- October 17, 2018 -
I just finished listening to an interview with Henry Evans, author of "The Hour a Day Entrepreneur."
My first thought after just reading the book title was "Yeah, right...and what have you been smokin'?"
Not saying it's not in the realm of possibility.
But the odds are about as good as mine playing in the Senior PGA.
A few minutes into the interview Evans clarifies that he's not saying you can run your business in one hour a day...the old bait-and-switcheroo tactic.
But it is possible to get more accomplished in one hour than most people can in eight hours.
...with a dose of "reality" thrown in for good measure.
Henry says: Write down the top 5 things you want to accomplish for the day on a physical sheet of paper and then work in 30 minute increments with a timer.
During those laser focused times, turn off all distractions (Skype popping up, phone ringing and texting, Outlook pinging) and stick to the task at hand.
As each task is completed, check it off your "to-do" list...and at the end of the day literally crumble it up, throw it away, and start fresh with a new piece of paper the next day. The physical act of handwriting your goals and checking them off works.
Art says: A timer...really? Like I'm going to have an egg timer sitting on my desk and when it dings, I'm going to stop doing what I'm doing...
...and reset the freaking timer? I don't think so. I use yellow legal pads for my lists - when the sheet on the top is full, I flip it over and start a new sheet.
And when that legal pad is full, I pull out another one. I've got every damn yellow legal pad since 1982. They're antiques by now and very valuable.
Lest you think I'm a complete technical Neanderthal, we also use ScheduleOnce with Google Calendar for appointments, TeamWorkPM for project management, and Slack for team and client communication.
Henry says: Once you have your top 5 tasks written down, tackle the top priority project (that will generate revenue) first thing in the morning even before checking your email...tough to do if you're an email addict. And don't stop until you get it done.
Art says: I can live with that.
(Except for the email part. I'll check my email whenever the hell I want or need to.)
Even when I ran my mortgage company, morning has always been "Offense" time - time to tackle high priority/high productivity tasks that move the business forward. Closing deals. Writing contracts.
During the afternoon, I'm typically on "Defense" - responding to phone messages, putting out fires, paperwork. But always only one task at a time!
Too many people deceive themselves thinking they're getting more done than they actually are.
(Mothers with small kids excepted.)
So stop.
Henry says: Outsource what others can be trained to do so that you can focus on what only you can do.
Art says: Agreed! If you're doing it all yourself and telling yourself it's a cash-flow thing...
...it's not. It's a control thing.
It'll be impossible to scale your business if you can't let go of doing it all.
And using marketing automation...but then you already know that.
Time to take some things off your plate?
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