Archive

November 2010

Browsing

Feeling stressed, strained, worried or overwhelmed by all your tasks and responsibilities?  Read on… Anytime you do something more than once, pause to consider how a more efficient approach could save you time instead of just doing enough to complete the task now.  The key is to always calculate time savings on an annual basis and to take this approach with a lot of tasks.  Over the course of a single year, the efficiencies accumulate and have a significant impact.  This is what I call the accumulated efficiency effect. Let’s say you type a very similar two paragraph email twice a month.  It takes you four and a half minutes each time.  Whenever the occasion arises, four and half minutes never seem costly enough to put a better process in place. What if you took thirty seconds to save the text as a template?  Now you’re saving four minutes twice…

Let’s say you manufacture keyboards.  When someone asks what your company does, you respond, “We design and manufacture keyboards.” What if you changed your response to say, “We help people interact with computers.”  Suddenly, you have a lot more opportunities in front of you.  You can let the creative juices flow and design the next generation of devices that allow people to tell a computer what to do. Be careful of defining your purpose too narrowly.  Out of a desire to focus, you might miss what you really do and stifle innovation.

Do you spend a lot of time selling, trying to convince everyone that the product or service you offer is needed and of value?  Is it wearing you out?  Maybe it’s time to consider a more productive and fulfilling approach.  Sure, you can make money selling what people do not really need or understand, but is that what you want to be doing?  What if your product or service sold itself? No one has to convince you to buy what you really need and understand the value and use of.  You may have to generate awareness to make your product or service known or to stand out in a crowded marketplace, but you do not have to sell.  Dry cleaning and oil changes are good examples. Are you tired of selling? Think about how you can shift to offer products or services that do not require you to sell. You’ll…