I just discovered a way to free up an extra 160 hours a year or the equivalent

of 4 weeks more vacation.

Before I share how I achieved this incredible result, let me lay the ground

work. We teach a time management workshop called the “Time Buckets Exercise”,

where entrepreneurs identify their time uses and place each task in one of four

“buckets” or categories. Most people find 4-10 hours a week that they can free

up by implementing this simple program that takes less than an hour in total.

Well, I am embarrassed to say that although I thoroughly apply the concept, I

missed a biggy. A real biggy, that applies to most entrepreneurial businesses.

*** Here’s the Problem I Discovered ***

As I was preparing for this week’s Tuesday Profit Tip” (ok, I am behind), I was

typing out the newsletter content (which I prefer to do myself), but it was

taking too long to complete. WHY? Because I stink at typing! I’m a “hen-

pecker”, using my two index fingers. So perhaps I hum along at 15-20 words a

minute — max.

*** My 160 Hour Breakthrough ***

I instantly realized that simply taking an online typing course and spending a

few minutes a day practicing, I can automatically save a whopping 160 hours a

year! And then I realized that I have wasted the equivalent of over a year of

my life, because of being a poor typist, over the last several years. OUCH!

Here’s the calcs:

Typing Per Day = 60 minutes
Time wasted = 40 minutes
Time per year = 160 hours!
Or 4 weeks of vacation!!!!

*** How Can YOU Learn from My Painful “Learning Lesson”? ***

Step 1 - Keep a simple list of things that you waste your time on for one week

(my guess is email will be on the top of many of your lists).

Step 2 - Evaluate your list after a week and look for tasks that you waste an

hour or more a week on.

Step 3 - Come up with a SIMPLE way to reduce these time wasters. For example, I

once had a $2M client who spent over an hour a week giving directions to

customers himself because he did not trust any of his staff to do it “right”.

So he simply had to type out instructions from the 2 or 3 possible routes and

put it by the phone (before Mapquest) - sounds pretty dumb but you may be

surprised what shows up on your list.

Step 4 - Implement at least one time waster solution that you can easily put

into practice to eliminate time. A guru Internet marketing friend of mine now

checks his email only ONCE a week.

Step 5 - Measure the time savings, and calculate the impact over one year. By

the way, every ONE hour per week frees up over one week’s worth of your time -

so enjoy the extra vacation week or use the time to apply all the Profit Tips

we teach you.

If you are a member of the www.smallbusinessgrowthclub.com, you can get

immediate free access to the entire Time Management Workshop, with several time

saving ideas, including the “Time Bucket Exercise” in detail. Simply click on
http://www.smallbusinessgrowthclub.com/members/login.cfm?hpage=168.cfm