Every business owner has time issues – always too much to do and too little time to do it.
Time is the most precious resource, more precious than cash. The reason why is simple… we only have 24 hours in the day. Cash growth is unlimited.
First thing first… We need to accept one thing: Our time management will NEVER be perfect… we’ll never get ALL our work completed by the end of each day. Accept it and move on…
So why bother trying to manage it better? Well, here are four good reasons…
1. If we can manage our time better, we can start doing more of the things we enjoy, and less of the stuff we don’t. The result being… more motivation and better results.
2. Perhaps there are others better than us at doing the tasks we’re holding on to. If we can delegate in or out of house, we’re likely to achieve better results.
3. We should be able to get out of the office or workplace on time and get a better work : life balance
4. Better prioritising means less fire-fighting which means we’ll be able to start new projects that will lead to speedier profit-growth.
So what are the first steps I need to take right now to get better results from my time.
Label or colour code each task you have in your diary for this week as follows:
Do – Tasks you can complete quickly. Get them out of the way. Gives you a feeling of accomplishment and you feel good!
Delegate – In-house or outsource – These are the tasks others may be better or more efficient at doing than you. If it takes ‘too long’ to delegate, work out how much time it will take and what the return will be. Perhaps you need to put time aside to train others in order to win more time back?
Dump – Been moving tasks in your calendar or to-do list for more than 3 months? Just ditch them! 99% of these jobs will NEVER be done, and by getting rid, it will free your list / diary / mind.
Defer – Move the remaining items to a time when you know it can be done or needs to be done. Secret here = block time out if it’s a longer job.
If we do the same stuff each day, we can’t expect different results. We need to change how we invest our time.
Hope this has helped.
