Okay, are we almost ready to go?
Yup.
Are we running late?
No, we're on time.
You guys are superstars.
And you know what I say, a little planning every day
goes a long way.
And it must be true because it rhymes.
(funky music)
Hi, I'm Andrew Walsh, and this is Toolbox TV,
the only place to be to supercharge your soft skills
and create
a career that you love.
Ever feel like no matter how hard you work,
you just can't get ahead?
Sometimes, it can even be a battle to keep up.
The classic solution often offered is to work smarter,
not harder.
Whilst it sounds like a great idea,
is it even possible?
Sales and marketing master Chet Holmes
once told an audience,
you know, there are people out there that earn 10 times more
than you, but they can't be working 10 times harder.
There's simply not enough hours in the day
for that to be possible.
Now, that does make perfect sense,
and when you think about it,
we all have the same 24 hours each day.
If someone is doing 10 times more, it's simply impossible
for them to have 10 times more time.
There has to be something else happening.
Now, while you might have suspicions that a person like that
must be hiding a time machine.
(panting)
Are you telling me that you built a time machine?
It just isn't so.
Although you can't travel back in time,
you can get leverage over your time,
with a principle used in business every day
by project managers.
The principle is called critical path.
Now, critical path is a planning process
that evaluates the time taken to complete tasks
and the relationship between tasks,
then organises them into a sequence
that takes the least
amount of time.
Although a project management principle,
it can be easily applied to your career and personal life
to help you work smarter, not harder.
Let's look at how this might work
with a before and after example.
We'll start with a simple to-do list
that has three things.
Number one, finish the monthly report.
Number two, train a new team member for a task.
And number three, review the daily cash collection.
Doing them in the numbered order,
let's see how your day could turn out.
You start your day by completing the monthly report.
(bell rings)
You then check your email.
But when checking your email,
you find updated report data from the sales team.
You realise the monthly report needs rework.
(buzzer rings)
But there's no time to update it.
It's now time to train the new team member.
So you park the report for later, and start the training.
During the training, the phone rings, and you take the call.
It's a request for an updated policy document.
So you switch tasks, find the document, and then email it.
You then restart the training, but the phone call
and time taken to find and email the document
has stolen your focus, so it takes longer
to complete the training.
When finished, you ask the new team member
to complete the work and come back later for review.
You now check the cash collection.
You find out there is a large amount of money not collected.
Unfortunately, it's already afternoon
and there's not enough time for the collections team
to get payment before close of business.
(buzzer rings)
Around the same time, your boss comes in
asking about the cash collection,
and they are not happy to find out the news.
You then tell them you haven't finished
the monthly report either, but you will look to have it
to them before the end of the day.
You then go back to finish the monthly report.
While working on the report, the new team member
finishes their task and comes to you for review.
But you don't have time,
as you need to finish what you're doing.
You don't know how long you're going to be,
so you tell the new team member it's okay to go home
and you will look after this yourself.
After finishing the report, (bell rings)
you send it to your boss, but by then, it's late,
and they've already left for the day.
You then have a look at the new team member's work,
only to find it's wrong, (buzzer rings)
and it will have to be redone.
You're tired out for the day, everyone else has gone home.
So you decide to go home knowing
you have even more work to do tomorrow.
Of course, this is a somewhat dramatised example.
But I think you get the idea.
But what happens if you apply critical path
to the same situation?
Let's quickly pull out the keys of critical path.
Remember, critical path evaluates the time taken
to complete tasks, the relationship between tasks,
then organises them into a sequence
that takes the least amount of time.
So from the definition, we can distil three keys.
Number one, organise tasks
to do the highest priorities first.
Number two, do tasks you can hand off to others
for further work as soon as possible.
And three, group together similar tasks
and do them in batches.
Okay, with those three keys in mind,
let's take another look.
This time, you start your day by checking your email.
When checking your email, you see the sales team
have sent updated data.
So before finishing the report, you send a reply email
to confirm there are no more changes.
You then review the cash collection.
You find a large amount of money outstanding.
So you ask the cash collections team
to chase this immediately and request payment for today.
You then start training the new team member.
During the training, the phone rings, and you take the call.
It's a request for an updated policy document.
You stop and ask if it's urgent.
It's not.
So you write down the request
and tell them you will send the document later.
You go straight back to training,
and focus on making sure the new team member
knows everything they need to know.
You then send them off to complete the work,
and ask them to come back later for review.
You now check your emails again.
You find the sales team have confirmed that they have sent
the final data, so you can now finish the monthly report.
You also send the updated policy document
that was requested.
Around the same time, your boss comes in
and asks about the cash collection.
You gladly tell them that it is already being chased,
and you are about to start the monthly report
and will have it to them by the end of the day.
You then go to work on the monthly report, finish it,
and send it to your boss early.
(bell rings)
The collections team also calls and confirms
they have received payment (bell rings)
for the large amount outstanding.
You then review the new team member's work
with the new team member, (bell rings)
and close out your day by checking your email once more
and updating your to-do list for tomorrow.
You can see from this example the power of critical path,
and how the three keys can help you
work smarter, not harder.
This brings me to the simple wisdom of today's Tweetable.
(bird chirps)
You can't make more time, but you can leverage it.
And now I'd love to hear from you.
What activities do you wish you had more time for?
And how do you try and get more out of your day?
As always, the richest discussions happen after the episode
over at toolboxforthemind.com.
So head on over there to leave a comment now.
And of course, if you like what you see,
please subscribe by clicking here, (bell rings)
or here, (bell rings)
and share this with your friends.
Remember, life rewards action.
Just take one step today, and you'll be on your way
to creating a career that you love.
Thanks so much for watching, I'm Andrew Walsh,
and I'll catch you next time on Toolbox TV.
(funky music, beeping)
It's simply impossible for them to have 10 times more time.
There has to be something else happening.
While you might have suspicions that a person,
(nonsense sounds, beeping)
There has to be something else happening.
While,
(slap, nonsense sounds, beeping)
(sighs)
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair,
so Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't Fuzzy, was he? (laughs)
I love that one. (beeping)
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