Low priority tasks and distractions hinder our efficiency. According to productivity experts, we spend 80% of our time dealing with low priority tasks and only 20% with important, vital activities. The question is, how do we change this equation to more productively manage our time?
In this article, you will find tips on how to make an alignment between your vision, goals, and KPIs with your daily and weekly tasks.
5 golden rules for managing your time
Golden Rule 1
It’s important to set a long-term goal (one to five years) and a short-term goal (one to three months) for our area of focus.
It’s also important that when setting our goals, we should quantify them as much as possible. For example, in the short term: raising $ 500,000 of investment capital within a month. In some cases, we can create a flowchart to help us better understand our goal. For example, in order to raise $500,000, I must contact 50 investors, which will lead to 20 meetings, which will yield 3 investors and, based on this, I can determine the relevant tasks.
Golden Rule 2
Once we determine the daily/weekly tasks, we can rank them from 1 to 5 in terms of how they connect to the short- and long-term goals we set in Section 1: 1 means there is a very weak connection, and 5 means the connection is very strong.
In an ideal world, you would like only to perform tasks ranked as 5, but of course this is nearly impossible in practice. The idea is to constantly figure out how to avoid (as much as possible) performing tasks ranked as 1-4. This can be achieved by automating the tasks or by passing them on to a third party, if financially possible.
To Grow Your Company, Prioritize Productivity Over Being ‘Busy’
Golden Rule 3
In my experience, meetings normally take 50% of one’s work time – so we should set clear targets ahead of each meeting and, of course, consider whether the meetings advance our short- and long-term goals. In cases where there is very little connection to our goals, it may be better to cancel these meetings.
Golden Rule 4
At the initial stage, we should multiply our assessment of how long a task will take by at least an additional 50%, until we see how long it will take in practice.
Golden Rule 5
And last but not least, is the 2.3% rule. You should dedicate approximately 240 minutes per week to something you are passionate about (there are 10,080 minutes per week and 240 is 2.3 % of this). If you do not have something you are passionate about, search for it during this time by participating in new activities. This will increase your energy levels and – in turn – your productivity in all your areas of focus during the week.
Click HERE to download the Guide Book to see how the model works.
