The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur and Time Management Tips

Yes - that's is actually the title of a book written by Mike Michalowicz. The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur is a basic how to book on Entrepreneuring.

Mike is an accomplished entrepreneur. He has experience and wisdom.

Mike is very encouraging to anyone who wants to start a business with a strong push to getting them to act. He also trashes anyones' ideas that they are lacking in some area to start a business.

He includes a short section on Time Management. In the style of the book, he distills it all down to 4 pages that include ideas like:

1 - Write tasks down - capture tasks. Essentially - have a To Do list. (This is the basis of all Time Management Systems).

2 - Prioritize the list (again this is fundamental to all time management systems. This step is only possible if you have clear goals).

3 - Eliminate duplicates on the list.

4 - If it only takes 2 - do. If you can complete it in 2 minutes - just do it. (This is one of my Managing Email volume tips)

5 - Eliminate time wasters. (easily said but this requires discipline and knowing. I like to track what is taking my time and then giving things a "value" score. If I am spending too much time on low value stuff, I am inspired to change)

6 - Concentrate your thoughts. Multitasking is a myth.

7 - shut off email (This is his list - not mine. I agree with part of the theory here and might experiment some on this).

8 - Delegate. I wrote a whole section in my Time Management Book on how to delegate (even if you have no one who works for you.)

9 - Commit to someone else. If you commit, this gets you moving.

10 - Make it manageable. Break down the big jobs into smaller tasks.

11 - Take a break. This can re-energize so productivity increases. My variation on this is to change to a different nature of task. EG - If I am reviewing budgets, I can switch to reading a report.

12 - Go in spurts. People perform better and get more done if they work hard for a short while then ease off. What I like to do is see how much I can prolong the spurts for.

13 - Reward yourself.

14 - Make failure painful

13 and 14 are basic. We do something if it is more rewarding than not or if it is more painful than not doing anything. Enhance the pain or the pleasure for better results.

15 - Stop Bitching (His words). If things are not progressing - stop complaining and just do it. If the book has one key message it is "just Do It - and Do It Now". This really resonates with me. I see this as the key to most business success.

Good basic summary of Time Management Rules!

The book is good. Short and fast. He distills most wisdom on entrepreneurship down to the basics. I did find the bathroom humor detracted from the book though. Perhaps it is his way to be edgy and try to set himself apart?

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Last night I attended a SYNNEX "send off" reception held in my honour. It was very moving. I will really miss being a part of SYNNEX. I met a lot of good friends at SYNNEX. I was challenged. I learned. I grew.

The speeches were beautiful. It is almost a case of "if I had known how much you would miss me - I would stay".

Still, looking forward to my next challenge, moving to Long Island and working at Nu Horizons.