As an investor in more than 300 companies, I have the privilege of observing the lives of many entrepreneurs and collaborators. This exceptional experience has allowed me to identify the secret of the effectiveness of some of them, and the ineffectiveness of others.
One might think that the person who makes the most effort, the person who works the most, is the most effective and productive. That is in fact the number one mistake of most bad entrepreneurs.
When an entrepreneur or company collaborator wants to be congratulated for the number of hours worked, very often we realize those hours are not being used wisely. He can spend hours on repetitive tasks, going in circles, trying to solve non-critical points and solving no real problem.
Our working hours are too often misused.
This question of the number of hours worked is very often a source of conflict between cofounders or team members who send each other their schedules as arguments to prove themselves right.
One might also think that the person with the most skills and experience will be the most productive. Again, that is a mistake. How many brilliant people fail violently, and how many simple people turn their projects into extraordinary successes?
Let us start at the beginning. To be clear, we are effective if our actions solve real problems and frustrations, and directly or indirectly improve financial performance.
In startups, large companies or political parties, we can spend hours, days or weeks discussing subjects with no importance. Again, we think we are doing our job when the calendar is overloaded, when we have met many people, when we have held long meetings that very often solve nothing important in the end.
Our job must not be a pastime. Toward our employer, our investors or the family waiting for us at home, we all have an obligation of real productivity and efficiency.
I will therefore talk about a subject dear to me that I call the PTM method: Problem, Task, Metrics, or working on the right things.
I advise many investors, executives of large companies and entrepreneurs using this very simple method that is valid at any time.
Each first day of the week, and each morning, you must analyze whether what you are going to do during the coming period, week or day, has any real interest.
Each time, step back and ask yourself these PTM questions.
P: What problems prevent my company from being effective, successful and growing?
T: What tasks must I accomplish to truly solve them?
M: What metric must I track to prove that I have solved the problem, with a potentially different indicator for each problem?
In my experience, this reflection takes between 15 and 30 minutes per day.
Before that, do not turn on your smartphone or computer, do not read your email, the news or your Facebook feed, and do not speak with anyone. Isolate yourself and answer these points alone.
To avoid distraction, write the answers on paper, even if you later copy them to your computer once they are finalized.
Note that this list must be as short as possible and fit on one page.
Here is a simple example.
P: Problem
Your product is not selling fast enough despite the three salespeople you hired.
T: Tasks
- Talk with already convinced customers to understand the strengths for which they use the product, four customers.
- Find customer lists that may have a similar need.
- Review the sales pitch to verify that salespeople are properly highlighting the discovered strengths.
- Improve the product to highlight those strengths.
M: Metrics
Several metrics can verify effectiveness. Choose one: number of new customers per day or week per salesperson, revenue per salesperson, or total revenue.
Very often, it takes little to make a company much more effective.
Very often, it takes little to make a company much more effective, and you will realize this after the exercise. Above all, you will realize how many of your actions during the day can become genuinely productive, and how much pleasure you will have implementing them.
Be careful to focus only on these tasks and on no others. When you have finished them, stop working and track your M performance indicator every day to verify whether you have been effective or not. There is no point sitting in front of your screen going in circles. Get some air and read a good book.
One more technical point: if you have administrative or unimportant tasks, set one hour in the week in your calendar to get rid of them quickly.
I would add one thing. I am speaking here about a method to improve professional life, but it works just as well for any personal project.
Good luck.