We recently hosted a Lunch & Learn with Dave Jesiolowski- he focus on the mistakes we make when managing our time. We snagged this post from Forge Member Jacqui Jones. Check out the original blog post here.
Wednesday, November 7th, I had the opportunity to attend a great lunch & learn at Forge in Birmingham, AL lead by Dave Jesiolowski. I had to be at this one because as I scale my business, time management becomes a tricky thing. When he started by saying, “I know we are all lacking in vitamin E, execution” I knew I was in the right place.
He gave the things that we as entrepreneurs do that plummet our time management. There, of course, were portions where I felt “I’ve heard this before.” But there were moments of “aha!” Hopefully, it will help you the way it helped me.
Mistake #1: You don’t know your “why.”
I get up and go to my desk at Forge every single day. I’ll be the first to say; I’ve never just written down my “why.” I have a “why,” but I’ve never taken time to clarify it in the way that Dave described. He encouraged us to post our “why” everywhere. If there is a different “why” in different spaces for you, give yourself those reminders. You may have a “why” for home and one for work. Maybe you even have a “why” for the space where you get dressed. These reminders speak to your reason for staying on track. If my “why” for showing up at work by 745a every morning is because I want to grow my company to a size that can employ others and make a difference in the lives of those in my community, I need to give myself that reminder. If my “why” for leaving my work bag in the car is so that I can achieve uninterrupted and distraction-free time with my family, I may need that reminder.
In his book, “One Decision Can,” he has created what he calls success formulas. The formulas ask important questions that lead you to a well-defined “why.” I bought a book and can’t wait to get into and create my own. (I promise to come back and review my experience.)
Mistake #2: You have too many distractions and temptations.
This reason was one of those things I had heard before. But, you really can never have too many reminders that distractions are everywhere. Dave talked about how marketers are amazingly efficient and creating distractions in people’s lives all day every day. Though that’s my industry, I didn’t hang my head in shame. The agencies he was speaking about will have ads showing up in your mailbox from a google search you made last week. I’m good. But, I’m not on that level of creating distractions.
For myself, however, I found a dilemma. A part of my job is notifications. I don’t manage as many accounts as I once did now that my team has grown. But, I do still have a few. So, this one, though a common time management call-out, may be a challenge for me personally. He even talked about how we let people take over our calendars with the “do you a minute” and “can we talk this afternoon” type approaches. I am guilty of letting people take over my calendar daily. Dave made it clear that if I want to reach the goals I’ve set for the day, I have to be willing to say “no.”
Mistake #3: You don’t have accountability.
You may be thinking that this is a more common call-out as well. It was, but it wasn’t. We know that we all need accountability, but he was talking about new methods of self-accountability. He mentioned that during coaching sessions he has clients create a scorecard for their perfect day. He said, “we do things for pain or gain.” Because of that, on the scorecard, you put what you gain by doing a thing and what pain you’re caused when you don’t. Having a scorecard and keeping a record should allow you to be able to track more specifically why you’re getting the results that you are.
Your scorecard appears in all spaces. If you’re trying to lose weight and you are tracking what you eat every day, looking back over the week or month of your detailed tracking should show you exactly what habits are leading you there. I thought this was a great way to put it. It spoke, not only to tracking your actions, but to analyzing your data. That’s the part that I feel most people miss. I know I do.
I will have a one-on-one call with Dave in the near future, and I’m excited to do so. Coaching is an important part of growing and developing as a business owner, but even as a person. This is something I’ve always known as a coach for business owners and entrepreneurs as it pertains to marketing and developing a strong brand foundation. But, as I said in “Entrepreneurship Starts in the Mind,” there is more than doing the work that one must consider if you want success… repeatedly.
