I devote a lot of space on this blog talking about productivity. Most recently, I showed you how to spot the productivity leaks in your life.
But today, let's talk about TIME, or rather how you spend it.
Let's face it, every one gets the same 24 hours in each day, but how you spend that time will make the difference between success and failure in your business.
So let's get clear what I'm talking about here.
- I'm not talking about the time you spend on your job. It is what it is.
- I'm not talking about Family Time, although my advice would be to be very generous here, since family comes first.
- I'm not even talking about your You Time, that time you reserve just for yourself to relax, unwind and have fun.
No, the time I'm talking about is Business Time – that time you devote to growing and developing your home business.
And with that time, I have one message:
Be Ruthless!
I have a pretty hectic life. I work full time in a medical laboratory, usually 10 hours per day.
By the time I drive home, have dinner and spend some time with the family, I generally only get 2 hours (at most 3) to work on growing my Part Time Network Marketing business.
I love to learn and the first company I promoted had a huge internet and network marketing training program. I mean, they had webinars or conference calls almost every night of the week!
So what do you think happened?
Being a person who believes 100% in the transformational power of learning, I just couldn't help myself.
- I jumped on every conference call, looking to learn more.
- I was on every webinar, regardless of the topic. I just wanted to soak it all in!
- I read and listened to everything and anything I could get my hands on. I just couldn't get enough.
So with all this knowledge, you'd think I was killing it in my business, right?
Wrong!
There Was a Big Problem!
The problem wasn't that I wanted to learn or grow as a marketer — that is usually considered a very good trait.
The problem was this: Unfocussed Learning and my inability to Say No.
By trying to learn everything available to me, I because mediocre at many and expert at none.
To make matters worse, I became so overwhelmed with information that I had no time to apply what I learned.
I was working hard, but I wasn't working smart, one of the 9 Killers of a Part Time Network Marketing Business.
Why am I telling you this story?
Because you need to understand something very clearly:
If you're going to effectively grow your business part time, you will not only have to focus — you will have to BE RUTHLESS with your time.
So for you, what does this mean?
- It means being very selective in what skills you choose to learn, and focusing on one or two at most.
- It means not always purchasing the next best information product that promises to take your business to the moon and back (unless that's where you wish to go!) 🙂
- It means thinking twice (or even 3 times) before you commit to attending the next webinar or training call advertised online.
Ask yourself the question, “Is this going to help me in my business this week?”
If not, you probably want to use your time more wisely.
Marketing Takeaway
If you want to propel your business forward on a consistent basis, you'll need to become ruthless with your limited time.
Spend the majority of time focusing your efforts on things that will help you build your business in the short term, but be careful not to neglect longer term facets of your business like personal development.
Be very protective of your time, use it wisely, work smart and watch your business flourish.
15 replies to "Be Ruthless!"
We all know that time management is important but it’s not really easy to manage time especially when we have tons to do and we only have so much hours that we have to divide to spend on these tasks. I think this article will be very helpful to instill the value of time management in all of us readers. If we just make the extra effort to practice this, we should all reap the rewards! Thanks again for the share, Doc Bob! 🙂
Awesome post, Dr. Bob! We often take time for granted knowing we’ll have more of it the next day. At my age, I have wasted a lot of time that I regret were not productive. Now I have realized that time management sure is the key to success in a lot of things. We only make the most out of the time we have if we are productive. Thanks for sharing this with us!
Very well said. We often underestimate the value of time management, from this day on call me ruthless and entirely convinced that every moment counts. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Joy!
I really admire people who are able to balance time very well. This is a lot of people are really struggling. Being ruthless absolutely makes sense. Every minute of every hour of every day should count. Nothing should be wasted. Every single second is precious.
Hi there Meg, I just want to know how did you avoid bad actions that did not affect your self?
Great story! Thanks for sharing your story about Ruthless. Your problems have some similarity on my experiences too.
Thanks, Mika. What specifically have you experienced?
Bob, thanks for sharing the hard work ethic that you have with us. I didn’t realize you worked that many hours, but it looks like I’m in good company: I work full-time in one job and part-time in my own independent contractor position as a licensed therapist. So I have to be ruthless with my time as well. I’m currently reading Leo Babauta’s Power of Less in order to become more effective at doing more with less. You’ve given me some additional inspiration! Thank you 🙂
Hi, Dr Bob,
Well,answering to your last question-yes, this will help me with my business week, because when I visit your blog I always manage to learn something from your own experience. And those kinds of lessons are always the best ones!
Thanks for warning us – we really have to be organized with our time and ruthless-there is nothing wrong with saying “no” in business…especially when it comes to creating and spending more time with your family. Family comes first, then comes business. We cannot say NO to our family, but we can say it to our business.
Ruthless indeed! Both in blocking out time, in clearing distractions, and as you mentioned in swatting away all the crap we don’t need to learn RIGHT NOW (but think we do!) That’s the ticket! We can get an awful lot done in a few short hours when we’re willing to be ruthless but most people really aren’t and its all the distractions that get them in such a bind that they don’t know how to even start! Thanks for the great reminders Bob!
Kim
I totally agree with what you say here. There is a wealth of information available to us nowadays. So many people willing to teach us. When i came to blogging everywhere i went on line there was information being thrown at me. After a while I decided my best way forward was to learn the old fashioned way by trial and error. I determined what the must do’s were for blogging and made sure i scheduled time for them. The results, so far, i dare say are reasonably satisfactory. So yes focus on the important stuff
Bob,
I see that we share the same principles 🙂
I used to buy a product after a product and even now, I have some programs/e-books I never used.
Figuring out things from your business perspective is very powerful.
Another powerful way to realize all the programs you currently own (and haven’t used) is to make a list of them in Excel (or other spreadsheet). Looking at your list first makes you think twice before putting money on another program.
I have a list like this (mainly to track my expenses) and I’m able to see that I already own bunch of products that should be finished first. This at least slows down my urge to buy another program 🙂
Timo
WELL and TRUE said Bob.
As I have also seen many who are just keeping themsleves busy evertime in doing ALL the thing which is in real sense call as UNWANTED thing and waste most of time behind it.
I am not saying that keep learning all is BAD but keep learning ALL the time is BAD i.e. if we don’t put our learned thing into ACTION then all becomes waste just like one BOOK with lots of informative stuff are left forgotten in one corner of our room but no one is reading it.
So it must that what we LEARN, we put it into ACTION and then move to next.
Really, time management is the key to a long term success. If you can manage and maximize your time well, everything will flow smoothly.
Thanks sir Bob for their great tip 🙂