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Time management is quite possibly my favorite topic of discussion within the Entrepreneurship Mindset area.  Becoming a true entrepreneur is really about leveraging time to create more money and freedom.

In the Internet Business world, I have found it especially important to organize time very carefully to avoid common traps and time wasters.  The Internet can have an ADD-like effect on your attention and focus if you’re not careful.  One click leads to another and before you know it you’re off on a tangent totally unrelated to what you set out to do.

Lately, I’ve been working off a new system for organizing my time that seems to work quite well.  Feel free to try it out and let me know what you think.  Like any other new hack, if it works, keep it – if not, dump it and move on.

Try this out:

Take every working day on your calendar and list each one on a sheet of paper or word processor.  Then, on another sheet or in another file list all the major categories of work you need to complete.  For example: Marketing, Planning, Brainstorming, etc.

Here’s my list:

• Monetizing
• Consulting
• Writing
• Promoting
• Organizing

You want to be as general as possible in this process.  Each area should include five or more “subtasks” to make this really work.

Now, try to match up your task list with your work day list.  In other words, block out each day for one specific category.  For me, I do all of my Writing on Wednesdays.  You may find it necessary to plug in a few tasks on different days due to scheduling issues, etc.  But for the most part, this should work.

I love the great combination of flexibility and freedom in this approach.  I wake up on Wednesday mornings knowing exactly what my focus is that day.  As interruptions or side projects come up throughout the day, I can make smart decisions about how to manage my time.  Plus, anytime I catch myself getting off track, I can make a note to return to that task on the appropriate day and then get back to work on the day’s focus area.

This is great for Internet Entrepreneurs because things really do develop very fast online.  You never know when Google’s going to update its Page Rank or a customer is going to freak out!  But in today’s business environment, this type of approach could work well for anyone looking to get more control of his or her time at work.

Implement this in your work today and let me know how it goes.

Time is the entrepreneur’s most important resource, and learning to leverage time is key to becoming an entrepreneur. 

Most people never learn to leverage time.  Employees, for example, do not typically control time but are controlled by time.  That is, the employee shows up at 9am and cannot leave until 5pm. 

To become a successful entrepreneur, you must learn to take control of time and to prevent it from taking control over you. 

Enter Mr. Pareto.

The Pareto principle – known more commonly as the 80-20 rule – states that 80% of your output comes from 20% of your input.  (Or, 80% of the profit comes from 20% of your customers, etc.)

The 80/20 rule is indispensable in entrepreneurship primarily because it very quickly reveals the most productive parts of your business operations. 

Here’s a quick way to apply the Pareto principle to your business activities right now:  Simply ask yourself, “What are the top 10 things I need to do each day to build my business?”

Once you generate this list, quickly look it over and force yourself to identify the top two things that would generate the most results if you could only do two things.  That’s right: JUST two!

This exercise will force you into the 20% that produces 80% for you.  You’ll soon discover just how much time you actually waste each day.

Of course, you may do many things every day that are not necessarily a waste of time, but do not truly contribute to the advancement of your key projects.  For example, I often am forced to postpone writing for this blog because it is not a 20% key producer in my overall business structure.  This is not to say that I don’t value this part of my business or that it’s not important, only that it is not always a top priority.  After all, how could I write about entrepreneurship if I do not make business-building a priority?

Here are some more ideas for implementing the 80/20 rule at your stage of the game:

• If you’re an employee looking to become an entrepreneur, use 80/20 to improve productivity on and off the job as you begin to free yourself from the chains of time-based employment.
• If you’re in the beginning stages of entrepreneurship, use 80/20 to focus your time on the projects and ideas that are actually working to generate profit.
• If you’re an established entrepreneur, use 80/20 to enhance and develop existing projects for greater results.

We all love holidays.  Perhaps the number one reason most love holidays is time off from work.  If you’re a traditional employee in a traditional job, this applies to you.  On the other hand, employees at Wal-Mart and Starbucks are unlikely to enjoy a reprieve from their workaday world. 

Labor Day is really a funny holiday. 

At this point, the first Monday of September is little more than a last shot at long-weekend summer fun.  That, and reminder to not wear white. 

I think Labor Day should really be “Entrepreneurship Day.” 

Really – think about it: Instead of giving everyone a day off to grab the jet-skis and head for the lake yet again, let’s open the door for real change. 

Think of it: one day off to recalibrate your life and consider how the principles of entrepreneurship can make real change happen.  Want another long weekend for trekking out-of-town?  How about a long weekend *every* weekend?

Established entrepreneurs could come together and give free seminars.  The Small Business Administration (SBA) could offer similar workshops on starting a business.  Financial planners could provide free consultations for learning more about investment opportunities and retirement plans.

We could also honor all successful entrepreneurs for their hard work and significant contributions to the American economy.  Talk about a great way to celebrate some of our most important cultural values – initiative, independence, ingenuity, etc. 

This could be an amazing holiday with real purpose and not just another wasted Monday off from the office.  Think about it and spread the word!

I think Steve Pavlina is amazing. And I think Tim Ferriss is amazing. Both of these guys are incredible in their own right, and each has contributed wonderful things to the personal development and entrepreneurship worlds.

Lately, I’ve given a lot of credit to Tim Ferriss for his insightful tips on business building and ruthless time management. Credit well deserved. If you still haven’t read that book, do it!

But after inadvertently surfing my way to StevePavlina.com recently, I realized just how much Mr. Pavlina had already contributed to these same issues - and in articles you can read for free right now to boot!

So here it is, folks: a list of my very own Top 10 Steve Pavlina Articles. These are must reads!

Giving up TV
33 Rules to Boost Productivity
The 50-30-20 Rule
Overclock Your Audio Learning
Efficient Email
How to Become an Early Riser
The Law of Attraction
30 Days to Success
10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job
10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace

These are in no particular order – trust me, that’s way too much to ask. Choosing 10 is hard enough. Enjoy!

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Time is money. At least that’s how most people see it. And to a large degree, it’s true.

I’d like to take this concept one step further – time is *everything.* Brian Tracy put it best when he quipped, “It’s not ‘time management,’ it’s ‘life management.’” Couldn’t have put it better myself, Brain. At the end of the day, it really is about life.

During my very early days of college, I had one of the worst jobs of all time: insurance claims processor. At the time, the money was great, but frankly, the time sucked.

This was the first and last time I worked a standard 8-5 job. Never again. Never.

During a break one day at the insurance office, a co-worker (co-slave?) turned to me and he said, “So much happens out there [pointing to the city beyond our fortress-like office building] while we’re in here. So much.” He was right. And I was suddenly very aware of how imprisoned I felt in the routine of that cubicle nightmare.

Two days later, I marched into that office, removed my things from the desk, and walked out – never to return again. Never.

He was right.

That was perhaps the first moment it occurred to me that I really didn’t want to live my life that way. That is, as a slave to somebody else in a never ending time-for-money exchange.

Of course, I soon learned that money was important, and so I soon found yet another time-based job. But I always found a way to implement Jedi-like approaches to managing my time (my life!) on those jobs – from working for more tips to “stealing time” for personal and/or business building tasks. In short, since then I’ve never worked a job where I didn’t make time management a serious priority.

My whole life is really about maximizing productivity, and I think it’s made all the difference. The trick really lies in learning to be uber-productive in one place – almost to a fault – so that you can create more and more time for yourself that doesn’t belong to somebody else. The trick is to seek out and create freedom. Freedom is what we really want.

Even when entrepreneurs go to work on business projects we are still working for somebody else. Sure, maybe we’re creating a business and that’s something we love to do, but so long as the purpose is profit, we’re really working to please the customer. The freedom there is quite slippery indeed.

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Once you have registered for 642-845, make sure you study well as you will also be able to attempt PMI-001 with this preparation. This holds true for 156-215 in context to SY0-101 as well.

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