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January 22, 2008

Willie Crawford On Time Management

From Willie's newsletter earlier today....

Good morning,

I started my day as usual, running down a short
checklist of things to do first. In case you're interested,
that list included:

- Check my helpdesk for unanswered tickets
- Check The Internet Marketing Inner Circle for new posts
and PMs
- Glance at my email
- Read for 1 hour
- Write for 1 hour
- Review my prioritized to-do list

That's the short checklist that I've already run through
today and I thought that by expanding upon the WHY those
things are on my list would be instructive.

------------

First, I check my helpdesk. It's the nerve center of my
entire operation since it's where customers and my assistants
communicate with me, and where I get a snapshot of what's
going on.

My helpdesk is at: http://WillieCrawford.com/helpdesk/

It's powered by the software that you can get for under $100
at: http://ThreePillarsHelpDesk.com

I have my helpdesk configured so that when a help ticket is
posted, ONLY the person who is responsible for that category,
can see that ticket when logging in as admin, AND when someone
posts a ticket to that category, that admin gets a desktop and
email notification.

I have my helpdesk configured so that certain categories are
used ONLY for my staff and I to communicate back and forth.

Since email is so unreliable, my helpdesk is THE center of
my business. It's where threaded conversations between me,
assistants, customers, JV partners, and clients are securely
stored and processed.

Today, I logged in, and in about 10 minutes got a feel for
all that had transpired in the last 24 hours, and also got a
reassurance that no customer support issues were festering just
beneath the surface. In 20 minutes, I did what use to take
me several hours.

-------------

I glance at my email, first skimming the "from" field, and
then skimming the "subject" field. That's how many of my
associates scan their email too. That's why it IS important
that your email clearly identify you. The subject should also
be VERY clear, because what I did next was select and delete
90% of the email in my inbox.

My helpdesk allowed me to know that important communications
were more likely to make it to me. It also gave me greater
confidence that I could delete MOST email without worrying
about missing something.

That takes us back to the importance of your email subject.
It should clearly state what the email is about. If it doesn't
there's a good chance that someone getting hundreds or
thousands of emails per day WILL delete your email unread.

I should add that I "mass delete" most email because it is
necessary for survival. I force myself to only "handle" each
correspondence once. So, when I first open an email, I
decide what to do with it, and often then write that action
right into my calendar.

If you get any volume of email and you have the habit
of saving it all out of fear of missing something, I assure
you that if you don't have the time to read it now, you're
very unlikely to have more time to read it later (as more
and more of it piles up in your inbox).

------------

Next I logged into the member-only forum of The Internet
Marketing Inner Circle. That forum is actually a nerve
center for my business and a lot of others. Right on that
forum, at this very moment, several projects that I'm a
part of are being coordinated.

-- We're coordinating an ebook where 100 members will share
how they earned their first $100 online. This group project
will inspire many, get the names of the 100 contributors
publicized, and earn money for affiliates who help to market
that ebook.

Incidentally, if you want to participate in that project, you
CAN. You do need to be a member of TIMIC. You can join at:
http://TIMIC.ORG

-- We are coordinating a group ezine that we're determined
to make one of the highest quality ezines on the face of
the planet. The ezine will be 99.9% content, and I'll tell
you more about that later.

-- Various pockets of people are jointly creating and
marketing ebooks, software, membership sites, free giveaways,
services... and just about anything that you can imagine.
I provide inputs on many of these projects, or even tie them
into other projects.

One of the things that I teach is that the easiest way to
launch a project is to tap into the energy... or momentum...
of an already successful project. That is, launch a new
project by making it a backend or upsell product to something
already getting lots of traffic from buying customers.

So, every day, I log into the TIMIC Forum at largely
pre-planned times. I plan those times because otherwise I
could easily lose control of my time.

I do also visit a few other forums, but those are during odd
times... perhaps while I'm listening to a teleseminar, or
on hold while making a phone call.

I DO get lots of gems from my time spent on other forums too,
although NOTHING compares to the quality of interaction that
I get from the TIMIC Forum.

------------

I set aside an hour for reading early each morning. That hour
is spent reading the next document that I ABSOLUTELY must get
off of my desk!

It can be an ebook, a software license, a JV agreement, or
some offline publication. I just set aside that time because
in that one hour, I get more read than I would in a day of
reading while doing other things.

This morning, I read an ebook on social networking that is the
best one that I've read to date. I read it because I was asked
to write the forward to it. That turned out to be an excellent
use of my time as this ebook is destined to become a reference
guide on the topic.

I also reviewed a JV agreement that I needed to get back to
a JV partner. JV agreements can be tricky because they need
to cover a LOT of things that most people probably never
consider. You need to cover such topics as... what happens if
the JV doesn't go as expected... or if one of you disappears for
a few MONTHS.

--------------

I set aside an hour for writing. This time was spent writing
and editing 3 articles that should be very well-received. When
I don't set aside time to really focus on my writing, it often
shows :-)

So, this morning I finished polishing all three articles, and
they are now ready for publication.

----------------

Next, I turned to my "to do" list and identified what on the
list I really should do next. I looked for things that REALLY
needed doing, and that it made sense for me to do, rather than
outsource.

I also looked for one or two things that would take very little
time to finish off, so that I could get the pleasure of quickly
finishing those things, and then mark them DONE!

-------------------

So that's how I started my day. In the process I also reviewed
my plans for the rest of the day, and for the next week. Part of
that plan includes a trip out to Las Vegas this weekend where
I'll be speaking at Ross Goldberg's seminar.

Looking at that caused me add reviewing my presentation, and
perhaps dry-running it to my schedule. Although I must confess
that often when I speak at seminars, I don't finish writing the
presentation until the night before... or sometimes the day of.

Seminar speakers often use the excuse of "we wanted to get a
feel for the audience before finalizing the presentation." The
reality is that many of us are masters at procrastination.

That brings me to one other thing that continuously surprises
me about human nature. When we put off things that we image
will be difficult, we are often shocked by how simple and easy
they were to do once we actually sit down and do them.

That's why I do have a morning routine.

I once listened to an interview between Dan Kennedy and Robert
Ringer. The discussed waiting for inspiration to strike, and
they both agreed that for them it was often a matter of just
sitting down and getting started (they were speaking of writing).
It's evolved to that point for me too... after I start writing
the words just flow.

By the way, here's a link to check out Ross' seminar:
http://www.mastersseminar.com/?rid=5

It's inexpensive, hotel rooms in Vegas are CHEAP, and I'd be
honored to see you there. Bring lots of business cards, a
digital camera, and a jacket :-)

Pam

Posted by Willie Crawford at January 22, 2008 12:01 AM

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