I. WHAT IS TIME MANAGEMENT REALLY ABOUT?
Time management is not about "beating the clock." It's more about being able to have a realistic picture of yourself and how much time capital you have; for example, after balancing your life check book how much time do you have left over to work on your business each day or week? In other words, it's more about how you manage yourself and the work for your business. How will your home based business fit in with the rest of your life? Once you've established that, what do you do inside of those business hours?
Two important factors of time management include
- managing and prioritizing the work you do within your "business hours."
- improving the productivity and effectiveness of the work you do. Only spend time on results producing activities.
When you look at your typical day or week, what are your primary responsibilities as a small business owner? Which of these activities are going to bring you the results you are looking for?
II. HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU NEED HELP MANAGING YOUR TIME?
Are you are finding it hard to get things started or done? Do you find yourself procrastinating because you are feeling overwhelmed by the workload of your day? Are you simply not getting the results you are looking for? If you have answered any of these questions with "yes" then you may be suffering from time management issues.
While looking at the big picture of what you need to do, also be aware of time sucking activities that could really eat up your work day. What are some time thieves you are experiencing? Being aware of them is the first step to devising a plan to prevent them or overcome them.
Below is a list of some examples of time wasting activities:
- paperwork
- junk mail/junk email
- using inbox as a to do list
- reading things that have nothing to do with "the big picture"
- surfing the Internet/watching television
- misfiled information
- idle chat
- drop-in visitors
- poor planning
- inefficient delegation/not saying "No!"
- cluttered work space
- misfiled information
- not setting/sticking to priorities
- waiting/delays
- extended lunches or breaks
- telephone interruptions
- missed appointments/needing to reschedule them
- tired/unable to concentrate
- taking on more than you can realistically handle
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO STOP/MINIMIZE DISTRACTIONS SO YOU CAN BE MORE EFFECTIVE/PRODUCTIVE?
What are the most important tasks you need to do today? Rank them in terms of importance. Are the interruptions/distractions more important than those tasks?
Consolidating similar tasks tends to help. A common distraction is the telephone ringing. If you are really busy you could let the person know at the beginning of the call you only have five minutes to talk. I prefer to let the answering machine get it and get back to that person when I have phone time scheduled in, not in the middle of a very important project or activity, especially when I know I only have an hour to work on something. Surfing the Internet, or spending time on a particular site, even though it is part of my business, it could end up being a very useless way to spend time. It works better if I deliberately plan surf time into my day.
Tackling the least appealing jobs first tends to help me feel better, more energized than if I waited until I barely had an ounce of energy left to do them in and they end up getting postponed for another week. It is common sense, but difficult tasks not completed can weigh heavily on a person's mind eating up energy to do other things, including fun things, and increase stress.
Learn to delegate and inspire others to greatness. Educate your business partners and team mates how/where to find things for themselves. Teach them specific skills or tools to use so it frees up more of your time. Remind them that they are business partners not employees.
Take control of the paper flow. Do something with each piece of paper on your desk. Read it. File it or Recycle it. If you are really short on time then put the papers into subgroups "R" for read, "F" for file and "G" for garbage or recycle. Have a filing system where papers are grouped together in common files you know you will access frequently. Avoid filing something under an obscure name.
Learn to say "NO." At a workplace it is common to have demands placed on you by other people where you have to say No. When you work for yourself from home you need to set limits so you can be as productive as possible by limiting:
- phone conversations,
- time spent in training
- time doing training,
- time in presentations.
- time on the internet
You also need to say no to yourself in terms of taking on new projects that you don't realistically have time for. You also need to be selective about your training for your business. What kind of training do you really need where you lack skills and/or experience? What kind of training will allow you to sharpen your saw and still spend time building your business? What kind of training impacts directly on the results of your business in the shortest amount of time? How can you reduce your time on the internet and get more done? I found that choosing 1 or 2 activities on the internet at the most and focusing on those 1 or 2, and then turning the computer off usually helps. For all you internet junkies out there the internet needs to be primarily a tool for your business rather than entertainment. Keep in mind that it takes 37 days to form a new habit.
Overcome procrastination and stress. One way to overcome procrastination and stress is by setting realistic goals that you can achieve every day. If you are working at other activities and are putting in a long day, you may have to take one goal of yours and break it down into baby steps. That's fine to do this as long as you then don't put it on a back burner. Realize it is a long term goal that needs to be achieved daily. More on this when I discuss "goals, planning and priorities" in section four.
III. TIME IS A PRECIOUS COMMODITY JUST LIKE MONEY
"Time is really the only capital that any human being has and the only thing he can't afford to lose." Thomas Edison
"Being rich is having money, but being wealthy is having time." Margaret Bonnano
IV. GOALS, PLANNING AND PRIORITIES
Goals-
Why am I doing this? Envision the kind of life you want, your detailed why, and write down your ideal life.
What is the main goal or goals? What do I want to accomplish in a certain period of time?
Why will I succeed? This helps you make more realistic and attainable goals. If you can envision it, you will achieve it.
What happens if I decide not to do it?
Planning-
"Failing to plan is planning to fail."
- Plan each day, week, and quarter.
- Write them down so they remain clear and so you don't get overwhelmed.
- Break things down into small bite sized pieces
- Eat the frogs first. Do the things you dread the most or are most difficult for you to get going
In business, there are so many activities demanding your attention every day. You need to have time to market yourself, communicate with potential business partners and customers, communicate with existing business partners and customers, train people, train yourself, have a method for tracking your cash flow... These are all huge goals which are very time consuming. Yes, you can spend all of your waking hours doing them, but there needs to be a balance. You still need to take care of yourself and your family. There has to be some sort of rhythm so one doesn't feed off of the other, and so you can actually enjoy your journey along the way. Below are two main areas I want to focus on that tend to take up a lot of time: meetings and writing. Priorities in Meetings and Priorities in Writing are two main topics I have written about below
1. Priorities in Meetings- one to one meetings or groups
Whether you are talking on the phone with a person or meeting live you need to have specific goals in mind. I spend most of my time on the Internet so my interactions are usually over the phone, and on social media sites, and through email. If you do conduct meetings in person it is important not to let your tools (brochures, flip-charts, manuals) dictate the agenda. You dictate the agenda. Your tools are merely guides.
What do you want to accomplish for each meeting? Be prepared to be interactive. Is it going to be an information gathering call, a follow-up call, or a training call? How much time to you plan on spending? 5 minutes is a good rule of thumb for when talking on the phone.
Information Gathering Call:
- Gather information- where you gather information about the other person you are talking to, and allow them to ask questions. If so, have some questions clear in your mind before you start the conversation. What do they do for a living? How long have they done it for? How do they enjoy it? What did they do before? How did they enjoy that? Anticipate that they will also ask you questions as well such as what you do. Be prepared for a 30 second commercial of what you do and how what you do can help them.
- Help them solve a problem-they have particular problems that they need help solving, such as they have just been laid off, they are physically unable to work, they need more money to pay for their children's extracurricular activities, they want to pay off their mortgages. They are unhappy with their current employment situation. Ask questions which allows them to define and describe the problem in detail.
- Find out their degree of desire to change-What have they done about their situation so far? What were the results? What are they willing to do about their situations? Ask them to rate their desire for change on a scale of 1 to 10.
- Present your solution.
Follow-up Call:
If by any chance you are not able to get any of the above 4 things done in one call you do a follow-up call to continue the conversation. Let the person know before ending the above call that you would like to continue the conversation. The follow-up call should also take no more than 5 minutes if it's on the phone.
Training Call:
The training call is really a presentation about your company and the opportunity. It should be tailored to fit the needs of the individual much like a doctor would when prescribing a treatment for his/her patient based on a detailed account of a patient's health history
2. Priorities in Writing Tasks- such as for blogs and ad copy
When writing things online I usually start with the following steps
- pick a topic-not too broad
- do research from multiple sources on the topic
- design an outline or a mind map
- start writing according to the outline
- revise, polish
- insert any hyperlinks or pictures
- revise and polish some more
- publish
Picking a topic should be about something that interests you first, yet has a lot of value for your audience. Keep a running list of topics to write about. Start with one topic and narrow it down as much as possible.
Do research on a topic by using Google to do a keyword search on themes related to the topic. Write down any information that you could use for your blog or website, but not necessarily. Sometimes what you find may not fit into your main theme or your outline. Spend a day or two researching things about your topic.
For most writing it is important to have an outline. Having an outline saves time. I use Microsoft Works to obtain an outline for my writing. It allows me to write just the main points of what I want to discuss. Here is what the outline looks like:
- Introduction-
- Sub topic #1
- 3 points about that sub-topic
- Sub topic #2
- 3 points about that sub topic
- Sub topic #3
- 3 main points about that sub-topic.
- and so forth
- Conclusion
If you would rather use a different tool such as a mind map, then do so. Some software programs for mind mapping offer 30 day free trials.
Questions to ask yourself-
What is the goal or main idea of my writing?
Who is my target audience?
How will my writing help my target audience?
Next, just write your blog according to your outline adding meat do it of course, based on research you have done.
Revise and polish as you go along, but most importantly, make changes at the end of each writing session.
Once you have added all of your content, add your hyperlinks (such as a lead capture page or link to your website) and your pictures.
Add any more revisions, finishing touches. Look for things in your writing that you can better put into your own words.
Voila! Your done. Congratulations!
You can always keep adding more content or even do a part two if your topic is really big.
FINAL REMARKS ABOUT TIME MANAGEMENT
Time management is a skill that takes practice to learn. My hope is that by writing this blog I have helped many small business owners be successful working from home. For more information about what I do click here to visit my website and then click on the button at the bottom of the screen. It will take you to another page you you fill out a form so I can set you up with some free training.
Have A Healthy, Balanced and Prosperous Day!
Abundantly Yours,
Lisa Latimer
Health and Wellness Mentor and Coach
416-783-2984 or lisalatimer@vitalityforlife.com
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