Welcome to this week’s Winformation, in it’s new 6-week trial slot of Sunday morning! If this slot doesn't quite “do it for you” then don’t blame me, blame my good friend who has a very successful newsletter, and who swears by Sunday as the “Hollywood day to post”.  

If you’ve seen my socials recently you will see my wife and I got married...16 months after the official tying of the knot (so my unwell Dad could be there), we had our big wedding day last month. With it came my first 2 weeks off since April 2007. Mad really if you think about it. We took our boys away and enjoyed time together. It really got me thinking about trying to find more time to do exactly that. To achieve this though I need to make sure when I’m “on” every second counts, condensing my working time into more productive sessions to allow for longer periods of time I’m “off”. With that in mind I look at the tools I have always been shown (by some pretty clued up coaches) when it comes to time management below in todays One Idea to Win in Life.

We are now planning a honeymoon, so if you have any good self development books I might not have heard of, or read...hit reply and let me know your recommendations. I reply to every email.

I swear if I see one more post from Business / Entrepreneurship Content Creator about the power of “saying no” I’m going to stand outside Waterloo station with my phone in the air waiting for an electric scooter to whizz by and take it. Someone digs up a Steve Jobs quote from the 80s about saying no to opportunities that don’t align with your goals and people post about for years. There’s obvious issue here...he’s Steve Jobs, operating Apple, we, unfortunately, aren’t. If I said no to everything that didn’t align with my immediate goals, then my goals wouldnt have changed for the better over the years. I discuss this below in today’s One Idea to Win in Business.

One Idea to Win in Business

The Truth About “No” Nobody Posts on Instagram

If you land on any "success guru's" socials at the moment, the chances are they have posted something recently about the "power of saying no".  

We've all seen the content, many times over. "No is a complete sentence", "my mask will be on first" among other variations which may or may not include profanities to really drive the likes, comments and shares. 

15 Years In Business  

In a way, I agree with the sentiment, let's face it, the quickest win in time management is simply not agreeing to something in the first place. But, I have the luxury now of 15 long hard years in business operation and entrepreneurship.  

These days, I wouldn't be serving our 120+ team or my young family at home for that matter if I didn't politely decline meetings, events and invitations that meant my time was focussed on things that weren't in their best interests. And in there lies the danger for the early year entrepreneurs following my more seasoned example of saying no to more things than I used to. 

 50/50 Opportunities  

You see it's not always been this way. When I was in my mid 20s and our business was just 2 people, then 4, how many opportunities or invitations to things do you think I turned down? Not many.  

 Where would I be if I said "no" more than "yes" a decade ago? No where near where I am now. Saying yes to an event or a project that you aren't 100% sure on is absolutely key when developing your service, product and building your network. You never know what will come of saying yes to opportunities that at best look 50/50 to start with. 

Are the entrepreneur influencers and coaches wrong for suggesting you need to protect your most valuable resource, your time? Of course not. BUT...please remember its easy for someone to preach the art of saying no to people when they ask their Executive Assistant to do so on their behalf, whilst they sit in their multi-million house. On the way up, my guess is there were many more yeses than otherwise! They simply weren't posting this back in 2010! 

One Idea to Win in Life

Why Most Managers Are Miserable and How to Lead Instead

First things first. Time management doesn't exist in the way people think it does. You can’t manage time, you can only manage yourself. In new policy of when I’m “on I’m on, and when I’m off, I’m off” time is for using or losing and the clock is always ticking. Having focus and intention on what you want to achieve on any given day can help you get the most out of it...even if that is just playing in the garden with the kids. If you’re going to rest, do it properly in the time you decide to give to it. So here are tips on how to better use time. 

Ruthless prioritisation. The Eisenhower Matrix is a very simple method to distinguish between what is urgent and what is important tasks. Many things are important. They will contribute to your long-term goals. But if something is urgent – either a pressing deadline or an emergency – it takes priority. If you have nothing urgent to deal with then focus on high-impact activities that drive growth or solve key problems. As mentioned above, save time also for those “wildcard yeses”.  

Understand what you are committing to. If you are saying yes to a piece of work that requires time, then it needs to align with your long-term ambitions and goals. Remember you can delegate or outsource activity that is not aligned in this way. 

Make your goals SMART. You can go off spending a lot of time chasing a lot or rabbits. It can be fun, but it can be time consuming and tiring. Saying you want to run more isn’t a SMART goal. Saying you want to run a 10k in less than an hour by January 2006 is a SMART goal. Not only is it clearer, but it also helps you focus your time on a clear target. 

Practice the 80/20 Rule. Known as the Pareto Principal. This is about identifying the 20% of tasks that produce 80% of your results. If we are honest, it’s easier t’s much easier to work on a sales presentation than to make 20 sales calls. But if 80% of your business comes from 20% of your client base, it’s probably an idea to prioritise the look for additional clients. 

Be Agile. It’s great when something works.  I mean, the fax machine was an awesome idea, but we don’t use it now because things have moved on. So, reflect and adjust weekly to look at how you spend your time. Unlike money, you can’t earn it back. 

Win or Wonder?

Ask Me a Question…

No matter where you are on this mad journey. Starting out, scaling up, or somewhere in the messy middle feel free to ask me anything.

Business, life or mindset, I read and reply to every question. The best ones will get featured in future editions of Winformation, with your permission of course!

To ask, just hit “reply”, type your question and send. That’s it. No forms. No fuss.

Until next week! 

Let’s win, together!