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“Anybody here right now who’s got too much time?” Michael Heppell asked the audience gathered at the London Business Forum (LBF). Unsurprisingly, no one did. Now more than ever, we all feel stretched for both time and money. Heppell though, with his unmatched enthusiasm and boundless energy believes he has some simple techniques to help us free up one hour every day.

Tantalisingly he asked, “What would you do with that extra hour?” Answers ranged from “sleep” to “learn a new skill,” to “exercise” and “phone people.” What the answers had in common was that the actions were all really important for well-being, Heppell concluded. He promised that in one hour the audience would leave with simple strategies to save them time and money.

So why are we all so bad at managing our time to begin with? The reasons, Heppell explained, are psychological and we need to banish those demons before we can take positive action. “People think that boring folk are good at managing their time,” said Heppell, but on top of that we’re often told that we’re no good at it, which leads to “negative self-belief.” When you believe something, he explained, you will always find the evidence to make it true.

The first step, he told the LBF, is to “fall in love with the bin” and “declutter,” making space for important stuff. Next, work out what you are “brilliant” at, what you could be better at and finally those things that you find “barely bearable.” Why keep doing stuff that you hate, or are bad at? Heppell asked. Get rid of what you find unbearable and, where you could do better, decide if you’re going to get better at it or if you’re going to stop.

Once you’ve made that decision, you can delegate. There are three ways to do this: delegate down, delegate across and delegate up. You need to delegate in the right way though he warned. For example, when you delegate up, be prepared to take something off your boss’s hands in return.

There is also a good way to ask for things too. The human brain, Heppell told the LBF, is more readily persuaded by certain words or phrases. When you delegate, the phrase “I need your help” has been proven to work nearly 100% of the time but variations of it are less successful. Similarly, Heppell suggested that “because” is a very powerful word. It gives people a reason to help you and studies have shown that the reason doesn’t even need to make sense; the word triggers a positive response in the listener’s brain.

Heppell’s next tip was the $100,000 Idea. At the turn of the last century a young man approached the steel magnate and richest man on earth, Charles M. Schwab, and asked him to try out his idea for a month and at the end of that month Schwab was to pay the young man what he thought the idea was worth. At the end of the month Schwab paid him $100,000 for a simple but effective idea:

“At the end of each day, write down the five most important things you should do tomorrow.”

It’s not, Heppell warned, a simple “To Do List”. The list can only include five things and should be done as late as possible at the end of the day. That way, Heppell explained your brain will subconsciously prepare for the day ahead whilst you sleep. Most importantly, stressed Heppell, don’t just write them down, “Do them!”

To ensure you meet your deadlines Heppell revealed that it helps consider the negative consequences. Our two main motivators, he continued, “are gaining pleasure and avoiding pain.” The strongest of these is avoiding pain, “That’s why deadlines need to be deadly.”

He also advised splitting the week up into three types of days: Me Days, Key Days and Plan Days. “Me Days are all about freedom,” Heppell told the LBF. They do have to be planned though, or you’ll allow other stuff to get in the way. “Key days are where you do […] your top mission critical activity,” probably the top five things that you wrote down before bed. “When you’re on a key day, all you’re doing is working on these,” said Heppell and it is vital that you communicate your intentions with those around you so that they don’t try to distract you.

Finally, the Plan Days are “all about designing amazing Key Days and Me Days.” They’re the days that we currently have all the time, he suggested – reading emails, running errands, ironing, arranging appointments…

Heppell believes that we can all save ourselves valuable time if we don’t let all this stuff eat into every day and follow this “Me, Key and Plan” idea. Start with one Me Day, two Key Days and four Plan Days a week, he suggested. Whilst Heppell admitted it’s hard at first, he truly believes it can be life changing.