Time Management

Central time managementa little bit.OK, I forgot whoasked this question,but once I start talkingabout if you have follow upquestions, feel freeto unmute yourselfso we can have adialogue about this.Now you're wondering, shouldI spend a certain percentageon this?Certain percentage on that?And the answer is Yes or no.It depends on whatyour goals are.So I was on a podcast yesterday.Some was interviewing me.I asked that person, whatare your financial goals?What are your life goals?Once you understandwhat your goals arelike for the next year, youwould then chunk that down.Right, so if my goal, let'sjust for the sake of mathhere is to gross 120,000 now notprofit gross meeting of invoice$120,000 a year.If we do simple mathand we divide that by 12because I want to chunkit down right, thatequals $10,000 a month, you guysfollow me on the math, right?So $120,000 divided by12 equals K a month.Right and so I'veasked that person,how many jobs do youwant to do to earn that?10,000 whether realistically,I have to do 10 jobs at 1,000apiece right now.That's a lot of jobs.Or you can do five jobs at 2Kor you can do two jobs at 5 k.Or ideally, you can do onejob for K. Lots of waysto get to 10.This is just themagic of math, right?You just keep figuring it out.So they're like, you know what?What are the other goals?Well, I'd like towork 40 hours a week.Fantastic how many hoursdo you work right now?60, 80?Sometimes I think that'sa lot of hours, man.And he said, why?Why do you only want towork 40 hours a week?Well, I have a family.I have kids, and I also need torecharge my batteries because Ifound that in the past,when I work 80 hours a week,I'm just toast toeverybody in my life.Great so if you are40 hours a week.How can we do thisso that we canfind two clients whowill pay us five, Kate,what work pays that?What market?So then we generate ideas.So once we have clarityaround our goalsand what we're willing to putin terms of time investment,then we can be a lot clearer.OK, so if the priority is toget to two clients for 5K now,what would you say to that?Whoever asked this question?I want you to answerthis like this.Is you this hypothetical?Ok?what two jobs can you do thatwill get you 5K in the door?I could do two web editprojects for typekit web.What web edits?Yeah, not like a full webbuild, but say someone needsto integrate somepages onto their site?Hey Travis, where are you based?Out of Austin, texas?OK you make in excessof 120k a year.I just started a couple of weeksago, but my previous contractand position around that?Yeah, yeah, OK.I can.I can tell because you're like,very confident about this.Now this isfantastic because youlook like a really young person,so you're making six figures.Fantastic congratulations.I'm really proud of you, man.I even know you andI'm proud of you.So I just want to say this.All right.Thank you.All right.Fantastic well, I'm glad you'rehere that this is perfect.All right.So he knows how Travis knowshow to get to that point, right?So Travis is likesitting there juggling,like, what do I need now toget one of those projects?Do I need to make four calls?Do I need to make twosocial media posts?Do I need to follow up withthree clients and you'llfigure that part out?And so then youjust do the math.This is the wonderfulthing about howhuman beings andespecially creative peoplework when you haveclarity on the taskand you allocate in budgettime towards that task.A miraculous thing happens.You actually are able to do it.If you don't have clarityover the task, whatyour goals are and you don'tknow how much time you wantto commit to it andyou're not schedulingyour time appropriately,you'll find outyou'll spend a lot moretime doing a lot less.One surefire life hacklow tech life hackis to literallywrite down the threethings you need toaccomplish every single dayand make sure that the daydoes not end until you finishthose three things you'll find.Quite magically, you won'tcheck your emails often.You won't be surfing YouTubeto find some stupid videofrom the future.You won't be takingcalls from peoplethat are really not contributingto you achieving those threegoals.You're not going to take thatextra walk around the parkduring lunch becauseI don't know,you're just putting offwhat you need to get done.OK, so knock those threethings out every single day.And you're going to beable to accomplish this.But I can't answer thetime management questionwithout knowing specificallywhat your goals are.So figure out whatyour goals are.And remember, justas a quick refresher,your goals needto be SMART goals.Specific, measurable.Action oriented or attainable,realistic and time bound.The three that really matter arespecific, measurable and timebound.Those are ones thatare most important.So to say like my goalis to get more clientsisn't specific at all.I want to get two moreclients at $5,000 a month.And here's nowwhat I need to do.So then you justgo through chunkingchunking is taking a big problemand making it smaller, smalleruntil you can figure outwhat the first step is.Really super easy cure.My business coach used tocall it planning a picnic.You know the picnicis going to happen,but there are alot of little stepsthat have to happen if you wantto have a successful picnic,and that's all you need to do.Plan your picnic.So how do you accommodatefor new skill setsin your arsenal to kindof broaden your, maybeyour clientele or your just beas a much more robust designer?So let's say I wantto learn maybe 3Dor get really well withfact or something like thatwithin the same framework.How do I accommodatetime for it?Oh, OK.This is fantastic.OK, so it's tangentially relatedto what we just talked about.And this is fair becauseKier would ask mebefore I was like,here, I'm reallyfrustrated that creative.I want them to get betterbecause what does itmean to get better?Because I don'tunderstand your industry?Well, you know, theyneed to have a better eyeand a better senseof rhythm like, well,how will when they get there?Are there courses or thingsthat they can do, booksthat they can read?Is there something they cando because we can't managetheir mindset, but we can managea little bit of their behaviorwhat they actually do?And then he helpedme to realize, OK,that is an abstractgoal, and it'sone that's going to bevery difficult for anybodyto achieve.And there's a goodchance, even if theydo that, I won't recognizeit because I'm like,it's not good enough yet.So what he said was breakthat thing into steps,so what does it mean tobe better at after effectsor cinema 4D or photoshop?Well, it couldmean that you needto read this book, whichis considered the bestbook on such a sad subject.It could be thatthey have to completecertain number oflynda.com coursesor to become Adobe certifiedor whatever that means.So I would look at it like that.Now that's not a guaranteethat you'll be better,but it's a prettygood way to measurethat you've taken enoughsteps to try to become better.So if I become Adobecertified, you know,at least some objective bodyhas measured me and said,yep, you've been tested thatit you've learned a course,you've completed it.We're going to givethat certification.So it's quite simple.Then when I used to say, Iwant you to become a betterdesigner, I wouldnow just say, Iwant you to completethat typography courseand read these two books anddo these exercises by the timethat you're done.There's a very highprobability that youhave become a better designer.OK you're trying tomanage an employee there.Uh, is that for you?Yeah no, no, thisis just me because Ido have a full time job,so time management isa kind of a concern.What I've taken up myfirst client and the USkind of pushes mejust beyond that,that boundary of mycurrent skill set.So I have to pick up thoseskills in the time frameto do it.So that's why I see.Well, I'm going to put a buttonand a button on this thingor put a nice littleribbon around this.I'm going to tell you this.I don't know where I read this.It's probably Jim Rohnwho talked about this.He says a lot of people wantto talk about productivityand time management.He says that's all BS really.What it is if youhave clear goals,you will become more productiveand effective and efficient.That's all that is.So that's why we wentto the clear goals.Once you have clear goals,everything will align itself.The fact is, if you feel likeyou're not being as productiveas you want to beand you're confusedbecause you don't know whatthe heck you're supposedto be doing, period.