Time Management Exposed

A 100 Million Dollar Tip?

Here is one example of good sounding advice taught by many business success trainers that actually would result in failure.

Ivy Lee (an efficiency consultant in the 1930s) told Charles Schwab:

(1). Make all your executives write a list of their 6 most important things they have to do for their area of work.
(2). Get them to order that list by priority.
(3). And tell them to do the list in that order.

And that was it!

….Well, 3 months later: Schwab decided the results were worth paying Lee US$35,000 for.

(At the time, the average worker in the US was being paid $2 per day.)

And that single time management technique made Schwab the most successful steel man in America – earning him 100 million dollars in 5 years.

So if it was good enough to make 100 million in 1930… Isn't it good enough for you and I in 2009?

Well let's see…

Just write down the top 6 priorities you need to get done… and do nothing else but them until they're all done… one by one…

But before you run into trouble… let's think about it for just a second.

They lived in the 30s – known as ?the age of style?, when times were good, and life moved at an easy pace.

Certainly nothing like our modern hectic business life we endure today. The competitive pressures. The rapidly changing marketplace from the ongoing Internet revolution.

And here's the real problem of time management in business.

That one darn suggestion from Ivy Lee in the 30s has become the underlying principle of time management techniques STILL taught in training programs today.

And sure, it seems like common sense doesn't it?

1. Make a list of what you gotta do…
2. Prioritize the most important one's…
3. And then do them one by one.

So if you think that will work for you… if you think that's some kind of magic revelation… if its the first time you?ve been exposed to this idea… then by all means go ahead and give it a try starting tomorrow morning when you sit down to seize the day for your business productivity and success…

But if you get frustrated with all of modern life's distractions, chores, and piles upon piles of opportunities that pass you by day every day… then you'll feel as I do – that modern time management needs to step back from these 80 year old ?industrial? techniques, and come from a new modern perspective.

And just how important is time management really?

Well consider these words from the great Peter Drucker: