WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.720 Tell me about your vision. My vision is for everyone 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:06.780 to be more productive, to spend their time on 00:00:06.780 --> 00:00:09.779 what matters most. There's a lot of time management 00:00:09.779 --> 00:00:11.660 books out there that will tell you how to do 00:00:11.660 --> 00:00:15.439 that. My unique niche is I actually measure how 00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:17.899 people spend their time and what successful people 00:00:17.899 --> 00:00:21.079 do. I invented a small electronic device for 00:00:21.079 --> 00:00:22.940 those who are watching. You can see the time 00:00:22.940 --> 00:00:26.000 quarter device here. We program that with different 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:29.640 activities. lend those out to employees and entrepreneurs 00:00:29.640 --> 00:00:32.719 who use that to track their time. It's better 00:00:32.719 --> 00:00:35.619 than an app. And then I analyze the results and 00:00:35.619 --> 00:00:38.799 show people how they can achieve their vision 00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:41.679 of spending their time on what matters most. 00:00:42.539 --> 00:00:46.600 Mark, tell me more about that. So the Time Quarter 00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:49.600 device works like a series of stopwatches. Only 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:51.899 one of them can be on at a time, kind of like 00:00:51.899 --> 00:00:54.740 a chess clock, but in reverse. just blocks the 00:00:54.740 --> 00:00:57.079 time goes down to zero this the time keeps adding 00:00:57.079 --> 00:00:59.979 up a series of stopwatches so every time you 00:00:59.979 --> 00:01:02.780 begin a different activity you just press one 00:01:02.780 --> 00:01:05.659 button and it tracks your time on that activity 00:01:05.659 --> 00:01:08.959 gives you instant feedback better than an app 00:01:08.959 --> 00:01:10.680 because it's tracking the things you're doing 00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:13.359 on your smartphone or whatever it lasts longer 00:01:13.359 --> 00:01:17.040 it's always on at least during the workday so 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:20.060 it's a handy device to get some really good data 00:01:20.659 --> 00:01:23.560 about where successful people are spending their 00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:27.040 time. Wow. Thank you for sharing that. So how 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:30.379 did you get started on all this? Like why this 00:01:30.379 --> 00:01:34.159 device and what's the story behind why you do 00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:36.659 what you do? Well, I got two stories. The first 00:01:36.659 --> 00:01:40.019 one is being a paper boy way, way back and having 00:01:40.019 --> 00:01:43.659 to deliver papers as fast as possible. So, for 00:01:43.659 --> 00:01:46.359 instance, on the weekend, we had a magazine and 00:01:46.359 --> 00:01:48.840 the newspapers, the two had to go together. I 00:01:48.840 --> 00:01:50.819 figured out the fastest way to put them together. 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:55.239 invested in technology i bought a wagon to drag 00:01:55.239 --> 00:01:58.060 the papers around i split the route up so instead 00:01:58.060 --> 00:02:00.920 of collecting from customers every week i went 00:02:00.920 --> 00:02:03.180 to some on weeks one and three and the others 00:02:03.180 --> 00:02:06.099 on weeks two and four so that saved me time so 00:02:06.099 --> 00:02:09.039 i guess as a young kid i was always thinking 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:12.680 about productivity years later working in the 00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:15.240 corporate environment because i did everyone 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:18.099 was late for meetings And I thought, oh, man, 00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:20.560 yeah, we're spending a lot of time waiting. You 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:22.460 know, if you add up your time and his and hers 00:02:22.460 --> 00:02:24.819 and we have a little device or you can measure 00:02:24.819 --> 00:02:27.099 different things. And so there was a kind of 00:02:27.099 --> 00:02:31.060 an aha moment there about visualizing what a 00:02:31.060 --> 00:02:33.879 time quarter device might be. We all have those 00:02:33.879 --> 00:02:36.659 aha moments. The difference is I actually went 00:02:36.659 --> 00:02:39.520 ahead and produced prototypes and then working 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:42.719 models and so forth of the device. Whereas a 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:45.139 lot of people, I thought of this idea. Got to 00:02:45.139 --> 00:02:49.389 go ahead with that idea. i did tell me more tell 00:02:49.389 --> 00:02:51.810 me more this is very very interesting and intriguing 00:02:51.810 --> 00:02:56.969 well again it's that aha moment of of creating 00:02:56.969 --> 00:02:59.370 a little device but i'm not an engineer i'm not 00:02:59.370 --> 00:03:02.569 a programmer so i had to find people to do that 00:03:02.569 --> 00:03:05.689 for me the first guy i didn't do too well he 00:03:05.689 --> 00:03:08.949 got it to add up to 10 maybe and then i was talking 00:03:08.949 --> 00:03:11.370 to a guy at a networking meeting he said oh i'm 00:03:11.370 --> 00:03:13.610 an engineer i could do that so he produced a 00:03:13.610 --> 00:03:16.199 couple of prototypes for me Then I tested those 00:03:16.199 --> 00:03:18.759 with a bookkeeper. She said, Mark, this is really 00:03:18.759 --> 00:03:22.500 great. The problem was though, the product turned 00:03:22.500 --> 00:03:25.680 out to be the world's most popular product that 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:28.840 everyone thought someone else should buy. I went 00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:31.259 to lawyers who are tracking their time and they 00:03:31.259 --> 00:03:33.599 said, well, maybe not for us. Talk to the accountants. 00:03:33.800 --> 00:03:36.719 And accountants, I had them on national TV. I 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:39.719 was on TV and they tried it. They said, ah, you 00:03:39.719 --> 00:03:42.020 know, this is going to work really well for independent 00:03:42.020 --> 00:03:44.500 consultants. I went to those people and they 00:03:44.500 --> 00:03:47.039 said, have you talked to the lawyers everybody 00:03:47.039 --> 00:03:51.259 thought someone else so i had to pivot and instead 00:03:51.259 --> 00:03:53.780 of selling the device for a couple hundred dollars 00:03:53.780 --> 00:03:56.560 i'd lend the devices out for about twelve hundred 00:03:56.560 --> 00:03:59.639 dollars so i'm not using up my inventory i had 00:03:59.639 --> 00:04:03.300 to pivot from selling to to creating a service 00:04:03.300 --> 00:04:05.719 conducting these time studies and that turned 00:04:05.719 --> 00:04:09.360 out to be much more profitable that makes a lot 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:13.280 more sense so how was that journey like pivoting 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:18.050 from selling a product to selling a service now 00:04:18.050 --> 00:04:21.189 well no one knows what that service is people 00:04:21.189 --> 00:04:23.430 don't stand around a cocktail party saying hey 00:04:23.430 --> 00:04:25.769 do you know a guy who can do a time study so 00:04:25.769 --> 00:04:28.949 early on it was tough i had some pr because being 00:04:28.949 --> 00:04:32.569 an inventor i guess i'm an inventor i got some 00:04:32.569 --> 00:04:35.350 media coverage for that and the media loves inventors 00:04:35.350 --> 00:04:37.930 well they like serial killers too but anyway 00:04:38.490 --> 00:04:42.389 um so so i got some press coverage and uh people 00:04:42.389 --> 00:04:44.870 would come to me and say oh we need to do one 00:04:44.870 --> 00:04:48.290 of those studies but there's a huge hurdle and 00:04:48.290 --> 00:04:51.029 it still exists today is everyone thinks their 00:04:51.029 --> 00:04:53.829 employees aren't going to like doing this and 00:04:53.829 --> 00:04:56.170 during covid where all these employee monitoring 00:04:56.170 --> 00:04:59.629 systems they didn't go over well so mine is fun 00:04:59.629 --> 00:05:02.850 people like it it gives instant feedback but 00:05:02.850 --> 00:05:06.810 i realized the thing that i had to do was reassure 00:05:06.810 --> 00:05:10.009 all of the participants and tell my clients that 00:05:10.009 --> 00:05:14.129 the data was always anonymous i never use individuals 00:05:14.129 --> 00:05:17.449 names in my reports back to clients and that 00:05:17.449 --> 00:05:20.149 made the difference because it reassured the 00:05:20.149 --> 00:05:21.930 people okay well it's not going to use my name 00:05:21.930 --> 00:05:25.009 i'll be really honest with how i spend my time 00:05:25.009 --> 00:05:28.329 so we've got lots of detailed honest data and 00:05:28.329 --> 00:05:32.689 a participation rate of 94 that's unheard of 00:05:32.689 --> 00:05:35.509 if you give out you know, employee surveys, you're 00:05:35.509 --> 00:05:38.089 not going to get to 94%. We do with this. And 00:05:38.089 --> 00:05:40.149 we're asking people to track their time for a 00:05:40.149 --> 00:05:43.350 couple of weeks. And it's fun. It's easy to use 00:05:43.350 --> 00:05:47.209 this feedback. So that was the key is figuring 00:05:47.209 --> 00:05:49.470 out that it had to be an honest. But I always 00:05:49.470 --> 00:05:52.389 still get people going, are our employees going 00:05:52.389 --> 00:05:55.269 to be honest with that? So I have to anticipate 00:05:55.269 --> 00:05:58.230 that objection and kind of head it off at the 00:05:58.230 --> 00:06:02.639 pass every time. Mark, so I have this stopwatch, 00:06:02.819 --> 00:06:05.819 right? I got it on Amazon for a few bucks. How 00:06:05.819 --> 00:06:09.500 is me tracking my time using this different than 00:06:09.500 --> 00:06:13.709 what you do with your device? That's a useful 00:06:13.709 --> 00:06:16.930 tool, and that's going to be very valuable to 00:06:16.930 --> 00:06:18.709 you or to other people who want to get one of 00:06:18.709 --> 00:06:20.529 those. The time quarter is measuring a whole 00:06:20.529 --> 00:06:22.529 bunch of different activities. So as you switch 00:06:22.529 --> 00:06:25.069 from one to the other, from a sales call to a 00:06:25.069 --> 00:06:28.089 meeting to travel to paperwork, it's easier to 00:06:28.089 --> 00:06:29.970 switch back and forth when you're looking at 00:06:29.970 --> 00:06:34.269 multiple different activities. 25 to 50 different 00:06:34.269 --> 00:06:37.550 activities for most people the other is i have 00:06:37.550 --> 00:06:40.189 a methodology for setting these studies up i 00:06:40.189 --> 00:06:42.589 have a database i can analyze the results so 00:06:42.589 --> 00:06:45.970 i'm not just selling the device or renting it 00:06:45.970 --> 00:06:49.430 out but there's a whole methodology and expertise 00:06:49.430 --> 00:06:53.089 behind that that's what i own i own three things 00:06:53.089 --> 00:06:55.689 some devices the database and the methodology 00:06:55.689 --> 00:06:59.800 so you could use you know your device but you're 00:06:59.800 --> 00:07:03.040 not going to have access to my methodology or 00:07:03.040 --> 00:07:05.439 to that huge database of comparative information. 00:07:05.980 --> 00:07:07.920 You've got to figure out what you own, and that's 00:07:07.920 --> 00:07:12.540 what I own. Thank you for sharing that. What 00:07:12.540 --> 00:07:17.459 would you say that is your goal for being on 00:07:17.459 --> 00:07:21.459 the show today, Mark? Just to spread the word, 00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:23.980 I'm not selling a course or anything like that. 00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:27.899 One of the things I did was some research on... 00:07:29.100 --> 00:07:32.819 how men versus women spend their time differently 00:07:32.819 --> 00:07:36.019 at work. And I concluded that women are actually 00:07:36.019 --> 00:07:39.540 better at managing their time than men. So one 00:07:39.540 --> 00:07:42.199 of my goals is to spread the word about that, 00:07:42.300 --> 00:07:45.819 that women spend fewer hours at work, that they 00:07:45.819 --> 00:07:48.240 spend a greater percentage of time on their top 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:51.300 priority activities, they get things done faster, 00:07:51.420 --> 00:07:53.800 and they're closer to their ideals. On those 00:07:53.800 --> 00:07:56.360 four different measures, which I've looked at 00:07:56.360 --> 00:07:59.709 in great detail, women are better and so at managing 00:07:59.709 --> 00:08:02.430 their time so that's my goal is to spread the 00:08:02.430 --> 00:08:04.910 word about that and if somebody hires me to do 00:08:04.910 --> 00:08:08.009 a time study that's all nice as well awesome 00:08:08.009 --> 00:08:11.889 thank you for sharing that um what would you 00:08:11.889 --> 00:08:16.709 say that um going through all this process and 00:08:16.709 --> 00:08:18.970 help employees go through all these processes 00:08:18.970 --> 00:08:24.779 helped you help them So ask that again. What 00:08:24.779 --> 00:08:27.560 would you say that you're going through this 00:08:27.560 --> 00:08:30.180 process and the employees that go through this 00:08:30.180 --> 00:08:34.100 process, right? What has some of the results 00:08:34.100 --> 00:08:36.679 has come out of this, these studies and these 00:08:36.679 --> 00:08:40.419 methods? Well, the results, sure. The biggest 00:08:40.419 --> 00:08:45.379 finding is that people are spending. Few hours 00:08:45.379 --> 00:08:47.759 than they would like on their top priority activities 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:51.419 and more on their lower priority administrative 00:08:51.419 --> 00:08:54.899 activities. Look, I started way, way back before 00:08:54.899 --> 00:08:57.500 some people had voicemail, certainly before the 00:08:57.500 --> 00:09:00.879 Internet and laptops and smartphones and so on. 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:03.659 And what we've seen with each new technology, 00:09:03.899 --> 00:09:06.899 I joke that we keep inventing more and more ways 00:09:06.899 --> 00:09:09.539 to be out of touch with each other. But with 00:09:09.539 --> 00:09:12.399 each technology, it brings all kinds of great 00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:16.580 benefits. but unanticipated side effects and 00:09:16.580 --> 00:09:19.460 spinoffs. So when people say, oh, AI is going 00:09:19.460 --> 00:09:22.200 to be great. Well, yeah, but there's some problems 00:09:22.200 --> 00:09:24.860 with it as well in terms of people not using 00:09:24.860 --> 00:09:28.720 it well. And here's one example, email. Email 00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:31.440 didn't exist when I was an employee. It has had 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:34.720 some terrific benefits for keeping us in touch. 00:09:35.059 --> 00:09:38.799 However, there's a lot of misuse of email. I've 00:09:38.799 --> 00:09:41.940 measured that. So for people who measured an 00:09:41.940 --> 00:09:46.100 activity called, unnecessary email it's a huge 00:09:46.100 --> 00:09:51.240 3 .4 hours per week so sure email has benefits 00:09:51.240 --> 00:09:54.399 but if we're spending 3 .4 hours per week on 00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:58.100 unnecessary email that's a big drag and those 00:09:58.100 --> 00:10:02.000 kinds of non -value addict added activities will 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:05.600 always be there smart people smart entrepreneurs 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:10.440 and managers and owners find ways to minimize 00:10:10.440 --> 00:10:13.779 that administrative time and spend it on what 00:10:13.779 --> 00:10:17.919 matters most that that's uh that's definitely 00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:21.799 a good insight i would say um because if you 00:10:21.799 --> 00:10:24.220 look at our emails right now like 90 of them 00:10:24.220 --> 00:10:27.139 already is actually spam right in not even the 00:10:27.139 --> 00:10:28.659 work humans talking about the private emails 00:10:28.659 --> 00:10:31.259 but if you go on the work i i would say quite 00:10:31.259 --> 00:10:33.000 a bit of also comes someone trying to sell you 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:37.179 something or someone's trying to uh just give 00:10:37.179 --> 00:10:39.159 you some information that's not needed or necessary 00:10:39.159 --> 00:10:42.279 at that time and yes a lot of time does go in 00:10:42.279 --> 00:10:44.840 into reading through this going through this 00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:47.600 and replying to it maybe replying to your attention 00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:50.740 your time so that's a very good discovery mark 00:10:50.740 --> 00:10:54.320 there's misuse amongst legitimate use as well 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:56.700 people going on for too long copying too many 00:10:56.700 --> 00:11:01.289 people you know if you send one email But you've 00:11:01.289 --> 00:11:05.250 copied 15 people. You've sent 15 emails. There's 00:11:05.250 --> 00:11:07.950 no evil troll down in the basement who's sending 00:11:07.950 --> 00:11:10.570 all these emails all over the place. It's us. 00:11:10.850 --> 00:11:14.190 We all need to take responsibility. Sometimes 00:11:14.190 --> 00:11:17.190 in my workshops, time management or productivity 00:11:17.190 --> 00:11:19.629 workshops, I do a quick survey. I say, how many 00:11:19.629 --> 00:11:21.909 bad drivers are out there? And you have hands 00:11:21.909 --> 00:11:25.860 go up. And if you ask any. typical crowd you'll 00:11:25.860 --> 00:11:28.980 find that the number of bad drivers however they 00:11:28.980 --> 00:11:32.820 define it is about 33 about a third then you 00:11:32.820 --> 00:11:35.639 say would all the bad drivers please stand up 00:11:35.639 --> 00:11:39.500 and like one out of a hundred people do people 00:11:39.500 --> 00:11:42.700 attribute bad behavior to others but not to themselves 00:11:42.700 --> 00:11:45.620 same with email oh it's everyone sending out 00:11:45.620 --> 00:11:47.980 all this junk email or this badly written stuff 00:11:47.980 --> 00:11:51.120 it's us so we all need to take responsibility 00:11:51.120 --> 00:11:54.509 that's the first step and then in emails for 00:11:54.509 --> 00:11:57.169 instance to be very clear to be very precise 00:11:57.169 --> 00:11:59.909 and use the right medium don't use an email when 00:11:59.909 --> 00:12:02.409 picking up the phone or having a meeting might 00:12:02.409 --> 00:12:04.860 be a better way to resolve a problem Thank you 00:12:04.860 --> 00:12:06.740 for being here today. I'm really happy that you 00:12:06.740 --> 00:12:09.019 tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward 00:12:09.019 --> 00:12:12.559 to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue 00:12:12.559 --> 00:12:14.340 to move forward. This is going to get more and 00:12:14.340 --> 00:12:16.360 more fun. We'll have more and more engagement 00:12:16.360 --> 00:12:18.460 as well. We'll invite people to participate in 00:12:18.460 --> 00:12:20.639 the show and thank you for giving us your time 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:22.940 and attention. Have an excellent time building 00:12:22.940 --> 00:12:25.259 out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.