"Hard time management." We talk about the book, Dan Kennedy

What needs to be done to take control of your life and business? Take radical measures and master hard time management.

We talk about the main ideas from the book by Dan Kennedy "Hard time management."

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main idea

Dan Kennedy addresses his book to ever-busy, inventive and active people and entrepreneurs, hurrying through life, who, unfortunately, are too often surrounded by whiners, time-sucking vampires and lazy people. To finally learn to do everything, you need to take radical measures and master hard time management.

Dan Kennedy argues that the main secret of personal and financial success "depends on how cleverly you use your time and how much you let others steal from you."

Figure that will change your life

The author questions the method of calculating the cost of each of your working hours, which is firmly established in the practice of many efficiency gurus and business trainers.

According to Dan Kennedy, all this is a bullshit, since the calculations are made on the assumption that a person works 8 hours a day, which in principle does not happen. So, according to a survey of five hundred general directors by Fortune Publishing House, it turned out that their average productive time is only 28 minutes a day.

Do you do the most important work during the whole working time? Very, very unlikely. Most likely, you also have to be distracted, and most of the work time is eaten by completely unproductive activities. Therefore, in order to calculate the cost of your time, you need to focus not on the working hour, but on another concept — productive or paid hours. How to calculate it?

Suppose you are productive three hours a day. Multiply three hours by the number of working days per year. Then, the amount you want to receive per year (or which you already receive if it suits you) is divided by the calculated number of productive hours per year. This will be the cost of your productive hour. If you divide this amount by 60, then you get the cost per minute of your productive time.

Dan Kennedy strongly recommends that you always keep this figure in mind. Ask yourself the question - is what I am doing now worth this amount and should I continue to do it? This approach will immediately eliminate half of unnecessary cases.

The second plus of the method is that it helps to measure how much time other people take from you: how much will a telephone conversation lasting several minutes, travel time, aimless wandering around the Internet. This method makes you think in terms of "investment" and "cost." Helps to count everything that happens in your life.

Interestingly, according to the observations of Dan Kennedy, 8 out of 10 entrepreneurs who he asks a question about the amount of the desired basic earnings can not answer it. That is, they do not know how much they will pay themselves.

Why is it so important to determine this desired base earnings?

As the author notes, any entrepreneur needs to remember and not to forget why his business exists - in order to make his owner rich. If you think that the above calculations are too approximate, then even an approximate figure is still better than not having any reference at all.

Knowing the value of a minute of your productive time changes your life.

Ruthless truth number 1: If you yourself do not know the price of your time, do not expect that it will be appreciated by others.

Aspen stake for time-sucking vampires

Whom does Dan Kennedy call time sucking vampires? Surely you have not once encountered with them. These are those who are waiting for you every day with the intention to suck all your time.

There are several types of time-sucking vampires:

Mr. "There is a minute"

Dan Kennedy calls him the most insidious vampire.

If he is not stopped in time, he will start running for a minute to your home. And, as Dan Kennedy notes, this vampire has a talent to distract you precisely when you are engaged in a serious business.

What can be done?

First of all, it is not necessary to think that the behavior of “There are minutes” is something insignificant. Therefore, it is time to stop pranking him, he does not deserve it, as he clearly shows that he doesn’t care what you do and that he doesn’t appreciate your time.

Such an approach would confuse him and accustom him to order. Of course, not the first time. And not even from the second. But be persistent and adamant.

Mr. "Meeting"

It seems that many people settled in meetings, so they love them.

Indeed, meetings are a great way to demonstrate your own importance without taking any decisions or taking responsibility for them.

Is there a remedy against meetings? First, ask yourself whether you need to be at all and whether the issue can be resolved by some alternative option.

If you need a meeting, here are a few stakes that you can use to stop the endless vampire "bloody sit-rounds":

1. Schedule a meeting before dinner or at the end of the day, when vampires can't wait to finish things, turn into a bat and fly out.
2. No coffee and tea!
3. Distribute the meeting agenda in advance.
4. Formulate and communicate to all the clear and achievable goal of the meeting.

If you have to attend meetings, then you need to have on hand a few stakes for "Mr. Meeting":

1. Find out in advance what information is required from you, and prepare a brief and informative presentation.
2. Have a spare waste plan: ask someone to drop by and call you at a certain time or call you on a cell phone, etc. You can go out and, having talked, if necessary, return - only it is unlikely to return.

Mr. "Nonsense"

Vampires of this type do not see the difference between important matters and foolish ones. They distract you from your business, so that you can solve their absolutely trivial matters.

People with inadequate and overly emotional reactions to any difficulty

They can turn any problem into tragedy, they exaggerate everything, they make an elephant out of a fly. It is important to understand - they do not need a solution from you. They want to get you involved in their drama. Therefore, the best way to deal with them is not to get involved, to seize the initiative on yourself and become such a vampire yourself, remembering some sentimental story from your life.

As Dan Kennedy notes, the number of vampire species is not limited to those listed. However, the essence of this does not change - you need to learn how to cope with them (in the words of the author, stick an aspen stake in the heart). And you need to stop doing the things that attracted them to you.

Ruthless Truth number 2: Chronoampirus will suck out of you as much blood as you allow. If you are dried up by the end of the day, it is your fault.

How to stop coming off work

Telephone calls, faxes, e-mails and other distractions independent of you that do not allow you to finish an important matter, at least act annoyingly. How to deal with them? Dan Kennedy argues that everything is extremely simple. You just need to stop being distracted. Because basically there are no real reasons for distractions.

You need to use the following tactics:

Lost - to become inaccessible to people who endlessly turn to you with questions that they themselves are able to solve.

Ruthless truth number 3: If you can not find you can not be prevented.

The most powerful rule

Dan Kennedy, based on his 25 years of business experience, came to believe that there is one most important thing that distinguishes successful people from losers. And this is punctuality.

Ruthless Truth number 4: Punctuality is the source of personal authority.

In addition, according to the author’s own observation, non-punctual people cannot be trusted. It is by punctuality and respect for someone else's time, Dan Kennedy decides whether to deal with a person. The fact is that other people have their own criteria with which they approach the assessment of other people, and often punctuality becomes the most important criterion.

Ruthless truth number 5: Be sure to judge. But remember that you are being judged.

As the author notes, punctuality, like its absence, speaks to the person’s self-esteem.

“Magic Power” that makes unstoppable

Most people are too easy and happy to be distracted. But to achieve something in life requires the ability to concentrate on the main thing, let it have to sacrifice some momentary pleasures.

That's all!

Ruthless Truth number 6: Inner discipline is attractive.

On the road

The main principle of effective business trips is to put as many cases as possible on each trip - meetings with clients who live in the same area, attending thematic events. It is important to determine how the trip can be used directly for income-generating activities and for income-generating activities indirectly - meetings with journalists and clients and simply for recreation.

It is also better to learn how to travel light, since waiting for the luggage is a very tedious and time-consuming matter.

Organization and management of ideas

Many people naively believe that they will surely remember the brilliant idea that visited them. But quite a bit of time passes, and there is no trace of the idea. Therefore, it is necessary to “grab” ideas without losing a single one. Successful people not only write down ideas, but also know how to manage them. How? Dan Kennedy offers a storyboarding method that he borrowed from Michael Vance, an assistant to Walt Disney. The point is to have a notebook or notebook for each project (in general, to allocate a special place) and always have the opportunity to write down an idea there. You can also use a voice recorder or any convenient gadget.

Ruthless Truth 7: Who does not order information, he can not make money on information.

Dismiss yourself, find a replacement, make more money and live happier

Success is to avoid doing things that you are not good at and to invest your time, strength and talent in what you do best. This is the formula for maximum personal effectiveness for a specialist.

Ruthless Truth 8: Quite Normal - Already Good

In order to move forward, any successful entrepreneur must delegate old responsibilities and tasks, freeing up space for new, more vital ones.

And what to do with the free time? Enjoy the benefits of success, do marketing, open a new business.

Ruthless Truth 9: Liberation is the highest achievement of the entrepreneur.

Most people are alien to the notion of urgency. Most of the reasons for the principle: did not do today, finish tomorrow, what is this?

Ruthless Truth 10: Learn to work as quickly as possible. So you think better

Stimulating environment

Your environment should encourage you. There is no unified approach to creating an enabling environment conducive to productive work, someone likes order, and someone works better in chaos. But the essence is the same - your environment should stimulate you.

Ruthless Truth 11: Excellent advice that will save you a lot of time: doubt - throw it away!

Why does the year pass, but no progress?

The main reason why there is no progress is that people too often spend their time and energy on everything, except what can really benefit them and provide income. If you know this problem, Dan Kennedy advises the following:

Identify and write down the three most important, most significant, most fruitful and valuable things you can do to increase the success of your company. Only three. Write them down. Each item is then translated into an action you can do every day.

Write them down. And act.

And yet - if you do not get off the ground despite the efforts, most likely, your actions are not enough. Successful people are people of “massive action”.

Try, like them, to solve any problem at once in several ways, not just one, and look at the effect.

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