Monday, April 25, 2011

High Achievers and their secret

How is it that high achievers are capable of doing so much?

Seth Godin has started several very successful businesses, has written 16 books since 1993 and continues to be a pioneer in marketing philosophy.

Bill Gates founds a company that becomes unanimous with personal computers. And then founds the worlds largest privately owned foundation with an endowment of 33.5 billion dollars.

Seth Godin and Bill gates are high achievers for a plethora of reasons, but I want to talk about one facet of theirs and other high achievers success – Time Management. A well organized and well thought out use of ones time can be the difference between being a high-achiever and not.

Time Management is giving yourself enough time to get from one place to another and in the likelihood of arriving early, you have something else to work on. Five hour plane ride? Use that time to write a chapter for your book, work on a upcoming project or presentation. 

One of the best ways to get better at managing your time is setting small achievable goals.

For example – imagine that you have two months to do a project. 

What usually happens: We often start working longer - harder hours as dates impend. But by setting small achievable goals for yourself and your team as the date progresses (finish idea/concept) by week 1. Finish your strategic vision by week 2 etc… Your making better use of your time, and you’ll find this project doesn’t disrupt you from the rest of your life. One of the most disruptive things is HUGE last minute changes – commit to it and don’t stress to change HUGE things in the last minute. Get approval from your boss in week 1 and ask him to sign off on it – that is the period for pruning!

Second. Think of your daily schedule – where are you wasting hours, what could you be doing otherwise?

Third. Don’t put things off. There are always a few things nagging at the back of our minds causing us subtle grief. My advice – do them! For example - We hate paying credit card bills and may put them off for a while. Think of them as urgent and choose a certain day of every month to pay all your bills – you’ll never have to stress about paying on time again. Allowing you to spend time doing the things your most productive at.

What are some ways you manage your time?

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