James Caan CBE has earned himself the unusual title of Serial Entrepreneur; not only is he a CEO, founder, and former-Dragon, but he is one of the top ten most influential bloggers on LinkedIn, surpassing Barack Obama himself.
The Harvard Business School graduate has become a champion of entrepreneurship in the UK and regularly speaks at key business events such as Ireland's Pendulum Summit. It was there that we met the businessman and asked him to share his stop business tip.
"I think every action that makes a difference is measurable," he explained.
Essentially, James believes that every important task can be broken down into a series of actions. Every workday should include a series of actions to get those tasks done.
Sounds simple, but how many times have you reached 5pm and realised that your to-do list has only gotten longer? Watch our interview above to listen to James talk you through his steps.
"If I'm trying to hire somebody then, what have I actually done? Have I found somebody? Have I identified somebody? Have I booked them in? Have I interviewed them? Have I offered them... have I moved that task along?
"So many times, I've got to the end of the day and I look at my list and I think, 'Nothing's happened, I've been a busy fool'.
The number one thing that we can do in our work today, according to the CEO, is value our time.
"I think that when you remember that the most valuable asset you have, in my opinion, is our time because we have a certain amount of hours in a day to make something happen. If we can't be disciplined enough to actually make it pay - we're just wasting time.
"I'm pretty much self-critical. Like everybody, I have a diary so at the beginning of each day [I'm] very, very disciplined, just like I have tea in the morning, I look at my diary and I say, 'What are the three things I want to achieve today?'
"When I get to 6 o'clock in the evening, I have to ask myself the question, 'Did I do that?' And as long as I remain focused - three out of five days, I achieve it. Two out of five days, I don't.
"Why? Because sometimes we lose focus, we're too easily distracted."
Takeaways
- Buy a diary
- Make a plan every morning
- Check in on your tasks every evening
- Make your output measurable.
Sound advice from a serial entrepreneur.
Taragh Loughrey-Grant & Sínann Fetherston
