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TWENTY ways to save time – part II

Tags: Be interesting | Presentations | Meetings | Impact | Save time | Do more | Influencing

14th November

Last week, I showed you ten simple ways to free-up loads of time.

So here are ten more. Like last week’s ten…

All are easy. All will save you time. But which will you do?

  1. Have fewer people in your meetings. You’ll make decisions more quickly
  2. Diarise Meeting #2 during Meeting #1. Miles quicker than trying to arrange it when you aren’t together – that just results in painful Email Tennis
  3. Do hard things early. People get less effective as the day goes on – and they’re extra-dreadful straight after lunch. So do your tricky stuff first thing – when your brain’s flying
  4. If someone isn’t replying to your emails, try a different method – send them a text/call them instead
  5. Identify which colleague is best at getting lots done quickly. Ask their advice for how they do it
  6. Identify which of your comms absorb most of your time. Contact the recipient, and agree ways to make it shorter
  7. At the end of each day, review everything you’ve done, and make sure you’ve completed all your follow-up actions. Or diarised when you’ll do them. Much quicker than not following-up
  8. For regular internal meetings, reduce something – frequency, duration, number of attendees, agenda items…anything
  9. With longer emails, contact the recipient upfront, chat with them first, and get verbal agreement. Your email will then become a shorter confirmation of what you’ve just agreed, rather than trying to get agreement by Email Tennis
  10. Have a later lunch. Most people are better before lunch than afterwards. So, eat later. You get a longer, productive pre-lunch. And a shorter graveyard shift

As I said above…

All are easy. All will save you time. But which will you do?

Action point

Identify which of these ten will (1) save you most time and (2) be really easy to do.

Then do it!

I’m speaking at the UK's best sales conference on 30th November. Other speakers include Sir Clive Woodward and Allan Pease. Come and join us!