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Andrew Morrison on Business Time Management.
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“Manage Your Time with Focus Days”!
by Andrew Morrison
At this very moment, should you be reading this article?
Have you allowed e-mails, books, newspapers and magazines to become a
distraction? Is there something else you should be doing right now that
can help to reduce your expenses or increase your profits?
The book of Ecclesiastes suggests, "There is a season
for everything." The key to effective time management is based on
your ability to schedule the right tasks during the proper season. Just
as there is a time to plant and a time to harvest, there is also a time
to review your finances and a time to manage your team. Anxiety and her
older sister depression begin to enter the picture when you fall prey
to the seduction of multi-tasking.
You can't walk in two different directions at the same
time. So, why try and make sales calls in the midst of dealing with staffing
issues. Your
attention is never focused on one activity and thus your effectiveness
is greatly diminished. Studies repeatedly prove that you can get more
done in less time if you focus on one activity at a time.
You probably feel that your business is unique and it's
hard to focus on one thing when there are 101 items on your to-do list.
I'll challenge your thinking by suggesting that your business is more
routine than you realize. Bills need to be paid, products have to be ordered
and you need to attract new clients. You waste a great deal of time by
dwelling on these activities and then attempting to work on several projects
at once amidst a constant barrage of interruptions.
Hundreds of my clients have been able to increase their
productivity and spend more time on the things that matter by creating
a series of Focus Days. These are days during the week when you focus
on specific activities.
Let's first make a list of all the things you need to get
done during a
typical week. Next let's place all of these items within a few categories.
With a few exceptions, you'll find that all of your business activities
fall
into the following areas:
-
1. Sales - Direct-to-consumer activities related to
closing the sale
-
2. Marketing - Creating a "buying" environment
for consumers
-
3. Finance - Review budgets, payables and receivables
-
4. Management - Recruit and manage your team
-
5. Operations - Logistical issues that keeps the business running
smoothly
-
6. Customer Service - Delivering on the promise made to the customer
-
7. Training - Improving your team's skills and knowledge
After you establish your business categories, next decide
which days and times during the week you plan to focus on those activities.
Have fun with this portion of the exercise. When a small business owner
tells me that they don't feel like doing something, I respond by saying,
"Okay, then don't do it. Instead, how about doing something that
you feel like doing?" It's possible to run your entire business by
doing things when you feel like doing them. The only catch is that you
have a week to complete the task.
What do you feel like doing on Monday mornings versus Thursday
afternoons? Breakdown each day into mornings and afternoons and then place
each of the seven business categories into a specific time period. This
enables you to create a week that allows you to do things when you have
the energy and desire to complete them.
For example, your week may look something like this …
Monday
am - Finance / Operations
pm - Training
Tuesday
am - Marketing
pm - Sales
Wednesday
am - Sales
pm - Customer Service
Thursday
am - Customer Service
pm - Sales
Friday
am - Customer Service
pm - Management
The final piece to this time management puzzle is to learn
how to deal with distractions. Here are a few tips:
-
1. Alert your employees, vendors and clients to your
new schedule.
-
2. Develop a habit of checking e-mail only three times a day.
-
3. Find another business owner who can hold you accountable with daily
phone calls.
-
4. Plan your week on Sunday night.
-
5. List the top 3 activities you plan to complete during the day,
before you leave the office each day.
-
Work on the most important activity first.
-
6. Post your new schedule filled with the focus days
where you can see them each day.
-
7. Ask yourself continually, "Is this the best use of my time?"
-
8. Consider how to delegate, eliminate or automate it, when faced
with a task.
-
9. Send all calls to voice mail during your focus days.
-
10. Consider visiting the library if your office proves to be too
noisy.
-
11. Teach your team members how to create their own focus days.
-
12. Treat yourself to a reward for sticking to the schedule.
-
13. Clean-up your desk at the end of each workday.
I began by asking you, if you should be reading this article
right now?
Consider reading articles during the focus day set aside for training.
Just make a schedule that feels comfortable and stick to it.
Andrew Morrison is the founder of Small Business Camp -
an entrepreneurial training, coaching and marketing services firm. Previously
he built a multi-million dollar company by providing innovative direct
marketing services to Fortune 500 companies and appeared on Oprah. He
was featured in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, Crain's
Magazine 40 Under 40 and Advertising Age. Visit www.SmallBusinessCamp.com
to register for his FREE business building tele-seminar.
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