Time Management 201

The Next Step

Aimed at non-techy solutions

            Recapping the paper & pencil starting of Time Management 101. The reason is to reduce worry about the actual media used per se; rather, it is about changing your mindset about how you view your business time. There is an intentional separation of personal and business time. Without this separation, you become totally engulfed in the business and its stresses and demands. This will lead to burnout, exhaustion, bad decisions or indecision, negative physical symptoms, with the result being business and/or personal failure.

Starting with Color Coding (symbols later)

After a couple of weeks of penciling in your schedule and more importantly, being accustomed to the time management idea in general, it is time to add some new tricks. To facilitate “at a glance” visual interpretation of our planner I recommend adding visual cues to make things easier to recognize. You can do this with four-color inks pen sets that easily travel in the larger better quality planners I recommended before. I use Black for routine entries, Red for important “HOT” must do things, Green is used to line them out as complete telling me at a glance that that item is “good to go”, and Blue is used for any written and verbal communications such as emails, letters, and phone calls.

Prioritize

            Just by the sheer nature of implementing the color-coding system above, there is the forming of priorities easily recognized while glancing at the planner throughout the day. For one thing, Red has my attention all day until I line it out with Green. Blue tells me to try to get the door closed in order to focus on calls, emails and letters without interruptions. Everything else, in Black, is just my normal workflow.

Therefore, my To Do, Week at a Glance and Daily hour-to-hour notations are easier to identify as the day progresses. This method has helped me considerably in every high-touch job I ever had where the growing responsibilities began to overtake me. This tool allowed me to overtake it instead through development of adding visual organizational skills to my planning.

Beyond the Visual Enhancements

Rollovers. Rescheduling can be a useful tool that if not focused upon properly, can get out of hand and lead to loss of time management control. Not that this will not happen occasionally, but if not handled efficiently, can ruin your time management progress. So limit your acceptance of Rollovers. There are some ways to do this.

First, identify likely rollover projects and tasks then solicit assistance when they are created. The more hands available to keep the project moving, the easier it is to get it done. The sharing of the responsibilities and the rewards should not inhibit you. As a leader, your job is to get things done, not do everything that needs to be done. See the difference? If not, call me, email me, reach out and let me help you through this concept. It is vital!

Second, limit the amount of Rollovers to a number each week. Try a high bar, no more than one per week. If you find after a month you seem to get two to three, lower the bar to just two. The idea is to sharpen your time management skills, not give in to their lack of development. After two months try to raise the bar back to one. Under no circumstances should you accept three. If you are struggling with three or more then again, call me, email me, reach out and let me help you through this concept. It is vital! Remember, we are working on time management, as a business leader, this is worth getting right. Moreover, I want you to go home at the end of the day without the Rollover stress haggling you all night and stressing you out in the morning commute.

Higher Priority. Big projects that start as high priority and those that move into that category over time (rollovers, especially, multiple rollovers) need to be more than Red items. They must be of prime concern to you and if they are important to you they are important to any team member you can solicit help from too. Remember, your job, to get things done. No matter what portion of it is yours to do hands-on, there are other people that can supplement because they do something better than you do and that is why they are your employee and/or your team member. Corn does not grow in the silo. It takes many hands to get it there and even then, is made productive only when it leaves. Don’t get it? Then call me, email me, reach out and let me help you through this concept. It is vital!

Transitional Time. One of the greatest number of errors I see on executive planners is back-to-back items. There are good reasons for listing some that way. For instance, you are scheduling yourself to take lunch at noon-1pm then be in the office from 1-2pm and you want to make calls from 1-1:30pm and write emails from 1:30-2pm. That is all good. Just do not let me catching you scheduling a staff meeting from 2-3pm. Because unless you have the post lunch water retention of a camel those two cups of coffee are going to be making you very uncomfortable and somewhat irritable during that staff meeting. Make transitional breaks to the restroom. Seems silly but I cannot count the number of times I have seen people escape mid-meeting on account of poor post lunch planning. My argument is this, if you cannot plan your own time for personal needs, what makes me think confidently about your critical role on my team? Enough said.

Notes Filing, post-meeting. Here is my calculation for an organized office run by an organized leader.

If there is some part of this calculation that seems confusing, call me, email me, reach out and let me help you through this concept. It is vital! I am going to raise the bar again on this on another day and introduce more organizational tools to help you. For now, let’s try this for a few weeks and see how you do.

Video Highlights

Insightfully yours,

Robert Majdak, Co-Founder

Crystal Majdak, Co-Founder

Burn Rate

Burn Rate and Cash Monitoring

            Burn Rate is a dot-com era term used to describe, in financial terms, the various stages a startup company goes through before achieving profitability while concurrently maintaining a sustainable level of operating cash. To be self-sustainable is to be working with net positive cashflows. Achieving this level makes the case easier for future funding efforts if additional resources are needed for the next level of growth. Unfortunately, many businesses operate in a manner in which their setup and continuous operations lead to a cash zero date certainty. Therefore, it is best to understand the burn rate and aggressively design the business to defeat the burn rate and achieve sustainability as to make the next funding round an option for business growth instead of a matter of survival.

            Burn rate therefore, measures the company’s sustainability and how practical it may be to invest into it. It is best then, to focus on solving the operating cash cycle throughout the financial periods. I offer a spreadsheet analysis on this topic in Fig 1.

		Sustainable	Unsustainable
Operating revenues cash receipts:
	Beginning revenue-driven receivables $	500,000	500,000
	Sales, both cash and credit on income statement	5,000,000	2,500,000
	Total	5,500,000	3,000,000
	Less ending revenue-driven receivables	600,000	600,000
	Total	4,900,000	2,400,000
	Add ending balance of unearned revenues (a)	50,000	50,000
	Total	4,950,000	2,450,000
	Less beginning balance of unearned revenues	100,000	100,000
	Cash collected for revenues (b) $	4,850,000	2,350,000
Cash paid for cost of goods sold:
	Ending inventory $	400,000	400,000
	Cost of goods sold on income statement	3,000,000	3,000,000
	Total	3,400,000	3,400,000
	Less beginning inventory	350,000	350,000
	Total	3,050,000	3,050,000
	Add beginning inventory-related payables	200,000	200,000
	Total	3,250,000	3,250,000
	Less ending inventory-related payables	150,000	150,000
	Cash paid for cost of goods for resale $	3,100,000	3,100,000
Cash paid for any expense:
	Beginning accrual $	15,000	15,000
	Any expense on income statement	40,000	40,000
	Total	55,000	55,000
	Less ending accrual	10,000	10,000
	Total	45,000	45,000
	Add ending related prepaid amount, if any	10,000	10,000
	Total	55,000	55,000
	Less beginning related prepaid amount, if any	5,000	5,000
	Cash paid for expense item $	50,000	50,000
Notes:
	a Customers Advance Payments
	b Whether Earned or Not
	Burn-Rate
	Gross	3,150,000	3,150,000
	Net	1,750,000	(750,000)
	Positive Cash Flow/ (Burn Rate) - Per Month	145,833	(62,500)
	Cash Reserve	1,000,000
	Sustainable for xMonths - 1 Month		-15

Figure 1. Sustainable versus Unsustainable

            In the sustainable business case, the business operations result in a net positive cash accumulation of $145.8K per month. Developing a business case to invest for business growth is an easier task than the unsustainable business case. In the unsustainable business case, which might be correctable, operations must focus on course correction. This business has a cash burn rate of $62.5K per month which if left unchecked means that its $1M cash reserve will be consumed in 16 months. In its 15^th month, if not corrected, will need to be well on its way in executing its exit strategy.

            The concept of burn rate, while useful as a tool for past performance over a set of periods, for instance, the last 12 months, would also be useful as an operational dashboard gauge. For one of our clients, this tool became the means in which cash consumption versus cash reserves and operating cash balance was monitored. With cash being king, this gauge can become useful in setting operations decisions.

Video Highlights

Insightfully yours,

Robert Majdak Sr, Co-Founder

Crystal Majdak, Co-Founder

Management Insights Team

Time Management - 101

Too Much To Do in Too Little Time

I created this for those business leaders and managers who are struggling with their time, their progress in their business or on getting their work done. Having been a worker-bee all though way through to leadership positions and multiple Startup business owner, so I understand the dilemma so let me set aside your argument about time. Been there, done that, get it. So let us wrap up this part fast and get to the point. First, now that you have all this responsibility in your profession you may have noticed that there is an exponential increase in your tasks and an inverse amount of available time to get them done. In the process, the pressure increases, the job gets bigger and you find it difficult to keep your arms around it. This is normal and you are not alone in this struggle. With some simple time management discipline, you can keep track of what is going on and what you need to get done without losing track of it all. Moreover, you will see your own progress documented before you and that makes the pressure go away and adds motivation as you see your progress develop.

So Now The Point

            Here is what we do about this. First, get a planner, I mean a really good planner. You are going to write in this, so bigger is better. In the first couple of weeks I recommend pencil to get used to it and to make lots of corrections. After that, I suggest a red pen for really important high priority entries. Green for completion line-out markings and blue-black for everything else. In my own personal planner, I use blue for communications entries (emails & phone calls). Also, the planner itself should have these three components or columns listed on it. See figure 1.

 Figure 1. Planner Columns

In Figure 1 the three columns are; a half-hour interval column for today, a Week At a Glance column, and a Note/To Do List column. The idea is simple however; it requires discipline to get started. Understand that this is intended to serve the most important person in your career, “you”. I assure you, that the tool will be so useful that it will become natural to you as you develop the habit of using it daily. This will be a home base for you, a dashboard, and a historical record of what you did when, which I find handy.

Now Let’s Get Things Done

The Notes / To Do List column should contain the really big and important stuff needing completion this week. It is where topics like “Widget-Maker #2 Installation” would go. Since you paid a gazillion dollars for it and it represents 20% of your next quarters production output, it is a big business project and a career milestone. That is why it is worth entering here. See Figure #2

Figure 2. Notes/To Do List

Next, you need to set a day when you want to meet with installers and your people to get an update on their collective progress. Last week, you were told this Friday they would be done. Now is the time to check up on their progress. You decide that Tuesday is a good time to check up on that, so record that in the Week At A Glance column. See Figure 3.

Figure 3. Week At A Glance

So now you have committed to a day to wrap this task up. 

Now you need to make time to do it.

Figure 4. Daily, Half-hour Interval

In figure 4 you set 9:00 a.m. to meet with your team and installers to check up on their progress. Keep the meeting to the 30 minute allocated. Part of controlling your time is, well, controlling your time. It is important that you do so and we will discuss that more at another time. For now, you have this scheduled so be as prompt as you expect your team to be, get to the point, remove any barriers to their progress, set up a follow-up time if need be and get on to the next task.

As your day progresses and things are done, you line-out the things you accomplished. You then get a sense of your progress towards your goals today. Further, if the hourly task you just lined-out is also in the weekly column, line-out that item as complete also. Then if that same task was listed in your important projects Notes / To Do List, check off the box to show it was done too, assuming the project is production ready. You either have a follow-up meeting coming or an installation confirmation meeting coming. Only in the latter scenario, when the machine is in production mode are you to check this project off as complete in the Notes / To Do List. At this point you are passing through checkpoints, not a major milestone.

What you have here is an at-a-glance dashboard of what progress you have made today and what you need to rollover to another day or week in your planner before you go home. You also get the same sense of your weekly progress. What is not done this week you rollover into next week. You also see your progress on the really important stuff. We have yet to see how Widget-Maker #2 Installation plays out so it stays put until completion, which is measured by its being in production mode. You should have top priority things done by Friday. If you do have unfinished big projects open, roll them over to next week’s sheet but write them down in red ink and/or label with an asterisk or write “LATE” next to it. Just do something that stands out to you to say that this was a rollover item from the prior week and really needs to be priority #1 and done in the coming week. If necessary, get help to get this done. Admin assistants and other team members are resources to help you. Write down their names and set time on your planner to get with them and solicit their help.

In Review

Our example for the Widget-Maker #2 does not imply that it was installed. Only that you followed up on the installation progress. Implying that your planner will have big projects listed in small steps. As you work through the days and weeks ahead, you progressively achieve installation through a series of small steps. In addition, you see those steps manifest over time toward completion.

            This planner will really begin to show its value as you fill it for the first time. Just remember to roll things over when needed and to leave space in time to transition between scheduled events. This is a planner for activities for your time. It is NOT a checklist! Therefore, allow time for travel across town or across your business campus. Just do not put things back-to-back unless you are certain that you do not need space between events to travel, eat, take a restroom break, make closure notes whatever. I recommend the paper planner version first before ever thinking about electronic versions. Pencil is erasable, roll-on white-out is cheap and taking time to “think it through” will make you the master of your schedule and allow you to see things getting done. When you have spent a few months making consistent progress you can decide then whether to continue with paper or to move into electronic planners and deal with the risks and workarounds associated with using them.

Hazards

            The goal is to achieve, no rollover. Reducing rollovers with achievements means things are being done and your future days ahead will not be over-run with late projects. As a visual dashboard of your progress, either of these things will become apparent rapidly. On the point of electronic, paper planners can travel and are as current as you are in updating them. You get 100% visual feedback immediately. With electronic planners like Google calendar, you must have a 24/7 data plan with reliable connectivity to be 100% current. Later, I will be promoting this. For now, I want you to be free of technical issues, concentrate on your own mind, and hand control of your time. You are going to own this completely along the success you derive from it too. Stay with me in this a while longer.

Have a great day!

Robert Majdak, Co-Founder

Crystal Majdak, Co-Founder

Management Insights & Team

Video Highlights

Around the Table

What is a Real Team?

In business, management teams often sit around the conference room table deliberating upon the current affairs of the business. It is all too common of an occurrence where some department heads silo themselves from others. At the same time, some attempt to respect the silo in which a colleague is responsible for building around them self. On one front, the notion that a silo mentality still exists in the business world is very disturbing and it certainly is not in keeping with modern business practices in a world where transparency is the rule. Nevertheless, we have all seen them; either in our company or in those we do business. On another front, it places department leaders in a precarious position of partial isolation and pseudo-integration. By pseudo-integration, I mean that cross-functional teamwork is, for the most part impressive on the organizational chart, but in practice, very dysfunctional.

It is easy to see the personal pride and high self-esteem these individuals have in which the silos are created to protect. Last I can recall, business does not operate best in fiefdoms or silos surrounded in a vacuum. Furthermore, no entrepreneurs and senior executives I know went into business to foster the growth of these little fiefdoms. When department heads operate in this environment, there is no true or at least consistent level of accountability.

In order to keep the business operating efficiently, we really need a new game plan for the leadership. Each department head is as a business leader with the privileges provided by their position and accountable to the senior executive. At the same time, each business leader should be able to constructively consult each other in ways that instill true teamwork and camaraderie. This includes that everyone around the table being privileged enough to engage in a two-way dialog with the senior executive. The notion of leadership and management direction being a one-way street is truly outdated business school theory that has proven ineffective for this day. What I posit as the right direction for today is a covenantal relationship between all leaders among themselves and the senior executive.

Covenantal Leadership in Operation

When any one leader stumbles, those around him or her should team-up and lift-up their fallen colleague both for the benefit of the business and for the benefit of the individual. We all need lifelines in the choppy waters of life from time-to-time. A true leader will gladly jump-in to save his comrade unselfishly and without expectation of thanks. Why? Because it is the right thing to when another stumbles. You do not watch a person get run over in traffic who trips in the crosswalk on a busy street and you don’t kick a person who trips at work and watch them loose their career. Ever consider what it would be like if you were either one of those people? Have you not had someone help you when you were down at least once in your life already?

So here is the point, everyone at the conference room table needs a sense of real belonging in an environment of absolute and unconditional trust. A place to share ideas, a place to receive the practical business acumen of others, a place to feel secure and confident. Away from the conference room this team and each individual in it, should be able to confidentially receive constructive criticism and feel a sense of trust to express or receive guidance and support during some very awkward times. We are all in this business together and a strong team knows no limits to what they will do to help others succeed in all areas of their life.

How to Help Those Who Need Help

When someone needs help and does not realize it

We have seen it many times, that people will struggle on their own without realizing that there is a better way to do something but not knowing that, they flounder. It really does not matter whether the specific subject is a technical matter at work or a personal matter in life, not realizing a better way exists is innocent ignorance that cannot be faulted, but it can be helped. We owe our colleague the benefit of our individual personal experience in order to help in life matters because, well, it matters. We also owe our colleague the same benefit of sharing our knowledge or sharing our troubleshooting experience to help them learn a better way or to navigate toward a better way. It is just the right way thing to do if we are part of the same team.

When someone needs help but will not ask

            Some people let pride get in the way of asking for help. Today we live in a very self-reliant society, which values individualism over true teamwork. In addition, although not every organization is like that, and I think most are not, there still will be one or two people wrapped up in this train of thought within the organization. Their pride prevents them from asking for help, if for no other reason than to not bother anyone over their dilemma. Sometimes they just do not want to look stupid. There are people who still fall into that trap and they are all around us.

When we see someone like the two types above, we must offer help, sometimes under the disguise of noting a new way of doing something that we ourselves researched and learned recently and we just wanted to share this idea with them too. It is not untruthful to do that when the real purpose of the approach is to get in close under the offensive radar in order to do the good work needing to be done. That is also your segue into the next step. It would not hurt to suggest that you like to look up solutions to everyday challenges so if they have things that they struggle with, offer yourself as a resource and you will look into challenges for them.

How to Respond to Someone Offering Help

Sometimes people will come up to us offering help. Personally, I believe in learning from others experience. The only problem is that we often get so experienced ourselves that we might forget that occasionally we still stumble into uncharted waters. When someone comes along and offers guidance into or out of those waters, we should pause a moment and evaluate their consult. It might just be very useful and keep us from slipping into holes and going under and over our heads. Although I realize best intentions can be in error, I am also recalling many times where I was glad for the advice I was voluntarily provided. I might also add, as most people reading this, I could do more to pay attention to others consul and in many instances, I wish I had more of it. I might have made fewer mistakes. How about you?

So, the answer as to how to respond is to be patient and be more open-minded. Your advisor may have just become your best number-one friend.

How to Prepare for the Opportunity to Give and Receive Help

Do not go out on a mission to save the world. The world will find you. Trust me. However, when your little corner of the world has a person struggling, share in their struggle and help them out. Just remember, to accept what someone offers you someday. By receiving help that improves us, we not only become better as a person but we are also morally obligated to pass it on to others. Whether we pass on what we just learned is not necessarily the point. What is the point is that we pass on the action of helping and making someone else’s life better. In part, passing along the action of helping others is the chain of events that will make good Samaritans and role models out of us. I hope you enjoyed this little something from just around the table.

Insightfully yours,

Robert Majdak Sr., Co-Founder

Crystal Majdak, Co-Founder

Management Insights

Video Highlights