

Richard Branson on Time Management - andreavaccari
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220418

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sivers
Even if you find this advice pretty generic, I really admire that he takes a
little time to do lots of entrepreneur-advice articles and interviews and
such. He could brush off these things as beneath him, but it's so amazing that
he takes time to share advice.

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seanc
One thing to keep in mind about guys like Branson is that they have a small
army of assistants and secretaries. So they can get a lot more done because of
this help.

I saw a talk from some young dude in Salt Lake City who built and sold a large
company.

One neat piece of advice he had was that the executive assistant should be one
of the first five employees. Because a good EA gives time back to the
founders, it's basically like getting another founder. He said that he and his
EA have their teamwork down so well that he gets another 40 hours in his week.

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Bishop6
His advice about checking email (or any distraction, _ahem_ , Hacker News,
Reddit, Facebook) in bursts is spot on. You'll see your productivity go up and
your focus will improve.

As an entrepreneur, my ability to hire and motivate great staff is a big
concern. Branson is right about it being essential to a successful business.
I'd like to see specific, practical advice on selecting and retaining stellar
employees.

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roqetman
Having worked at a startup that had the most loyal employees I've ever seen, I
can offer these points that I noticed (aimed at the rockstar employees): 1\.
Pay them above market rate. 2\. Involve them in your idea process. 3\. Give
overall guidance, but let them brainstorm how to implement an idea and who
will work on it.

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rottendoubt
My trick for handling email is to only answer the previous day's email unless
an incoming email is urgent (ie. requires an immediate response). That way
when you start your day you'll know how many emails you'll have to answer; AND
once you answer those emails you are done for the day. Otherwise, you'll get
stuck using email as IM with all those folks replying instantly from their
Blackberries and iPhones.

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missy
I was thinking for a time saving solution in regards to email, dont know if it
exists, some plug in for email that gives you word clouds so you know what to
read or not.

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jakejake
good points. I can't think of how many times I let myself get distracted by
checking the inbox every time a new messages comes in.

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merijnv
In an attempt to increase my productivity I turned off e-mail notifications,
now I only notice new messages when I mouse-over the OSX dock or manually
check my mail client. The result is messages only catch my attention when I
was already context-switching, which so far seems much less harmful to my
productivity then every new message triggering a context switch to my mail
client...

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wavephorm

      Be sure to hire great people who you can trust to run your business
    

Wise words for entrepreneurs.

