Download Now!
Life is so much easier when you have better time management skills and it can benefit others around you as well. In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about the 10 ways you can manage your time better with Michelle McCullough.
Alright. Time is something that we would all like to have more of. So we’re going to talk about 10 ways to manage your time better. Okay, so we’ve got Michelle McCullough here who is kind of time management guru. -Junkie. -Junkie? -Guru sounds a lot more. -(Making meditation sounds.) -There we go. So, we’ve got we’ve got 10 tips that we’re going to talk about. But we’re going to give them in a reverse order. We’re going to save the best for it for last here. So, let’s… Let’s get into… Let’s get into the nitty-gritty here of how can we use time more effectively? -Okay, number 10 is to get a good night’s sleep. And it sounds silly but we are so much more energetic and so much better able to accomplish the tasks that we need to accomplish when we’ve taken care of our sleep. And a lot of high achievers and productivity people think they need to sacrifice that sleep to get more done or like while everyone’s quiet and asleep that they should do more. But the reality is is that you can be better with your awake time if you give yourself permission to get 8 hours of sleep. -That does make a lot of sense. Can we talk about when wake up in the morning, if you have that as another pointer can I throw in? -You can throw it in. -So, this is just for me. But I find, if I go to bed early and then wake up early, like 4:00 A-M, man, I get so much done. Like my brain just works so good at that time. In the morning, it’s so quiet. Have space to myself just to think. -And I’m a night owl. I’m going to stay up until midnight and work and then get up at 8:00. And take on the day. -So find the time then that works for you. -Mm-hmm. -Okay, what’s number 9? Number 9 is figure out when you’re most energetic time of the day is. Now, it sounds like for you right when you wake up is the most energetic time of your day. That’s not for me. My most energetic time is either right before lunch or right after lunch. And so, just figure out when do you feel the most energetic? By 3:00 p.m. I am done so. By 8:00 p.m. my brain is crazy. But sometimes, I can get like a rush of energy at 9:00 o’clock. When the kids are in bed and I’m like feeling Footloose and fancy-free. And so I get another rush again about nine o’clock. Which is one reason why I’m a night owl. But discover when your most energetic time is and do your hardest brain tasks at that time. So, if you attach the energy that you have with the brainpower that you need. You can accomplish more and get the hardest things done than trying to plug on through one times you’re really just not there mentally. -Let’s go to number 8. Number 8 is to think about things that you do on a regular basis. So, a lot of our to-do list items, we continue to put on the to-do list every single week. Like grocery shopping or laundry or in your business, it could be making calls. Or sending out emails. And so figure out the things that you do daily weekly and monthly and schedule those and remove them from your to-do list. Because then, you’re more likely to do them on routine and it won’t be something where if there’s an emergency it doesn’t get done. But it’s something that you already have planned in your schedule. Number 7 is always figuring out ways to do things faster. Now… -Efficiency. -I love the word efficient and I’m glad that you said that because it’s not always about speed. Because we don’t want to sacrifice quality. But be willing to look at new ways you can do some of the same things over and over but in quicker ways. So, whether that’s doing some research or asking friends, “Hey, how do you get this done?” And your business or at home. And then being willing to try things in a different way. I think that we should always be learning and being willing to apply that to our time as well. Yeah, I love that I love efficiency. I call myself the Master of Efficiency. Because that’s just how my brain works. I like finding something you know, I want to get something done and I just think what’s going to be the quickest way for me to accomplish that result not worrying about you know, the traditions or what I’m used to to get it done. -And a lot of times, one of the ways you can do things faster, isn’t not to allow distractions to come in.
So, one of the things that I like to remember on this point is sometimes it’s not about hopping from this thing to that thing to this thing to that thing but it’s saying, “Okay, I’m going to get this one thing done.” That takes a long time and not going to answer my phone and I’m going to turn things things off. It could be but it’s not in my list. -That you got a bonus here. -That was a bonus tip. -To find a way of removing distractions. -Yes, yes. Time traps, like I call them. -Okay, number 6 is blocking out time. A lot of people put their to-do lists out there and they think, “When I have time, I’m going to check things off of my to-do list.” But if you break your main tasks into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks you can schedule them and block out times to get them done. Or if you still have the onesie, twosie tasks or the one-off things. Scheduled time and your week, every single week to work on your to-do list. Don’t allow it to be something if you have time, that you’ll get it done. Because we all know you’re going to run out of time. Number 5 is one of my ninja tricks, okay? I’m all about batching like items together. This works personally at home. Like when I am in my green smoothie. Work time, I will make a whole week’s worth of green smoothies and freeze them. So, instead of every single day getting out the blender and washing the blender. I will make a whole week’s worth. Freeze them and let that task be done. In my business, that will look like getting all of my invoicing done once a week or doing all of my statistics reviews once a week. Instead of looking at him every single day and really not giving them a good judge, I’ll pick a specific time to batch those like items and put them together. -So perhaps instead of filming an episode every day, you spent 20 episodes in one day. -Fantastic advice. I should do that. Number 4. 4, one of my favorite subjects which I wish we could do a whole show on this. And maybe we should in some time, is delegation. Being willing to delegate the tasks that are (A) not in your zone of genius or (B) could be done by someone else. In a business frame of mind, this looks like of the book with The 1 Minute Manager Meets the Monkey by Ken Blanchard. He says everything in your organization needs to be done at the lowest possible pay level. That doesn’t mean you don’t value what getting done. But it means that the CEO should not be taking out the trash. And not because he’s too cool for that but because he has other revenue generating activities. That if he is taking out the trash, he’s being distracted from that .Likewise. if you’re the trash take her outer, you can know that that is part of the company’s big profits pattern to begin with. And that your responsibility is just as important to someone else’s because we need all of those pieces to get done. And here’s the thing, if you are a stay-at-home mom or even a stay-at-home dad, I highly recommend outsourcing things you don’t love doing. Bring in a neighbor kid from across the street to fold your laundry for you. I mean, some people love that. And if you love folding your laundry, continue to do it. It is not my favorite thing. And so, I can pay a neighbor, a neighbor kid 10 bucks an hour to fold all the laundry in my house. They can get it done in an hour. And it would probably take me 3 hours because I’m going to get distracted with the kids or distracted with a phone call or distracted with my business. And it’s not an effective use of my time. So, if you can think about the tasks that you can outsource, even for just a small amount, you’ll find yourself that you’ll have more time because you’re doing the things that you really rock at. Like parenting or running your business. -So, I like that. Obviously I talk about outsourcing all the time and I like that you used the word delegation… -Yes -…to introduce this. Just because it brings on another perspective. You can use it for personal things. Not necessarily business. And I talked about outsourcing all the time. So, my team will choose one of my amazing outsourcing videos and put it right up there. And if if you want to find out more how I hire people in the Philippines, full-time for between 4 to 6 hundred dollars a month then I’ll put a link in the description below for virtualassistanttool.com. Alright, let’s move on to tip number 3. -Tip number 3 is once you’ve put all of these things in place you need to honor your calendar. I tell my clients that time is either your greatest asset or your greatest liability in your business. I’ve seen companies with millions of dollars. Squander it away because their CEO, did not know how to spend their time. And I’ve also seen scrappy CEOs with 10 cents to their names, build multi-million dollar businesses. And the difference is how they honor and use their time for an investment in their life and in their business. Same thing can be said for your personal time too. If you’re spending a ton of time wasting time online, playing games, those are fine to like recharge. But if they become to take over, that’s… That’s difficult. But if you spend all this effort to batch like activities and to do daily weekly and monthly tasks, give yourself permission to honor the calendar. So when a friend calls and says, “Hey, can you go to lunch tomorrow?” But you are planning to do videos all day long. Even though you love your friend, it’s okay to say, “Hey, I’m booked. But does this time work?” And to treat even your tasks that you do at home or at the office just as important as you would a meeting with a client or lunch with a friend because honoring that calendar will help you feel more in control of your life than just being reactive about everything. -Let’s move on to number 2. -Okay. -Were you peeking? -I was peeking. Number 2 is it’s still okay to make it to-do list and make sure you write things down. So, while we talked about batching activities and doing like things together and creating dailies weeklies and monthlies, whether you’re a digital person or you’re a physical writing things down person, have one place where you keep to-do lists. Many people that are busy will write things on the back of receipts or on sticky notes or on something that they have in their car. But be committed to having one place. Whether you have a to-do list on your phone or you take a book with you everywhere you go. Having one place to keep track of the things that need to get done is really important. That’s actually a big deal because I’m a big to-do list-er. I do both scheduling in to do this. But a lot of times, I’ll have my notepad on my desk and I’ll just write a list and I’ll check out some of those. But then I’ll flip the page over and I’ll write a new list. I’ll have to go back. -Right? -So recently, I’ve got an online tool that I’m using that syncs with my phone and everything in it. Yeah. -Awesome. -It is good, good.
Alright. So, you saved the best for last. -Saved the best for last. -I’ve heard you talk about this number 1 tip all the time. So, let’s dive in. What’s the number 1 tip? -Okay, the number 1 tip is going to shock you. And that is make a plan. Just if you want to get things done, make a plan to make it happen. I am make-it-happen girl but it all starts with creating a plan. And people don’t like that. Because I work with a lot of creatives, And part of me is creative too. And I’ll say, “How’s that working out for you?” Just flying by the seat of your pants. Like, I really would like to get more done. I think plan is the 4-letter word for success. And while it may make you swear internally, remember that if you can… I love the old adage that it says, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Because really we are in control. And part of making peace with the clock is realizing that at the end of the day, yes some things can go crazy but more often than not, if you’re specific and consistent about your plans, sitting down and reviewing your weeks, then you will be a time management rockstar. And you’ll be an accomplishment rockstar because you’re getting things done. -Yeah. I mean, it’s so true. I think about… My wife and I are the same on this. When there’s a day, maybe there’s a Saturday. And we don’t have a specific plan. We get to the end of the day and we just look back like, we’re not happy… We’re not happy with the day. It’s like where did the time go? But you know especially, if we’re… Our challenge is managing our time and we have some goals we want to get done, yeah, we just we make a plan. We plan for it. It makes sense. And it works in your relationships too. I scheduled time with my kids, I scheduled time with my husband. Weekly date night is just as important to me as the meetings that I have with the client. And sometimes I get criticized. I actually had somebody when I was speaking telling about this from a stage. Like, “I can’t believe you have to spend schedule time to spend with your kids.” And you should just do that. And I said, “Yes. And I do. I let some things happen by happenstance. And of course, I see my kids and I interact with them and of course I spend time with my employees.” But if I can make an appointment to spend present, non-distracted time with the people that I care about, then I’m making sure that they fit. Instead of becoming an afterthought. -You know and I’ve… I’ve started doing that recently too. And my kids… So whether it’s a daddy-daughter date that I’ve got scheduled with with my 13 year old or if it’s a date with my wife, we’re looking forward to it. -Absolutely. And… And it’s also a great, great motivation for my son to get his homework done. -Sure. -Because we… We know we’ve got this activity plan that we’re going to go do. You know what? I’m a busy guy. -Sure. -I’m a real busy guy. I’ve got a busy schedule and planning it make sure that the important things get fit in. But even though I call that an important thing, it also it gives me a break. It allows for… We’re going to end the video here because we’re going away too long. Thanks so much. Be sure to subscribe. Alright. Any final words of wisdom? -No, I just think that… I think it’s a misnomer that some people are good at time and some people aren’t when the reality is it’s just a decision that you have to make. -We all have the same amount of time each day. -We do. Just depends on how you invest it. -Alright. If you’ve got additional tips that you want to add, be sure to comment below. Add to the discussion. We will see you tomorrow.