Learn To Focus On Whats Important and Farm Out The Rest
Learn To Focus On Whats Important and Farm Out The Rest
So, instead of beating yourself up at the end of the day over how much you didn’t get done, you should learn to make better use of the time you have. Your time should be spent doing only those things that help build your business and increase revenue, not mundane tasks that could be handled by someone else. It’s called "working on your business instead of working in it."
We entrepreneurs often feel like we have to do everything ourselves or things won’t get done. It’s a more accurate statement to say that things might get done, but they wouldn’t get done to the high standards we set for ourselves.
I feel your pain. It wasn’t that long ago when I thought that I had to have my nose in every detail of my business. I was personally involved in everything from designing the website to sales and marketing to product design and project management to customer support and beyond.
I spent so much time doing everyone else’s job that I didn’t have time to do my own, and the business suffered for it. It took a conscious effort on my part to stop micromanaging and start delegating. Not only that, I found that I had to change my habits regarding even the simplest things like checking email and taking calls; two things that were eating up several hours of my average day.
Here’s how I did it and you can, too.
Before you can figure out the best use of your time you need to have a clear understanding of what you’re spending your time on now. Create a diary that details your average day and include every task you perform and how much time it took. If you spent 30 minutes answering email, jot that down. If you spent 2 hours at lunch, jot that down. If you spend 30 minutes on the phone talking to someone who’s trying to sell you toner ink, jot it down. Account for every minute you spent working for the entire week.
At the end of the week list out all the tasks and the times spent on them. I think you’ll be amazed at how much time you’re spending on things that really aren’t the best use of your time. Now divide the list into tasks that you yourself must absolutely, positively handle and tasks that you could hand off to someone else. Yes, I said hand off to someone else. You’re about to learn to delegate, Heaven help you.
Here’s the whole point of this exercise: if you’re wasting time on tasks that can be done by someone else, then you need to stop doing them. Even making small changes in the way you use email or answer the phone can save you hours every day.
In my opinion email is the greatest killer of focus and productivity on the planet. It’s a terrific communications medium and if used wisely can be a highly productive business tool, but more often than not email is used to share funny pictures of animals in compromising positions and videos of Britney Spears. If you keep up with how much time you’re spending every day on non-essential email I think you’ll get my point.
Many of us have become so addicted to email that we check it every 2 minutes whether we need to or not. If you’re like me you spend more time plowing through spam than actually reading email of importance. So unless your business hinges on every email that comes in, I suggest you turn off the email program completely and only check it two to three times a day. Better still, farm out the email checking to someone else and instruct them to only forward email to you that requires your personal attention. You’ll be amazed at how many hours a day you’ll save.
I’d bet that you also get dozens of calls every week from people that you don’t really need to talk to. I’ve stopped answering the phone at my office altogether and I highly recommend you do the same. I let someone else answer the phone and they have implicit instructions not to bother me unless the call is from someone they know I’ll want to speak to, like my Mama. Otherwise, they take a message and if the call merits my attention, I’ll return it personally or assign it to someone else to handle.
If you’re new in business you may not yet have the luxury of farming out every task that is eating up your precious time, but once you’re in a position to do so outsourcing these tasks will free you up to work on more important things, like building your business and increasing revenue.
Learn To Focus On Whats Important and Farm Out The Rest - To learn more about this author, visit Tim Knox's Website.
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How many times have you looked around your small business and said, "There just isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done!" Welcome to the biggest realization you will ever make as a small business owner, my friend: there are only so many hours in the day and there isn’t a darn thing you can do about it.
So, instead of beating yourself up at the end of the day over how much you didn’t get done, you should learn to make better use of the time you have. Your time should be spent doing only those things that help build your business and increase revenue, not mundane tasks that could be handled by someone else. It’s called "working on your business instead of working in it."
We entrepreneurs often feel like we have to do everything ourselves or things won’t get done. It’s a more accurate statement to say that things might get done, but they wouldn’t get done to the high standards we set for ourselves.
I feel your pain. It wasn’t that long ago when I thought that I had to have my nose in every detail of my business. I was personally involved in everything from designing the website to sales and marketing to product design and project management to customer support and beyond.
I spent so much time doing everyone else’s job that I didn’t have time to do my own, and the business suffered for it. It took a conscious effort on my part to stop micromanaging and start delegating. Not only that, I found that I had to change my habits regarding even the simplest things like checking email and taking calls; two things that were eating up several hours of my average day.
Here’s how I did it and you can, too.
Before you can figure out the best use of your time you need to have a clear understanding of what you’re spending your time on now. Create a diary that details your average day and include every task you perform and how much time it took. If you spent 30 minutes answering email, jot that down. If you spent 2 hours at lunch, jot that down. If you spend 30 minutes on the phone talking to someone who’s trying to sell you toner ink, jot it down. Account for every minute you spent working for the entire week.
At the end of the week list out all the tasks and the times spent on them. I think you’ll be amazed at how much time you’re spending on things that really aren’t the best use of your time. Now divide the list into tasks that you yourself must absolutely, positively handle and tasks that you could hand off to someone else. Yes, I said hand off to someone else. You’re about to learn to delegate, Heaven help you.
Here’s the whole point of this exercise: if you’re wasting time on tasks that can be done by someone else, then you need to stop doing them. Even making small changes in the way you use email or answer the phone can save you hours every day.
In my opinion email is the greatest killer of focus and productivity on the planet. It’s a terrific communications medium and if used wisely can be a highly productive business tool, but more often than not email is used to share funny pictures of animals in compromising positions and videos of Britney Spears. If you keep up with how much time you’re spending every day on non-essential email I think you’ll get my point.
Many of us have become so addicted to email that we check it every 2 minutes whether we need to or not. If you’re like me you spend more time plowing through spam than actually reading email of importance. So unless your business hinges on every email that comes in, I suggest you turn off the email program completely and only check it two to three times a day. Better still, farm out the email checking to someone else and instruct them to only forward email to you that requires your personal attention. You’ll be amazed at how many hours a day you’ll save.
I’d bet that you also get dozens of calls every week from people that you don’t really need to talk to. I’ve stopped answering the phone at my office altogether and I highly recommend you do the same. I let someone else answer the phone and they have implicit instructions not to bother me unless the call is from someone they know I’ll want to speak to, like my Mama. Otherwise, they take a message and if the call merits my attention, I’ll return it personally or assign it to someone else to handle.
If you’re new in business you may not yet have the luxury of farming out every task that is eating up your precious time, but once you’re in a position to do so outsourcing these tasks will free you up to work on more important things, like building your business and increasing revenue.
Learn To Focus On Whats Important and Farm Out The Rest - To learn more about this author, visit Tim Knox's Website.
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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