Rich People's Time Management
The difference between poor people and rich people is that poor people spend their money and invest what's left over; rich people invest their money and spend what's left over.
Jim Rohn
"The
difference between poor people and rich people is that If the difference
between poor people's money management and rich people's money management
is as simple as prioritising future wealth over current spending, then
it would follow that rich people's time management must begin with a focus
on income-producing activity and that any remaining time would be spent
on what's left over. I first came
across the system I'm going to share with you as part of a well-marketed
life coaching program that required would-be participants to offer proof
that their income was in excess of $200,000 a year. My sharing it here
is less an act of latent socialism ("Come the revolution, we'll all
manage our time this way" :-) than a function of my coming across
it again in the book "Work Less, Make More" by Jennifer White.
The system
below is my adaptation of the basic system, and is based on dividing your
calendar into three kinds of days, each one representing a different aspect
of your working life... If you're
not clear what your high-profit activities are, ask yourself this question
- what are the one, two, or three of your business activities that if
you could spend 8 hours a day focused on them, your business, income,
and/or life would get noticeably better? Focus Days
are spent EXCLUSIVELY focused on these high-profit activities. That means
no interruptions, no phone calls, no e-mail, and no admin (unless, of
course, interruptions, phone calls, e-mail, and admin are how you and
your business make the majority of your money). Focus Day's
for a salesperson might be spent following-up leads, servicing your most
important clients, or cold-calling for future revenue; for a coach, Focus
Day's might well be spent coaching current and potential future clients.
If you run a business, you may well spend Focus Day's brainstorming and
developing new initiatives, better systems, and improving your product
or service. How on earth
can you run a business without interruptions, phone calls, e-mail, and
admin? You can't! That's why you have... At first,
you may find you need two or three support days for every Focus Day. Over
time, as the power of your focus allows you to get more done in less time,
that balance will shift, and you will find that one Support day can set
you up for the week! So, that's
it right? Wrong! If you want to have a life worth living, you'd better
factor in... When's the
last time you took a day off? Not "time off", not an hour for
lunch or a couple of hour's for a movie, but a whole day where your body,
mind, and spirit were focused, guilt-free, on connecting with loved ones,
enjoying nature, or just engaging in some purposeless fun? Free Days
are exactly what they sound like - days where you are free to do anything
that appeals to you that is not connected to your work or your business.
It is recommended that you schedule at least 100 Free Days in your first
year of implementing this time management system. If that sounds
like way too many days off, you're probably still stuck in the notion
that the longer and harder you work, (as opposed to the more focused and
systematic you are in the way you work) the more successful you'll become.
In this instance, I recommend at least 150!!! Today's
Experiment: 2. Schedule
your first Focus Day for later this week. Use the time between now and
then as Support Days, clearing and preparing your schedule to be able
to focus exclusively on your high-profit activities for an entire day.
3. Schedule
your first Free Day - if this is difficult for you, make a list of things
you enjoy doing and choose specifically what you will spend your Free
Day doing. Eventually, you will be able to "improvise" these
days, and they will become a touchstone for "who you are when nobody's
watching" that carries forward into your working week. Have fun,
learn heaps, and fill all your days with joy!
poor people spend their money and invest what's left over;
rich people invest their money and spend what's left over."
-Jim Rohn
a. Focus Days
What are the 20% of your activities that account for 80% of your income?
b. Support Days
Support days are for doing all the things you need to do to maintain your
business, honor your commitments, and take the follow up actions generated
on your Focus Days. These are the days where you return phone calls, clear
your in-box, file your papers, and set up actions and appointments for
your next Focus Day.
c. Free Days
At my father's business, he instituted a policy of "Free Days"
- a legitimate day off at full pay, no questions asked and no explanations
or excuses needed. These days became so precious to his employee's that
if someone needed to miss work for a family emergency or illness, they
would often request not to be paid for the day, rather than use up one
of their "Free Days".
1. Identify your high-profit, high-leverage activities. What are the one,
two, or three things you do that bring you the maximum return on investment?
