Never Be Late Again!

4 Ways to Ensure You'll Be On Time From Now Until Forever

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If you've ever been told, "You'll be late for your own funeral," being late might be a chronic problem standing in the way of your success. Arriving "just in time" or a few minutes late means you're out of breath and unnecessarily stressed. 

Being late says "I value my time and myself more than I value you." Even if that's not what you're trying to say. Even if you're a hot disorganized mess and being late has absolutely nothing to do with the person cooling their heels waiting for you.

Would you love to solve the problem of being late, and turn yourself into a person who is on time? Would you like to stop apologizing for being late, and turn into the person who has a few moments to check email or return a call in your car before heading into that meeting? I can assure you that allowing plenty of time to arrive at meetings, networking lunches, and other important events will reduce your stress to almost zero. You're going to love the feeling you have when you sail into your next meeting with ten minutes to spare!

Are you ready for your time makeover? Okay, fabulous ... let's begin!

5 Tip Friday: Success Made Simple

One word to describe how I work: Intentionally.

Apps, software, tools I can't live without: My iPhone, MacBook Air & MacBook Pro, and iPad. Evernote and iTunes are my go-tos. I carry a stylus so I can take notes in Penultimate, which syncs with Evernote.

My favorite way to do a project: From start to finish. Reality: I have to use Brain Surgery Time to get my books written and other important projects completed on time.

My AM Routine: To make sure my attitude is right on target, I read for 20-30 minutes, followed by a 20-25 minute workout routine {I alternate cardio and weights} 6 days a week. On the seventh day, I rest, recharge and rejuvenate. I'm currently following Tim Ferriss's 4 Hour Body Program as my eating reference.

Best time saving tip: There are several, and today's share is: answer emails once a day, at the end of the day. Have an auto-responder that tells people how to reach you in the event of something {truly} urgent or emergent.

The best advice I've ever received: Play to win, instead of playing not to lose.

You Must Delegate to Succeed

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Most small business owners and service professionals are doing way too many things that they could be delegating to someone else. Are you in this category? Often the excuse used is that there are not enough financial resources to justify the expense, or they feel it's just faster to complete the tasks themselves. Even if you have an assistant, chances are you are most likely massively under-utilizing them.

Usually you will find that when you invest in having an expert -- like a bookkeeper, graphic artist, or (virtual) assistant -- do what they are good at, they do it quicker and better and usually at an affordable rate allowing you to do what you do best: bring in new business and create work product you can bill for producing. Or, you "spend" the time to train your assistant to execute simple but necessary tasks, the return on that time investment is well worth it. Again, this allows you to focus on those aspects of your business that only you can do. If you've evaluated your marketing efforts and determined where you need to focus, the next logical step is to determine what you should not be doing, and who could be doing it. (If not, go here.)

Ask yourself these questions:

• What am I doing that it would be better, faster and more cost-effective for someone else to do?
• List 3 things I can delegate to others, or pay for others to do.
• What would be best for me to stop doing? In other words, what are the tasks that are simple enough to delegate, or are tasks are not in your wheel-house (such as bookkeeping, legal work, filing, faxing, copying, etc.).

This effective evaluation should reveal to you many tasks that can and should be delegated to your team. No high level professional should send faxes, make copies and appointments, or run errands. They just shouldn't! Your time is better spent marketing, planning, meeting with potential clients, and executing sweet-spot, high-revenue generating activities.

Your assistant is there to assist you! I suggest to my clients that they make a list of items that need to be completed and then meet for a.m. and p.m. meetings to delegate those items, and then check in at the next meeting for the status.

Don't have a team? You can hire a virtual or personal assistant, get an intern, or hire professional specialists to take those necessary but difficult and/or tedious tasks off your hands. These valuable assets are worth every dime, because they allow you to focus on your core competencies and provide more of your high-dollar services. This will give you a feeling of balance, which in turn lowers your stress level. Then you're able to take on more of what you want!

Your team is critical to your future success. Invest in yourself by using your time and money to set yourself up for that future success.

Honorée turns service providers into rainmakers, average producers into rock-stars, and dreams into reality. For more information on how she can specifically help you or your organization, click here.

Spring Break "Hangover"

Welcome back from Spring Break. You probably enjoyed time away from the daily grind of emails, phone calls, appointments, contracts, meetings, and more meetings. You most likely have “vacation hang-over” which can lead to a slow start, sluggish activity, and a lack of enthusiasm.

Here’s how you can jump-start the momentum you enjoyed before your break:

Schedule every minute of your day. Before you enter the office, schedule time for each your The Core Four business activities: business development, work product, keeping current clients happy and administrative tasks. With a "to do" list full of purpose, you will know what needs to be done and what gets scheduled, gets done.

Schedule every minute of your week. Schedule the activities every day of your first week back that make all the difference: 

• Review your prospective client list and set some appointments. The best time to close a sale is when you just closed a sale, so go close a sale. 
• Schedule time to knock out some work product. Doing work you can bill for always feels great. 
• Call a few clients who don’t expect to hear from you, just to say hello. This will do great things for your relationship. 
• Turn in expense reports, enter your billing, and clean out your inbox. One of my clients calls this the “crip, crap, crud” and I agree … but it still needs to be done. Schedule it and get it done.

Schedule your next break. The light at the end of the tunnel needs to be something you’re looking forward to, not feel like an on-coming train. Plan your next three-day weekend, or three-week African safari. Give yourself something to look forward to, and the work you do to get there will make the time fly by.

Breaks and vacations can be a double-edged sword: they allow you to rest and recharge, and yet time away can increase stress when done without proper planning and execution. Put intention back in your days and you’ll step forward into your successful future with ease.

Tall Order! is a book that gets to the point. It helps you pinpoint what is going to get you the results you want, starting right now. Jeffrey Gitomer says, "Don't let the size fool you -- this book is compact dynamite! Buy this book!"

Honorée Enterprises, LLC. turns service providers into rainmakers, average producers into rock-stars, and dreams into reality. For more information on how we can specifically help you or your organization, click here. You can read all about Honorée here.

The Core Four Business Development Activities You MUST Do

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You can spend your time at work many ways, but the million dollar question is: “What are the activities that make the difference?”

As part of your Six Daily Actions, sandwiched between Action 1: You and your personal development, and Action 6: family time, I believe there are "The Core Four" business activities that make a measurable difference to your efficiency, effectiveness, productivity and bottom line, Actions 2-5: business development, work product, keep current clients happy, and administrative tasks.

Business Development. If no product or service is sold, no-one is paid. Period. Each day needs to include focus on rainmaking, a.k.a business development. This includes marketing events, networking, pitches, presentations, meetings, coffees and lunches.

Make Every Call Count Part 3

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In this series, I share tips for making every call you make count. You can't not make calls, and your excuses aren't cutting it because they simply aren't adding cash to your bottom line. 

Here are the final six tips you must use to make every call count:

Ask for What You Want. Do not hang up the phone before you ask for what you want. Even if you think you will not get it, ask anyway (Go for No!). You may be pleasantly surprised with the answer. If you do this consistently and you are making enough calls, eventually you will be successful. As Wayne Gretzky says: "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." I say: "You have to a-s-k to g-e-t."

Make Every Call Count Part 1

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In this series, I share tips for making every call you make count. You can't not make calls, and your excuses aren't cutting it because they simply aren't adding cash to your bottom line. 

There is one thing that stands out as an important differentiating factor between those who have average success and those who consistently soar. It is not enough to go on appointments, send out fancy packets, and pass your card around. You have to be willing to become masterful at using the phone. 

Use these 17 "quick tips" for making every call count, and you will be more masterful the next time you dial. Here are the first 5:

Put Yourself in a Peak State! Do not simply locate the number and begin to dial. Visualize the person picking up the phone, saying how glad he or she is to hear from you. Expect the call to be excellent!

There are NO Messages In Your Inbox

7 Steps to an Empty Inbox

My email Inbox has exactly one email in it as I write this (although I'm sure others will find their way in shortly). If your Inbox has 100, 500 or even more than 1,000 emails, you may think having it cleaned up and cleaned out is only a dream ... a dream to be fulfilled when you say good-bye to email when you retire.

***After you read this post, be sure to visit me at my new                                         home here.***
Not necessarily. Email is a tool to make life and business easier for you, and when used, directed and deleted properly, it can serve to do just that. You have to decide first if email is even the best way for someone to communicate with you, or, if you'd prefer something else!

I personally like email because I can respond anytime, day or night, as my schedule (and mood) allows. Just this past Friday, after a long and somewhat stressful week, I somehow summoned the energy to tackle my Inbox. I am used to having few-to-no emails in my Inbox, but the last couple of months I have let my own system slide, much to my dismay.

Here's what I discovered: email mastery was much easier than I thought, both getting it back in line, and getting everything done that needed doing.

Here is my step-by-step process to give control of your email back to the one who should have it: you!

• Step One: Delete. Mercilessly delete emails that are of no use to you, now or in the future. Delete them all in one, two or three steps by simply checking the emails that need to be deleted and press delete. Doesn't that feel great? You probably just eliminated 50% of your emails. Deep breath. Keep going.
• Step Two: Create a TO DO List as a Non-Negotiable Calendar Appointment. Block out two hours as one two-hour block or two one-hour blocks. As you go through each of the remaining emails, put what needs to be done (return call, answer email, create document, etc.) on your list. Be sure to include phone numbers, websites, or the location of where you filed the email. I use the Notes section of my Calendar Appointment for this list. When the time comes, you'll know exactly what needs to be done, and you'll get it all done in record time.
• Step Three: Create Files and Save. Create files, just like you have in your computer, to save important emails for later reference. Move only the most important emails into those folders, and delete the rest. From time to time, delete an unnecessary files. I have a file for each corporate client, and these: TO READ, TO DO, TO FILE, SAVE, and PENDING. Create the folders that will help you stay organized and find what you need in seconds.
• Step Four: Unsubscribe. If you haven't read the last five ezines from Gardening Today, you probably don't want to read them. As new emails come in to your Inbox, you'll notice them because they don't have a lot of "friends." When appropriate, go to the bottom and click "unsubscribe." If, by chance, you miss getting them, you can always subscribe again later. Alternatively, you can save them into a Gardening Today folder, or even create the aforementioned "TO READ" folder for any downtime you have (does anyone really have downtime anyway)?
• Step Five: Create Rules. You can use keywords or email addresses to automatically sort incoming emails into the folder of your choosing. Emails from clients can go automatically into their folder. You'll see the folder become bold when a new email appears.
• Step Six: Use Auto-Responders. I read email every day right around 4 p.m. That's generally the end of my day, and I can get through them quickly and easily using these tactics. I let people know with my AutoResponder when I'm going to respond to them (90% of the time, anyway), so if they have something urgent, they can text or call me. Guess how often I get a text or a call? You guessed it, not that often. 
• Step Seven: Just as you may use my strategy for pre-scheduling your next week before you wrap up on Fridays, from now on be sure to calendar time each week to clean up and clean out your Inbox so you never find yourself under "email water" ever again.

Remember this: email is a tool. It is meant to be a productivity tool for your benefit. If you feel overwhelmed by email, take the time to put a structure in place that serves you.

~To your success! Honorée

Tall Order! is a book that gets to the point. It helps you pinpoint what is going to get you the results you want, starting right now. Jeffrey Gitomer says, "Don't let the size fool you -- this book is compact dynamite! Buy this book!"

Honorée Enterprises, LLC. turns service providers into rainmakers, average producers into rock-stars, and dreams into reality. For more information on how we can specifically help you or your organization, click here. You can read all about Honorée here.

Honorée's 10 Fun & Easy Ways to Save 10 Minutes Today

What would finishing work today almost two hours early do for your stress level, relationships, bottom line? You'll never know until you try! Read on ...

1. Read this blog and implement ideas 2-10. This blog can save you 100 minutes today, or give you 100 more minutes of fun, free time to use in any way you choose.
2. Write down the top 3 most important things that must get done today. Put them in order of importance. Block the time to complete them on your calendar. Everything else can wait.
3. Use "Brain-Surgery Time." If you don't know what that is, you can read about it in here, but that will use up time you don't have (yet), so I'll paraphrase: it's time you've blocked out to complete a project, and during that time you focus solely on your outcome. No calls, no emails, no interruptions, no distractions, no Facebook. Just focus.
4. When you're feeling stressed, stop and breathe and/or meditate for 5 minutes. Lowering your stress level and breathing actually helps you to be more think more clearly, thus making you more efficient and effective.
5. Take hourly breaks and: go for a walk, call your mom, buy a new pair of shoes at Zappos.com, or whatever would make you happy. I love 50-minute hours (just like in coaching) where you relentlessly focus for 50 minutes, then take 10 to breathe, check email, return calls and then get refocused. Rinse and repeat!
6. Ignore your email ... that is, until the time you've blocked out to read it. (I said this would be fun, right?)
7. Ignore your phone ... unless you're expecting a call and your assistant is in the restroom. When at her desk, you can let her (or him) know to put through (the boss, the prospective client, the mega-important client).
8. Clean off your desk and put things away. Just knowing where they are will save you ten minutes every day.
9. Find a client for a colleague or strategic partner a lead or even a new client. They will, of course, reciprocate (if you've chosen those SPs wisely), thus saving you far more than 10 minutes!
10. Ruthlessly delete emails you no longer need, and create folders within your email box to keep important emails. Finally, clean out your Inbox daily or at least weekly. It's easy for important emails to get lost in the shuffle, buried under BS and forgotten until deadlines have passed. Don't let this happen to you!

You are in charge of your day and just using a few of the tips above that resonate with you will save you literally hundreds of hours a year, which could equate to a month of doing more of what you want and less of what you don't.

Your Morning Power Hour

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Multiplier Time-Leveraging Strategy: One morning hour (your “Power Hour”) equals two evening hours. Get up and into the office one or even two hours earlier than you have up until now. You will find you will be able to accomplish twice as much in any given early morning hour as you will in one evening hour.

Chances are you’ll be less mentally alert in the evening, especially if you have worked a full day. If your most productive hours are late at night or you’re simply not a morning person, you can use late night hours as your “power hour” time. The key is to determine what time of day your mind is most clear, focused and energized, and to dedicate that time to working on your business. In coaching, I call this “your edge.”

This strategy is why the world’s top business owners can be found in their offices hours much earlier than those less successful. To join the ranks of other outrageously successful business people, you will want to be found in your office right along with them. If you’ve picked up this book, it’s probably because you’re not part of “the pack,” or at the very least you’re tired of being there!

You will use your power hour to handle the most important aspects of your day: strategic planning, scheduling, and systems. By doing this before anyone else even begins working, you’ve gained control of the flow of the rest of your day.

If you don’t (or you haven’t), you’ll find yourself reacting to the events of the day instead of being able to respond to them. This makes you “response-able.” Your power hour is when you should be focused only on actions that take you closer to your long-range goals.

This is not the time to catch up on e-mail, handle short-term actions or work on paperwork. Those tasks are all time traps, and if you succumb to them, you’ll never gain the exponential multiplication of quality, focused time you’re after! You’ll put those into your schedule, on purpose, in a time slot where you don’t need to be on your “A” game. Delegating these simple tasks to your assistant will also multiply your efficiency and effectiveness.

Here’s a simple example: imagine a five-year-old boy with a small chunk of Kryptonite sneaking up on Superman while he sleeps. If Superman doesn’t see him coming, he’s trapped. It doesn’t matter that Superman is a superior adversary. A little boy has gained control of Superman’s time and consequently he is now in control of Superman.

It’s the same thing with your average workday. If you start your workday when everyone else does, you’ll be trying to perform and produce in the most difficult of circumstances.

Even the most efficient businessperson will lose the upper hand to the “busy-ness” of the average workday. If you try to optimize the hours between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. beyond a certain point, you are fighting your daily battle to succeed while dealing with interruptions, urgencies and employee challenges. You already know how these can wreak havoc on your time.

Once you use your early morning power hour for long-term goal activities, your enemy (busy-ness) can never take them away.

Above is an excerpt from the book Tall Order! Seven Master Strategies to Organize Your Life and Double Your Success in Half the Time. You can purchase it here, here and here.

 

Honorée turns service providers into rainmakers, average producers into rock-stars, and dreams into reality. For more information on how she can specifically help you or your organization, click here.

Make Next Week Your Most Productive Week Ever!*

“We all have the same 24-hours each day. The difference between your future success or failure
is up to you, your attitude and where you focus your time.” ~Honorée Corder 

Multiplier Time-Leveraging Strategy: One weekly planning hour equals 200%+ increased ability and success.

I advise my clients to spend at least one hour on Friday afternoon or over the weekend to create their Weekly Plan. This strategy allows you to block time for the people, things and events most important to you – ahead of time.

Perhaps you’ve seen the time management demonstration including large rocks, small pebbles, sand, and water – all meant to be put into a jar. Each element represents items on your to do list, in order of importance. When you put the water in first, try putting in sand and see what happens. The water comes out. Fill it up with sand, the pebbles and rocks don’t stand a chance.

The most effective way to put all four elements in is in this order: rocks (the most important things in your life and business), pebbles (the next most important items), sand (items with no urgency at all), and water (least important stuff to do, delegate or discard). Amazingly, these four elements will all fit into your “time jar” –when you start with the largest (most important) items first. If some of the smaller elements don’t fit or go by the wayside, it just doesn’t matter as much.

How does this translate to your life and business? Schedule in advance the most important things you want to accomplish, as they relate to your long-term goals. Block the time out and don’t let anything change your focus.

Anything, you say? Yes, anything!

I call it “brain surgery time.” Here’s the analogy: five minutes from now you fall to the floor, unconscious. After being rushed to the emergency room, doctors run tests and determine you need brain surgery.

Good news! The most respected and highly skilled brain surgeon in the world is available to work on you (and miraculously, he’s covered by your insurance). He’s available tomorrow from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. to complete the five hours of surgery necessary to save your life. Can you think of any reason you would miss the opportunity to have him do your surgery? Of course not!

When you schedule time to do what needs to be done, time working on your business, quality time with your family, your kids, and yourself, you must treat it like “brain surgery time.” Of course you can be flexible – and you can also learn to stay focused on what is truly important.

Schedule an hour each week to do your planning. Turn off the phones, pagers, cell phones, email and television. Block out time for what’s most important.

Ask yourself:

• Who needs to hear from you (customers, vendors, potential business, prospects, business partners, investors)? Remember your 100-Day Plan.
• Who needs to see you (family, friends, and perhaps you need a little time with yourself)?
• What needs to be done, organized, planned, and executed?

Using these two time-multiplier strategies will produce a huge difference right away. Your productivity will skyrocket to more than double what it’s been in the past. You’ll also be energized by all you’ve accomplished, including the non-business related items.

Don't let time slip away - take control today by creating next week, on your calendar, before you leave your office today. Next week's results will rock you!

*Until the week after next.

Honorée turns service providers into rainmakers, average producers into rock-stars, and dreams into reality. For more information on how she can specifically help you or your organization, click here.