The Goal
Our goal is to find at least three little 7-minute snippets of time in our day.
With careful practice, we can find five or more. This means we can gain an
extra half-hour per day. Although some of us would be delighted to have an
extra half hour of time to watch a television show, these are many ways to
utilize those times better.
What this book
is NOT!
This is not a 7-minute guide to managing your
life. You cannot establish or sustain a business or social relationship in
such minute amounts of time. However, there are many things you can do.
Nor is this a book on time management. There are too many of them out there and I don't see people getting any more organized. Otherwise, no more books would need to be written.
This is not a book on how to make up lists, prioritize, or to find another hour in the day. Nor is this a self-help book on how to be better organized. In fact, if anyone has a method to be more organized, I'd be grateful! However, I now feel more in control of my life and use these little pockets of time quite effectively.
The 7 Minute Focus
What is great about the 7 minute focus is
that we can concentrate on the topic at hand without interruptions and
(hopefully) complete the project. Even those with short attention spans can
handle this. By concentrating your energies into these little pockets of time,
projects can be completed quickly. This is because we are cognizant of limited
time availability.
Things you can do in 7 minutes
I already mentioned one of my little
escapades of utilizing the time effectively. In fact, I got the idea for this
story when a friend showed up 7 minutes early - I clearly wasn't ready for him!
I told him to patiently wait downstairs as I went into a flurry of house
cleaning. In those 7 minutes I managed to pick up all the clutter on the floor
in the living room, get the junk off the dining room table, and clear off the
table in the kitchen so he wouldn't think I was a complete slob. Then I
strolled downstairs appearing somewhat cool and collected and we had a nice
visit.
Please realize that in 7
minutes you cannot straighten out a failed relationship, plant a garden, or read
a novel. However, there are many things you can do around the house
. . . more examples in the book
Doing it in 7 minutes
Some tasks often take a lot longer than
we plan. We can dawdle over a project for over a half hour that should take a
fraction of the time. For example, we have to buy a special greeting card for
that certain someone. Is it really necessary to spend a half-hour to find that
card? No! When we need to pick out that card, we often know the personality
and what will please the person. For example, if the person likes humorous
cards, don’t waste 20 minutes looking at flowery ones. By focusing on the
specific task at hand, we can finish the project so much faster.
Compressing work tasks into 7 minutes
In business, we often spend too much time
on the details when we have to just get the message across. Some examples:
-
If you have some company letterhead in your briefcase, you can hand write quick notes. Although snail mail may sound so inefficient nowadays, it is still efficient. Many of us get about 200 pieces of email a day. The hand written note stands out.
-
If you have a written note (even a printed copy of an email) of request, you can hand write the answer directly on it and mail, interoffice, or fax it to the sender. Don’t spend needless time composing a message that will be read in 20 seconds and thrown in the circular file after it is read.
Using technology efficiently
Computers, as great as they are have brought along many distractions and
annoyances such as the Internet, unnecessary work, crashes, viruses.
Email/Chat/Internet -
these things can consume huge amounts of time. There are ways to improve your
efficiency, both at home and in the office:
Again, you can read more in the book!
Do it once - not 7 times
One of the greatest ways to really suck down the time is to handle a
document or a task too many times. Too often, we go through multiple steps to
process something that should be taken care of quickly. What could have been
accomplished in less than 7 minutes can take 70 minutes.
Again, you can read more in the book!
Kwitch
your moanin'
This probably is one of the major
time wasters. In the time it takes to tell someone why you can't do it, how you
can't do it, or you don't have the time to do it, you could've done it. Just
shut up, do it and get it over with.
There are many more topics in this book ... the perfect gift or for the person who wishes to gain a little more time every day.