Hello and welcome to another exciting
episode of Bridge the Gap:Connecting Business Perspectives with your hosts myself, Colton Cockerell and Trisha Stetzel. Our goal is to bridge the generational, gender, and life experience gap in business through our unique styles of gathering information from our guests. now let's get it started. It is Colton Cockerell here with Bridge the Gap: Connecting Business Perspectives and guess what it is season four, insert air horns and bam bam found all that gets I guess I'll do an post. Alright, well, my name is Colton Cockerell. I'm a Certified Financial Fiduciary and independent financial advisor and we made it to season four and I couldn't have done it without my co host, Miss Trisha Penelope Stetzel, Trisha.
Trisha Stetzel:Really Colton Penelope Where did you know that my middle name actually does start with a P I'll have to tell you later. Now.
Colton Cockerell:Patricia
Trisha Stetzel:Hey everybody, Trisha stats here results extreme Business Solutions. I am stoked to have a fellow business coach on with us today a friend and referral partner whom I met several months ago and we connect quite often Andrew Buchan who is with Action Coach, Houston, Inner Loop is with us today. And let me tell you just a little bit about Andrew before I bring him on the show. So he's got 20 years of experience in manufacturing and supply chain worked in ONG Aerospace and Defense, automotive and consumer plastics industries. He set up and ran businesses in seven different countries. One of Andrew's core principles is a business should give you a better life while you own it, and more life options when you exit it. Andrew, my friend, welcome to the show.
Andrew Buchan:Thank you very much. That sounded awesome when you said it. Thank you.
Trisha Stetzel:You're welcome. I'm happy to record that for you, Andrew.
Andrew Buchan:That's great. I need that as my voicemail or something.
Colton Cockerell:I think so. Andrew, listen, I had this just the epitome while you're Epitome. Just this thought that came to my mind while she was talking. It's a Buchan right. That's your last bargain. I think you should start a podcast or eating chicken. It should be called what's clucking with Andrew Buchan. I'm just saying I think that'd be awesome. Anyway,
Andrew Buchan:there's a lot of words that can run with that. I'm well, chicken.
Colton Cockerell:I was trying to Yeah, I'll try to keep paying here for okay. Anyway. Now we're going to talk about time mastery today, which I'm really excited about. So time mastery, I'm going to try in honor of Andrew to make sure this podcast is exactly 22 minutes long. probably not going to happen. But we'll see what happens. So Andrew, and Trisha, I'm totally stealing this question from you. But I will give you credit, Trisha is the one that wanted me to ask this. What is time mastery? Andrew?
Andrew Buchan:You know, when I think about time mastery, it's it's all the different aspects that go into time management as well. And actually what you what you just said, a second to go, I think is one of the most important pieces, right, which is setting your goals. So if your goal is to hit your podcast in 22 minutes, that's the first step, right, don't try to master your time, when you haven't really established what you want to do with it, and what those what those objectives are going to be. So when you put together everything that's around time management, not just how do I work efficiently, how do I make sure I do this and keep on track and you know, make sure I'm on time for meetings. It's really about deciding what you even want to spend your time doing. What is the activities, what's the, the objectives for the day, figure out that first, and then you can plan your time around it, you know, not just trying to get good at managing something without really a direction. And that's what I really think about when I talk about time mastery, if that makes sense.
Trisha Stetzel:Yeah. So Andrew, and I'm sure you've heard this question before. So it will be no surprise to you, or statement, right? We talk about time management. And we see a lot of business owners and leaders say I don't manage my own time, because I'm putting out fires all day. So where do you start with someone like that when you when you have a discussion about time management or time mastery?
Andrew Buchan:Yeah, you know, it's one the first thing I kind of take a step back. And, you know, if you if you think about Parados Rule, right, the 80/20 rule that manages everything that we do. So if you're trying to manage 100% of your time and every single little thing that you're doing, it's going to be just way, way too overwhelming at the very beginning, but if you start thinking about it and going let me just get 20% My day figured out and organized and really kind of managed inside that that's really going to make the 80% impact in your personal life, your business life, whatever that is. So the first thing is not to worry about the 24 hours, or however many hours that you're at work, get down to that 20%. And once you start there, and building in that routine that you can get into, that's really where you know, a little movement makes momentum. To get that momentum, it's just starting that little movement at the very beginning, the best place to start is that little 20% of the day, you know, whether it's the five days a week, or one of the seven days a week, whatever that is, is to try to get that to get what those rituals are to get the habits, the good habits that you want to get going inside of that, that allows you to start moving in the right direction.
Colton Cockerell:Okay, I have some I'm a visual guy, I know that you know where we are on audio. But try to so explain to me your day, give me a day, a typical day for you. How do you master your time you wake up, go from there.
Andrew Buchan:So yeah, it's all about deciding what you want, before you start the day, right. So a great a great, I was just talking about it today. So one of my rituals that I get into our good habits that I get into is I don't finish the day until I've planned the next day. So that's, that's one of the things I do every single day. So I actually you know, because if you start reading about books they are about the brain. And in a lot of these books, if you plan your day, the day before and allow yourself to go to sleep, your unconscious is always going, it's going to start figuring out things that you don't even know about, it's going to start thinking about the plan for the next day, the problems it's going to see and everything and it makes the next day so much easier to go through. by just having that time upfront that you've spent planning the day before and allowing you to kind of go through that sleep cycle and everything else. But that's exactly where I start. First of all, is I plan the day the day before to make sure that I know what exactly the objectives I've got my my top big three things that I want to get accomplished that day. And when that's going to happen, I usually try to push them to the very, very beginning of the day. Because that's you know, usually it's like, I got to go do this thing, do this thing, this thing, the book eat like, you know, Eat The Frog, what is that frog that you got to eat, do it first thing in the day, get it over and done with and it's amazing the amount of times that I've set objectives for myself the day before. And if I, if I've done that, I'll usually complete them before noon the next day. If I don't set that time to go do it, you know, it's 5pm. And you're like, man, I still haven't sent that. And now even if I send that email, they're not going to get it till the next day, right? It's really just setting that expect our standards for yourself at the at the very beginning to go accomplish. But for me, my days always planned out pretty pretty well I can time blocking. So I know what I'm doing very first thing in the morning, I'm going to the gym, I'm working out I've had my breakfast, there's a checklist of things that happen every single day before seven 7am for Andrew and then going into the rest of the day, whether it's my marketing activities aren't going to work on whether it's my coaching sessions that I already have planned. Whether it's, you know, strategy sessions I'm working with prospects on all the different things are all planned out during that day the day before. So it's really just almost autopilot when you get into it and you can start executing your day.
Colton Cockerell:So you would suggests just starting with a routine have a morning routine. And then when your day actually starts after your routine. Start again Trisha one of our first ever conversations were Brian Tracy right Eat That Frog. I mean, that's, you know, we talked about that. So I love that. I think that's really helpful. For sure. And I'm sure Trisha can elaborate because she's all she knows. She knows a ton about
Trisha Stetzel:Andrew speaks my language. I love frogs, frogs. So Andrew, you're a planner. We people have different communication styles, they have different drivers, they're different things that get people out of bed every morning and I run into a lot of people who just don't like keeping a list or they can't get into that routine. So a big topic of discussion lately has been journaling. What is your what's your thought on journaling?
Andrew Buchan:It's it's very, very important. And but I do think sometimes the word journaling throws people off because they're like, man, I don't want to write in a diary. I don't I don't do that I don't you know, I don't put my all that stuff in what I've what I've found his think about it as like an after action review, because again, I'm in like the planning mode. And you know, back in the day, my Lean Six Sigma days and Kaizen days Right after extra reviews, what went? Well? What didn't go? Well? What can I do differently? Right? I mean, the army the Armed Forces do that every after every every drill and every activity, manufacturing. That's what we did after every project, every or every job was closed, work harder was closed. And that's exactly what I do every day. So my journaling, kind of say, journaling, or my review of the day, okay, what went well, today? Did I get my jobs accomplished? What I did? Was there something that was more enjoyable than others? Let me write down that. And I kind of asked myself about six or seven different questions I've got written on my life to do sheet. So it's all kind of written there. So I started the beginning of my sheet and they go all the way down. At the end of the day, I've reviewed my reviewed my day on how well I've done to my objectives, to following my plan, all the different things. And for me, that's kind of my closing of our journal for the day, and I find it very, very effective, because even just going through and looking at what went well today, and that's usually one of the toughest questions I have to answer. And I'll think about it and be like, what happened? Oh, wow, wait a minute, I never even thought of that, you know, you've got a new client, or you just had a huge successful win for for one of your clients that, you know, they just knock something out of the park, and you're like, how did I forget about that, that only happened two hours ago, but it's the way your brain works, right? It's so easy to forget all the good things that happen. And you can get stuck on Man, I wish I had a different conversation there, I wish I'd asked something differently inside of this call. And you, you can really get kind of stuck in that spiral, sometimes. So I think that journaling really does help flush it out and move it forward. And a good way for you to you know, continually, continually develop the process you go through inside of your time management.
Colton Cockerell:So then, so just again, I want to make sure I understand this, because I think it's really important what you're talking about. So the day before, you're setting, you're setting the expectations and you're planning out your day, the following day. In the morning, you have a ritual you complete, whether it's working out meditating, praying, whatever it may be, and whatever, when at seven o'clock, whatever that time is for you, you start your day, which you already have planned out on your journal from the previous day, you'd knock out your top three, four or five things, whatever it may be, you get to the end of the day, what I do well, what I do, what did I do bad? What can I What can I fix? And then after that you start planning for your next day. Is that is that Am I understanding that correctly?
Andrew Buchan:That's that's pretty much it. Yeah. If If someone hasn't got anything in, in their kind of rhythm or anything else, I've heard the expression bookends. So if you can book end your day, at the very, very beginning, and either at the end of the workday, or even the end, before you go to before you go to sleep. If you can start there. That's some of the easiest things to kind of get into that rhythm. Because you have some stuff, you you automatically have some kind of pattern that you're doing things in the morning, right? I mean, you're you're showering before you put your clothes on. Otherwise, it's not going to make a lot of sense, right? So there's some natural things that you go through. So I'm just a normal human behavior type of thing. And then there's also a little bit of a routine before you, you know, go and turn in for the evening. So if you can extend a couple of those things and incorporate some business stuff, or incorporating some thinking or reflection, and extend those, it's easier to kind of solidify those bookends, and then it's just filling in the stuff in between. And that's, that takes a little bit of practice. But it's it's pretty easy to do.
Trisha Stetzel:You are the master of time, I love all of the little nuggets that you've been giving us. And when you were talking about journaling, I remember a conversation that I had with a group of people the other day, somebody was using their journal to dump head trash into the garbage disposal. So the journal was not a journal, it was a garbage disposal. And it was for head trash. So how when you think about time management or time mastery, how much head garbage is getting in the way of your day is getting in the way of being organized and having good time management?
Andrew Buchan:Yeah, absolutely. I think trying to think it's Getting Things Done, right. That book. I mean, it's that's your to do list, right? You mean, all these things have to sit around somewhere, they usually in your head, they get in the way? They're, they're coming up with all the wrong moments, you know, oh, you have to do this. Well, that's great. Why did you tell me now I don't need to know it. Now. I need to know in the future. I need to know it two days ago when that bill was due. Putting it down on paper just gets it out of your head and then it allows your head to do everything that you really wanted to do. You really need to make sure that you have a good routine and whether it's you know if it is putting it on a task list or putting it in a journal as long as you actually have a process that it goes through because you're I mean your head is smart enough to know if you're Just trying to put it somewhere that you don't want to think about it, it's going to tell you, but yeah, that's not going anywhere, there's no process there, it's just you know, is kind of that and dump is going to start throwing all those things back in your head. But going through that process really does affect your time management from the perspective of, you know, how many people start one task, and then they're on to their fourth task before realizing they didn't even start or finish, the first task that they even got into, that's just all those things are jumping around in your head and being able to plan it. Having a good to do list or a good process for your to do list, and then having the process in your to do is to turn that into a calendar activity, if that's what you need to do, when you're planning that next day, there's a lot of steps to it, you know, it's not as easy as just writing it down on a list. But you know, it's, it's, it's not giving up after the first attempt at doing this. Because I mean, there's days that I have, like, man, today was not a good day from time management point of view. But you know, what, tomorrow is going to be a lot better, I'm not going to let it go two days in a row. If it was there, if I scored myself a five, okay, that's what it was, I'm going to score myself a higher number tomorrow, and I'm going to get better and better and, and keep on going. And then man, sometimes the wheels fall off every now and again. But it's that thing, just one little one little issues, not the end of the world move on and get better.
Colton Cockerell:Again, it's forming, forming those habits. You know, and there are people who probably think about that, and like, Man, that's just a waste of time, I'm not going to take my time away from work to just plan out my day. You know what I love that. And Abraham Lincoln quote, I don't, I don't know it verbatim. But you know, if he had four hours to chop down a tree, he'd spend the first three hours sharpening his axe in the last hour, you know, cutting down the tree. So I think it is, you'd be surprised a lot of people they say once they switch over to time management plan their day, there's shocked how much more productive they are and how much they get done. Even if you spend an hour of that day planning, they still got more done than they normally would. So I mean, I would definitely recommend people try it and definitely reach out to, to Andrew, if they have questions about it, or what does this look like? What do you say to? Or what what are some I know, we kind of discussed them. But you know, do you have any tips or tricks for people? Whenever they do get into this? And let's say they do it for a week, two weeks? And they just say, Ah, I just fell out of it. You know, how do you stay motivated? How do you stay focused? If the results don't speak for themselves?
Andrew Buchan:Yeah, I mean, it, you know, I think it is really that reflection part and finding out what is working for you what is not working for you. And you know, I think I think a lot of it when it comes to time management organization, all these different things, it's, it's a bunch of little things that you end up doing really, really well. And there's gonna be some little I don't know if they call them like hints and tricks. But like the two minute rule, I don't remember which book I got that from but the two minute rule, if you can do something in two minutes, do it right now, don't put it on a list or anything, because it's going to take longer to put on the list and just do the activity. Right? That little two minute rule. I absolutely love it. And I think if you can build that into your day and what you're doing it absolutely going to be effective? Or the what is it the file action trash, right? Then your email, fat, you know, that's that every single time you look at an email, do I file it? Do I action it right now? Or do I trash it and delete it and get rid of it out there, you know those little little hints and tricks and things that you can read and see if you can actually build them into a ritual into your into your business into your life every single day. Those are the things that add up. So finding which ones work, keeping a track of them and then putting them into place. And then the things that don't work for you. Don't sweat it, move it on and try something different. You could spend your whole life just reading blogs, probably on time management and time mastery. If you're just a surgeon, right? There's so much information out there. It's a case of skimming through and trying to find what works for you. It does take definitely some some perseverance, right? I mean, you know, and on average, I think what is it like 21 days it takes to kind of build up a habit into something that's going to keep on going and then even then you sometimes have to tweak it just to kind of keep your your brain energized and engaged in that thing as well. So doing something for one day and expecting amazing results isn't going to happen. But if you give yourself that, you know, three weeks a month on something and really try it and see the results over time. People are people are usually amazed at what it is you don't see the day to day you don't see the difference from Monday to Tuesday. But when you look back and you can go over your notes and you look at from week one to week for you look at the difference. You're like Wow, that is a big difference.
Trisha Stetzel:And having somebody like you, Andrew hold people accountable, right, or being their accountability partner and helping guide them through time management, mastery, right or time mastery, I think is always important because we all need somebody right to kind of poke us especially if we're business owners because who's holding us accountable ourselves, right? So having somebody along side like you You mentioned email a minute ago, and I No, it's time to wrap up Colton. But I read a statistic that only 37% of the emails that come into your inbox are actually communicating something worthwhile. 37%. So you think about all the garbage that's in your email that is more head trash, right? That is taking up your time? And how often are we looking at that email, right. And you talked about switching between subjects, we lose lots of time there too, right. And I think social media and email, become part of that we're, I mean, we all get into it, right? You start scrolling. And 30 minutes later, you're still scrolling and you've done nothing, and it really catches up with you. I appreciate all of the tips and advice that you've given us today. And I think each and every one of those things are important, but maybe per your advice. We don't try it all at once. Right? Just one, I like the bookends that was my favorite part. and implementing something you know, at the front and the back, I think should be easier than then trying everything all at once and failing. Because we all do. I do.
Colton Cockerell:And also my my takeaway I'm going to get more serious with with preparing my day, the previous day, I liked that. I'm gonna give that a shot. Andrew, I'm gonna let you know how that works out. But Andrew, let me ask you this. If you had any super power, what would it be?
Andrew Buchan:I had any superhero. This is? This is a very interesting question. Huh?
Colton Cockerell:It's about time management.
Andrew Buchan:Yeah, yeah. I was actually gonna say that the superpower to pause time, because then I can, I can show everything. And then I'd be like the absolute wrong time management and be like, How on earth would all that happened? I really don't know. I'm going to go with that. I'm going to go with the ability to pause time and then be able to take care of stuff and then unpause it and go back.
Colton Cockerell:That's pretty cool. Okay, Doctor Strange. Sounds good, huh? I like it.
Trisha Stetzel:Awesome. So Andrew, if anybody would like to follow up with you has questions or would like to know more about your programs, would you please share your contact information, make sure you spell everything out since we are audio only. And you did provide us with some links. And I will put those in the show notes. So you don't need to read those out. But your contact information will be great.
Andrew Buchan:Yeah, to get hold of me, the easiest way is to go to the website, which is action, A C T I O N action H T X.com. And that's the shortcut to my website Action HTX searching that on Facebook or LinkedIn is also a really easy way to follow the company's page. And my email address is Andrew A N D R E W Buchan B U C H A N all one word at actioncoach.com.
Colton Cockerell:I love it. And let me let me ask this real quick before we sign off. Andrew, what generation Are you a part of?
Andrew Buchan:I think i'm Gen X is that right
Colton Cockerell:Gen X? Yep. All right. And
Trisha Stetzel:Colton want in your corner? G
Colton Cockerell:en X? What? I'm a mill. Okay, what? What do you
Andrew Buchan:think millennial? Yeah, I was gonna
Colton Cockerell:Yes, well, I didn't even help them. That was all him.
Trisha Stetzel:When I do, you know, this is one of those topics that we talked about time management or time mastery, you know, as we bridge the gap here. I think that is something that bridges all generations, right? we all struggle with time management, we all struggle with keeping up with all of the things that are thrown our way every single day. So Andrew, thank you for coming and bridging the gap with talking about time mastery today.
Andrew Buchan:Thank you so much for having me. We real real real fun.
Trisha Stetzel:All right, and that concludes this week's podcast Tune in next week for another exciting episode of
Bridge the Gap:Connecting Business Perspectives. And I believe Colton, that that was episode one season four complete
Colton Cockerell:Yes bah bah bah. I love it. Thank you again for tuning in to this week's episode of Bridge
the Gap:Connecting Business Perspectives. If there's a certain professional or profession that you want to hear from leave a comment in this week's Facebook posts. Please subscribe and share this podcast. Colton Cockerell with Sharer McKinley Group, LLC is located at 820 South Friendswood Drive Suite 207 Friendswood, Texas 77546 phone number to 281-992-5698. Securities and investment advisory services offered through NEXT Financial Group, Inc. member FINRA/SIPC Sharer McKinley Group is not an affiliate of NEXT Financial Group, Inc.