Monday, May 30, 2005

Write your own book

I do not mean write a book for you to publish or even be read by others. I am not even talking about a journal where you record your feelings etc (although I happen to be a big advocate of journaling as well and even have that as one of my time tips that I will share later). What I mean is get a blank bound book and write your success notes in it.

What I do as I read, attend seminars, listen to audio programs is I make notes in my book. Over time, my book(s) become the best book for me to read. It is a summary of the information from the material I absorb. I also will often write original ideas I get that are inspired by the information I am taking in.

I have developed a series of codes for myself to speed up the writing and to allow me to easily pick information from those books. For example, I write “JE orig” beside any original idea I have. I have symbols and acronyms for book summary, audio, seminar, goals, etc. Make your own.

I use my book to keep goals in. I have kept the same section in my book for goals for years and just keep adding ideas to it. Especially for the lifetime goals. I figure I do not have to do all of them but having them in one place makes it easy to review when I periodically review them.

So why share this tip now? I thought you could start the idea now and use it while you read this blog.

Monday, May 23, 2005

Leadership vs Management

Why did I call this Blog Time Leadership and not Time Management?

Leadership is about doing the right things, Management is about doing things right.

Leadership is about having the map and going the right direction (goals). Management is about going there efficiently.

Leadership is about effectiveness. Management is about efficiency.

Leadership comes before Management.

In the 1990s I published an audio tape series on Time Management. Since then, I have come to realize that being efficent has its limits and that working on the right things yeilds more results than straight efficiency.

Of course because my interest in time management and efficiency, many of my postings will also be efficiency tips.

My new job as CEO of SYNNEX Canada after 25 years of running my own business (EMJ Data) has caused me to reevaluate my entire set of systems. EMJ was a business with about 300 employees with sales about $350,000,000. SYNNEX Canada is roughly double that number of staff and triple the sales.

Because I had done EMJ for so many years, I had developed systems to handle volume. These systems were starting to break down at SYNNEX because the volume increased. I found that much of my time was spent traveling and addressing CYA issues. Everyone at SYNNEX was concerned because there was a new boss (me) and the EMJ people were concerned because SYNNEX had bought EMJ. 2-3 weeks could pass and I could see little meaningful progress. Recoginizing this made me realize I needed to work on the right things - rather than just work. One of my greatest strengths is high energy and high work ethic, long hours etc. This can only get me so far if I do not work on the right things.

This blog will be where I share my journey. I will also share a number of my tips and tricks.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog. This is my first entry (of course!) but I'll be posting soon. Watch for it!