One recurring trait of uber successful business owners it is their ability to manage their time and set aside time for high-pay, highly-productive activities.
In this video, Dr. Melissa Gratias is interviewed by Brandon Lewis, Founder and Mentor-in-Chief at The Academy for Professional Painting Contractors and publisher of Painters Weekly, a magazine for painting contractors.
How should a small business owner think about their calendar? How important is it…beyond just noting your appointments?
The video is 45 minutes long, and Melissa answers the following questions:
1. I’d like to talk about your new eBook – Love Your Calendar and Be Monogamous. If I have found one recurring trait of uber successful owners it is their ability to manage their time and set aside time for high-pay, highly-productive activities. Talk about how you like to think about a small business owner’s calendar and how important it is.
2. In your eBook you talk about Red Flag Behaviors as it relates to managing your calendar. What are they?
3. Talk about the need to Build Fences and set boundaries for your available time.
4. Anyone can build fences and time block, but keeping those commitments is hard. Everything and everyone – including the owner himself – is constantly trying to break the commitments. How can you keep them?
5. So, once you’ve set aside time to do certain things or reach certain goals, how do you make sure you get the most out of the time you spend working? How do you use your time well and anticipate routine setbacks?
6. For a long time, employers recommended and even recruited for the skill of multitasking. You’ve studies this concept and its evolution closely – what can you share?
7. We know the best tool for managing our time is a calendar, but when you are evaluating what type of calendaring system to use, what should you consider?
8. You draw a parallel between time and money in your eBook and advocate that they should be managed similarly. Can you unpack that concept and how it relates to running a small business?
9. When it comes to managing time as if it were money, what are some helpful questions owners can ask? Are there any exercises or tools that can be beneficial?
10. Often, when running a small business, several people are influencing and altering the owner’s calendar – directly or indirectly. What are your best practice suggestions when more than one person is responsible for creating and committing to calendared activities?
11. If you had any last thoughts to share with our owners while they still have a quiet period – before the oncoming spring rush kicks into high gear – what would they be?
12. Melissa, you’ve been so very, very kind with your time. Tell folks how they can find more of your resources or reach out to you?
13. Thanks Melissa, for sharing over two decades of wisdom with us on the topics of organization and productivity. And thank you, my APPC members, for tuning in to another Ask the Expert Call. I’m Brandon Lewis, signing off.
Are you ready to feel balanced and effective at work and in life?
Read my eBook Love Your Calendar…and be monogamous.
Melissa Gratias (pronounced “Gracious”) used to think that productivity was a result of working long hours. And, she worked a lot of hours. Then, she learned that productivity is a skill set, not a personality trait. Now, Melissa is a productivity expert who coaches and trains other businesspeople to be more focused, balanced, and effective. She is a prolific writer and speaker who travels the world helping people change how they work and improve how they live. Contact her at getproductive@melissagratias.com or 912-417-2505. Sign up to receive her productivity tips via email.
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