Do you ever wish there were more hours in the day to get your work done?
Are you working from dawn to dusk and beyond?
Is your work life encroaching into family time?
Do you feel as if you are drowning in your work?
Do you find you are not getting work done in what you would consider a timely fashion, missing deadlines and making excuses for not meeting those deadlines?
If you’ve answered YES to any of these questions you need to ask yourself one more!
What could and should you do differently to improve your productivity and time management?
As business owners or managers we are hugely invested in the success of our business, but at what cost? Not seeing the kids, not focussing on the right things at work, not having a work/life balance, not feeling good about what we are doing, not being responsive or not being present?
Why do we do it to ourselves? Often its about feeling the need to be in control, of taking ownership, this business after all is ‘our baby’ and of course we think about the money aspect - saving money not employing someone and doing it ourselves. But in the end are we really saving money?
I’d suggest not! Don’t get me wrong, sometimes needs must, especially as we start a new business, but how long do you continue the charade of being all things to all people? Working this way is not sustainable and takes all the ‘good stuff’ out of being a business owner or manager and can lead to us feeling resentful of this ‘thing’ we’ve created or are managing, we loose our ‘mojo’ and in fact instead of being that high performing person in the workplace our productivity suffers, so too does the quality of our work, it impacts professional and personal relationships and ultimately it can affect our health (both physical and mental) and our overall well-being.
Simple as, as simple does - chances are if this is all resonating with you, your overall productivity and time management will be in some form of ‘melt down’ and you along with it. Totally NOT good on so many levels.
So, going back to that question of what you could or should do differently - it’s all be about thinking about things differently. Where are you best spending your energy? What parts of the work you do, could be delegated to someone else - whether they are already employed or consider whether you need to bring somebody on board.
Okay, okay I can see you all crying into your cup of tea at the thought of delegating or heaven forbid employing someone, fear not, there are simple solutions and solutions that can give you back your ‘mojo’, you’ve just got to get your head into the game and re-set your thinking.
Ask yourself;
What tasks am I performing that do not directly help my business be profitable, grow client numbers, sell more products or services, deliver on goals or objectives?
Where am I expending my energies in my business that are taking me away from doing what I do best?
How could my workday (and don’t forget all those ours spent in the early or late hours of the day) be structured differently if I wasn’t getting bogged down in tasks that do not use my expertise?
What tasks am I performing, that could be delegated to an existing employee or is it time to bring on board someone new?
Now don’t just think of the answers to these questions in your head, write them down and for each one, write down how many minutes/hours/days you spend doing it in a week.
Now could any of them be clustered into areas of expertise or like tasks including; finance, marketing, administration, operations, business development, human resources, planning, projects, change and transformation management, business writing, technology, research and analysis and product management.
Once you have them clustered into areas of expertise or like tasks and have a total number of hours for each cluster, ask yourself;
Should I still be doing them, or would I be better off delegating them to someone else or bringing on board a new person?
Which task cluster/s are not part of my skill set or not my expertise?
If I was to delegate or bring someone on board to do some or all the tasks;
- How much time would I gain back and how could I use this time?
- How would I feel?
- Would my productivity and time management improve?
Okay, now with your big panties on, what are you going to do next? Big breath here, are you going to delegate to an existing employee or are you going to bring someone new on board?
If you believe you can delegate this to an existing employee, ask yourself is this part of their position description? Is it something they have the capacity to do? Is it part of their skill set? If the answers are YES, take action and have the conversation with them and get delegating!
If the answer is NO, then ask yourself how can you bring a new person on board? Is it a full time or part time role? Should you outsource the work? Could I contract a freelancer? What other ways could I consider ‘off-loading’ these task clusters, should it be some or all of them? Which would be the most financially viable way to bring someone new on board?
Whatever your decision be courageous and take action, and while it will take time to set up the new way of working, to stop doing them yourself and to feel confident to ‘let go’, remind yourself of WHY you are doing this in the first place, to improve your productivity and time management. Its to use your strengths and areas of expertise in the right way so that you are more productive and high performing and focussing on the right parts of your business, so that your business is successful, profitable and sustainable. Additionally, you will gain back perspective and develop better work habits and stop working all the hours ‘outside’ of work and ultimately gain freedom to have a better work life balance.
If you are struggling to go through this exercise on your own, why not book a Business Support Consultation and we can do it together. Then if you decide that a freelancer is the way to ‘off-load’ some or all those task clusters, check out the business support services I offer.
If you know that bringing on board a freelancer will work, why not check out my services and see if one or some of your task clusters align to the services I offer or if your not sure if a freelancer is the way to go, book a Business Support Consultation and we can discuss your needs.
Whether you make use of my Business Support Consultation or bring me on board as a freelancer, maybe I am Your Business Plus One - Virtual Business Support at Your Service!
Why not meet me on social media or contact me to today to book your Business Support Consultation.
Find out more about the Virtual Business Support Services I have available.
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