Just five days left until the Escape from Cubicle Nation workshop in Charlotte, NC on Thursday, 8/13. If you can't make it, check out Pam's website for a list of workshops near you.
If you read yesterday's post, Lesson Two: Start Now, you are excited about getting started but are probably wondering how you could ever find the time to begin working on your business. You have a job, a spouse, kids and a seemingly endless list of tasks and appointments. You can't start now. . . or can you?
Pam anticipated your time management concerns and has some great suggestions for carving out the hours that you'll need to achieve your dreams.
Lesson Three: Stop
You are half-right when you say that you don't have the time to start your business. You won't be able to add the responsibilities of an entrepreneur on top of all your current activities. And you don't have to. You need to take a look at your current schedule and start eliminating the activities that don't contribute to the success of your new company.
Pam is on solid footing with this advice. Peter Drucker calls it "organized abandonment." Jim Collins says that you don't need a to-do list. You need a "stop-doing list." Tom Peters recommends that you go a step further and get a "stop counselor" to help you eliminate unnecessary or distracting tasks. I discuss these perspectives in more detail in my post, Godin and Collins Want You to Stop.
1. Be Ruthless
Pam starts with some tough talk. "Stop watching f*ing episodes of Lost! Despite feeling like there is no extra time in the day, many people waste time on pursuits like cheesy television shows and meaningless Twitter conversations. If you want to make your business happen, you will have to be ruthless with your time."
In his post, Is Effort a Myth?, Seth Godin reinforces Pam's suggestion to reduce your time spent watching TV and surfing social networking sites, and adds newspapers, commuting and meetings to the list of time wasters.
2. Do Less
It is possible to do less and achieve more. Sometimes our schedules are full and we aren't wasting time on worthless activities. However, we aren't necessarily aligning our daily actions with our business goals. The fact that we are busy often convinces us that we are doing all that we can to be successful. But it isn't true.
Busyness often disguises other problems, like a lack of planning or discipline. To emphasize this point, Pam quotes Timothy Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Workweek. He argues that "being busy is a form of laziness--lazy thinking and indiscriminate action."
But laziness isn't always a bad thing. As Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone, explains, "elegance is putting in the least amount of energy for the greatest return." Many people are suspicious of a work smarter not harder philosophy. However, the fact is that some activities simply have more value and will provide a greater return on your investment than others. Stephen Covey calls these Quadrant II activities. They are important but they aren't urgent, so they often go undone. Here are a few activities that have a guaranteed payoff:
If you are still not convinced, I recommend Seth Godin's Do Less manifesto at ChangeThis.com
3. Procrastinate More
Pam cites wine guru and speaker, Gary Vaynerchuk, who exhorts his viewers to "stop doing what you hate!" Similarly, Marcus Buckingham argues that the most important thing to know about personal success is, “if you don’t like it, stop doing it.” I call this permanent procrastination and we'll discuss it more in tomorrow's post on energy management.
One way to stop doing the activities that you don't enjoy is to outsource them. Hire people with the skills, experience and interest in doing the things that you dislike. In doing so, you'll have more time and more energy for the work that you do best.
"I am a big fan of outsourcing anything in your life that is not a core strength or a joy to do. As long as you focus your freed-up time to generate more revenue or opportunities, it is a good trade."
For a very humorous discussion of outsourcing personal and business tasks, read AJ Jacobs' article, Outsourcing Life. He outsourced his worries to an assistant in India but did he go too far when he asked his virtual assistant to apologize to his wife for him?
In summary, Pam says, "I am convinced that truly successful people, those who enjoy every part of their life and have financial stability, are very picky about where they spend their time and energy. So prune relentlessly." I love this metaphor and recently suggested seven questions that will help you decide which activities need to be pruned.
The key lesson for Day Three is that you have the time to start your own business. You just need to eliminate activities that distract you or detract from your progress. Now that you have the time you need, on Day Four, we'll look at strategies for getting the energy that it takes to be an entrepreneur.
Do you like what you're reading? Do you want more? Get a free sample chapter from Pam's book. [No registration is required. The link opens directly into a PDF document.]
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