Time is Money... and a Great Tip from Harvard Business Review

In all businesses, time is money. Sounds simple, maybe even too simple, but one thing is for sure for all of us. All we have is our time. And it is up to us to make the most of it if we want to be effective.

There are many ways to make our time go further and I do not profess to be a guru in the time effectiveness space, but I do have a few things that work and work well. Unfortunately, they are counterintuitive to what we do every day.

Most of us use some type of calendar or planning program to plan and execute our days, which breaks the day into 10-, 15-, 30- or 60-minute 'blocks'. Have you ever noticed how most people, when booking meetings, book 60-minute meetings? Is this because Outlook (sorry Bill, I love what you've done) has convinced us that 60 minutes is a nice, round number and makes it easier to schedule the day?

If you'd like to improve your time effectiveness/efficiency, try this next time you book a meeting: instead of booking the hour, book 40 minutes. Yes, just 40. People will think this strange at first, but will show up on time more often. Less time will be wasted since most meetings probably don't need an hour since much of the time, attendees just use up the time alloted, and you'll finish 20 minutes earlier than usual. The benefits? 20 minutes (33% of your time) can be used to move to your next meeting – on time, return some urgent emails, read some mail that normally sits until the end of the day... the list goes on. 

Now, if you have other people that you work with that start to adopt this strategy, the team effectiveness starts to skyrocket and more work is produced as less time is wasted.

So, tell me what you think. Could this work in your organization? Do you have any other ideas to improve employee/organizational effectiveness?

Now, here is a great (short) read from Harvard Business Review that I think will get you thinking: Hold Conversations, Not Meetings http://s.hbr.org/dZFBPw

Do You Have Mojo? Great Book!

I bought this book on Amazon and it is a great read – Mojo (How to get it, How to keep it, How to get it back if you lose it). This book is for everyone. Whether you are a successful business person, still climbing the success ladder, have had a few speed bumps in your career lately, or looking to reignite your life. 10 pages in and you will want to keep going. Here is a clip from the author's website to give you a topline on the book:

Discover Your MOJO

Mojo is that much-desired sweet spot in an organization’s year, a sports team’s season, or an individual’s career where everything is going the right way-and success builds upon success.

In MOJO, bestselling author and renowned executive coach Marshall Goldsmith explains that having mojo means controlling three elements: – Identity (Who do you think you are?) – Achievement (What have you done lately?) – Reputation (Who do other people think you are? What do other people think you’ve done lately?) .

But understanding mojo isn’t enough. Knowing how to acquire, maintain, or even recapture it is what really counts, and Goldsmith uses case studies from his own high-profile clients as well as from the lives of public figures like John Travolta and Richard Nixon to illustrate how it’s done.

MOJO will show that momentum in business, organizations, as well as individual lives and careers, is easy to define and quantify; there’s a clear cause-and-effect relationship between mojo and success. With Marshall Goldsmith’s help, readers will learn a revolutionary new way to jump-start – and capitalize on – their own mojo.