Have you ever wished there were more hours in a day? More days in a week?
I sure have.
For results-driven sales professionals and business leaders, it’s so easy to get caught up in the hustle and be buried in tons of work. Surely, most of us would do anything for a few more hours just to get more work done.
Well, we’ve asked 32 successful individuals to share their number one time-saving tip to help you take back some hours in your day.
Ready to get more done and have some time to relax?
Click on the names to read their time-saving tips.
◇ Navdeep Reddy ◇ Marcela Sapone ◇ Eric Dixon ◇ Matt Sweetwood ◇
◇ Calvin Correli ◇ Rodney Mason ◇ Emerson Spartz ◇ Ariel Levin ◇ Alex White ◇
◇ Kat Kuehl Boogaard ◇Marsh Sutherland ◇RJ Frasca ◇Debbie Millman ◇
◇ Alex Huggan ◇ Rick Ramos ◇ Gabriel Durazo ◇ Brad Berens ◇Raghav Mathur ◇
◇ Bobbie Carlton ◇ Thomas Kriebernegg ◇ Christopher Penn ◇ Eliott Wolbrom ◇
◇ Charles Pascalar◇ David Cancel ◇ Jon Tucker◇ Vicente Fernandez ◇ Nellie Akalp ◇
◇ Alan See ◇ Shantanu Rana ◇Krishnan Subramanian ◇ Keri Jaehnig ◇ Mike Allton ◇
Navdeep Reddy
Co-Founder at Enplug, Inc.
“While it may seem counter-intuitive as it actually requires an initial investment of time, my #1 time-saving tip is to first research whatever subject you are tackling. While quickly knocking away at any task might yield instant gratification, you might find yourself repeatedly encountering the same task and cumulatively sinking a large amount of time. A lifehack or software solution might exist that allows you to facilitate getting over your recurring roadblocks, or perhaps even automate and eliminate it completely–but you’ll never know until you look it up/ask.”
Marcela Sapone
CEO & Co-Founder at Hello Alfred
“This can apply to anything you want to get done, big or small. Work or personal. Get super clear on what your goal really is. Think deeply about it. What are you trying to achieve specifically? How will you know if you are successful? Spend a lot of time upfront making a thoughtful plan and then execute against it quickly. Clarity helps you avoid a lot of distractions, extra work, and time sinks.”
Eric Dixon
Lawyer and fixer. Blockchain technology inventor. Business advisor & strategist.
“The top time-saving tip is to think of your time as, literally, money. You have to make all of your time work for you. This includes sleep, leisure time, anything.
When you discover that any activity is not productive, you have to shift to something else immediately. You must always get the most that you want out of your time.
Time is a finite resource and it is the only thing that you absolutely control.”
Matt Sweetwood
Speaker. Author. Social Media & Photography Expert. Marketing & Business Consultant.
“The second I get a free moment after someone hands me a business card, I enter the information into my contacts, calendar or notes and actually dispose of the business card. I frequently do that while commuting. It immediately puts me in the position to have them sorted and organized before I even have to contact them again or I get too busy to do it – and maybe even forget.”
Calvin Correli
CEO at Simplero
“Take a break, get back to it with fresh eyes. Eliminate the things that don’t need to be done.”
Rodney Mason
GVP, Marketing at Blackhawk Engagement Solutions
“Schedule in advance on your calendar time for yourself every day to focus on the big picture.”
Emerson Spartz
CEO at Dose (Formerly Spartz)
“Research finds that interruptions consume 28 percent of the average knowledge worker’s day and dramatically slow down learning. The easiest and fastest way that I’ve found to eliminate these interruptions is with white noise (sounds like an air conditioner). I listen to white noise via the White Noise IOS app, and it helps me get in and stay in a state of flow. This has helped me increase my reading speed by at least 50 percent.”
Ariel Levin
Social Media Manager, Consultant & Strategist | LinkedIn Specialist at The Link
“My top tip for saving time at work is to plan your day before you start in the morning. I have a planning session every morning and assess my priorities for that day. Make a to-do list of urgent and important tasks and try to stick to it. Having your tasks mapped out makes procrastination less likely during the day. When it comes to goals, I find that when you’re specific about what you want to achieve, you have a much better chance of success.”
Alex White
Head of Next Big Sound at Pandora
“My number one time-saving tip is: to propose three possible times to get together in the initial email exchange coordinating a meeting along with preferred location or phone number. This will cut down 4-5 emails per person!”
Kat Kuehl Boogaard
Owner at Burst Communications, LLC
“My favorite time-saving tip is “batching”. I just started doing this recently, and it’s helped me so much! Using the batching method, you group similar items together (think answering emails or outlining articles) and then do them all together in one batch of time. It prevents that frazzled feeling you get from constantly switching gears. Plus, it feels so awesome to cross one big chunk off my to-do list at once!”
Marsh Sutherland
CEO CharityCheckin. UP Global Ambassador. AngelHack Mentor. Partnerships Director at CoFoundersLab.
“My #1 tip is to make a list of priorities to get done every day. and do them. I put them in order and put stars next to the ones that are absolute must dos that others are depending on me for.”
RJ Frasca
Director of Marketing & Product Development at Active Screening
“My #1 time-saving tip would be to define project requirements up front. Know who your stakeholders are, get their signoff, and make sure to collaborate closely with them throughout each phase of the project. This will help you manage scope creep, and keep everyone happier in the end.”
Debbie Millman
CMO at Sterling Brands. Host of the Design Matters podcast.
“My #1 time-saving tip is GET ENOUGH SLEEP. Getting 8 hours of sleep might seem like a time-waster, but it actually preserves your energy when awake, re-generates your brain cells so you are more efficient and also makes you feel less stressed when you need to get a lot done.”
Alex Huggan
Cheif Marketing Officer at ACEing Autism
My #1 time saving tip is: ‘plan effectively’ – proper planning prevents piss poor performance! The 6 “p’s”.
Rick Ramos
CMO at HealthJoy
“Make a Deadline – This tip might sound funny to some people but it works – create deadlines for anything you need to do. It puts a little pressure on yourself to finish tasks on a timely manner. The important part with deadlines is to make them realistic and take them seriously. Add it to your calendar and make sure to setup a few reminders. You’ll find yourself more focused on tasks and completing your to-do list much quicker.”
Gabriel Durazo
Lead Engineer & Co-Founder at CoachUp
“Just like with money, you save time by not spending it. Be mindful of your “time budget” before making commitments. Don’t be afraid to say “no”, and if you set a time to leave a meeting or event, stick to it!”
Brad Berens
Principal at Big Digital Idea Consulting, Inc.
“I’m the king of productivity apps, but my #1 time-saving tip is analog: it’s about what NOT to do, and it’s simple to say but staggeringly hard to do.
Here it is. Are you ready?
Don’t look at a screen first thing in the morning.
Any screen.
Don’t look at your computer. Don’t check email. Don’t look at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Leave the tablet on the table. Don’t look at your phone — it shouldn’t be your alarm clock, by the way, or anywhere near your bedroom. Honest. Don’t. Touch. The. Phone. No, not even just to press the power button to see if there are any important texts or notifications. There aren’t. Don’t look. If you need to look at the weather, look out a window.
If you don’t do these things, you’ll reclaim your morning headspace, have a sense of what you need to do, what your priorities are, instead of reacting blindly to a series of inputs that seem urgent but which aren’t really important.
Oh, and if you can write down your top five goals for the day on a piece of paper–NOT a screen–when you finish work the night before, then you’ll be even more focused.
The best way to save your time is not to let other people waste it.”
Raghav Mathur
Co-Founder and CMO at Black Shell Media
“I’d say just jotting down everything I have to do or get to in a nice, prioritized to-do list is the best way to manage time. I use software like Trello to manage my workflow, and even if I have a few basic things to do, just writing them down and having it concrete in front of me makes everything seem so much more approachable. I save time I would otherwise spend worrying or switching gears since I have my workflow and routines all planned out and easy to reach.”
Bobbie Carlton
Founder at Innovation Nights, Innovation Women & Carlton PR & Marketing
“Cultivate the early morning hours for uninterrupted time to get things done. Whether it’s a writing project, getting a jump on email or just time for yourself nothing beats the pre-dawn hours.
Or…I also gang all those requests for coffee, lunch, “let me pick your brain”” into weekly office hours. For years I did a drop in Friday morning breakfast for anyone who wanted to meet with me. I had the rest of my time to get work done. And, I wasn’t driving all over town and interrupting my work day. “
Thomas Kriebernegg
CEO @ appers gmbh
“Have a clear structure what to do and try to focus as much as possible on single tasks. After you’ve finished the task hop on to the next one.”
Christopher Penn
Vice President of Marketing Technology at SHIFT Communications. Digital Marketing Executive, Best-Selling Author, Keynote Speaker, Ninja.
“Easy: understand the value of time slices. You might have 5 or 10 minutes between meetings. What can you do in that time if you focus? Life, especially in the business world, is composed of handfuls of time throughout the day. Be capable of using those time slices in order to maximize your productivity!”
Eliott Wolbrom
Chief Marketing Officer at Major Energy
“Early in my career, I found myself challenged coordinating long and short tasks throughout my day and week. The longer tasks seemed more important and that was where I was focusing most of my time with no real structure. This created time management issues where smaller – but equally as crucial – tasks would keep getting pushed off.
As a result of that learning experience, to better manage and save time, I am now disciplined in dedicating the first and last 45-minutes of my day to tackling tasks that can generally be handled in under five minutes. On a typical day, that adjustment results in knocking out 10-15 items off of my to-do list. I would also recommend keeping most emails to under 70-words. This saves time for the writer and reader and will generally yield a more productive interaction.
Charles Pascalar
VP of Marketing at Payless ShoeSource
“Do the hardest or most difficult thing on your to-do list first. Once complete, you won’t waste time thinking about it, you will feel a sense of accomplishment, and all the remaining items on your to-do list will be so much easier to finish.”
David Cancel
CEO at Drift. Entrepreneur. Investor.
“Allow yourself to be really bad at answering inbound emails. When checking an email only read the last 10 or so emails, ignore the rest. If something is important they will try to contact you via another channel or will send a follow-up email or emails.”
Jon Tucker
CEO at HelpFlow – Done for You eCommerce Live Chat
“Two options…
Make a List – Every Single Day
It takes time to create a list of what you’re going to focus on each day, but it’s time well spent. It ensures that you’re spending your time on the right things. I have been making a list for the following workday every day for the past 4 years.
It’s changed my life, as odd as that sounds – I know that I’m maximizing the impact of my time every single day, and it also helps me not stress about what I need to get done. Every day is mapped out the night before, so I just need to show up and execute.
Don’t Use Email for Team Communication
You need to talk to your team, but everyone else (customers, marketers, etc.) crowd your email inbox. Using Slack for internal communication can streamline communication. I integrated Slack into my team 2 years ago and it’s been a game changer.
The executives on our team run everything and we communicate a lot. But I’ve probably only exchanged 5 or 6 emails total with each of them over the last 2 years. We do everything on Slack, and it keeps things so much more streamlined and effective.”
Vicente Fernandez
CEO at Sportsmanias
“Stay prioritized—keeping a to-do list is an ideal way to maximize your day and ensure you’re spending time on your most important tasks.”
Nellie Akalp
CEO and Owner, CorpNet, Inc.
“My number one time-saving tip is to stay and remain organized by ending each day with a clear desk and an empty email inbox. For me, a large contribution to my success is due to keeping things organized so that when I get to work the next day I can get right to work instead of spending unnecessary time shuffling through paperwork or emails trying to find what I need. In addition, I am a big advocate of keeping meetings short and to the point. Conversations that are too drawn out, again in my opinion, are just a waste of time.”
Alan See
Chief Marketing Officer | AMA Content Marketer of the Year | Forbes Top 50 Most Influential CMO on Social Media
“Time” can’t be saved. There are only 24 hours in a day and once an hour passes it’s forever spent. We now live in an “attention economy.” Attention is scarce because each of us has only so much of it to give and it can come only from us. In fact, information overload has made attention the world’s most precious resource. In light of these facts, I closely guard my limited amount of attention, using it only for the things that I really care about. In short, if it’s not relevant to my needs, desires and goals I hit the delete key immediately.
Shantanu Rana
Co-Founder & COO – Eduvative Technologies LLP. Director of Development & Operational Management – EdTechReview.
“Pause, visualize your steps, consider the outcomes, calibrate them and then start working. Thoughtful 5 minutes would always save you precious 5 hours.”
Krishnan Subramanian
SVP Products and Strategy at CloudMunch
“Use DevOps approach to everything you do in life.”
Keri Jaehnig
Founder & CMO, Idea Girl Media
“When you own a business quite often you wear many hats–especially in the early phases.
We all need to delegate what we can to get offer the most value to our customers, and get the greatest return for our time. It will seem hard at first, but as your business grows, you can build a trusted team. Until then…
Trello is like a project management dashboard. It is totally customizable . You can implement to-do lists, due dates, collaborate with others or keep it private, apps for other tools you may be using, and there is are nifty archives and calendar feed functions. It’s up on my tabs all the time!
I have a separate board for each project (sometimes two), and it helps me plan, schedule, organize, store files, and more. So, it helps me save times in many respects. Most people that try it after I recommend it are thrilled with Trello.
Social media can take a lot of time if you want a solid presence that produces results. Think about it: Content creation, content syndication, profile management, networking the brand, social response, ad campaigns, keeping up on constant changes, brand and niche monitoring, reviewing analytics, and more. Consistently!
I find that scheduling content in advance allows time for more engagement, which is where the true value is. A tool like Hootsuite is a great starting point for scheduling and replying. When you are ready to develop systems, a terrific social media dashboard with many features is Sprout Social: Sprout allows you to schedule into the future very quickly, which is a huge time-saver. Additionally, their brand monitoring, smart Inbox, and reporting features are stellar! You’ll also like the dependability, smart search, and the auto-schedule for best times to post.
As a business owner, the real key is learning where you can delegate, and finding the best time-saving tools that fit your work style.”
Mike Allton
Chief Marketing Officer at SiteSell. Content Marketing Practioner at The Social Media Hat.
“My #1 time-saving technique has always been to recognize when a particular task is being repeated, and look for ways to optimize the repetition. For instance, when I find myself sending the same kinds of emails to prospects, I’ll take a version of the email and save it as a Note in Evernote. The next time I have to send that message, I already have a version ready to go that I can copy & paste and edit to suit my needs.
Evernote itself is a tremendous tool for saving time. I can save email templates, collections of hashtags for social media, usernames, social media posts, blog templates, pricing reference sheets… on and on.
The key is to begin to get into the habit of creating time savers for yourself. The more often you do it, the more aware your mind will be when new opportunities come up.”
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