Many UK SME owners understand the saying, “Time is money” and they know that although you can lose money and get it back, you can’t get back lost time. Time is an irretrievable factor in life and The Sales Guys want to show you how you can make the best use of your time to yourself more effective and to help your SME grow.
Here are some time management tips that we teach our clients every day:
- Always log your time.
By logging your time, you will begin to see just how much time you are spending on each task. Track every minute of your day for a week and don’t change your normal behaviour. This is important for this exercise to work. Now, you will have an accurate display of where your time went and what you accomplished.
- Identify your time wasters.
Once you have logged your time for a week, you will begin to see some time wasters in there. Identify them and categorise your activities throughout the day. See what percentage was spent on each of the categories and look for areas that you can make changes to save some time.
- Try the Pomodoro technique.
The Pomodoro technique is taught by time management experts around the world. It involves setting a timer for 25 minutes while you focus on a task. When the timer sounds, take a 5-minute break and begin another task with the timer being set for yet another 25 minutes. Once you are used to this technique, you can categorise your Pomodoro’s and limit them to a certain number per category, per week.
- Apply the 80/20 rule.
The 80/20 rule in business states that 80% of your results should come from 20% of your efforts. You should spend more time in the 20% category if you want to see the most effective results for your business. It does take some time to get used to, but once you are able to apply this rule to your week, you will find that you are getting more done in less time.
- Avoid distractions.
Shiny object syndrome is well known by business owners everywhere as we all get distracted by something during our day. Whether it be social media, a co-worker or our smartphones, avoiding these distractions will leave you more time for work and more time to grow your business.
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