The Power of Time... Don't Waste It! | With Jeannette Linfoot

0:09Jeannette Linfoot:Time is your most precious resource. Do not waste it. Now, this is so important because when you are a busy professional, you might be running your own business, you might be in a corporate role and with a team or just have a busy life in general. You know, time can just disappear. And certainly when I was growing up, I remember my mum saying to me, it goes by in a flash. And I used to think, oh, my God, that's what old people say. But here I am, you know, in my 50s, having spent 30 plus years in business. And it is so true. So not only does time seem to speed up, but actually when we're conscious about our time, we actually realise that it's perishable.

0:58Jeannette Linfoot:right? And sometimes we can waste time without actually realising that we're doing it. So this is a topic which I actually focus a lot on when I work one-to-one with someone from a business mentoring point of view, or equally when we work with teams and we're looking at performance, you know. So if you find that maybe time is disappearing and you don't feel you're being as effective as you really should be, then there's a number of different tools that I'm going to share with you that's going to really help you. Now, I like simple things that work. We don't want to overcomplicate things. I think in business, we overcomplicate things a lot of the time.

1:38Jeannette Linfoot:So let's keep it simple. And why is it important? Well, as I say, it's important because there are only 24 hours in a day. You are only one person. And no matter how fantastic you are at what you do, your time is incredibly precious but we can sometimes find that our time gets sort of sucked up and often that can be by other people's agenda or it just might be that we're not great at saying no you know certainly I've had times in my career in my life where you know I've been a bit of a people pleaser and that means that very often I have stretched myself far too thinly and as a result of that, I've not been able to really deliver to the standard that I, you know, would like to do or that I get super stressed about things because I've overcommitted.

2:28Jeannette Linfoot:So time is really, really important. How you spend it, who you spend it with, and actually what are you prioritising? Because time is not unlimited. Now, if you are not subscribed to Brave Bold Brilliant, if you're watching this on YouTube hit that subscribe button because that is when you are going to get notified every time that we go live with a new video but you might prefer audio you could be listening to this on the podcast or maybe you're watching a little clip on social media if you're not actually already subscribed to the podcast it could be on Apple podcast it might be on Spotify again hit subscribe and let's make sure we're connected because at Brave Bold Brilliant It is all about building a community of business leaders who are all here to support each other with our growth journey.

3:20Jeannette Linfoot:And as I say, I've spent 30 plus years in business, both as a corporate CEO running very large global international businesses, but also as an entrepreneur and as a portfolio business owner myself. So, you know, I see this from very different angles throughout those 30 years. And today, we're lucky to advise some of the biggest brands in the world. But we also work with small and mid-sized enterprises that are looking to scale up and are really wanting impact in their business journey. So I say that because context is important. Because you might be listening to this thinking, well, what do you know, Jeanette?

3:57Jeannette Linfoot:You know, you just used to being in the corporate world. Or what do you know, Jeanette? You're just a podcaster. Well, you know, I'm not saying any of this to brag because I am, you know, I've made lots of mistakes and I've certainly, you know, learned through those failings as well. But at the end of the day, I'm passionate about business. I'm passionate about people. And that's really why we do everything we do at Brave Bold Brilliant is to help you, to help your teams and your business step up to that next level of growth. truth so grab a pen and paper grab a cup of tea and a ginger nut and sit down and have a good old listen to this because this is going to help you now you might be saying well Jeanette you're talking about time I haven't got time to listen to this well actually if you're saying that that's exactly why you do need to spend some time with me on this really important topic so what I am going to do now I'm going to take you through a very simple model which is all about how you manage your time.

4:55Jeannette Linfoot:And it's a really simple matrix. Okay. So when we look at a, you know, use of time, what we need to be doing is we need to be dividing our activities into four different categories. Okay. So imagine a four box matrix. And on that matrix, along the vertical axis, we actually have what is important at the top and what's not important in the bottom. And then across the horizontal axis, we have what's urgent in the bottom left and what's not urgent in the top right. Now, I'm going to take you through each of those four quadrants because they actually categorise different types of activity and how you are spending your time.

5:46Jeannette Linfoot:Now, more than this, as well as this episode, I want to make sure that you're walking away from listening to this with a model that you can actually implement. So in addition to the video or the audio that you're listening to here, we're going to give you a free time management guide. All right. This exact template that I'm taking you through now, we are going to give you that. But also, in addition to that, we're going to give you a template that allows you to map out your own time management matrix. OK, so we want you to have impact. We want you to take action because, as we say, time is precious.

6:24Jeannette Linfoot:So let's not waste it. So we have done the hard work for you so that all you need to then do is actually spend a little bit of your own time reflecting on this so that then you are able to make some clear decisions and come back super charged and super efficient with your time. OK, so we have four boxes. OK, I'm going to go through each one in turn. So the bottom left box is where we have things that are urgent, but they are not important. all right now this can often be sometimes it could be other people's agenda all right there's a sense of urgency around it um but it might not be urgent to you it might be urgent to other people because it's not that important to you so what you need to be thinking about in this matrix this could be certain meetings that you may get dragged into there could be certain phone calls certain emails etc that you know you find that you're really being asked to input into so here you want to really be asking yourself if it's if it's urgent but it's not so important who could I delegate this to and I'm going to talk about the four d's as well which is a very simple model as to how you can make sure you're cutting out certain things that aren't serving you so that's the bottom left Matrix.

7:47But before we continue, I want to speak directly to those of you who are listening and thinking, I know I'm capable of more, but I need structure. I need some help. Because here's what I've actually learned after, gosh, more than three decades in business. You know, ambition without clarity creates frustration. And motivation without structure, it really does fade very, very fast. So that's exactly why we created Rise Academy. And Rise Academy, it's not theory. It isn't fluffy motivation, although you will be motivated. And it certainly isn't another online course that you never finish. It's actually a fully structured growth environment for ambitious entrepreneurs, leaders, and founders who absolutely are ready to do all of these things, sharpen their strategy, elevate their leadership, increase revenue with intention, and build businesses that actually support the life that they want.

8:53And inside Rise Academy, we focus on the foundations most people skip, leading yourself, leading your teams, and leading the business. It's about clarity, standards, decision making, commercial intelligence and execution. Because scaling, it really isn't about doing more. It's actually about doing the right things and doing the things right consistently. So if you're serious about stepping up into your next level of your leadership, your business life, and not just consuming content, but actually implementing it, then Rise Academy was absolutely built for you. So you can find all the details on our website.

9:35Go to www.brave-bold-brilliant.com. And now let's get back to the show.

9:45Jeannette Linfoot:Then if we take the top left, these are tasks which are urgent and important. All right. Now, you have to spend time on these. Clearly, this could be that you need to make decisions in your business. It could be there's an operational situation that requires attention. If you work in a global business, it could be that there's some form of macroeconomic event or there could be a wall that's going on that's affecting your business directly. It's urgent and it's highly important. So you need to make sure in that top left box, you have got time to deal with those things. All right. Then we have the box on the bottom right.

10:27Jeannette Linfoot:Okay. So the bottom right hand box, these are tasks that are not urgent and they're not important. Okay. So it sounds pretty obvious. You don't want to be spending time on things that are not urgent and not important, but somehow we tend to find that we do. This could be scrolling through social media. It could be that you're getting you know cc'd on loads of different emails whatever it might be but it's stuff that's not important it's not urgent but it's sapping your time and it's also sapping your energy mind so we've got to cut that out we've got to drop that activity completely from our busy days but now let's go to the top right hand box okay so the top right hand box top top corner there that quadrant.

11:14Jeannette Linfoot:This is work which is highly important, but not urgent. Now, from my 30 years in business, this is the quadrant that gets neglected. And it gets neglected because it is not urgent. So there isn't a deadline necessarily. There isn't a pressing decision that needs to be made right now. But these are things like your strategy, maybe writing your business plan. It could be connecting and networking with really important people. It's going to take time to build a relationship. But once you actually have that relationship, that could then turn into a real great business opportunity. Now, as I say, this is the stuff that people often get neglect.

11:59Jeannette Linfoot:And they often neglect it when they are busy, busy, busy people. I hear it all the time. I'm too busy. Well, actually, are you busy in the right areas? Are you spending your time and focus on the right things? So as I say, the top of the quadrant is important. Top left, it's important and it's urgent. Obviously, that needs your time and attention. Top right, it's important, but it's not urgent. Strategic stuff, things that are going to actually build your business, your career, not today, but in the future. and if you never pay attention to any of that and you find you're just very much stuck in the day to day you will not be building your career or your business for the future so you have to be able to allocate some time to that the bottom right remember not important not urgent you want to cut that out as much as possible and then the bottom left stuff that's urgent but it's not necessarily super important.

12:58Jeannette Linfoot:Who can you delegate that to? So this really simple matrix. So the first thing you're going to do when you actually download those free resources that I've just shared with you, and there will be a link in an instruction, how you get access to that, the team will make sure that's fully available to you. So what you are going to do, you are going to write down all the types of activities which fall within those four quadrants. All right. So So clear some headspace for yourself. Take yourself away from the day to day and spend some time on this. And then think about what percent of your average day, your average week, maybe your average month are you spending in each of those four areas?

13:37Jeannette Linfoot:And be honest. The easiest person to lie to is yourself. Right. So be honest and actually note down what percent of time you're spending and then really ask yourself, what percent of time do you think you should be spending? all right but as the great tony robbins says you know shoulds don't really count it's only when you turn your shoulds into musts is when you take action right so what percent of time must you be spending in order to progress your business your career whatever it may be your relationships even right um and then when she once you've done that you are able then to say okay interesting in?

14:18Jeannette Linfoot:What's this telling me? What specific actions do I therefore need to take in order to be able to create your new time management matrix? All right. So super simple, highly effective. This will transform where you spend your time. And then the one last tool I'm going to share with you on time management as well is, you know, we have to-do lists, don't we? Long, long, long to-do lists. Anyone ever put things on their to-do list when they've actually nearly done it already, but then they can cross it off and make themselves feel good that they've crossed something off their to-do list. I know I've been guilty of that in the past.

14:53Jeannette Linfoot:It sounds completely bonkers, doesn't it? But actually, you don't want a to-do list. Actually, what you really want is a 4D list, because when you have a big, long list of all the things that you're supposed to do, the first thing you should be doing is, what am I going to ditch? What is really not important? And this is aligned with those four matrices, that four box matrix as well. So what are you going to ditch? What are you going to delegate? Because if you've got a team, fantastic, you can delegate key activities to them. If you don't have a team, you might have an opportunity to actually maybe delegate activities by using an outsource solution, for example.

15:33Jeannette Linfoot:So there's always different ways that you can get resources, even if you don't have big budgets to actually employ people or to have people working with you. So what are you going to ditch? What are you going to delegate? what are you going to delay you know remember we want to focus on the priorities you might have things going on that'd be nice to do but really you just haven't got the capacity to do it right now so what are you going to delay and maybe move to a later more realistic time frame and then the last thing should be what are you going to do and remember you want to be in those top two boxes on that four box four box matrix so listen i know it sounds really simple um time you know just disappears and we want to make the most of it but it is so true it is your biggest resource so use it wisely and just remember you know actually you've only got one life you've only got one life you've only got one opportunity to make a difference in this world so don't waste it don't waste it don't look back with any regrets and think oh i wasted time i wasted time on certain activities or i wasted time with certain people and so again you know really be ruthless be ruthless with your calendar, really challenge yourself and put your effort and your hard-earned time into the right things.

16:49Jeannette Linfoot:So as I say, I hope you've enjoyed this conversation that we've had here. I'd love to hear from you. If you're struggling with, you know, some of this area of time management and being efficient, drop us a comment, send me an email, send me a DM. We're always really happy to help. And remember, we're giving you that free resource, okay? So we're giving you the full time management guide and also all the templates that you're going to need that you can implement straight away because I want the best for you at Brave Bold Brilliant. We're all about supporting each other and our community to step up to that next level of growth.

17:24Jeannette Linfoot:So if you're not following us on social media, please let's get connected. You'll find Jeanette, two N's and two T's everywhere. Brave Bold Brilliant. We have our pages, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn you name it let's get connected and as I say if you're not subscribed hit the subscribe button for YouTube for Apple podcast the Spotify let's make this time count and remember you only have one life but it is by being brave and bold that you're going to unlock your brilliant I really hope you've enjoyed this episode of brave bold brilliant remember check out our new website www.brave-bold-brilliant.com you're going to find loads of resources on there that's going to help you with your leadership journey and with the businesses that you're trying to scale up and grow so take care everyone and remember there are no limits to your growth but it is by being brave and bold that you're going to unlock your brilliant