Time Management & Productivity: Don't Forget to Manage Your Energy as Well as Your Time!

We’ve addressed Time Management and Productivity in The Coach’s Playbook before—and it’s still one of the most important yet least consistently implemented ways a person can improve their business and their life. The Peak Producers’ approach of working on those Big Rocks First, that is, the CEO/Rainmaker activities that help you build your business for the long term—those calls, handwritten notes, coffees and, yes, even those “pop-by’s”—while filling in the pebbles and sand of returning client phone calls, reading emails, and doing the paperwork that keeps our clients delighted with our service. (You don’t play Pokemon Go, do you?)

Most of these discussions and ideas for time management and productivity, though, don’t address what’s probably the most important element of how we handle and process our daily activities, both business and personal: our energy levels.

First of all, Buffini suggests there are five “wells” of energy from which we draw each day. The five wells are: Spiritual, Family, Business, Financial, and Personal. It’s a good idea to take a few minutes and consider whether each of our tanks are on full, three-quarters, half, or even on Empty, and how that impacts our attitudes and abilities.

It’s also important to remember that our energy is a dynamic resource—it wants to move and flow rather than sit idly in the tank. If we don’t control our energy and its flow, it will go somewhere anyway! So, give some thought to the following ENERGY DRAINERS, ENERGY GIVERS, and ENERGY SUSTAINERS:

ENERGY DRAINERS

            Fear—False Evidence Appearing Real! The best counter: have a detailed plan!

            Worry—how do you approach problem solving, both short and long term?

            Indecision—does it take you a long time to reach a decision? Do you overthink things?

            Drama—so much of this is available to us in this business! As Dr. Phil might say: what’s in it for you?

            Personal Conflict—how is your personal life complementing or interfering with your business?

            Poor Physical Condition—remember Gino’s M.E.D.S!

            Lack of Direction—do you have written goals—both personal and business—and are they S.M.A.R.T. goals?

ENERGY GIVERS

            Associations—the folks you hang out with and the things you do have a huge impact on your energy levels. Choose wisely!

            Mental Intake—the books you read or the games you play.

            Taking Care of Yourself—again, remember Gino’s M.E.D.S!

            Alignment of Values—do your life and work reflect your personal values?

            Written Goals—yes, those with written goals are statistically far more successful than those without them!

ENERGY SUSTAINERS

            Tracking Your Progress—yep, in detail so you know where you are and can celebrate success or add course corrections.

            Visual Anchors—consider a vision board with photos of your BIG WHY—why are you doing all this? Retirement in five years? Send the kids to Harvard? Tour India and China or buy a new carbon fiber bike? Put it on your wall and keep it as a shiny carrot!

            Consistency—the tortoise ALWAYS wins the race. ALWAYS!

            Taking a Break—daily, weekly, annually, take a break to recharge your energy level so you can knock it out of the park when you’re “on.”

            Accountability—yep, again tracking your progress toward those written goals—and that vision board—and remembering it’s you who is in charge. You are the boss of you.

So how are your energy levels? Remember, our energy will absolutely go somewhere . . . Make sure YOU choose where it goes!

David M. Hassler

VP, Professional Development

Kaizen: Constant Learning Part 2: Empty Space

In our last Playbook, we shared the first part of a great blog post from Inc. Magazine by Michael Simmons entitled “Why Constant Learners All Embrace the 5-Hour Rule.” The piece reminds us that Ben Franklin, who never complete formal schooling, devoted an hour a day—5 hours a week--to “deliberate learning.” Today, we conclude Simmons’s blog post as he takes us further into the Kaizen approach of continuous—and “deliberate”—learning as he digs into what he calls the concept of “Empty Space:”
 

So what would it look like to make the five-hour rule part of our lifestyle? The core concept of the five-hour rule: empty space

To find out, we need look no further than chess grandmaster and world-champion martial artist Josh Waitzkin. Instead of squeezing his days for the maximum productivity, he's actually done the opposite. Waitzkin, who also authored The Art of Learning, purposely creates slack in his day so he has "empty space" for learning, creativity, and doing things at a higher quality. Here's his explanation of this approach from a recent Tim Ferriss podcast episode:

"I have built a life around having empty space for the development of my ideas for the creative process. And for the cultivation of a physiological state which is receptive enough to tune in very, very deeply to people I work with ... In the creative process, it's so easy to drive for efficiency and take for granted the really subtle internal work that it takes to play on that razor's edge."

Adding slack to our day allows us to:

1. Plan out the learning. This allows us to think carefully about what we want to learn. We shouldn't just have goals for what we want to accomplish. We should also have goals for what we want to learn.

2. Deliberately practice. Rather than doing things automatically and not improving, we can apply the proven principles of deliberate practice so we keep improving. This means doing things like taking time to get honest feedback on our work and practicing specific skills we want to improve.

3. Ruminate. This helps us get more perspective on our lessons learned and assimilate new ideas. It can also help us develop slow hunches in order to have creative breakthroughs. Walking is a great way to process these insights, as shown by many greats who were or are walking fanatics, from Beethoven and Charles Darwin toSteve Jobs and Jack Dorsey. Another powerful way is through conversation partners.

4. Set aside time just for learning. This includes activities like reading, having conversations, participating in a mastermind, taking classes, observing others, etc.

5. Solve problems as they arise. When most people experience problems during the day, they sweep them under the rug so that they can continue their to-do list. Having slack creates the space to address small problems before they turn into big problems.

6. Do small experiments with big potential payoffs. Whether or not an experiment works, it's an opportunity to learn and test your ideas.
 

For many people, their professional day is measured by how much they get done. As a result, they speed through the day and slow down their improvement rate.

The five-hour rule flips the equation by focusing on learning first.

To see the implication of this, let's look at a sales call (note: replace "sales call" with any activity you do repeatedly).

Most professionals do a little research before the call, have the call, and then save their notes and move on.

Somebody with a learning focus would think through which skill to practice on the call, practice it on the call, and then reflect on the lessons learned. If that person really wanted an extra level of learning, he or she would invite a colleague on the call and have the colleague provide honest feedback afterward.

Embracing a learning lifestyle means that every time we make a sales call, we get better at doing sales calls. Focusing on learning un-automates our behaviors so we can keep improving them rather than plateauing. Every event is an opportunity to improve.

By focusing on learning as a lifestyle, we get so much more done over the long term.

So, are you ready to embrace the five-hour rule?
 

How about reading a book a week to get started? Even though he's the richest man in the world and could afford to hire an army of teachers and consultants, Bill Gates still reads a book a week. In a 2016 New York Times interview, he said, "Reading is still the main way that I both learn new things and test my understanding."

So, how about reading a book a week? Or even just reading a book for five hours a week and sharing what we learn? I’d love to hear what you’re reading as you continue to improve!

David M. Hassler

VP, Professional Development

Kaizen, Be a Constant Learner

This week Inc. Magazine ran a blog post by Michael Simmons entitled “Why Constant Learners All Embrace the 5-Hour Rule,” and it’s worth sharing!

At the age of 10, Benjamin Franklin left formal schooling to become an apprentice to his father. As a teenager, he showed no particular talent or aptitude aside from his love of books. When he died a little over half a century later, he was America's most respected statesman, its most famous inventor, a prolific author, and a successful entrepreneur. What happened between these two points to cause such a meteoric rise?

Underlying the answer to this question is a success strategy for life that we can all use, and increasingly must use.

The five-hour rule:

Throughout Ben Franklin's adult life, he consistently invested roughly an hour a day in deliberate learning. I call this Franklin's five-hour rule: one hour a day on every weekday. Franklin's learning time consisted of:

·       Waking up early to read and write

·       Setting personal-growth goals (i.e., virtues list) and tracking the results

·       Creating a club for "like-minded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved their community"

·       Turning his ideas into experiments

·       Having morning and evening reflection questions

Every time that Franklin took time out of his busy day to follow his five-hour rule and spend at least an hour learning, he accomplished less on that day. However, in the long run, it was arguably the best investment of his time he could have made. Franklin's five-hour rule reflects the very simple idea that, over time, the smartest and most successful people are the ones who are constant and deliberate learners.  

Warren Buffett spends five to six hours per day reading five newspapers and 500 pages of corporate reports. Bill Gates reads 50 books per year. Mark Zuckerberg reads at least one book every two weeks. Elon Musk grew up reading two books a day,according to his brother. Oprah Winfrey credits books with much of her success: "Books were my pass to personal freedom." Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot, reads two hours day. Dan Gilbert, self-made billionaire and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, reads one to two hours a day.

So what would it look like to make the five-hour rule part of our lifestyle? 

The core concept of the five-hour rule: "Empty Space"

Stay tuned for more on “Empty Space” in our next Coach’s Playbook!

David M. Hassler

VP, Professional Development

Be a HAS, Not a HAS BEEN!

We often talk about our Peak Producer approach of Habits, Attitudes, and Skills, and how all three of those have to work together for us to be our best—at our Peak! Those concepts seem pretty straightforward but let’s dig a little deeper and look at the details of what they mean. Of course, our training programs focus on skills and tools, to improve our grasp and effectiveness with all our new systems as well as to enhance our business development activities.

Our coaching and leadership team focuses on motivation and encouragement to help maintain Attitudes at an optimal level, and a positive Attitude helps us integrate more Skills and improve our Habits. Those Habits of optimizing our time and energy need to be disciplines at first, but the goal is for us develop those into ingrained Habits that maximize our productivity and minimize our stress.

With commitment and hard work, we can all become a HAS instead of a Has Been!

So, what are some of the symptoms of Has-been-itis?

·      Drift: A lack of focus, no goals, being passive instead of proactive.

·      Negativity: Pessimism, glass half empty, missing opportunities

·      Erosion of Skills: use it or lose it!

·      Decisions based on feelings not facts: gut feelings are uninformed, entrepreneurs make informed decisions based on facts

·      No accountability: no tracking of stats, no commitment to continuous improvement (Kaizen)

When we look in the mirror, do we see any of those traits? Time to think about how to HAS! So, what does a Professional Business Owner HAS?

·      Systems and Routines: in other words, good disciplines and habits that optimize our time, energy, and effectiveness.

·      A way to stay Motivated: you can’t do it alone! A proactive recognition and action to maintain a peak state through positive affirmations, reading, and hanging out with those with a positive vibe

·      Kaizen: Continuous Improvement: Gino Blefari talks about it, Peak Producers talks about it, and continuous improvement in all areas of our life is central to our long term success and wellbeing. Don’t forget your MEDS: Meditation, Exercise, Diet, and Sleep.

·      A commitment to accountability: As Professional Business Owners, we are our own boss, we can make our own plans, work our own hours, do what we choose. But we’re also our own employee, so we have to make sure we do indeed live up to our expectations! Tracking our stats and adjusting our activities is hard work, but the heart of accountability.

Remember, the key is not to prioritize your schedule but to schedule your priorities.

David M. Hassler

VP, Professional Development