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Here are several ideas for my time-challenged clients.

1.    Conduct high power work when your brain is freshest. I tend to write important drafts early in the morning (as a “morning person”) and surf the web conducting research when my brain is tired (low energy required).

2.    Make sure your to do list contains items that have actions associated with them. You can only take certain actions based on context. Most of what we do can be done on the phone, at the computer, in one’s office, at home (think honey-do list), out on the road (errands) or agendas (meetings) with certain people.

3.    Your daily calendar is full of two types of work, either formal appointments or no appointments. It’s what you do when you don’t have an appointment that determines your productivity.

4.    For entrepreneurs and executives, delegate your $10 per hour work to someone else. Instead, focus on the $300 per hour work.

5.    Your personal life and professional life are inseparable. Get used to it. If you have a personal commitment outstanding, it will nag at you at work. Work commitments will nag you at home. Deal with both.

6.    The mind is a terrible place to store something you are trying to remember. Keep a pad and pen handy at all times.  Write down your thoughts and place them into a system that you will review regularly (like GTD).

7.    To plan larger projects, figure out first what success would look like. Then, brainstorm for ideas. Ideas will naturally come forward once you’ve seen the end result.

Several years ago, I worked with a founder of a growing, local pizza chain. He absolutely prided himself on working with the tiling contractor on weekends even though he was already working 70-80 hours per week and had a newborn at home (and two more followed shortly thereafter). Today, he still has the same number of locations. I’m not surprised. He never took the time to work on growing his chain (even though that’s what he said he wanted). He was too busy tiling.

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