How millionaires manage their time and achieve maximum personal productivity
Date: September 14, 2016
Name: How millionaires manage their time and achieve maximum personal productivity
Presenter: Dan Lok
Many entrepreneurs are struggling with their productivity because time is not enough. Moreover, successful entrepreneurs have methods to improve their productivity. Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group invites Dan Lok, the Serial Entrepreneur, to reveal his time management strategies and productivity secrets. Entrepreneurs can use these techniques on their businesses. In addition, Dan Lok will share his insight on why many conventional productivity managements will not work for successful entrepreneurs. In addition, entrepreneurs will learn the proper way to maximize their time on their productive activities.
Dan Lok is the Founder of Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group. People refer him as the “Millionaire Mentor” because his leadership and advices have proven to increase business productivity for many successful entrepreneurs. He published many top sell books, including “FU Money” and “Lies Salon Owners Believe”. Dan Lok is a keynote speaker that has strong and high profitable business ventures. Many young entrepreneurs follow his footsteps to become the best in their industries.
Dan Lok shares an important quote for all entrepreneurs: “the use or misuse of your time on the degree to which you achieve peak products will determine your success”.
Productivity is the key ingredient for entrepreneurs. By narrowing it down, entrepreneurship is the conversion of knowledge, talent, guts, and etc through investment of time into money.
“If I have your productivity, I will have your income”
Based on conventional time management theory, if someone wants to earn $1 million dollar a year, presuming 220 work days will require $56 dollar per each hour. Lok indicates the problem with the conventional time management theory is that it only works for employees and not entrepreneur. There are 3 problems with that statement.
- Entrepreneurs do not just work 8 hours a day and 5 days a week
- Entrepreneurs do not get paid for the hour because they get paid for what they bring to the hour
- Workday hour is not always equal to productive hour
A study for Fortune 500 CEOs shows they have average of 28 productive minutes a day. Honestly, people are not productive. Entrepreneurs should take their annual expected income and divided by 220 days in 8 hours. Afterwards, they need to take that amount and times it by 3. Lok indicates that is the “Base Earnings Target”.
Lok wants entrepreneurs to focus only on income producing activities. When there is doubt, entrepreneurs can ask themselves a simple question: “Is what I am doing worth the base earning target amount per hour to do it?”
Lok emphasizes learning is not productive time. Learning is learning, and only when entrepreneurs convert learning to result is productive time.
There are 3 stages of entrepreneurs’ growth: productivity, leverage, and freedom. Productivity defines the maximum results in minimum time. Leverage means the maximum productivity with minimum effort and freedom is the maximum leverage with minimum stress. The problem with many entrepreneurs is that they skip to the second stage before completing the first stage. Lok believes in order to have maximum growth, entrepreneurs need to go through all stages.
“You cannot delegate what you do not understand”
“Time management ultimately is self-management”
Lok defines self-management is about knowing what to do at any given moment. Entrepreneurs need to deal everything towards goals and purpose effectively Moreover, they need to know what is important on the information they are receiving. Entrepreneurs should not be slave to their to-do list because they are facing new obstacles and opportunities every moment. Lok suggests entrepreneurs to question their to-do list and cut down all unproductive activities. They need to learn to say “no” to other things.
“Communication is message send, message received, and message act upon”
When entrepreneurs know how valuable their time is, they will not do it because they know what is costing them. Many people do not respect others’ time because they do not respect their own time first.
Time is not equal to money because entrepreneurs cannot get time back. Time cannot be saved and entrepreneurs cannot make more of it. Therefore, rich people will value time over money and poor people will value money over time. The problem is not lack of time; in fact, it is a lack of direction.
There are 3 questions entrepreneurs need to ask themselves to improve productivity.
- What is the highest and best use of time right now?
- Why doing this?
- What is the payoff of this activity?
Lok shares his top 5 time management secrets of millionaires.
Secret #1: Put a stop to interruptions
The average entrepreneurs will be interrupted once every 8 minutes. The more employees they have, the more they will get interrupted. Furthermore, many entrepreneurs have the conception that they need to be immediately and constantly accessible.
The strategy is “to be inaccessible”. If people cannot find them, they will not interrupt them. The open door policy is not effective because it invites interruptions. If the door is closed, it shows to other they do not want to be bothered. Entrepreneurs should never take any unscheduled incoming calls. To get maximum productivity, entrepreneurs need to be in a non-interrupt environment.
Entrepreneurs can make pre-scheduled phone appointments. It is efficient, effective and it creates win-win situation. It benefits everyone else because it eliminates phone tags. It gives other party full complete attention.
When entrepreneurs take incoming call, they should set up the exit time first.
“I have a conference call starting in just 15 minutes, but I wanted to take your call – I hope that will be enough time of your discussion. Do you agree or should we set up another telephone appointment?”
“Distraction is the only true luxury of poor people. Laser-beam focus is mandatory for success”
Secret #2: Eliminate time vampires from your life
In this society, people think it is necessary to respond immediately and instantly to unrelenting communication. Successful entrepreneurs should refuse to operate in the environment of constant, mindless, open communication.
The strategy for entrepreneurs is to turn all the notification off and only check them when it is time to check. This habit can train people around them on how they should respond to them. When entrepreneurs respect their own time, people will respect their time as well.
Lok believes it is a bad slogan for entrepreneurs to say “Call me anytime”. It is showing entrepreneurs are not valuable.
Lok asks all entrepreneurs these 3 questions to reflect on themselves.
- Do you have all of your notification turned on?
- How many time you check your email everyday?
- How many time you check your social media everyday?
Entrepreneurs need to find something important enough to do that they are unwilling to be so easily and frequently interrupted and distracted. Entrepreneurs must remember that other people’s emergency does not become their priority. It is important to train clients how to treat entrepreneurs. It is entrepreneurs’ responsibility to sell others on doing business with them on their terms for their benefits. There is no virtue in thoughtless response given unrestricted access, cell, email, social media, pressure for expectation of instant response.
“Respond when you feel they deserve to help”
When entrepreneurs think they cannot afford to take this approach, they will never be. There is never a perfect time to start, but there is always a reason to wait. Lok emphasizes entrepreneurs do not gain or secure power in the marketplace by giving into everybody, by accommodation or acting out of fear because power comes up supply and demand.
Secret #3: Fight to link everything to your goals
Everything entrepreneur do is linked or moved closer to his or her goals. Busyness is a form of laziness and entrepreneurs cannot b productive without measurement.
People are busy all the time shows they have low self-esteem. Constant interruption also shows low self-esteem.
Lok shares the money circle theory. Entrepreneurs have layers of circle. The inner layer is family. The layer outside the inner layer is people they trust. The layer outside of that layer is other. Entrepreneurs should spend more time with inner layer and less time with outer layer. Entrepreneurs need to ensure they place people in the right layer.
“The amount of attention you get from me is in direct proportion to how much you pay me”
Secret #4: Create a peak productivity environment
Entrepreneurs are the product of their environment. They need to ensure the environment works for them. The expected income is the average income of the 5 friends in the environment.
“Elevate your success, dress for your success”
Wealth triggers are important for entrepreneurs. It can remind entrepreneurs to think certain way. Each trigger can represent something meaningful; in fact, environment is more powerful than will power.
The best environment for most entrepreneurs is semi-organized environment. Sometimes their creative, innovative thinking will come out in that kind of environment. Just to remember to start the day fresh and never pile up.
Lok shares a big time saving tip. Entrepreneurs should stop meeting people at restaurants for meal. The environment will affect the meeting, such as time wasting. If it is mandatory to go off-site meeting place, entrepreneurs should have something to read or some work to do with them.
Secret #5: Scheduling vs scripting
Entrepreneurs should have the habit of scripting their time, and not scheduling it. Having an outline is not enough. If they are making a movie, people will not invest to produce a movie without a script.
Scheduling is working with other people’s agenda and scripting is creating personal agenda. If entrepreneurs are selling on stage, they are scripting. Lok believes if entrepreneurs want result, they need to script.
The hidden secret for high performance is to make inviolate appointments with themselves. Successful entrepreneurs will block time for themselves.
Lok wants entrepreneurs to develop their daily disciplines on 6 areas.
- Emotion well being: 30 minutes a day on morning rituals
- Financial well being: 30 minutes a day looking at financials
- Business well being: 60 minutes a day on marketing self-promotions
- Growth well being: 60 minutes a day learning
- Psychical well being: 60 minutes a day exercising
- Goal well being: 60 minutes on email management
If entrepreneurs do not schedule it, it will not get done. If entrepreneurs can see their goal clearly, their goals are not big enough. The purpose of goals is to get entrepreneurs out of their comfort zone.
Lok believes extreme control is equal to extreme freedom. If entrepreneurs use extreme measure, they will get extreme productivity.
“Raise your standard, be more productive, and you will get more”
