29have happened at once: 1) I’ve done something with the
kids; 2) I’ve read through the book reports; and 3) the
shopping has been completed.
In her book, Brain Building, Marilyn Vos Savant rec-
ommends something similar to simplify life. She advises
that we make a list of absolutely every small task that
has to be done, say, over the weekend, and then do them
all at once, in one exciting focused action. A manic blitz.
In other words, fuse all small tasks together and make
the doing of them one task so that the rest of the week-
end is absolutely free to create as we wish.
Bob Koether, who I will talk about later as the presi-
dent of Infincom, has the most simplified time manage-
ment system I’ve ever seen in my life. His method is
this: Do everything right on the spot—don’t put any-
thing unnecessarily into your future. Do it now, so that
the future is always wide open. Watching him in action
is always an experience.
I’ll be sitting in his office and I’ll mention the name
of a person whose company I’d like to take my training
to in the future.
“Will you make a note to get in touch with him and
let him know I’ll be calling?” I ask.
“Make a note?” he asks in horror.
The next thing I know, before I can say anything,
Bob’s wheeling in his chair and dialing the person on
the phone. Within two minutes he’s scheduled a meet-
ing between the person and me and after he puts down
the phone he says, “Okay, done! What’s next?”
I tell him I’ve prepared the report he wanted on train-
ing for his service teams and I hand it to him.
“You can read it later and get back to me,” I offer.
“Hold on a second,” he says, already deeply absorbed
in reading the report’s content. After 10 minutes or so,
Simplify your life