When I was a kid, I thought Dr Who was the coolest thing ever.
Remember Tom Baker, zooming around the universe in his Tardis, fighting evil, getting s*** done and always coming out on top? Who wouldn’t want to be a Time Lord?
I still think Time Lords are cool. And at the International Business Accelerator we do our best to turn our clients into Time Lords. We can’t provide you with your own personal tardis, but we will get you focused on Time Excellence.
We believe Time Excellence is key because we know it’s very difficult to scale a company internationally unless you’re in control of your time.
If you’re not spending this precious resource on only the highest value tasks, you don’t stand a chance.
Hack #1 – Google Voice Typing
Google debuted its Voice Typing function in September 2018, making it possible to write documents without touching your computer.
Admittedly it wasn’t great to start with – slow, clunky and generally frustrating.
But the voice typing function has come a long way in the last few months and when I tried it again recently, I found I could dictate emails and other documents almost faster than I could type them, albeit with a bit less accuracy.
This hack is particularly relevant for me right now, as I’m juggling a two-year old, a two-month old and running a company… I spend hours each day with my hands full (literally). Voice typing means I can get stuff done at times when I wouldn’t otherwise be able to.
If you’re moving around a lot, or can’t type for some other reason, you’ll love this.
Hack #2 – Deploy the Grayscale Warrior
The smartphone is probably the most heinous time bandit known to mankind. It offers endless distractions guaranteed to suck up any small window of spare time that opens up.
Our phones are like poker machines – their displays are meant to be visually seductive – “eye candy” in the most literal sense. Your phone’s screen has been designed to attract and hold your attention, that’s why it’s full of brightly coloured, eye-catching icons. It’s hard for the human brain to resist this set-up
Enter the Grayscale Warrior, friend of Time Lords.
The Grayscale Warrior is essentially just turning the display on your smartphone from a multi-coloured one, to boring old black and white. It might not sound like much, but the effects are striking.
I started to use this hack when I realised that I was looking at my phone every time I felt bored or stressed. My phone’s pretty screen was seducing me into spending way more time looking at it than was good for me.
The screen of my phone lost its entrancing power over me the minute I switched to grayscale. I started to use my minutes of spare time to do things that were useful, or personally energising… like looking at the world and giving people I was talking to my full attention.
You can find instructions for this hack here.
Hack #3 – Delete Facebook
And finally, a hack to neutralise that other huge time-waster, Facebook.
Just take it off your phone. It will give you years of your life back.
So that’s it, folks. Three hacks to help you take back control of time and get s*** done.
Now, get out there and conquer the universe!
