It’s time to stop wishing you could have more hours in the day. You can’t magically generate more time, but you can multiply your productivity—if you’re willing to make some unapologetic changes to the way you run your business and your personal schedule. Robin Robins, CEO and founder of TMT and MSP Success, revealed the 10 strategies that highly effective entrepreneurs use to organize their time, efforts, and focus to maximize their results at TMT’s 17th Annual IT Sales and Marketing Boot Camp in Nashville last week.
Strategy #1: Be Crystal Clear On What You Want
It’s absolutely critical to know exactly what you want out of your business and your life. “You have to be really dialed in,” Robins says. “If you’re unclear about what you’re trying to accomplish, it is impossible to be productive. You can’t set priorities or make decisions unless you’re knowing what you’re trying to do.” Get rid of those vague ideas and write down your clear, direct, and specific goals for your life and business.
Strategy #2: Have A Powerful Purpose
“If a problem goes unresolved by a capable, competent person, it’s either they’re not clear on what they want or they’re not sufficiently motivated to get it,” says Robins. Far too many people have a motivation issue, not a money, time, or staffing issue—that’s why they’re not achieving their goals. If it was a matter of life or death, you would find a way to make that marketing campaign successful. If you’re struggling to make something happen, raise the stakes, get motivated, and find a way.
Strategy #3: Real-Time Awareness Of Your Productivity
Ranking your priorities poorly or doing “low money” work is a waste of your time—and a common procrastination method to avoid certain tasks. “Your time is money,” Robins says. “That is the only resource you cannot get back. I can make more money, I can get more clients, I can hire additional people. But once a minute is done, once a day is done, that is it. You cannot get it back.” That’s why it’s so essential to hire employees to take things off your plate—to buy your time back. Other timewasters include social media, email, lack of urgency, and wrong-fit clients and employees.
“Poor work habits will have you working two to three times longer than you have to, making slow progress with no momentum.”
Robin Robins
Strategy #4: Be Ready To Do The Work
Quit looking for simple solutions to complex problems. When push comes to shove, you have to be willing to sit your ass down and do the work. What shortcuts are you currently taking out of laziness?
Strategy #5: Schedule Time To Think
Taking action without thinking first is a great way to start sprinting in the wrong direction. Instead, build distraction-free, intentional thinking time into your day. Make sure you’re solving the actual problem, not the symptom. And remember— “There’s zero profit in coming up with reasons why something won’t work,” Robins says.
Strategy #6: Develop Good Work Habits
Refining your work habits will astronomically improve your productivity. “Poor work habits will have you working two to three times longer than you have to, making slow progress with no momentum. You’re doing a lot of activity, but making no progress on anything. That leads to stress, burnout, overwhelm, and chaos,” Robins says. Some key steps to develop better work habits include utilizing your essential productivity tools, such as your planner, calendar, and checklists; minimizing blank space in your calendar; and being prepared for appointments and meetings. Prioritize simultaneous action, not sequential action; if you only focus on one critical system at a time, everything else will fail.
Strategy #7—Take Control Over Your Emotions
Emotions like fear, anxiety, depression, ego, and anger kill your productivity. Sure, you can be sad or angry about a deal gone wrong … but where’s the profit in that? Instead, recenter, reset, and calm down. A level head will yield far more beneficial ideas than a highly emotional one. And above all, “Don’t allow the critics and haters to cower you into slowing down or giving up,” Robin says. Keep going!
Strategy #8—Get The Maximum Value For Every Work Project
If you’re investing in a work project, it’s just good business to make sure you get every bit of value possible out of it. “There should be some preparation that goes into it; you’re not just showing up, you’re showing up with an actual plan,” says Robins. Maybe that looks like sitting beside one of your executives on the flight to the conference, to spend those hours planning instead of wasting them away. Maybe it’s using the visit to your client’s office to drop off promotional materials to all the other businesses in the building. Regardless, “Whenever you do something, you want to get maximum productivity out of it,” Robins explains.
Strategy #9—Build A High-Value Team Of Competent Leaders
It starts with hiring A players. These are people with an internal drive to succeed, a hunger to learn, and a history of top performance. Then, you need to ensure everyone in your team is in the “right seat on the bus.” In order to succeed, they each need the will, skill, and capacity to do the job right.
Strategy #10—Models And Mentors
“The dumbest way to learn anything is by trial and error,” says Robins. “It’s so unproductive.” Any problem your MSP encounters, another business owner has likely already solved it. That’s why asking questions is so key. Modeling high achievers—and following their processes exactly—is another great way to achieve success. If it worked for them, it will likely work for you.
