Tracey Walker: Five Time Management Skills
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Tracey Walker talks about the time management skills she teaches her very successful team. I’m a big fan of Tracey’s because she supports her team and teaches them to do what she does. She’s making a lot of money and that means that many of her team-mates are also making a lot of money. That’s just the way it works at the Empower Network.
I need to improve my time management skills and I found that Tracey Walker has written detailed instructions for folks who are new to the process of doing the key tasks to build their business. It’s so blasted easy to wander off into email or Facebook or ads for business supplies I think I may need, or phone calls I need to make. Before I know it, half the day is gone (or worse, half the night! I’ve set myself the task of blogging daily and stuck to it, but too many nights I found myself hitting the button at 11:45 pm! Not good. Leads to tension, a hastily produced post and feeling I’m disorganized. I don’t get enough sleep and the next day the same thing happens again. NO MORE!!
#1 Time Management Skills: Identify IPA’s
Identify your IPA’s (Income Producing Activities) and do them, no matter what. Separating your IPA’s from busy work is the most important thing you can do to promote your business. While blogging is important, promoting your posts is even more important. Writing ads and emails, getting your info on Twitter and Facebook, etc. should be the first tasks. If you haven’t spent enough time doing that, your leads and sales have lagged. But all is not lost; you have built up a nice group of blog posts and so you should be able to get them noticed if you do a better job of promoting them. So your key IPA’s are producing ads, backlinks and email messages. This may not really be in your comfort zone, so it’s time to “hit the books” and get up to speed. If you have not already gotten “all in”, now’s the time to do it. You’ve invested a lot of energy and time blogging and now you need to turn that into profits. You need to buy and study the more advanced products offered by Empower Network. Go for it! How can you do a good job on your IPA’s if you haven’t learned the best ways to promote your blog posts and get folks to your capture pages?
#2 Time Management Skills: Choose Your Best 2 Hours Each Day
If you set a specific two hour block of time when you can concentrate on IPA’s only, and stick to it, this will help you stay disciplined. It’s really easy to get distracted, so you probably should turn off your phone (you can check for voicemails later) and shut the door to your office. Tracey says, “Select the 2-hr window during the day where you will have no interruptions, no distractions and can work focused and diligently for the entire time block.” You may need 3 hours in the beginning but if it takes more time, you are probably letting distractions get in your way. Once you master this skill, you will find that two hours is enough time to do your critical marketing and promotional tasks. Do your blogging separately. Once you get the IPA’s done, it’s fine to post something but your IPA’s are the primary means of generating leads.
#3 Time Management Skills: Set Up Tomorrow’s To-Do List
If you take the time to think through what must be done tomorrow, you will be all set to get busy without having to figure out what you need to do. Taking the time to think quietly at night makes sense because there are fewer distractions than during the day. Once you’ve made your list, your mind is more at rest and you can get a good night’s sleep! This is a good example of time management skills because it builds the habit of planning, according to Tracey. She says, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Keep working to create yur own habits that will make you more efficient and organized as you work your business.
#4 Time Management Skill: Using your Two Hour Block to be Productive
Here’s where you are:
You’ve Identified your IPA’s
You’ve selected your 2 hour block of time
You’ve created your To-Do List for the day
Time to get to work! Use your new time management skills by following these steps:
1 Use any stopwatch and set it to 1 hour. (Tracey and I use our iPhones) Hit the start button and begin working through your list of IPA’s. Focus only on your list that you created last night and nothing else.
2 When the hour is up, STOP and take a 10 minute break. Get a drink, use the bathroom, grab a snack, etc. Don’t get distracted and only take 10 minutes for your break.
3 Set the clock for another 60 minutes and keep working through your IPA’s. When the clock goes off, STOP. You’re through for the day!
How do you like using professional time management skills? Any IPA’s you didn’t finish can be added to tonight’s list for tomorrow.
#5 Time Management Skills: Repeat #’s 3 and 4 adjusting your IPA’s as you progress
If you stick with this pattern, you will find you have much more free time than ever before. This is the secret of managing your business and increasing traffic to your site. As you generate leads and sales, you will be building your team and teaching them these same skills.
No guarantees. If you don’t follow these tasks in order, you may not have any good results. As always, you need to work hard to perfect your time management skills and stick to them. They will help you develop your own work ethic. Money doesn’t grow on trees. You have to work for it. Know this: you are your own boss and it’s up to you to make your business a success!
Nancyp