L1. M2. DL: this leverage model could change your life.
Use it with caution, because your results will change very fast for the better, in all areas, not just property.
Are you ready for that?
L1. – Leverage 1st
You probably have a task list or to do list, whether in old fashioned pen and ink, or on a computer, app or on software.
If you’re smart, and you’ve read all the time management books, then you probably ensure you only have 5 to 7 rather than 507 things on that list, because everything else is probably not important.
You do that, right?
And if you’re a real student of time management, you probably order that list in importance. If you’re an expert in time management, you probably order it in importance and urgency, even categorising it as such in a numerical system, and you NEVER move to the second task until you’ve completely finished the first.
No matter how many distractions or urgencies or people or emails or Facebook or anything interrupting you every waking minute, you shut off the world to all those distractions and systematically go down the list in order.
You do that right?
What you certainly DON’T do, just like I NEVER did, is jump around ticking off the easy [translate: unimportant] tasks first.
What you definitely DON’T do, just like I NEVER did, is remember things you did yesterday, write them on the list, and then cross them straight off, just to make sure you feel like you’re making progress.
And I bet you NEVER ended the day with more things on the list than when you started, and all the urgent ones were still there.
Because that NEVER happened to me either.
So here’s the magic: take your list of 5-7 things and leverage as many of them as possible, FIRST: ‘Who can I get to do that?’
Leverage, outsource and delegate as many of those tasks as you can. Perhaps that might be 3 of the 7. Even if it’s only 2, it’s around 1/3 less tasks YOU have to do. That’s 1/3 of your time back to do the things you love, or to fill that time productively on IGA’s.
“But Rob, it’s not that simple”
Reserve judgement for a minute, and stick with me here. Or pretend that it works and humour me.
Leverage as much of the tasks as you can off your list, consistently and with discipline. Don’t get sucked back in. Don’t D.I.Y because you think no one can do the task as well as you. Don’t D.I.Y because you think it’ll be quicker. Don’t D.I.Y because you haven’t got time to train people. All these reasons are the things that keep people small and overw o r k e d, and the very reasons they should actually DO it.
M2. – Manage 2nd
So once you’ve leveraged half your task list, the task comes back the next morning all wrapped in a bow and smelling of perfume and perfectly done right? No, it comes back better than you expected right?
No.
It often gets done wrong, or not at all, or late, or worse you have to wade in and help and you end up doing what you paid them for. Know a song about that?
‘Rob, I’ve tried hiring people, it didn’t work. Rob, I had a big team once and it was so stressful, I don’t want employees anymore. Rob, no one can do my specialist job as well as me. Rob I hire people and they just can’t do the job’
A smart businessman, who pi**ed me off at first, once told me, when I was having a rant about things like this, that my team would only be as good as I let them or as I trained them to be.
Who’s this guy? Telling me that I’m getting in their way. Telling me it’s my fault that they aren’t getting the results doing a job I could do standing on my head.
Well of course, because he was smart and I was naive, he was right.
So, once you have L1.’d first, you need to M2 2nd. You need to manage those tasks and projects and people that You leveraged. You need to see them through to completion: help them, train them, nurture them, support them, watch them, deadline them and remind them [yes all 17 times!].
Sound like a lot of work? Rather D.I.Y?
Well if you have a manager in place, all you have to do is manage the manager managing the tasks, and you’ve compounded leverage and reduced your personal time input further.
This might take a little more time than L1.
But it won’t take anywhere near as much doing as doing, once set up.
DL. – Do LAST!
ONLY ONLY ONLY ONLY ONLY do the task, if you have thoroughly assessed if you can’t L 1st or D 2nd.
Never get sucked in to doing unless it’s a last resort [or you simply love doing it].
Or, if the task has a high IGA, by all means D.I.Y, as it will bring a greater, more leveraged return on Your time invested.
If you don’t do any of this, it doesn’t work. And I know I’ve skim read many books and not done much/anything with them. I can’t blame the author for that. It’s better to read less and do more than it is to read everything and do nothing.
How do you leverage your tasks? Amazed at the VALUE it adds to your day? Discussions, opinions and comments welcomed.
