Monday 26 September 2011

Time Management

Time To Get Tough On Time Management


 

Let’s be honest, if you have spent any significant amount of time as a business owner or even learning about starting your own business then you have already most likely read numerous pieces on time management. If you have implemented them that’s great. If you haven’t then it’s time to stop wasting your time and get tough.

What are today’s top time killers?

  1. Meetings
  2. Phone calls
  3. Email
  4. Social media
  5. Micro managing

 

Lengthy and unnecessary meetings can literally take down your enterprise from the inside. Do you really need in person meetings? You could potentially be burning the most productive hours of your week. Multiply that by everyone in your organization that is tied up in them. Unless you absolutely have to meet then you must not! If you really have to then have a strict agenda and outcome that you are going to achieve and ensure that something tangible that could not otherwise be achieved comes out of them.

The phone can be equally evil these days. In most cases there is really no need for you to use it. Don’t believe it? Time the number of minutes it takes you to have a phone conversation (including dialing, waiting on hold, calling back and all the etiquette) with sending an email. Again, unless the phone is the fastest or only way to handle something avoid it like the plague.

Email is now one of the biggest enemies of time management. Constantly checking your inbox or replying to multiple messages as they come in can kill your productivity. Which each email it could take your 5 minutes to get re-focused on the other tasks at hand. Refuse to check your email expect for 2-3 critical points in the day and only reply to emails either first thing in the morning or at the end of the day. Even better, hire a virtual assistant who can take care of email handling for you.

The same goes for social media. With smartphones more rampant than ever Tweeting and checking Facebook updates can burn hours everyday. Lock your phone in your office drawer while you are actually working if you have to. If you are worried about business outsource your social media management. You are either working on the most critical money making activities in your business or you are just playing.

If you really want to achieve better time management then start outsourcing right now if you are not already, and delegate every task that is not absolutely essential for you to handle personally. Be brutal with yourself when it comes to managing your time and it will pay off big in freedom and revenues.