These notes are on Dan Kennedy’s book, No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs.
Normally I provide a citation but all I wrote on my notes for this book was the ISBN which is 1-932156-85-2. Sorry if anyone actually used the citations for something… I still have page numbers though!
About Dan Kennedy
Dan S. Kennedy is a business coach, consultant, strategic advisor, and author. No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs is one of his books and it is the one where I learned these 31 key ideas on time management. Dan Kennedy also has some good articles on Entrepreneur.com. His writing style is a ton of fun to read!
Productivity is the deliberate, strategic investment of your time, talent, intelligence, energy, resources, and opportunities in a manner more calculated to move you measurably closer to meaningful goals. Dan Kennedy (pg. 60)
10 Time Management Techniques (pg. 55-68)
- Tame the phone
- Minimize meetings
- Practice absolute punctuality
- Make and use lists
- Fight to link everything to your goals
- Use tickler files
- Block your time
- Minimize unplanned activity
- Profit from “odd-lot” time (for example, listen to audio books in the car or while waiting)
- Live off peak (don’t go to places or do things at peak hours when it will be busy and you’ll have to wait)
Calculate your “base earnings target” (pg. 7)
- Your “base earnings target” is how much money you want to make. Calculate it by figuring out how much the lifestyle you want will cost.
- Assume 1760 work hours per year (220 days times 8 hours).
- Calculate your productive vs. unproductive hour ratio (which hours you bill clients for vs.the ones you don’t, like admin tasks).
- This number is your time’s value per hour.
Miscellaneous Notes
- Imagine your dream life and reverse engineer it. (pg. 75)
- People who can’t be punctual can’t be trusted (pg. 40)
- Have a written agenda for all meetings
- Feng Shui overview: If your office door is 7 o’clock then the 11 o’clock area represents wealth, the 12 o’clock area represents fame, and the 1 o’clock area represents relationships. (pg. 133)
Answer these weekly: What do you know this week, that you didn’t know last week, about… (pg. 97-98)
- your business?
- your industry as a whole?
- your competitors?
- your customers or clients as a group?
- your top 10, 20, or 30 customers or clients?
- a client individually?
- one of the top leaders in your field?
- societal, cultural, or economic trends that may affect your business?
- a “success” topic – personal finance, self-motivation, time management?
- a “marketing” topic?
- a person, event, or topic in the current news of great interest or importance to your clientele?
- a “method” topic – a means, process, or technique of doing something that is useful for you or your business?
Get the Book
Did you love it? You can get a copy of No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs on Amazon or at your local library. If you're interested in listening to the audiobook, you can get two free audiobooks with your 30-day free trial on Audible. If you enjoyed reading my notes, I have more book notes posted too!
My book notes are not a good substitute for reading the actual book. There is a ton of information that I leave out. My notes are mostly things that I thought I’d want to reference again. That said, I hope they were useful to you!
