Dakota Beerman

I was attending a talk about time and how to save it. Ryan Biehl gave this compelling talk at our latest conduit meeting. Enjoy!

1. Plan

Do you have a planner?

No? Get one.

Yes? Use it.

Planning your day works wonder in being intentional. Your tie will get sucked into a vortex of email, interruptions, and pointless internet searches that will punish your future! Get a planner or use the one you have by giving 15-20 minutes at the beginning of the day to plan how best you use your time.

*Pro Tip – evaluate how you did each day so you learn and improve tomorrow.

2. Leave Margin in your day.

Margin is the space on a piece of paper that is about one inch from the left or right of your notepad or digital word document. The point of that space is to make additional notes and edits. Feedback or unexpected additions you want to remember later. Same idea with your time. Leave space for the unexpected, the moments where it’s more important that you’re interrupted in a day. Or space to just be human and talk with a coworker about life.

3. People communicate better on a timeline.

This one is my FAVORITE. You know when you are answering an email at the beginning of a day, and you write the most beautiful responses? How does that email sound at the end of the day? Yep. It sounds like “Yep” or “Nope” short, quick, and direct. What changed? You are ready to get out of there and your timeline shortened drastically. Respond like you have a deadline. It cuts the B.S. (Bullshit) and gets to the point (and saves you time!).

Notable mentions:

• What is the work only you can work on? Seek to delegate the rest.
• Have disciplined meetings – keep to the agenda and the time allotted so as to get the most with people’s time.
• Create space on your calendar to think. It’s an underrated skill to think through problems for the most effective decisions.