Posted by Sharyn: Monday, April 21, 2008
Currently I have the fourth and the occasional fifth weeks of the month free of meetings and obligations other than speaking. It is a wonderful way of catching up. I get more rest, write or edit more, work on my websites and take time out to have lunches with my friends.
I started this practice in 2000 when I wanted to go to a training in Los Angeles that was a week long event. I had about 3 months notice so I changed my business development meetings from twice a month to once a month and encouraged the members to visit the other groups if they wanted to meet more often. It became more productive than the meetings that were twice a month.
And the bonus, was I de-stressed big time. I then began to analyze how productive my meetings were in each location. I’m a big fan of quantifying my time. In San Carlos for an example, I had to have 50 people on the attendance list to get 10 in the chairs. I shut down the San Carlos meetings that spring. By September I realized that the once powerful return on my efforts in San Franciso, the ratio for attendance had become 4 commitments to get 1 to attend. So I incorporated those member to my Oakland groups and stopped traveling to San Francisco.
What is it that you are doing that takes up an inordinate amount of time but yields you a minimal return? Can you take 3 days off every week with a goal of taking 4 days by the end of the year? One of my favorite books is the 4 hour Work Week listed below. The reason I love this book is that Timothy has challenged himself and all who will listen to live their life now and not wait until they retire.
Whatever you can do to simplify your life and spend more time with your family and friends needs to be a priority.