My Crazy Hectic Life & Business

Sometimes I admit I feel a bit alone… I drop my kids off at school, and watch the other moms.  Many of them are very clearly heading off for a leisurely coffee together.  (How you get invited to coffee dates like this, I still haven’t figured out.) Others, headed to a morning yoga class. Or just headed home to be with the younger kids. As I watch their, um, “pace”… there are days when I’m more than a bit confounded by it.

I mean, here’s a snapshot of my day:  430 AM wake up for writing time… before the house starts buzzing.  breakfast.  (omelets for my men and me, various requests from the girls) school clothes.  last minute homework fixes and signatures needed. daughters drum to the car.  figure out the most pressing question of the day:  who’s sitting up front?  three-city tour on the way to kids’ school.  drop kid one off.  drop kids 2 and 3 off. drive to office. make coffee.  get started.  work (largely) uninterrupted for about 6 hours and 20 minutes. pick kids 2 & 3 up from school.  pick kid one up from school.  three-city tour on the way home. answer next most pressing question of the day, which is asked EVERY DAY without fail:  can we go to 7-11?  No.  unload daughters drum from car.  remind kids to take all school stuff out of car and into their rooms.  forgot to plan dinner — again.  must start from scratch.  homework.  projects — which, incidentally are a teacher’s way of punishing parents. a jammed printer — which neighbor can we borrow a printed page from?  dinner.  homework.   bathtime — mine… its my favorite time of the day.  bedtime — for the kids.  leftover work to prepare for next day.  time with my mister.  total exhaustion. set alarm for next morning. good night. 

You get the picture, right?  And this doesn’t even BEGIN to capture the INSANITY of the kids’ sport schedules, or days when I’m traveling.  So, this — above — is one of my CALMEST days. So, what confounds me is how the women I see can move at such a seemingly leisurely pace.  And, there must be something about MY pace that confounds others.  Because I’m often — mainly by clients —  asked, “how do you get it all done?”

So, I want to answer that now… because how we manage, leverage and allow access to our TIME is directly and undeniably linked to our success and our bottom line.  

My TIME is a precious commodity…  is something I’m ruthlessly protective of… and is something I’ve grown increasingly (many may say unreasonably) resentful of people wasting, devaluing or assuming any sort of ownership over.  So, here’s my best synopsis of my time “rules” — as it pertains to business success and profitability.

1) Realize that HOW strategically and ruthlessly you protect, organize, leverage and invest your time  is directly tied to how profitable you will be.  Until you really truly grasp this, you’ll never reach your potential in this business of yours.  Here’s a fact that may just push you in the right direction:  You, me, Oprah and Trump all have the same number of hours in the day. How we use them, I’m guessing, vastly different.

2) Understand — and take to heart — that (just like your money) time spent HERE can not be spent THERE. This is what really got my attention and created my ruthless rally to develop integrity concerning my time.  You see, every business-related activity NOT completed at my office during school hours would have to be completed on my family time. Sounds like common sense, but when I really took it to heart, things changed for me.  You see, I’m largely unwilling to compromise precious time with my family for business.  So, yes… I’m unrelenting during my business hours.  I’m moving fast, overly-scheduled, and unapologetic when I have to say no.  (Or when I have to say, “no more.”) Because I realized that every YES came with a NO.  I began to ask, “If I say YES to this, what will I have to say NO to?”  This one question helped.

3)  If you are seriously committed to making money, and not just making friends, getting “out there” or  some other quasi-business goal, you’ll have to set work hours…. especially if you still work from home.  These are hours that you’ll commit to your business, protect, and plan for.

4) Have your Sunday Night Business meeting… every week.  Plan for your week.  Don’t “JUST” make a list of what must be done, but schedule those tasks and honor those appointments with yourself.  When you have an “appointment” (even with yourself) you tend to be less “available” for other time wasters. In other words, once you’ve said YES to “this”, it will become easier to say NO to “that.”

5) Know the difference between income=producing work and, well… everything else.  Be sure that you KNOW which of your activities are “income producing.” I see a GREAT DEAL of “busy work” being conducted by otherwise really smart business owners. We are not in an economy very forgiving of waste.  So know what you want, and what you must do to get it… eliminate the rest (without apology) and work your plan (without apology.)