Curtis Jenkins, author of Vision to Reality. He has helped dozens of small businesses accomplish their vision. Learn more at cljassoc.com.
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One question I’m often asked is: How do you accomplish everything you do with a full-time position as vice president of a global project management office? Writing books, recording podcasts, engaging on social media, mentoring and having a life... I have the same number of hours as everyone else. It’s how I use the time that matters most. Today, I want to share five secrets to getting things done, leaving more time for yourself.
1. Get professional help.
After you lay out your vision and what you want to achieve, meet with several professionals to determine if they are the right fit for you. Most of my professional relationships come from referrals from my network. When I wanted to write a book, I consulted my author friends. When I wanted help with marketing, my friend in a marketing company provided support and additional referrals. When I wanted more speaking opportunities, I partnered with a friend who worked at a speaker’s bureau. I use the same principle for other business-related needs.
2. Create your own community.
I write down every goal, then share these goals with my personal accountability group. My close friend and I wanted to build a community of executives to grow and have fun together. We developed our own organization that provided consistent peer support and accountability on a monthly and annual basis. This group helped me create my goals so that they made sense, challenged me to think bigger, came up with ideas to advance my goals and provided accountability. I provide the same level of peer support to them. Sometimes, we invite speakers on various subjects to teach us as a group. The think tank with these gentlemen helps to accelerate the pace of achieving the goals. I advise everyone to consider creating their own community, or what I call my personal board of advisors.
3. Join an existing community.
When I wanted to get into real estate, I made my journey easier by joining a well-known real estate group and immediately started making relationships with the other members. When you join a community of experts in the field, there is no question that you can’t get answered. The countless hours they have put in only help to streamline your path. Yes, you still must learn, but the cost of learning is much less.
Depending on the community you join, you pay a membership fee and perhaps pay for discounted courses, but the relationships and partnerships are invaluable. In the group I was a part of, I worked in the group and was able to profit from learning hard money lending. I also gained a financial advisor who specializes in real estate strategy investing.
Similarly, one of the best decisions I've made was to join a business accelerator community. Yes, this does have a monthly cost, but this cohort group really elevated my game in several ways:
• Kept me to a schedule to ensure my assignments were completed
• Helped me “clear the fog” on ideas
• Taught me about invaluable tools and technologies
4. Use available productivity tools and technology.
There are so many resources to leverage with technology. I won’t name specific ones but will just say—where have these tools been all my life? The technology today practically does all the work if you set it up correctly. If you aren’t sure how to use the tool and don’t have any recommendations or referrals from your paid professionals or community groups, YouTube can be a very good source where there is always someone helping via video. I don’t spend a lot of time working with tools. When I get help in some way—free or paid—I use the tools, as they are there to help me. I advise the same for you.
5. Study how to be more productive.
You can only do a few things well. I am constantly reminded of this by my current boss, and I remember this coming from a CEO of one of my former employment stints. Both are right. My experience is that you can’t be deeply successful if you are spread too thin. Therefore, you must focus. I used to be stressed trying to do too many things at once. I no longer am stressed because I design my day and my life to be productive. (Secret: I also work fewer hours!)
This came to me when I wanted to help my team become more productive and spend less time at work. In 2019, I began reading books on productivity, and these four changed my life:
• The Four-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss taught me the power of delegation, how to use it and how to leverage the support of virtual assistants. Prior to reading this book, I had no idea what a virtual assistant was!
• The One Thing by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan taught me how to focus on the most valuable accomplishment in the day that would make all other things unnecessary or easier.
• Deep Work by Cal Newport helped me to unapologetically block out my calendar, turn off my notifications and tap into my creative side. This is where my presentations or ideas for improving the business come from.
• Lastly, The 12-Week Year by Brian P. Morgan and Michael Lennington taught me creativity. How can I get all my annual work done in 12 weeks? I have never achieved this, but if I hadn’t tried, I would not have learned to do much of what I am writing about today. I have learned how to be creative, focus on what matters and leverage the people and technology all at my fingertips.
Success compounds, and the more you can string the wins together, the more the results will show up in the form of more time, more money, more friends, more support and more opportunities to share your success with others. After you make your business goals, get the team engaged to try each of these with you, and see how far you get compared to previous years. You will never be the same person you were!
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