Okay, so seven Hail Mary's, I'm a subscriber to Amazon Prime. I get my dog food and olive oil delivered on subscription, but the reason I even signed up for it was the music. I love music, and they deliver on Amazon Music. I have a point, I promise. Then, earlier this year, I saw a commercial - probably on YouTube or Hulu or something - that Audible is now included with Amazon Prime. What?? That's awesome.
So the next morning, as I'm headed out the door at 5:00am for my morning walk, I grab my headphones, which gets a sideways face from the fam. "You never listen to music on your walks."
"I'm going to start Audible." I said most confidently.
I went searching for self-improvement books, making sure I can get on course, better myself, yada yada. I landed on, gosh, I don't even remember! It was so boring though. Ugh.
It took a couple weeks, and Three Simple Steps, until Kevin Kruse's 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management was "suggested" to me by the almighty Al Gore rhythm (algorithm).
I'm now on my fourth - maybe fifth - time listening to it. My top three favorite chapters, which I've damn near preached to people I know well, very well, or have just met (sorry!) are chapters one, eight, and 10.
Chapter one reminds you just how valuable your time is. Chapter eight provides pointers to make company meetings more successful. And Chapter 10 introduces us — introduced me anyway — to the Pareto Principle - also referred to as the 80/20 rule.
Another favorite in the book, but this is a blog, not a tangent, is the "Drop, Delegate, or Redesign" overview of Chapter 11. Omgsh, so good. So satisfying.
Below, I'm just gonna blow through some of the key takeaways that are fairly easy to implement - like yesterday.
Chapter 1: Time Is Your Most Valuable — and Most Limited — Resource
REMEMBER THIS NUMBER: 1440
In this chapter Kruse emphasizes that everyone has the same 1,440 minutes each day, and what distinguishes the successful is how they treat those minutes.
Let's say you average six hours of sleep per night, you now only have 1,080. After my first time making it through the book, I printed out a sheet of paper with 1080 on it. It's posted next to the entrance of my cube.
- Time, unlike money, cannot be earned back — once a minute is gone, it's gone.
- Highly productive people don't just fill time; they use it intentionally.
- The focus shifts from "how many tasks can I do?" to "which outcomes matter most?"
Tip:
Start your week by glancing at the 1,440-minute frame: ask "What two or three results this week would make a difference?" Then back-plan time blocks around those results; I plan mine in 15min increments. I even have calendar reminders set twice a day to do laps around the office to remind me to get away from the screen for a bit, because one result I would like is to not go crazy-er...
Chapter 8: Schedule and Attend Meetings as a Last Resort
Meetings are always called with the company's best interest at heart. Meetings - when not planned properly - are, at their core, time stealers. We just went over how we only have 1,080 waking minutes. Are we going to let a team meeting go awry and literally steal from company time? Susan may be okay with that, but not me. Here's a few ways Kruse mentions to make meetings as productive as they're meant to be:
- Set an agenda and send it to the team ahead of time; request/ask if they need/want anything added to said agenda.
- Set a hard-stop time.
- Try a "standing meeting" - literally exactly what it sounds like.
- And when it's a one-on-one, try a walking meeting. Again, exactly what it sounds like.
Action tip:
Audit the past few meetings: ask which ones delivered a clear outcome? Did they deliver a clear outcome? Which of those meetings fall into the "this could have been an email" category?
Chapter 10: The 80/20 Rule — 80 % of Outcomes Are Generated by 20 % of Activities
In Chapter 10, long story short, Kruse talks about how to find the fat and trim it:
- The "Pareto Principle" (80/20) is real in time-management: not all tasks are equal.
- Which 20 % of your tasks generate 80 % of your value, and then focus your time there.
- Which 20% of your employees generate 80% of business? Trim the fat, and reward the 20%.
Frankly, I'm not the biggest fan of the last bullet, because I feel like maybe you should tend to said person and they would then become a loyal employee, however, if you've trained them up, down, and all around and they're still not performing, sure, fat be gone!
For your small business context:
When you consciously shift time away from the busywork, you lighten your load and increase your efficiency & impact.
- Time is finite and your minutes matter.
- Reduce the number of low-value projects (unnecessary meetings which use up your 1,440 minutes).
- Increase high-value activities without feeling drained by using the 80/20 law.
For worksheets, more resources, and the like, head to Kruse's website:
Remember, you only have 1,440 minutes each day. Use them wisely.
If you liked what you read, please LMK! kirstyny@tmsdigi.com
Thanks y'all and have a great day!!