Anything that’s in short supply has value. Holy smokes. To see this theory in action, just witness how precious my jar of Nutella becomes when it’s getting low.

Newsflash: Life is busy. It’s teeming with things to do. But time, on the other hand…time is fleeting. We value time. We wish we had more of it. But we have what we have…24 hours in every day. And a countdown ticker to an expiration date.

If you’re anything like I was, your list of to-dos is never ending and everything seems like a burning priority. And (confession time) my attention span is probably equivalent to that of a Chihuahua. Oh look, a squirrel! This makes it naturally difficult for me to focus on one thing for an extended period of time. But, despite all of this, over the years I’ve gotten pretty damn good at getting (important) shit done.

“How?”, you say.

The first key is to realize, despite what experts might have been saying for years, there’s no such thing as “time management”. It is a losing battle to try to manage time. It’s going to progress with or without you. You don’t control it. It has no master. Frig…it’s kind of a diva.

Your job should be to learn how to become a wizard of managing what actions you take within the time you have.

The Rules of Getting (Important) Shit Done

1. Understand your time currency

When Todd Herman, Performance Coach, talks…I listen (and, no, it’s not because he’s Canadian and I’m Canadian and so we have some sort of Canadian bond-thing going on). His tips have dramatically changed the way I value my time.

When he begins working with a new client, one of the first things he has them do is fill out The Entrepreneurial Scorecard. Here’s what it is…

Over the course of a week, you track every minute of your time. Put a timer at your desk and set it to go off every couple of hours. When it goes off, jot down what activities you were working on and put them under 1 of 4 columns:

• $10/hr column (examples: checking / writing emails, organizing files)
• $100/hr column (examples: writing a blog post, simple graphic design)
• $1,000/hr column (examples: personal development, prospecting)
• $10,000/hr column (examples: closing sales, business strategy)

Something that goes into the $10/hr column is a task that you could pay someone $10/hr to do (and so on).

At the end of the week, multiply the hours by the dollar amounts in each column for each day. This is how much you’ve paid yourself for the day.

Why do you want to know how much you’ve paid yourself? If you have 8 hours in your day, you want to make sure that you’re spending as many of those hours as possible on high level activities that are going to propel your business forward. If you’re spending that time at an administrative level, don’t you think you’d be better served just hiring an administrator?

The more time you spend in the $1,000/hr or $10,000/hr columns, the bigger the gains for your business. Period.

2. Every single day, know what’s most important.

Here’s what the typical day looks like for many…

Get to your desk. Sit down. Open up your emails. Get lost in emails and spend hours responding while looking at your to-do list while picking up your voice mails while writing out your shopping list while taking that impromptu meeting while checking Facebook…

Basically it becomes a roller coaster of stuff. And you, lock bar in place, become the kicking and screaming passenger on the shit show ride.

At the end of the day you realize you really got nothing done. Certainly nothing that has made a meaningful impact on you or your business.

And you know why?

Because you became the passenger, not the driver.

Your goal, each and every day, is to know exactly what you need to accomplish that day. And do the most important stuff first. This rule automatically means you will never again check your emails first thing in the morning. Can I get an “Amen!”?

At the end of your day, answer this question: What are the most important things I need to do tomorrow to move my business forward? And whittle down your list to no more than 3 things.

Tip: If you’re not sure how to get to a 3 item priority list, one of my favourite tools is this Decision Matrix.

3. Buy the best day planner

Want to know what comes between me and my Calvins day planner?

Nothing.

Not a gosh-darn thing.

My life and business transformed when I got a good planner and started to schedule my day. All of a sudden, I was driving how I was spending my time. I was focused. I knew what I needed to be doing to reach my business goals. Nothing and no one could get me off track (except my dwindling jar of Nutella…but that’s another story).

Since my first experience, I’ve been in search of the best day planner on the market.

I found it. It’s called the Passion Planner. And you can download free worksheets right from their website to find out if it’s a fit for you. (PS – I have absolutely no affiliation with Passion Planner)

4. Design your “hell yeah!” week

Wouldn’t you love to scream “hell yeah!” at the end of your week? You get so much done, feel so accomplished, did such great stuff that you can’t contain your excitement?

Great.

Start Some Shift guest, Marie Poulin, wrote a great piece (called How Designing Your Ideal Week Can Increase Your Productivity (and sanity)) on how to do just this based on a Michael Hyatt weekly planning methodology.

I love it. It works. It’s simple. So, there’s no excuse not to do it.

5. Schedule everything (including “f*ck off, it’s me time”)

In my “hell yeah!” week, I’ve scheduled time blocks. On a daily basis, I schedule the details of those blocks.

Once I know my top 3 priorities for the day, they get scheduled in my day planner first.

What goes in next might surprise you.

Me time.

Clarification: Me time is designed to energize you and stimulate eureka! moments. This is what modern-day philosopher, Jason Silva, calls flow state. Moments that allow your brain to shut down, so to speak, and shift into the creative zone.

For me, I achieve my flow state when I rollerblade, run or meditate. That’s why, every day, I have at least 1 hour scheduled to stimulate my active imagination with an activity.

Next, in goes my meetings and then specific administration duties.

My day is designed proactively. It’s designed to move me closer to where I need to take my business. It’s designed to be fulfilling and productive.

By understanding the value of my time and implementing hard and fast habits, I’ve become a wizard of managing what actions I take within the time I have.

Because it’s not about managing time.

Since we all have the exact same amount of hours in our day and time moves on, with or without us…

it’s about being conscious about every activity we engage in.

Your business is a direct reflection of where you spend your time.