More Time Management Tips From The Business Coach

Learning Tips From A Business Coach

5. Start the subject line of an email with the name of company or the main person involved in the email is a great tip I’ve learned as a business coach. Do not send blank or vague subject lines.

For a specific and very detailed in-depth video training from the business coach on how to manage email effectively, visit: www.Thrive15.com/how-to-manage-emails-effectively
6. To reduce the number of e-mails that you receive every day, you must reduce the number of e-mails that you send every day.
7. Do not respond to your email in real-time. Respond to all of your email once per day and then get the heck out of there. If you are in a position of leadership, you will lose your mind trying to stay on top of it in real-time.

“That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
-Steve Jobs
(Co-founder of Apple and the former CEO of Pixar)
8. Don’t engage in nuanced conversations via email. Reserve those types of conversations for in-person or over-the-phone.
9. Don’t send long emails.
10. When possible, respond to long emails filled with many questions with the answer, “I’ll call you about these items ASAP.” Then make sure to cover all of the items in the email during your phone conversation.
11. Write your emails using numbered bullet points when discussing multiple issues. Do not weave many questions and subjects into the body of an email paragraph.
12. If you believe that the topic of your email may be very sensitive to the reader or that it may actually offend or upset the reader, do not send it.
13. Do not ever write something in an email that you would not be willing to say directly to the person.
14. Get your inbox reduced to zero each day. Don’t leave hundreds of half-responded to or not responded to emails in your inbox.
15. Commonly use the carbon copy (CC) feature on your email, but never use the blind copy (BC) feature on your email, if possible.

“When people think of mental activity, they tend to think of it as an ethereal zapping of electricity that has no cost to the body. That’s not true, the brain is a massive blood and oxygen sink. You need stimulus and recovery in mental work in the same way that you need stimulus and recovery for sports.”
-Tim Ferriss
(Venture capitalist, podcaster, speaker, entrepreneur and bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek book series)

33.4 – Marshall Marination Moment: Email Optimization
In my experience working business owners all over the world and learning from the best time managers in the world, it seems one of the hardest things is to commit to using ONE email address / inbox. So many times, I’ve begun working with a client and found THOUSANDS of emails that had never been opened. Why is that? Usually it’s because at some point, the number of unopened emails became too large to answer in one sitting. The other unfortunate reason so many emails tend to amass like this is because they’ve landed in an inbox that it is not the primary or personal inbox of the business owner, so the messages go unnoticed. Regardless, it’s important to get all of those leads, customer service requests, family travel plans, social media notification emails, Amazon.com confirmations, and everything else traveling via electronic mail (email) to ONE INBOX. Forward all of the email addresses you use to a Gmail account (there are reasons for this), and set up that Gmail account as a verified sender for those addresses. If the thought of doing this makes you want to vomit, no worries. To make your life at least 4% easier, we have created an in-depth training, from the business coach, on how to do this at www.Thrive15.com/email-account-optimization

34.1 – Can You Afford Not to Have a Personal Assistant?

I am now celebrating my 20th year of self-employment, and I can tell you from firsthand experience, I have almost always utilized a personal assistant to help me get more things done and to leverage my time. As an example, writing this book has required almost 95 hours of my time thus far, and we have not yet begun editing it. However, I have been able to write this book and stay on top of my responsibilities as a father, businessman, business coach, and speaker because I have prioritized making sure that I surround myself with quality people to whom I can delegate effectively. Call them whatever you want; I call them personal assistants.

“Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.”
-Lee Cockerell
(Thrive15.com Mentor and former Executive Vice President of Walt Disney World Resort who once managed over 40,000 employees )

When I was in high school and attempting to scale the business model of promoting dance parties that I would charge people $5 to attend, that was my first experience with successfully leveraging my time. I paid a guy named Leif (I grew up in Minnesota) to help organize the equipment, manage the crowds and help promote the event because there simply were not enough hours in the day for me to get everything done that needed to be done for the big event. I wasn’t rich at the time I hired Leif, but I did realize the value of paying him a percentage of what I was making so that I could make more money and deliver more value to my ideal and likely buyers.

Deep Thought:
Remember, just because you choose to delegate something to someone else does not mean that you are not responsible for whether those things get done. By definition, delegation means to give a task to somebody else with responsibility to act on your behalf. However, at the end of the day, you are still responsible for achieving results and getting stuff done. It’s ok to be a delegator, but do not become an abdicator and a blamer. To abdicate means to fail to fulfill a duty or responsibility. Don’t be the person who abdicates and then blames. Be a delegator. There is a difference.

Today, I almost always work with an assistant of some kind whom I am paying to help me to free up my time so that I can focus on my highest and best use. To help you free up the time needed to get more stuff done, I have put together a list of the tasks that I, as a business coach, would highly recommend that you hire a personal assistant to help you with:
1. Prepping the office for big presentations and meetings
2. Greeting guest and clients at the door
3. Picking up clients at the airport
4. Organizing your travel
5. Taking notes during meetings
6. Scheduling appointments
7. Driving almost anywhere
8. Mailing items
9. Buying office supplies
10. Cleaning up the office
11. Organizing the office
12. Getting items notarized
13. Buying items online (assuming that you have a budget in place)
14. Printing documents
15. Managing the logistics and issues related to fixing your computers, scanners, printers, etc.
16. Collecting payments from clients
17. Researching quick and specific items

There are some things I would not delegate to a personal assistant:
1. Responding to emails
2. Paying bills
3. Attending meetings on your behalf
4. Firing someone on your behalf
5. Handling employee disputes on your behalf
6. Strategic decision-making