Posted by James Cooper
Huge statement, right? Achieving more, in less time! Big Call!?! Absolutely, I know it's possible because I'm living proof and I've seen dozens of business owners use this method and it does work! 
Perhaps you have done the hard yards and built a good business but you are still working 40 hours per week but can't seem to get down to 32 hours without the whole business starting to fall apart. Or maybe you are flat out doing big hours, like 50 or 60+ per week, which is possibly taking its toll on you, and heck... there really should be more money at the end of every month, right?!
Hey, whatever your situation, here's my process for turning things around and taking back control of time...
Time Management Matrix by Stephen Covey
The productivity of you and your team will determine the profitability of your business!
Most business owners spend the majority of their week in the least effective quadrants, Waste and Deception. They are doing jobs which seem urgent, rushing round. How many of you have ever had a day or a week where you worked your tail off and got to the end of the day and realised you achieved nothing, anybody ever have a day like that? That is what I'm talking about with deception and waste, hey... you could almost call it delusion and distraction, your aim should be to get out of these areas and into the two ‘Important' based quadrants, I and II. Necessity is just another word for demand, where you're doing the things that make a difference; this is what happens in quadrant I. But, ultimately the more time you spend working in the ZONE, doing the planning, focusing on growing the business long term (Quadrant II - Quality), the less time you spend in urgent demand, you know... putting out fires and dealing with crisis'.
Here's Brad Sugars take on the time matrix, adapted to create a time target, which gives you somewhere to aim for. In a game of darts, where do you get more points?
Time isn't the challenge is it? You see, time doesn't speed up, it doesn't slow down, in fact it is the one constant thing we can rely on, but ... it is in fact, in my opinion, the only limited resource on this planet, once you spend your time it's is gone forever. So, shouldn't you be a little more careful about where you spend your time? After all, what you do with your time determines your results. What we are really talking about here is self management, that's what we need to work on. You see, there's no such thing as time management, you can't manage time, but you can self manage what you do with the available time.
Here's the mimosaPLANET timeCONTROLTM Process to achieve more in less time...
- 1) Skill Enjoyment Matrix - Take each task from your summary and on a 9 quadrant matrix with Skill on one axis and enjoyment on another axis, rate all the tasks you do.... as either low/med/ or high skill, and what enjoyment you have in doing each of those tasks, low/med/high. What you have now done is... determine, what the tasks are that you don't like doing that require low skill.
- 2) Effective Delegation - Start to delegate/outsource the low skill/low enjoyment tasks first. Hire a bookkeeper at $30 p/hr for 5 hrs a week. If you charge out $70 per hour in those five hours you are making an extra GP of $200 per week from not "saving money by doing it yourself". Or if you focused on closing 1 more sale per week in that 5 hours for your staff to do the work what would that be worth? Probably a lot more!
- 3) Value Index - Take the Skill Enjoyment Matrix from step 3 and get a highlighter. Highlight the tasks that provide huge value to the business; that is... tasks that make you money! Tasks like doing the work of the business and sales and marketing. In fact, they are the only tasks that make you money directly. Highlight them... and FOCUS on them to take up most of your day!
- 4) Retrain the Team and Customers - Don't let yourself be a victim to the environment, you shape your personal environment, experience and results the way you want. This is how you deal with all those annoying interruptions that happen. If you are like most must owners you will get lots of questions from your staff, what would happen if you stopped answering them? If you are thinking "my business would fall apart because I'm the only one who knows the answers" then start paying your employees to think, they have brains too you know. How much time could you save each week if your employees didn't have to call you to; find out what to do next, where we get so and so from, what happens when, what's happening with this customer, how do I....
Stop taking all the risk out of them thinking for themselves! I mean, as an employee why would you risk making the wrong decision and getting in trouble, when all it takes is to ask the boss and she'll/he'll tell you straight away. When an employee asks you a question, ask a question back "What would you do?" "What do you think happens next?" "If I wasn't here where would you find that information from?" etc It's painful at first I know, I mean.. it would just be sooo much easier to tell them, right? But if you don't give up, pretty soon they start feeling better about themselves as they figure stuff out and realise it's pointless calling you because you won't tell them... so they stop calling!
This can expose a lot of holes in your business systems, particular when it comes to the transfer of information. This is great, now you know what forms or systems or manuals or documents you would get time benefits from by sorting out!
This applies to customers as well, if you are getting lots of the same questions, try to pre-empt them by providing information up front, or give them a process to get that information. (PS, new sales enquiries are not interruptions; they are awesome opportunities to make a sale, they are the life blood of your business).
- 5) Current & Ideal Future Diary Plan - Don't be too ridged here, I've tried planning out each minute of the day, packing it fill. I've had clients try this too.... it just doesn't work long term, there is no allowance for people and relationship-building, it values tasks and schedules over people and relationships, "sorry can't talk to you for 15mins, only 3mins" ...What this screams to people is more like this "I've got to send eMails between 8:30 and 8:45, and at 9:00am I need to make my first sales calls so I don't value you enough to give that up". Not good for long term growth.
What you do need to consider here is that fact of ON vs IN type tasks and high value tasks. You need to be aware that if you don't do the 20 hours per week of high value sales and marketing stuff then you won't drive the business forward, so make time for it on a regular basis, etc... just don't be an arse about it.
- 6) Daily Diary Plan & Task List - Do this the night before, never in the morning for that day. Highlight or mark with an (A) your top two tasks for the day.... all the rest of your day is just the daily rubbish, but you must ensure to keep moving forward you do those two tasks!
This Weeks Action Points...
This is a process that will yield results. But it does require conscious thought; after all you are trying to change a habit of a life time, how you spend your time. So you need to consciously make an effort, until it becomes unconscious competence. Stick to it and you will be in CONTROL, give up or ignore it and you will be controlled by the environment.
