If you want to make more money in your business and have more leisure time then you need to read and implement the following simple time management tips! Good time management is about knowing what needs to been done; delegation and working without interruption. Implement these 3 tips and watch your business soar!
1. Write out a “To Do List”.
This may seem very basic, but it’s essential. I don’t know many successful, wealthy business people who aren’t walking around with a To Do list in their pocket. The best times to write out your list is the night before or first thing in the morning – either time works well. Review the list and block out time in your schedule for the items that will make you money. Remember the 80/20 rule – 20% of what you do makes 80% of your profits! Schedule in the high dollar paying stuff first and work your way down from there. Once you got your schedule together do your best to stick to it! This is very important and will be tough at first, but even if you are 50% on schedule to start with will probably make you more productive than you are right now. Do your best to keep on track and it will become second nature in no time.
2. Delegate, delegate, delegate!
Having a life and making money in business is all about delegation of the no or low dollar return items to other people. On your To Do List identify the low paying tasks. It’s my guess that 80% of what you do in your business could be delegated to someone else. If you don’t currently have any employees start small with a part-time person or maybe you have family members such as your wife or kids that carry some of the load. There is “virtual” help available for hire at such websites as Elancer and many others. Explore your options, but don’t procrastinate, starts delegating the low paying work right away. Start in small chunks and keep off loading work on to others. Build your team and leverage yourself!
3. Eliminate “Time Vampires”!
I think it was at a business coaching seminar in San Diego where I first heard the term “Time Vampire” – but it’s a great description for people or things that steal your time and cost you money! Basically you don’t want any interruptions while you are working. If you have blocked 90 minutes to work on your marketing, you don’t want to be answering the phone, text messages or emails. You must spend 100% of that time working on what is scheduled, in this case marketing. Be ruthless with this! Emails, text message, phone calls etc. can be answered at another time – in fact you can either delegate some of this or schedule time daily to clean these up. So, while working on a specific task close your email program and let voicemail answer your phone. It’s a good idea to change your outgoing voicemail announcement to a message that lets the caller know what time you will be available to return their call so they know what number to leave you. Again this is going to be difficult for most, but your clients have to be trained so that they don’t always have “instant access” to you.
Time management is the lifeblood of any successful business. If you start the day with a prioritized To Do List, learn to delegate and wipeout any Time Vampires you will see you bank account grow and have more time for yourself and your family!
