· Wasted Time - Reading news, watching YouTube Videos, Browsing Facebook, and anything that is for personal browsing or entertainment.

 

· Reactive Time - Activities that should be eliminated or automated, some examples include cleaning and reading emails, processing orders, inventory recount; anything repetitive actions that can be automated by a piece of software, or if eliminated, is not affecting your revenue.

 

· Active Time - Activities that involve progress but doesn’t increase the revenue of the company. For example if you have

automated some of your reactive tasks, but you need to upkeep the software for it, the up keeping would be considered active work.  Active work is not reactive or wasted time, it is something that must be done, it is something that is productive for the company to move forward, but doesn’t translate into improved revenue, systems, productivity, etc.

 

· Proactive Time - This is when you don’t work on tasks that are covered in Reactive Time or Active Time. Proactive time is when you do something that has a direct impact on improving revenue for the company. Proactive Time can include reading a book and implementing what you learned, getting consulting, brainstorming, implementing new systems, etc.

What are you spending your time on every day? Many so called “Productive” and “Hard-Working” startup CEO’s spend 90% of their time on Active work just to fill the void. Sometimes they can’t help it because they work 9am - 5pm and for some people they are most productive from 5pm - midnight except they are home watching television.

 

WASTED TIME
Let’s start with Wasted Time and Reactive Time. If you are just a lazy procrastinator and you just can’t help it, it’s time to get a motivational book and get inspired, then sign up for RescueTime and try to see how much time you waste every day. You can start with this video series.

 

REACTIVE TIME
If you or your whole company is stuck doing reactive tasks all day long, for example if you are using BigCommerce, Volusion or another startup technology then you are stuck doing reactive tasks. It is time to realize that you will never grow your business until you automate everything reactive in your company. A good explanation about how technology can help you automate your reactive tasks is found here.

Many times it is not possible for a CEO to consider Proactive Time because of the jumping between Active and Reactive Time. If you are in that situation, you may need to start backwards, look at all your staff and figure out how to increase their productivity in order for you to delegate your work to them.

So if you have five of your employees wasting 5 hours total per day on Wasted Time by browsing Facebook and personal emails, then implement new rules that you will no longer allow that to happen, and give each of them more work to fill up their time. RescueTime Team can help you achieve this goal. Once you optimize your team to be productive, you can start handing them your reactive and active tasks until you figure out better ways to do things inside the company.

ACTIVE TIME
We may find ourselves working on tasks that we feel are necessary, but they aren’t truly important. Warren Buffet earned $1,500,000 per hour in 2013; if you were being paid $1.5M per hour, do you feel that the daily schedule you call “productive”, is justified? I doubt it. How about the latest movie “Wolf of Wall Street”, where Jordan Belfort was making $28,000 per hour at 30 years old.

You know how you tell your friends or family that you’re “BUSY” working and what you’re doing is extremely important, and that you’re hoping to become a millionaire one day. How do you justify that your one hour was truly “productive” and “worth it” when at the end of the year, you calculate the amount of money you made versus the amount of hours you put into work and you’re lucky to have made minimum wage. Sometimes you only make $1.00 per hour, and for the unlucky ones you actually have debt, which means you worked for free and lost money.

Here is the truth, and this applies to anyone who does not have $1,000,000 or more in their personal bank account. What you do every day is NOT IMPORTANT, what you do every day is a WASTE OF YOUR TIME, what you do every day is not going to make you a millionaire, and for you to see true success with your company, let’s just say the odds are not in your favor.

Active Time is for your employees, not for the CEO. If you are a CEO and if your daily activities consist of only Active Time, you have already failed unless you realize it right now. If your employees are working on reactive time, instead of active time, you have also already failed unless you realize it because you will never be able to delegate your active time. Your active time fills your void so you can feel productive and hard-working. Afterall, it is in the American Culture to work, work, work and work some more.

Let’s take a look at Apple Ex-CEO Steve Jobs, who’ve built the most valuable company in the world, and see what he does all day. “Meets with a Team of People and Work on Ideas and Solve Problems”, tell me does that sound like Active Time or Proactive Time to you?

Ask any CEO of a Fortune 500 company,“What do you do all day?” What do you think he will say? His reply will probably be “Sitting at my desk, and not doing much”, and you’re going to say “Are you kidding me, I work like a dog, and I deserve a lot more then you do”. Excuse my harsh language, but you’re wrong because if you are living out of a sense of obligation you are a dog, and you don’t deserve more than you already get.

Let me tell you a secret for success.

PROACTIVE TIME
Implement a 30/30/30/10 Rule.
· 30% Active Time Work
· 30% Proactive Time with the Team
· 30% Proactive Time Alone
· 10% Enjoy Life

I personally work 50 hours per week, so let me break that in hours
· 15 hours per week or 3 hours per day = ACTIVE TIME
· 15 hours per week or 3 hours per day = PROACTIVE TIME WITH TEAM
· 15 hours per week or 3 hours per day = PROACTIVE TIME ALONE
· 5 hours per week or 1 hour per day = RELAX / GO OUT FOR LUNCH

If you are a workaholic and you are working from 100 hours to 50 hours, you are going to go into withdrawal. I would recommend the following hours
· 15 hours per week or 3 hours per day = ACTIVE TIME WORK
· 20 hours per week or 3 hours per day = PROACTIVE TIME WITH TEAM
· 35 hours per week or 3 hours per day = PROACTIVE TIME ALONE
· 10 hours per week or 1 hour per day = RELAX / GO OUT FOR LUNCH
Note: if you don’t have a team, then use that proactive time to find people for your team.

DEFINING PROACTIVE TIME
Active Time - Your first priority in any job is to deliver on your specific responsibilities and objectives. If you can do your basic job well in just 30% of your allotted working hours, then that frees up the rest for the real work.

 

Proactive Team Time - Dedicate 30% of your remaining time to deepen the relationships with your peers, and connecting with and working with the leaders in your organization. Meet with the team and figure out how to get them to put more

Active Time instead of Reactive. For our company this includes:

· Create systems to automate processes
· Use RescueTime to improve productivity
· Review new software (hint: Shopping Cart Elite) to automate reactive tasks
· Figure out how to eliminate every reactive task
· Figure out how to make every active task as productive as possible
· Come up with new ideas

DEFINING PROACTIVE TIME
Active Time - Your first priority in any job is to deliver on your specific responsibilities and objectives. If you can do your basic job well in just 30% of your allotted working hours, then that frees up the rest for the real work.