Do You Have The Time?

A couple of posts back I talked about books I've been reading. Jean-Paul Francoeur (owner of the coolest fitness forum on the web - check it out at: http://forums.jpfitness.com/) made a comment about taking advantage of audiobooks as a way to learn while maximizing your time. It got me thinking about my time management strategies. Here are a few that you can use:

• Audiobooks. I NEVER travel without listening to some educational CD. Maybe I'm boring, but I'm also much smarter than I was 2 years ago because of it. Great way to maximize your time.
• Raise your prices. If you want to make $2000 per week that's 40 sessions at $50 per session or about 26 sessions at $75 per session. If you do hour sessions, you just saved 14 hours.
• Do semi-private training. Same concept. It increases the value of your time so you can spend less time and make the same amount of money.
• Outsource. Hire a virtual assistant. Don't spend your time doing stuff that doesn't pay you well. Bookkeeping, mowing the lawn, shoveling snow, running errands, etc. I would suggest focusing your time and efforts on the "high return" activities and delegating the rest. You'll make more money and save a ton of time.
• Create a passive income stream. Autoship supplements, an e-book, etc. Something that you set up and will run itself for the most part.
• Get up 1 hour earlier. If you do your most important tasks early you will get much more accomplished because the "typical daily tasks" won't get in the way.
• Use a planner. Write everything down or use outlook. You shouldn't waste time trying to remember what it was that you were supposed to get done.
• Do a "brain dump" at the end of each day. Write down all the things you want to get done the next day while they're fresh on your mind. It will also give you peace of mind before you go to sleep.
• Do backward planning. Set goals and work backwards from them until you get to your current state. The make incremental progress each day. If something comes up that isn't consistent with you log-term goals...Don't waste time on it.
• Prioritize the stuff you dumped the night before each morning and do the most important thing first.
• Set appointments for everything. If your clients get specific time, why do the other important things in your life get "whatever is left over."
• Don't check your e-mail every hour or two. That goes for the phone as well. Just because someone has your number or e-mail address doesn't mean they own your time. Respond when it's convenient to you.
• Make everyone leave specific messages. No message - no return call. Who wants to walk into something "blind." A message allows you to prepare yourself for what ever might be asked of you.

I'll continue with more later on but I have my workout scheduled at 11:45 so I gotta go...