Have a Meaningful Workday - Guide

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Welcome!First of all, a huge THANK YOU for purchasing this guide and taking this

next step in the wonderful journey called Your Life. It takes COURAGE to

take this first step and I admire you for doing it.

Taking the first step, taking action in general, is what differentiates highly

successful people from the rest. You’re already on you way to having a

meaningful workday!

Why have I created this guide?

We all have to work on a regular basis and it represents a large portion of

our days, weeks, and even our lives. Though life is not only about work,

work is an important part of our lives. Even though some of us are or will

be entrepreneurs, most of us will have some form of full-time job, which

means spending a certain number of hours in an office (or something

similar to an office if you work from home).

“Have a Meaningful Workday!” by Andrey Sergeyev 1

Actually, being an entrepreneur means having a workday, too, and it can be

even more challenging than being in the corporate world. I know that from

personal experience, having been on both sides (corporate executive and

entrepreneur).

Time is one of the constraints we all have, and one that most of us struggle

with. In the midst of this crazy and fast-changing world, I’m sure we’re all

asking ourselves the same questions:

• How can I achieve outstanding results without working extra hours

and without so much stress?

• Where do I get the extra time I need to accomplish everything I

want to at work, and also in my life apart from work?

• Will this sense of overload end one day?

• Is it possible to get all the things done that are scheduled in my

daytimer, and still enjoy life?

• How do I spend more quality time with my kids and family?

We all have these concerns about time, but I’m guessing that the real

reason you’re holding this guide is not about time management techniques

or tips on increasing productivity, though these are important. Your real

reason is something deeper, something different.

During my professional life I’ve met many people from different walks of

life and I’ve discovered that nearly everyone wants to create something

valuable, to contribute to their own life, to the lives of others, and to the

world in general to the degree they can, and to have those things that we

all want – happiness, health, friends, family, financial freedom, security,

peace of mind, hope.

INTRODUCTION

2“Have a Meaningful Workday!” by Andrey Sergeyev

We all want to know that what we do everyday is significant. That’s why

we want to have meaningful workdays, to know that these 8-10 hours we

spend each day are worth something, so that we can’t wait to go to work in

the morning.

In other words, if we know that what we do has meaning and creates value,

we enjoy doing it.

That’s why I firmly believe this is the real reason you’re holding this guide

– you have a deep desire to have more meaningful workdays, to enjoy what

you do at work and to achieve outstanding results.

And in the process – to achieve your goals and dreams in life faster, in

order to become all that you can be, do all you want to do, and have it all

happen faster. Ultimately the real reason is even beyond that – we all want

to have a meaningful LIFE, don’t we?

So if we have a meaningful day at work, what impact will it have on other

areas of life? On our relationships? On our happiness in general?

One of the keys to a meaningful workday is to be more productive, to take

our productivity and effectiveness to the next level. Managing our time at

work wisely is one of the most important aspects in this endeavor. Why?

Well, just imagine that you not only reach your goals and achieve expected

results at work, but you exceed them with less stress and fewer hours. How

would you feel? What impact would it have on your family life? What

impact would it have on your income? I bet you would experience a

tremendous lift in all areas of life, not just these.

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Meaningful: “Having a meaning or purpose. Having real

importance or value. Serious, important, worthwhile.”

INTRODUCTION

“Have a Meaningful Workday!” by Andrey Sergeyev

In addition to that, I can tell you from my experience as a senior executive

for almost two decades, that if your boss sees your efforts and the results

they’re producing, you’ll have a greater chance for promotion. Such things

are rare, so they get noticed, believe me.

But what is more valuable than reaching company goals and achieving

outstanding results, is who you become in the process. What you do and

what you achieve are important, but most important is the fact that you

made the decision to change the way you do things. That means you will

grow on your way to reaching your new goals.

Who YOU ARE lays a solid foundation for long term success, not only at

work but in all of life. When you reach goals, make progress, and

implement these principles, it reveals this strong foundation to those

around you: your boss, colleagues, clients, partners, family, friends and

YOU, yourself. Attitude, character, persistence, commitment, etc. – these

are the essentials of success in anything we do.

And...if you don’t get noticed in your existing workplace, don’t worry about

it. You WILL get noticed by someone outside. Since these qualities are rare

nowadays, people notice them, so implementing these principles makes

you more valuable in the marketplace.

You can BE, DO and HAVE anything realistic that you want. You can reach

the maximum you’re capable of. You also know that any dream or goal in

your life always requires time, and most of them require money. If you’re

doing better at work, you’ll reach your goals and dreams faster.

Don’t have dreams yet? No worries. Your first dream might be "having a

meaningful workday" :). Seriously.

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INTRODUCTION


I’ll do my best to guide you through some simple yet powerful principles

and practical steps so you can have outstanding results at work, whether

you run your own business or work for somebody else.

By helping you to be more effective, to achieve outstanding results at work

by having a meaningful workday, I hope to enable you to achieve your

dreams and goals in life faster. THAT is my ultimate purpose for creating

this guide for you.

What this guide will do for you

You will learn . . .

• What it takes to have a meaningful workday

• How to determine WHAT is THE MOST IMPORTANT and where to

focus your efforts

• HOW to PLAN TIME to get the most important things done, to

maximize results

• HOW to STAY FOCUSED on the most important in the midst of

distractions

. . . so you can achieve outstanding results at work with less stress and

fewer hours.

These strategies and practical tools derive from the successes and failures

in my personal and professional life, from almost 20 years of international

business experience from startups to helping build multi-million dollar

businesses. From being a senior executive and an entrepreneur. And, yes,

as a husband and the father of three wonderful kids. I’ve also observed that

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INTRODUCTION

Visit my blog Timewiser.com for more resources and tools

http://www.timewiser.com/?utm_source=HAMW&utm_medium=footer&utm_campaign=HAMW


the same principles have worked for many other people in various parts of

the world, as I’ve travelled for business and leisure in the USA, UK, Russia

and Europe.

Practically everything you find here has been personally tested by me, so I

can tell you what works and what doesn’t. I can guarantee you that if you

read and implement these principles and tools, you’ll experience

outstanding results this very month, and with some of the tools – this very

day. That’s IF you follow the principles and implement them.

They have worked for me, helping me build a successful life and achieve

outstanding results in business for many years, and they’ve worked for

many other people I know. They will work for you, too.

How to use this guide

This guide is full of practical advice. Almost each section has simple

assignments for you, so you can put these principles and tools into practice

right away in your own situation. Therefore I encourage you to have ready:

• Pen

• Notebook for notes

• Daytimer / personal planner / calendar

To work with this guide you basically have three options:

1) You might want to read the whole thing right away;

2) You might read one section, do the assignment and then continue to

the next section;

3) You might jump directly to the section you want to read first.

It’s up to you to choose the pace and sequence. Enjoy!

6

INTRODUCTION


Any questions?

If you have questions or comments or if I can be helpful in any way – reach

out to me via social media or by email. I’ll be happy to help.

Visit my personal website:

www.AndreySergeyev.com

Visit one of my blogs:

www.timewiser.com

Connect with me on social media:

Twitter.com/AndreySergeyev

LinkedIn.com/in/AndreySergeyev

7

Andrey Sergeyev is an Entrepreneur, Digital

Business & Leadership Expert, Motivational

Speaker, Author and Ziglar Legacy Certified Trainer

with almost 20 years of unique international

business experience from startups to helping build

multi-million dollar businesses.

INTRODUCTION


Currently Andrey speaks at various conferences, start-up and corporate

events, and lead workshops around the world on topics of Personal

Effectiveness, Leadership in the Digital Future and Digital Transformation

& Strategy. He also enjoys to advise and train senior executives, business

leaders and entrepreneurs from different industries in Europe, Russia and

the USA on leadership, improving business results and building competitive

business in the Digital Age.

http://www.andreysergeyev.com


http://www.timewiser.com


http://Twitter.com/AndreySergeyev


http://LinkedIn.com/in/AndreySergeyev


Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1

CHAPTER 1 - The Only Key You Need To Master ........................................ 10

CHAPTER 2 - How To Determine What Is The Most Important ............... 21

I. Why do you do what you do? ......................................................... 22

1. Defining your “Why” at work ........................................... 26

2. Defining your personal goals for work/business ............ 28

II. Know your goals and results: what is expected of you at work? .............................................................................................. 32

How do we set specific goals? ............................................... 35

Examples of measurable goals ............................................. 44

III. The most effective activities to get you to your goalsand results faster ......................................................................... 47

Introducing the 20/80 rule .................................................... 49

CHAPTER 3 - How To Plan Time To Get The Most Important Things Done ........................................................................................ 60

I. Where to spend our time – 4 types of tasks ................................ 61

How do you choose between equal priorities? .................... 70

II. Actual scheduling – When and How ........................................... 75

III. How to maximize results during the day .................................. 87

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INTRODUCTION


Table of Contents - continued

CHAPTER 4 - How To Stay Focused On The Most Important .................. 99

I. Removing digital distractions ...................................................... 100

II. Eliminating meetings .................................................................. 104

III. Learning to say NO ..................................................................... 108

1. Here are 3 simple tips for saying “No” ........................... 110

2. How to say “No” to your Boss ......................................... 113

IV. Working with email effectively and efficiently ........................ 116

1. General principles – when to use emailand when not to ................................................................. 117

2. Checking email .................................................................. 121

3. Reducing the number of incoming emails ..................... 123

4. Processing emails efficiently ........................................... 128

5. Writing effective emails and replying efficiently .......... 132

CHAPTER 5 - Taking Action ....................................................................... 136

I. Fundamental principles ................................................................ 137

II. One quick, but effective thing to do TODAY .............................. 142

Chapter 6 - BONUS: 15.5 Additional Tips To Boost Productivity ............ 143

CONTACTS ...................................................................................................... 152

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INTRODUCTION


Life consists of many important segments – Family, Personal, Career,

Relationships, Finances, Mental, Spiritual, Physical. Work is just one area –

a very important one, but not THE most important and definitely not the

only one. All areas are important to overall success in life, and they’re all

interconnected. Failure in one area affects other areas, success in one area

affects others as well.

We all have 24 hours in a day to spread among these various segments of

life. Actually we have less than 24 hours, as we also need to sleep for 6-8

hours, don’t we? Time is the one constraint we all have and once gone, it

cannot be recovered.

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“Your =me is Your life. Do not waste either of them.”

– Andrey Sergeyev


If we aim to be successful long-term, we need to balance all of these

segments. Since we have a limited number of hours, the only way to do it is

to squeeze everything we have planned, into these 24 hours, so we need to

do things more efficiently, faster, smarter, right? Wrong!

I don’t know about you, but when I was in my early twenties, I thought I

could stretch time and make a lot happen. For some reason back then, time

seemed to contain more hours and the days were longer :). So, I tried to get

a lot of things done during the workday, some in the evening after work,

then go to sleep late and still wake up early – in order to fit all my

important activities into the day: prospecting, selling, time at the gym,

time with family and friends, hobbies, self-education, etc.

This schedule seemed to work for awhile, but since my body didn’t get

enough rest for several days, I was exhausted by the end of the week and

not able to accomplish all I had planned. And still there was the feeling that

the time was wasted, not spent wisely.

A good friend of mine explained one vital principle to me that has helped

me over the years to understand how to be more effective and to have less

stressful days, and at the same time to know that the important and

meaningful things are taken care of.

He said,

“You simply CANNOT do everything and you DO NOT HAVE TO get

everything done. There will always be more things to spend time on than we

have time to spend. You need to determine what to spend it on in order to

achieve outstanding results.”

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CHAPTER 1 - The Only Key You Need To Master

Visit AndreySergeyev.com for speaking and consulting opportunities

http://www.andreysergeyev.com/?utm_source=HAMW&utm_medium=footer&utm_campaign=HAMW


The Only KeyThe key to success in life and at work is NOT to get all the things on your

to-do list done, but to get the MOST IMPORTANT and MOST MEANINGFUL

things done. Yes, I’ll say it one more time – you do not have to get all the

things on your to-do list done, ever!

If we’re going to achieve all that we want to become, to do and to have, and

achieve long-term success in life and business, we actually need to

understand and learn to apply only ONE simple, yet profound principle.

Yes, only one. Not two, three or 10. Only one. I like simplicity. You don’t

have to do all the things you have on your plate. It’s not about fitting more

things into a day, but about doing those things that really matter.

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In other words, the key to a meaningful workday and to long-term success

in general is to FOCUS ON THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS. That applies

whatever you do, wherever you are, and whoever you are.

If we’re serious about life, about success in all areas, about enjoying a

meaningful life and leaving a lasting legacy, this is the only way to live and

work. I don’t see any other alternative.

Only by focusing on the most important things can we spend our time and

life wisely, become the best we can be, and positively impact others for

centuries.

“If you want your life and work to be meaningful, then focus on

the things that maFer most and spend your =me, efforts and resources on those things that ARE meaningful.”



Just imagine if you spent most of your days doing only the most important

and meaningful things.

How would you feel?

How would that improve various areas of your life?

What results would you achieve at work or in business?

How would that help you to become the best you can be and achieve your

dreams and goals in life?

This simple, yet profound principle has a direct impact on the level of

greatness we can achieve at work and in life.

I’ve been using this principle for more than a decade now and I’ve seen it

working for many other people as well – from secretaries to CEOs of big

corporations.

The Reason – Unlimited opportunities vs Limited resources

The main reason this ONE key principle to be true is that there will always

be “Unlimited opportunities, but Limited resources”. To illustrate this

principle, lets compare time with money.

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“Concentrate on the few things that will produce the greatest

results. Force yourself to set priori=es. Do first things first – and second things not at all.” – Peter F. Drucker

In his famous book, The Effective Executive, the father of modern

management, Peter F. Drucker, gives five vital principles of effectiveness.

One of his most important points is this:



Time is like money

Time is like money in two ways:

• There is always a limited amount of money available, to be used

against an unlimited number of choices. Even if you had all the

money that Bill Gates has, there would still be things you might

want but could not afford: countries, planets :).

• If you want to enjoy life without debt, then money needs to be

planned, because of the basic principle – its amount will always be

limited, while opportunities to spend it will always be essentially

unlimited.

Because this is true, we must have clear priorities to determine what to

spend our money on and how we will use it.

One of the ways we set these priorities is to use a budget.

Obligatory vs optional expenses

As you know, a budget is “a document used to project future income and

expenses”. Expenses are divided into two groups: obligatory expenses

(things we must have or must pay for) and optional expenses (things we

wish to have). At the simplest level, the budgeting process looks like this:

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Obligatory expenses are those things we absolutely must have to sustain

life, or that we are required to pay for: debts we owe, housing, utilities,

taxes, food, transportation, maybe savings for the future. The rest is

optional. That’s right – the Internet and mobile communications are not

obligatory :). (Unless you need it to make a living by working from home.)

Let’s look at a classic, modern-day example.

If I don’t pay for my apartment or food on time (obligatory expenses), but

instead buy a new smartphone which I can’t really afford this month, I can

expect to experience problems in both the short-term and long-term.

Everything costs something. Every choice we make, costs us all the other

choices we could have made.

Successful people understand that every decision has long-term and short-

term considerations, so we need to learn to delay immediate gratification

(“I want it now”, i.e. short-term) so we can enjoy more good things in the

future (“I’ll have it later and enjoy greater benefits”, i.e. long-term).

In reality, budgeting money is not about the amount of money we have, but

about self-discipline and character (i.e. the discipline to spend less than we

earn and to save regularly, and the character to recognize that what we owe

belongs to the other person, not us). These are absolute essentials for long-

term success.

So...with money we need to budget obligatory expenses first and only then,

IF something is left, we can spend it on things we want to have.

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“Budgeting” our time

The same principles apply with regard to time, except that with time, we

cannot earn more or save it.

So our total “income” will always be 24 hours in a day, and “expenses”

will be what we spend that time on. Therefore, the first thing we need to do

when planning our time is to get the most important and obligatory things

into the “budget” and only then can we use what is left for other things,

the less important things.

Later on we’ll look at some specific ways to determine WHAT is the most

important, i.e. what our “obligatory expenses” are for time – where our

time and energy should be focused, first of all. The main point here is that

there will always be more things to spend our time on, than we will have

time for.

Putting this ONE principle into practice

In order to apply this vital principle, we must FOCUS ON THE MOST

IMPORTANT AND MEANINGFUL THINGS at work. To plan our time

effectively and achieve outstanding results, we need to understand 3 things

now:

1. How to determine WHAT is the most important and where to focus

our efforts

2. HOW to PLAN TIME to get the most important things done and to

maximize results

3. HOW to STAY FOCUSED on the most important in the midst of

distractions

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QUICK FIX #1

Limit Your Workday

One of the things I encourage you to decide on right now is: how many

hours per day, how many hours per week, you’ll work.

Yes, you’re reading me right :). As we just discussed, there will always be

more opportunities to work, to spend our time, than we have time for.

You’ve heard this saying – there will always be more work to be done. If

we wanted to work 24 hours a day, there would always be enough work,

and it would never end.

So we need to make a deliberate choice to limit our workday. As we’ve

already said, work is just one area of life, an important one, but not THE

most important. There are more important things in life, and if we want

to live a balanced life, we need to balance the amount of time and energy

we spend on certain things in certain areas. We absolutely must limit our

workday.

Do you have kids or grandkids? If we want to leave a legacy, than in

reality, the next generation is our most important work. Have you really

thought about that? Who and what they will become, depends on us as

parents or grandparents. If we really love and care about them and their

future, then we will parent them with purpose. It requires not only

quality time but quantity time with them. You have heard that kids spell

love t-i-m-e. This is true. We need to spend time with them while

they’re with us. But how can we do it if we work all the time???

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in the past was not spending

enough time with my kids at critical points in their lives.

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QUICK FIX #2.Ask your boss about your team’s and/or company’s “Why”

We will look at each section in detail in the next chapters. But before we

jump into it, here is my first QUICK FIX for you.



QUICK FIX #1 - continued

Limit Your Workday

I was spending too much time pursuing success in the business world,

and as a result, we are all experiencing some consequences now. Some

opportunities might never be recovered, unfortunately. One day I realized,

“Here I am: helping build multi-million dollar businesses, leading others

to change their lives, but missing precious time with my own kids . . . Am

I really successful? What do my schedule and actions really say to my

kids? Is the cost really worth it?” Thank God that I realized it when I did,

and have been able to recover a lot of what we had missed. That’s why I

encourage you – don’t repeat my mistakes. If you feel that you’re off

track here, change your course NOW. Remember, every choice you make

costs you something. You pay for too much time at work by having less

time with your family and loved ones, by having less impact on their

future, by having more stress, worse health, etc.

I encourage you to decide NOW how many hours you’ll work. Once you do

it intentionally, you have a better chance of following through on your

commitment. Some days, it might be difficult to stay on course, but if

you’ve made the decision, you’ll be aware that you’re violating it, and it

will be easier to re-adjust your schedule quickly to get back on track.

And let me point out an additional benefit – limiting your workday will

force you to set priorities so you can focus on the most important things

you need to accomplish during those hours. You WILL have better results

and boosted self-confidence, guaranteed. Remember your last vacation

and the day before that at work? What usually happens is that we plan

that final workday the previous evening, so we know exactly what tasks

to tackle first in order to get everything done. We work hard, protecting

our time and moving fast. We accomplish more in that one day than we

probably do during most entire weeks. Isn’t it amazing? This shows the

power of having limited time and strict deadlines.

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TO-DO #1

Limit Your Workday This Week

Start small and write your commitment down. For example:

“This week I’ll finish 2 days at 5:30 or 6 p.m. max. And I will not

work on weekends.”

Next week you can extend the number of days to 3, thus making sure you

do the right thing and at the same time have flexibility during the week.

Mark this in your calendar.

I, ___________________________________________

(write your name)

made a decision today ______________________________

(date)

to work _______ hours per week, because:

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

Even if you’re experiencing a lot of pressure at work right now, the

principle is still valid. You may have to devote the necessary hours to

resolving the situation by working extra time. The main principle here,

though, is – working unlimited time or after-hours should be the

exception to the rule, not the rule. And you would need a plan anyway –

how to deal with the crisis now, and how to avoid it in the future.

NB! If you’re in a financial crisis and you need to work overtime or work

several jobs to provide for your family, these principles will still work for

you. Several times I’ve been in situations where we simply did not have

19



TO-DO #1 - continued

Limit Your Workday This Week

enough money. In such situations the need is even greater to focus on the

most important things at work to get better results and resolve the

financial crisis faster, but also, the added stress makes it doubly

important to have the rest we need to renew our energy (which happens

by doing the most important things when we’re off work). So, you might

work extra hours, but make sure you plan in time for rest and for

planning the necessary steps of how to get out of this crisis.

Even small steps in the direction of limiting your workday or even finding

another job that will allow that, will make a big difference in the long

run. Ultimately, it’s a matter of attitude and choice, not circumstances.

20





Before we start doing things, we need to actually understand where we

going and what specific steps will take us there. Only then we can start

doing. Isn’t that a simple and logical approach? We all know it, but for

some reason we want to do things right away without spending much time

clarifying the goal and the process, because many of us are doers and we

love to do things. But wouldn’t it be better if we did things that were

meaningful, not just anything that comes along? Of course it would. But

this requires devoting time to planning, to determining what is the most

important, and where to focus our efforts.

Three questions will help you define what is the most important:

I. Why do you do what you do (the motivation, personal goals)?

II. What is expected of you at work - goals and results (where are you

going)?

III. What are the most effective activities that will get you to your goals

and results faster?


If you’re reading this guide, then we have something in common. We want

to have a meaningful workday, a meaningful life. We want that large

portion of our life that we spend at work to produce something that brings

satisfaction to us and enriches the lives of other people.

Well, it all starts with a simple, yet very deep question: “Why?” It applies

to our work, our projects, our businesses, our lives. “Why do we do what

we do?” It’s one of the most powerful questions we can ask ourselves, our

team, our family. In the answer we find meaning. It serves as a guiding

light to everything we do, determining our priorities, focusing our

attention and energy.

Many organizations today have mission statements to answer this

question. True, not every company lives it out and sometimes even the

executives don’t remember what it says :), but my point is this – if

companies have it and consider it one of the most important aspects of

their organization, then teams and individuals should have it too!

Would you rather come to work for a paycheck or to help build a dream?

Would you rather come to work to sell products or to help clients solve their

problems in a particular area and make them happy?

Wouldn’t you rather have a meaningful workday, knowing that what you do

is really significant, so that you can’t wait to go to work in the morning?

It all starts with “Why”. Let me tell you an amazing story.

I. Why do you do what you do?

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CHAPTER 2 - How To Determine What Is The Most Important


One year just before Christmas I was sitting alone at a table in the large

cafeteria at my client’s corporate headquarters, late in the day. Two

workers were decorating the entire room with Christmas lights, hanging

them high up at the ceiling. It was just an ordinary day, but something

interesting happened when one of them asked me to move a bit, as they

needed to cover the area right above the table I was at.

They looked exhausted as they approached my table. No wonder, I thought,

as this task is not an easy one even for two strong men – the room is just

huge. So I asked them, “What are you doing?” “Well, we’ve been hanging

these decorations all day long and we need to finish today,” one of them

answered.

At that moment it struck me – no, they were not just hanging decorations,

they were doing something bigger and more meaningful than that. So I

responded, “Actually I don’t think you’re just hanging the decorations, I

think you’re CREATING A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS ATMOSPHERE for all

people who work here. Isn’t that true?”

They looked puzzled at first, but in a few seconds if you could just see what

I saw in their eyes – it seemed as if the lights were turned on and their

faces lit up. Probably for the first time these men felt a sense of purpose in

what they were doing. Now this “long-hard-day-doing-something” had

meaning, and this new sense of purpose changed their motivation for their

task, and I believe even beyond that. The rest of the room was finished at a

different speed and quality, to their apparent surprise. But most

importantly, it was finished with a different attitude and approach.

How oNen are we all running around in life and business talking

mostly about WHAT and HOW, but forgeRng the most important ques=on – WHY?

23



Why are YOU doing what you’re doing in your work or in business?

What personal GOALS do you have for your work or business? I.e. HOW this

work or business will help you to reach your life goals and dreams?

As I travel around the world and work with various people from different

walks of life, I have been surprised by how few of them have ever actually

asked themselves this question: “Why do I do what I do?” Yet it’s one of

the most important questions ever, not only at work, but in life!

No wonder so many people are stressed out and tired of coming to work,

tired of working long hours, of not feeling productive, of not being satisfied

with their lives. No wonder executives and businesses are not producing

expected results, as the foundational question is rarely asked and thus

rarely answered, leading to lowered effectiveness because efforts are not

focused.

I spent many years in that situation and I know how it feels – either

drifting through boring days or taking on a lot of interesting things

without first identifying the reason behind it. I was in my mid-twenties

before I learned the importance of clarifying the answer to “Why” and it

took several more years to really nail it down, to get it on paper and make

it my driving force. Even though it somehow was in my heart already and

affected most of my decisions, it didn’t have that driving force until I put it

on paper. So it’s ok if you don’t have it clarified at this point. It takes time.

The truth is, if you do have it – you’ll be among the handful of people in

the world who has identified it, so you’ll be laying a really strong

foundation for your long-term success and for outstanding results from

your efforts.

24



If you have never answered this question for yourself, or have never

written your personal mission statement out clearly on paper, then let me

help you to be among those who have nailed it down.

You can do it right now, or devote some time to it during the next few

weeks or months. Don’t stress about it. It’s up to you. It will take some

time, but it’s worth it and the main point is that you start working on it.

You can always come back and modify it as you grow. But one thing I

definitely promise you – your work and life will take on a different hue.

Especially when you start seeing your work/business as a vehicle to

achieving your life dreams and goals.

Some examples:

1. My mission statement in my professional life: “To inspire and

enable people – to dream big, to get outstanding results and to achieve

long-term success in life and business in the Digital Age.”

2. Secretary: “To help everyone entering our office to feel welcome and

special and to help my boss and colleagues to do their work better.”

3. Social media manager: “To help existing clients feel special and to

solve their problems fast.”

4. Sales person of financial management software: “To improve the

lives of my clients by making it easier for them to keep their finances

organized.”

25





TO-DO #2

Defining Your “Why” At Work

1) Why do you do what you do at your work?

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

2) Who is your main customer (inside the organization, and outside it)?

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

3) What value do you provide them?

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

4) What makes your heart sing at work?

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

5) What do you personally gain by making it happen everyday (in light of

your life dreams and goals)?

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

Your “Why”: ____________________________________

26

1. Defining your “Why” at work



QUICK FIX #2

Ask Your Boss About Your Team’s and/or Company’s “Why”

One of the quickest things that can help you define your own mission at

work is to refer to your company’s and team’s mission statements. Even

if they don’t exist or are not clear, you can still talk to your boss about it

and get him/her to explain it in their own words.

Also, ask your boss,

“What value do you expect me to bring to our clients and

organization by fulfilling my responsibilities?”

The answer will provide enough information for you to know how to

direct your efforts, and simply asking the question will show your boss

that you care. From my experience, you almost always will get some kind

of response from your boss, even if it’s not a perfect one. In case you

don’t hear from your boss, it’s still ok – define your mission yourself

using the previous steps.

27




28

2. Defining your personal goals for work/business

If we have a deep sense of purpose, then coming to work every day,

including our motivation and results, will be much, much better. This

sense of purpose comes not only from answering the “Why” question, but

also from having personal goals for the work we do – what we want to

achieve in our particular organization, in our career, business, what we

want to become, to do, to have, as a result of performing at our maximum.

It’s important that you define your PERSONAL goal for what you do at work

and how reaching this personal goal can help you to reach your life goals.

In combination, this sense of purpose and personal goal provide the

necessary motivation, the powerful drive and the direction for our daily

work, and contribute greatly to having a meaningful workday, even if there

are things we don’t like about where we work.

Just imagine, if you know everyday WHY you’re doing all these things (the

reason, the motivation) and know WHAT you need to do to achieve the

personal goal you set for work (more managerial/leadership

responsibilities, other responsibilities in areas of interest, X% higher pay,

etc.), and then you achieve more than your boss is expecting from you –

would that not be an awesome day, week, month, year? Would that not be a

really meaningful workday, leading to a deeper sense of satisfaction in life

in general?

So let’s define your personal goal for work.

For setting any goal, I like to use the 7–Step formula of my legendary

mentor, Zig Ziglar (www.ziglar.com).



http://www.ziglar.com

http://www.ziglar.com

TO-DO #3

Defining Your Personal Goals For Work/Business

Zig Ziglar’s 7-Step Formula

Write down everything you want to achieve in your career, in this

particular organization, business, what and who you want to become, to

do, to have, as a result of performing at your maximum. Dream about it.

You might have several goals.

STEP 1: Identify your goal

____________________________________________

STEP 2: My Benefits From Reaching This Goal

____________________________________________

STEP 3: Major Obstacles and Mountains to Climb to Reach This Goal

____________________________________________

STEP 4: Skills or Knowledge Required to Reach This Goal

____________________________________________

STEP 5: Individuals, Groups, Companies & Organizations to Work With to

Reach This Goal

____________________________________________

STEP 6: Plan of Action to Reach This Goal

____________________________________________

My first ONE action step this week.

____________________________________________

STEP 7: Completion Date

____________________________________________

29




Defining Your Personal Goals For Work/Business

EXAMPLE

STEP 1: Identify your goal

To earn additional 1000 USD / month

STEP 2: My Benefits From Reaching This Goal

Provide more for my family; Enhance sense of accomplishment; Increase

happiness-confidence; More stable marriage; More old age security;

Additional recreation opportunities for kids and family; We will build our

new house faster.

STEP 3: Major Obstacles and Mountains to Climb to Reach This Goal

Heavy workload; Lack of confidence; Poor money management; Limited

work experience.

STEP 4: Skills or Knowledge Required to Reach This Goal

Money management; Time management; Inspirational reading; Discover

ways to grow as a leader; Learn about passive income opportunities.

STEP 5: Individuals, Groups, Companies & Organizations to Work With

to Reach This Goal

Family, Boss, Mentor, Two best friends, Professional Association.

STEP 6: Plan of Action to Reach This Goal

Discuss career opportunities with my boss; Talk to my friend John about

his experience with additional income; Read books daily on time

management and leadership; Establish and control budget;

My first ONE action step this week: Schedule a meeting with my boss to

discuss potential income increase and career opportunities.

STEP 7: Completion Date - Within the next 6 months by Dec, 31.

30





Based on your action plan for these goals, what do you need to integrate

into each day to develop the skills, knowledge, attitude necessary to reach

the goals? Do you need to read books, or listen to podcasts on your way to

work? Do you need to give more positive affirmations to yourself and

others around you? Watch inspirational videos in your idea time between

meetings?

Figure out what works best for you and start today, even if it’s something

small.

31



We all have to deal with different projects at work on a regular basis. Our

decisions about where to focus our efforts and spend our time depend a lot

on our goals – for a particular project, the business, or some initiative.

Having a clear goal is the first thing we need to get any project or business

started.

During my many years of working with different types of organizations,

from corporations to startups, I’ve often witnessed situations where teams

start to discuss the activities a project will require BEFORE stating and

clarifying the goal of the project itself. It’s so easy to get carried away with

creative ideas and actual implementation, that we often forget that

successful implementation is directly connected to a specific goal.

“What do I / we want to achieve, and why?” should be the basis

for the next steps and the implementa=on plan, not vice versa. It also serves as a clear benchmarking tool to see if achieved

results are sa=sfactory or not.

II. Know your goals and results: what is expected of you at work?

32

CHAPTER 2 - How To Determine What Is The Most Important:



going)?

III. What are the most effective activities that will get you to your goals and

results faster?



Just recently I observed a illustration of this in a client’s team where they

sat down to discuss the functionality of a new product. As the discussion

progressed, new ideas started to flood the table and the list of “must be

implemented” items started to grow.

About 30 minutes into the conversation, one of the team members

suddenly paused and said, “Folks, let’s not forget about the initial goal of

this product, because now it sounds like we want every possible feature to

be included.” He was right, and his comment helped the team regain its

focus on “Why” and the “Initial goal”, and cut out some ideas that were

not really important to reaching the initial goal.

Do we need to set goals at all?

My opinion – absolutely! Otherwise, how would you:

• know where to go, at all?

• tell if your achieved result is good or not, if you haven’t set a

specific and measurable goal beforehand?

• provide feedback to your colleagues or employees, if they don’t

understand clearly what is expected?

When asked about the necessity to set goals, I always recall a story from

the book Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, when Alice meets the Cat and

asks him about which road to choose:

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where–” said Alice.

33



“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

“–so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.

“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll get somewhere, but it might

not be where you’d like to be. Goals are like your GPS, helping to navigate

in the world of complexity, distractions and daily challenges.

Studies also have shown that specific and ambitious goals lead to a higher

level of performance than easy or general goals.

Once we start to concentrate on a specific goal, our efforts become focused

and aligned with the goal, which means we don’t waste time on

unimportant activities that don’t contribute to reaching this important

goal. It also helps other team members understand expectations and have

clear measurement criteria, reducing the possibility of personal

interpretations.

REMEMBER THIS: Focus on the most important things.

And goals at work are the second vital element in determining What is The

Most Important (after “Why I do what I do”).

34



How do we set specific goals?

You have only 2 options here, if you work for somebody else:

1) Ask your boss, OR

2) Set goals yourself and then talk to your boss about them.

And you have only 1 option, if you work for yourself:

1) Set goals yourself

If you already know your goals, please go to section “3. Make goals

S.M.A.R.T.”

If you don’t know your goals at this point or they are unclear or there are

too many of them, don’t worry – the majority of successful people started

exactly where you are now.

Actually, about 70% of organizations and businesses in the world don’t

have clear goals and objectives. Unfortunately. So, you’re not alone, but

this is why you’re here – you want to change that and change your future. I

am glad you’re here. This is a sign of proactivity – taking complete

responsibility for your actions and your future.

35





Where do you start?

1. Ask your boss, if you work for somebody else

Sometimes the easiest way to understand what is expected of you is to ask

your boss. This is logical because your boss is the one who expects results

from you and expects that you won’t waste time at work. There is a chance

that he/she doesn’t know what goals they have for you, as they might not

have clear goals of their own, BUT here are two powerful questions you ask

them anyway:

1.1. Powerful questions

Powerful question #1:

“What is YOUR ONE most important goal/thing you need to be

working on for the next 3-12 months? i.e. The ONE goal that must

be achieved, or nothing else you achieve really matters much.”

Anybody can instantly answer this question when asked about only

one thing. Just think about it. If I were to ask you this question right

now about your work or any other area of your life – you could provide

an answer in a matter of seconds, couldn’t you? That is the power of

focus.

The answer to this question helps you understand the challenges your

boss has, and it’s important that you understand them, since it is very

likely that in the near future, those same challenges and goals will

become yours or your team’s.

Your boss might even share some other important things as well, and

tell you why, etc.

36



Powerful question #2:

“Then what is MY ONE most important goal/thing that you expect

me to be focusing on for the next 3-12 months? i.e. The ONE goal

that must be achieved, or nothing else I achieve really matters

much.”

The same principle applies now to your boss’s expectations about your

goals, responsibilities, etc. This question he/she can easily answer,

too, even if they could not put it on paper or communicate it clearly

before. You might actually get 2 or 3 goals from him/her.

Now, do you see what just happened? You just clarified your final

destination at work for the next 3-12 months, your goals, directly from

your boss! No guessing, no complexity. It works, trust me. I’ve been on

both sides of the table. And having been in management for most of

my working life, I can tell you that it’s the quickest way to get noticed

and for you to grow as an employee.

Benefits of talking to your boss:

1) You will have clarity about what is expected

2) You will experience less stress and have more time for the most

important things, as you’ll be able to focus better now and to say NO

even to your boss (we will discuss “how” in a later section, “Learning

to say No”)

3) It will be easier to track progress and results

4) Your credibility will grow, as not many in the organization really

care about these type of things, and higher credibility in turn leads to

greater chances of promotion

37



TO-DO #4

Schedule Time With Your Boss This Week

When:

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

If for some reason you cannot do this right now, or you want a slightly

different approach, then go to next step “2. Set goals yourself and talk to

your boss”.

38



1.2. Limit the number of most important goals to two

Oh, yes – limit the number of goals to a maximum of two for a certain

period of time. One is even better :). To be able to focus on the most

important things, you need to FOCUS :). Your chances of reaching

many goals at the same time decrease as the number of goals increase.

If you just have one goal, your chances of reaching it are close to

100%, because you have a clear focus and all your resources and

energy can be directed toward this specific goal.

The fewer the number of goals, the better and faster the results. This

idea contradicts what most of us experience at work, but this is what

the most successful people and businesses do – they simplify and focus.

This becomes even more vital in the Digital Age, where technologies

have changed the way we live and do business, so speed, focus and

simplicity are MUSTs for staying competitive.

39

QUICK FIX #3

Limit Number Of Goals

If you have more than 2 goals from your boss, see if you can still

determine which 2 are the most important ones by asking the questions

above and then asking:

“Among all these important goals, which 1 or 2 are the most

important ones to tackle first?”




2. Set goals yourself and talk to boss (if you work for

somebody else)

If you work for yourself, or if for some reason you cannot talk to your boss

right now, or if you want a slightly different approach, then you might

want to do some preparation and set goals yourself first, and only then talk

to your boss. Here are the steps:

2.1. List everything

Find a quiet place where you can concentrate (conference room,

outside the office, etc.) and write down ALL the tasks, activities,

projects, goals, large and tiny to-do’s, which require your attention for

the next 1-12 months.

This approach is really helpful, especially in situations where you feel

overwhelmed and stressed out. Anxiety usually rises when we feel

we’re not in control of what is going on. Making such a list has helped

me in similar situations to regain my focus and minimize my stress.

_________________________________________

_________________________________________

_________________________________________

_________________________________________

_________________________________________

_________________________________________

40





2.2. Choose 1-2 most important goals/tasks/projects from that list

Now, based on what you know already and what has been discussed in

the company or with your boss, ask yourself these questions about

everything on the list:

• What is MY ONE most important goal/thing I need to be focusing

on for the next 3-12 months? i.e. The one goal that must be

achieved, or nothing else I achieve really matters much.

• What are MY TWO most important goals I need to be focusing on

for the next 3-12 months?

Now choose from the list 1-2 that you think are the ones you should be

focusing on.

Or you may just ASK these two questions above without listing

everything (step 2.1), since there is a good chance that you already

know what these 1-2 goals are.

Examples:

Goal 1: Increase number of purchases for Product A.

Goal 2: Launch redesigned corporate website.

Goal 3: Automate and optimize processes in Customer Service

Department to decrease the number of unanswered calls and emails.

Now that you either have your goals from your boss or you have set them

yourself, you need to convert general goals to specific and measurable ones.

41



3. Make your goals S.M.A.R.T.

Evaluate your most important goals using the S.M.A.R.T. approach and

convert general goals to specific ones, if necessary.

I like the S.M.A.R.T. approach to setting goals, since it’s easy to remember

and it contains the essence of the goal setting process.

Specific

For goals to be specific, they must tell you or a team exactly what is

expected, why is it important, who’s involved, where it’s going to happen

and which attributes are important.

Measurable

If a goal is not measurable, it’s not possible to know whether you’re

making progress toward successful completion. A measurable goal will

usually answer questions such as:

• How much?

• How many?

• How will I know when it’s accomplished?

Attainable

Goals should be realistic, but ambitious enough to stretch you a bit. If the

goal is ambitious, but not realistic – it demotivates. The theory is that a

challenging but attainable goal causes goal-setters to identify previously

overlooked opportunities that will bring them closer to achieving the goal.

42



Relevant

A relevant goal is one that supports or is in alignment with other larger

goals. A relevant goal can answer “yes” to these questions:

• Does this seem worthwhile?

• Is this the right time?

• Does this match our other efforts/needs?

• Are you the right person?

Time-bound

A goal should have a specific date. A commitment to a deadline helps you

and the team focus efforts on completion of the goal on or before the due

date.

A time-bound goal will usually answer the question:

• When?

• What can I / we do within the next six months?

• What can I / we do within the next six weeks?

• What can I / we do today?

You can read more about this approach in the book by Paul J. Meyer

“Attitude is Everything”.

43



Examples of measurable goals:

Example 1:

Not measurable: Increase awareness of Product B.

Measurable: Increase awareness of Product B from 10% to 25% among

25-35 year old women by the end of this year.

Example 2:

Not measurable: Increase number of purchases for Product A.

Measurable: Increase number of purchases for Product A in the youth

segment (18-25 year olds) from 10,000 to 35,000 by the end of this

quarter.

Example 3:

Not measurable: Launch redesigned corporate website.

Measurable: Launch redesigned corporate website by May 1st, focusing

on increasing sales leads from small and medium clients and making

relevant information about TOP 5 products accessible in 3 clicks

Example 4:

Not measurable: Optimize and automate processes in Customer

Service Department to decrease number of unanswered calls and

emails.

Measurable: Decrease number of unanswered calls and emails in

Customer Service Department from 500 to 10 monthly within the next

2 months.

44



REMEMBER THIS:

Generally speaking, a goal that’s not specific and measurable and not

WRITTEN DOWN, is not a goal. It just an idea, or a wish, and it won’t direct

our behavior.

NB! Some goals might not be measurable in the sense of quantifiable

results, but still some parts can and must be measurable (like in Example 3

about launching a website, i.e. the date and some important requirements).

45

TO-DO #5

Make Your Goals S.M.A.R.T.

Take your 1-2 most important goals from the previous step (2.2.) and

make them measurable:

My goal 1:

____________________________________________

My measurable goal 1:

____________________________________________

My goal 2:

____________________________________________

My measurable goal 2:

____________________________________________





4. Discuss with your boss (if you work for somebody else)

Now, you need to communicate these S.M.A.R.T. goals to your boss

regardless of whether you initially got them from him/her or you set them

yourself. Your boss needs to have the opportunity to agree with them and

provide feedback, in order to avoid misunderstanding and

misinterpretations in the future.

46

TO-DO #6

Set Up A Meeting With Your Boss

Write him/her an email or set up a meeting and communicate these goals

to get his/her approval.

So, now you have your “Why” and “Most Important Goals” clarified for the

next 3-12 months. Isn’t that awesome? You’re already way ahead of most

of your colleagues and many other people in the world. Congratulations!

Don’t worry if not everything went as smoothly as you hoped. There is no

“right” way to do it that will make it perfect. The main thing is that you

get started on your journey to being effective, and each day will bring

positive results, I promise you.



REMEMBER THIS: Focus on the most important things.

And the most effective activities we should engage in are the third vital

element in determining What is The Most Important (after “Why I do what

I do” and “Most important goals at work”).

Now that you have clarified and know your final destination for the next

3-12 months, the next step is to define what are the most important things

TO DO in order to achieve your most important goals at work.

III. The most effective activities to get you to your goals and results faster

47

CHAPTER 2 - How To Determine What Is The Most Important:



going)?

III. What are the most effective activities that will get you to your goals

and results faster?

“Concentrate on the few things that will produce the greatest

results. Force yourself to set priori=es. Do first things first – and second things not at all.” – Peter F. Drucker



What are the “first things” at work?

At work, whether you run your own company or work for someone else,

only a few things will get you closer to the goal at any given point in time.

Not every project is equally important, not every meeting is equally

important, and not every task needs to be completed. Remember this the

next time you’re overwhelmed with all kinds of different tasks, projects

and pressing deadlines.

I’m not asking you to act irresponsibly and cancel everything. I’m just

saying that any particular activity should either contribute to producing the

greatest results or it should not be seriously considered.

Your Why and Most Important Goals are good criteria to

determine what’s most important and what should be your “first things”.

These determine your final destination, your focus and your milestones –

the direction you’re heading and the place you need to arrive at.

But what happens along the way? What about those activities and things

you need to accomplish on a daily and weekly basis in order to arrive at

your final destination faster, more efficiently, and with higher quality?

What is your journey plan? i.e. What do you need to do, and how?

Here again we need to FOCUS ON THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS, the few

things that will produce the greatest results and get us closer to achieving

our most important goals. Here is how to make an action plan, your map to

reaching your goal.

48



Introducing the 20/80 rule

The 20/80 rule is also known as the Pareto principle – it says that, for

many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In

other words, only a few things among many options will bring the greatest

results.

For example:

• If a company has 100 clients that generate 100,000 USD in a year,

then most probably only 20 clients (20%) bring in 80,000 USD

(80%) and the other 80 clients (20%) will bring in the rest –

20,000 USD. In different situations, the percentages might differ:

10/90 or 25/75 or even 30/70, but the main point is there is a big

disproportion between efforts and results. Efforts invested in those

top 20 clients produce a disproportionate return compared to

efforts invested in the other 80 clients.

• In your own life: from everything you have in your closet, most of

the time (80% of time) you wear only few things (20%) :)

This means that before we jump into doing things, even if we know our

goals, etc., we need to choose these few things that will bring the greatest

results and then concentrate on doing them first.

Not everything we think we need to do in a workday, on a particular project

or initiative, really needs to be done. The same goes for our goals – only a

few activities on the list will help us to achieve them. These few things I

like to call “20/80 activities”.

Our challenge is to apply this rule to every stage in the process of achieving

a specific goal.

49



First, we do it for the goal itself, then for each 20/80 activity, then again

for each 20/80 activity of each 20/80 activity, etc. It streamlines and

focuses your efforts at every level.

Example of how it works

I’ll share an example from my experience working with senior executives

and teams in various countries, as I help them improve their business

results, build great businesses and achieve goals.

One of my good clients, a large corporation in the retail sector, asked me to

help them with formulating a business strategy and roadmap for building

their digital business and specifically at this point to significantly increase

revenues from their internet store. This is one of my main areas of

expertise, derived from international business experience from startups to

helping build multi-million dollar businesses, specifically in the digital

space. So, we sat down with their top executives and the team responsible

for internet sales, to identify what could be done to achieve this ambitious

goal.

• First of all, we converted the goal “To significantly increase

revenues from the internet store” into a measurable goal: “To

triple internet store revenues in the next 6 months (from ___USD

to ___USD).”

• Then we identified where this revenue would come from – existing

clients or new clients. We implemented the 20/80 rule and decided

that in their situation, existing clients would be the first priority to

target, but even more specifically – those existing clients who had

bought something through the internet store during the past 6

months.

50





Why? Because this client base was already huge, those clients already knew

the brand, and they had already bought something through the internet

store recently – so at this point, targeting those particular clients would

logically bring the greatest results from among all the options.

• For the next step, after identifying WHERE we needed to focus our

efforts and WHY, we decided to identify a few tasks that we needed

to focus on first of all. The team provided a list of 25 things that

needed to be improved or done in order to achieve this ambitious

goal. This is what usually happens when you ask for an action plan,

right? :) Anyway, by this point some of the team members had

already started to do some of the things on the list, and others were

eager to tackle the tasks one by one immediately. But here is the

point – not everything on that list was equally important. Doing

just a few of the things would have a huge impact on results, if

executed properly. We only needed to identify 2 things, or 3 things

max, which absolutely had to be implemented or improved in the

next 6 months, or else the goal could not be reached. After having a

quick look at analytics about the whole purchasing process by a

customer – from coming to the internet store, browsing around,

choosing a product, going to checkout, to receiving the purchased

product – it was obvious that the stage where the most clients left

the store without completing the purchase was at the checkout

page. They had chosen what they wanted, but couldn’t figure out

how to pay for it. In other words, improving only this stage of the

process, without tackling the huge and complex work on other

stages of the process, would DOUBLE the number of clients

completing the purchase and therefore double the revenues.

51



See the point I am trying to make? Sometimes it’s not that obvious, but if

you look hard enough and ask the right questions, you’ll identify the area,

the task to tackle first of all to get the desired results.

• So, after identifying what stage we needed to work on, we

implemented the 20/80 rule again – what aspects of that stage

should we improve first, etc. As a result, we soon had a clear plan

of action with detailed tasks that would keep the team busy for

most of the next few months, because even these few focused tasks

required changes on a larger scale in the organization – such as

making sure there would always be enough products in stock,

redesigning the logistics process to handle the increased amount of

merchandise being moved, connecting offline and online sales and

marketing efforts, simplifying internal processes, etc., all with the

goal of making clients happy throughout the whole process.

This approach simplified everything. Just imagine if they had tried to do all

25 of the initial things on the list – considering that everything else affects

other things as well. More stress, more work, less results.

This client had other challenges along the way, but as a result of

introducing them to the 20/80 rule and them integrating it in their

thinking, they achieved significant growth and millions in additional

revenues – exceeding their goal, actually.

The example I’ve used reflects a complex situation that most of us don’t

face on a daily basis, but the point is – the principle works with simple

goals as well as big, complex ones. It can be done. This example is just one

of many similar ones I’ve seen during the course of my work as a CEO and

strategy consultant. It even works in complex environments like Russia, for

example :).

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How do you apply this 20/80 principle in your own

situation?

Take your 1 or 2 most important goals from step 2 above and for each goal,

list everything you think needs to be done, is already being done, etc. When

you’ve done that, ask yourself in this order:

• which TWO or THREE activities under each goal will be most

helpful to reaching that goal?

• which ONE activity should absolutely be done before I move

further? In other words – if you don’t do this ONE thing, other

things won’t matter, and you won’t reach this goal.

As a result, you should have a list of a few tasks, activities, and projects,

that you consider to be the most important to helping you reach your goals.

In turn, each activity or task by itself can have many sub-tasks beneath.

Apply the same questions to those sub-tasks, too, and get to the 20/80

activities for each of them that will bring the best results faster. Don’t

worry about getting everything planned out. It’s enough to get this far and

plan the first steps.

Those activities on your list that don’t contribute to helping you reach your

goals should, as graciously as possible, be delegated, postponed or

completely ignored.

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“I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.”

– Steve Jobs



Examples with some level of details:

Goal 1: Increase the number of purchases for Product A in the youth segment (18–

25 year olds) from 10,000 to 35,000 by the end of this quarter.

• Increase the number of purchases made by existing clients (get them to

buy more often).

• Effective post-purchase communication (email, mobile, social

network) to get them back to an offline/online store.

• Personalized targeted offers based on previous purchases and

products’ life-cycles.

• Increase the number of mobile app users to be able to communicate

more often.

• Increase the average check for one purchase (get them to buy more at one

time).

• Use existing loyal clients to bring in their friends.

Goal 2: Launch redesigned corporate website by May 1st, focusing on increasing

sales leads from small and medium clients and making relevant information about

the TOP 5 products accessible in 3 clicks.

In the initial stage of the project:

• Map the main 3 needs of the company’s departments and teams that will

be involved

• Create a detailed customer process (visit a website —> purchase) for the

Top 5 products

• Identify what information is relevant

• Analyze concerns and motivators on each step of the client’s

purchasing process

• Analyze the pages that are currently most popular from existing

web-analytics reports

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Goal 3: Decrease the number of unanswered calls and emails in the Customer

Service Department from 500 to 10 monthly within the next 2 months.

In the initial stage:

• Identify the main causes of unanswered calls and emails

• Analyze Customer Service operators’ shifts and requests hourly

• Analyze the TOP 5 most common requests per month

• Analyze internal processes (request—>reply)

• Identify what needs to be done preventively to decrease the number of

incoming calls

• Automate answering the most common requests to speed things up

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TO-DO #7

List 20/80 Activities For Your Goals

Measurable Goal 1:

____________________________________________

20/80 activity #1

____________________________________________

20/80 activity of 20/80 activity #1:

_________________________________________


_________________________________________

20/80 activity #2

____________________________________________


_________________________________________


_________________________________________

What is one first small step you’ll do this week?

____________________________________________

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List 20/80 Activities For Your Goals

Measurable Goal 2:

____________________________________________

20/80 activity #1

____________________________________________


_________________________________________


_________________________________________

20/80 activity #2

____________________________________________


_________________________________________


_________________________________________

What is one first small step you’ll do this week?

____________________________________________

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TO-DO #8

Decide About Activities Unrelated To The Most Important Goals

For other activities that are on the list for some reason, but which you

have identified as less important – decide what to do about them right

now. Otherwise they will still be there and will not allow you to think

clearly while focusing on the most important activities.

1.

____________________________________________

Action: ☐Delegate ☐Postpone ☐Ignore

2.

____________________________________________


3.

____________________________________________


4.

____________________________________________


5.

____________________________________________


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TO-DO #9

Send Your Action Plan To Your Boss (if you work for somebody else)

Now, when you have a plan of action, email it to your boss saying:

“...These are our goals as a company/team, these are my goals as I

understand them, and these are the specific focus areas, which I

believe I absolutely must focus on in order to achieve these goals.

These are the things I’ll be working on this week, month, quarter.

Please let me know if you have any comments...”

Trust me, when you know exactly what few things you will be working

on, it will take a lot of stress off you, and outcomes will be greater.

Don’t be afraid of talking to your boss about it and discussing priorities.

You’re not risking that much, actually. You’re in a worse situation when

goals are vague and you have trouble delivering whatever the expected

results might be, working long days trying to achieve something that is

not clear.

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Now we have defined what is The Most Important, i.e. we know WHY,

WHERE TO GO and WHAT ACTIVITIES we need to focus on first.

The next step is to plan your workday and workweek effectively and

allocate enough time to achieve these most important goals and maximize

your chances of achieving outstanding results.



As we discussed before, our time should be devoted MOSTLY to the most

important tasks if we want to achieve the most important goals. We already

know what is The Most Important.

Now these 3 aspects will help us plan our time effectively to get these most

important things done:

I. Where to spend our time – 4 types of tasks

II. Actual scheduling: when and how

III. How to maximize results during the day


I. Where to spend our time – 4 types of tasksBefore we move to actual scheduling and time allocation for specific tasks

and activities, let’s look at a very powerful concept and approach to

planning time and making decisions about our priorities and how we

allocate time.

All of the time for our tasks, projects, etc. in any area of life can be divided

into 4 segments. Anything we do will fall in some of these 4 segments:

This method is said to have been used by U.S. President Dwight D.

Eisenhower for making decisions and allocating time. Later on, Steven R.

Covey popularized it in his bestseller 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

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CHAPTER 3 - How To Plan Time To Get The Most Important Things Done




These quadrants are:

Q1: Important and Urgent

This is our “crisis and fire fighting” segment, when we need to put out

fires, manage crises, act immediately.

Examples for Q1: crises, deadlines, some meetings, projects, client

problems, boss’s requests

We MUST do these actions. No excuses. They are important, because they

help us move closer to our goals, but they are often unplanned or

unwanted.

There will always be something in this quadrant, since we live in an

imperfect world – life brings its own challenges, and emergencies always

happen. However, our aim is to minimize “crises” over the long run.

After you have resolved an emergency, devote some time to analyzing the

reasons behind it and how you can prevent it in the future (and this is your

Quadrant 2 time). Unfortunately, many people will deal with an emergency,

then go on without doing anything that might prevent its recurrence. This

is one of the reasons they deal with the same issues over and over again

and have to spend so much time in Q1 dealing with emergencies. Be

different, and you’ll be more effective.

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Q2: Important and Not Urgent

This is our “prevention and growth” segment.

Examples for Q2: planning, preparation process, creating preventive

systems, building relationships, personal growth, relaxation.

Eventually, we need to spend most of our time here. This requires a change

in mindset – thinking long-term and preventively. We often neglect these

important tasks and issues, because they’re not urgent (yet!) and we tend

to spend more time on things that require our immediate attention.

For example, if I don’t take care of my body by exercising everyday (Q2),

the day will come when I’ll have health issues I need to deal with urgently

(Q1), which will jeopardize not only how I feel at that moment but also

future opportunities and what I could become, do or have.

The same principle applies at work.

We need to schedule important things intentionally and do them while

they’re not urgent, and develop systems and processes to prevent things

from becoming urgent. The more we think this way and discipline

ourselves to do these things, the more results we’ll see and the happier

we’ll be.

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Q3: Not Important and Urgent

This is your “illusion of importance” segment.

Examples for Q3: Interruptions by colleagues, some phone calls, some

emails, some requests from partners, certain meetings

Activities in this segment are usually confused with activities in Q1,

because they’re urgent. These activities cannot be scheduled ahead of time.

They come without warning and are hard to ignore, since urgency demands

our attention. But these activities are rarely really important and they

rarely help us to progress toward our goals and highest priorities. That’s

why I call this quadrant the “illusion of importance”.

We need to find a quick way to deal with distractions.

It helps to turn off notifications on your computer and phone, and

sometimes to turn the phone off completely. Get yourself lost to others, so

you simply cannot be interrupted. If someone interrupts you anyway, and

it’s not your boss, say right away that you’re busy and ask them to state

their question quickly. They’ve already disturbed you, so listen to their

request, send them away politely by redirecting them to someone else, or

say that you’ll get back to them later, then make a quick note so you don’t

forget, and continue working on your important tasks. Or if you have the

opportunity, delegate these tasks.

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Q4: Not Important and Not Urgent

This is our “procrastination and waste of time” segment. Sometimes it’s

because we don’t want to tackle a complex or unpleasant task, or we don’t

have the motivation to do what’s important. In any case, we’re wasting our

time and the tasks we’re avoiding will come back to us at some point as

urgent.

Examples for Q4: time wasters and time killers, social media, games,

watching TV, surfing the Internet, coffee breaks.

Don’t spend any time here at all, unless:

• Your daily work is closely connected to social media.

• You have a break between finishing an important tasks and starting

another one, and you use these activities as a reward :). In that

case, they become part of your Q2 activities.

Otherwise, analyze what activities you do that fit into this quadrant, stop

doing them and spend this valuable time in Q2 and Q1.

Start working on a task you don’t like and you’ll notice that as you’re

working on it, you feel better and it’s not as bad as it appeared to be.

Usually the start is difficult, but once we get started, it becomes easier.

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The majority of people, especially in the corporate world, spend most of

their time in Q1, Q3, and Q4, for different reasons. In my opinion, most

common reasons are:

• Lack of planning or goals are not clear

• Tendency to not take action, to procrastinate

• Cannot say NO

But you’re in a different position now and can change that in your

situation.

“Your ul=mate aim – spend at least 70% of =me in Q2,20% in Q1 and 10% in Q3.”

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You achieve this aim in 2 leaps:

STEP 1 - You need to start focusing on tasks in Q1 and Q2 by getting

rid of Q4 and resolving Q3 activities and tasks quickly.

STEP 2 - After that, your main focus will be to spend the majority of

your time in Q2, moving from “fire fighting” (Q1) toward creating

preventive actions and systems (Q2).

Doing this will enable you to avoid stress and spend less time at work,

while dramatically increasing your effectiveness and productivity. Don’t try

to do everything at once – follow incremental steps. But get started!

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TO-DO #10

Analyze Where You Are Right Now.

STEP 1 – Have your goals and 20/80 activities in front of you

STEP 2 – List everything that requires your attention now, for the next

week, for 1-3 months

STEP 3 – Define the level of importance for each task

For each task, ask the following questions:

• Is this task really important?

• Does it contribute to overall success and to reaching the most

important goals?

• How did this task make the “requires my attention” list?

Sometimes, we’re moving at a fast pace through our days and don’t have

time to think about what we’re doing and why. These questions can help

us regain focus, see the big picture without stress, and redefine priorities.

Often the tasks we think are important, are not THAT important. The

stress of the moment just does not allow us to see and think clearly.

The most important goals and 20/80 activities will guide you in your

decisions.

Continue to the 4th step only with those tasks about which you can

answer in the affirmative to these questions above for “important” tasks.

Don’t give any attention at this point to those tasks about which you

cannot give affirmative answers. It’s not their time yet.

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Analyze where you are right now.

STEP 4 – Define Urgency

• How urgent is this task or activity?

• Do I have a strict deadline for this particular task or step, or

strict deadlines for the next related tasks or steps?

• Does this particular task fall into any of these categories:

• a genuine crisis

• critical issues and problems related to customer service

• important meetings or presentations that cannot be

moved. Sometimes they are scheduled by other parties and

you absolutely must be present, but many meetings can be

rescheduled (even if the meeting is with your boss)

• a task coming directly from your boss that needs to be

done now

Remember – it’s your situation, you have a unique understanding of it

and there is no “right” or “wrong” here.

STEP 5 – Put tasks into respective quadrants

STEP 6 – Start to deal with tasks in Q1

STEP 7 – Continue with tasks in Q2

NB! Resolve Q3 issues as quickly as they appear and stop doing things in

Q4!

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How do you choose between equal priorities?

This is one of the most common questions I get. We have various projects

to manage, activities and tasks at work or in business or in life, and each of

them has its own goals and priorities. Sometimes we face two or more

equally important issues requiring our time right now.

Imagine – it’s now 2 p.m. and you have 3 tasks, all of which qualify as

“high priorities”:

1. You need to put the important information about Product A’s promo

campaign on the website. The campaign started 2 days ago, but you

just now received a banner and a description. The task requires 30

minutes.

2. You need to submit an expert article for the industry’s professional

publication. The deadline is 5 p.m. The article is almost finished, but

needs a bit of polishing. The task requires 3 hours.

3. The boss called a few minutes ago and asked you to come at 4 p.m.

for an urgent meeting with the management team. The meeting is not

on the schedule.

The question is – “what to do?”

Have you been in a similar situation? I bet you have. We all have.

At this point it doesn’t matter why it happened, you just need to decide

NOW what to do, then analyze and devise a preventive action plan later. So,

what should we do in a situation like the one described above?

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Our example is fairly typical, so let’s look at some general principles and

criteria that can help in these situations. I’ve found them useful in my life

and business.

General principles

1.One thing at a time

Actually, when you have 2 or more high priority tasks or projects in

hand and consider them equally important, you need to remember that

only ONE of them can have the highest priority at a given time. As

difficult as it seems, you’ll need to define and choose ONE to tackle

first. You can’t do several things at once anyway . Our mind can focus

effectively only on one thing at a time.

2. Tackle “Urgent and Important” first

When defining the highest priority, go through these 2 simple steps:

Step 1 – Define Importance (see TO-DO #10 Step 3)

Step 2 – Define Urgency (see TO-DO #10 Step 4)

3. Focus on this ONE task now

Once you have defined the task as “important and urgent”, devote

uninterrupted time to this task and don’t get sidetracked! Otherwise

you’ll end up in the same stressful situation as in the beginning. Once

you finish this task, take a break, reward yourself and get into the next

task in the pipeline (the next “important and urgent”).

I guarantee you’ll achieve more in a day and it will be less stressful.

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Back to our example.

The “Importance” test:

All these tasks pass the Importance test, since they are vital for the

organization and for you. No doubt about it.

The “Urgency” test:

This is the tricky part – which one should you tackle first?

• Meeting with your boss at 4 p.m.

• Submission of the article at 5 p.m.

• You cannot postpone the promo campaign, as it has started already

2 days ago.

It’s now 2 p.m. That means you have two hours for finishing the article and

putting the promo campaign on the website before the meeting with a

management team. Putting the promo campaign requires 30 minutes of

your time, so you actually have one and a half hours for the article. But you

really need 3 hours for that.

Well, let’s think about these tasks again.

For sure, you can’t cancel the meeting with your boss, since the request

came from the boss and other people are involved. This task stays on your

agenda.

Can you postpone the submission of the article by a few hours? My guess is

– you usually can, as 1 or 2 hours doesn’t make much difference for a

publisher, especially when they know not everybody submits on time.

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Can you do the promo campaign later in the evening? You probably can. If

it’s already 2 days late and the material was received later than planned, so

a few more hours will probably not do any more harm than has already

been done (if any).

So, you now face 2 options:

Option 1:

• call the publisher about postponing the deadline

• get the promo campaign on the website

• do some work on the article

• go to the meeting with the boss

• finish the article in the evening

Option 2:

• call the publisher about postponing the deadline

• work on the article

• go to the meeting with the boss

• finish the article after the meeting

• put the promo campaign on the website in the evening

It all depends on the new postponed deadline for the article.

I would personally go for Option 2 and find somebody to delegate putting

the promo campaign on the website, since you don’t know how long

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the meeting with your boss will last. If you don’t have anybody to delegate

to, it can be done later in the evening anyway.

If the publisher won’t postpone the deadline, you have a tough, but still

manageable choice – you might work on the article, cutting some of the

parts to shorten the time but providing the same quality OR you’ll need to

consult your boss to see if the meeting could be postponed for half an hour

or an hour.

I personally believe that there is always a solution, especially if you can get

other people involved in the discussion and explain your situation. People

love to help, and will most likely be flexible.

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Once you have a list of the most important tasks and activities to focus on,

how do you go about planning your day, your week, your month, based on

this new knowledge? Here are some practical steps from my own and other

people’s experience to help you.

1. Plan weekly

Why weekly and not monthly or daily? From my experience, a month is too

big a period for our minds to grasp and as a result things tend to slip away

and it’s easier to procrastinate – “Oh, I have 3 more weeks to go.” A day is

better, but is too narrow and we might not see the big picture as we get

consumed by daily tasks and to-do’s.

A week is short enough to control, but long enough to be flexible if any

changes need to be made. It also allows us to see the bigger picture – how

this week fits into our monthly, quarterly and yearly goals – and still stay

focused at the same time. In weekly planning we can focus on

accomplishing specific things by the end of the week and still have a

certain amount of flexibility on some days.

II. Actual Scheduling: When and How

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Even when you focus on a week in your planning, you’ll still have specific

tasks for specific days and you’ll still have a to-do list for each day. That’s

ok, since you’re doing these tasks in light of the week’s goals and the

overall big picture.

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TO-DO #11

Schedule Weekly “Planning” Time

Set aside half an hour to an hour one day a week which you’ll use to plan

your upcoming week. Schedule this planning time into your calendar and

find a place without distractions. This is part of your “thinking time”. For

me, Sunday evening works best.

Decide for yourself right now.

Weekly planning time (when) ____________________ (30 min)



1.1. Think in terms of Results, not the Process

When planning your week and days, think about what results need be

accomplished by the end of the period, not the process. It might be:

• “to complete a specific stage of a project” not “working on a

specific stage of a project”

• “to hold certain important meetings and reach specific

agreements so you can move on to the next stage” not just

“hold some important meetings”

• “to get some specific task done”

Break down each result into detailed steps, activities. Think

backwards.

Thinking backwards is something most of us do every day even if we

don’t realize it. Let’s say you know you need to be at the office

tomorrow at 9 a.m. (your final goal in this mini-project). That means

you need to get in the car at a certain time or catch the bus at a certain

time. That means you need to finish your breakfast and get your

clothes on before that, and it means you need to wake up at a certain

time, and if you want to have 7 or 8 hours sleep, you need to go to bed

tonight at a certain time.

See, you already know how “backplanning” works :). You can apply

the same principle to any project or activity. Don’t stress out over the

very detailed plan (especially if being too detailed is not your

personality type), but implementing this principle in your own way

will boost results quickly, as you’ll identify and plan most of the

necessary tasks.

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Basically, when you’re finished, you should have a list of

accomplishments that need to take place this week, with the activities

planned in that will make them happen.

Doing this will clarify your focus and get you closer to achieving your

bigger and most important goals on a monthly and yearly basis.

Example:

Today is Monday and next Monday I need to present at the monthly

board meeting and I’ve already done some preparation last week.

My planned accomplishment (mini goal):

to have my presentation ready and practiced by Friday of this week

My activities this week (backplanned):

• need to practice (approx. 2 hours, Fri)

• need to finish the presentation (approx. 10 hours, Wed and Thu)

• need to find pictures for the presentation (approx. 2 hours, Tue)

• need to ask colleague A for data on Product X growth (Mon)

Now I have tasks and to-do’s for each day.

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1.2. Use the rule of 3–3

• Don’t plan more than 3 most important things to accomplish in a

week

• Don’t plan more than 3 most important things to accomplish in a

day

Why 3? The same reason we’ve discussed before – creative tasks

require time and thinking, but also life brings distractions and crises

into our day.

So, if you plan in too many such tasks, there is a good chance that you

won’t finish them all in the time you planned. This in turn tends to

diminish your motivation and confidence.

NB! If you’re able to get these 3 most important things done and still

have some time – have some rest and then tackle your next most

important task in the pipeline.

2. Put the most important things into your calendar first

Once you have listed your planned accomplishments for the upcoming

week and figured out what needs to be done to achieve them, you end up

with a list of activities and the approximate amount of time you need to

devote to each one and even specific deadlines for some of the steps.

Then start to put into your daytimer/calendar the blocks of time for the

most important things FIRST (your Q1 and Q2 tasks, activities).

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So, your most important goals and the activities associated with them are

going into the calendar first, with ALL the steps and the necessary time for

each one:

• pre-scheduled important meetings

• urgent and important things (“putting out the fires”)

• “thinking time” and “planning time”

• important goal-related 20/80 activities for the week

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TO-DO #12

Schedule Weekly “Thinking Time”

Even a small amount of time set aside each week to think about

important, but not urgent aspects of our work and life, can make a huge

difference. I call this time “thinking about strategic things”:

• goals and priorities

• preventive actions and building preventive processes

• leading people and improving relationships

• how you spend your time

Giving serious thought to these strategic things is important for each of

us who want to deliver peak performance, but especially for leaders, since

they need to devote more time to long-term issues and not to daily

operational tasks.

Schedule “thinking time” now.

Weekly on ____________________________ (1 hour)

or

Monthly on ____________________________ (2–3 hours)





2.1. If you need to have more time in your calendar

If you need to have more time in your calendar, review what is already

in there one more time and ask 2 critical questions:

1) How will this specific activity get me/us closer to my/our bigger

goals

2) Is this really the MOST important activity this week compared

to other ones?

Replace the ones that you can’t answer in the affirmative. DON’T

EVER sacrifice “thinking time”, since this time allows you to think

strategically about the bigger picture and preventive actions, to avoid

having “fires” all the time (Q1) and instead come up with an effective

“fire prevention system” (Q2).

Other things go into calendar only AFTER the most important activities

are there and IF there is time left for them. Surprised? Yes, IF there is

time left for them.

Remember the “budgeting” principle. We don’t make optional

purchases before making our obligatory payments. It wastes money so

that we don’t have what we need when that important bill comes due.

Where’s the wisdom in allowing less important things to consume

your most precious resource – time – and postpone or prevent you

achieving the most important things?

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2.2. Be Flexible

Some weeks will be busier than others, and unforeseen things can

happen. Remember that a timetable is only a plan or a guide. You don’t

have to follow it religiously every week, but try to stick to your plan as

best you can.

2.3. A more effective To-Do list for tomorrow

As we discussed before, we don’t plan more than 3 things to

accomplish in a day, based on our weekly priorities, which in turn are

based on our most important goals for the month, the quarter and the

year.

From my experience, this is a more effective To-Do list approach than

just having a To-Do list with a lot of things on it, many of which don’t

have any correlation with our highest priorities and goals. As a result,

we’re busy all the time, but without significant progress and without

the desired results. The only guaranteed result we can expect – is lots

of stress and health problems.

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QUICK FIX #4

Schedule In “Flex” Time

Allow 30 minutes for “unforeseen” things between your time blocks,

activities or meetings




3. Review daily

Each day, schedule in 15 to 30 minutes of review time. It might be at the

end of the day or the beginning of the next day, but the principle is – to

adjust your plans in light of your overall, long-term goals and this week’s

more immediate goals, to review the results of the previous day BEFORE

you start your new day. Make any necessary adjustments in your upcoming

day before it starts, and do it every day. Otherwise you’ll very likely be off

track by the end of the week.

For me, the evening of the previous day works best, as my mind also gets

additional reassurance that “everything is under control” so I can get a

good night’s sleep, knowing I am prepared for tomorrow. Some people do it

first thing in the morning.

Don’t carry over unimportant tasks to the next day. Graciously delegate,

postpone or ignore them.

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TO-DO #13

Schedule Daily “Review Time”

Schedule what time daily you’ll review your day now.

Daily on ____________________________ (15-30 min.)

Again, this is your situation and the main principle here is TO HAVE this

review, not to have it everyday at a specific time.



4. Track progress

If you set specific and measurable goals, it will be easier to track your

progress on your way to success. So when you prepare for the next day and

the next week, and review your allocation of time and results daily and

weekly, you’ll be able to see how you’re doing for each of your most

important goals.

4.1. Visualize goals and results

All of us are aware that in a car, there is a bright dashboard in front of

the driver. This dashboard is designed to help the driver see what’s

going on with the car and the driving process, and to enable him/her

to make necessary adjustments as conditions change. By paying proper

attention to the car’s dashboard, the driver can see at a glance whether

everything is all right with the car, the engine temperature, the speed,

the fuel. Will the speed get us to our destination on time? Do we have

enough fuel to complete the trip?

The same principle applies to any goal, especially for business and

work. That daily look at the dashboard enables us to instantly see how

we’re doing, whether we have enough time left in the week to

accomplish all that needs to be done, or if we need to make any

adjustments to stay on the right track, and on schedule.

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TO-DO #14

Design Your “Goals Dashboard”

STEP 1 - Put your main goals on paper with 20/80 activities and the

criteria you’ll use to measure your success.

STEP 2 - Put that paper somewhere on or near your desk where you can

see it all the time. Remember, it’s your dashboard. It should always just

be a glance away. Your daily to-do list should be attached to it, or hung

nearby.

STEP 3 - Don’t forget to visualize your personal goals, as well, so they

don’t get lost in your efforts at work – picture what you want to

accomplish personally and keep it in front of you, so you’re frequently

reminded of what you want to be, to do and to have in the future.

EXAMPLE:

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4.2. Reward yourself

Celebrate results you’ve achieved – big wins and even small ones.

Absolutely! Taking action and making progress are more important

than achieving perfect results. Come up with your own rewards for

each step you finish on the way to reaching your goals. It will motivate

you to complete tasks on time and with the desired quality.

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“BeFer DONE than PERFECT”.



These additional principles and practical steps will help you plan your day,

and schedule tasks during the day, in such a way that you maximize your

chances of getting the most important things done, with the desired

quality.

1. Start your day with one important task

Now you’re ready to jump-start your day!

From the list of the most important tasks for today, choose ONE which is

the most important. Remember, at any given point in time there is always

ONE thing that will be MORE important than any other, even if they all fall

into category of “the most important”.


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1.1. Start you day with this one task.

Devote uninterrupted time to this task and don’t get sidetracked! Than

continue with your second most important thing on the list, then your

third most important thing.

We’re talking about tasks that require our creative thinking, creative

energy – so called strategic stuff, Q2 stuff (reviewing our goals,

designing preventive systems, processes, strategic planning, time with

ourselves, changes in strategy, etc.).

1.2. Do not multi-task!

The idea of multi-tasking that was popular a couple of decades ago has

been thoroughly debunked. Our mind is created in a such a way that it

can fully concentrate only on one thing at a time. Also, concentration

requires a bit of time before you reach the point where you’re really

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TO-DO #15

Choose ONE task

List your 3 most important tasks for today:

1. ___________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________

Choose the most important one:

____________________________________________



focused. Don’t try to manage several projects or deal with several

issues at the same time. Finish one, then move to the next one, and so

on.

Multi-tasking includes checking your email while you’re trying to

write a report; or watching TV or checking your phone while planning

your next day. Don’t do it, as you lose your focus and it will take 10-15

minutes or more to get it back to the same level you had a moment

ago. The danger here is that multi-tasking is enjoyable. We often do it

because we’re curious – what’s that next email, tweet or Facebook

message about? This all feeds that desire for immediate gratification.

But if we want to take control of our time and achieve outstanding

results, resisting distractions and staying focused on the task requires

discipline and mental effort. But it’s worth it!

NB! In some jobs, multitasking is unavoidable. It depends on the

nature of our work. Some of us need to be “always online” with

customers, colleagues, and partners. The point is to limit and

minimize distractions and disruptions. Even small changes can make a

big difference. The less task-switching you do during the workday, the

more effective and productive you become because you save your vital

mental resources for activities that matter.

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QUICK FIX #5

Find A Quiet Place To Do Your Strategic Planning

If you work in an open space among other people, use a conference room

for your “strategic / planning / most important” time. It will help you be

able to concentrate.




2. Take advantage of your “peak” hours

All of us have different personalities and different biological rhythms.

Some of us are “early birds”, some of us are “night owls”. It means we’re

more effective at accomplishing certain tasks at different times of the day.

And that’s totally fine. If we can understand this principle, it can help us to

save time and intentionally look for ways to maximize our results during

the day based on our body’s natural rhythms.

These rhythms might change with time. I used to like to get up early in the

morning and go to bed early in the evening. I just could not stay up late.

Now things have changed and I still like to get up early, but I’m also fine

with staying up late.

2.1. Identify your “peak” hours for maximum effect

Each of us is “wired” differently and we come to know when we’re the

most effective at performing certain tasks. For me, the most

productive hours are during the day – from 8-11 a.m. and then 4-6

p.m. These are my “peak” hours, when my creativity and strategic

thinking are at their best (most days). So, I try to plan anything that

relates to strategy or solving challenging issues for these times, so my

mind can work quickly and clearly. That saves time, since I can

accomplish a lot more on these important tasks during my “peak”

hours than I could during my non-peak hours.

What are YOUR “peak” hours during the day?

__________________________________________

__________________________________________

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TO-DO #16

If You Don’t Know Your “Peak” Hours

STEP 1 - Take one typical day (today, tomorrow)

STEP 2 - Mark your energy level for each hour of the day

STEP 3 - Connect the dots

You may want to repeat this exercise several days in a row, or on days

with varying levels of activity to get an even better picture of your energy

levels.

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TO-DO #17

What Can You Plan During “Peak” Hours To Achieve Maximum Effect?

1. ___________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________

4. ___________________________________________

5. ___________________________________________

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QUICK FIX #6

“Daily To–Do List”


Today’s Tasks Energy required(High, Medium, Low)

Time needed Done Reward



2.2. Plan enough time for rest, so you have “peak” hours!

We all have situations when we need to work extra hours to finish

something on time (a project, a paper, a product launch, etc.). That’s

totally fine. Remember, the plan should serve you, not you serving the

plan. Rigidity in working your plan can be as bad as not having a plan.

In both cases, you’ve lost conscious control.

Even in the crunch times, though, make sure to devote enough time to

rest and sleep. Our bodies needs to refresh and get strength for the

next day. Have you noticed that when you don’t get enough sleep, you

function differently the next day? Of course you have! It’s the same

with your health – if you don’t take care of your body today, tomorrow

it won’t serve you well. Your body is your primary resource that helps

you produce results. Only when it’s working well can you use your

time well.

3. Break your days into blocks of time

Time blocking is one of the most powerful approaches I use to plan my

time. I’ve also witnessed it working successfully for many other people.

You, too, can benefit from this approach to planning your days and weeks

so you get better results with less stress.

For our purposes, a block of time is simply a pre-established amount of

time scheduled into your daily plan to allow uninterrupted, focused work to

be accomplished.

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Why is Time Blocking effective?

• Enough time to complete important tasks

People often don’t achieve results at the required level of quality,

simply because they don’t plan in enough time for accomplishing a

specific task well. They usually plan a lot of things into the day, so the

day gets broken into smaller, less effective periods of time.

• Improved focus and quality

To creatively solve problems or accomplish an important task, a person

often needs a larger block of uninterrupted time, as short periods of

time are simply not enough for the required focus. When our focus is

diffused, we tend to miss details that can make the difference between

quality and mediocrity. Without distractions during a specific block of

time, your mind can stay focused, which leads to faster completion and

better quality.

• Less stress

By scheduling blocks of time in advance, you keep making steady, daily

progress on the highest priorities instead of procrastinating and then

stressing out about important projects and tasks at the last minute.

• Improved overall results

The fact that you accomplish the most important things each day,

steadily moving forward, means you’re going to reach your long-term

business goals or life goals faster.

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How can you implement this in your life?

Simple. Divide your day roughly into 3 major blocks of time, like this:

• Most important tasks

• Routine and administrative tasks

• Meetings

Let’s look at them separately.

Most important tasks

This is the most important time of your day, so it needs to be protected

and planned in, every day. Start with having one block of 1½ -2 hours

each day. You’ll see better results right away, whether you’re the CEO,

a department manager or just an employee.

During this time you focus on the most important tasks and priorities,

difficult projects and complex issues. It might include reviewing the

big picture and your goals, designing preventive actions, etc.

Protect this time and don’t allow any distractions. Your mind needs to

focus.

Routine and administrative tasks

There are many routine tasks that don’t require much creative

thinking, but completing them takes time – such things as checking

and answering emails, returning calls, preparing reports, etc.

Group as many similar activities together as possible, since you’re

actually several times more productive when you can focus on one type

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of task rather than switching among different types of tasks.

Try to plan routine tasks into the part of the day when you’re not as

productive based on your individual biological rhythms (“off-peak”

times).

Meetings

If you absolutely must have meetings, then as much as possible, try to

schedule several meetings close together, e.g., late afternoon or late

morning. It will allow you to focus on meetings and not break your day

into smaller, more ineffective pieces. Scheduling meetings in the late

morning or late afternoon also helps keep them from dragging on,

since nobody wants to stay at work late or miss lunch because of an

extended meeting.

4. Start each day with the “Most important tasks” time

block

This is your most important time period. Start your day with it. Find a

place where nobody and nothing could distract you. Yes, this includes your

boss. From my experience as a CEO, there are very rarely situations that are

so urgent that your boss needs you right now and it can’t wait for a couple

of hours until you’re available. So, no worries there. Plus . . . if your boss is

managing his/her schedule well, he/she is also focusing during this time,

so he/she is not likely to be looking for you to respond to some crisis.

For example, John Reed, the former CEO of Citigroup, kept his office door

closed from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. every day, refusing to take any calls or visits

until he opened his door.

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After finishing your “most important tasks” block, you can move on to

other things on your list and know you’ve had a great day, because the

most important things are already done.

5. Schedule in “flexibility” time and plan “fun” time after

each block

Plan about 30 minutes of “flexibility” time after each block or about every

couple of hours. This will enable you to handle an emergency without

having to adjust your schedule.

Also, schedule in some “fun” activities between tasks to give your mind a

rest. Do something enjoyable, or reward yourself for completing an

important step.

6. Devote bigger blocks of time to more challenging tasks

We’ve already discussed the fact that smaller blocks of time are typically

less effective, and the fact is that people often sacrifice quality simply

because they don’t allow enough time to accomplish an important task

well. So it makes perfect sense to devote more time to more challenging

tasks.

If you devote an hour and a half or two hours for each such activity, it

allows your mind to concentrate well and you’ll achieve more during that

time. It’s more effective to plan a quarter of the day in bigger chunks than

to plan three quarters of the day divided into 15-30 minute periods.

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7. Set deadlines

Set a limit on how much time you’re willing to spend on a particular

project today. It will mobilize you and help you focus.

This is an important principle. It’s known as Parkinson’s Law, summarized

as, “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” This

interesting observation was made by Cyril Northcote Parkinson, the famous

British historian and author, in 1955, first appearing as the opening line in

an article for The Economist and later becoming the focus of one of

Parkinson’s books, Parkinson’s Law: The Pursuit of Progress. This means that

if you give yourself two days for a two hour task, then psychologically

speaking the task will increase in complexity and you’ll complete it in two

days, not two hours.

By assigning the right amount of time to a task and having deadlines, we

mobilize ourselves and find ways to reduce the complexity of the task in

order to finish it on time.

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QUICK FIX #7

Combine Activities

1. As much as possible, plan meetings only on certain days, and on other

days devote your time to planning and working on important things.

2. Use morning for planning and strategic issues, afternoons for

meetings.




How can we get some extra time to accomplish planned tasks and reach

goals in the midst of distractions? Especially in this “always on” age, when

we carry these small devices called smartphones with us everywhere we go,

even to the restroom. Well, physically we can’t add an extra minute to a

day, but we can “enlarge” the blocks of time we need for the most

important things. By minimizing time-wasters and distractions, and

applying a few simple ideas to increase our productivity, it’s surprising

how much more we can achieve in the same amount of time.

To stay focused in the midst of distractions, we need to improve in 4

specific areas:

I. Removing digital distractions

II. Eliminating meetings

III. Learning to say NO

IV. Working with email effectively and efficiently


Here are few guiding principles and practical steps that I’ve personally

found useful.


1. Check your emails and social networks only a few times

a day

New technologies, social media and the growing penetration of mobile

devices have changed the way we live, work and communicate. They help

us a lot, but at the same time they add stress to our lives, since we now

expect instant access to information 24/7.

Do you check Facebook while you’re using the restroom? Or check email

every 10 minutes? :) In our hyper-connected society, many people seem to

be afraid of missing something important. As a result, many of us are

always online.

But remember, every notification on your mobile phone, every sound of an

incoming email, every instant message, IS A DISTRACTION. Every time you

check Facebook to see what’s happening, you’re distracted and might get

caught up in another world.

What would happen if you checked your emails only twice a day? Or

checked Facebook once a day or even once a week? Nothing really. Just

think about it – what would really happen? Usually there is no urgent need

to reply (unless you work in the Customer Support Department), so there is

no urgent need to check things. If something is really urgent, somebody

will find you.

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CHAPTER 4 - How To Stay Focused On The Most Important




I know many people who check email first thing in the morning,

sometimes even before getting out of bed. I do it sometimes, too. The

reason – we’re curious to know what’s happened, to hear some good news

we’ve been waiting for, etc. But is it the most important thing we need to

be spending our mental and physical resources on right after we wake up?

Don’t let your inbox define the course of your day. We need to decide

ourselves how our day will start and what we’ll be focusing on. We all have

more important things to do before checking email.

When I changed that habit and started my day with the most important

things, and checked my email only after I was done with those things – I

felt better almost instantly. I had discovered that things very seldom

happen that are so urgent or so important that they can’t wait for a few

hours while I’m working on the most important things. I also discovered that

my thinking became clearer, as I decide what to put in my mind and

preoccupy my thinking first thing in the morning.

QUICK FIX #8

Check Email Effectively

1. Check and process several emails at once, i.e. in the evening. It will take

less time than if you check emails and reply during the day as they come

in. The same goes for social networks.

2. Don’t check work email after work hours and during weekends. Guard

your time!

3. Spend no more than 30 minutes working on emails each time.

4. Don’t check your email in the morning!


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Previously, after checking and reading emails in the morning, issues

brought up in the emails would distract me and preoccupy my thinking,

taking my energy and thoughts off the most important things I had planned

to do. It was not good.

I expand more on working with email effectively in the next section –

“Working with Email effectively and efficiently”.

TO-DO #18

Set Specific Times To Check Email And Social Media During A Day

1. ___________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________

2. Turn off notifications

When you work on your most important tasks, turn off notifications on

your computer and phone and sometimes turn the phone completely off.

Get yourself lost to others, so you simply cannot be interrupted.

Every distraction costs us an additional 15-20 minutes on a task or project,

because we lose our focus and it takes 10-15 minutes or more to get it back

to the same level we had a moment ago (According to a University of

California–Irvine study). End result – we lose time and sometimes quality

as well.

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http://www.ics.uci.edu/~gmark/CHI2005.pdf




TO-DO #19

Turn Off Notifications

Go to your phone and computer to turn off notifications for:

1. Email

2. Social media

3. Other apps on your phone

4. Other apps on your computer

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If you work in the corporate world, then the chances are you have a lot of

internal meetings in your calendar, and the majority of them are not useful

at all, or at least not as important as stated. Sometimes it even seems that

all you do during the week is “attending meetings”, doesn’t it? I’ve

experienced that first hand too, so I understand what you may be dealing

with on a daily basis.

Some time ago a good friend of mine, an executive in a large organization,

said to me, “This week was full of various internal meetings, so when did I

have time to work? I need to stop it somehow.” In the corporate world

many people perceive internal meetings as time-wasters. I often

experience it myself, as I work with clients and business partners. I could

not agree with my friend more.

In spite of that, people still have all these meetings booked in their

calendars and it seems that the “curse” will never stop. The bigger the

organization, the bigger the challenge.







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Changing your own approach to meetings will help to significantly reduce

the number of unimportant and unnecessary ones, and you’ll have MORE

TIME during the day / week for whatever IS important and meaningful, be

it meetings or other things. Isn’t that a beautiful thought that’s worth

pursuing?

Rule of thumb: if the activity or meeting will not get us closer to the

important goals, then ignore them or use alternative communication

methods.

We need to constantly evaluate our calendars to see if most of our activities

and meetings are getting us closer to the goals, i.e., are they meaningful

and important? If not, apply the rule of thumb.

Why do meetings waste time?

The most common reasons I’ve observed:

• meetings are scheduled chaotically and based on other people’s

priorities

• there is no clear agenda, and no clear desired outcome

• people come to the meetings unprepared

• there are too many people at the meeting

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The most basic question – do we really need to meet?

This depends on your goals, the reasons for meeting and on the people

you’re working with. My personal opinion is that meetings can be

important in building relationships, and sometimes they help move things

forward much faster than would happen without the meeting. But a

meeting is not always the only way to do those things. Personal meetings

are more of an expectation in certain cultures, though – those which are

more relationship-oriented.

So . . . here are some good questions to ask yourself before you schedule or

agree to a meeting:

• Do I really need to MEET? Can I move the issue/project forward by

other means of communication (phone call, email, etc.)?

• How will the meeting help to stimulate progress on the issue/

project? What is the desired outcome I want to achieve as the result

of the meeting?

• Can I delegate the meeting to someone else?

Think creatively about these ideas and answer these questions honestly,

keeping as your primary goal – to use your time effectively and achieve

results. And as a bonus – you won’t have to work extra hours. It will

involve saying “No” to some things you used to say “Yes” to, but with no

loss in results, and with a gain in productivity.

Don’t forget to keep indirect results in mind when you’re considering

whether or not to meet, i.e. building relationships, credibility, solving a

problem, resolving conflict, etc. These are always important to discuss in

person, if at all possible.

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REMEMBER THIS:

When you’re approached with a request or notified of a meeting – don’t

commit right away. Just because someone has sent you the request or

scheduled the meeting, does not mean it’s important for you or that you

need to engage. Take time to evaluate how it fits into your calendar and

responsibilities, and then reply. Otherwise you’ll constantly face the fact

that others are planning your weeks, reducing your productivity to enhance

theirs.

QUICK FIX #9

Plan Effective Meetings

If you’re INITIATING the meeting:

1. Take control of your schedule

2. Communicate the desired outcome and expectations beforehand

3. Invite only those who can impact the results

4. Prepare for the meeting

5. Limit the meeting to no more than 30 minutes

6. Leave the meeting with a clear plan for the next steps

If you’re INVITED to a meeting:

1. Take control of your weekly schedule

2. Clarify expectations and the desired outcome beforehand

3. Go to the meeting only if you can impact the results

4. Prepare for the meeting

5. Leave the meeting after 30 minutes, whenever possible

6. Have a clear plan for the next steps after the meeting


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We all have occasions when other people approach us with a request, a new

commitment, a task, etc., that would require our time. For most of us, to

say “No” to people is not the easiest thing to do, right? Yet saying “No” is

one of the most powerful skills we need to have in order to be effective.

Remember, motives are critical. We don’t say “No” because we’re selfish,

but to be less so. Our lives have more meaning for everybody when they’re

devoted to the most important things. The “good” is often the enemy of

the “best”, and we need to keep that in mind as we consider using this

handy tool, the simple word “No.”

Why are we afraid to say “No”?

Do you have a hard time saying “No” to people’s requests? Do you feel like

you’re not being “nice” when you say “No”? Well, you’re not alone. Most

people experience that from time to time, and some do all the time. When I

was younger, I personally did not do well at managing requests and saying

“No” when I should have, but as my understanding of where I fit into the

bigger picture has matured, I’ve gotten better at this. Even now, though, I

still experience hesitation at times.


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Here are a few reasons we’re afraid to say “No” to people, from my

observations:

• Our personality

We’re all wired differently as personalities and that affects how we

view ourselves and other people. It affects how we respond in stressful

situations, how we approach tasks and daily work. Some personalities

are more focused on people and relationships, some more on tasks and

results. Some people are more responders, some more initiators. The

beauty of this is – we’re all valuable. There is no wrong or right in

regard to personalities. But for some types of personalities, especially

for those who are more people-oriented, it’s just harder to say “No” to

people, so they need to put more effort into this area.

• Afraid of being rude

Most of us were raised in cultures where the word “No” is associated

with something negative and sometimes saying “No” is even

considered to be rude. In reality, though, it all depends on the way you

say it and the attitude behind it. Saying “No” does not mean that

you’re not a nice person; it simply means that you have personal

priorities and boundaries.

• Fear of “what people will think of me”

This usually comes from our insecurities and how we view ourselves.

We can’t please everyone, so there will always be someone who doesn’t

like us for some reason. Just accept it. Remember, this is Your life and

you’re responsible for how and where you spend your time, so choose

whether you’re going to live on your terms or on other people’s terms.

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• Fear of future repercussions

Sometimes we hesitate to tell a particular person “No” because we

know we’re dependent on them in some way, and may soon be asking

them for something where our efforts will be hindered if they say “No”

to us. This is reality in all of life, and must be managed carefully.

Sometimes we will need to graciously say that we’re really busy right

now, then ask, “Would you be offended if I say ‘no’ to this one?”

1. Here are 3 simple tips for saying “No”

1.1. Do not respond immediately

When you’re approached with a request, don’t commit right away. Just

because someone sends you the request, doesn’t mean it’s important

to you, or that you need to respond immediately. Take time to evaluate

how it fits in with your priorities, your schedule and responsibilities,

and then reply. Otherwise you must face the fact that others are

constantly planning your weeks, reducing your productivity to enhance

theirs.

You can say something like “Let me think about it first and I’ll get

back to you.” Specify a time by which you’ll respond and mark it in

your calendar to follow-up.

If someone has interrupted you when you’re busy, say something like

“Right now I’m in the middle of something. How about we reconnect

at X time? Please call me at X or send me an email with more info.”

Sometimes the issue might already be solved by that time, but even if

you still need to discuss it with the other person, you’ll be more

prepared.

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1.2. Know and double-check your priorities

It’s easier to protect your time when you’re clear about your own

priorities and goals. If your days are booked and planned out in

advance, it’s much, much easier to say to people,

“I’d love to, but I can’t, because I already have other commitments

scheduled for that period that require my full attention.”

And if you realize you really do want to commit to something that’s

being offered, but your schedule does not allow it at the moment, you

can always suggest a different date or solution. For example, a few

weeks ago I was asked to speak to a group of people. My schedule was

pretty well booked for the next few months, so I suggested a different

date that would not compromise other commitments I’d already made,

and to avoid putting extra pressure on my schedule. It worked out fine

and I was glad I said “No” to the date initially proposed.

1.3. Do not provide long explanations and apologies

When you say “No”, don’t go for long explanations like,

“Unfortunately, I can’t do that, since we’re going to celebrate our

friend’s birthday this weekend and need to do a lot of preparations

before that.” Just say

“Unfortunately, I can’t come or can’t commit to this, as I already

have plans / commitments for that day.”

Long explanations and long apologies don’t help you. The more you

say, the more likely people will see it as simply an excuse or that

you’re not being truthful.

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Also, if you provide more details than needed, some people may offer

to help you to resolve your issues in order to free your time for them –

then you’re really in trouble! I see this happening all the time with one

of my friends. He wants to please everyone, so anytime he tries to say

“No”, he also apologizes and gives an extensive explanation for why

he can’t commit. In most cases, the other people use his explanations

to find a solution that frees his time for their task, so they end up

getting their way anyway.

So, keep it simple and polite.

Try these tips today if you need to, and see how much time you save for

your most meaningful tasks and priorities. You’ll like the results.

TO-DO #20

Preparing To Say “NO”

List situations when it’s hard for you to say NO:

1. ___________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________

Write appropriate answers to each situation:

1. ___________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________

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2. How to say “No” to your Boss

Unless we run our own company, most of us have a boss of some kind that

we’re accountable to. Usually it’s the boss who sets the expectations for

goals, tasks and results. Most of us probably have a lot of tasks assigned by

the boss, sometimes too many. The natural question I’m often asked is,

“Can I say ‘No’ to my boss when he/she is giving me more urgent and

important tasks, on top of those I’m already working on? Sometimes it’s

just too much.” Many of us are afraid to say “No” to our boss and so we

continue to take on more and more tasks, which leads to more hours and

less quality, since we can’t handle everything that’s on our plate. “We can’t

tell the boss what to do. If we do, we might lose our job.” I have been on

both sides of the table, and as a CEO, I can assure you that people can say

“No” to me. Here are some practical ways how.

First of all, there are three principles to consider here:

1) The boss cares about results

2) The boss has the final word on what is urgent and important

3) We cannot add more to our load without subtracting something

If you clarified your goals and priorities with your boss earlier, than it’s

clear what you should be doing today and this week. When your boss brings

you a new task which is urgent and might be in conflict with your other

high priorities, you always need to:

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2.1. Clarify the deadlines and desired outcomes.

Don’t just accept the task without asking a few questions. Sometimes

what seems urgent actually is not. Maybe it’s just the way your boss

operates, or maybe this kind of language is typical of his/her

personality type. So to clarify deadlines and desired outcomes, ask

these questions:

1. What should the end result look like? What all should it include

What format should it be in?

2. When is the latest day/time you need to have it?

2.2. Ask about change in priorities

If you’ve discussed your other tasks and priorities with your boss, then

at this point it’s easier to ask which tasks should be given a lower

priority, since you now have tasks that are competing for “highest

priority”.

Say something like this:

“I understand the importance of these tasks and the results you

expect. As we discussed before, I have other high priority tasks I’m

working on, which you’ve assigned me, and which have close

deadlines. I want to deliver what you expect with excellence, but

there’s not enough time now to get everything done with the

quality you expect. My question is, which task has the higher

priority and which task can we postpone or change the deadline

for?”

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You’re not actually saying “No” to your boss, but you’re letting him/her

know that you care about results and priorities, and you’re also making

your own life easier.

As a result of these questions, in most cases you’ll still work on the most

important things, as your boss will redefine priorities for you and you will

have his/her permission to postpone or drop some tasks, so you can still

work with less stress and without longer hours.

Try it the next time your boss calls or emails you. Do your homework,

rehearse your response if necessary. You will see some changes come

quickly, and you get noticed for sure. Not many people clarify these things.

They just accept new tasks out of fear, then stress over delivering on time

or at the desired quality. Even if they pull it off, it costs them in other ways

– health, stress, time with family, etc.

Remember, you cannot add more to your load in any area of life

without subtrac=ng something else.

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Nowadays email is an integral part of our professional and personal lives

and will continue to be in spite of future technology advancements, I

believe.

Most of us during our days and weeks deal more with work/business

related emails, and the number of emails might amount to several hundred

per day, depending on the size of the organization.

Now with the capabilities of smartphones, we constantly have access to

email and probably check it even more often than we should. For some of

us, email rules our lives, not the other way around.

But in spite of the number of emails flooding our inbox every day, if we

want to be effective in our work and achieve great results, we need to learn

or improve our skills to effectively manage this important tool.


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We can manage e-mail more effectively by improving these 5 important

steps in the process:

1. knowing general principles – when to use email and when not to

2. checking times

3. reducing the number of incoming emails

4. processing emails

5. writing effectively and efficiently

Before we jump into practical details, let’s start with the main principles

we constantly need to keep in mind when dealing with emails. You will see

some similarities with principles in previous sections, as the mindset and

approach I’m encouraging you to adopt is the same in different situations.

1. General principles – when to use email and when not to

1.1. Do not use email for urgent or complex matters

Email is intended for one-way communication most of the time and is

not about immediate reaction or response, which means that email is

not suitable for solving urgent matters or going into deep discussion

over the issues.

Especially in the corporate world, we tend to use email in most of our

communication, replacing other forms of communication and

forgetting that sometimes it’s not the right tool. When we use in

improperly, miscommunication results, and that in turn triggers more

emails, more miscommunication and more wasted time.

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Do not use email in these situations:

• For issues that require back and forth discussion or response from

many involved people

These might include complex projects or tasks where a discussion

is required as opposed to just simply assigning a task; or situations

where you need to do more than just convey your message – when

you need to communicate complicated nuances, or “sell” the idea.

In these situations, meet face-to-face or set up a conference call.

Then send a short email afterwards as a summary, to pinpoint

decisions reached, responsibilities, and next steps.

• When something needs to be done NOW, i.e. for issues that requires

urgent resolution

Even if the person regularly checks his/her phone for new emails,

you can’t rely on that. Pick up the phone and call, use IM or meet in

person. This is the fastest way to reach this person and resolve the

issue. Discuss all necessary details, make decisions, and solve the

problem quickly.

• For anything important where your words or tone could be

misinterpreted

It could be expressing your opinion, expressing your feelings or just

the overall context of the situation, but any time there is a high

potential for conflict or a conversation is likely to require a mixture

of verbal and non-verbal communication, then email is not

appropriate. It’s too easy for misinterpretation to occur.

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• For providing critical feedback or delivering negative news

Delivering sensitive and difficult information such as critical

feedback, expressing concerns about work performance, or

terminating someone’s project or employment, requires a face-to-

face meeting, ALWAYS. In email your tone and words might be

misinterpreted and also seen as insincere, too impersonal, or

uncaring. Sit down with the person and discuss it. Remember,

motives are important. Your goal is to help him/her become better

at what they do, not just communicate feedback or humiliate them.

• To cancel something last minute

If you’re late for a meeting, just call the person. It will be

professional and show respect for the other person. You’ll also have

100% assurance that they got the message and can adjust their

plans accordingly.

1.2. Use email for:

• Assigning or delegating tasks that do not require detailed

discussions

• Summarizing the outcome and next steps after a call or meeting. It

will also provide written record of what was said and agreed on as a

reference for the future

• When something is so complicated (like documentation about

procedure, instructions, etc.) that you want the person to have

these details in writing, as a next step after you have discussed the

issue

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General Rule of Thumb for Email:

if sending this particular email is more likely to create additional complexity

rather than helping you and the other people progress towards your highest

priorities – then use other, more effective forms of communication.

It’s sometimes simply more efficient to spend 10 or 20 minutes discussing

what you need face-to-face or over the phone, than to exchange countless

emails throughout the day or over the next several days.

1.3. Highest priorities first, emails second

Work is all about getting the most important things done, not just doing

anything or having zero emails in your inbox.

Our goal in managing email is not “managing email” as such, but

“effectively using this communication tool to help us to progress

towards our highest priorities and achieve outstanding results”.

As with anything else, we need to set priorities and do the most

important things first.

As already discussed, don’t start your day by checking email. Start it

with your ONE most important thing and only after you finished that,

check email. Having your goals and key projects clearly defined will

also help you see instantly which emails are relevant to these highest

priorities and really need to be dealt with.

Remember: email is a tool, not your master. Use it effectively to achieve

results according to your highest priorities and don’t allow it to

overwhelm you with unnecessary stuff and control where you spend

your energy and time.

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1.4. Communication must be toward resolution and results

Email should not be used just for communication, but for so-called

“purposeful communication” that leads to desired results and help us

to progress toward achieving our most important goals. One of our

goals should be to keep conversations moving toward resolution and to

do it as efficiently as possible, reducing the time we spend processing

and replying to emails.

2. Checking email

2.1. Check email only a few times a day

Basically, let it pile up and then process it. A few times a day should

work for almost anyone. From my experience as an executive in both

smaller and larger organizations, I can tell you that this principle can

be applied almost anywhere unless your work is directly related to

dealing with emails (like in a Customer Service Department). Even in

this situation you can implement these strategies, but use good

judgment that fits your circumstances.

• Choose the times that work best for you in your situation. The main

point is not about “what exact times”, but about “do it only a few

times a day”. For some it might be 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., or 10 a.m., 1

p.m. and 5 p.m. Putting the first time to check email later in the

morning allows you to finish your first most important thing at the

start of the day.

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• You can also read and respond to email after a long period of

focused work, or at a time of day when your energy and creativity

are at their lowest. Occasionally you might want to check email in

your idle time while commuting between meetings (if you’re not

driving) or waiting for a meeting, for example.

• As discussed earlier, turn off email notifications on your phone and

turn off the email program on your computer completely between

the times you have scheduled to check it. Yes, I personally do this

most of the time – I don’t open my email program until I finish

one important task. And after checking it at a certain time, I close it

back down.

2.2. Spend 30 minutes

During each of these scheduled times, spend 30 minutes checking and

responding to emails. Again, limiting time for a specific task forces

you to prioritize and work faster. You don’t have to respond to every

email in your inbox. It’s ok for some emails to still be in your inbox for

the next “checking and responding time”.

2.3. Close email when done

When you’ve processed emails, close it. Discipline yourself to open it

again during the idle time or the next “checking” time. If you’ll resist

the temptation to leave it open, your mind will function much better,

as it will stay refreshed and able to focus clearly on the most

important aspects of your workday. If you're concerned that your

colleagues, boss, or partners will be confused that you're not

responding to their email quickly, talk to them and explain that you

only check email at certain times, and that they can call you or come to

your office if a matter is really urgent.

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3. Reducing the number of incoming emails

Think not only about processing emails efficiently, but also about

preventive measures to reduce the number of incoming emails. The fewer

the incoming emails, the fewer emails to manage :). This is a Q2 issue

(important, but not urgent). Resolve the root cause for the number of

emails in your inbox and they will decrease.

Ask yourself these simple questions:

• How can I decrease the number of incoming emails?

• What I can do myself and what I can do to help others send fewer

emails?

Some ideas for you in this endeavor:

3.1. Unsubscribe from newsletters or reroute their subscription to a different email

You can do this by using a search function to search for “unsubscribe.”

That should list most of the subscription emails you get. Go through

them and unsubscribe from the ones you no longer want to receive.

This might take some time, but it’s worth it in a long run and will save

you countless hours in the future.

You can also set up a separate email address just for newsletters and

only give it out for subscriptions, sign up forms, download requests,

etc. – especially, if you don’t want to give out your real email address.

This trick will keep your work or personal email clean, without

distractions.

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3.2. Turn off email notifications from social media, etc.

You don’t want to receive an email every time someone makes a

comment or sends you a message on Facebook, or connects with you

on LinkedIn.

If you use the mobile apps of these social media sites or visit their web

sites, you’ll see any updates there anyway. Go to the Settings page on

all the social media sites you have accounts for and turn off all email

notifications

3.3. Educate people about these ideas and set an example

One of the best things that you can do to limit the amount of email you

need to process, is to encourage people to send you less.

If some colleagues constantly include you in Cc: for unimportant

issues or send long emails, just ask them politely to not include you in

certain emails or send emails that are only 1 or 2 paragraphs long. You

can assure them it’s not about them personally, it’s about the

demands on your time and theirs, and your desire to use it more

effectively for both for you. Encourage them to call you or to meet if

the issue requires more than 1 or 2 paragraphs.

Promote good email communication strategies in your organization or

a team. Set an example yourself first. Especially if you’re a leader.

Use relevant subject lines, write shorter emails, include only those who

need to receive this specific email. Be thoughtful.

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3.4. Send emails that do not create more emails

Just look at your emails and see if there are some threads that could be

eliminated or avoided if the initial email had be sent differently. What

caused this email to develop into a long back-and-forth discussion?

• Write in a “no response required” format.

This approach is one of the most powerful ideas you’ll encounter. It

works even with your boss. State your concern in your emails in a

way that doesn’t require a response from the recipient. Briefly say

what you intend to do and that if they have any other concerns or

it’s not a good fit for them, they should let you know, otherwise,

you both proceed as stated.

For example, if you’re working on a project and another person’s

response is important before you proceed, you can write something

like this: “I’m going to send this material to our partner on

Monday at 10 a.m., so they can proceed with technical changes in

our system X. If I don’t hear back from you by tomorrow, I’ll

assume that’s fine with you.”

If they don’t have a problem with it, you won’t get an email with

their reply. And you just reduced the amount of email you receive.

By the way, if the person DOES have a problem with it, but

overlooked your email, you have proof that you informed him/her

before sending it out. Next time they’ll pay more attention to your

emails and be more effective in their time planning.

Remember, it’s not about taking advantage of someone, it’s about

helping both you and them to be more effective and get the most

important things done.

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• Many emails can be avoided simply by stating the question properly

Instead of having open-ended question like, “I would like to meet

this week. When would be a good time for you?” (which triggers

more emails with options about date and time) consider one that

requires only yes/no as a reply –

“I would like to meet this week. I’m available Mon 12–4, Tue

9–11, or Fri 2–4. Do any of those dates/times work for you and

if so which one?”

Most probably they will respond with a specific date and time,

because it’s easier for a recipient to choose from your options or

suggest their own if none of yours fits. End of discussion..

• Use Cc wisely

Every person you add to a discussion is a potential new email as a

response. Include only those who absolutely need to get and

respond to the email. Be careful to avoid the Reply to All option if

your response is not intended for all.

• Use “FYI” in the subject line

If your email is just for informational or educational purposes and

does not require a response, state it in the subject line, not in email

body. The recipient will see it right away while scanning his/her

inbox.

For example: “FYI: sales report Q1”.

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• Use vacation auto-reply

Most of us already use this one, but I’ve discovered that there are

still many people who don’t. To reduce the amount of email that

piles up in your inbox while you’re on vacation, make sure people

know that you’re not available and redirect them to someone who

can help them in the meantime. This keeps them from emailing

you several times, thinking that you’re available but just not

responding for some reason. It will also resolve some issues

quicker, as they will be redirected to someone who can help them.

Don’t say where you’re going on vacation and that you’re reachable

on your mobile phone – guard your time!

TO-DO #21

Schedule Time This Week

1. To unsubscribe

When: ________________________________________

2. To turn of notifications

When: ________________________________________

3. To educate people

When: ________________________________________

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4. Processing emails efficiently

4.1. Organize to process your VIP emails first

Decide who your VIPs are, i.e. which people and emails have the

highest priorities and thus require your immediate attention and a

timely response. This list might include your boss, top management,

team members and partners on key projects, key customers, family,

etc. Whenever you check your email, scan for emails from those VIP

names and respond to them first.

If you’re more familiar with the options available on your email, you

can set up email rules or filters to make sure you don’t miss VIP

emails. For example, you can create a folder/category “Boss” and

create a rule/filter that puts every email from your boss in this specific

folder. Then, whenever you check your email, you look at this folder

first.

I like simplicity and don’t want to spend my time creating rules for

less important emails, as their number is usually bigger than my VIPs,

plus you never know who else might write you. So, I prefer organizing

my VIP list into folders and then process other emails directly from my

primary inbox. But I encourage you to find your own way to organize

your inbox without complicating the issue, and at the same time

making sure that your notice and process your VIP emails.

TO-DO #22

Create Your VIP List

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

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4.2. Reading emails – start with VIPs

When you check your email, scan what’s in your inbox or in your VIP

folders and deal with these highest priority emails first. Only then can

you deal with other emails IF you have time (within the 30 minutes).

Yes, the same principle applies as in previous chapters – “focus on the

most important things first and secondary not at all”.

I encourage you to process incoming emails based on your most

important goals and priorities, not based on the sequence they’re

delivered to you.

4.3. Read once and take action

Read each email once and decide what to do with it right away. Don’t

put the decision off. Make it now. Postponed decisions tend to hang

over us and decrease our motivation. Your action about each email falls

into one of 5 categories: Reply, Delegate, Schedule To-Do, Delete,

Archive.

• Reply

If you decide to reply, do it now. If your response requires more

time or additional preparation, while the email is open and you’re

thinking about, put into your calendar when you plan to deal with

it, then go to the next email.

• Delegate

When you delegate to someone, state in the email the date and time

when you expect the status update on this issue. Put this follow-up

milestone into your calendar right away, then go to the next email.

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• Delete

Don’t be afraid to delete emails that are not important. If you don’t

think the message is important but the other person does, they will

find you or email again. You don’t need to reply to every email. It’s

true. Many people don’t even expect a reply, but if you feel you

have to reply, do it efficiently – with one word or a short sentence

like, “Got it. Thanks.”

• Archive/File each email after replying or delegating.

I encourage you not to use your inbox as a To-Do list. If you have

scheduled time for follow-up emails or calls, time for tougher

emails, then you won’t forget to do it, so you can archive the email

itself. Your inbox will be cleaner, and less overwhelming, too.

Many of us may also get lots of internal notifications – sometimes they’re

related to getting important data from other departments, reports,

interesting industry research, colleagues who want to keep us “in the

loop”, but sometimes we’re getting these emails because somebody just

didn’t think carefully enough about whom to send it to, so they include

everyone they think should be on the list. If you see your name in the "Cc"

field instead of the "To" field, chances are it's an less important email.

Consider filing it in a specific folder or ignoring it completely, based on a

quick scan of the content.

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QUICK FIX #10

Schedule Follow-up Activities

Always schedule follow-up activities immediately. Whenever you suggest

a date/time to someone, or agree on a date/time (even if it’s only

tentative), put it in your daytimer/calendar.

It avoids trying to keep all the info in your head that’s necessary to make

sure all the associated milestones and planned activities happen on time.

Whenever you review your calendar and your tasks the next day, these

follow-ups will be among the other to-do’s.

For example, when I send an email proposing potential times to meet a

client, I put these potential times in my calendar with ? mark, so I don’t

schedule something there before I get a reply from the client. I don’t have

to keep the info in my head, and it prevents confusion later.


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5. Writing effective emails and replying efficiently

Once you start responding to emails based on your priorities, your

challenge is to refine the process to make it even faster and more efficient,

so you spend less and less time replying and writing, but achieve better

results. There are some effective ways to do this:

5.1. Use good subject lines

Subject lines are similar to headlines of articles. A well-written subject

line tells the recipient what the email is about without having to open

the email itself.

You might want to include the date in the subject line if your emails

are regular, for example “Weekly report March 1–7”.

If you want an action or a response, state it in the subject line: “Please

reply by March 3”.

If the thread is long and your reply is about aspects other than the

initial email, change the subject line to something relevant.

If you have a short message to convey – fit it into the subject line:

“Could you please schedule a conference room for Mar 5 at 10 a.m.?

Thanks”

5.2. Consider your tone and words

Remember, people often forward emails or include other people when

replying to your message, without deleting or modifying the

information in your initial conversation. Avoid sharing sensitive,

private or personal information in your emails, and don’t write

ANYTHING that you do not want everyone in your office to see.

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When writing, ask yourself this question:

“If I knew this email would be made public, would I still write it the way I

have?”

Always assume the contents will be made public. Consider your tone

and words. Don’t yell. Don’t gossip. Don’t criticize. And always use

spellcheck.

5.3. Keep your email short, under 1 or 2 paragraphs

Nobody likes to read long emails. Especially since we’re checking our

emails on mobile devices more and more. So keep emails short and to

the point. Every word matters.

Try to keep it brief by using no more than 2 paragraphs. Some experts

suggest that you use no more than 5-6 sentences. It will save time to

both of you and will force you to get to the point.

If you need more sentences – consider some other form of

communication, or send them an attachment or a link to a document

with instructions, detailed information, etc.

• Begin by specifying the action or response expected of the recipient

(request an action to be taken, request information, provide

information)

• Limit your emails to one subject per message. Send multiple

messages if you have multiple subjects. Have you noticed that when

you ask 2 questions in an email, very often only one gets answered?

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5.4. Speeding up replies and writing

• Use email templates/canned responses

If you get a lot of emails that require the same kind of answer,

create a canned response or a template. One click and your message

is ready. Ask your IT department, or Google it to learn how to

create a canned response or template for specific email clients.

• Use text expansion feature or apps

Text expander programs allow you to assign predefined keystrokes

to complete specific words and phrases you use. Whenever you type

that keystroke in, the text expander will type out the complete

word or phrase. Here are some of the most popular text expansion

apps available at the time of writing this guide:

a) iPhone / iPad – iOS built–in feature (Settings/General/

Keyboard/Add new shortcut)

b) TextExpander (Mac)

c) PhraseExpress (Windows)

d) Texter (Windows)

• Use keyboard shortcuts

Find out if your email service has this option. Using keyboard

shortcuts for your most frequently performed actions (compose a

message, reply, reply to all, send, etc.) saves a lot of time, when

you learn how to use them. In a few days they’ll become automatic

for you.

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http://www.smilesoftware.com/TextExpander/

http://www.smilesoftware.com/TextExpander/

http://www.phraseexpress.com/

http://www.phraseexpress.com/

http://texter.en.softonic.com/

http://texter.en.softonic.com/

Try these practical steps yourself to see what works for you, and

experiment with other ideas as well. Remember, the goal is to make email

your tool, not your master.

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Now, when you’re about to finish reading this comprehensive guide and

have already started implementing some of the To-Do’s in each section,

your future success in making your workdays meaningful and reaching

your goals and dreams in life, depends on one major factor, above

everything else – TAKING ACTION.

It doesn’t matter how much we know, how much we learn, or how much

we’re inspired at the present moment, until we start to DO things, nothing

happens.

I’ll share one of my experiences related to this.

Some time ago I started going to a gym after a long break from regular

exercise. In a moment of personal reflection, I had written down physical

fitness as one of my important goals, so I needed to execute on that. So, I

got all prepared, selected a gym, bought a monthly pass and was excited to

start. But within 15 minutes of starting the first exercise, my excitement

was gone!


There I was in the gym, 15 minutes into the exercise and sweating as if I

had been running all day. Well, this is what you expect when you don’t

exercise for a long time, right? I had two thoughts running through my

mind: “What in the world am I doing here? This is so hard I just can’t

stand it anymore,” and “When will this end?”

Have you ever felt like this when starting something new or starting over?

We all struggle with these issues from time to time.

But instantly I remembered two important principles of success that

enabled me to continue and feel better about the pain.

I. Fundamental principles

1. The start may be painful, but it’s worth it in the long

run

The first thing I remembered was the importance of taking action. At first

it seems hard and may bring some pain, but afterwards you’re glad you did

it.

I’ve experienced this before during business startups and even with writing

this guide. Thoughts like, “ Will I succeed?”, “Will anybody like it?” or

“Let’s do some more planning” enter my mind, but these are just

thoughts. The challenge is to not think about the bad things that might

happen if you start, but instead to think about the opportunities you’ll miss

if you DO NOT get started – on something important, meaningful today!

Whether it’s managing your time better, improving your performance at

work, achieving your dreams and goals, starting a business, or enriching

your relationships – don’t wait! Start taking action today!

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CHAPTER 5 - Taking Action


Once you get started, you’ll make progress toward the goal and things will

get better not only at work, but in every area of life. Why? Because small

achievements and victories help you see yourself as a winner (“I can do it”)

and improve your self-image. How you see yourself determines how you

act and what you do, which in the long run either keeps you defeated or

enables you to achieve long-term success in life.

It’s now been quite a while since I started exercising, and as time goes by, I

find myself getting used to the effort and pain, and my first thoughts have

been replaced with these: “I’m glad I got started, it feels so good now,”

and “I’m a winner, since I set a goal and took steps toward achieving it!”

2. Take small steps

The second principle I remembered is this: It’s better to take small steps

toward a goal, then not to take any steps at all. Remember the ancient

Chinese saying, “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.”

In life, there is no such thing as overnight success. Yes, that’s true, in spite

of what you constantly hear in the media and what we all wish. Real

success takes time and diligent effort.

You become successful by doing the right things on a regular basis to move

closer to your goals. Small actions today make a big difference in the long

run.

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be

great!” – Joe Sabah

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In my exercising, I started doing only a few pushups per day, then after a

week I added a new exercise for my back, then the next week I added

another exercise, and so on. It doesn’t matter how many pushups I did

when I started, the main thing was to START exercising. The same goes for

work-related issues. Making one extra call to a client. Coming 5 minutes

earlier to the office. Leaving the office 30 minutes earlier to decrease extra

hours.

Even if all you can do is just 5 minutes a day, do it. Continuous progress is

more important along the way than doing it perfectly. Incremental

improvements each day will bring amazing results over time.

Start with ONE goal today, implementing the principles from the previous

sections. Develop a simple plan of action, and work on it for a few weeks.

You’ll be amazed at the results and will find you have more courage and

energy to work on other goals!

STEP 1: Ask yourself – what one TINY thing can I do today that will

move me closer to this specific goal?

STEP 2: Then do it.

3. Keep going – success takes persistence, patience and

faith

Some goals may take months or even years to accomplish. If you start

working on your goals and dreams today, but don’t see immediate results,

will you continue tomorrow? How much faith and patience will that

require? Successful people don’t stop – they move forward, even if they

don’t see immediate results. They know that if they put in the effort, doing

the right things every day, then results will eventually come.

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The Chinese bamboo is a perfect example of this.

Did you know that the Chinese bamboo shows no growth for 4 years? Once

you plant it, you need to water it, nurture it, and fertilize it every day. But

nothing visible happens the first year. You do the same thing the next year,

and still nothing happens. That’s right, you see no results for 4 long years!

You’re waiting for results, not seeing any evidence of progress. Can you

imagine yourself doing the same things every day, not having any evidence

that your efforts are having any effect? The only thing you know, is that

the result is supposed to come in 4 years. But then what happens on the

fifth year? It’s just awesome! One morning you wake up and see a small

bamboo sprig, then the next day an even bigger one and in 5 weeks it has

grown up to 90 ft. (27 meters)! WOW!

What do you think – did it do all its growing in the last 5 weeks, or was it

growing for 4 years? It’s obvious that the bamboo was growing

underground the whole time – without visible evidence, but it was

growing. It was developing the solid root system necessary to support the

height and weight of the bamboo stalk for a lifetime.

So don’t let your mood, circumstances or people derail you. Get started,

and keep going. You’ll be amazed at what you achieve. And what’s even

more important, is who you’ll eventually become as a result.

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QUICK FIX #11

Increase Your Motivation

1. Share your goals and what you’re working on with 1 or 2 trusted friends

or colleagues. Ask them to keep you accountable. These people who really

care about you will provide the necessary support when you can’t keep

going for some reason. We all need people to help us and inspire us when

we’re stuck.

2. Journal your big and small wins at work and in life in general. When

you feel discouraged or in doubt about your abilities to succeed, or don’t

feel motivated, or don’t believe you can do it, review your previous

accomplishments. It will remind you that you CAN and have done great

and valuable things in the past in spite of the challenges. This is the boost

you need to regain your confidence to keep going.


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II. One quick, but effective thing to do TODAYThis one thing you can implement right away to boost your productivity

and results, even if you have not read the whole guide yet. Follow these

simple steps:

STEP 1: Think about tomorrow and all the tasks you need to perform,

what is expected from you, what stresses you out, etc.

STEP 2: Now, answer this question – “What is ONE thing I absolutely

must do and finish tomorrow?”

From my experience, everyone to whom I ask this question – from CEOs to

entry level assistants – can instantly answer it.

I bet you can, too. Write it down now.

STEP 3: THIS is your first and only task to start your workday with

tomorrow!

Just try it! You’ll be amazed at what this simple question and the resulting

action will do for you.

Other things we’ve discussed will take a bit more time, but you have a

proven framework in your hands to have a meaningful workday, manage

your time wisely and achieve outstanding results with less stress! Go for it,

my friend!

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1. Start every day by preparing your mind and heart

What we put in our minds and hearts everyday determines how we view

ourselves and what we do. As my mentor, Zig Ziglar, has said: “You’re

what you are and you’re where you are because of what has gone into your

mind. You change what you are and you change where you are by

changing what goes into your mind.” As an example, you shouldn’t start

your day by watching the news, since most of it is negative. Instead,

prepare yourself for the day by reading something positive and reflecting

on things that are important to you. Make it a daily routine:

• for 15-30 minutes, read/listen/watch something inspirational,

something that will help you to grow as a person and boost your

confidence, your self-image.

• for 15-30 minutes, reflect on your purpose, your highest priorities,

your goals. Pray, meditate, to fix your mind on what’s important

and relates to your life in general, not only work.


Do it BEFORE you start your day, so you’re able to focus on what’s most

important and prepare yourself for the day’s challenges.

2. Get some physical exercise everyday

If you don’t have exercise in your daily routine, start today. Even if it’s only

5 minutes. Small changes will have a huge impact in the future. It’s not

only about health benefits. As you exercise you prepare your body to work

harder, but you’ll notice that you also have more energy, a better self-

image, you feel happier and can think more clearly to accomplish your

most important things.

3. Read or listen 15 minutes a day to improve your skills,

attitude

If we want to be successful and achieve outstanding results, we need to

constantly improve in what we do and who we are. People who do that

everyday, quickly become high achievers and become more valuable in the

marketplace.

We all have at least 15 spare minutes a day – commuting to work, driving a

car, waiting in line, watching TV, etc. Find a book, a blog, a podcast, or a

CD, and carry it in your phone or car.

Just 15 minutes a day is 90 minutes per workweek, 6 hours per month, 72

hours per year!

This small change in your workday will have a dramatic effect on your

future. This is exactly what I did when I started in sales back in the

nineties, without any experience. I quickly showed exceptional results and

was offered more responsibilities – all because I started implementing the

things I read on the way to the office.

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CHAPTER 6 - BONUS: 15.5 Additional Tips To Boost Productivity


4. Once you promise something – put it in your calendar

immediately

Always write down what you’ve promised someone. Schedule it as a task/

reminder in your calendar immediately. As we discussed earlier, you can’t

keep all this info in your head. You need to see these reminders in your

calendar as you review your commitments for the next day. This builds

your credibility as a person who doesn’t forget and who always delivers

what was promised.

5. Keep notes in one place

Journal your ideas, meetings notes and project progress details, so you can

have everything in one place and don’t have to waste time searching for

them when you need them. Choose the format that’s right for you. I use

Google Docs to keep up with my ideas, plus a physical notebook. Some of

my friends use apps like Evernote. Your choice is up to you. Whatever you

choose, it will save you time when you’re looking for something important.

6. Declutter your desk

There is research that shows that a messy desk can diminish our

productivity and motivation. Our minds tend to defocus and we don’t think

clearly if we have a cluttered desk.

I’ve found for myself, that if I have a mess on my desk, I experience more

anxiety than when things are cleaner and more tidy. It’s also easier to find

things if your desk is uncluttered. Many years ago I personally switched to

a “no paper office” so I have a lot of things in a digital format. But even a

“digital desk” should be organized and uncluttered, since we tend to pile

up a lot of information over time and can’t find what we need quickly.

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Schedule a weekly time to declutter your desk. Throw away papers you

don’t need anymore, organize into piles what you need to keep, if you

prefer to. But don’t allow things to build up. Simplify, and keep it simple.

7. Drink lots of water

Our bodies need water more than food or breaks. Water refreshes the body

and helps keep energy levels high. Drink the recommended amount of

water, based on your specific situation. You might even put a notification

every hour to remind yourself to drink a glass of water, for example. Or put

a full bottle on the table, so you don’t forget.

8. Don’t miss eating times

Don’t skip eating times. I know people who don’t eat breakfast or skip

lunch in order to save time. In my experience it usually brings health

problems in the long run. It may seem ok for now and give us the illusion

that we “save” time to accomplish urgent tasks, but in the long run our

bodies will become exhausted and won’t function properly. Solving that,

will require more time and money than what we gained earlier. Health

issues keep us from achieving our highest priorities and outstanding

results. Keeping our bodies energized and working properly will bring

rewards at work and in life in general.

9. Don’t eat alone, and don’t eat at your desk

When it’s time to eat, do it with somebody else. It will do 3 things for you:

you won’t skip meals, you’ll build or deepen relationships with people

around you, and your mind will get a rest. Combine these activities and use

eating times to build relationships with your colleagues, discuss some

nuances of the upcoming project or idea, etc.

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10. Take short breaks during the day

Our brains and bodies need to recharge, stretch and rest. Some people

might think that taking breaks is a waste of time, that there is not enough

time in the day, already. But the opposite is true. Short breaks every few

hours or after focused periods of work will energize you and increase your

productivity. It doesn’t matter how you spend these breaks, but I encourage

you to move, stretch, and even switch your mind onto something

entertaining, like watching a funny YouTube video.

11. Take a walk for some fresh air

Fresh air is necessary to keep oxygen flowing and in many offices there is

not enough fresh air. If we’re even a little oxygen deprived, our minds and

bodies can’t give peak performance for the entire day. Open windows

occasionally during the day to bring some fresh air in, if you’re allowed to.

Or just take a walk and combine “taking short breaks” and “getting fresh

air”.

Take a brief walk in the fresh air and don’t take your phone with you. Find

a quite place to pray or relax. Breathe deeply, enjoy the weather. Switch

your attention to something completely different. The point is that you

should physically and mentally leave the place where your pile of tasks is

waiting for you.

12. Don’t waste desk time, use idle hours effectively

Our desk time is the time near the computer or time for creative tasks.

While you’re away from your desk – between meetings, commuting to

meetings or to work – try to take care of some routine activities that you

can do without your computer. For example, while you’re waiting for the

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next meeting, you can check your email or read a report. Also, have a list of

things you can do when you idle, so you can use this time effectively too.

On average, we spend 1-2 hours every day in idle mode: waiting in lines, in

traffic jams, commuting to work, between meetings, etc. Have you realized

that? I call this time “idle” time, since you can’t take on complex tasks and

the time seems to be wasted. But actually, there are a number of things you

can do during “idle” time to increase your productivity and effectiveness.

Make your own list and keep it with you.

Here are some ideas:

• Review your life or business goals to help stay focused

• Keep your network alive by being helpful to others. Send a useful

article to your partner, colleague or a client. Or just say how much

you appreciate them

• Read an interesting article related to your work or hobby

13. Plan for 4-5 hours of work a day – it will make you

more focused

The bigger the organization you work for, the more unpredictable the

environment. That means that almost everyday you can expect to have

some urgent and unplanned issues that require your attention.

For that reason, when you plan your next workday, schedule tasks for only

4-5 hours, allowing flexibility time and reducing your stress. It will also

force you to focus on your highest priorities. And if something unplanned

happens, you don’t have to stress, because you have planned some flex

time in the schedule. You can reorganize and still accomplish certain tasks

that day that you needed to work on.

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If nothing urgent or unplanned happens, guess what – you’ll accomplish

more than you planned to during that day or leave work earlier.

14. Break big projects into small steps and then again into

tiny steps

I know personally and from other people’s experience, that big projects can

be overwhelming even before we start them. Just the thought of how many

things need to be done seems overwhelming and we might even avoid the

project entirely, until it becomes a crisis. Instead, break the project into

manageable small steps, then break the steps down into tiny steps –

individual tasks.

The tiny steps are easy to accomplish and may only take a few minutes or

up to an hour. Start small.

15. Don’t forget “clean-up” time

Most of our daily and weekly activities are in essence “projects”, big or

small. The one stage usually missed in planning many projects and

activities is “clean-up”. This is when you finish up and sometimes literally

clean-up after yourself, but sometimes it’s reflecting on the outcomes and

planning your next steps.

Unfinished projects always have to be finished anyway, so you might as

well plan the clean-up stage as part of the project from the start.

Besides other benefits, it will help you save time and improve your overall

results, since you can start the next project without the stress of an

unfinished previous one keeping you from being able to focus on the new

one.

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For example:

Meetings

Don’t schedule meetings directly back-to-back. Instead, you

might schedule 30 minutes before a meeting as preparation time and

30 minutes afterwards as clean-up time.

While things are fresh in your mind, write some emails as follow-up

and schedule your next actions based on the outcomes discussed.

If you cannot avoid back-to-back meetings, then take good notes and

do the clean-up for several meetings after the last one. The principle

is, be sure to schedule in specific time to clean up after meetings

before the day is over.

Marketing campaigns

After a marketing campaign is over, schedule specific time to reflect on

the outcomes, to analyze online and offline statistics, to prepare

reports and presentations of the results, and to discuss with the

team what went well and what went wrong in the planning,

preparation and execution of the campaign.

Create a clear plan for improvements for the next campaigns, as part

of the clean-up of this one, while the details are fresh in everybody’s

minds.

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15.5. Digital Detox

Most of us have become heavy users of technology and are so attached to

our smartphones, that we need a regular digital detox – staying away from

electronic devices to rest, regain energy and connect with others in more

meaningful ways.

Have you considered staying completely away from any technology at all in

the evenings or maybe on weekends or maybe even on vacations? Get away

and spend time with nature for a few days without your smartphone (you

might want to have a simple mobile phone for emergencies) and recharge.

Call your friends and meet face-to-face, reconnect with them in other ways

that will deepen your relationship. Don’t allow technology to steal that

from you. I’m convinced that we all need to regain control of our lives in

the midst of modern day distractions, especially digital ones.

If we don’t control technology, technology will control us

I hope you’ve enjoyed this guide and are already implementing many of

the ideas in it to make your workday meaningful!

If it has helped you, make sure friends and your family know its available.

Let’s stay connected. I would love to hear your unique story and your

journey.

Have a meaningful workday! :)

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Any questions?

If you have questions or comments or if I can be helpful in any way – reach

out to me via social media or by email. I’ll be happy to help.

Visit my personal website:

www.AndreySergeyev.com

Visit one of my blogs:

www.timewiser.com

Connect with me on social media:

Twitter.com/AndreySergeyev

LinkedIn.com/in/AndreySergeyev

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INTRODUCTION


Andrey Sergeyev is an Entrepreneur, Digital

Business & Leadership Expert, Motivational

Speaker, Author and Ziglar Legacy Certified Trainer

with almost 20 years of unique international

business experience from startups to helping build

multi-million dollar businesses.

Currently Andrey speaks at various conferences, start-up and corporate

events, and lead workshops around the world on topics of Personal

Effectiveness, Leadership in the Digital Future and Digital Transformation

& Strategy. He also enjoys to advise and train senior executives, business

leaders and entrepreneurs from different industries in Europe, Russia and

the USA on leadership, improving business results and building competitive

business in the Digital Age.









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Have a Meaningful Workday - Guide