Supercharge Your Productivity: Master These 7 Time Management Skills for Authors, Speakers, Coaches, and Entrepreneurs
===
[00:00:00] I don't have enough time. If I had a doughnut for every person who'd ever said that to me, or for the number of times I've said it myself, I'd be so , fat and happy, you could roll me to work. But is it really true? Do we really not have enough time? Or is that just an excuse that we hide behind?
Let's discuss. [00:00:15] Welcome to the raw leader. My name is Simon. Simon Holly, my aim is [00:00:30] to help you get your message out by helping you speak, coach, write or lead with less stress, more clarity and greater impact. And today we are talking about supercharging your productivity, mastering the seven time management skills for authors, speakers, coaches, entrepreneurs to [00:00:45] help you get your message out.
So let's get started. What are the skills? Well, the first one is this is moving from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset is to embrace the belief that your abilities and skills can be developed. You know, when you adopt a growth mindset, it allows you to see challenges and [00:01:00] opportunities and grow. Rather than just get stuck.
One of the thought processes I've had to learn is to challenge myself whenever I think I can't to change that thought thought process to how can I and it is amazing how it changes your [00:01:15] thinking. You know, if you're an author, I can't write this book because of this or that or a coach, I can't start a business or I've got no time or to change that to how can I I had a profound moment a few years ago watching the movie My Left Foot.
It's a movie telling the story of [00:01:30] Christie Brown, a man who's crippled by cerebral palsy and brought up in immense poverty, but who went on to become a renowned painter by painting with his left foot. And it is so so provoking, you should watch it if you haven't seen it, it's incredibly moving. [00:01:45] The point is this, I get it.
I don't know your limitations. And you don't know mine. But I am challenged by Christie Brown to think is lack of time the real reason I'm not doing what I feel called to? Or is it a mindset thing? You know, for the years, I wanted to start a YouTube channel. And [00:02:00] I just I can't do that. I've not got the skill.
I've got the time how and it changed to how can I because I saw a guy I came in contact with a guy who's become a bit of a mentor of mine who runs two businesses. And those include two YouTube channels. And he does it in [00:02:15] less than five hours a week. And it changed everything. Suddenly I thought Well, maybe I can.
I mean, how can I? And it's been a massive learning journey. My, my goal is to get an episode written and recorded in an hour. I'm not there yet. But I'm thinking how can I what can I do to, to, [00:02:30] to, to achieve that goal. So the first skill is learning to change your mindset from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.
The second skill is to move from perfectionism to Pareto. What do I mean by that? Well, understanding this, perfectionism [00:02:45] is unattainable, and it hinders productivity, actually, because when it comes to, especially comes to creative works, but to be honest, to anything, but things like writing, speaking, producing, anything, perfectionism will just kill you.
We walked out of a [00:03:00] movie recently, which had a multi hundred million pound budget, I think it was two hundred million, June 2. My whole family loved it. Even my wife who hates sci fi loved it. I was like, it was okay. What's my point is it doesn't matter how much [00:03:15] time or energy you spend on something, there's always going to be someone who doesn't think it's perfect.
Perfectionism kills us because we're trying to obtain the unobtainable. Instead, we've got to be striving for continuous improvement and celebrating small victories along the way. And that's where the [00:03:30] Pareto principle comes in. I don't know if you've heard about that. It's basically this, for many outcomes, 80 percent of the consequences come from 20 percent of the causes.
So in our case, 80 percent of your impact as a writer, as a speaker, as an author, as [00:03:45] a coach, is going to come from 20 percent of your activity. So the reality is even if what you delivered was perfect, that extra 20 percent that you put in to make it perfect, which as we said already is impossible, but that extra 20 percent most likely won't [00:04:00] really add anything to your impact anyway.
So the question is where can you deliver and then improve? Where can you deliver them then improve? Now as an artist or an author, it's harder to do that, but it's a good rule of thumb. Is this extra 20 percent that I'm putting in [00:04:15] going to be noticed by anyone other than me and the tiny, tiny percentage of people?
If not, let's deliver it and move on to the next project. The third skill is from time spender to time investor, to view your time as a valuable resource to [00:04:30] invest wisely rather than something to be spent casually, to be intentional about how you allocate your time to prioritise tasks that align with your goals and align with your values.
It's to learn to think through what's your unique contribution? Where's your maximum [00:04:45] impact? And to invest your time in that rather than just to spend it. You know, I think really hard about the tasks that create multiplied effect. Things that if I do them once, then they keep on delivering. You know, if you write a book, that's hard work, but you do it once and that's a resource [00:05:00] forever.
Same with a training course or a YouTube video or a blog post. Same with training something, how to do something. In fact, more so, is there anything that you can do that you could invest time in training someone else that they could then take off you? That's incredible to think about that [00:05:15] as time investment.
It's such a skill, such a key skill to master. The next skill is from multitasking to raise a focus. We've, we've recognized haven't we, that multitasking can reduce efficiency and it leads to [00:05:30] basically lower quality work. We've got to cultivate the habit of focusing on one task at a time. Just because we can do multiple things doesn't mean to say we should.
In fact, actually what we've learned is you shouldn't. Dedicating your full attention and energy to the present [00:05:45] moment is so, so key. multitasking we all know is a is in particular a creative killer social media is killing us now you can't get rid of it very few meet people can totally come off social media some people do if you can probably a good idea but [00:06:00] if you can't get rid of it you've got to master it Be brutal, limit the number of platforms, get an app on your phone that limits it, get it off your laptop, leave your phone in a different room, create a screensaver that says no one will feel proud of how long they spent on Instagram at the end of their life or something, [00:06:15] do something to help you focus on the task at hand.
I don't know if you've heard of the Pomodoro technique. It's a brilliant technique if you've never heard of it. Basically, you set a 25 minute timer, and then you go hard at whatever you want to do for 25 minutes and you take a five minute [00:06:30] break. You do that four times, and then you have a 30 minute break.
So basically, after 150 minutes, you've done 100 minutes of focus work. That's 66%. It is insanely higher than most people and certainly most people who've got social media going on in the [00:06:45] background. The next skill is to move from disorganized to systematize. Anyone who knows me knows I love a good system.
If you want to manage your time well, you've got to learn to build systems, and that's not as hard as it sounds. When I show new authors that I coach [00:07:00] my task system, they're like, Oh, wow, gosh, is that simple? I'm not talking about complex systems. I'm talking about systems that actually work for you. So you've got to have a task system, whether it's paper or digital, I use to do this, which I absolutely love.
You get the free plans [00:07:15] good for most people. I think I have the business plan, but the free plan is good for most people. There's a link in the description. If you'd like to see the system I use and comment task system in the comments and I'll maybe create a video about that. You need a recording system, your brain is not meant to store information, it's meant to come [00:07:30] up with ideas.
So record ideas and thoughts and things that you want to refer back to create a system where you can get that stuff out of your head. I'll tell you, it makes such a difference to creativity. If you're not trying to hold things and remember things in your head. I use notion. It's an [00:07:45] amazing piece of software.
I love love notion. I used to use Evernote. I still use that a little bit. But notion is my kind of recording system. And again, there'll be a link in the. in the description on that. If you're watching on YouTube on the podcast, hop over to YouTube and also leave a like or a [00:08:00] subscribe while you're there.
You need an outlining system. Never write anything without first outlining it. You can check my free guide at the raw leader. com forward slash killer outline outlining saves you so much time. You need a production system some way to [00:08:15] get your stuff out there. You know, years ago, four years, I was stuck with all the complexity of finding a way of getting stuff out there.
And then I found Kajabi. And honestly, I haven't looked back, it manages everything from YouTube to the blog to the [00:08:30] podcast is so easy. You you can bolt together multiple systems, get it cheaper. But it is such a time waster. Kajabi just does the work for me. It saves me so much time, you can get a free trial of Kajabi plus a 45 minute coaching call with me can sign up at the rawleader.
com forward [00:08:45] slash Kajabi. And then lastly, you need an outsourcing system. There's so many ways to outsource things that you're either not good at, or you don't want to spend your time doing, whether it's friends or family, or there's websites like Fiverr or Upwork. You need systems. That's the [00:09:00] skill that you need to master.
If you want to manage your time from disorganized to systematized. The next skill is from time management to energy management. to shift your focus from managing your time to managing your energy levels. [00:09:15] Productivity is not solely determined by the number of hours worked, but also by your energy and focus during those hours, particularly your emotional and your creativity, your creative energy.
You know, for me, early morning is by far my most productive, and it took me years to [00:09:30] work it out. I often wake at 5am, sometimes earlier, and those two hours between 5 and 7, I used to just spend my time feeling grumpy that I wasn't asleep and scrolling through Instagram or Facebook or something. Then I realised, oh hang on, I feel so awake, I might as well use this time.[00:09:45]
And I realised I just could burn through things. I could burn through tasks so fast in that time. But then I thought, actually I'm also at my most creative, so now I use it as my creative time. Some of you are night owls. Your best [00:10:00] creativity and production actually is at night. I doubt many of us produce their best work after lunch.
So use that time for other things that take less emotional creativity, creative energy, the things that you've got to do in that time. My point is to know yourself and to maximize your [00:10:15] energy, your creative, your emotional, your physical, uh, energy, just some ideas and thoughts about that. So, so key to think about And the last skill is to move from reactive to productive.
to take control of your schedule and [00:10:30] become a productive person rather than a reactive person. When you're planning out a day or a week, anticipate distractions and plan your day to minimize those interruptions. Allow you to stay focused and keep your eye on your priorities. You know, some people actually say there's [00:10:45] no such thing as time management.
It's really about people management, yourself and the people around you. And I think there's a lot of truth in that. So much of our time is spent reacting to other people. And that's fine. And sometimes that's appropriate. Your kids or your spouse, your [00:11:00] work colleagues, we want to help people, but we also have to have guarded time also.
That's why it's not so much about time management. It's also about people management. Plan your week where your optimum creative time is guarded. Obviously, you know, if you've got real [00:11:15] emergency, your house is burning down and your child's really ill, that's one thing, but plan your week so that your optimum creative time is guarded.
And more often than that, Think about the fact that other people's emergencies are not always your emergencies, even though they want them to [00:11:30] be. That's a, that's a hard thought, isn't it? Other people's emergencies are not always your emergencies, even though they want them to be. Sometimes they are your emergencies also, and they should be, absolutely.
But sometimes they are not. And so knowing the difference between when somebody else's [00:11:45] emergency is actually my emergency is key to moving from being reactive to proactive. So I hope that was helpful. Seven essential time management skills for you to help get your message out. Don't forget if you want to build a platform to help do that, check out theroleader.
com [00:12:00] forward slash Kajabi and all the other links should be in the description. Thanks so much for joining me. [00:12:15]
