Small Business (Time) Management

by Michael Barry

There is a theory glazed over in every freshman economics course on the way to supply side economics and demand side – I’ve already lost you. Economics might not be your cup of tea, but the theory is worth a listen. It goes a little something like this: Should Tiger Woods mow his own lawn? That’s it. The answer is an easy one. No. He has people for that. He should be golfing. The term for that is called opportunity cost. Why is there even a theory about that? Time management is why.

Investopedia defines opportunity cost as:

The cost of an alternative that must be forgone in order to pursue a certain action. Put another way, the benefits you could have received by taking an alternative action.

In terms of your small business, opportunity cost refers directly to the actions you perform every day that take away from what you do best – managing your business. Here are a couple quick tips to manage your time so you can get back to work.

How Do You Spend Your Time

Time is money. Wasting time is wasting money. Plain and simple. The killers of time are well known too. Whether it’s fantasy football, Facebook, or searching for that new diet, all the time you click off the clock is time you’ll wish you had later. Future you will work hard, but she’d rather it wasn’t because past you had no discipline.

Track Everything

Make a budget of the time you spend each day, each week. Keep a list, a spreadsheet, write it in the margins of last months expense report. I don’t care where you write it, but get it down on paper. The same way money disappears at Target when you go in to buy “just one thing”, time disappears when you take “just one minute” to check Twitter. By writing down what time you spend doing what tasks each day you’ll be able to see where time is going. Making the change in how you spend that time is the difficult task.

You Have a Staff – Let Them Earn Their Pay

Maybe you read that last paragraph and said “I don’t waste time on social media” but time still escapes you. I have one question for you. How much time do you spend answering phones and replying to email? These mundane tasks are productivity arsenic. Your receptionist is there for a reason. She knows the phones and your day-to-day business like the back of both hands. You are the boss man, the oracle. Be there for the big things and swing in for handshakes and phone calls when needed. You don’t see restaurant managers waiting tables. They check in and move on, confident their staff is top notch. You have more important tasks to be doing. When you consistently spend time doing mundane tasks it become second nature to start there. The same goes for the converse. Your opportunity costs are clear. Be an innovator. The big picture awaits you.

http://www.bizoffice.com/small-business-time-management/#more-1322

Stop Procrastinating & Plan for 2013

By Kevin Duan

If you're not planning for the coming year then you better believe that your competitors are. Here are three solutions to get you going before it's too late.

Hooray! The election season is finally done. The holidays are close behind, and 2013 is just around the corner. And yet a good many companies still don't have a formal strategic plan on the books. Many don't even have a meeting scheduled before the end of the year to create a strategic plan and align their team. Often executives will manage for the current quarter with little consideration for three to five year objectives or even a one year plan.  Sadly, as the executives of these companies try to navigate uncertain times, they will wonder the following:

• Why aren't we hitting our goals?
• Why aren't we all on the same page?
• Why can't our people execute without having to ask questions at every turn?
• Why aren't we more prepared?

The answer is simple... procrastination. That sounds harsh but those of you regularly reading this magazine and website have seen plenty of material about the value of long term strategy. You have heard experts such as Collins and Peters, tout the benefits of long term strategic planning and alignment. Many of you know other successful companies who plan and execute consistently. So there is little question that you are just putting off what you know must be done. But perhaps there are solid reasons for your procrastination. Allow me to identify and resolve some of them for you.

1. Complacency

Maybe things are going well for you. Or at least they seem good enough. I am sure that's exactly what your competitors are thinking too and none of them are developing strategy  on how to steal your customers and gain market share. Keep telling yourself that and soon you'll find out the hard way that your business is always vulnerable to others who strategically plan and can out-execute you. This why many businesses fall into what Jim Collins calls the "Doom Loop" as outlined in his book Good to Great. Why be lazy? Taking a long-view approach in your business will insure you are ready for the next disruptor in your industry and can remain competitive.

2. Confusion

Perhaps you would like to execute a strategic plan for the company, but can't focus because you aren't really clear about where you personally want to be in life. Perhaps you spend too much time thinking about what you want to DO in your life, and not enough about who you want to BE. In fact many companies miss their mark because their management team doesn't focus enough on individual objectives beyond the company's goals. If your people are not clear on who they want to be and what motivates them to contribute, the results will suffer and you will likely wander off course. But this is resolvable. Ask everyone "Who are we as a company and where do you see your role in five years?" See if his or her answers align with your perceptions. Taking time to consider your own future might be a good start and better prepare you to lead strategic talks for your executives and your company.

3. Priority

So many executives are constantly battling with competing priorities. As my father always says: "When you are up to your rear end in alligators it's hard to remember that your primary directive is to drain the swamp." It's very difficult to make the transition from working IN the business to working ON the business. But one thing is for sure. If you don't start prioritizing strategic planning you will forever be letting the business run you. The sooner you make your strategy and alignment a priority, the sooner you'll achieve goals effectively and create efficiencies that will free up time and resources in your company. You don't have to be the CEO of a company to raise the priority of strategic planning. Any individual can drive the process and show their value to the company at the same time. Here are the first three steps.

1. Set a date for a 2-day planning retreat before the end of the year. If you don't do it now, you'll forget. Once the date is set you can figure out all the other details.
2. Hire a facilitator or a coach. For a successful retreat, you need methodology and objectivity. A good facilitator can provide both of these things and is well worth the money.
3. Engage your team. Email them this column right now. That way you'll demonstrate your commitment to strategic planning as a priority and get the conversation started. Share the pressure of accountability and you are assured of getting a long term strategic plan in place before year end.

Execute on these actions and you'll surely surpass your procrastinating competitors.

http://www.inc.com/kevin-daum/stop-procrastinating-plan-for-2013.html?nav=next

7 Ways You’re Wasting Time and Don’t Even Know it

By Jane Porter 

Fourteen months after starting her own insurance agency, Dawn Berry found herself surrounded by stacks of paper. Her inbox was brimming with more than 500 emails that needed to be answered or trashed. And just finding a pen on her cluttered desk became a challenge.

Berry realized she needed to get smarter about managing time and making Provident Insurance Agency in Florissant, Mo., run more smoothly. She hired a productivity coach and saw immediate results. She began completing tasks that would take less than two minutes right away and delegated routine work to her assistant so she could focus on selling. Now, at the end of each day, she has fewer than 50 emails waiting in her inbox. In 2011, by better managing her time, Berry grew her business to a point where she could hire her first full-time employee, making her all the more able to focus on the important aspects of the company. "I have a do-it-now mentality," she says.
If you feel as overwhelmed as Berry did, you may need to rethink how you use your time. Here are seven ways you may be wasting time without even realizing it.

1. You overload on administrative work. If you've spent three hours reconciling a bank statement, you're making poor use of your time. Too often, small-business owners waste time on tasks they don't like or aren't even good at. What's more, they often expend energy avoiding such tasks and then spend more time than necessary doing them, says Cathy Sexton, the St. Louis, Mo., productivity coach who helped Berry. "If we just hired it out, it would be less expensive," Sexton says of tasks like bookkeeping and website maintenance. "It's looking at your time and putting a value on it."

2. You put off quick tasks. If you can pay a bill or schedule an appointment in a couple of minutes, do it immediately. Putting chores aside for later—no matter how mundane—is a common way small-business owners waste time, says David Allen, author of the runaway bestseller Getting Things Done (Viking 2001). People often set emails aside for later, for example, and then have to search for them and reread them. "It will take you more time to remember it later than just doing it now," Allen says.

3. You micromanage employees. Too many employees need their hand held throughout the day, says Jason Jennings, author of The Reinventors - How Extraordinary Companies Pursue Radical Continuous Change (Portfolio, 2012). As a result, small-business owners often waste precious time micromanaging such workers just to make sure they do their jobs properly. If you have to guide an employee through every aspect of the job and he isn't making progress toward working independently, Jennings advises that you let him go. Harsh as it may seem, firing people who are slowing you down may be the best solution for your business.

4. You let daily developments drive you. Putting out tiny fires throughout the day is a big misuse of time, Allen says. Rather than thinking about strategies to expand your business, you're bogged down dealing with every issue that comes your way minute-by-minute. "That's not making good priority decisions about things." To stay focused on what really matters, try to block out time each day for your strategic priorities.

5. You don't have a clear social-media strategy. Limiting the amount of time you spend on social media sites will certainly help your productivity. But even if you devote only one hour each day to social media activity, you will still be wasting time if you don't have a game plan, Sexton says. "Social media is part of your marketing plan. You really need to understand what your desired results are."

6. You try to reinvent the wheel. Hanging onto projects or products that no longer look promising is a big time-suck, Jennings says. "The reason people are stymied and can't get stuff done is because they are constantly reinventing the wheel. They can't let go." Stop and ask yourself, "How promising does this endeavor look?" Be honest with yourself and decide if it's time to drop it and move on.

7. You repeat the same things over and over. Customer communication is important, but if you always have to answer the same questions from different customers, you're wasting time, says Chris Guillebeau, author of The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future (Crown Business, 2012). Rather than starting from scratch each time, Sexton recommends creating a template for such routine tasks as email responses to common queries, invoices, client letters and meeting agendas.
 http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224090

10 Tricks for a Fabulous Workday

It takes just as much effort to have a wonderful day as it does to have a miserable one. Why not enjoy yourself?

By Geoffrey James

Want to have the best workday ever?  Day after day?  It's not as difficult as you think.

These 10 tweaks to your everyday behavior will virtually guarantee you a day that's not just enjoyable but allows you to get more done than you ever thought possible.

1. Start with 15 minutes of positive input.
It's easier to achieve and maintain a positive attitude if you have a "library" of positive thoughts in your head, so you can draw upon them if the day doesn't go exactly as you'd prefer. Start each day by reading (or listening to) an inspirational book to ensure that you have just such a resource at hand.

2. Tie your work to your life's goals.
Always remember that there's a deeper reason why you go to work and why you chose your current role. Maybe it's to support your family, to change the world in some way, to help your customers, to make a difference: Whatever the deeper motivation, remind yourself that this workday--today--is the opportunity to accomplish part of that deeper and more important goal.

3. Use your commute wisely.
Most people waste their commute time listening to the news or (worse, especially if they're driving) making calls, texting, or answering emails. In fact, your commute time is the perfect time to get yourself pumped up for the day, and there's no better way to do this than to listen to music that truly inspires you and gets you in the right mood. Don't depend on a DJ: Make your own mixes!

4. Stick a smile on your face.
It's likely, if you followed the first three steps, that you'll already be smiling. If not, stick a smile on your face anyway. It doesn't matter if it feels fake: Research has shown that even the most forced of smiles genuinely reduces stress and makes you happier. Does this mean you should be grinning like the Joker in the Batman comics? Well, yes, if that's the best you can do. But something a bit more relaxed might be less alarming to co-workers.

5. Express a positive mood.
When most people are asked social greetings--questions such as "How are you?" or "What's up?"--they typically say something neutral ("I'm OK") or negative, like "Hangin' in there." That kind of talk programs your brain for failure.

Instead, if anyone inquires, say something positive and enthusiastic, like: "Fantastic!" or "I'm having a wonderful day!" It's true that there are some people whom this annoys--but these are people you should be avoiding anyway. (See No. 7, below.)

6. Do what's important first.
Everybody complains about having too much to do, but few people do anything about it. As I explained in "The Surprising Secret of Time Management," 20% of your activities are going to produce 80% of your results.  So do that 20% first, before you get to the 80% of your activities that is mostly wasted time. You'll get more done, and you'll get better results.

7. Avoid negative people.
If you've been following Steps 1 through 6, you'll probably find that the most negative people in your orbit will be avoiding you, while the positive people will want to hang out with you and help you. Though it's true you can't avoid all the Debbie Downers, you can certainly find something else to do when they start grousing about stuff they won't or can't change.

8. Don't work long hours.
Long hours are simply a bad idea. For one thing, as I have pointed out before: Long hours, after a short burst of productivity, actually make you less productive. But frankly, if you've followed Steps 1 through 7, you'll be getting so much done that you won't need to work those long hours.

9. Wind down and relax.
Once you're done with the workday, fill the remainder of your hours with non-work related activities that bring you joy and help you relax. The analogy of "recharge your batteries" is valid. Failing to take time to relax and stop thinking about work guarantees that you'll begin the next day with a "hangover" of resentment that will leach the joy out of what can, and should be, a positive work experience. overconcentration.

10. End your day with 15 minutes of gratitude.
As I pointed out in "The True Secret of Success," exercising your "gratitude muscle" is the best way to make certain that you experience more success. Before you go to sleep, get out a tablet (paper or electric), and record everything that happened during the day about which you are (or could be) grateful.

You'll sleep better and be ready for tomorrow--which will probably be even more fabulous than today.

But What About ...
Now, I know some of this can sound like a stretch. It may take a leap of faith to give this approach a try. But before you push back too much, let me answer some of the questions I sometimes hear.

• What if something really horrible happens during the day? You'll be much better prepared to deal with challenges than if you were already halfway to miserable--which is how most people go through their workday.
• What if I simply have to deal with a negative person? Tune out the negativity. Learn to shrug it off. If the negativity becomes too much of a burden, start using the extra energy you're producing to reorganize your team or (if the person is outside your company) find a different partner.
• What if I'm too depressed to do any of this? If that's the case, you may need professional help. None of these tricks require more time and effort than making yourself miserable, however.
• Do these tricks really work? Yes.

http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/have-a-fabulous-workday-10-tricks.html?nav=pop

5 Steps to Effective Scheduling

by Mind Tools

Scheduling is the process by which you plan your use of time. By scheduling effectively, you can both reduce stress and maximize your effectiveness.

Before you can schedule efficiently, you need an effective scheduling system. This can be a diary, calendar, paper-based organizer, PDA, Google Calendar or a software package like MS Outlook or GoalPro 6. The best solution depends entirely on your circumstances.

Scheduling is then a five-step process:

1. Identify the time you have available.
2. Block in the essential tasks you must carry out to succeed in your job.
3. Schedule in high priority urgent tasks and vital "house-keeping" activities.
4. Block in appropriate contingency time to handle unpredictable interruptions.
5. In the time that remains, schedule the activities that address your priorities and personal goals.

If you have little or no discretionary time left by the time you reach step five, then revisit the assumptions you have made in steps one to four.

Scheduling your Time More Effectively

by Ramona Creel

STICK TO YOUR PLAN

• direct all of your energies toward your current activity
• don't think about what you need to do next or later on
• your schedule will work only as well as you commit to it
• keep it with you and refer to it often

Scheduling your Time More Effectively

by Ramona Creel

SET SOME BOUNDARIES

• eliminate distractions as much as possible
• it's okay to ask not to be disturbed -- and to say "no"
• close your door, turn off the ringer on your phone, etc.
• set up guidelines for dealing with interruptions
• who you are willing to interrupt work for and who will have to wait
• don't be afraid to ask how long the interruption will take
• then decide whether you have time to handle it now or later
• ask if you need to handle the problem right at that exact moment
• if not, schedule a time to take care of it later
• when interrupted, leave a memory jogger of where you left off work
• it will be easier to get back into the groove when you return

Scheduling your Time More Effectively

by Ramona Creel REMEMBER TO PLAN SOME FREE TIME

• it's healthy to plan time to "goof-off" or play"
• set aside time for recreation in advance
• get up early to have some private time before the day gets crazy
• it's less likely to come up spontaneously and distract you
• you're more likely to actually make time for yourself

Scheduling your Time More Effectively

by Ramona Creel

PLAN AND SCHEDULE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN

• spend an hour Sunday evening planning the coming week
• transfer appointments from your monthly to weekly calendars
• don't just schedule work-related appointments
• schedule as many items in your life as possible (and reasonable)
• time with kids, exercise, spiritual practice, shopping, etc.
• schedule appointments and errands geographically
• review your schedule daily so you don't overlook anything

Scheduling your Time More Effectively

by Ramona Creel LEARNING TO USE A CALENDAR

• can choose a daily or weekly calendar for appointments
• give yourself at least one block per hour
• each block should be big enough to write in any daily appointments
• include all details (address, phone number, directions, etc.)
• use the monthly or yearly pages for longer-term planning
• use to plan ahead in larger blocks of time
• be sure to transfer appointments to weekly calendar each month
• keep your calendar with you at all times

Scheduling your Time More Effectively

by Ramona Creel LAYING IT ON THE LINE

• evaluate the time investment versus payoff for each activity
• how much benefit or enjoyment are you getting from each activity?
• keep high-payoff and enjoyable activities on your to-do list
• ask yourself if low-payoff activities need to be done at all
• if they do need to be done, do they have to be done by you?
• if they need to be done by you, could they be simplified?

Scheduling your Time More Effectively

by Ramona Creel

KEEP A TIME LOG

• each block of time represents an investment opportunity
• how you invest your time determines your future return
• not every item on your schedule has to be done
• the key to productivity is awareness of how you spend your time
• what you do, how long it takes, and what benefit you get
• create a log tracking your activities for a week

Scheduling your Time More Effectively

by: Ramona Creel

AVOIDING THE MYTHS

• it's not time management -- it's self management
• you can't control time and you certainly can't manage it
• you get just as much time as anyone else
• you can only control yourself and what you do with that time
• it's all about the daily choices you make