reaction is automatic, virtually stimulus/response. Rarely any thinking. While a response comes after considering the situation, weighing the options and determining the appropriate course of action. It takes courage to take a breath and pause to think sometimes. And it can be the difference between feeling overwhelmed and being in control.

What are you going to do?

How much time do you really have?

I did a fascinating exercise this week – related to how we schedule ourselves (or not). We took a blank day page and scheduled time to tackle all those tasks and activities that have to be done every day. We were just working from the workday – so figure 9 to 5. What we discovered is that after scheduling all the daily routine items, we had 4 hours left each day to get other work done.

Then, we took a blank weekly page and scheduled in all those activities and tasks that have to be done every week. We figured out what day would be best, and then put them into the schedule. (We had already added all the routine items to the week page – so we weren’t going to double schedule ourselves.) These items filled up at least another hour a day – leaving us with three hours.

Finally, we took the month (with daily and weekly routine items) and began to look at periodic tasks and activities.

As you can imagine, the schedule filled up very fast! What became obvious was how much time was consumed by routine tasks and activities. It became a great framework to begin to look at what we could delegate to someone else, and how we were setting up our days.

Long before we reached the end of the exercise it became clear why so many of us go through our days feeling completely overwhelmed! But a very interesting thing began to emerge. The more we actually took the time to schedule the tasks (as opposed to simply having them live on a to do list), the less overwhelmed we were feeling. Yes, the schedule was full, but we were certain about when things were going to get done, and we had a very clear picture of what was in progress and what was due when. And the impact of ignoring the routine tasks became obvious.

Are you doing someone else’s job?

Isn’t it curious that people who wouldn’t hesitate to hire an expert for many things will still try to do it all themselves in their businesses?

Most of us don’t try to do our own auto maintenance. Some of us wouldn’t dream of looking for a home to buy without the assistance of a realtor – and we certainly wouldn’t try to fund the purchase without a bank or mortgage broker.

Why do we think we can handle our own marketing, our own writing, our own bookkeeping, our own filing? And if we are really telling the truth, don’t we often procrastinate on those jobs – so that we are hopelessly behind on them? Then we feel bad, and think there must be something wrong with us – we are overwhelmed and can’t keep up with everything.

Everything goes faster when done by an expert.

How many of us know, just plain know, how important it is to build that database and follow up with all our contacts? And yet, how many of us are really doing it as it is meant to be done?

What do you think could happen if you hired someone (part time) to make phone calls for you? to set up appointments for you? to maintain your database, entering new contact information for you? to keep up with your filing? to do your bookkeeping? to run errands?

I don’t know about you, but I am only paid when I am meeting new contacts, making presentations, and working with clients. I am not paid to file, keep the books, do the marketing. And I sometimes try to do it myself – and then I remember I don’t get paid for that!

Do yourself and your business a favor – find at least one person who will take some part of this on for you. I bet you will be shocked and amazed at how easy life can become with you are working with a team.