“There”™s not enough time in my day to do what I need to do.” As a business coach talking with hundreds of business people every year, I hear that concern perhaps more than any other.
Do you feel like the juggler racing from one spinning plate on a stick to the other, frantically trying to keep them from crashing to the ground? You don”™t have to be at the mercy of time, running like a hamster on an exercise wheel to nowhere.
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First, don”™t get down on yourself. Feeling short on time is not a “failing” unique to you. A Google search of “time management” showed 242 million hits, roughly equivalent to two-thirds the entire population of the U.S. And that”™s just one search engine. Clearly the issue is of concern to a great many.
Second, it is useful to understand that we cannot actually manage time. There”™s nothing we can do to change the fact that we all have the same amount of it and we cannot speed it up or slow it down. Therefore, it is how we manage ourselves that often separates winners and losers in business ”“ and in the rest of our lives as well.
To put a finer point on it, the most dangerous adversary of business success is not lack of capital, too few clients or customers, a large number of competitors or a tough economy. It”™s poor self-management. It is also the danger that most business owners fail to recognize until things are getting out of hand.
In easier economic times, some businesses survived despite unfocused management. Nowadays, that”™s awfully close to a certain death sentence.
Fortunately, there is an easy and effective three-part method for self-management. It”™ll “give” you more time to focus on the important things for your business”™s success and for your personal life too.
Three critical parts to managing yourself
1. Planning: Running a business without a plan is the same as operating a boat in the open ocean with out any navigation aids ”“ no charts, GPS, radar or radio. For many entrepreneurs, there is something gutsy about “winging it.” As romantic as that all may seem, it is financial suicide, especially in this stormy business climate. It is essential to develop a plan that realistically assesses where you are and where you want to go. Make it for at least a year; five would be better. The goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-specific).
Briefly outline your strategy for achieving your goals. List the interim steps that show you whether you are on course. If you have employees, create the plan with them to benefit from their input and gain their buy-in. Review your plan weekly or at least monthly. While your plan is vitally important, don”™t make it a complex, wordy thing. Brief, clear, realistic and measurable are the keys.
2. Default calendar: In terms of managing your use of time, one of the most effective tools is to create a calendar of the things you should be doing during the critical hours of each day of the week in order to achieve your goals. “Default calendar” is a schedule of what you return to as quickly as you can following any unavoidable interruptions. It gets you back on track ASAP.
3. Weighted important task system (WITS): As defined by Steven Covey, author of the bestseller “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” there is no better tool than this. When a conflict arises with your default calendar, WITS helps you separate essential from nonessential activities.
Here”™s how it works. Determine the priority of all unforeseen activities as one of the following:
Urgent and important: All emergencies are urgent and important. A customer/client complaint has to be taken care of right away (whether it”™s legitimate or not). But if you focus all your efforts on crisis management, you will take yourself away from your long-term goals.
Not urgent and not important: Face it, if you really don”™t know what is not urgent and not important in your line of work, you are either very lucky to have a job or spending down your inheritance. Expending any real effort in this area is the fastest path to bankruptcy or losing your job.
Important but not urgent: These are the strategies and tactics that you establish to directly move your plan forward. They are the things that you are most in control of. They also offer you a choice: Do them or don”™t do them at your own peril. The less effort you devote to them, the more power you give to other people and lower-priority activities, and the less you stay focused on your own goals and future.
Urgent but not important: Email, phone calls, meetings. You can”™t ignore phone calls. The same is true for faxes, accounts receivable and accounts payable. However, you do have a choice as to how and when you will address these tasks, instead of having them run your life. The more effort you devote to urgent but not important issues, the more you are like a hamster on the exercise wheel.
In short, the three steps to managing yourself are creating a SMART business plan, establishing a default calendar and keeping your WITS about you.
The success of your business and ultimately your life is in your hands. If you don”™t manage yourself, you let others define your future and your fate. Taking responsibility for self-management gives you the power to make the best use of the time you have. In this environment, can you afford not to?
Josh Slavitt is a certified business coach with Westport-based ActionCOACH of Connecticut, part of a worldwide business coaching network. Reach him at joshslavitt@actioncoachnow.net or linkedin.com/in/actioncoachesnow.
