Have you heard of the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule?
It goes like this:
- 80% of your results are produced by 20% of your efforts
- 80% of your income comes from 20% of your clients
- 80% of your files are used 20% of the time
... are you getting the picture?
It's little things that make a huge difference on how productive you are. Unfortunately it can be difficult to see the solutions yourself as you get so immersed in your story of how busy you are, that you can be totally unaware of the time you waste. As mentioned in many of my articles, if you want more time, first of all find out where you're spending it. Track it! Write down what you're doing every hour for the next week and discover the truth about your time management!
I just want to share with you a situation one of my clients experienced and show you how easy it is to find time management solutions for reducing timewasting activities.
Mary is a financial advisor and each meeting Mary had with her clients required the notes to be typed up and placed on the client's file to be actioned by her assistant. It was a time-consuming task.
I suggested rather than spend ages physically typing the notes up herself, why not use a voice recorder, outsource the work to a transcriptionist and they send the file to her assistant for actioning. Not only because Mary loathed having to do them. She much preferred to meet with the clients, discuss their needs and work out the best solutions. There was also another alternative she could have chosen which was using dictating software, however Mary preferred the transcriptionist idea.
Her assistant already had enough to do and the transcriptionist could easily do the work in a fraction of the time Mary's assistant could, as it was her speciality. Mary didn't require another employee on-site, just someone who could handle this particular task. Mary now had an additional 10 hours a week to spend on looking after other clients and bringing in more business. She valued her time at $250 an hour so that 10 hours equated to $2,500... and that's Mary's time.
What would you do with an additional 10 hours a week? It's so easy to get caught up in the little things in your business which actually have a major impact on your productivity and your profits. There's no need to work longer and harder if you use time management skills.
