How To Beat Inertia
Posted on 16. Apr, 2012 by beren in Blog, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, time management
Imagine you had two loans to pay back. Loan A was $100,000 at 19% interest per annum. Loan B was $200 at 1% interest. Which loan would you pay back first? Loan A or Loan B? If you chose Loan A, then almost every financial consultant on the planet would agree with you.
Except Dave Ramsey
To everyone, but Dave, the logic is clear. Loan A has a much higher rate of interest. Logically you should pay back the higher rate of interest first. But as you’d expect, Dave disagrees.
That’s because Dave understands inertia better than most other financial consultants
So what is inertia? I learned a funny definition in physics class at school. It went like this: A body in the state of rest or motion is inertia.
Hah, that made me laugh. How can you be stuck and moving, and still be in the same state? But apparently that’s how inertia works. And this is Dave’s advice to people who are struggling with debt.
First list all the debts on a piece of paper
All debts need to go down. Student loans, credit card, mortgage, blah, blah. Then you need to rearrange the loans based on the size of the loan. So the smallest loan goes right at the top and the biggest one right at the bottom.
And everything else in between (depending on the size of the loan). And then he instructs you to pay only the minimum payment on every debt–with one exception. After the minimum payments were made, every available dollar needs to be put towards the first debt on the list.
Incredible as it may sound, Dave is telling you to wipe out that tiny, itty-bitty $200 debt with the pathetic interest, instead of taking on the painful big amount/big interest debt.
Logically it makes no sense
But your brain doesn’t always work logically when it comes to inertia. While you’re lounging on the sofa, watching endless and pointless political debates on TV, your logic is telling to get off your butt. It’s telling you that the debates are endless (and did we say, pointless?).
Your logic is also telling you that you should be doing some work or exercise instead of engaging in mindless drivel. So logic doesn’t work. And the same applies to the debt. When Dave’s clients wipe out the first debt it’s not necessarily logical, but it creates a factor of momentum. First the $200 is wiped out. Then the $350. Then the $800. And so on, right up to the ‘monsta’ $100,000.
The motion is what matters
A body in a state of rest or motion is inertia. And going from rest to a state of motion is impossible if you decide to take on the biggest task first.
Logic tells you that you should fix your website right now. Logic tells you that you should write that 300 page book. But Dave would say, “Go brush your teeth first.” That simple act of doing something–anything at all–gets you off your caboose and into another state of inertia: a state of motion.
So if you need to get something done, fool yourself
-Don’t go for a 60 minute walk. Instead put on your shoes and decide to walk for just 7 minutes.
-Don’t try to write a complete article. Just write for 14 minutes. Then stop.
-Avoid trying to clean the entire bathroom. Just attack the sink.
These tiny bits help you get to the bigger bits. Because even as you go for the 7 minute walk, you know very well that you’re not going to turn around in 7 minutes.
You’ll go longer and further. But the goal always needs to be 7 minutes or 14 minutes or the $200 debt. The itty-bitty bits are important, more important in fact, than the bigger goals.
When people say they feel inertia, they mostly refer to a state of laziness
Of not wanting to do anything at all. But as my physics teacher would tell you: “There’s inertia and there’s inertia.” And to get from one stage to another, you need to make the list in descending order of importance. Then attack the list.
And as Dave would say: Start small.
Acknowledgements
Dave Ramsey’s ‘Snowball Debt’ and ‘Switch’ by Chip and Dan Heath. P.S. Yes I know. You’re headed to Google these names, aren’t you? You think you’ll find out more about this book and this method of reducing debt, aren’t you? But you already have the tools.
You have a piece of paper. You have a pencil or pen. And you have the methodology. So don’t muck around. Get to work. You need to change that state of inertia right now.
Did you find this article interesting? Write your comments here. I would love to hear from you.
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Optimize Your Social Media Schedule: 4 Tips for Avoiding the Social Media Time Suck
Posted on 24. Jan, 2012 by Ashley Zeckman in B2B, B2C, Blog, productivity, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Media, social media marketing, time management
Making the time to execute on a social media strategy can rattle even the most experienced marketers. Unlike traditional marketing, social media marketing can present many different challenges and distractions. According to a study by eMarketer 73% of marketers say finding the time to create content as their biggest marketing challenge.
I recently ran a poll of @TopRank Twitter followers to get a sense of how they spend their time online. I asked “If you had only 20 minutes a day to spend on social media what would you focus on?” Some of the answers we received were:
- @henryroominates – “I would try to connect with powerful Twitter users and Tweet content from my blog.”
- @SebastianX – “I’d read my Twitter Followanyday List.”
- @Paco_Belle – “Look at 2-3 Twitter lists, couple circles on G+, scroll Facebook timeline & look through my RSS feeds for new things.”
- @Paramountbuzz – “Engaging others…doing it now.”
- @GreenDolphin_ – “My RSS feed, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.”
If you are involved with implementing social media marketing, you know that 20 minutes a day just won’t cut it. On top of implementing social media tactics, there’s also the task fo staying current. Lee’s post “11 Ways to Get Smarter & Stay Current in a World of Social Information Overload“ outlined how much time can be involved using social tools to collect, filter and curate social media marketing knowledge.
Avoiding Shiny Object Pitfalls
Reuters estimates that the average worker loses 2.1 hours of productivity every day to interruptions and distractions. To avoid wasting time begin by prioritizing your week. While it’s true that unexpected issues can come up plan for the best and the worst. If you have 3 hours per day on average to complete tasks related to social media strategy what will you get accomplished in those 3 hours? If you were only to have 1.5 hours per day what would you want to get accomplished? Proper planning will lead to improved productivity and efficiency. Also, take some time to determine what your top distractions are and eliminate them.
Optimize for Productivity
Focus on what will have the largest impact on your productivity. Determining what time of day you are most productive, and which activities are most significant will help you to stay on track. Are you an early riser, night owl, or somewhere in between? Creating a daily schedule and routine can significantly improve your productivity. You will also want to keep in mind statistical data which points to the best times of day and days of the week for engaging in social media activity. A recent infographic by KISSmetrics on “The Science of Social Timing” provides valuable insight into the best times of day to share or engage on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Some of the findings include:
- 5pm – best time to Tweet for re-tweets
- 1-4 per hour – most effective frequency of Tweets
- Midweek & Weekends – best days to Tweet
- Noon & 6pm – best time to Tweet for increase Click Through Rates
- Saturday- best day to share on Facebook
- Noon- most effective time to share on Facebook
- .5 per day – best sharing frequency
Tips for an Optimized Focus
Now lets talk about some no brainer “don’ts” that the many of us “do”. Let me know if any of these sound familiar to you:
- Your best friend is having problems with their significant other so you keep your phone close, just in case…
- It’s baseball season and your team is playing but you don’t have the day off, thank goodness for internet radio right…
- You have email anxiety which forces you to check email every couple minutes because you never know what you might miss…
- One of your colleagues is obsessed with chatting online and pings you every couple minutes with a question or joke…
- You’re scheduling Tweets, posting on your personal facebook page, and reading Psychology Today all at the same time, because after all you are a master multi-tasker…
I too have often thought that I could do everything at once. A balancing act acquired from years of having too much to do, and not enough time. I considered multi-tasking an art form and a higher form of organization than my counterparts who only focused on one thing at a time. I could not have been more wrong. In recent years I’ve had to buckle down and force myself to devote all of my attention to one task at a time. I’ve found that the quality of my work has improved and the level of my stress has decreased significantly. Some tactics that have worked for me include:
- Closing my email when I’m working on social media tasks
- Close all Internet windows and tabs except for the one I need to work on
- Disabling chat or closing chat windows to avoid distraction
- Pick 15 minutes a day to indulge in activities such as checking personal social media profiles, responding to texts, or chatting with friends.
- Spend 30 minutes to an hour each morning reviewing emails and responding, do the same thing before leaving at the end of the day.
- It is significantly easier to stick to your schedule if you are working ONLY on the tasks you have scheduled in the time allotted.
Tools for Optimizing Your Time
Depending on your available time and social media content strategy, there are many tools that can help you accomplish more with less time. Below are three different types of tools that social media marketers can use to get the most out of their time:
Curation Tools – good for quickly gathering and automatically sharing content
Social Aggregators & Management Tools – follow and engage with multiple platforms
- Hootsuite
- Tweetdeck
- Seesmic
- Here’s a list of 22 social media management tools
Social Bookmarking – effective means of organizing and storing social bookmarks
- StumleUpon
- Delicious
- Evernote – not a bookmarking tool exactly but very useful for curating
Next Steps
I’m sure you’ll agree that focus and time management are something that most of us can relate to. Based on what was covered in this post, consider the following questions and determine what you can do to better focus on the tasks at hand:
- What are your top 3 social media goals and do you have a plan for reaching them?
- How much time can you dedicate each day to using tactics to reach these goals?
- What steps can you take to improve your focus while completing social media activities?
- Which type of tool: curation, aggregator, or social bookmarking can you use to help save time?
If you are looking for additional tips on Optimizing your SEO, social media, and content strategies be sure to take a look at the new book: “Optimize: How to Attract & Engage More Customers By Integrating SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing.”
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The Similarity Between Talent And Email-Clutter
Posted on 17. Oct, 2011 by nardene in Blog, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, time management
Imagine you had a friend who said to you, “I have 140 emails in my in-box”. What would you say next? I’ll tell you what. You’d be a little surprised, and you’d say, “You get 140 emails a day?”
“No, not a day”, this friend would answer. “I get just 20 emails a day.” But I check my email weekly.
At this point, you want to hold back, but you can’t help yourself.
“Why don’t you check your email every day?” is what you’d ask. And the friend would stubbornly say, “Ah, I have no time. I can only check it once a week.”
But you can see the downside of this obstinate behaviour, can’t you?
If you check 140 emails a week, a lot of things happen. So let’s make a list of things that instantly go wrong.
1) There’s just too much to cope with at one go.
2) It’s hard to sort out the important and the urgent from the crappy stuff.
3) If there’s an urgent matter that you’ve ignored for an entire week, that something is going to come back and bite you in the butt, big time.
Which is kinda how talent works
If I go for a watercolour class, I go once a week. So guess what? Let’s say the class is on a Tuesday. Then I don’t do much on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Sunday is when I start thinking about practicing. And before I know it—yup, you got it—it’s Tuesday.
And this is why most of us never acquire skills at the pace we should
We always seem to have no time. But what good is all that mumbling and grumbling? You can’t acquire adequate skill by dipping your toe in it once a week. The only way is to practice and learn every day.
Without the daily check in, your brain struggles
If you learn every day, your brain goes through steps.
1) It learns a lot. And it kinda forgets most of the stuff.
2) The next day, it tries to remember, but fails.
3) This is when the brain is most alert. It has failed. So it pays attention.
4) The following day you remember even more. And you make more mistakes.
5) The more mistakes you make the more your brain struggles.
6) The more it struggles the more it seeks to remember.
7) By the end of the week, you remember a lot more and are a just a smidgen faster than you were at the start of the week.
Smidgens don’t add up. They become exponential
At first, there’s too much to cope with, so your brain struggles like crazy. Of course the cranky ones give up at this point. But the smart ones keep at it. They don’t attempt to do it all. Just a little bit every day, so the struggle is manageable.
And in time those smidgens get together and boof—it’s like cycling
One minute you’re falling all over the place. The next minute you have balance and momentum. And suddenly you have far less struggle.
Struggle is sorting through 140 emails in your brain
Time is of no consequence. If you don’t clear those 20 emails a day, they pile up to 40, then 80. And when you get to them, they seem not like 40—but more like 500.
At this point you begin to detest dealing with email. And the same applies to whatever skill you’ve been trying to apply. You suddenly think you’re not talented, when it’s really a matter of daily diligence.
But often you need help—so listen up if you’re a teacher/consultant
Your students can’t deal with a ton of stuff. So break up your course into daily practice. We do this on all our course—and every big skill acquisition course we ever have at Psychotactics.
Every day is mapped out. Every break is mapped out. Every public holiday is taken into consideration. And there’s no escape for those who don’t show up every day—they just get barred from the course.
As a teacher you have to lay down the rules, because for starters, it forces you to think through the tiny steps the students have to take. And in turn, you have to enforce the daily practice, rewarding those who show up and physically booting out the slackers that don’t.
Talent acquisition is not a question of having time—or not having time. It’s about daily practice.
Tackling 140 emails at a time is for the dunderheads.
Don’t be one. If you’re teaching, break it up. If you’re learning, break it up. And suddenly those smidgens come together. Suddenly you’re, um, talented.
Because ‘weekly’ doesn’t work as well.
‘Bi-weekly’ barely seems better.
All that really works is daily practice.
Get started today!
What are you going to change today? Share your story here.
“Before I bought the Brain Audit I felt lost & like a desperate salesman.” I was one amongst a million more service based businesses. But now with the psychological marketing tactics I learned from the Brain Audit, I feel confident.And I fell especially unique when it comes to advertising and marketing because most of my competitors don’t know the marketing principles taught in the Brain Audit! I feel like a real professional marketing expert. Luis Depazos, Entrepreneur, Miami, Fl. USA “I was wary of signing up and paying for a forum or another membership site.“ “Because of previous less than impressive experiences with sites that are all sizzle and no substance run by flaky gurus. Sean’s free advice and articles are so good I didn’t think that he could come up with something even better. He does. When I joined, I found a wealth of practical information and advice on all sorts of topics related to small business, marketing (both online and offline), interviews with experts, critiques of members’ websites and their marketing material. Sean is there answering queries and questions, sometimes even turning advice that Free resources available to members which you don’t read or hear about outside 5000bc, not to mention free access to articles which later become paid products are added bonuses of being a member. You also get information about classes and workshops which Sean is planning before the general public is informed. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend 5000bc as a valuable resource to help you with your business and the free coaching.”
Judge for yourself http://www.psychotactics.com/5000bc Products: Under $50 NEW! You already know that 80% of a sales letter depends on your headline. 1) Do You Often Hit A Wall Called ‘Writers Block’? 2) Do you know that visuals immediately improve your sales conversion? 3) Do your websites, brochures, presentations, etc… confuse your clients? 4) Chaos Planning 5) Nothing bugs you more than a painful client. NEW PRODUCT! Black Belt Presentations: How do you create presentations that enthrall, hold and move an audience to action? |
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The Myth of Time (And Why Most People Will Never Have Time)
Posted on 19. Sep, 2011 by nardene in Blog, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, time management
People often say they have no time.
They shouldn’t say that. The truth is they have no ability.
Let me explain
It used to take me two whole days to write an article. And when the article was complete, I wasn’t sure it was even good enough for publication. I had, as you probably know by now, an article graveyard. But if anyone asked me to do something on those two days of the month, I’d say: “I have no time.”
What I should have said was: “I have no ability.”
I had no ability to write, to conceptualise and to execute.
No ability with writing, or working with InDesign or creating podcasts or whatever I was supposed to do. And of course when you have no ability, you feel like a doofus if you go around telling the world you’re a doofus.
So I said: “I have no time.”
What I did have was persistence
I wanted to take three months off every year. And if I was to squeeze nine twelve months of work in nine months, I had to sharpen up my abilities. So I wrote. I cursed. But I wrote. I cursed a lot more. But I wrote. And I went from lousy to average. And average to good. And from good to—pleased as punch with myself.
But let me classify why I feel so pleased with myself
When I wrote my first book, it took me a week. That book, if you want to call it a book was 16 pages long. When I sat down to beef up that book it took me three months.
Three months later, I had a book that kinda snuggled into a hundred pages or so. That was then. Last year I wrote a 120 page book, did all the cartoons, did all the layouts, cover design, audio version of the book (including audio cover design and tagging) in one week.
As you can see those lessons in InDesign and the persistence of writing paid off. But so did dozens of failed audio podcasts and crazy layouts. Eventually what happened to me, is what happens to most people who persist relentlessly. They get so freakin’ fast, that to the outside world it looks like talent.
And it’s not talent at all.
You should have heard the cursing.
You should have been there when I was lower than a benthos (that’s a bottom feeder).
But I knew one thing
No one was going to give me any extra time. It was up to me. I had to get faster. But not faster. But faster and better. And the only way to do that, was to stop the excuses (and the cursing).
But what do you do if you really don’t have the time?
Well for one, you waste enormous amounts of time. I’ve seen ‘busy’ people driving around listening to the radio. They say they have no time. What’s on the radio that’s so freakin’ interesting?
Probably some stupid political debate which is pointless to your future anyway. Or some music you’ve heard twenty gazillion times before. What should be on that ‘radio’ is an audio recording where you learn about marketing, or business, or something that enriches your mind.
When you’re waiting in line, you have time.
When you’re out for a walk or exercising, you have time.
When you’re headed back from dropping off the kids, you have time.
But hang on, you’re not an audio kind of person.
You like to read transcripts. Oh, is that so? Did you know that most kids can’t read a darned thing before they’re almost six or seven years old. Yet they learn customs, languages and hundreds of things purely through audio learning.
So let’s say, yes, you have a bias for transcripts or the written word
That I can understand. But so what? Put on the audio anyway. When you listen to the news, you don’t need a transcript. When you listen to music, you don’t have this overwhelming need for lyrics.
So use the same concept for audio learning. Use up the time you have. So what if you don’t remember 98% of what you hear? Listen to it anyway, because it boosts your ability even if you just retain a measly 2%.
Load your bag with a Kindle or some device where you can read on the go.
Yes, yes I can almost hear the other stupid excuse of how you like to read books on paper—but try carrying those books with you wherever you go. Instead of the silly mundane excuses, change the way you do things.
When you’re waiting for your laptop to boot up, read something.
While the waiter brings you your coffee, read something else.
Find every darned moment of the day to improve your ability. Some situations will lend themselves to text. Some won’t and you’ll need audio instead. You should be prepared to squeeze out every possible wasted moment, because they add up pretty quick.
And then when you’re back at your desk, sign up for a course that will kick your butt.
Not some ‘namby pamby’ course that lets you do whatever you feel like doing. But sign up for a course where you feel fear on your credit card—and where the person conducting the course will kick you out for missing so much as a day’s assignment.
And for heaven’s sake, don’t sign up for anything that promises instant success—because you will. Some joker will come along with his surfboard and promise you some instant knowledge, and you’ll do what you’ve done before. You’ll sign up and you’ll be further away from your ability than ever before.
Instant success takes too much time.
It assumes you don’t need ability.
And the truth is quite the opposite, as you’ve figured.
You have time.
You have loads of time.
But you have too many excuses.
And way too little ability.
Ditch the excuses. Top up the ability.
And you get what top performers have—loads of time. It’s as they say: If you want a job done, give to a busy person.
Time you got busy, eh?
Do you have a story about wasting time ? Or how you manage your time? Share it here
| “Before I bought the Brain Audit I felt lost & like a desperate salesman.” I was one amongst a million more service based businesses. But now with the psychological marketing tactics I learned from the Brain Audit, I feel confident. And I fell especially unique when it comes to advertising and marketing because most of my competitors don’t know the marketing principles taught in the Brain Audit! I feel like a real professional marketing expert. Luis Depazos, Entrepreneur, Miami, Fl. USA 
“I was wary of signing up and paying for a forum or another membership site.“ “Because of previous less than impressive experiences with sites that are all sizzle and no substance run by flaky gurus. Sean’s free advice and articles are so good I didn’t think that he could come up with something even better. He does. When I joined, I found a wealth of practical information and advice on all sorts of topics related to small business, marketing (both online and offline), interviews with experts, critiques of members’ websites and their marketing material. Sean is there answering queries and questions, sometimes even turning advice that Mixing with people from all over the world which allows you to get a truly international response to your questions or requests for help is one of the big bonuses of belonging.The 5000bc members are really friendly and there seems to be a complete absence of ego which is often the bane of a lot of online forums. Free resources available to members which you don’t read or hear about outside 5000bc, not to mention free access to articles which later become paid products are added bonuses of being a member. You also get information about classes and workshops which Sean is planning before the general public is informed. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend 5000bc as a valuable resource to help you with your business and the free coaching.” Judge for yourself http://www.psychotactics.com/5000bc Products: Under $50 1) Do You Often Hit A Wall Called ‘Writers Block’? 2) Do you know that visuals immediately improve your sales conversion? 3) Do your websites, brochures, presentations, etc… confuse your clients? 4) Chaos Planning 5) Nothing bugs you more than a painful client. NEW PRODUCT! Black Belt Presentations: How do you create presentations that enthrall, hold and move an audience to action? |
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My Secret For Getting More Done Every Day
Posted on 05. Sep, 2011 by John Jantsch in Blog, Duct Tape Marketing, excercise, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, time management
My Secret For Getting More Done Every Day
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
This post originally ran on American Express OPENForum and it seemed like a good Labor Day post.
Small business ownership is hard work. Physically demanding, stressful, mind numbing work—and that’s on the good days. But, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. One of benefits of owning a small business is that you are totally free—free to work any 80 hours a week you choose.
But no matter how efficient, there’s always more to do than time to do it.
For me, one of the secrets to getting more done each day is to pay attention to my physical energy and do everything I can to enhance, store and build it.
Spending time engaged in daily exercise is an example of an energy building practice that actually gives me time instead of costing time. In fact, some of what eventually turned into my greatest innovations and ideas presented themselves during an early morning run in the neighborhood.
Here are some of my other tricks:
- Running: I started running for exercise in high school and it’s one of the most relaxing forms of energy creation for me.
- Conscious eating: Whatever that might mean to you, it is another energy building practice.
- Meditation and yoga: These are two powerful forms of stress reduction and energy building.
- White noise generator: Simply Noise allows me to tune out distractions and gain instant focus.
- Reading lyrical passages of literature: Passages such as those found in Anam Cara by John O’Donohue is energy and focus building.
- Creating boundaries by shutting down technology: Doing this occasionally is a good energy building practice.
These are just some of the practices I keep in the energy toolbox.
Perhaps a lesson on healthy living seems odd on a business site, but it’s very hard to disconnect the physical you from the creative you in your business.
I suspect everyone knows they can take better care of the physical plant, particularly as we get older, but I wonder if you’ve considered the role this kind of energy building focus plays in helping you get more done, deliver purpose, maintain focus and bring only the healthiest emotions to the game.
Business owners are conditioned to think about assets and liabilities and ignoring your health and energy is one of the greatest ways to move a key asset (you) into the liability column.
I know that every single day I get some exercise, I get more done. Mind you, I don’t do it enough, but I can tell you that investing 30 of the 1,440 minutes I have in a day in energy building activities always doubles up and pays off in terms of increased productivity.
Go out and get a personal trainer, invest in a chef, create technology boundaries, start learning as much as you can about keeping your body and mind well—it one of the best business investments you can make in your business and your purpose.
Image credit: Peter Mooney
Why Time Management Is Less Powerful Than Efficiency Management
Posted on 22. Aug, 2011 by nardene in Blog, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, time management
Keira is my niece. My sister in law teaches her daughter Keira the names of every one in the family. She does this by getting Keira to recognise the photos and call out the person’s name. So Keira learned everyone’s name. And now at two, she says 90% of the names (except the really hard ones like ‘Renuka’) with perfect pronunciation.
And the difference between Keira and other kids (at the same age) is efficiency. Day after day, Keira gets the drill. So now she can take a look at a photo of a relative she’s never met and call their name out perfectly.
What she’s getting a lesson in, is efficiency management
And this is what our brain does best. It tries to get really good at mastering a skill, especially if it considers the skill important. So as we grow up, we learn how to walk, talk, and we work very hard to master the skills. And luckily we learn all of this before we’re six years old. Until the age of six, we have almost no concept of time.
Then we turn seven
And suddenly our weeks, days and hours start to get governed by time.
But the truth is that it’s not time that needs structuring as much as efficiency. If you can be woken up from your deep sleep and can do something e.g. brush your teeth efficiently, then you’re good at it. A one year old can’t do that. A five year old does it better. And a ten year old does it even better.
The secret is indeed not time management, but efficiency management.
I draw cartoons fast, or write fast, or use InDesign or Photoshop, not because I’m good at time management. But because I’m relentless with the learning.
I forget stuff like everyone else. In fact I may be a lot worse. So I make laborious attempts to remember.
So while I do learn and read a lot of things, I keep going over and over and over the learning, until it’s second nature. So if I’m reading a book for instance, I’ll first just read it. Then if I find that it’s a good book worth remembering, I’ll get into the drill of mastering it.
1) I’ll buy the Kindle version of it and mark it.
2) I’ll make notes of the same book in my Moleskine (see links below)
3) I’ll buy the audio version and listen to the same book at least thrice (if not more).
4) Every time I read it, I’ll implement at least 2-3 of the concepts.
5) I’ll write an article or two about the concepts in the book.
6) I’ll talk to my wife, Renuka about the concept. I’ll talk to clients about it. I’ll bring up with friends in casual conversation.
In short I am desperate to become efficient. And I have no excuses.
And some people have their excuses
They believe that they learn better through audio. Or by reading. And good on them. I don’t learn well enough to master by reading or audio. So I do both. And I do it again and again. If you want to restrict your learning to one medium, well that’s your call.
I want to see the video. I want to hear the audio. I want to read the book. Heck I’ll even watch the cartoon version of the same information. I want to learn, and I have no excuses. Because when you think about it, people are making excuses.
I have no time for excuses
My goal is to master the concepts, so I will go over and over it. And like Keira, I get efficient. You can then bring up any page of the book, and I’ve really gone over it, over and over. And I understand it. But there’s still a lot to be done. And so the journey goes on.
Time management is really um, an interesting concept for me…
Take today for example. I woke up with this big plan of what I had to do. And guess what? For one, I put in too many things to do in one day. There was no way I could do it. Then suddenly I found myself mysteriously transported to the cafe. Then to the kebab shop. Then to watch a movie in the middle of the day. Then the hours flew. But twenty minutes ago I started writing this article. And now the article is done. It’s over.
Ten years ago, this article would have taken me two days.
I’d have budgeted the time for it. And cursed and ranted through it. Now I don’t. I write so many articles in a year (sometimes over 300 articles or more) that it’s second nature.
You can wake me up at 2am. And I won’t head for my toothbrush.
I’ll write an article.
Or do a layout in InDesign.
Or be able to draw a watercolour cartoon perfectly.
And it’s not because of time management. It’s efficiency management. It’s not that time management doesn’t count.
It does. But in my book, efficiency counts more.
Ask Keira! 
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