Don’t teenagers have an advantage when it comes to multitasking?
They grew up in a technology-driven world, right?
They pop out of the womb with the ability to send 100 text messages per minute.
By the age of two they have mastered the zen art of the Wii.
At age four, they can create a spreadsheet in Excel for calculating the statistical probability of getting no green M&Ms in a bag of candy.
Don’t they have the ability to multitask?
Tim Mai and his brother escaped Vietnam on a fishing boat in 1986. Tim has become a master of helping people automate their Real Estate businesses. He built a substantial empire starting from literally nothing, so he’s very careful about how he invests his time and his money.
He tells people my Get Time coaching was one of the best investments he ever made in his business.
He is truly one of the happiest people in the world. It’s nearly impossible to spend any time with Tim to not start smiling yourself!
He’s smiling even more after completing my Get Time Coaching. Watch this video to see why.
IMPORTANT NOTE: These results ARE typical!
Learn more about my Two Day Productivity Miracle by CLICKING here.
Audio-Only Link (MP3): Does Your Schedule Hold Water? by Dave Crenshaw
Text transcript:
Good morning. I would like to share with you that it does relate to your productivity and it has to do with this: [holds up water] I have got a pitcher of water filled up.
This morning when I went to the sink to wash my hands I needed to use this pitcher of water. We live in a fairly new community and that means that sometimes development work needs to take place and in this case they had to do some work on the water mains. They did a great job of preparing us in advance. There was a big sign outside of our community, big flashing light that said, “This is the date that we are going to be working on the water, you are not going to have any water from 9 am to 9 pm and be prepared.”
My wife of course took note of that, is always very prepared and last night we got together lots of pitchers of water like this, filled them up so that we would have plenty for water for today.
Now, what does that have to do with your schedule? Think about the things in your calendar that you know are upcoming, that you know are going to be significant and may take a lot of time to work on. Have you put enough room in your calendar to deal with those things? Not just the actions that need to take place, but the switches that take place and the transition time that needs to take place. Do you have enough water in your pitchers for these kinds of events?
I will give you a personal example. In a few weeks, a very exciting event is going to take place in my entire family’s life, which is we are going to have a daughter and this is very exciting. My little boy is excited about it, my wife is excited about it, I am excited about it. But I had to put room in my schedule to be prepared for this. Not that I can predict with a 100% accuracy when she is going to come-because, hey, when the baby wants to come, she is going to come-but I did leave an entire week in my schedule completely open. I am refusing to schedule anything for myself during that time that is most likely to for her to be born. This gives me plenty of buffer space, plenty of water in my pitcher so that I am prepared in advance for that event.
You have events like that that are coming up in a month, in two months, three months, maybe even a year. You can put plenty of water in your pitcher and make sure that you have got lots and lots of space to be prepared for it so that you don’t come up on that time and realize that you have packed your schedule so full that there is no room for air.
You can be in control of your time and this is something that I help my clients do every single day. Thank you for listening. It’s an honor to serve you.
Audio-Only Link (MP3): It’s a Better Use of Time to Give than Receive
Text transcript:
This is Dave Crenshaw. I am here at Beautiful Sundance in Utah. You can see behind me we have got the amazing stream. I just got done with a group called NetWeave and this was started by my good friend Jason Payne who is an outstanding financial planner and someone with the highest integrity that I know. [Dave's note: this informal group was created by Scott Asbell of Rocky Mountain Mortgage, as well. The term NetWeaving comes from a book by Robert S. Little and Donna Fisher]
I just wanted to share a principle with you that really came to my mind when we were spending all this time with NetWeave. The whole point of this group was to find ways to serve others. “They” always say that it is better to give than to receive. I certainly agree with that for so many reasons; but it is also more efficient and productive to give than to receive and here is why.
There were 18 people in that room and if we had spent our time in that room trying to convince each other how wonderful we were or trying to talk about “why you should do business with me,” it would have been extremely unproductive, it would have been a waste of all that time. But instead everyone in the group focused on how they could do things and serve each other during that time and we got lots done. I have a list of probably 40 different actions items that I can take away from that group. It’s just such a powerful principle.
The next time that you are in a situation where you can get to know people and you want to do business, you want to improve your business, remember that it’s better for you to give and more productive to give than to receive.
I once overheard a business owner say that he felt more productive
when he took a vacation, though not for the reasons one might expect.
He explained that he worked in a whirlwind just before the vacation to
make sure everything was taken care of before he left. Then, when he
returned, he had to work even harder to catch up with all the things he
missed while he was away! He then jokingly suggested that perhaps he
should take a vacation every week.
Are you prepared to take a vacation? As we enter the holiday sea
son
this is a critical productivity question to consider. While many people
vacation is a nice, relaxing break from routine, for others vacation is
extremely stressful and is more a nightmare than a “dream come true.”
Consider the following action steps to help make your next vacation time a blessing instead of a curse:
I sometimes tell my clients 
something that raises a few eyebrows: procrastination can actually be a good thing. In fact, I encourage
clients to procrastinate as much as they possibly can.
First, let me explain when procrastination obviously doesn’t work. If
you do not have solid personal systems for calendaring and dealing with
the flow of information into your life, then when you procrastinate you
are depending on your mind to remind you of when it is time to do
things. This is a problem because your mind will remind you of things
at inappropriate times and inappropriate
places. You will miss appointments and miss responsibilities. For those
who do not have solid personal systems, procrastination is a very, very
bad idea.
However, for those who have a solid
calendaring system and the accountability to follow through on that
schedule, procrastination is a very valuable and necessary tool. The
person who doesn’t procrastinate or schedule low priorities into the
distant future ends up running headlong into what we call the Truth of
Time.
The Truth of Time says that there are only 24 hours
in a day. If you do not procrastinate low priority items by scheduling
them into the future, you will always be short on time and find
yourself stressed out at the end of every day wondering if you really
accomplished anything at all.
You must have three things in place in order for procrastination to be your ally:
While I do not consider myself a “computer professional,” I often find myself poking around my clients’ computers. Since productivity is so closely tied to technology, I’m often investigating the little hiccups that are costing business executives big money.
Sooner or later, I hear some form of this question: “Why has my computer been running slow?”
This is not an insignificant issue. If computer slowdowns rob you of just 2% of your overall work time, and you work 40 hours per week, then you are losing an entire work week (41.5 hours) every year just twiddling your thumbs waiting for your web browser to start up!
There are many potential problems that can make your computer have a case of the doldrums. However, here are the top five culprits for you to examine:
A question I often hear when training new clients is: “What cell
phone should I buy? What’s the best choice for me, among all the
options?”
While there is no one universal
answer, there is one flavor of phone that has proven to be the best
option for productivity, and that is a Windows-based Smartphone. While
the make and models vary, the “guts” of these phones are the same. They
all run a mobile variation of the familiar Windows operating system. Be
aware that each cell phone provider sells a different selection of
Windows based Smartphones. In my case, my provider is T-Mobile, and I
use a T-Mobile Dash. For other providers there are many excellent
options such as a Motorola Q or the Palm 700W series
.
Smartphones make an excellent choice for productivity because they
communicate almost flawlessly with Windows based programs, in
particular Microsoft Outlook. Since Windows is by far the most
universal system in business, the Smartphone is a logical choice. When
you connect your Smartphone to a computer, not only does it charge, but
all of the contacts, tasks, and calendar items, transfer immediately
and effortlessly from your computer to your phone. Because the phone
itself is based on a Windows system, the menus are familiar and easy to
use. Additionally, for those who prefer to receive their email via
phone, Windows Smartphones can handle all your email needs with ease.
There are other types of phones that people often ask me about, and
I’ll explain briefly why I don’t find these to be as valuable in terms
of productivity.
Android (Droid, G1, etc.)
Google’s Android operating system for mobile devices is Open Source.
What does open source mean? Simplified it means “free to use.” Companies
like Verizon, Nokia, and HTC don’t need to pay Google to install the OS on
thier phones. This is a big reason why you are going to see a LOT more
Android-based phones in the coming year. Android is very similar to the
iPhone in terms of user experience but edges it out slightly in terms of true
business productivity. If you are already using Google (a fairly good system)
for your calendar,contacts, and tasks , then this is a no-brainer: get an
Android based phone.
Blackberry
– The Blackberry was the beneficiary of good marketing, and the term
Blackberry is often mistakenly used to describe any kind of Smartphone.
I would have to say that a Blackberry is a solid second place performer
when it comes to productivity. However, it doesn’t sync as seamlessly
with Outlook, and because the menu features are so different, some
people find it difficult to use Blackberries. You may find just a
mental switching cost increase because of trying to think about the
differences between using a computer and using a Blackberry phone.
However, it does handle tasks, contacts, and calendar items fairly
well, and I do have a few clients who use them with success.
Palm
- Without reservation I discourage people from using a Palm-based
phone for productivity. First of all, the sync and communication
between Palm-based phone and a Windows based computer is poor and
unpredictable. This tricky relationship between Palm and Windows is
bound to cause lots of problems, and be a tech support nightmare in the
long run. Palm does include software for your desktop, but this
software is poorly designed and places too many arbitrary limits on how
you organize your life. (For example, Palm not allowing a large number
of custom categories, something I find is essential for good
productivity techniques.) The biggest problem though with a palm is
the system itself. Essentially, Palm based phones and planners are
using a technology that is over a decade old. It may have been cutting
edge in 1996, but now it is slow and it is cumbersome, and I find it
difficult for most people to use.
iPhone
- There is a lot to love about the iPhone, in terms of its visual
appeal and its tactile response. It is a beautiful, eye-catching phone
that is fairly easy to use. However, iPhone was built primarily for
multimedia such a music, videos, and web surfing. Clients I have worked
with who have the iPhone bump up against Apple not putting much thought
into the productivity tools of contacts, tasks, and calendar. Also,
while the iPhone syncs with Mac’s iCal program and even Microsoft
Entourage, the sync is very questionable and has many missing features
that are a frustration for my clients. Trying to sync an iPhone with
Microsoft based operating system is even more problematic. iPhone does
have one advantage, in that it comes with the “Visual Voicemail”
feature, allowing you to read the “gist” of voicemails without having
to listen to them. (However, a similar feature can be added to any
phone at www.youmail.com.) The bottom line: if you are interested
in impressing your friends and watching videos and surfing the
Internet with your phone, then the iPhone is a fun choice. If you are
interested in using your phone to enhance your productivity and stay
on top of all the things that you need to do, the iPhone is limited.
Please also watch this video for more information:
http://www.davecrenshaw.com/blog/video-training-how-to-avoid-getting-lost-in-translation/
Updated Nov 11, 2009
- Added information about Android
- Recommended YouMail instead of CallWave
- Added link to video
