15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management pdfdrive com

Freelancer: Would increasing energy and alertness help you to be more
productive during sleepy afternoons?
Student: Would increasing energy and alertness (enabling you to do more in
the same amount of time) reduce the number of your all-night cramming
sessions?
Stay-at-Home Parent: Would increasing energy and alertness give you more
patience with family members?
S
ECRET #
15
Productivity is about energy and focus, not time.
How will you increase your energy tomorrow?
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CHAPTER 16
The E-3C System: Putting It All Together
How can you condense the 15 secrets of time and productivity into an easy-
to-implement system?
In Their Own Words…
I stay productive by developing and maintaining what I call a personal "operating system," which is a set
of processes, tools and checkpoints that define how I get work done every day. The specifics of an
operating system differ from person to person, but the important thing is that you have one.
–Corbett Barr is co-founder and CEO of Fizzle, a community and training platform for entrepreneurs.
Remember, there is no one system that universally works for everyone; you
don’t need to incorporate all 15 secrets to see improvements in productivity. The
most important thing is to learn from the habits shared by highly successful
people and adopt them in a way that works for you and your situation.
In order to help you to take immediate action, I’ve simplified the findings
from all of the research into a simple system that I call E-3C. The E stands for
Energy, and the three C’s are Capture, Calendar, and Concentrate.
Energy
The first step—the most important part of my E-3C system—is “E” for Energy.
You can’t make more time, but you can increase your productivity.
Increasing your energy and focus is the most important secret to achieving 10x
productivity in the same amount of time.
Highly successful people get enough sleep.
Highly successful people eat energizing foods and exercise consistently.
Highly successful people maintain morning rituals—like meditating,
journaling, hydrating, practicing yoga—that establish a foundation of energy,
clarity, and alertness for the entire day.

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Highly successful people pulse and pause throughout the day to maintain
peak performance.
Capture
The first “C” in my E-3C system stands for Capture.
You must “capture” everything and anything into a notebook instead of
trying to keep things in your head. In a best-case scenario, trying to remember
to-dos, to-calls, and to-buys leads to a higher cognitive load and unnecessary
stress—worse, it can lead to incomplete tasks.
Highly successful people keep a notebook with them at all times and write
down everything they want to remember. In addition to capturing to-do items,
they also record notes from calls and meetings, new ideas, lessons learned,
favorite quotes, and other things that might need to be referenced in the future.
Think of your notebook as your external brain. The more you put into it, the
less filled your biological brain will be!
I believe paper-based notebooks (like Moleskine or similar designs) work
best; you can always scan your written notes into Evernote later—or even better,
have your admin or virtual assistant do it for you!
Additionally, this practice improves your effectiveness, as you no longer
forget important things to do, can hold other people accountable, and can learn
from your accumulated written experiences.
If you are writing things down that you need “to do,” remember: as quickly
as possible, you will want to schedule it as an appointment on your…
Calendar
The second “C” in my E-3C system stands for Calendar.
What is implied with this step is don’t use a to-do list! If you want “to do”
something, immediately schedule it on your calendar.
Highly successful people have clearly identified values which lead to top
priorities and their Most Important Task (MIT). You must time block MIT time
on your calendar. Time for other activities that support your top values (e.g.,
health, relationships, giving back) should also get blocked on your calendar on a
recurring basis.
Highly successful people theme days on their calendar, too. At work,
Monday might be the day for one-on-one meetings or for a weekly team huddle.
Wednesday might be themed as “no meetings” or “afternoon office hours.” At

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home, Sundays might be the day for grocery shopping, laundry, and cooking a
full week’s worth of healthy meals in advance.
Highly successful people protect their calendar, knowing and feeling the
reality that nothing is more important than time. They say no to anything and
everyone who does not align with their priorities and are especially wary of
“distant elephants.” They do something only if they aren’t able to drop it,
delegate it, or redesign it. They spend time on the 20 percent of things that
contribute 80 percent of the value—and they drop the rest.
Concentrate
The third “C” in my 3C system stands for Concentrate.
Highly successful people proactively work from their calendar; they don’t
react to stimuli like incoming email, social media messages, or “got a minute”
meetings.
Highly successful people don’t multitask; they concentrate on one task at a
time.
Highly successful people concentrate on their MIT and other priorities during
times of peak energy, typically in the morning.
Highly successful people pulse and pause to maintain concentration and
productivity throughout the day. Most take 5-minute breaks every 30 to 60
minutes.