Kevin Kruse - 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management

15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management

The Productivity Habits of 7 Billionaires,
13 Olympic Athletes, 29 Straight-A Students, and
239 Entrepreneurs

KEVIN KRUSE
New York Times Bestselling Author

First Edition

THE KRUSE GROUP

Philadelphia

What if a few new habits could increase your productivity by 5x or even 10x?

Imagine you had an extra hour each day to read, exercise, or to spend with your family?

Based on survey research and interviews with billionaires, Olympic athletes, straight-A students, and over 200 entrepreneursincluding Mark Cuban, Kevin Harrington, James Altucher, John Lee Dumas, Grant Cardone, and Lewis Howes New York Times bestselling author, Kevin Kruse, answers the question:

What are the secrets to extreme productivity?

You will learn:

How to cure procrastination with Time Travel

How to save 8 hours a week with 3 Questions

How to identify your real top priorities

How to get to zero emails in your inbox every day

How the E-3C system will boost productivity by 10x

How to reduce stress with the Richard Branson Tool

How to leave work at 5:00 without feeling guilty

How to run meetings like Apple, Google & Virgin

How to conquer social media distractions

BONUS : Discover Your Time Personality quiz

BONUS : 100+ Time Management Quotes

YOUR TWO FREE GIFTS

As a thank you for buying this book, Im offering two FREE resources:

1) How Millionaires Schedule Their Day
(1-Page Planner Tool)

2) 15 Surprising Things Ultra Productive People Do Differently (Quick Guide)

Tap The Link Below To Get Instant Access:

www.MasterYourMinutes.com

Kevin Kruse
New York Times Bestselling Author
Forbes Contributor
Inc 500 Entrepreneur

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Overworked and Overwhelmed on a New Jersey Highway

License and registration!

5:20 a.m. Dark and cold, pulled over on the shoulder of Route 1 in New Jersey. I had been heading to work.

Do you know why I pulled you over?

Why did he have to shout?

I assume I was speeding, my voice cracked.

Speeding! He leaned down until the brim of his hat touched the top of my window. Eye to eye, he said, You flew up behind me, rode my bumper, swung around and passed me, and kept on going. I was doing 65 in the slow lane.

I wish I could say the officer had been driving an unmarked car, but he wasnt. Big white Crown Vic with the light bar on top. Giant blue and yellow State Police decals on the doors.

I cant really explain it. I have no memory of coming up on any car, let alone a well-marked cop car.

Apparently, half asleep and thinking of work, I was driving over 80 miles per hour when I came upon a state trooper who was going a measly 65, so I just switched lanes and drove right past him.

Im sorry, officer. I just, uh, zoned out I guess

Zoned out?!

I didnt get much sleep, and

I was lucky he didnt arrest me.

I was really lucky I didnt crash and kill somebody.

This was 20 years ago, when I was young and dumb. I was so crazy busy that I just kept adding more hours to my workday and more tasks to each hour. Id leave the house at five in the morning and work until midnight. No time for proper meals. Coffee and a buttered roll eaten in my car for breakfast. Skipped lunch. Wolfed down dinner standing up.

I drank so many diet Red Bulls that I started looking at those silver and blue cans the way an alcoholic looks at a bottle of wine. Those cans called to me.

Passing a trooper on the highway without even realizing it was definitely the worst thing I did, but there were other signs of being out of control before that.

Like when I filled up my car with gas, drove away, and KLAANK! I had forgotten to take the gas nozzle out of my car. Its a miracle I didnt blow the place up.

And the times my wife kept telling me, I just dont feel connected to you anymore. Shes now my ex-wife.

It wasnt like I was completely clueless about time management. I had read all the bestsellers. I was the master of the to-do list and prioritized it every night for the next day. At one point I had such a long list that I used a standard piece of ruled notebook paper and filled in two columns35 ruled lines, 2 tasks per line, 70 total to-do items.

I look back at that time in my life with horror and embarrassment.

Thankfully, today Im a different person.

Im a single dad with three kids. I help them with their homework every night and am home for dinner at the kitchen table more than half the time. I attend most of their games, plays, and music recitals. Im no athlete, but I exercise routinely and am maintaining a healthy weight. I manage at least one or two date nights with my girlfriend each week.

For work, I run a small consulting practice, write two books a year, give speeches around the world, and oversee my investments in various startups and commercial real estate.

I take a lot of vacation time, too. Last year alone I went to Puerto Rico, Cancun, and the Jersey shore; spent several weekends in New York City; and for my daughters 16 th birthday, I took her on an epic trip to Barcelona, Madrid, and to see the running of the bulls in Pamplona.

I do all thisand this is the key point while rarely feeling stressed out, rushed, overwhelmed, or guilty . I definitely dont feel crazy busy and dont feel the need to brag about being crazy busy to those around me.

Dont you just hate me?

My personal time and stress transformation started as I began to ask my successful friends how they managed time.

I immediately noticed that none of them mentioned the things that are taught in traditional time management books.

My curiosity soon turned into a quest, and I did original survey research of working professionals, looking for correlations between specific time management practices and productivity, stress, and happiness. I funded a study of thousands of working professionals and we found no correlation between time management training and higher levels of productivity or reduced stress. Zero!

I then interviewed hundreds of highly successful people including Mark Cuban and other billionaires, famous entrepreneurs, gold medal Olympians like Shannon Miller, and straight-A students.

What I discovered is that highly successful people dont prioritize tasks on a to-do list, or follow some complex five-step system, or refer to logic tree diagrams to make decisions.

Actually, highly successful people dont think about time much at all. Instead, they think about values, priorities, and consistent habits .

While no two people manage time exactly the same way, there are common themes. And if you really try them, you might find that just one of their secrets has the power to transform your career and your life.

Kevin Kruse

Bucks County, PA

CHAPTER #1

The Power of 1440

Can a single number change your life?

A three-word question used to send chills of dread down my spine.

Got a minute?

Sure, I believed in an open door policy. Sure, I was the boss. Sure, some people would say I was overly detail oriented, which made people check in with me too frequently (who, me?).

I was the founder and president of a digital learning company that quickly took off. Revenue doubling every year and all the related challenges: new hires, sales, product launches, fundraising, and on and on.

The fires to put out kept multiplying, as did the knocks on my office door followed by, Got a minute?

There was nothing wrong with people asking me for advice or help. But I quickly found entire days were being spent on other peoples priorities and problems as the requested minute-meetings inevitably turned into 30 minutes or more. My priorities, the companys strategic prioritieswashed away by the never-ending torrent of urgent got-a-minutes.