Time Management

ADVANCING THE BUSINESS MODE

For those in their late 30′s or 40′s, you have (by now) realized that TIME is not actually your friend but a very limited commodity that trickles away faster and faster by the day. With stress markers defined by the never-ending onslaught of monthly bills, quarterly taxes and annoying holidays– most breadwinners (now) see the wall calendar to be the road map to obscurity where time is the ultimate employer that cannot be negotiated with.

Figures of speech say that time can be stolen, spent, borrowed, bought, shared, given or saved.  But in the eyes of a seasoned business owner, time has only one meaning: the platform by which your expenses, earnings and profits are rated.  This approach may take all the romance out of any dream career but regarding time in any other way will be a surefire liability to your business.

1) CONSTANT SELF AUDIT + STREAMLINING: Take our current modes of communication:  MEETINGS vs VIDEO CONFERENCING vs TELEPHONE vs EMAIL vs SNAIL MAIL vs TEXT.  You will clearly see which medium eats up more of your work day. What can be said in 20 (or less) electronic words can easily become a half-day ordeal in driving to a meeting.  Especially those who are self-employed with home based businesses, the lack of an interactive system lends itself to time ‘leakage’.  If you take a little time to regularly audit your work methods, you’ll gain the discipline to find the faults of your company and (soon) be on your way to making better decisions and even better use of your time.  This mind set also adds to other leadership strengths such as selecting your type of client, assessing your vendors, managing your staff and upgrading your production.

2) PRIORITIZING: Every morning, take 15 minutes to map out your day.  Make to-do lists and use them like a checklist. Make other notes for yourself such as rating what project is crucial and which ones can be deferred. By having an overview of your play field, you are allowing yourself to take a stronger leadership role of the entire map.

3) THE BUSINESS MIND: For all the reasons why the principals of a company are often called decision-makers, they are the final say to all matters pertaining to the bottom line. The same bottom line is where hard choices are mandated by minimizing risks and the TIME=MONEY formula.