In the new year and trying to prioritize everything? If you’re anything like me we get started with a bang and then quickly get overwhelmed with all the goals that we’ve put in front of ourselves.

The problem isn’t that you don't have the time, it’s that your time is being used elsewhere.

This is why I’m starting my year off with a detailed time study.

In this episode I discuss how I use my time study to uncover areas of opportunity to optimize my inputs to achieve the goals that I’ve set. Doing this will help you better understand how your day is being used, how this impacts your energy, and to assess whether you should consider outsourcing an activity.

Doing time studies will quickly help you improve your performance and set you up for a highly successful 2024.

Links

Register for my Virtual Happy Hour: https://www.adamliette.com/virtual-happy-hour

Learn more at https://www.adamliette.com

Activate The Warrior Within https://www.adamliette.com/awaken-the-warrior

Transcript

Adam Liette
Hey, smooth operators, welcome to the new year, it's 2024. I'm actually recording this on the first day of the year on January 1, firstly, back in the office in some time, and it's a funny story. You might notice my voice is a little off because I tried to jump back in early. My wife and I are both entrepreneurs. And we decided we were taking some downtime during the holidays. And like an idiot, I tried to jump in little early. And you know, get a jumpstart on the year thinking, Oh, I got these days free. I can do whatever I want. And it's funny how God has different plans for us. Because while I'm in there, I'm getting started. I'm getting things organized. I'm starting to do some grunt work, get some legwork done for the year and I got sick. It's almost like God said you said you were taking time off. You're not doing that. So now you're taking time off. And not only me, but my whole family. It was an all skate, we all got strep throat. So ended up celebrating the New Year together. It was fantastic. I hope you had a wonderful holiday too, and are back in it for 2024. And we're in the new year, right? I'm sure you have plans. We all do. We all have big goals, we have things we want to do. And it's like, yes, let's do it all. And then we hit that proverbial brick wall.

Adam Liette
For in the new year, we're trying to prioritize everything, everything feels like a rush. And we start off at the bank. And then two or three weeks, we fizzle out. Because we're getting overwhelmed. It's really what's happening is we have all these goals, we're trying to do everything all at once. And you can't write we're trying to accomplish all the goals at once. You can't you have to prioritize. And part of that's another discussion for another day. But what we often hear from you might even hear yourself, say it I know I do is oh I just don't have the time right now to do all this. And the problem is, well, it's a matter it's partially prioritization, the problem is not only that you don't have the time, it's that your time is being used elsewhere. Right, we all have the same amount of time literally every person on planet Earth has the exact same amount of time available to them in their week. But how are using that time? Where's that time going? How are we actually conducting ourselves in our day to day, not just the the hours that you're in the seat working, but also the other 16 hours a day, if you're working an eight hour day, where are those hours going? So that's why I'm smart, starting my year off with a detailed time study.

Adam Liette
So the way I do a time study, it's I'm going to be brutally honest, it's painful, it's it shows you everything. It's not fun to fill out. But it is incredibly revealing not only in where our professional and our business time is going, but where the other time is going as well. So you're able to see with a clear vision of how much time are you devoting to your family, to some of your hobbies, to any kind of self care activities you do like something as simple as going to the gym or even, you know, showers and things like that, or meditation or whatever it is that you do to keep yourself where you need to be in a physiological and mental status. And the time study reveals all of that, and it and it does it in a very real time way. Because it has no other choice. But to do that.

Adam Liette
When I do a time study, I like to use an actual printed piece of paper. And the reason I do that is because there is an actual connection that's made when you're writing something now with a pen versus if you're just doing it on on a computer or with an app, for example. And I develop these sheets that are broken down into 15 minute increments covering the 24 hours of each day. And I do it for two weeks straight. So you can tell it is painful to be like constantly accountable for your time for a two week time period. But man oh man, does it reveal a whole lot when you put it into this calculator that I've created because it shows you exactly what activities you're doing. How much time you're doing in those activities so that you can then make those optimizations. Because when we do that we we can see very clearly, where we're putting our time. And there's always every time I do a time study, there's, there's things that just come out, and I can see it immediately. I can't see it when I'm in the process of doing the time study. But then when I'm analyzing it after the fact, it's like, wow, I spent, how many hours editing videos, how many hours doing financial stuff for the business, I sleep how much? Well, that's hasn't really an issue for me, because I don't sleep very much. Just kind of nature of my upbringing and previous profession, we learned to live on less sleep. But I find that I can see opportunities, I can see areas that I can maximize and optimize my own performance. And most importantly, find areas where I am definitely wasting time.

Adam Liette
So be brutally honest with yourself if you choose to do this. And it's something I do recommend for everyone, not just the people that work with me, but everyone that I come across to do this type of a time study. So if you are spending 30 minutes on Tik Tok, or Facebook, for example, not doing your content marketing, but just perusing through the app, and you know, consuming content, put it in there, put it in there as tick tock enjoyment, or tick tock scrolling, be brutally honest with yourself about where exactly your time is going. And also be forgiving of yourself during that time as well. Because we do need to have time when we're not like in it. You know, you can't be on 18 to 20 hours a day, it's not going to happen, you're going to have those pockets where you are, quote unquote wasting time. But you're also rejuvenating yourself, you're getting yourself back in the fight, so that you can then go do the bigger task that lies in front of you. And if your way of kind of coming down is to do one of those quote unquote, time wasters, own it, like that's your time, if that's the time you need own it, just be aware of where your time is going.

Adam Liette
You can also discover areas that sap you of your energy and output. We know these when we when we reflect on them. Or we often know that in the moment, we're like, oh, man, that sucked. And then we see how much time it took to recover from that. So if you spend like two or three hours going through, like your financial documents, or or editing, content marketing, and then you find yourself completely drained afterwards, like make a note of that on your time study when you feel completely drained, and you need to take more downtime. Because here's the wonderful thing that happens is those areas that sap you of your energy and output, you need to figure out one of three things. One, is it worth the result. So there are always going to be things we do in our business that will sap of SAP us of our energy. And they're the really important things that we have to do to get our business moving forward. So creating the content, creating stuff inside, inside your product. You know, these are things that we own as the business owners. And it's just what has to be done. And so we have to rob Peter to pay Paul, we have to accept the fact that, hey, when I finish this,

Adam Liette
I'm going to need some downtime in order to kind of recover myself. And that's okay. There are other activities where you're going to figure out, I don't need to actually be doing this anymore at all that no one has to be doing this. It's not a valuable activity. It's not a platform that I'm actually getting any engagement on, it's not something I really enjoy doing, or I'm seeing any results from and it's taking how many hours of my time, holy cow, let's stop doing this entirely and see if it makes any kind of a difference in what we're seeing on the business side of things. And most importantly, we can see the areas where we can get things off of our desk, so we can get it to other team members, perhaps hire someone to do it, if it's something that we have to keep on doing. But we find that it drains us and is not something that we specifically need to be doing. So those are the three main areas that we can use to optimize your time to see where we can make these slight changes or just like I said, accept the reality that it's going to SAP me in my energy, and that's okay. That's what happens. And that's part of being in the creative space.

Adam Liette
So overall, like during highly stable times when things are running great when we're not facing any complications or any stressors. You know, I recommend doing this type of a time study at least once a quarter because it is something that consistency is going to be your friend, he's going to be your ally and show you over the long term, how well you're using your time. But when we're in a time of chaos, when we're in a time of change, we need to do them more consistently. So if you're one of those people where you always had beginning of your goals or New Year's resolutions that you failed to keep, or they never lasted through January, or February, or March, so they're always like, by q2, you're always writing new goals, I'd recommend you do this every month, for the next three months. So two weeks on two weeks off two weeks on two weeks off, really analyzing where your time is going, it's going to be that consistency, that that non stop analyzing and looking at where your time allocation is going, that's going to make you more likely to actually follow through and succeed in your goals, because you're able to measure it back to your inputs. So we have our outputs, but then we have our inputs to if we're not achieving our outputs, what's the likely cause, the likely cause is probably the inputs that we're putting into it. Makes sense? I hope this does help. It's, it's, like I said, it's not the most fun activity to do.

Adam Liette
But I found, especially when we're trying to make big, radical changes in our life and pursue dynamic goals that we know are going to drive us forward to where we want to go, that future self that we're moving towards, it's going to be really taking accountability for what you're doing, owning it. And then consistent improvement over the short term time period, that's gonna make you better able to function better able to move forward to your goals, and everyone's gonna look around you and be like, how does that guy get that much work done? And the answer is, you've taken the time to optimize what you're doing, you will see a short or you'll see a huge difference in a short period. And ultimately, this was is what's going to set you up for a very, very successful 2024 Thank you so much for joining me. I hope this helped if you have questions about the time study or would like to know more information about it, that information and the documents how to use the calculator that I mentioned, that's available exclusively on the paid side of the smooth operation system. So please do reach out to Adam at Adam liette.com or just find me on one of my socials and just send me a DM I'd be happy to jump on a call walk you through exactly what's all included within the smooth operation system so we can get you moving to the next steps you moving to where you want to go and ultimately driving forward to your end goals and the that person that you want to be and achieve the results that you want to achieve within your business. Thank you so much for joining me and until next time operators lead the way.