The Truce with Time Management

People often ask: Where do you get the time?
Or instead they'll say: I can't be bothered to go into forums etc., because then I never get any work done.

And they're right. If all you ever do is go into forums to waste time, or to just hang around, then you'll end up doing very little of your regular work. Time will fly and you'll struggle to get things done. And of course, instead of blaming yourself for your not-so-smart habits, you'll blame forums.

But forums are an exceedingly good way to spend time…
Take it from someone who has well over 16,000 forum posts in less than five years. That's a whopping 10 posts or more a day (including weekends). And you know that I'm usually on vacation for three months in a year. So suddenly it seems more like 13-15 posts a day. And if you think…um…every post is just 5 minutes long (and it's not) then I'm spending about two hours a day in forums.

And heck you don't have two hours a day.
Well neither do I.

What I do is maximise time.
So if I'm going to spend time in the forums (and I do) then I'm making sure that I segregate the forum time into two segments.

1) Where I give a short, important comment.
2) When I give a detailed, over the top comment that leads to an article.

The short comment is like speed chess.
It forces me to answer 30-40 posts every single day and bounce between various topics at high speed. This is good for my brain. Good for the person reading the comment too. This answer is usually meant to fix ONE thing on the page. So if the person has posted about twenty different things, I don't focus on twenty. I look at ONE. I comment on that one, and then I expect them to fix it. Then I comment again. This behaviour is win-win. It helps my brain, it helps the customer and it really helps in implementation.

The detailed comment is almost involuntary. It's like I'm trying to give a short comment, but then I feel the need to expand and explain, and before I know it, boof…we're already into a sort of blog post. Of course that blog post can balloon. And it can become an 800-1000 word article. I've even seen a single question become a series of articles and then a book. So yeah. Again it's good for me, and good for the person who needs the answer.

In almost every case, I'll cut and paste the answer right into my dropbox (www.getdropbox.com). I'm hopelessly disorganised, so I have to make folders and post the articles into the folders, or I'll almost always lose the articles forever. I have to do it right after I type the article/blog post or kaboom…somehow it's buried under a mountain of advice—and it goes without saying that I'll never find it again.

Time is ruthless. It marches on.
I have a great respect for the ruthless nature of time.
I have to be smarter, or time ploughs over me.

And while there are times when I look like a well-ploughed field, but in most cases I win.
Or at least we come to a truce.

Make your truce with time. Use it well. And most importantly, stop making excuses.

Long Footnote:
At the start, we had no clients at all. Or very few. The chunk of my clients came from forums. Why? Because I used the system I just told you about. And so on any given day, the forum members would see me post both long/short posts. This did two things:

1) It didn't make me a know-it-all.
2) It gave me enormous branding and created a doorway to our site.

About the know-it-all: If all your posts are lengthy, then people almost avoid you. You know this feeling because you know someone like this in real life. This ‘someone' won't ever give a short answer to a question. They'll give the longest answer ever, and even though it's a very smart answer, you feel like you're trapped. You may need to leave in a hurry, or go to the restroom, but there you are having to listen to this long-winded person. This of course causes you to avoid that person, even when you know that they probably have a solution to your problem.

However if the person mixes up long and short answers, then that person becomes like you and I On forums, if all you do is just provide super-duper-long answers, then by looking at your name alone, people won't open up your post. But if you mix up your posts, there's a factor of unpredictability. And surprise. And so you get a factor of expertise without becoming a fuddy bore.

And short and long answers do one more thing.

They give you a factor of branding.
Let's say you've got just 20 minutes to spare in a forum. In twenty minutes you may be able to give one long answer and about 3-5 short answers. This puts your face, name and expertise (not to speak of email signature) in front of quite a few people. If you answer several topics, then people will recognise your name/face and a brand is created; an expertise factor is created. People work very hard to create credibility by advertising, and yet you can create enormous credibility by simply giving information.

And this information creates a doorway. Clients read your comments and advice. They not only realise you're smart, but they can see you're not a bore. And that entices them to visit your site and check your products and services. But even if they don't buy anything from you, it doesn't matter. The information you've created has created goodwill. And someday when you need the help, you can be sure that the others will be first to pitch in, should you need any help at all.

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