Six Months To Go ...

For some reason today - I've had three calls from journalists writing articles on the topic, not surprisingly of time management.

Now as someone pointed out, it may because we're halfway through the year, summer holidays are coming up. People may be more aware of the passing of time, as they try to fit everything in to the time remaining before they go away or they realise there's less than six months until the end of the year.

So what are my top tips for getting the most out of the remaining year?

• Write down what you want to achieve in the next six months. How much, how many and when?

• Spend time planning each and every day and make sure what you're doing fits your plan.

• Set aside time in your life for the important things - not just work.

• Schedule in blocks of time for the things you need to do - not just meetings and appointments but tasks too.

• Learn to say no by setting boundaries around your time and stick to these.

• Be aware of your distractions and interruptions and try to reduce them.

• Do more with less - you can't do everything, so be selective - focus on what matters.
  

What do you plan to achieve in the next six months?

What Are You Worth?

I was running a seminar last week - looking at how you can make more money by using your time better. In one form or another you charge for your time. Whether you work for a company, who pays you a weekly or monthly salary or your work for yourself, you're paid for the time you spend at work and the services or product you provide.

Sometimes it can be quite surprising to work out what your hourly rate is - especially when you take into account, preparation, travel time, follow-up, admin and marketing.

Think about how much time you waste in a day. Every hour you waste is money lost - to you or your employer. On average, people are only 60% productive. That means they're losing two days a week - through distractions, interruptions, inefficiency, lack of focus and poor planning.

Make an effort this week to reduce all those distractions that waste your time - email, phone calls, people and see if you can increase your productivity and your earning power.

What's Your Plan B?

You may think you have things under control, that plans are perfectly in place - but what happens if things don't quite work out as planned - do you have a backup or contingency plan? While you don't want to waste time and effort planning for every eventuality, it can save those moments when either life gets in the way or your original plan doesn't quite work out, if you have a Plan B.

"The best laid plans of mice and men ..." or so says Robert Burns and as the motto for the Boy Scouts says - 'be prepared'.

What if the technology goes wrong?

What if that payment from Client X doesn't come through in time?

Now technology is always good for needing a Plan B - you just never know when it's going to blue screen on you or your broadband goes down just at the critical moment, the phone line goes down, you're out of network coverage or the battery goes dead. How would you carry on?

Can you still give your speech or presentation without technology? Do you have prompt cards in case the Powerpoint presentation suffers from technical gremlins or you can't get connected? Have an alternate way of getting connected. Fully charged batteries, spare one's just in case.

Build a little flexibility into your week. Try to avoid planning everything right down to the line or putting all your 'eggs in one basket', so when things don't work out, you're either thrown into chaos, because you have no time left or you feel as if things have fallen apart because Plan A didn't work out.

It's another good reason NOT to leave things until the last minute, when you're likely to find you need more than the 'last minute'.

Learn to go with the flow and try not to get too tied in to the outcome. Even if things fall apart there's usually a solution if you step back and take a fresh look to find your Plan B.

Other People's Deadlines

Respect other people's time in the way you'd expect them to respect yours. Everyone is busy these days and has demands on their time coming from all directions. They are not there sitting waiting for your email to land in their inbox, so that they can instantly respond. They're not waiting for your phone call just so they can respond to your every request.

Plan ahead. If you need something done by a particular time, give yourself a bit of slack. If it involves someone else, this is even more important. Don't dump something on someone and expect them to turn it around to meet your timeframe - especially if you haven't discussed this with them first.

I've seen people dump something on someone at the last minute or only with a few days notice and expect them to given an instant response or meet their deadline. Yes, sometimes we have to work to deadlines and at short notice but make this the exception not the norm.

Don't make your problem (or lack of planning) someone else's deadline.

Share Your Passion

If you do something you're passionate about it's easy for other people to get caught up in your enthusiasm and they'll get more from the experience.

I was out last week with a group and I wanted people to get the most out of their experience, to learn and to enjoy what they'd come to be part of. Now nature is never predictable and you can't guarantee that it will turn up to perform but it's a case of make the most of what's there - enjoying the small moments and not just the spectacular ones.

I had a great evening and others did too and what really put the icing on the cake is that they took the time to say so. They appreciated the effort I'd gone to to make their evening memorable.

Apply the same enthusiasm and attitude to your work and your passion. Go the extra mile.

Random Connections

Recently I’ve been spending time in the world of social media. As well as being the latest way to keep in touch and connect, it’s becoming a more accepted way of marketing your business – if you look at it as an additional tool for promoting your business and not just for social purposes. Although it can end up being just another distraction to an already busy day, it can also be another example of where random connections can make a difference in unexpected ways.

It doesn’t only happen online. Out in the real world, you don’t know where a conversation or chance remark might lead, or where talking to a stranger at a network meeting, in a queue, sitting next to someone might take you. I’m often coming across opportunities which seem to pop out of nowhere and as a result of random connections.

How many times have you had a chance meeting or conversation. which has then lead to something unexpected. Keep your eyes open for them.

You're Never Too Old To Learn New Skills

Learning is an important aspect of our lives. We learn from experience how to do every day things. We’re born knowing nothing and have to learn to do everything for ourselves. This doesn’t change as we grow older – yes, we often get to a point in our lives where we feel we’re sufficiently capable and know enough to go off on our own, leaving the safety and security of our home – those key life changing moments when we take leaps in our learning – going to school, leaving home, first job, having children. There are always things we can learn at whatever stage in life we’re at and you’re never too old.

I was on a course this weekend where the importance of learning being one of the criteria for success in business was mentioned. Whether you work for a company or work for yourself, it’s always worth taking time to plan your own self-development. You may already do this as part of your annual goal-setting and appraisal process, if not – decide which skills you would like to improve or learn this year to keep your job, earn a promotion, improve your business - communication, marketing, sales, leadership, finance, technical, practical ... the list is endless. Talk them over with your boss, your business partner or a colleague. Look at the options available – courses, workshops, mentoring, working with colleagues to learn how they do it. Time spent on personal development is never wasted.

What's on your list this year, what new skills would you like to learn to develop your business?

If you’d like to get on my goal setting teleclass tomorrow and even if can’t make the time, you can still register and you’ll receive the notes from the call.

Take Time To Make Time

A lot of people think that when you’re busy you don’t have time to stop and start doing things differently. But when you are busy and rushed off your feet with too much to do is often the best time to stop and take a step back and look at what you’re doing.

Have you been doing the same thing, the way you’ve always done it and not surprisingly getting the same results i.e. working long hours, reacting to the demands of your clients or customers, always playing catch-up?

If you’re like most people, you probably are. You’re just happy to get through each day and hope that at some point things will slow down long enough for you to catch up. Well, it doesn’t have to be that way. While it might seem hard, take time to make time. Find time to refocus and get motivated.

You’re probably busy right now getting things finished off in the last week before Christmas. Don’t wait until you’re no longer busy when you likely to forget how hectic things were and then fall into the same pattern when it happens again, do something about it now.

A problem shared is a problem halved – talk to someone and see if they can provide some insight and give you a different perspective so that you can find a solution quicker and actually save yourself time.

Invest Your Time In Others

Something that’s come up a few times in conversations over the last week, is how you can free up your time by delegating. Many people don't like to delegate tasks, as they think it's quicker to do it themselves but if they actually invest the time to hand over the task, spend a little time on training it will pay off in the end.
Think about how much an hour of your time is worth. Delegate the jobs that someone else could do cheaper, quicker and more efficiently than you.

At home: Pay a cleaner to clean and tidy your house for a couple of hours will be worth more than what you pay them. You’ll not only have a tidy house but more time with your family. Get a gardener to come in weekly or monthly to give you more time to enjoy your garden. Share the housework with your partner and children.

At work: If you work for yourself - pay someone to do your book keeping or accounts. What you'll pay them for a few hours of their time is probably less than you charge your clients. It gives you more time to spend earning money for your business and working with clients or just to work less. Use an admin assistant - they work for themselves and will work for as many hours as you need - often not even needing to be in the office - filing, emails, newsletters, sending out and chasing invoices can all be handled by someone else.

Don't expect perfection and just because they don't do it exactly the way you do, doesn't mean it's wrong. You might need to show them more than once but be patient - it's worth investing the time to get it right. Be specific, give them the information they need and a timeframe to work to. Don't delegate tasks that are confidential or sensitive in nature or core to your business.

Make sure you stay in control but don’t micro-manage.

P.S. There's a whole chapter in the book on delegating if you want more detail.

Manage Your Mailbox

Emails can be a great time waster and provide a constant source of distraction throughout the day. It’s a constant theme when I’m talking to clients and often one of the first habits that they need to change.

How often have you found that you start checking your emails and as you work your way through them, you find yourself taken off in any number of different directions as you respond to an email, follow a link to read a report, check some information on the internet, pick the phone to make a call, get reminded of something and go off to do that before coming back to your email.

If you're going to make the most of your day then one way to increase your productivity is to manage the amount of time you spend on emails. Keep this to a minimum. At least minimise the time you spend ‘checking’. Only check two or three times a day and this is just to review what’s come in and decide what action you need to take. Read, Action, Dump, File - much the same as with paperwork. A quick scan will tell you what’s important and what’s not, what needs a response now and what can be dealt with (read or responded to) later. Set aside time specifically to deal with emails. Set a time limit and stick to it.

And if you haven’t already switched off those automatic alerts, do it NOW.

Switch Off

Away this weekend and I left the technology behind for a whole four days. I even survived without the mobile phone for much of it – only using it to contact fellow travellers and make arrangements and once to send a twitter message from the top of a hill, when we took a break in the sunshine.

I did of course come back to a full inbox of emails – mostly junk but quickly dispatched. I’ve never had email on the move, from choice more than limited technology or capability. While it might be useful at times – there is rarely anything that’s so urgent that it won’t wait until I return to the office and clients rarely want or need to contact me out of hours and if they did the phone is a quicker and more reliable means of contact.

I know some people can’t survive without constantly being in touch or being able to send and receive emails at any time of the day and night but there are always other things I can be doing when I have spare time on the move rather than checking emails. I even leave my mobile phone behind or switched off at times and I purposely don’t have all the whizz-bang, bluetooth headset, hands-free, technology. In that respect I’m probably technologically backward but actually, I want to decide what to do when, not have technology deciding for me.

Now the demands of my work are probably different from yours but how attached are you to your technology? Are you really in control of your time and the technology or is it controlling you? While it’s there to make life easier, if can also make it more demanding. Do you find it hard to switch off in case you miss something? How much of a difference will it really make to be instantly contactable?

Think about the technology you use and the way that you use it - could you use it less, have more time for yourself without reducing your productivity?

Early Bird Or Night Owl?

We all have different times of the day when we have more energy than at others. Some people are at their best first thing in the morning - a good time for creativity and others do their best work late at night, when it’s quieter.

Getting up an hour or so earlier may give you an extra hour at the beginning of the day but not if you’re a night owl. Don’t burn the candle at both ends and go to bed late or force yourself into an unnatural routine by constantly working late if you’re naturally an early bird.

Try not to fight your natural tendency for when you work at your best. If you’re an early bird, use the morning to do tasks which require you to be at your best or need your concentration. Don’t set aside time to work on a complex report or jobs which require your concentration in the afternoon when you’re more likely to hit the post lunch slump or in the evening when you’re tired. If you’re a night owl and need quiet time for your creativity, leave it until later in the day.

If you’re tied to traditional office hours then when you start and finish work may not have the level of flexibility to accommodate early or late working. However many employers now offer more flexible working patterns. If you work for yourself you have more flexibility around when you work but still need to be able to deal with other people’s normal working day both in business and at home.

There may be certain days of the week when it makes sense to schedule in particular tasks. For instance - you might hit the ground running on a Monday morning but be ready to go home by Thursday. You might find you have a peak of activity on a Friday when you’re keen to clear things out at the end of the week and go home with a clean slate.

Know when you’re most productive time of day is, when you prefer doing certain types of tasks and plan around those times.

What's Your Time Worth?

Do you know how much your time is worth and would you be inclined to fritter it away on things that don't add value if you knew what it was costing you?

If your time is charged at an hourly rate – how much is each hour of your time worth – to either you or your boss? To get some perspective on where you’re spending your time, know what your hourly rate is.

What is your annual salary? ____________

What is your weekly rate? ____________
(Based on working weeks in the year)

What is your hourly rate? ____________
(Either that you actually charge or the number of hours you actually work on your business).

Now you know what your hourly rate is, use it as a guide when you’re looking at how and where you spend your time. If you could find an extra hour a week or even an hour a day, what would that really be worth to you? How much more could you achieve?

Think of where you could delegate your time rather than spending an hour of your time on admin or doing your accounts when that hour could be spent earning money for your business.

We're All Going On A ... Summer Holiday

It’s coming up to that holiday time of year when in the next couple of months, most people will be looking forward to their annual two week holiday. Make sure you’re in a position to wind down before your holiday with time to finish all your tasks so you’re not having to work long hours just to clear the decks before you go away.

Be realistic about what you can achieve in the last few days before you go. Do the important tasks first and don’t waste time on things that can wait until your return or be done by someone else. Write out everything you need to do – including updating your voicemail message and setting an auto responder. Hand over work to a colleague if that’s practical. Don’t dump work on them.

If you don’t want to be inundated with unnecessary emails from your online networking groups – switch off any email notifications before you go, as you certainly won’t have to time to catch up with all those messages and it’s unlikely any of them will be that important.

And don’t even think about going away and taking your work with you. Taking your phone and laptop with you just so you can catch up or keep on top of things isn’t the best solution. You might feel your business will fall apart or your office won’t be able to function without you if you’re not in touch for a few days but is that really the case or an unfounded fear? If it’s the former then you really need to do something to change that. Even if it’s your own business you can still take a break without worrying about business, it just takes careful planning. Let people know in advance when you’re going away and plan work round your holiday time.

Make this year the year you go away on holiday having completed all your tasks in good time. Leave your laptop and office phone at home and really enjoy the break.

Get more detail, tips and information in July's newsletter.

Are You Hot(mail) Or Not?

What’s your business email address?

I’m always surprised when I come across a business and see that they’re using a Hotmail, BTinternet or Aol address. Now for some small businesses and trades, like my local window cleaner or handyman, this may be fine but what sort of impression does it give to an apparently professional company if your main business address posted on your business cards and literature is a Hotmail or Btinternet email address?

I recently received a professional and impressive looking email promo in my inbox only to see that the business email address is on Aol. What’s more puzzling is that like many of these business, they have a website, so why couldn't they have a info@websitename.com email?

Now, I use several email addresses including Hotmail, Yahoo and Google as a way of organising and filtering my email. But my business cards, leaflets, newsletters, website etc. have an email address connected to my website name.

Perhaps you don’t have a website but it’s easy to register a domain name, set up an email address and then redirect that address to your preferred email account, without having to create and host a website. It doesn’t mean that you have to log in to multiple email accounts – just redirect them to one account.

If you’re in business take the time to create an email address that connects to your business. It gives a better, more professional impression.

Exhibiting At Your First Event

Last week I took part in our local Chamber’s first tradeshow or Showcase as they preferred to call it. A mix of thirty local businesses from Banking to Website Design, covering not just business but also the home.

Attending a trade fair or business event as an exhibitor can be a significant and costly decision. You need to have a balance between the cost and effort involved. It’s not just about the cost of the event itself but also the cost of the advertising, display materials, handouts, products, samples and your time in preparation and marketing for the event.

If you’ve taken the decision to book up your first event then here are a few tips, to make sure you get the most out of the event when you’re actually there.

1. What is your main objective for attending the event? Write it down.

2. Get rid of the chairs behind your stand. There’s nothing more off putting than someone sitting behind their stand, quite possible not even making eye contact with the people walking by. Stand up. Get onto the same eye-level as the people passing by.

3. Even if people aren’t going to buy, don’t let them just walk away or move straight on to the next stand. Entice them to try and buy. Have testers or samples available or something they can sign-up for, information they can take away.

4. Give something away in exchange for their contact details. Have a prize draw for some of your products or services.

5. Engage with your visitor. If someone takes the time to stop at your stand and shows an interest – start a conversation. You don’t need to launch into a sales pitch. Talk about your products – find out about them. Discuss the weather. Anything that will start a conversation.

6. Smile! There’s nothing worse than someone on a stand looking bored or fed-up and it can make a real difference to whether people stop and take a closer look or walk straight past.

7. Oh and if all else fails – have a bowl of sweets. It kept visitors and other exhibitors coming back. :)

Don’t forget to follow-up afterwards and also look at whether you achieved your objective (1), what worked and what didn't.

Meet Your Public

I had the opportunity to be on radio last week. That was certainly something new for me. Several brief interviews, which actually wasn’t that different from talking on the phone – headset on, voice on the end of a phone/microphone.

I spend most of my time working with clients over the phone, which works well but it can become very comfortable, working from home, networking online, writing emails and answering calls but I’ve recently rediscovered the benefits of meeting up with people face-to-face. Not only does it get me out and about – apart from my regular networking meetings but last year, I ran a couple of workshops locally and got a buzz from the synergy that gets created in a group. It’s no longer just about you, your knowledge and expertise, it’s about what else people bring to the group – challenges, ideas, inspiration.

While it’s a well-documented fact that most people don’t like public speaking, there’s no better way to get your message across than talking to people face to face, especially if your business is you and not a product. Whether it’s small or large groups – show your expertise. Talk to people you wouldn’t normally talk to – I’m not necessarily talking about total strangers but groups of people that you may not usually approach. You might find a whole new audience.

It doesn’t have to be that scary. Even the most accomplished speakers get nervous and had that sense of dread when they first started. Build up your confidence with a small group of people you know, practice, get feedback and then find other groups to talk to, who want to hear what you have to say.

Alternatively, if you normally do a lot of talking, try a different from of communication

Have A Gold Star

Do you remember when you got a gold star at school for doing a great piece of work? The sense of pride and achievement when you did something really well and the inspiration to do even better or get another gold start for your next piece of work.

When was the last time you gave yourself a gold star for doing something really well. You have your goals, your daily actions and you tick things off as you go but who gives you a pat on the back when you’ve completed a project or achieved everything you set out to on a particular day or on a week? Create some added focus and motivation by giving yourself a reward when you do something a little bit different. We spend so much time doing things day in day out that we rarely stop and give ourselves a reward even if it’s something as simple and as visual as a gold star.

What actions this week would result in a gold star? Achieving something that stretches you more than usual. Managing to tick off a new habit on seven consecutive days. Completing a task or project ahead of time.

How many gold stars can you get this month? Give me a call if you'd like a virtual pat on the back - I have several gold stars to share this week - would you like one? :)

Can Your Business Survive Without You?

I was talking to a client the other week about how they’ve been in a state of confusion since one of their staff went off sick. They’re a relatively new and growing business and are in the process of moving over to automated systems but at the moment a lot of the information is held in people’s heads or on scraps of paper. Little things get forgotten, the odd order gets missed. When a business is small, this isn’t too much of a problem as most things can be recovered or sorted out at the last minute but as a business grows it needs to be more organised.

If you or one of your key staff got hit by the proverbial bus – would your business continue without you/them? How much information is the sole domain of just one person?

While not everyone needs to know everyone else’s business – important information shouldn’t be in people’s heads or on scraps of paper. Have a way to keep track of what goes in and what goes out – whether it’s paper or computer based and can cope as the business grows or when you’re busy.

Having documentation or at least trackable systems and processes also makes it easier to delegate tasks and particularly at this time of year, might even mean you can allow yourself to go on holiday and relax.

Mind The Gaps

Last week I was busy putting the finishing touches to my book. Every time I’ve been the process of writing a chapter, it seems to be the key topic that one or more of my clients is dealing with. I know that it’s the equivalent of buy a red car and all you see is red cars but I found that because I’d just been honing my writing to deal with a specific topic, I could make it even more relevant to the next conversation and equally, it prompted me to add something to the chapter.

Anyway, that's a bit of an aside, one thing that I learned is that creativity cannot be squeezed into a neatly ordered time slot. In fact my attempts to write a chapter in a few hours failed miserably because while the content was pretty much there, it definitely needed a number of writing sessions, periods of mulling over in-between, reviews and read throughs until the final version was ready to be sent off. I also noticed that when I hit a block, the best thing to do was get up and go and do something else and then come back to it a few minutes or even a couple of hours later.

If you’ve got a similar project you’re trying to get underway – treat the gaps as being just as important as the actual writing. While the physical putting pen to paper might only take a few hours, spread it out over a few days, so that you have plenty of time to think about it, add to it, review it and read it through before you’re finished.