1 00:00:04,950 --> 00:00:06,520 Welcome back to Count Me In, 2 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:10,280 IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. 3 00:00:11,270 --> 00:00:12,800 This is your host, Adam Larson, 4 00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:16,240 and you're now listening to episode 169 of our series. 5 00:00:17,150 --> 00:00:19,000 Today's featured guest is Michael Teape. 6 00:00:19,670 --> 00:00:22,910 Michael is the owner and lead training consultant for Teape Training 7 00:00:22,911 --> 00:00:23,744 International. 8 00:00:24,930 --> 00:00:28,830 He is a thought leader in people development who brings over 25 years of 9 00:00:28,831 --> 00:00:32,230 corporate learning and development experience across multiple industries. 10 00:00:34,130 --> 00:00:37,230 He enjoys running the trainer events for facilitators globally, 11 00:00:37,450 --> 00:00:40,750 and works with senior leadership teams to improve their working relationships 12 00:00:40,910 --> 00:00:44,540 and outward facing impact in the organization. In this episode, 13 00:00:44,810 --> 00:00:49,100 Michael focuses on time management and building a culture around working smarter 14 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:53,380 and focusing on productive work. To kick things off Michael addresses, 15 00:00:53,381 --> 00:00:56,580 how you can win back one whole day of your time per week. 16 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:00,340 So keep listening to hear more as we head over to the conversation now. 17 00:01:07,750 --> 00:01:09,090 So one of the things that, 18 00:01:09,190 --> 00:01:14,130 I know you really talk about is how to win back one day 19 00:01:14,470 --> 00:01:18,770 of your team's time every single week. And when I read that at first, 20 00:01:18,771 --> 00:01:20,970 I thought that was pretty ambitious. If you break it down, 21 00:01:20,971 --> 00:01:23,640 we have accounting listeners, 20% of the week is free. 22 00:01:25,100 --> 00:01:27,920 You know, I knew you'd be talking about figures, Mitchell since we got started. 23 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:29,840 That's right. So, you know, 24 00:01:29,960 --> 00:01:33,280 I just want to know your perspective on this. 25 00:01:33,281 --> 00:01:35,880 How do you go about achieving such kind of time management? 26 00:01:36,790 --> 00:01:41,000 Well, there's multiple streams of how you do that. And yeah, 27 00:01:41,001 --> 00:01:44,550 people are like 20%. They always raise their eyebrows when I say that, 28 00:01:44,810 --> 00:01:47,950 but truly there's a couple of things you can do. 29 00:01:48,290 --> 00:01:51,750 And you know, we work on, first of all, 30 00:01:51,751 --> 00:01:56,590 are you actually efficiently working the time you're in the office or 31 00:01:56,810 --> 00:02:01,790 the time you're working at home, you know, working on a strategy or, 32 00:02:01,930 --> 00:02:06,140 you know, a piece of technical work. In an hour, you know, 33 00:02:06,141 --> 00:02:10,340 how effective are you? So I ask everybody, 34 00:02:10,341 --> 00:02:12,300 including your listeners. The one question is, 35 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:17,340 how effective are you in that hour? Are you really being productive? 36 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:20,620 And I've got it down to under, 37 00:02:21,060 --> 00:02:26,010 I can do in 20 minutes to 30 minutes what you could do in an 38 00:02:26,011 --> 00:02:29,690 hour. You can get that down to half that time. If you focus, 39 00:02:30,470 --> 00:02:33,090 you know exactly what you're working on and you're in the zone, 40 00:02:33,091 --> 00:02:36,570 you're just thinking about this research. You're just looking up the strategy. 41 00:02:37,150 --> 00:02:41,570 You're just crafting it. If you're not interrupted by the noise of the world, 42 00:02:42,950 --> 00:02:47,920 emails, iPhones, Androids, 43 00:02:47,921 --> 00:02:51,200 there's just so much going on. People interrupting you all the time. 44 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:53,040 If you create a bubble, 45 00:02:53,041 --> 00:02:57,440 it's amazing what you can write in 30 to 45 minutes. 46 00:02:57,441 --> 00:03:01,680 So that's one of the biggest parts of it is can I 47 00:03:02,260 --> 00:03:06,760 get more out of an hour? And I guarantee you can. So focus, 48 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:11,360 good planning, prioritizing, knowing what you are doing for that 20 minutes. 49 00:03:11,361 --> 00:03:15,240 And then the other part of it is brain chemistry. 50 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:19,070 So is understanding how you work. 51 00:03:19,071 --> 00:03:20,870 You've heard the thing you've probably heard before. 52 00:03:20,871 --> 00:03:23,990 What's your best time of the day, or people often say, oh, 53 00:03:23,991 --> 00:03:28,350 I'm best mid morning, evening. They'll offer that quite freely. 54 00:03:28,351 --> 00:03:30,830 So they know they're thinking about it. 55 00:03:30,890 --> 00:03:35,190 And it's using those times to do your more difficult work. 56 00:03:35,550 --> 00:03:40,340 Your more heavy thinking, research work. And then using the times, you know, 57 00:03:40,341 --> 00:03:43,700 you're not sufficient actually doing something that activates your body, 58 00:03:43,701 --> 00:03:47,900 something either physical or the boring, easy work, 59 00:03:47,930 --> 00:03:52,140 replying to emails. We'll talk, I'm sure we'll talk about emails. 60 00:03:52,141 --> 00:03:55,020 Everyone's always got a question about, that's a whole subject on, 61 00:03:55,021 --> 00:03:58,020 how do you look at emails? How do you deal with them? 62 00:03:58,021 --> 00:04:02,530 You've got a think of it as a strategy. So there's so much you can do even. 63 00:04:02,531 --> 00:04:05,330 So if you're working with others as well. So that was individual. 64 00:04:05,331 --> 00:04:09,330 If you're working with a team, is how effective are your meetings? Most 65 00:04:11,710 --> 00:04:13,770 of the startups that I work with, 66 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:17,730 they never hold a meeting more than 30 minutes. Yeah. So you can imagine, 67 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:21,120 even with their clients, they've got their clients in tune. 68 00:04:21,420 --> 00:04:23,400 We get into the conversation. We're 10, 69 00:04:23,401 --> 00:04:27,000 15 minutes in people start getting really serious, real quick. 70 00:04:27,590 --> 00:04:29,960 They get to the point. And if we need to book some more time, 71 00:04:30,380 --> 00:04:32,400 what's it about we're going to do that. 72 00:04:32,740 --> 00:04:36,560 So rather than letting a meeting roll on and on and on, 73 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:40,240 I don't recommend that if your first meeting a client, you know, 74 00:04:40,241 --> 00:04:43,630 from this strategic point of view, but once you've got to know a client, 75 00:04:43,860 --> 00:04:45,230 they will appreciate the fact. 76 00:04:45,250 --> 00:04:47,670 You can get things done in half an hour instead of an hour. 77 00:04:48,010 --> 00:04:52,150 So you you're shaving time by getting more done in the time. 78 00:04:52,690 --> 00:04:55,030 And where does your team spend the time together? 79 00:04:56,050 --> 00:04:57,990 You don't need to attend an update meeting. 80 00:04:58,140 --> 00:05:02,980 It's just a waste of time An update meeting is just somebody else reading out 81 00:05:02,981 --> 00:05:05,580 what you could have read on a document and in an email. 82 00:05:06,581 --> 00:05:09,020 It's what are we going to do with it? Let's cut that. 83 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:12,220 Did you all get the update? Yes. Great. What are your thoughts on it? Boom. 84 00:05:12,290 --> 00:05:15,500 I've just shaved 15 minutes of time off your meeting, right? 85 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:18,020 So there are so many different aspects 86 00:05:21,850 --> 00:05:24,930 to it. And I, you know, the overarching piece, 87 00:05:24,931 --> 00:05:29,690 I would say there's three things to consider. One is your mindset. 88 00:05:29,691 --> 00:05:33,330 So knowing what's going on here, how you approach work, 89 00:05:33,331 --> 00:05:36,170 you've heard growth mindset and fixed mindset. 90 00:05:36,310 --> 00:05:38,530 So that working on that piece. 91 00:05:38,531 --> 00:05:42,360 So you're connected as quickly as possible to your work. Secondly, 92 00:05:42,361 --> 00:05:45,840 is choosing goals, productivity tools, organization, 93 00:05:45,841 --> 00:05:49,600 tools that work for you for your work. And you personally, 94 00:05:49,620 --> 00:05:54,240 there is no point using tools that you is hard work for you, 95 00:05:54,241 --> 00:05:58,800 or you don't get, feel excited to be using. I know I used, 96 00:05:58,830 --> 00:06:03,720 excited and organizational tools in the same sentence, but without that, 97 00:06:03,721 --> 00:06:07,680 you've got to pick tools that gonna work for the work you do and suit you 98 00:06:07,681 --> 00:06:09,840 personally. And, and lastly, 99 00:06:09,841 --> 00:06:14,320 get good about your time and your rituals is rituals and routines 100 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:19,150 are fantastic. If you can set them up to you rather than let them happen. 101 00:06:19,151 --> 00:06:22,190 So if you finish a piece of work today, all of your listeners, 102 00:06:22,191 --> 00:06:27,030 next piece of work, you finish, focus on what you're doing afterwards. 103 00:06:27,031 --> 00:06:29,270 What are you doing? Do you just sit back? 104 00:06:29,271 --> 00:06:33,000 Do you look at the phone or are you actually okay. 105 00:06:33,001 --> 00:06:34,520 I'm physically taking a couple of minutes, 106 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:37,270 then I'm going to get into my next piece. I am going to get up, 107 00:06:37,271 --> 00:06:40,670 walk around the desk, grab a coffee, change my mood, 108 00:06:40,671 --> 00:06:43,230 get some energy going and boom, straight back into it. 109 00:06:43,390 --> 00:06:48,350 Cause I guarantee once you finish one piece of work, oh, yeah. 110 00:06:48,351 --> 00:06:52,710 You're like, oh good. That's over. And then you waste a good amount of time, 111 00:06:52,770 --> 00:06:53,790 relaxing, pat yourself on the back, 112 00:06:54,130 --> 00:06:58,260 subconsciously looking at your emails before you get into to the next piece. 113 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:02,620 And before you know it, you've lost time as well. So do you see from that, 114 00:07:02,650 --> 00:07:03,660 just that alone, 115 00:07:04,461 --> 00:07:08,900 you're able to save 20% of your time and your team's time. Yeah. 116 00:07:09,090 --> 00:07:10,580 Just in those areas there. 117 00:07:12,220 --> 00:07:13,100 That's, it's very interesting. 118 00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:16,500 And you mentioned a lot of things that I did want to bring up, 119 00:07:16,501 --> 00:07:20,050 through this conversation, but it kind of all ties back to this, you know, 120 00:07:20,070 --> 00:07:23,690 this old phrase and everybody's heard it, everybody's used it, you know, 121 00:07:23,691 --> 00:07:26,050 you want to work smarter, not harder. 122 00:07:26,630 --> 00:07:31,210 And it sounds so cliche, so much easier, you know, 123 00:07:31,211 --> 00:07:34,450 said than done for many people, I believe when it comes to time management. 124 00:07:34,470 --> 00:07:39,200 So as far as working smarter, you know, you mentioned some tools potentially, 125 00:07:39,300 --> 00:07:43,440 or just mindset, but you know, best practices, you know, 126 00:07:43,650 --> 00:07:46,080 maybe just going a little bit deeper into what you talked about, 127 00:07:46,500 --> 00:07:51,320 how can people really work smarter and not harder to be this, you know, 128 00:07:51,620 --> 00:07:52,880 to save this 20%? 129 00:07:54,660 --> 00:07:56,440 Yeah, Mitchell, working smarter, 130 00:07:56,710 --> 00:08:00,430 not harder is a cliche and everyone goes, oh yeah, work smarter not harder. 131 00:08:01,951 --> 00:08:06,190 And then they nod their heads and then they walk off and have no idea what you 132 00:08:06,190 --> 00:08:10,550 meant. It's like, OK. And they go back to doing what they did before. 133 00:08:10,551 --> 00:08:15,350 So you need something that's going to stop you from going back 134 00:08:15,380 --> 00:08:18,950 to just randomly looking your email. Cause you've got the email flashed up, 135 00:08:19,020 --> 00:08:22,500 you know, a notification came in, a notification from your calendar. 136 00:08:22,501 --> 00:08:26,260 So you need some kind of planner, really. You need, 137 00:08:26,261 --> 00:08:29,420 a planner for your mindset at the beginning of the day. 138 00:08:29,480 --> 00:08:34,260 I use the one I recommend to get you in the right mindset of really wanting to d 139 00:08:34,260 --> 00:08:36,420 rive a business forward. You know, 140 00:08:36,421 --> 00:08:40,970 if you're designing strategy of your business, right, you're a business partner, 141 00:08:41,030 --> 00:08:44,450 you're building a business. You really have to be like, right. 142 00:08:44,550 --> 00:08:47,250 I'm here for a purpose. And I use the, 143 00:08:50,331 --> 00:08:54,290 High Performance Planner by a gentleman called Brendan Brushard. 144 00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:58,360 He's one of those life coaches. He's like Tony Robbins level, 145 00:08:58,361 --> 00:09:01,160 can be a little bit too enthusiastic. I'm just kidding. 146 00:09:01,180 --> 00:09:06,120 But his tools are fantastic. And I have it right here on the desk behind me, 147 00:09:06,121 --> 00:09:09,760 my planner, and what it is is, it's an old fashioned planner. You open it up, 148 00:09:09,820 --> 00:09:14,200 but it gives you some focus around, you know, 149 00:09:14,510 --> 00:09:19,430 what your mindset for the day, my purpose. 150 00:09:19,431 --> 00:09:23,710 You know, I can actually just give you an example, I suppose, just right here. 151 00:09:23,711 --> 00:09:27,510 Why not? You wanted practical - morning mindset. You know, 152 00:09:27,511 --> 00:09:32,110 what's a one thing I can get excited about today. Those kind of things. 153 00:09:32,230 --> 00:09:35,740 Thinking about someone who needs me to be on the A game today. 154 00:09:36,860 --> 00:09:38,660 One bold action I could take today. 155 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:42,980 To see these are all getting your mindset into a, doing forward state, 156 00:09:43,070 --> 00:09:46,740 ready to challenge the day. And you know, 157 00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:50,700 in that you should really be looking at that before you start any of your work. 158 00:09:50,701 --> 00:09:55,380 So if you know, you're going to be busy at nine, I've got some bad news for you. 159 00:09:55,530 --> 00:09:58,010 You need to up before that, if your meetings start at nine, 160 00:09:58,011 --> 00:10:02,090 you need to be starting a little bit earlier to get yourself right, 161 00:10:02,630 --> 00:10:05,850 ready to go at nine o'clock. So that's one of the things, 162 00:10:05,851 --> 00:10:10,330 or whatever time of day you start. And then at the end of the day, 163 00:10:10,331 --> 00:10:14,370 you need to create some kind of ritual because you can't be on all the time. 164 00:10:14,550 --> 00:10:19,240 You know, we get stress, you hear burn out, particularly during COVID. 165 00:10:19,241 --> 00:10:23,440 You know, we don't have enough people now working for us. 166 00:10:23,441 --> 00:10:26,560 There's a recruitment disaster around the corner. 167 00:10:26,561 --> 00:10:30,680 Using strong words here. But at the end of the day, is that okay? 168 00:10:30,680 --> 00:10:31,760 How do I switch off quickly? 169 00:10:32,540 --> 00:10:36,480 In order to get to my own personal work or whatever I need to do, fitness, 170 00:10:38,591 --> 00:10:43,070 whatever it is, and you need something that's going to close it off. 171 00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:47,950 So a reflection tool is what you need and the high performance planner 172 00:10:47,951 --> 00:10:52,030 has that built into it. And, that talks about, well, what look back on the day, 173 00:10:52,031 --> 00:10:56,790 just for five minutes, what's a task that I handled really well, 174 00:10:57,850 --> 00:11:01,220 who benefited from a discussion with me? 175 00:11:01,260 --> 00:11:03,660 Who did I get energy from? 176 00:11:03,661 --> 00:11:07,500 And there's a scorecard and productivity and all those wonderful things. 177 00:11:07,540 --> 00:11:11,580 So I do this myself. And I'll be honest. I don't do it every day, 178 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:15,980 but I do it at least three times a week. And the energy I get, 179 00:11:16,390 --> 00:11:20,370 gives you that that mindset, but then you've got to use a practical tool. 180 00:11:20,390 --> 00:11:24,570 So that's a mindset tool, and there's lots of them out there. 181 00:11:24,990 --> 00:11:28,130 You can look up if you just Google them, mindset tools, 182 00:11:28,380 --> 00:11:32,330 and daily set up, you'll find those. But the other one is, 183 00:11:32,331 --> 00:11:35,370 actually the work you're going to do. 184 00:11:35,371 --> 00:11:39,720 And you need some kind of one pager, like a productivity planner. 185 00:11:40,500 --> 00:11:44,720 And that will list out quite simply what the main things that I need to get done 186 00:11:44,750 --> 00:11:49,360 strategically. And then you can work on the next steps, like, okay, 187 00:11:49,470 --> 00:11:53,240 what are the five key things I need to do in order to achieve that overall 188 00:11:53,360 --> 00:11:57,000 objective? Because these are what they call big, hairy goals. They're like, Ooh, 189 00:11:57,020 --> 00:12:00,200 you look at it and go, oh yes, I must do my business strategy. 190 00:12:00,220 --> 00:12:04,880 And on my five year target and increase business by 50% next year. 191 00:12:05,020 --> 00:12:07,160 Sounds lovely. I'm going to go and get a cup of coffee. Thank you. 192 00:12:07,161 --> 00:12:10,240 And then I'll look at my emails and I'll do something tactical. 193 00:12:10,330 --> 00:12:13,470 Because I have no idea how I'm going to achieve that. 194 00:12:13,471 --> 00:12:18,310 So productivity planner allows you to break it down into tasks, chunk it down, 195 00:12:18,311 --> 00:12:22,530 and then you can prioritize what you're going to do today. 196 00:12:22,531 --> 00:12:27,250 Put it on a planner, put it on your calendar as if it was a meeting. 197 00:12:27,251 --> 00:12:28,610 So this half an hour, 198 00:12:28,611 --> 00:12:32,970 I'm going to be working on X because I know that's an action plan to get my big 199 00:12:33,520 --> 00:12:37,760 goal achieved and not overloading yourself. There's so many tips in here, 200 00:12:38,020 --> 00:12:41,400 Mitchell, that I'm thinking of, but that's the thing, 201 00:12:41,401 --> 00:12:44,160 not overloading yourself with 50 things to do. 202 00:12:44,670 --> 00:12:49,240 Pick five solid things that will make a big difference to your strategies that 203 00:12:49,241 --> 00:12:52,800 you're trying to build for the organization and leave time for the personal 204 00:12:52,810 --> 00:12:56,350 stuff as well. So they're the two things I would work on. 205 00:12:57,530 --> 00:13:02,110 That's really interesting. And thank you for sharing the names of the tools. 206 00:13:02,111 --> 00:13:06,870 I think that's certainly helpful. You know, I do some similar things, 207 00:13:06,871 --> 00:13:10,190 but you're giving me a lot to think about as far as how I can improve and take 208 00:13:10,191 --> 00:13:14,580 that to the next level. You know, one of the things we've talked about already, 209 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:19,460 and we're all guilty of it, but as far as you know, just some of this busy work, 210 00:13:19,520 --> 00:13:24,060 you know, we see these emails come in and it's got to be important. 211 00:13:24,220 --> 00:13:26,260 I have to answer it right now. When in reality, 212 00:13:26,370 --> 00:13:30,660 it's kind of taking away from that productive work that you were just probably 213 00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:33,900 in the midst of doing so as far as that problem goes, 214 00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:39,130 how do you go about implementing some kind of solution to really chunking 215 00:13:39,131 --> 00:13:44,010 the time? And you know, we can address the email dilemma or really, you know, 216 00:13:44,050 --> 00:13:47,010 I think a lot of it is as you said the iPhones and the different social media 217 00:13:47,190 --> 00:13:49,570 and the things that are always at our fingertips. 218 00:13:49,670 --> 00:13:51,250 So how do we solve that problem? 219 00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:53,211 Well, 220 00:13:53,211 --> 00:13:57,400 there is an addiction problem with having your phone tell you whenever you've 221 00:13:57,401 --> 00:13:58,234 got an email, 222 00:13:58,510 --> 00:14:01,840 tell you whenever you've got a meeting and what next on your calendar. 223 00:14:02,020 --> 00:14:03,840 So you've got all of these messages coming in. 224 00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:09,340 I challenge people to switch them all off. Switch it all off. 225 00:14:10,340 --> 00:14:15,300 Yeah. Don't have notifications coming in instead set 226 00:14:15,580 --> 00:14:17,690 times when you're going to check your email. Yeah. 227 00:14:17,710 --> 00:14:21,810 You don't need to check your calendar every five seconds. Yeah. 228 00:14:21,811 --> 00:14:24,290 If you're thinking, oh, what have I got this, check at lunchtime. 229 00:14:24,291 --> 00:14:27,570 What have I got this afternoon? Next three hours. Yeah. Check in the morning. 230 00:14:27,571 --> 00:14:30,690 What have I got coming up? You should, it's in there. 231 00:14:30,691 --> 00:14:33,770 You don't need to know it every time one of your meetings pings up, 232 00:14:33,990 --> 00:14:37,720 it just interrupts your thought process and emails are the same. 233 00:14:38,180 --> 00:14:39,360 So I, 234 00:14:39,640 --> 00:14:43,800 whenever I suggest particularly email to executives, 235 00:14:43,980 --> 00:14:46,560 switch off the notification, they're like, well, 236 00:14:46,561 --> 00:14:47,920 what if somebody wants to get hold of me? 237 00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:53,440 They go straight to this panic stage of like, whoa, whoa, whoa. 238 00:14:53,820 --> 00:14:56,680 It's very important. Yes. I know it's important. 239 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:00,800 And I know business is very important. However, 240 00:15:00,801 --> 00:15:05,120 we don't need to give an instant response. So a way of dealing with this saying, 241 00:15:05,121 --> 00:15:09,920 okay, I will check email at certain times throughout the day. 242 00:15:09,970 --> 00:15:14,550 And start small, you know, start like write down. Okay. 243 00:15:14,570 --> 00:15:18,750 time now for arguments sake. It's 2:00 PM now, right at the top, 244 00:15:18,850 --> 00:15:21,590 2:20 email on top of whatever your notes, 245 00:15:21,591 --> 00:15:26,070 you got tiny little thing at 2:20, I'm going to check the email, switch it up, 246 00:15:26,071 --> 00:15:28,190 close it down, switch off notifications. 247 00:15:29,090 --> 00:15:31,380 And that's how we stop getting the busy. What are it is, 248 00:15:31,381 --> 00:15:36,180 is email is nothing more than a place for other people to put their priorities 249 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:38,700 on you. That's all it is. 250 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:42,940 We should be using email for two things. And two things only. 251 00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:50,820 One is looking for who we are waiting for information on to help us complete our 252 00:15:50,821 --> 00:15:53,330 work. So if I'm waiting for someone, you know, 253 00:15:53,331 --> 00:15:56,930 I go into email just to check if I heard back from this person, this person, 254 00:15:57,310 --> 00:16:01,250 this point. No. Okay. Do they need a chase? Send them a quick chaser. Done. 255 00:16:01,270 --> 00:16:06,090 That's one use of email and the second is to see 256 00:16:06,091 --> 00:16:09,090 when new work comes in or updates come in. 257 00:16:09,091 --> 00:16:13,960 So when new pieces of work come in, you put them on your prioritization planner, 258 00:16:13,961 --> 00:16:15,680 you look at how you're going to fit it in. 259 00:16:15,681 --> 00:16:19,000 You're booking some time to look at it, if it's a big project. Yeah. 260 00:16:19,001 --> 00:16:23,400 And there's some great work by, for that kind of stuff, by Dave Allen, 261 00:16:23,401 --> 00:16:27,920 have you heard of, Getting Work Done? He's been around for many decades. 262 00:16:28,870 --> 00:16:33,070 Yeah. And, he's got some really good tools I have to say. 263 00:16:33,071 --> 00:16:37,110 And I'll use a lot of those executive tools and all different levels in 264 00:16:38,050 --> 00:16:42,150 that, but you've got to be prepared to make a process. 265 00:16:42,151 --> 00:16:46,670 Your day has to turn into a process. So, you know, 266 00:16:46,751 --> 00:16:48,430 email's a real problem. 267 00:16:48,570 --> 00:16:51,110 Because you just start answering an email and then you're answering the next 268 00:16:51,850 --> 00:16:55,180 email and you get tired and you're like, oh, look, 269 00:16:55,181 --> 00:16:59,580 there's a special offer for a case of wine or a golfing adventure, you know, 270 00:16:59,640 --> 00:17:03,020 whatever. Oh, and then you look at it and you click on the link. 271 00:17:03,021 --> 00:17:04,580 You look at the page and before, you know, it, 272 00:17:04,581 --> 00:17:09,220 you're dreaming about going to California pebble beach or something on 273 00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:14,250 this all inclusive resort, and play some golf next summer. 274 00:17:15,130 --> 00:17:16,130 You know, you wasted, 275 00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:20,090 your focus is completely gone and you've also wasted physical time. 276 00:17:20,750 --> 00:17:25,210 So you see where I'm going with that? It's, you got to make it a process. 277 00:17:25,211 --> 00:17:26,370 Otherwise it doesn't work. 278 00:17:27,260 --> 00:17:31,490 Absolutely. It makes total sense. And like I said, posing the question. 279 00:17:31,610 --> 00:17:32,690 I think we're all guilty of it. 280 00:17:32,691 --> 00:17:37,240 I think we can all relate to similar situations probably sometime 281 00:17:37,470 --> 00:17:41,160 this week, if not today, but you know, just kind of taking a step back, 282 00:17:41,161 --> 00:17:44,920 everything you're talking about, as far as an individual goes, 283 00:17:45,070 --> 00:17:47,000 it certainly makes a lot of sense. 284 00:17:47,001 --> 00:17:50,360 And I think you can improve a lot of your own personal time management using 285 00:17:50,361 --> 00:17:51,960 some of the strategies you've shared, 286 00:17:51,961 --> 00:17:56,960 but I think there's also a team component to this that needs to be 287 00:17:56,961 --> 00:18:00,400 addressed. Right. You know, if one person is making progress, 288 00:18:00,620 --> 00:18:02,560 but no one else is respecting that progress. 289 00:18:03,481 --> 00:18:05,080 You're going to be fighting a little battle here. 290 00:18:05,081 --> 00:18:08,360 So what is your recommendation as far as, you know, 291 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:11,510 maybe as a leader or as an individual contributor, 292 00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:16,150 who's trying to shift the culture of the team to, you know, 293 00:18:16,151 --> 00:18:19,230 support these initiatives. How do you go about doing something like that? 294 00:18:20,270 --> 00:18:21,103 I think that 295 00:18:23,250 --> 00:18:26,790 the culture is hugely important across the team. Hugely important. Because with, 296 00:18:26,930 --> 00:18:27,311 like you said, 297 00:18:27,311 --> 00:18:32,020 if only one or two people are not doing this 298 00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:34,260 well, then it all falls in. 299 00:18:34,261 --> 00:18:38,900 So one of the techniques a leader should do is to bring the 300 00:18:38,901 --> 00:18:41,540 team together and agree what, 301 00:18:41,541 --> 00:18:44,660 prioritization tools or communication tools we're going to use on a project, or, 302 00:18:44,661 --> 00:18:47,340 getting a list of clients together. You know, 303 00:18:47,341 --> 00:18:51,330 this is the systems we're going to use. This is how we're going to go about it. 304 00:18:51,331 --> 00:18:55,490 And another thing is to get them to brainstorm together, 305 00:18:56,510 --> 00:18:57,251 ask them about, 306 00:18:57,251 --> 00:19:02,170 in order to achieve whatever it is the strategy is we need to have done 307 00:19:02,330 --> 00:19:03,530 X, Y, and Z. 308 00:19:03,550 --> 00:19:07,570 So we need to have worked out whether this real issue for our clients, 309 00:19:07,571 --> 00:19:12,560 what the competition is doing, updating our lists, 310 00:19:12,561 --> 00:19:16,320 getting a communication message. So all of those tasks, 311 00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:19,280 but what I asked you to do as a leader to get the team together, 312 00:19:19,420 --> 00:19:22,680 to brainstorm and think, well, these are all the stages we need to do. 313 00:19:22,740 --> 00:19:27,560 Get some kind of ownership on a bigger project that everyone has a 314 00:19:27,561 --> 00:19:31,990 part to play. And they understand this is our process. And we are going to put, 315 00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:35,190 times and dates and people's names to it. You know, 316 00:19:35,380 --> 00:19:40,110 there's Racy is one example of a project management tool. 317 00:19:40,111 --> 00:19:42,630 You put people's responsibility, who's accountable for it. 318 00:19:42,631 --> 00:19:46,710 Who's responsible for getting it done, just to get them all on the same page. 319 00:19:46,850 --> 00:19:50,870 Now it may seem your wasting time to start with, but what you're doing, 320 00:19:51,120 --> 00:19:55,540 you're setting up to save time through the rest of that six months, 321 00:19:55,541 --> 00:19:56,900 where you're trying to build a business. 322 00:19:56,910 --> 00:20:00,380 Where you're trying to get more partners involved, 323 00:20:00,700 --> 00:20:05,220 a new system in place, a new marketing approach. You 324 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:09,620 can imagine that if you don't have the team on the same page, 325 00:20:09,621 --> 00:20:13,130 so that's one thing highly recommend that you do. 326 00:20:13,131 --> 00:20:17,970 The other thing is that is making sure that if you are not 327 00:20:17,971 --> 00:20:20,330 the only person doing work on yourself, 328 00:20:20,390 --> 00:20:24,450 about how you stay productive mindset, 329 00:20:24,451 --> 00:20:27,970 manage your time is share that with everybody. If you are leaders, share, look, 330 00:20:27,971 --> 00:20:31,770 this is what I'm doing. And talk about expectations. 331 00:20:33,060 --> 00:20:37,120 My expectation of you is to also look at your work and how you're performing. 332 00:20:37,121 --> 00:20:40,320 So you don't have people sitting in jobs thinking, well, it's okay. 333 00:20:40,900 --> 00:20:45,800 I just do the standard set needed, as a management, as an accountant, 334 00:20:45,801 --> 00:20:49,200 you know, those, I don't just do that. 335 00:20:49,201 --> 00:20:53,200 I know that my expectation is to contribute and grow this business, 336 00:20:53,201 --> 00:20:56,120 make it more efficient, easier, automation. 337 00:20:56,140 --> 00:21:00,960 There's so much automation out there, for this type of industry, 338 00:21:01,380 --> 00:21:03,840 as well as how we communicate emails, you know, 339 00:21:03,841 --> 00:21:08,710 how you can get a VIP list so that people you're waiting for it highlights 340 00:21:08,730 --> 00:21:09,510 and tells you that. 341 00:21:09,510 --> 00:21:12,110 But he won't tell you about all the other rubbish that comes into your email 342 00:21:12,310 --> 00:21:13,050 box. 343 00:21:13,050 --> 00:21:17,630 So sharing those ideas and asking the others, well, 344 00:21:17,631 --> 00:21:18,431 what are you trying? 345 00:21:18,431 --> 00:21:22,710 What are you doing in order to be as productive as possible? 346 00:21:22,850 --> 00:21:26,470 Sharing the thought, I thought about cutting meetings down to half an hour. 347 00:21:26,471 --> 00:21:29,460 What do you think? You know? So yeah, 348 00:21:29,461 --> 00:21:32,940 if you're gonna have a team meeting anyway, cut out the updates. 349 00:21:32,941 --> 00:21:35,940 I expect people to read the update, 350 00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:39,140 comment on that and then spend some productive time how we're going to work 351 00:21:39,141 --> 00:21:41,620 together to be more efficient. So, yeah, 352 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:45,420 and I do a lot of training bringing teams together. 353 00:21:45,850 --> 00:21:50,130 Lots of models on this and the thing is, do they have clarity? 354 00:21:50,190 --> 00:21:52,490 Do you have a consistent tool they're using? 355 00:21:53,310 --> 00:21:57,850 And do they have a consistent expectation that they know that the 356 00:21:57,851 --> 00:21:59,970 expectations then is to drive things forward, 357 00:22:00,470 --> 00:22:05,370 not just do the X number of clients in front of me and then do 358 00:22:05,371 --> 00:22:06,610 it again next, next year. 359 00:22:08,040 --> 00:22:09,880 You know, I'm at this point, 360 00:22:09,881 --> 00:22:13,440 just thinking of everything that goes into time management and prioritization 361 00:22:15,700 --> 00:22:16,760 and everything we've talked about. 362 00:22:16,761 --> 00:22:20,400 And I feel like the conversation can go on and on, 363 00:22:20,660 --> 00:22:22,200 different strategies and solutions. But, you know, 364 00:22:22,201 --> 00:22:26,680 I do want to bring this conversation to a close and I'm just thinking about 365 00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:29,310 other challenges that I know our listeners are facing. 366 00:22:29,311 --> 00:22:32,150 And really just everybody in the world at this point, 367 00:22:32,170 --> 00:22:35,990 anybody who has had to adapt to this hybrid workplace, right? 368 00:22:36,730 --> 00:22:40,870 Whether it's working, fully remote or back and forth, and you know, 369 00:22:40,900 --> 00:22:45,150 that work life balance with your personal lives right behind you during 370 00:22:45,690 --> 00:22:47,270 office hours. 371 00:22:47,271 --> 00:22:51,620 So everything we've talked about so far now add in that personal side 372 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:53,100 of things, you know, 373 00:22:53,101 --> 00:22:56,940 what are the expectations that we really should have and how do we, 374 00:22:56,941 --> 00:23:01,260 what kind of solutions or best practices are there for really balancing to make 375 00:23:01,261 --> 00:23:04,740 sure that we stay productive or utilizing our time wisely? 376 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:06,900 But we're not dismissing, you know, 377 00:23:07,010 --> 00:23:09,100 some of the other priorities that we have as well. 378 00:23:11,050 --> 00:23:14,370 Look, in the olden days, I say in the olden days, you used to go on a commute, 379 00:23:14,371 --> 00:23:15,140 right? 380 00:23:15,140 --> 00:23:20,090 We used to go into Boston on the train or New York or whichever city it 381 00:23:20,150 --> 00:23:20,983 is, right? 382 00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:26,770 We'd have time to disconnect between personal and work. Okay? 383 00:23:26,771 --> 00:23:27,770 Now we are remote. 384 00:23:27,771 --> 00:23:31,200 Now that has huge benefits and I'll mentions some in a minute, 385 00:23:31,201 --> 00:23:33,560 but the worst thing is there is no commute. 386 00:23:33,561 --> 00:23:38,160 There's you open the door and there's the dog, there's the family. 387 00:23:38,460 --> 00:23:41,480 Hi. And if you're like me, I've got an 8 and a 10 year old, 388 00:23:41,481 --> 00:23:44,080 they tend to come in, knock on the door. If they have something, 389 00:23:44,081 --> 00:23:47,520 they need something. And they're working in a virtual classroom, 390 00:23:48,060 --> 00:23:52,480 as one of my kids is this week. They'll just open the door and come in. 391 00:23:52,481 --> 00:23:56,480 You're like, ah, okay, so what I talk about really a lot is, 392 00:23:56,540 --> 00:23:58,920 building in a switch off. 393 00:24:00,100 --> 00:24:05,070 And what that means is you don't have the commute anymore, 394 00:24:05,071 --> 00:24:09,830 30 minutes, hour commute. So you have to build a fake commute. 395 00:24:09,831 --> 00:24:12,950 And that is three things. That's the, 396 00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:16,070 we're closing the closed list, 397 00:24:17,210 --> 00:24:21,230 the closed off and the rituals. You need three things. 398 00:24:21,810 --> 00:24:25,380 So my recommendation is when you're coming to an an end right, 399 00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:29,580 I'm done is to write down five things that you must do tomorrow. 400 00:24:29,581 --> 00:24:33,700 That will go on your productivity planner that I talked about earlier, the, 401 00:24:33,701 --> 00:24:36,420 as your priorities, what's the five things I must do tomorrow. 402 00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:37,500 And there are five things. 403 00:24:37,501 --> 00:24:39,740 It's a closed list because once I've written that down, 404 00:24:39,970 --> 00:24:42,100 that has to be done tomorrow. Okay. 405 00:24:42,101 --> 00:24:46,130 So it gets you focused on what it really helps you focus the mind on what the 406 00:24:46,330 --> 00:24:49,770 priority is. If you get to tomorrow and that close list, 407 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:52,450 something comes up as urgent. That's fine. 408 00:24:52,451 --> 00:24:56,410 But you have to take one of the five items off of your close list and put the 409 00:24:56,411 --> 00:25:00,730 new one on. Okay. Don't increase to 5, 6, 7, 8 list. That's burnout. 410 00:25:01,550 --> 00:25:06,400 So five is a lot of things you need to check. So it's called the close list. 411 00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:11,000 I've written down this list, it's closed. That's what I'm going to do tomorrow. 412 00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:13,520 Fine. It helps close it in the mind. 413 00:25:13,610 --> 00:25:18,520 The second thing is to close off and the close off is to switch off 414 00:25:18,521 --> 00:25:23,120 all the lights in your little, whether you've got a closet is your office. 415 00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:27,230 You know, you've converted a closet or you're actually using guest bedroom. 416 00:25:27,470 --> 00:25:31,830 You're lucky enough to have your own office space like mine, is to go around, 417 00:25:32,130 --> 00:25:36,190 right? Switch the lights off, turn off the printer. If you've got one, 418 00:25:37,070 --> 00:25:39,270 anything electronic, physically switch things off, 419 00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:44,760 close down windows on your laptop. I know this is crazy, right? 420 00:25:44,900 --> 00:25:49,030 My wife and I, we've got very used to it, working together. 421 00:25:49,031 --> 00:25:51,830 Just leaving stuff up that we're going to come back to. But no, no. 422 00:25:51,831 --> 00:25:55,590 Now we close it all down. Close everything down. Close that laptop. 423 00:25:56,700 --> 00:26:00,070 Lid shut. Yeah. So you're getting a thing. Everything's closed down, 424 00:26:00,170 --> 00:26:05,030 put everything set up. Things files away, filed away. 425 00:26:05,031 --> 00:26:07,390 Okay, I'm ready. I've got what I need for the first thing tomorrow. 426 00:26:07,391 --> 00:26:11,180 I've got my closed list. I open that door. I close that door. 427 00:26:11,181 --> 00:26:13,460 My mind is now free. 428 00:26:13,461 --> 00:26:18,300 Now the last of those three was rituals and rituals either own 429 00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:23,220 you or they work for you. So rituals and routines, right? 430 00:26:23,221 --> 00:26:26,140 We've all got our own little routine. Our way we like to go set in place. 431 00:26:26,141 --> 00:26:31,090 We go for a coffee. Are you a Dunkin Donuts person, or you a Starbucks person, 432 00:26:31,091 --> 00:26:33,850 whatever's in town because now you're at home. 433 00:26:34,190 --> 00:26:37,050 So there's a different set of you don't have it around the street corner 434 00:26:37,051 --> 00:26:39,570 anymore. You have to go downtown for it. and it's 435 00:26:42,611 --> 00:26:46,200 they can own you. They suck up time routines like, oh, 436 00:26:46,201 --> 00:26:49,160 I'm just going to go and do this that, before you know it, half an hour's gone. 437 00:26:49,161 --> 00:26:53,920 But what if you owned your routines and they became rituals. So if you had, 438 00:26:53,921 --> 00:26:56,240 you finished your work. 439 00:26:56,241 --> 00:27:00,360 One of my recommendations is when you go to virtual work is you put 440 00:27:01,360 --> 00:27:05,950 on a shirt or something that you wouldn't be wearing just to lounge around the 441 00:27:07,010 --> 00:27:11,790 house. So there's so you can change that shirt and put your Netflix clothes on. 442 00:27:12,170 --> 00:27:16,310 Yeah. Or your Hulu clothes, whatever is something a bit more comfortable, 443 00:27:16,311 --> 00:27:20,750 more relaxing. But the mistake, a lot of people is they get up, 444 00:27:20,751 --> 00:27:24,780 they put on their just home clothes and go and sit in front. 445 00:27:24,780 --> 00:27:26,260 It doesn't feel different. And 446 00:27:29,501 --> 00:27:32,580 even people who have got big meetings, 447 00:27:32,581 --> 00:27:35,460 virtually tend to go and put their shoes on. Again. 448 00:27:35,461 --> 00:27:37,340 Don't walk around in your carpet slippers, 449 00:27:37,341 --> 00:27:39,900 put your shoes on because it gives you that feeling different. 450 00:27:39,901 --> 00:27:42,780 Imagine that at the end of the day, you're changing your clothes. 451 00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:46,090 You would do that anyway. If you came home from the office, 452 00:27:46,140 --> 00:27:48,570 so I'm recreating these, 453 00:27:48,571 --> 00:27:53,450 become rituals and a ritual is something your routine you do regularly. 454 00:27:53,470 --> 00:27:55,770 So going to the gym is not a ritual. 455 00:27:55,771 --> 00:27:58,970 If you're only doing it once or twice a week and you might not do it next week, 456 00:27:59,230 --> 00:27:59,651 all right. 457 00:27:59,651 --> 00:28:04,560 It's ritual because it's consistent and walking the dog is a ritual. Do you, 458 00:28:04,561 --> 00:28:06,440 when you finish your work, what do you do? Well, 459 00:28:06,441 --> 00:28:10,760 I'm going to walk the dog or I'm going to walk around the neighborhood or I'm 460 00:28:10,780 --> 00:28:15,320 going to go and talk to my better half, partner in life, friend, 461 00:28:16,020 --> 00:28:20,800 family, and make something specific. Whatever that ritual is. Doesn't matter. 462 00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:26,270 If something that's important to you do it, but do it every time. 463 00:28:26,850 --> 00:28:31,110 Yeah. And, and make time to read something that you are interested in. 464 00:28:31,690 --> 00:28:35,430 Preferably, a paper version, like a book, a proper book. You know, 465 00:28:35,431 --> 00:28:38,910 we heard of those. We use Kindles now, we use electronics. 466 00:28:39,290 --> 00:28:42,230 But what I'm trying to do is close down the minds as quickly as possible. 467 00:28:42,650 --> 00:28:46,340 So if there is something you can read physically, or you printed out something, 468 00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:50,100 you wanted to read a personal article, spend five minutes, reading that, boom, 469 00:28:50,210 --> 00:28:54,420 your mind's out of it. So out into the next world, OK. 470 00:28:54,890 --> 00:28:55,780 Equally in the morning, 471 00:28:55,781 --> 00:28:58,500 you've got a startup routine that I talked about earlier. You know, 472 00:28:58,501 --> 00:29:00,180 the high performance planner is one I use, 473 00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:02,540 you can use whichever one you want to get you in, 474 00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:06,650 but you need to get out as well. So when you walk down the stairs, 475 00:29:06,670 --> 00:29:11,410 you are not worrying about where am I going to find all this money? You know, 476 00:29:11,450 --> 00:29:14,610 these big projects that didn't go so well. 477 00:29:14,611 --> 00:29:18,130 Because you had a switch off routine. So that's a closed list. 478 00:29:18,131 --> 00:29:21,370 Write a closed list. closed down, 479 00:29:21,371 --> 00:29:24,810 physically close down the electronics lights, tidy up your, 480 00:29:24,811 --> 00:29:29,520 your work station area. And then a ritual. Something like walking the dog, 481 00:29:29,521 --> 00:29:33,520 getting your Netflix clothes. You can play a bit of music. 482 00:29:33,780 --> 00:29:37,280 It could be anything you want it to be, but it has to be done every time. 483 00:29:38,100 --> 00:29:41,760 And that's how you get in and out really quickly from work to personal. 484 00:29:42,660 --> 00:29:43,493 And then back again. 485 00:29:46,550 --> 00:29:48,960 This has been Count Me In IMA's podcast, 486 00:29:49,310 --> 00:29:52,600 providing you with the latest perspectives of thought leaders from the 487 00:29:52,601 --> 00:29:55,160 accounting and finance profession. If you like what you heard, 488 00:29:55,300 --> 00:29:58,200 and you'd like to be counted in for more relevant accounting and finance 489 00:29:58,310 --> 00:30:02,070 education, visit IMA's web at www.imanet.org.