Episode 6
Episode 6 – Michael Lansdowne
Michael joins Matt to talk about his top 3 time management tips.
Full descripion is the below the video including an extra tip!
Intro
Firstly, I don’t believe in time management as such. Time is a constant and can’t be managed. Only we can be managed. ‘Time management’ sounds like you’re managing something else so I feel calling it ‘self-management’ also brings the responsibility of it back to yourself. Its more about managing your tasks and the way you choose to spend your time. It is our Karma. The meaning of Karma in its true sense is life is of your own making. It is entirely down to you.
The other thing I noted about ‘time management’ frameworks and a key point that I missed in the podcast is that they often don’t ‘stick’. This is mostly because they aren’t designed around a natural way of doing things. Its like buying a new part for your car without installation instructions. You might know what it does and how it will help you but without knowing how to install it with what you’ve currently got, it’ll never work. The same thing goes with new ‘techniques’ of time/self-management or new apps or diary layouts etc. if you don’t have the skills in habit forming and the knowledge of yourself, how you learn and work, you won’t keep it up and it won’t be effective. These ‘installation’ skills aren’t taught at school (and not even by some business coaches!)!
Top tips
1. Power of 3
This is a very versatile rule and can be applied in many ways in your life (3 women is always better than 1!… (maybe don’t put that in the blog though)), but in the context of productiveness in the workplace, concentrate on 3 tasks at a time. Group your easy tasks together in 3’s and do them without stopping. Split the larger tasks into 3 (and again if necessary!).
· Brain dump your to do list the night before and then sort them into 3’s, in order of importance and within similar categories, e.g. calls, emails, quote/proposals etc.
· Do them one at a time without stopping between each group! It trains your brain to complete things before starting something else.
2. Stay conscious
· It’s the same thing as pinching yourself or in other words, pressing your conscious button. Being in the room. Clearing the noise in your head. As humans we all seek peace from this noise and its hard to calm it. People pay money to calm it! Master this and your productivity, efficiency and quality will increase!
· A major key to this is hydration. You’ll be amazed at the difference in your concentration is by drinking lots of water as most of us live a good proportion of our lives dehydrated.
3. Remove distractions
· We get distracted for a number of reasons. Sometimes it’s a novelty, an escape from the norm, wanting to be wanted or procrastination from the task we’re doing because of lack of clarity, boredom etc. Staying conscious helps with keeping attention away from distractions.
· Top distractions include; email, phonecalls and texts and messages among many others. Its key to remove or manage these as much as possible.
· Distractions are massively driven by FOMO. To manage this, tell yourself when you will look at your texts and stick to it. (Your brain knows when you’re lying!)
· Managing people is a bit more difficult that turning your email off or your turning off the notifications on your phone. It is as much you learning about the world as it the world learning about you. Educate your clients, co-workers, family etc as to when the best time is to contact you and how. Again, stick to your times and promises otherwise it will undo your good work.
· People want your full attention and they will be willing to wait for it if they know when they will get it. It’s all about managing expectations. Its in their benefit to wait!
4. The bonus tip… DO NOT MULTITASK!
· It’s a myth that anyone can multitask. Its impossible to truly concentrate on two things at once. Even if you’re ironing and watching TV, you’re only actually properly paying attention to one thing at any one time. The closest you’ll come is sweeping the floor, walking along with a broom up your arse.
· Multitasking is proven to reduce IQ. It doesn’t allow for the brain to complete one task before it goes onto the next and the cycle begins of switching from one task to the other. There is a slight gap between this switching over which adds up. An actual study was conducted on this and its estimated that on average, people waste about a full working week per year in this limbo of concentration where literally nothing is going on in our brains! What a waste!