12 Rules of TIME Management– From Billionaires, Athletes & CEOs [Kevin Kruse]

if you could talk to billionaires

Olympic athletes a students and world

famous CEOs and collect their best tips

on time management then you would get

this book 15 Secrets successful people

know about time management written by

New York Times best-selling author Kevin

Cruz

I've picked 12 of the best lessons from

the book so let's get started lesson

number one the power of 1440. imagine

you're 25 years old and you have the

power to switch places with a 90 year

old billionaire the billionaire will

have your age and your wealth and you

will have his wealth and of course his

age

would you switch places

I'm sure your answer would be no because

that old billionaires run out of time

and there's no amount of money that can

buy him more time

so if your time is so valuable and you

wouldn't sell it for billions of dollars

then how come we often waste it as if

it's worth nothing

how come many of us treat time as if

it's an endless resource

we all know that time is precious but

how can we start using it wisely

the author of the book has an

interesting method for that he says that

in the office everyone wanted to ask him

something all the time constant

interruptions ended up costing him a lot

of valuable time every day so he decided

to print a paper that said 1440 and hang

it in his office what does that number

mean

well 1440 is the number of minutes in a

day the author found that viewing his

day as

1440 minutes helped him focus on the

most important tasks it acted as a

reminder for him and when people asked

what it was all about he simply

explained that he was trying to make the

best use of his time pretty soon those

do you have a minute meetings got

reduced or eliminated completely

to you a brief one-minute Interruption

might not seem like much compared to all

the time we have available each day but

regardless of how brief they are

accumulated one after another they begin

to turn into a serious amount of time

each day

time is your most valuable and scarce

resource once it's gone it's gone if you

lose money you can earn it back but not

time

imagine it this way every day when you

wake up fourteen hundred forty dollars

are deposited into your life account how

you invest that money defines your

future success or failure in life

successful people see time differently

and invest it differently when we are

evaluating an investment or business

opportunity the first thing most of us

try to calculate is the return on each

dollar invested successful people do

that as well but not as a first thing

the first thing they do is calculate how

much time they are going to invest they

create a dollar per minute analysis and

accept the projects or Investments that

have the highest return on each minute

they are going to invest

how much attention you give to your

money working hard to make money

tracking your money researching the best

ways to invest your money reading about

ways to make more money worrying that

somebody might steal your money you

would never leave your wallet sitting

out in the open you'd never give your

ATM card and password to a bunch of

strangers and yet we typically think

little about our time we routinely let

people steal our time even though it's

our most valuable possession

lesson number two time management isn't

about time it's about energy you can't

manage time no matter what you do you

will have the same 24 hours tomorrow

that you had today when people talk

about time management what they really

want is to get more energy not the time

time management is not about time it's

about energy you don't believe me then

answer this

have you ever been reading a book and

find yourself reading the same sentence

over and over do you get sleepy an hour

or two after lunch how productive are

you then have you ever been working on a

task and find yourself staring into

space for minutes

have you ever actually fallen asleep at

your desk or in a meeting if you've said

yes to most of these questions then you

would agree that the most important

thing is the energy not the time

you need to manage your energy so that

it lasts longer during the day you don't

want to be productive for two hours in

the morning and very tired in the

afternoon and how do you do that how do

you have more energy across the day how

do you go from being 20 of time

productive to 80 percent

I have several tips to do that but one

of the simplest ones is this take more

breaks during the day let me tell you a

story from one of my friends and you'll

understand how powerful the brakes are

my friend's an amateur boxer and he

enjoyed his boxing training but he said

I hated the ending part after the

intense 90 minutes of training the coach

made a split into Pairs and compete

against each other on an air bike for

three minutes in case you don't know

this is what an airbike looks like it

involves almost all the large muscles in

your body

if you do it for just three minutes

intensively you'll feel so much pain in

your legs and body that you'll not be

able to walk or breathe you'll just want

to lie down

so back to my friend in his competition

the rules of competition were simple you

split into Pairs and compete for three

minutes whoever burns more calories

within the three minutes wins and the

person who loses has to do 20 extra

push-ups as soon as the time is over

my friend said at the beginning he lost

almost all the time and he was one of

the lowest performers on average he

could burn 40 calories when others

burned around 55 calories he said I

hated it because it hurts so much plus I

was losing all the time mainly because I

was out of shape and the rest of the

guys were quite in shape relatively

bigger and muscular but despite this

after just a few training sessions he

said I figured out a way to increase my

results from 40 calories to 66 and

almost beat everyone else and after a

few more training sessions I even

increased my results to 72 calories at

that point no one believed the results

and they came and checked the screen to

make sure that I wasn't lying so how did

he do it

how did it go from 40 calories to 72

calories

obviously he didn't get more muscular

and stronger within a few days

his secret was that he took more breaks

and distributed his energy evenly across

the three minutes he said at the

beginning I would just pedal non-stop

for three minutes like everyone else

however I realized that during the first

minute I performed well but the

remaining two minutes the results were

awful

so he decided to break this one big task

into smaller tasks

so in my mind I had broken this

three-minute session into six smaller

sessions each consisting of 30 seconds

in each session I was working for 25

seconds and resting for five seconds and

for each session I had set a goal which

was burning 11 calories

and that was the game changer for him

the reason it worked so well is because

number one he took breaks which helped

him to spread his energy across a longer

period of time

spreading and maintaining the energy is

important many of us can't do it that is

why we end up being productive for a few

hours until lunch and then it goes

downhill from there Tony Schwartz

founder of the energy project says that

humans naturally move from Full focus

and energy to physiological fatigue

every 90 minutes our body sends us

signals to rest and renew but we

override those signals with coffee

energy drinks and sugar Schwartz

suggests that we need to purposely take

short breaks throughout the day to drink

water walk or to eat healthy snacks

number two you broke down the task

suddenly it wasn't one big scary task it

was six smaller tasks with the rest at

the end psychologically that made it

easier for him number three he set goals

for each session he knew that in order

to succeed he needed to burn 11 calories

and not think about the rest if you just

did that then the rest would be fine

number four he made the time work for

him not against him what I mean is this

when you have one big session and your

body hurts like hell the only thing you

want is to be done with it because it

hurts you just keep looking at time and

thinking when will it be over so that

you can get off and rest

on the other hand when you have a

smaller session with a break and a goal

you don't want the time to finish before

you reach your goal you wish that

seconds last a little longer so that you

can reach your goal suddenly reaching

the goal is the center of your attention

not the pain or thinking when this hell

will be over

even though this was an example from

sport I believe there are a lot of

similarities between that three-minute

session on an air bike and our dates in

both we want to get more done in both we

want our energy to last longer and

finally in both we want to win

that's why I think the principles that

worked for my friend will work for you

as well if you apply it to your day how

do I know it well I've been doing it for

years and it is called the Pomodoro

Technique if you've heard about the

Pomodoro Technique then you have already

noticed that the principles are almost

identical with the Pomodoro Technique

you set a timer for 25 minutes work on a

single task with your full Focus then

take a five minute break and after every

four Cycles you take a longer break for

30 minutes then you repeat the process

so lesson two is to pay attention to

your energy and maintain it by taking

more breaks during the day besides that

you also need to look at your life and

see the things you are doing that are

draining your energy and slowing you

down for example lack of sleep is a huge

factor for many people also lack of

exercise and lack of healthy food to

name a few lesson number three identify

your most important task and do it first

in the morning successful people focus

on their top priority goals first thing

in the morning after they are fully

awake

every day they concentrate on completing

all or part of their most important

tasks mits before they go on to other

activities

many Savvy CEOs confirm that the brain

functions at its fullest capacity during

the first two hours each morning

finishing a portion of an MIT first

thing in the morning will also give you

peace of mind before daily problems

arise one of the most common complaints

I hear is this

my top priority goal is too big and I

don't know where to start and what to do

so I rather postpone working on it well

it doesn't matter how big or complicated

the goal is you can always break it down

and work on it at least five minutes a

day for example let's say you want to

buy an investment property so how do you

break it down well let me ask you this

what is the first thing you need to do

to buy a property

you would answer the first thing I would

probably need to do is find a great real

estate agent okay good and what is the

first thing you can do to find a real

estate agent

answer there are many ways but one of

the simplest things you can do today is

just make a post on your Facebook page

and ask your friends if they can

recommend any good Agent

how long do you think it will take you

to make that post probably five minutes

here you go you are one step closer to

achieving your goal if you make that

post

so if you have a goal and you don't know

how to break it down always ask yourself

what is the first thing I can do today

and do it as a first thing every day

even if it's a tiny thing do it as a

first thing again successful people

always focus on their most important

goals before they do anything else

there's another technique which isn't in

this book but the idea behind it is very

similar to this one

the name of the technique is

1990 if I'm not mistaken you choose one

area of your life that you would like to

improve work on it for the next 90 days

in the first 90 minutes of your day this

has been quite a game changer for me

personally for example my entire life

I've struggled with losing weight and

being in shape even though this was

quite an important goal for me I never

achieved it when I looked at how my day

was organized I realized that I

exercised at the end of the day when I

finished my work and you probably know

how hard it is to exercise after a very

busy day at work right

sometimes even if you have the time you

just run out of willpower and want to

lie down and play dead so that no one

touches you or asks you anything

so I decided to change things a little

bit and dedicate the first 90 minutes of

every day to myself

to my physical and mental health which

means the first 60 Minutes is spent on

exercising at home and the remaining 30

minutes on meditation I'm halfway

through and I've gotten great results

plus I've realized that when my physical

and mental health is in good shape the

rest of the day comes really easy I tend

to eat healthy have a clear mind

problems at work don't piss me off I

make less mistakes and overall I feel

good

I'm not saying that you should do the

same as just an example but you can

apply this technique to other areas of

your life such as working on your side

business before you start your regular

job

why give the best hours of your day to

someone else when you can give it to

yourself most of us take care of

everybody else and every task and if

some time is left we spend it on

ourselves

we get the salary and pay everybody else

but not ourselves don't you think it's

time to put yourself first

if you are one of the most important

people in your life if you don't take

care of yourself who is going to do it

for you

some of you might say that you are being

too selfish here

but I think becoming selfish leads to

becoming more generous

for example when you put yourself first

in exercise you feel good about yourself

when you feel good and confident you are

more successful at your job and when you

are doing great at your job you don't

come home exhausted which means you can

spend more quality time with your kids

if you didn't put yourself first you

would probably come home exhausted and

maybe spend a few minutes with your kids

and then the rest of the evening would

be spent lying down on the couch the

same thing applies to your finances when

you pay yourself first it means you are

better prepared financially to take care

of your loved ones and help a family

member or friend when they are in

financial trouble

all these wouldn't happen if you didn't

start putting yourself first

so lesson number three is find one thing

that matters the most and work on it in

the first two hours of your day

lesson number four no more to-do lists

according to the author there are

surveys that show that more than 40

percent of the tasks on to-do lists are

never completed nevertheless they are

used all the time in many many companies

and by many entrepreneurs

but what about successful people do you

really think Millionaires and

billionaires walk around with a to-do

list

do you really think Bill Gates or Warren

Buffett write a long and complex to-do

list and carry them around with them all

day long

think about your case if you make a long

list of tasks every day what's your

success rate hasn't it ever happened to

you that there are tasks you never

complete in days and months go by and

you never do them

according to the author the problem with

to-do lists is that they often confuse

us with what is urgent and what is

really important the author says to-do

lists also cause unnecessary stress

anxiety and end up hurting your

productivity sleep habits and overall

health

although to-do lists work well as

reminders they also become a nuisance

during the day even somewhat

intimidating they'll lead you to avoid

certain tasks procrastinate and

therefore not complete the expected

goals the author recommends solving this

problem by working with calendars

instead of to-do lists highly successful

people don't have a to-do list but they

do have a very detailed calendar so use

a calendar and schedule your day in

blocks of time of at least 15 minutes

according to the author simply

scheduling tasks on your calendar rather

than writing them on a to-do list will

free your mind reduce stress and

increase your cognitive performance

schedule time for everything that's

important to you deciding which tasks

deserve calendar space or blocks of time

keeps you from wasting time

for example if you really value being

healthy and have decided that a daily 30

minute workout is your primary goal then

don't put it on your to-do list put it

on your calendar as a first task to be

completed

schedule it as a recurring appointment

if you value client communication as a

business strategy and have a goal of

talking to at least two clients a day

then schedule a daily client call

appointment

lesson number five how to finish work at

5 PM guilt free

how can the world's most important

people always seem so calm stress-free

and fully present in the moment

how could President George Bush read 95

books a year while he was the president

of America

how does virgin group founder Richard

Branson have over 400 companies in his

conglomerate yet he always seems to be

hanging out on his private island or

breaking some crazy world record as an

adventurer I know you're probably

wondering how they do it right you can't

even finish your work on time so that

you can go to the gym or come home on

time but here's George Bush reading 95

books a year while running one of the

most powerful countries in the world

well here's the secret and I hate to use

the word secret because the idea is so

simple and it's this work never ends

there is always more to do

Andy Grove the author of a book called

high output management puts it very

nicely my day ends when I'm tired and

ready to go home not when I'm done I'm

never done like a Housewives a manager's

work is never done there's always more

to be done more that should be done

always more that can be done

super successful people don't just burn

hour after hour trying to cross off more

items from their task list instead they

think through their priorities schedule

time for each and then enough is enough

this is one of the simplest ideas but if

you truly let it sink in it will

dramatically change your life so lesson

number five is accept the fact that

there will always be more to do and more

that can be done and the work on time

and do the things you enjoy spend time

with family

Etc this is one of the areas I need to

work on personally because I'm a

workaholic and I often end up in a

situation where I'm trying to cross off

as many tasks as possible for my to-do

list so that there are fewer tasks left

for tomorrow but somehow magically there

is always more work to do tomorrow

lesson number six no the magical word

that can free a lot of time

Warren Buffett once said the difference

between successful people and very

successful people is that very

successful people say no to almost

everything

saying yes to something is equivalent to

saying no to something else every yes to

one thing is a no to another thing

I remember once I agreed to a meeting

even though it wasn't that interesting

for me to have the meeting I said yes

because I checked my calendar and saw

that I was free plus the meeting was

almost in a month so I didn't see much

problem saying yes however when the

meeting day came my daughter got sick I

had other personal problems that I had

to solve immediately I couldn't cancel

the meeting because first of all I had

promised and second the person had

traveled a long way to meet me canceling

wasn't really an option

so I had to attend the meeting even

though I didn't want to be there that

day

the moral of the story is this even if

your calendar looks empty now it doesn't

mean you should say yes because when the

time comes kids will get sick the car

will break the dog will get sick

something will stop working in your

business you get the point

that yes will hold you back here is a

good rule of thumb for saying yes to

things

if something is not a hell yes then it's

a no

another problem with saying yes is that

most of the time we think that it will

not require much time from us we think

that it's just a small request but that

small request turns into two requests

pretty soon another big request follows

and then you find yourself spending

almost half the day on that small

request

they say that in the distance even giant

elephants at first look small

unfortunately many small things turn

into big things when they actually

arrive so reserve your yeses for things

that really matter

and never forget this

simple no answer is enough

you don't know what to anybody to have

to say more than that let me repeat you

don't owe it to anybody to explain why

you said no

lesson number seven theme your days Jack

Dorsey is the co-founder of Twitter and

the founder and CEO of square for a

while Dorsey worked full-time at both

companies 16 hours a day eight hours at

each

in a 2011 interview Dorsey explained how

theming his days had helped him

tremendously theming simply means

focusing on one activity each day and

nothing else for example on Monday at

both companies Dorsey focused on

management and running the company

Wednesday was focused on marketing and

Communications Thursday was focused on

developers and Partnerships Friday was

focused on the company culture and

recruiting Saturday he took time off

Sunday was reflection feedback strategy

and getting ready for the week I've

personally tried it and it's amazing to

see how much you can get done when you

theme your days even if you theme your

days you'll still get interruptions all

the time but the good thing is that when

you know that today is let us say

Tuesday and it's product day then it

becomes easier to ignore interruptions

and refocus on the product lesson number

eight three questions that will save you

tons of time

let me introduce Bob to you Bob's

programming speed and code quality gave

him the best coder in the building

status he was a model employee in his

mid-40s Bob started to work by nine each

morning and sent his boss a daily

summary of his work before he left at

five if you had been able to secretly

peek over Bob's shoulder all day you

would be surprised to discover how he

spent his time

on Bob's typical day he would read

Reddit and watch YouTube videos from

about 9 to 11 30 which is when he would

head out to his 90-minute lunch break

back at 1pm Bob would then spend the

next three and a half hours on eBay

Facebook LinkedIn and other social media

sites at 4 30 he would send a report to

his boss and go home without writing a

single line of code

the next day would be the same how could

this be how could Bob be his company's

star programmer yet goof off all day

turns out that Bob was very smart

instead of asking how can I do this he

asked how can this get done the answer

in Bob's case was that he outsourced his

task actually his job to a software

development company in Shenyang China

Bob's company gave him approximately two

hundred thousand dollars a year to do

his work and he in turn gave fifty

thousand dollars a year to a programmer

in China to do it for him for the

longest time Bob's company marveled at

his productivity and quality well he

surfed the internet eight hours a day

eventually Bob's company noticed unusual

server access from China and thinking

they were being hacked they stumbled

onto Bob's brilliant scheme they didn't

like what Bob was doing and fired him

the author said if I had been the CEO I

would have doubled Bob's salary and

promoted him that way he could have

outsourced all the development work and

saved the company millions of dollars

while Bob ultimately got fired for

breaking company rules we can all learn

a lot from his approach to getting

things done how well by simply asking

three questions

question number one drop

when performing some tasks simply stop

for a moment and ask yourself how

valuable is this task to me or to the

company what would happen if I just

dropped it completely

you'd be surprised to find out how much

time you spend on activities that don't

bring value there are a lot of tasks

that can be dropped identifying the

things that you shouldn't do and not

doing them is as important as

identifying and doing the things that

you should do question number two

delegate ask yourself am I the only

person who could do this task who else

within or outside the company could

accomplish this

one of the key skills that any

entrepreneur needs to learn is how to

delegate it's a painful process because

in the early stage many entrepreneurs

think that they are the only one who can

do the job right and with high quality

you should especially do your best to

delegate the tasks if number one you

don't enjoy doing them number two you're

not good at them

question number three automate ask how

can the same outcome be achieved but

with a faster process this question is

all about creating a system so that work

is done automatically or with minimum

effort lesson number nine follow the 80

20 rule like yourself I'm also trying to

figure out the best routines and tactics

that help me be more productive during

the day for example I've noticed that

when I sleep well then the next day goes

almost perfectly I do all the right

things I exercise I meditate I'm more

productive and I'm able to face the day

more confidently

and in order to have a good night's

sleep I need to follow a routine before

going to bed for me a good routine means

going to bed at the same time and making

sure that I stop working at least 90

minutes before bed so instead of

focusing on tips and tactics to be

productive I only make sure that I

follow a few rules before bed I know

that if I do this one thing right then

the next day will go great by simply

focusing on a small activity I can

influence the entire day and this is

what the 80 20 rule is all about

focusing on a few Key activities that

bring the biggest results it's about

identifying the 20 of activities that

bring the 80 of results and doing them

exceptionally well the rest of the

activities that don't fall under the 20

can be ignored or outsourced this rule

is almost like looking for shortcuts in

your life if you truly understand the

power of the 80 20 rule you will work

less and at the same time increase your

results

I have a detailed video that explains

everything so I don't want to go into

too much detail the link will be in the

description lesson number 10 how to

clean your email inbox quickly and focus

on productive work according to a survey

conducted by the McKinsey Global

Institute office workers spend 2.6 hours

per day reading and answering emails

which equates to 33 percent of a 40 hour

work week okay okay nobody works 40

hours anymore but it's still a big chunk

of an average work week

clearly people send too much email at

work and as the dominant form of

professional communication it's hard to

ignore but you have to take

responsibility for your part email and

all social media platforms produce

dopamine every time a message or

notification appears on your screen

which is very addictive most of the time

it's nothing important but every now and

then ding ding ding oh look an

interesting article or oh someone has a

question I can answer in only five

minutes I'm so helpful and productive

this makes us come back to check our

inbox again and again here are six tips

to manage your inbox wisely number one

unsubscribe from email newsletters come

on do you really need to subscribe to

all those fashion websites those Flash

Deals of the Day offers those viral

clickbait news headlines they're trying

hard to get into your head but they

can't if they're not in your inbox to

begin with just go into your email and

search for unsubscribe and then

unsubscribe from all the email

newsletters that you find number two

turn off all email notifications

emails not intended to be an urgent form

of communication and especially in these

times when most of us are getting 50 to

500 emails a day getting email

notifications is a sin notifications

interrupt your concentration your work

and your ability to be present during

meetings and conversations whether you

have an audible ding a phone vibration

or a little window that pops up with

every new email turn all that off

number three only process email three

times a day using the 3210 system

schedule three times a day to process

your email Morning Noon night set the

timer on your phone for 21 minutes and

try to get your inbox to zero in that

time make a game out of it

21 minutes is intentionally not enough

time but it will keep you focused ensure

that your responses are short and that

you don't start clicking links out onto

the wonderful world of Internet

distractions

immediately apply one of these four

actions every time you open an email do

it right away

delegate it defer it to someone else or

delete it you can also archive instead

of deleting

number four keep emails short really

short

realize that being brief isn't rude it's

a sign of respect for the other person's

time in addition to your own there is

even a movement that suggests we

consider email messages to be similar to

text messages number five use the

subject line to indicate the action

required an ideal subject line doesn't

just indicate the subject of the email

but also the type of action it requires

this helps email recipients to process

your email in less time and they'll

learn to reciprocate and do the same for

you number six think twice before you

forward or CC someone

too often we forward or CC someone in

the spirit of keeping them in the loop

but in reality we are contributing to

the information overload problem

remember every email you send and every

CC you include means you are likely

going to get a reply back into your own

email box

you send less email you'll also receive

less email

lesson number 11 Richard Branson's

secret productivity tool

Richard Branson is the founder of Virgin

Group by the time the book was written

Branson was reportedly worth 4.8 billion

dollars

according to Branson the most important

thing for him is to always carry a small

notebook in his pocket in his own words

I could never have built virgin group to

the size it is without those few pieces

of paper keeping all those fleeting

ideas thoughts and things to remember

only in the mind can contribute to

fatigue there is a way to free the mind

so the author's advice is simply to

always carry a notebook with you maybe

the foundations of your Empire will be

written down there

lesson number 12 meetings are the last

option

according to many surveys in the

corporate world most meetings are a

waste of time despite this every day

many companies hold meetings in the book

The author gives some reasons why he

thinks meetings suck number one most

meetings start late number two most of

the wrong people are present at the

meeting number three most of the

meetings time is spent on trivia number

four the wrong people dominate meetings

often those who spend most of the

meeting time are overconfident

extroverted attention-seeking people who

don't necessarily have anything really

important to contribute

therefore the author recommends not

scheduling or attending meetings unless

all other forms of communication are not

working if you must have a meeting

highly successful people know that

effective meetings start with effective

agendas which are distributed in advance

this was a long video thanks for

watching to the end I have more

interesting books summarized on the

channel so check out the playlist you

see on your screen if interested