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Time Management - Part 2
Ashley Burgess-Payne • Jul 10, 2020
In last week’s article we covered the first 3 points to effective time management and how you can begin to get more from your time and ease the stress levels you may be experiencing.
In Part 2, we will cover the remaining points that will help you minimise input and maximise output.
Let’s continue.
Picking up where we left off in Point 3 (Prioritisation), Point 4 is the Pareto Principle and it is one of the most effective tools you can implement in both your professional and personal life. Having used this principle over the past three years I can confirm that it has made me more effective and more valuable in the workplace as well as having eased my stress levels and increased my income significantly. When you understand this principle, you are able to eliminate a lot of the ‘noise’ from your life and that is a liberating feeling.
4. The Pareto’s Principle (80:20 Principle)
The 80:20 Principle, also known as the Pareto Principle after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto found that only 80% of the world’s wealth was owned by 20% of the population – a staggering statistic. The principle also points out that 80% of your outcomes come from only 20% of your inputs. In other words, only 20% of what you do really matters. Just imagine what you could do with that other 80% of the time you that is currently being ‘wasted’ on activities that aren’t necessarily generating you income/profit! However, it is often the 20% that are the uncomfortable things that we put off. These are NOT the endless emails, phone calls and other ‘urgent’ things we feel we must do in order to keep things ‘ticking over’, they require a lot of thought, planning and decisiveness. They are the things that will break the cycle of busyness and when implemented take you and your business to the next level.
When applying this principle to your business you are also likely to find that the it applies to your finances as much as it does your time. If you carry out an analysis of your customer base you are likely to discover that 80% of your income in fact comes from approximately 20% of your clients. On the flip side of this, you will likely find that 80% of your ‘headaches’ and the things that cause you stress, anxiety and leave you feeling that you don’t have enough time come from only 20% of your clients.
What would happen if you were to simply get rid of the 80%?
(Note: The figures do not have to be in an exact ratio of 80:20, it could be 90:10 or 85:15 etc. But generally, as a rule of thumb it will be around the 80% mark.)
Think about the following:
• Q: What 20% of your business is causing you 80% of your headaches?
• Q: What 20% of your business is bringing you 80% of your rewards e.g. income/satisfaction etc.
• Q: What would happen if you dropped the 80% and started focusing on the 20% which provide you with 80% of your income and satisfaction?
By conducting this analysis of your business you’ll find that what often seems urgent and important simply isn’t. Your time is being stolen by unimportant tasks. Conducting this analysis will assist with your prioritisation and the creation of your ‘today list’ from point 3 above.
Be sure to focus on results, they speak for themselves and always ask yourself, ‘am I doing the important things?’
Tip #4: Identify the few critical tasks that make the difference to your business. Remember it is often the uncomfortable things that you keep putting off because you’re too busy to really make the significant difference and will break the cycle freeing you up to do more with your time in the long run. Weed out what is unimportant and buy yourself more time.
Side note:
If you are currently not willing to cut off your ‘headache’ clients for fear of losing work/income remember that what you want as a business owner is more business not necessarily more customers. By this I mean you want more income and profits. What you probably don’t want is more clients who require more of your time and likely increase your stress levels. Instead focus on the clients that produce the goods for your business. Dedicate your time, effort, energy and focus to them and get them to increase their orders and the frequency – cross-sell and upsell. It is better to have fewer client who pay more than lots of clients on small deals. Look at my previous article on Premium Pricing and Premier Positioning to understand more about this.
But if you must insist on having more clients be sure to work in your areas of strength. Identify the common characteristics of your best clients, profile them and then go after more clients that fit that profile. It will be worth your investment of time.
5. You Energy is Finite – THINK! Use Your Energy Wisely – Parkinson’s Law.
Despite what we like to believe about ourselves we are not able to do all the things - we simply do not have the energy (or time).
Our energy levels are finite and just like a car’s fuel tank they decrease as the day wears on. Therefore, use it wisely and complete the tasks that will provide you with the best returns first (or whenever you function best – some people are night owls. Find your sweet spot and go with that).
Also do not waste more time than is necessary on a task. We are often poor at judging the amount of time required to complete things. Often, we underestimate the time it will take which leads to feelings of stress when the deadline is fast approaching. But sometimes, we go the other way and dedicate too much time to a task when it doesn’t merit it and the Law of Parkinson states that we will fill the time allotted to a task whether it is needed or not. Not only can this can lead to perfectionism which often leads to procrastination and stagnation it is important to remember that sometimes the ‘minimal viable product’ is good enough.
To avoid this scenario give yourself immediate and imminent deadlines. You may think this would add to your stress and feeling of not having time, however when there is a deadline that is imminent it causes us to focus, prevents procrastination and generally leads to us producing work of at least the same standard, if not higher whilst also removing the task from the list of things to do. This means the task is off your list of things to do and no longer taking up mental space in our mind thus relieving stress and allowing us to focus on other things.
I like to give my full focus to tasks in short, sharp bursts of energy e.g. 20-minute increments followed by a 5-minute break to get up and move around before repeating the cycle. Try it for yourself. Dedicate 20 minutes to a task and see what you can get done. You may be pleasantly surprised with what you achieve in these shorter bursts of activity. Sometimes overthinking the task at hand (worrying about it/fear of not having time) is the problem. When we start it and don’t inhibit the mind, we can create some of our best work.
Tip #5: Use your energy wisely – ask yourself if I could only do one thing today, what would make me feel that I have moved a step closer to where I want to be/satisfied with my day’s work?
6. Time Block Your Calendar– Avoid Distractions (the ‘Time Vampires’)
How and where is your time being sucked from you? Dan Kennedy calls them time vampires, you may call them employees/family/friends/emails and phone calls etc., but whatever they are it is vital that you identify them and eliminate them as much as possible.
How much of your time is being taken up by trivial matters? (Interruptions in the office, phone calls, emails etc). You see it isn’t just the interruption itself that is damaging, it is the time that it takes for you to get back into your groove and reengage with what you were doing prior to the interruption. Research estimates this to be approximately 25 minutes on average for each interruption. That is a staggering amount of time to lose especially when you consider how many times you are interrupted across the day, week, month and year. How much time are you ‘losing’?
How can you avoid this? Time Blocking.
Become more protective of your time, it is extremely valuable. Implement a new calendar system of working whereby you block out mornings/afternoons (or entire days) where you are only available between set times and educate your staff and customers to abide by this. This could be working in your office with the door closed or working off site, whatever allows you to work at peak performance and optimum flow. You’ll find that this frees up a significant amount of time during the day for you to work on the tasks that are important for growing your business.
Side Note:
An open-door policy with your staff can lead to a fantastic and open/creative working environment with strong working relationships, but it is important that your team know when they can and cannot disturb you.
Also try to avoid meetings that don’t have a set agenda and a clear objective as well as a set cut off time. Meetings for meetings sake do not achieve anything other than waste time. To assist in the productivity and efficiency of meetings think about removing the chairs and having a standing only meeting. This can speed up the process and ensure people do not labour on points. It is also worth remembering that meetings should be called to make final decisions, not to discuss new issues (this can be done by phone or email).
Finally, a point worth stressing is that email is immediate delivery, not immediate response. Don’t feel you have to stop what you’re doing to respond straight away. Check your emails and take phone calls at set times during the day and turn them off when you’re not looking at them. Also, by batching activities like this e.g. checking and responding to emails and phones calls at a set time in one go means you can often get through them quicker as you are focused and in the flow of things rather than jumping from one task to another which requires a different level of focus or input.
Tip #6: Turn off all distractions and focus on the task at hand (no phone calls, emails, text messages)
7. Learn to Say No
Being successful is not necessarily about doing more, it is about doing less of the wrong things so that you have time to do the right things.
Learn to say NO!
We often get involved in areas that either do not concern us or are not the best use of our time and skill set. Doing things that we shouldn’t raises our stress levels and leads to further build-up of work that we should be doing, thus resulting in feelings of guilt and anxiety. All this leads to a lack of focus and direction.
It may seem alien to you to say no, but it is only by saying no to certain things that you can say yes to the important things. Remember, we can’t do all things.
So, delegate effectively to the best person suited for the job at hand. Also provide a clear overview of what the objective of the task is and the purpose it serves. Think about whether you want to hand over full authority to achieve the objective alone and come back to you once it is completed or do you require regular updates and the final say on decision making? By providing clarity and clear boundaries you empower the chosen member of staff to take ownership of the matter whilst also freeing up your time to work on other matters. If more than one member of staff is involved, you are providing them with the platform to develop team work etc. But remember, delegation is not passing something on just to get it off your desk. It has to be done properly for it to be effective. If you delegate poorly you may just find yourself repeating yourself.
On a separate note, when an issue arises in your business or amongst your staff, don’t always be so quick to jump in to resolve it. Generally, most problems resolve themselves without your input and again when you are not available your staff are likely to step up, think for themselves and make a decision and 9/10 it is usually the right one. Trust your team.
Tip #7: Learn to say no and delegate effectively.
8. Information Overload – Switch it Off
Sometimes more is not better. Your mind is already too full.
As a business owner, sometimes saying yes can lead to diminishing returns. It is not always about more. Sometimes it is about going deeper not wider, focus on what is important. Keep it front and centre.
In today’s social media, 24/7 rolling news age it is easy to get distracted and caught up in things that really don’t matter. To qualify ‘really don’t matter’ we mean anything that does not help you get from where you are now to where you want to be in the quickest and most sustainable way possible e.g. least input for maximum output A.K.A smart working.
Do not worry about being uninformed. If it is big enough and important enough, you’ll hear about it. Switch it off, focus on what is important to you and think quality over quantity. Most information is irrelevant and of no help to you achieving your goals.
Tip #8: More is not better. Success comes with a sacrifice – you can’t be successful in all areas of life, so don’t try. Pick the areas that are important to you and work on them.
Finally - Look After Yourself
To make effective use of your time you have to be running at optimum capacity – both mentally and physically. Listen to your body and what it is telling you. Be sure to look after yourself! If your body was a car would it pass its MOT? Don’t run yourself into the ground or burn out. This will not help you function effectively.
Ultimately time management is about discovering what is really important to you. Identifying your why. If you know why you are doing something and if it’s important enough to you, you’ll make it happen. However, we often experience stress and lack of time because we feel pressured to meet deadlines for tasks that do not fulfil us and as such, we begin to resent them. When you are doing what you truly love you will make time and find the how, even on the tough days. As Dr. John C Maxwell always states, “it’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else.”
What is really important to you?
Written by Ashley Burgess-Payne
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