I’m asked this question by just about every business owner I talk to and it’s usually where I start when working with a new client! The short answer is that you can’t get any more hours, minutes or seconds out of the day so I’m afraid trying to do ‘everything’ is the wrong approach. Here are 4 quick tips that will help you get more done without the need to work long hours:
1. Sacrifice. Sometimes you need to give up something in order to free up time to work on achieving what you want from your business. Sort of short term pain for long term gain. I’m not for a moment suggesting you give up precious family time. Do you watch TV? Could you watch less TV and reclaim some time? Perhaps you could get up a little earlier each day? It’s amazing what you can get done in 30 minutes! If you’ve got into the habit of doing personal stuff during the day, like shopping or chatting on the phone to friends & family – get your working day boundaries sorted out.
2. Outsource. As soon as you can and even before you can really afford it, find someone to do the stuff you dislike or that isn’t part of your brilliance. There are hundreds of virtual assistants out there who will gladly take on your admin, book-keeping and routine tasks. And if you believe you can’t afford to outsource, think about this: what you pay them is far less than you‘ll earn in the time that’s freed up.
3. There are only 3 things you should be doing. When I learned this tip, it transformed my business, so please try it because it really works! What you work on needs to fall into one of these three categories: client work, looking for clients or growing your business. Anything else (like the admin) does not belong on your desk and should not be taking up your precious working day.
4. Actively do less. This is a lesson I’ve only recently learnt myself. While it sounds counter-intuitive, it actually does work. Here’s what I mean. First, don’t try to work 12 or more hours a day every day. Stop working through every weekend and going without holidays. Don’t be constantly on call. If you do all this for too long, you’re not building a sustainable business, but you are setting yourself up for burn-out and possibly health breakdown.
Set up core working hours and finish on time at least 3 times a week. I recently wrote a blog post entitled ‘Are you pushing too hard?’ where I talk about working to your personal energy peaks & troughs. Sometimes changing pace, task or venue can have surprising benefits.
Comments