How It Works — The Short Version

The most essential element of my system is the 25-minute block of time. If I have to boil everything down to just one process that brings the greatest results (a la the 80/20 rule), then it’s this…

• Grab your nearest kitchen timer
• Set the timer to a 25 minute countdown
• Choose one single task to focus on
• Start the timer
• Get to work!

When the 25 minutes are up, take a break. Then, rinse and repeat.

How It Really Works — The Full Version

Obviously, there’s much more to it than that. To make this system really work for you, you have to begin by organizing your “work sphere” into some well defined goals and then transform those goals into workable projects.

1. Make a list of your top goals/projects
2. Keep this list visible or accessible in your work area
3. Use this list plan your working days

We’ll get more into exactly how to use this list further along in the post…

I’d recommend limiting this to a maximum of 5 projects or 5 areas you’re working on. Anything above that number is going to be too distracting to your daily efforts. Plus, if you’re the type of person who tries to do too much or always has too many goals and projects, the very act of getting serious and committed with just five of them is going to improve your productivity exponentially.

What’s with the Tomatoes?

Yup, we might as well deal with this issue now. In creating my Time Management Leverage system, I’ve stitched together my own experience along with the ideas and strategies from some of the world’s greatest productivity gurus.

The “tomato” concept comes from a time management system called “The Pomodoro Technique.” Pomodoro being the Italian word for tomato, and the idea stemming from kitchen timers shaped and styled to look like tomatoes.

If you’ve never read about the pomodoro technique, I highly recommend checking it out if you’re really interested in time management theory. But though I’ve borrowed a lot from that system, I’ve also made a lot of modifications to make this system more practical and more connected to long term goals. Also, the PT is IMHO pretty over the top in terms of how rigorously its creators recommend you track and monitor your time. I’ve done a lot to make it more flexible and thus easier to use.

One thing I really do like from the Original PT is using the term “pomodoro” to talk about a segment of working time. In other words, when I’m working I actually refer to my 25-minute focus periods as “pomodoros.” It has a nice ring to it and comes in handy if someone tries to interrupt you. Nothing more enjoyable than just saying, “I’m in a pomodoro. Can I do it later?” It’s golden.

And What’s with the Sauce?

Let me remind you that the goal of this system is to learn how to Leverage time, not to manage it. Perhaps the very best definition of leverage I’ve read narrows it down to one simple concept…

Leverage is “doing a lot with a little.”

And that’s exactly what you’re doing with my tomato sauce time management leverage system. You’re taking something small, a 25 minute time segment, and turning it into something very big: completing an important goal or finishing a critical project.

From little 25-minute tomatoes, you’re making glorious tomato sauce.

To extend my fun little metaphor even more… let’s remember that fresh, ripe tomatoes rot if we don’t put them to use. And what better use is there for something perishable than to transform it into something we can save and benefit from again and again later on? Likewise… what better use is there for today’s time than to invest it into something valuable that will reap rewards well into the future? Hence, spending 25 minutes on an important project and/or goal?

How to Make Tomato Sauce with Tomatoes

Now that you have a clear overview of my system, it’s time to start putting it to work. I recommend getting a fresh, new lined-page notebook. On the inside cover, write down your top five projects and goals. You’re going to need this notebook to help track your progress every day.

Then, get your hands on a kitchen timer. It doesn’t need to be shaped like a tomato, but it does need to be a timer and nothing else. In other words, don’t use your smartphone, your microwave, or the timer on your laptop.

And before we complicate things even further…. sit down at your workspace, open up your notebook, write down today’s date, and draw a line. Then, take a look at your top five projects. Use these to stay focused on your long-term goals inside the present. Make a list of just a few activities you want to accomplish today. Try to keep your list to five or fewer items — ideally, at least one item per project/goal area.

Finally, choose your first task, set the timer for 25 minutes, and press the start button. Once the 25 minute session begins, you should be working ONLY on your target item and NOTHING else. When the timer buzzes after 25 minutes, finish up what you’re doing, take a break of at least 5 minutes (get away from your computer!) and then get started again.

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Why You Need to Fire Your Time Manager

Now we’re going to dig down into the nitty gritty of why most daily work-time systems typically fail. This will help clarify why I’m sitting pretty here making tomato sauce and you’re probably over there fooling about with lemons.

As far as I’m concerned, there are 3 primary reasons why being a time manager does not work in today’s Information Worker world…

1. It’s too structured.
You spend hours planning your whole day out hour-by-hour (even minute-by-minute) only to realize that, oh yeah, life is NOT like TV and it rarely goes the way you want it to go. Some structure is good, too much structure is bad. Very bad. (P.S. — Even if you’re just “sort of” doing this, you’re doing it.)

2. It fails to make room for our lame “time wasting” addictions.
Let’s face it folks, we 21st century people love to waste time. We tweet. We update our FB status. We look at our email so compulsively you’d think we’re waiting for a message from god himself (or herself, or whatever). Sure, we need to avoid this crap as much as we can. But it’s really too much to expect that we’re going to eliminate it altogether. Forget about it, it’s woven into the very fabric of our culture.

3. It creates guilt. Lots of guilt.
Psssst… You! Yes, you. Do you make lists? Right. We all do. Lists, lists, lists. To list or not to list, that is the question. And what usually happens to those lists? Well, here in San Francisco we pretty much compost everything. Lists are just one way we create guilt (unless you’re using them correctly, of course). We also create guilt when we schedule that morning trip to the gym for 7:00am and don’t actually get there until 7:00PM…. two days later! Guilt is worthless because it makes us feel worthless. Here we are, being managers again. Pointless.

Why You Need to Hire a Time Leverager

Now that we know exactly why time managing is bad, we can just flip over these puppies and see oh so clearly why time leveraging is good…

1. It’s flexible.
Like yoga. Hey, if you expect to be a guru, you can’t be all stiff and rigid. Not unless that’s what you need to do right NOW, of course.

2. It’s realistic about your constant need for information.
Feeling a little connectivity withdrawal? Don’t worry! Time leveraging systems will help you be more productive AND make time for checking in on Yelp with your overzealous smartphone technology.

3. It creates a greater sense of productivity. Guilt free!
You need to be flexible and you need to make time for web 10.0 productivity. But you also need to get things done. This is our #1 goal — to move more in this direction using a system that actually works without making us feel horrible for just throwing out that Franklin Covey planner.

Let’s face it — we live in a world where everything is happening right now. So many things demand our attention every single minute of every single day. And, frankly, we love it. Call it singularity; call it what you will.

But let’s be honest about the problems it causes.

Because we’re always bombarded with demands on our time, we struggle to get things done during our working time. And that means we struggle to make real progress towards our goals. IMHO, this is a serious problem with very frightening consequences for each of our individual lives and for our entire culture of work, business, and productivity.

So… are you ready to learn a simple method to help you Leverage more and Manage less? Damn right you are!

More to come soon, young Jedi.

In the meantime, leave a comment below about your personal experiences with the evil Manager villain. How have you experienced the downsides of too much structure, information overload, and excessive guilt? Thanks in advance for sharing!

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Why Time Management Sucks

First, let’s all agree that “time management” as a concept… well, frankly, it’s crap. As many other folks before me have shown, it’s pretty lame to think about *managing time.* As far as business language goes, this one’s pretty crummy indeed.

Instead of thinking about how to manage time, it’s a lot more powerful to think about how you can leverage time to get more results. I don’t know about you, but when I hear the term “time management” I get a bit queasy. The idea should be to learn how to get more out of time and learn how to plan your working (and your non-working) hours better.

The Whole Point of Leveraging Time

But let’s really break this down. What’s the point? Put simply, the point is to get more time to do the things you really want to be doing and to spend less time frittering away.

Even though I used the term “time management” to title this article, I want to make one thing very clear — most time management systems only do one thing… they teach you how to work, work, work like a crazy type A personality until you’ve successfully filled up 10 hours of your day with senseless tasks that make you feel like you’re getting somewhere when all your doing is compulsively ticking boxes, obsessively checking email, and unconsciously browsing social networks. Not good.

Leveraging v. Managing

When you manage time, you work to fill hours with tasks… ANY tasks. But when you leverage time, you make a clear plan to move forward on a clearly defined goal.

When you manage time, you obsess over how long things will take and end up doing too much at once. But when you leverage time, you break things down into clearly defined chunks to get the greatest level of focus and productivity.

When you manage time, you let it control you. When you leverage time, you put it to work for you.

How I Stopped Managing My Time and Started Getting More Leverage

In this article series, I’ll show you exactly how I built a clear, easy, and repeatable system to….

• Work with greater focus and productivity every single day
• Plan my days without overloading myself and without creating stress
• Spend less time on pointless tasks and more time on high leverage projects

Learning how to get more productivity in your life and in your business is perhaps the greatest lesson we all need to learn in order to make more money AND to enjoy life to the fullest.

Before we move on, I’d like you to do me one small favor. Leave a comment in the box below. Tell me about what, if any, systems you use to manage your time or to plan your working day. It can be systems you use now or systems you have used in the past. List everything you can, whether or not any of it actually worked for you.

This series on Leveraging Time is not just about your work — it’s about your LIFE.

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If you’re a reader of this blog, you know that my favorite topic is generating Passive Income sources online. This year, my goal is to help you get there even faster. It’s my New Year’s Resolution and I want it to be yours too. But first, let’s take a step back and talk about some principles before we dig into the money stuff…

Why Most New Year’s Resolutions Fail

Most years, I find myself making a long and sordid list of all my hefty goals for the year ahead. It always seems like a good idea, but then a few months into the year I begin to realize that most of those goals don’t really matter to me and I end up focusing in on only one or two.

According to one statistic, something like 60-70% of New Year’s Resolutions get dropped in the first WEEK of January. Does that surprise you? Doesn’t surprise me one bit. Most people usually do bite off more than they can chew only to give up quicker than they ever imagined.

Still, it’s pretty strange that everyone gets so excited about the New Year and their personal goals and resolutions… only to drop them less than 7 days later. Seems pretty odd to me.

After a lot of thinking lately, I’ve decided that it always comes down to one problem — lack of focus.

Now, I realize there are lots of other words for “focus.” We could call it “desire” or even “intention.” Whatever it is, it boils down to one simple thing, most people don’t actually KNOW what their resolution is in the first place. This is why they give it up — they never knew what it was to begin with.

How to Focus on Your New Year’s Resolution

The best way to focus on your resolution is to get ultra-clear about what it is. And the only way to do that is to find the “center” of your life that needs most attention and the greatest amount of growth. In my humble opinion, I think building sources of Passive Income is far and away the best place to focus your energy for the year ahead because it is the one goal that will have the most dynamic influence on all of your other goals.

Let me explain.

Let’s say as you’re reading this that you’re probably also thinking about all of the other things you want to improve in your life. Maybe you want to eat a vegetarian diet, lose 50 pounds, get that six pack abs, or be a better wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend. Typically this is how we operate. We want more money, better relationships, sexier bodies, and happier lives. Right? Right!

Now, here’s my argument…

The best way to go about all this is to focus your energy on ONE goal that will have the most dramatic affect on your entire life. Again, my humble opinion is super clear on this one — building more passive income is the best way to creating a better life. Why? It’s simple. What we all need to be happier, healthier, wealthier, and sexier is TIME.

Think about it. The reason your relationship isn’t where you want it to be is because you don’t have the TIME to invest more into it and to get more out of it. The reason you never lose weight is because you don’t have the TIME to prepare healthy foods, count your calories, and stay focused on your exercise plan. And the reason you feel depressed is because you don’t have the TIME to expand your social life, volunteer, and find meaningful things to do with your life.

My 2011 Challenge to You And Your Promise to Me

So this year, I want to help YOU get super-focused on the one New Year’s Resolution that really matters — Creating Passive Income Online. I want to do this for two selfish reasons… 1) I really enjoy teaching people and sharing my greatest passion; and 2) I know that if I help you then ultimately it’s going to help me get even farther along with my goal to DOUBLE my income this year.

In order to do this, though, I need you to make me two very important promises: 1) that this will be your #1 goal for 2011 and 2) that you will put as much energy, time, and effort as you can (outside of your normal life) to make this happen!

How to Get Started

There are two things you’ll need to do officially to join me in the 2011 Passive Income Plan. 1) Make sure you’re signed up to my www.JasonClegg.com email newsletter and 2) make sure that you’re signed up as a member at www.ArticleMarketingSEO.com

When you sign up for #1, you’ll get my free ebook which covers the essentials of starting an online business. And when you sign up for #2, you’ll get free access to my fundamental lessons on Article Marketing to help you learn the best and cheapest traffic-generation strategy that exists online today.

Both of these memberships are free, so there’s no official cost to you. Of course, as we move through the year I will recommend certain products and services that are going to make your Passive Income Goal Quest that much easier.

My method is simple — I want to share with you the techniques I’ve been using over the past 6 years to generate Passive Income Online. My goal is to help you get to the level you desire by the end of the year. Yes, this is going to require discipline, work, and focus from you. But if you’re willing to team up with me, I’ll do my very best to help you every step of the way.

This plan is for ANYONE and EVERYONE who is interested, regardless of your experience, background, and know-how. I look forward to working with beginners, veterans, and everyone in-between.

Here’s to our success in 2011!

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I’m a perfectionist at heart. It’s true. And while it can sometimes be one of my greatest assets, it’s long been a major deterrent to progress in business growth. Someone once said, “If you want to speed up the rate of success, speed up your rate of failure.” Nothing could be more spot-on than that. The secret to success really is failure. And the reason is simple: unless you fail (and I mean REALLY fail) you never get out there and learn those critical lessons you can ONLY learn on the field of battle.

Why Deadlines Work
Deadlines force failure because they make it absolutely necessary for you to fail. If you have a deadline in place and you keep it, you’re much more likely to actually achieve a goal and to take your idea or project from idea to fruition. In the realm of ideas, things work much differently than in reality. This is the whole point of entrepreneurship — moving from ideas to reality.

But let’s be honest — reality is a scary place. There are risks, uncertainties, problems, unexpected crises. Anything can happen at anytime and bad things *will* happen.

For me, learning how important it is to speed up implementation has helped me get better at welcoming failure as a means to move faster towards success. This concept “Speed of Implementation” just means moving towards goals faster by getting things done sooner. At the end of the day if it’s not you, it’s going to be your competitor.

Let’s dig into a real example….

Accountability is an Asset
At the beginning of this month, I launched my very first membership website. This was a goal I’d had for several years now and a big milestone. Now I realize how huge of an accomplishment it was to go from zero to full-speed on a project that was once just an idea floating in my mind. A mere possiblity transformed into a fruitful reality. Awesome!

But I owe much of my success to one important thing — deadlines. But why are deadlines so damn important? What do deadlines do for you? And what is it that makes them work so well?

To be fair, the real credit here doesn’t go to deadlines but to acccountability. Deadlines just make accountability possible. The trick is to put the two together for the greatest results. Lack of accountability prevents most people from ever reaching their goals. Without accountability, deadlines are pointles. Without someone or something to hold you accountable for what you say you’re going to do, you probably won’t do it.

So how can you get accountability? There are two essential ingredients for making this happen…

1. You need to commit to yourself.

2. You need other people to enforce your commitment.

Most people make the grave mistake of just working with #1. Sure, making promises to yourself is an important part of the process but you just can’t do it alone. Even if you are literally doing all of the work yourself, it’s critical to enlist the help of others to take on the huge psychological task of staying focused and moving towards a goal.

Say Hello to My Little Friend
If you’re an entrepreneur, you know how important your mind is to your success. You need your mind for new ideas, innovating thinking, creative problem solving, and everything that goes into the process of building and running a successful business.

But you also need your mind to stay focused in setting and achieving big goals. You have to know “the magic of thinking big.” And you have to have the mental power to press on when things seem too big and some goals seem like just far too much work for the risk.

This is a job you should not do alone.

That’s why the single best thing you could ever do for yourself is find other people with similar goals and ambitions to start taking on that job together. And that, dear readers, is the role of the Mastermind Group.

You’re probably saying one of 3 things to yourself right now…

1. What the $@!@# is a Mastermind Group?

2. Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard this routine before.

3. It’s true. It works for me too.

If you answered like #1 above, then go out and read Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” and report back to me when finished.

–If you answered like #2 above, then go out and start a group already!

–If you answered like #3 above, cheers to you!

I’m fairly new to masterminds, but I’ve known about them for a looooong time. Frankly, if I’d started one earlier, I’d already be much farther along in my business.

Fail Faster to Succeed Sooner
The only way you’re going to make progress is by getting out of your comfort zone and welcoming mistakes. Two steps forward and one step back. If you spend too much your time thinking, analyzing, assessing and too little time taking action, you’re never going to move forward.

It can be difficult to figure this out on your own because all too often we fail to see our own shortcomings. Other people are much better at showing us the way and encouraging us to strike out in a positive direction. I know it sounds contradictory to open yourself up to failure when what you want is the exact opposite. But getting more comfortable with failure is the best way to make progress.

If you do anything after reading this, do this: Find 3 or 4 like-minded people and form a group. Get together at least 1x per week and take turns sharing your current business goals and your most pressing problems. I guarantee you that this one change can help you speed up your rate of implementation and increase your rate of success!

What’s Your Greatest Obstacle to Getting Things Done?
And one more thing…

I’m curious to learn about what prevents you from “Speed of Implementation” right now. Share your greatest obstacle in the comment box below.

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First, the two apps–

Freedom from the Internet

If you’re looking to block your computer from web access for a set period of time, you need Freedom. This handy little application will completely block you from the Internet anytime you turn it on. Simply open the app, set the number of minutes (from 1 minute all the way up to 480), and turn it on. Presto! No more web access for you, buddy. (Mac AND PC versions available for this app.)

Self Control from Your Mindless Web Surfing

If you’re looking to block only particular websites, I highly recommend Steve Lambert’s “SelfControl.” Turn this app on and you can designate exactly which websites you want blocked. Create a running list so anytime you turn it on, the same sites are blocked. Enter the number of minutes you need a little self control, activate, and ba-bing! No more annoying little sites like Facebook, Twitter, or email access. (Mac only.)

The makers of the Freedom app also recently released a new app which I have not yet tried out called Anti-Social which basically does the same thing as SelfControl but is available for Mac AND PC.

Why Get Away from the Web?

This point might be obvious for some and completely missed by others, so let’s unpack it. If you do any kind of work on the Internet (which includes virtually all of us these days), chances are extremely high that you spend a great deal of your computer time surfing aimlessly and getting lost in the high tide of websites, email, and social media.

Whether you want to believe me or not, you simply do NOT need to check your email, Facebook, and all your other little accounts 1723 times per day. It’s NOT doing you any good.

BUT…

Quite frankly, it’s really really really HARD to stay away. I don’t know about you, but the second I sit down and pop up my laptop screen I’m racing off to about 1,326,028 websites, email accounts, and god only knows what. All it takes is one little thought in a different direction and click, click, click, and suddenly I’m watching random videos on YouTube about how to blow bubbles in my beer.

UNLESS…

I make a point of activating Freedom if I want to stay off the web completely or SelfControl if I want to do focused work online.

Neither of these applications are expensive. Freedom is just $10 and Anti-Social is $15. SelfControl is free. And just think of how quickly this tiny little investment will translate into income-producing work time.

There’s a time for silly websites and random web-browsing. But if you can get a little help from these applications, you’ll be far more likely to know when it’s time to get some work done and when it’s time to play.

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Why Relocate Your Life and Your Business?

Relocation has been at the center of my lifestyle-design and business-building strategy since my first journey to Berlin in early 2009. Much of this was inspired by the well-known business book, The Four Hour Work Week.

A Four Hour Work Week? Are You Kidding?

Not really up to speed on all this 4HWW (Four Hour Work Week) mumbo jumbo? Take a gander at my 4HWW Series articles here…

4HWW Part One
4HWW Part Two
4HWW Part Three
4HWW Part Four
4HWW Part Five

I once read that the best ways to power up your motivation is this…

1. Back yourself into a corner.
2. Do everything in your power to get out.

I believe this is exactly why I managed to go from a $37,000 per year college instructor to a six-figure Internet Business owner in just a few years.

To go from zero to 60 required serious motivation, and I had it. No doubt about it. But here’s the real key: to muster super-high levels of motivation requires LOTS of reasons to succeed. It can’t be *just* about money or *just* about travel. And it can’t be *just* about prestige or status. You’ve got to find LOTS of reasons and they MUST be very real to your mind, body, and soul.

Maybe that last line sounds a bit hokey, but I’m quite serious.

If your reasons for doing something big don’t resonate on a mental, emotional, and spiritual/higher level, then you’re simply NOT going to make it happen. Again, I’m talking about doing something BIG, something life-changing. The reason most people never take action to achieve something big is because they don’t really want to do it. Why not? They don’t have enough reasons.

Before I read the 4HWW, I already had a desire to start building a business. In fact, I already had a business. It just wasn’t exactly running like a machine. The ideas behind The Four Hour Work Week resonated with me in many powerful ways and on many meaningful levels. I wanted to travel more. I wanted to meet different people from around the world. I wanted to experience different types of cultures, cuisines, and ways of life. And most of all — I wanted to live a better life. I wanted to work smarter not harder.

To put it all in one simple statement: I knew the rat-race sucked and I didn’t want to spend my life doing it.

Relocate, Renew, Recharge

Before I get too far astray in this blog-sized novel, let’s get back to what’s happening right now. As I write this, I’m sitting on an AeroMexico flight to Costa Rica. My girlfriend is sitting next to me playing on her iPad while I’m over here struggling to speak Spanish with the flight attendant pouring my coffee. Life is good. Pura vida!

What is it about travel that inspires us so much? It’s two things: Time and Freedom.

Think about it. Why are vacations so damn wonderful? Time and Freedom. And why do most people in modern cultures look forward to retirement so much? Time and Freedom. Remember childhood? What was so great about the playground, school recess, and summer vacation? Time and Freedom.

This is exactly why I love relocation so much. In a nutshell, relocation is traveling to a new place to live, work, and play. But for me it’s really a chance to recapture the true spirit of things and get back to the basics.

Mini Retirement v. Relocation Recalibration

My last relocation in early 2009 to Berlin, Germany, was more of a 4HWW mini-retirement. I went there to get away from work and to learn more about myself. But this time my purpose is much different. One of the best things about relocation is the process you go through right before you leave. It works like this: First, you unpack your current life. Then, you pack up your new life and hit the road. Somewhere in between you get rid of 80% of the crap you don’t really need. When it’s all finished, you feel a great sense of relief, clarity, and lightness. It’s probably one of the most therapeutic things you could ever do for yourself.

This time around instead of a mini-retirement, I’m looking at this journey as more of a “Relocation Recalibration.” Instead of avoiding work, I’m going to reclaim more balance between work-and-play. For my business and personal life, I’m looking to do one very important thing — focus on what’s really important in life and ignore everything else.

As Stephen Covey once put it — “Begin with the end in mind.” The path will unfold before you…

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In this article, I want to go to the next level and talk about how to finish projects. The project matrix tool is perfect for evaluating and choosing projects. This is definitely important and a critical first step. But afterwards you can be left with some difficult questions…

What do you do once you’ve chosen a project? What’s the best way to get started? And how can you take a project from idea to completion?

Long-Term Goal Setting – Motivation That Helps

To understand how to finish projects, first we need to look at the drivers behind project completion — goals.

At the beginning of 2010 I set some pretty large goals for myself and my business. Back around January, that was enough to keep me motivated and focused. But somewhere around early February, the game changed a bit for me. I found myself losing focus and increasingly distracted. Instead of taking steps to build and grow my business, I kept hitting roadblocks and getting stuck in the mud.

Don’t get me wrong — there’s nothing wrong with long-term goals. They are essential to the bigger system I’m building in my life. They help keep me centered around my values and my dreams.

The problem with long-term goals is they take too long to realize and, after a period, they’re not really that motivating. This, of course, is exactly what Tim Ferriss is talking about in “The Four Hour Work Week.” In the business and career world, the carrot most of us think about is retirement. That’s what we’re working for, right? That’s the big pie-in-the-sky. Trouble is, retirement is too far away to excite most of us (especially 20- 30- and even 40-somethings). And to top things off, the conventional formula of “save and invest now and get rich later” simply doesn’t work for most people these days.

So… what’s the solution? As Tim suggests, mini-retirements are a much better way to break up the work monotony of life and keep things interesting…

Another book I’m currently reading, The Power of Full Engagement, makes a similar point from a more scientific perspective. Oscillation, the authors point out, is one of the keys to happiness and productivity. On, off, on, off — on again and off again. This is exactly how we move through sleep cycles. First we begin to fall slowly into a deep sleep before entering the deepest stage called REM where we get our most rejuvenating rest. Then we come slowly back up into a wakeful state again before repeating the cycle. In sleep, we move through these cycles every 90 minutes.

The lesson we have to learn from our sleep, according to The Power of Full Engagement, is that our work-play or work-relax balance should also be built around oscillation. Work, play, work, relax, work, play.

Now, how can we apply this information to help with finishing projects?

Short Term Goal Setting – Motivation That Works

During the last two weeks in March, my girlfriend and I took a trip to Europe for some rest-and-relaxation. We also had a social media conference to attend there, but that’s another story…

Before we left on the trip, I decided to think of the trip as a mini-retirement and to set a goal of finishing some things on my to do list so I could spend all of my time really relaxing on the trip. Basically, my goal was to clear my desk of all pending to-do’s and PROJECTS.

During the month or so leading up to the trip, I experienced a higher level of productivity and clarity than I had in months. Suddenly, I had a much higher level of motivation and my ideas about what was important and essential to complete were crystal clear.

Also before the trip, I identified about 5 projects that were eating up my mental energy and needed to be addressed. I simply told myself that these projects would have to wait until I came back from the trip before I gave them any additional attention. This one simple step freed up tons of energy and focus. Why didn’t I think of this years ago???

To sum it all up, clear set-in-stone deadlines force action and help eliminate distractions.

How to Finish Your Projects

The simple system I am now using looks like this…

1. Get a Clear View of Your Projects
Use the project matrix tool to list out your projects and try to put them all into perspective. Be super honest about how much money it’s going to cost and how much time it’s going to take. Then you can quickly see which projects are worth your time and which are not. Spend enough time on this first step, and I think you’ll be surprised by which projects actually deserve your attention.

2. Create a Reward with a Deadline
For me, the best rewards are vacations. I think vacations work so well because they combine “fun and relaxation” with “time away from work.” To put it another way, when I’m on vacation I am simply not interested in work because I have so many other exciting and interesting things to do. Travel of any kind is great for this, especially since I work from a home office. It’s even better if you can share this deadline with someone else — a friend, spouse, significant other, business partner, whatever.

3. Choose Your Projects and Create Your Action Plan
Now that you have a clear deadline (preferably 4-8 weeks from now), you can choose the highest value projects to focus on to completion during that time period. This is also an important time to put any other pending projects to bed. It sounds obvious, but you really need to tell yourself in writing or even aloud that these projects simply have to wait until the next round.

4. Make Sure Your Project Goals are Measurable and Clear
This last point is extremely important. Let’s say you choose 3 projects to complete before you go on a cruise with your spouse two months from now. Great! Now it’s time to “redesign” those projects so they are associated with a measurable goal.

For example, let’s say you have two business projects and one personal project. The business projects are “Create a New Video Product” and “Write More Blog Posts.” The personal project is “Exercise More.” I hope you can already see how vague these projects are. Actually, as projects they’re not vague at all. The problem is they’re not yet strongly associated with any goals. This is exactly why it’s so helpful to rename projects with the actual outcome you want. Your goal is not to create a new video product — your goal is to “Sell 10 New Video Products” before you leave for the cruise. Your goal is not to “Write More Blog Posts” — that’s just a means to an end. What’s the end you’re actually looking to achieve? It’s probably something more like “Get 50 New Email Sign Ups on My Blog.” That’s MEASURABLE. Same with the personal project. Your goal isn’t really to exercise more. Again, that’s what you will likely do to achieve the goal. The goal is something clear like “Lose 5 Pounds” and to do it before that cruise!

I hope you get the idea. By first setting a deadline, your priorities become much clearer. Then, all it takes is a little rethinking of each project so you begin to see it in terms of a goal and not some silly project name that makes you feel like it’s never finished.

Trust me, when it’s time to grab your bags and head to port for that cruise, you’re going to feel great knowing that you worked really hard to achieve a clear list of goals and that you now know how to finish projects anytime you want!

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At the end of the conference, Eben arranged all of us into small groups of about 6 people each. Each group was somewhat organized around industry or business niche. But the most important goal was to help us create our very own mastermind team to create some accountability after leaving the conference.

My group already held our very first mastermind phone call the first day after the conference. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to be first in the “hot seat” and present my greatest challenge and my greatest opportunity to the group. After presenting my current business scenario to the group, each of my group members made a 5 minute maximum reply with their best insights and advice. 30 minutes later I had some of the best ideas to solve my greatest challenge and to leverage my greatest opportunity that I could ever have imagined!

Amateurs See Many Options, Professionals Recognize Few

As I continue to grow my business, it has become increasingly necessary to get super focused on what I’m trying to achieve and to pick only the most promising projects and follow them to completion. As you can imagine, it doesn’t always go this way…

First, I’ve found that as my success grows, the number of opportunities available to me increases. Every time I turn around, there’s a new idea or a potential source of new revenue I could be chasing. It’s not the worst of problems to have but it can and does make it very challenging to keep singularity of focus when working on projects.

During the mastermind session, one of my cohorts made an excellent point with a simple but powerful quote…

“To amateurs there are many options, to professionals there are few.”

Suddenly I realized that I had failed to apply all of my existing success knowledge to my growing list of projects. Just because an opportunity presents itself does NOT mean it’s viable or even worth my time. For that matter, just because an option is viable doesn’t mean it’s the right or the best option for me…

The Project Matrix – Project Management for Entrepreneurs

Another suggestion from the group was to get my potential projects under control by creating a system to rate, analyze, and evaluate potential new business ideas. It’s amazing how powerful an idea becomes when it’s actually worked for other people. I’ve tried to create project evaluation or management systems in the past but nothing ever did the job. But now I had a clear system.

Before the mastermind group, I used the popular “Things” to-do time management GTD software for organizing my projects. But for some strange reason, it never occurred to me that some of my projects might not even be worth my time. I know that sounds bizarre, but when you’re coming up with ideas left-and-right you’re generally most concerned with putting them into action and getting them sorted out — the “how” somehow overshadows the “why.”

Here’s how I created a project matrix based on a spreadsheet sample sent to me by a group member…

1. Open up a new spreadsheet using Excel or Google Docs or any similar program.
2. List all of your considered projects in one column.
3. List the estimated financial cost of each project in the next column.
4. List the estimated Time cost (hours) of each project in the next column.
5. List the projected financial Return in the next column. (Note: You can use monthly or annual returns, just be consistent with all projects.)
6. Create a Return/Cost formula in the next column to calculate how many dollars you will get back for every dollar you invest.
7. Create a Return/Time formula in the next column to calculate how many dollars you will get back for every hour you invest.

And voila!

When you finish the project matrix, I think you may be very surprised. I certainly was. But be sure to spend time tweaking and playing with the numbers. Really think about how much time a project will cost. Really consider how much of a financial return you expect to get back — and be realistic!

The more honest and realistic you are with the spreadsheet, the more accurate and revealing the final picture will be.

Crack That Whip – Zeroing in On Projects

Once you’ve completed the project matrix, you’ll begin to see where you should really be investing your time. You’ll also see about how much time each project should take so you can make some educated guesses about what you could realistically complete this month, next month and so on.

Remember: the goal here is to line things up so you can take action! Don’t fall into the “paralysis by analysis” trap where you end up overanalyzing everything. Let the project matrix inspire you to unleash your energy in the right direction.

And most important of all, make this system work for you!

Download the Project Matrix

I want to share the project matrix with you, so I am making the download freely available here. The file includes some generic samples so please be sure to make changes based on your unique projects.

Click Here to Download the Projects Matrix

Let me know what you think…

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On his website Matt offers two instant download guides that can help you take control of your day-to-day time management activities immediately. One of these I have downloaded and put into action myself — it’s called Where the !@#% Did My Day Go? and, as Matt describes it, this guide is the “ultimate guide to making every day a great workday.”

I did interview Matthew and tried to record it but due to some technical difficulties the audio turned out really rough. For this reason, I have transcribed our phone call below. Enjoy!

My Interview with Matthew Cornell

JC: There are so many time management philosophies and books out there. What makes your perspective unique?

MC: That’s a good question. The first focus that I start with is everybody does need a system, especially entrepreneurs who need business systems. My approach is a kind of bottom-up approach. The question is “Why are you doing this stuff?” Making sure you have a really solid workflow system and installing a system like that is a good first step for people, then looking at what goals you have.

JC: I like when you use the term system. I think systems are so important for building a business. McDonald’s is a great example of this. They don’t have great hamburgers, they have a great system. So if I can be the devil’s advocate for a minute… What about those times when the systems don’t work? What do you recommend?

MC: Yes, this is one approach I’ve been working on is treating everything in life as experiments… and it applies to systems as well. So if somebody adopts a method of managing themselves and it just falls apart, that’s REALLY useful information. This is where we ask what’s going on and look at what habits might be getting in the way. Also, we all have convergent and divergent periods. Convergent periods where everything comes together and divergent periods where everything seems to fall apart. So staying flexible is really important.

JC: That’s an excellent point. There are definitely times when everything is coming together and times when it seems like everything is falling apart.

MC: Yes, especially when you’re doing something new. It’s good to just give yourself a chance to have that time when things aren’t super clear because I think that’s when you pay your dues and learn from other people. And that reminds me of a book I really like, The War of Art. I love that book. I have found that book super encouraging for that type of thing.

JC: Great! I think that one of the topics I want to discuss with you because time management productivity is so important for people is the “P” word, procrastination. Especially for people who are in the early stages of starting a business, what do you recommend for dealing with procrastination?

MC: What I do with people is dig in and encourage people to ask, What am I doing here? Why am I procrastinating? So what I would recommend is look at those tasks and say “Where is the resistance?” So maybe the task is too big. So a classic solution is to break it down and work on it for 5 minutes. So it depends on the activity and the type of procrastination that’s going on.

JC: Right, so break it down and think about it in new ways because starting a business is such a big thing and you may never finish it.

MC: Yes, and a lot of your readers probably fall into the category of “Too Smart to Start,” have you heard of that?

JC: Yes, definitely!

MC: Right, breaking things down and making a small start is a good example of dealing with this.

JC: Right, the classic “Paralysis by Analysis.”

MC: That’s right, you just need to really break things down and look at the nature of the procrastination to understand it.

JC: Ok, so can you tell us about your guide, “Where the @!#% Did My Day Go?”

MC: Yeah, the reason I wrote this book is when you don’t have a really good system in place, you know sometimes I get to the end of the day and think what the heck happened? So the thing I’ve found is the classic idea of daily planning helps me to manage things. So I’ve updated it and I’ve added some little experiments you can do on daily planning, just to give you an example of how you can sit down early in the morning and figure out what you’re going to do in that day. I call it “getting a touchdown” when you get to the end of the and you’ve checked off the last thing, it feels really good.

JC: Right, definitely.

MC: So that’s why I wrote it. It’s just over 20 pages and it goes into great detail on how to do this practice. I find it tremendously helpful.

JC: Yes, especially if you’re working on a big project sometimes you get to the end of the day and you feel like you’ve barely taken a dent out of what you wanted to achieve. But some projects are so large, you simply can’t expect to do it all now.

MC: That’s right. It’s so easy to get to the end of the day and think “I didn’t get this done and I wanted to do that.” You know a great practice I find is for a week keep that daily list and then you can say, “Look, I’ve really done a lot.” And people do a lot, so this is a really good example.

JC: And with the nature of an Internet Business, for example, sometimes it’s just tough to get away. Do you have any advice for people on how to think more about relaxation? How do you address that in your time management philosophy?

MC: Oh, that’s a really good question. It comes down to balancing the really important work people have to do with living the rest of their lives. Making little boundaries might be useful. One approach would be to say, ok, I’m going to turn my Blackberry off at 6 o’clock and try for a couple of days to leave it off and see how that goes. And this is an approach I’m working on it’s called “Think. Try. Learn.” In other words, looking at everything as an experiment in life. This is just to see what happens when I do this. You can find out why you check the Blackberry. Maybe you’re bored or you feel like you need to keep up with things. So then you can figure out how to replace this with other activities. This is about looking at yourself as a whole person. Just playing with scheduling like exercising every day for 30 minutes. Just try it out and see what happens.

JC: So this is kind of like the idea of scheduling leisure time?

MC: Yes, there’s a book called The Now Habit that goes into that, almost like an anti-scheduling thing. Another thing you can do, if you have a spouse or a friend, is just hand them $50 and ask them to bring the Internet down.

JC: [LAUGHING] Yes, I’ve done something similar with some of my staff actually locking them out of email to discourage them from working on the weekends. It’s just so important to get away sometimes. This is like having someone else change your clocks.

MC: Yes, and that category of getting support from other people is really useful. The overall input, the number of tasks you manage, have to be less than or equal to what you’re capable of doing. Ideally, it should be less so you have plenty of space. But it’s hard for us to say no because we have so much we want to do.

JC: Yes, exactly.

MC: One thing we talked about earlier is the idea of the 80/20 principle, which I think has been made popular by the work of Tim Ferris and the Four Hour Work Week. Just asking yourself where am I spending energy that isn’t paying off? So looking carefully at what you’re spending time on and whether they pay off is very useful. It’s really important to look at what’s paying off. Or really saying, you know, I’ve been using Twitter for 2 years and I really haven’t gotten anything out of it.

JC: Imagine that. I really do think the 80/20 rule is the big take away from Tim’s book.

MC: Yes, and he makes the point also that it’s not all about how long your butt is in the chair that makes the difference. Have you ever had a day where you only worked 3 hours but you felt incredible? And have you ever had a day where you worked 10 hours and you got nothing done?

JC: Yes! Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time Matthew!

MC: Thanks, Jason.
Matthew Cornell is a Time Management and Productivity Expert who teaches people a simple time management method to manage the overwhelming volume of “stuff” inundating their lives in order to release and focus their natural talents. The result is typically a relaxed sense of control and a significant freeing up of energy and creativity.

His services include one-on-one workflow coaching, and group presentations and seminars on personal productivity. Visit www.MatthewCornell.org for more info.

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