Business owners take heart! The experts say the pockets of spare time you crave are yours for the taking. Here’s how to do it.
More time. That’s what we all long for. Owners of small businesses regularly report that their biggest challenge is finding enough time to do everything they want. Denis Healy, executive director of global productivity specialists PEPworldwide, makes the observation that time pressures are not only stressful for individuals, they can also have a negative impact on business.
“Most small businesses are so time-poor, they’re often not achieving as much as they should,” he says. “Twenty years ago, the pace of life was much slower, but today there are so many demands on our time it becomes very hard to operate effectively.”
It’s also worth noting that those same time pressures can also undermine the wellbeing of small business owners and their families. The Back to Business survey, commissioned by Telstra Business and the Council of Small Business of Australia, found that 30 per cent of small business owners took no time off last year and 64 per cent had only one week’s leave or less.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are many ways to find more time in your day. “Working smarter can deliver a big saving in time,” says organisational psychologist Rachel Clements, of the Centre for Corporate Health. “And who wouldn’t want more time?”
1 Take stock of your goals
Write down your goals for your business and the steps needed to realise them, says Cathy Adams, a senior management and communications trainer with the Australian Institute of Management (AIM). Then schedule those steps realistically. “Take into account how much time you spend every week on surprises, ad hoc events and known appointments like meetings,” says Adams, who runs one-day Managing Your Time workshops for AIM. “Then you’ll know how much time you have available to achieve your goals.”
2 Forget being efficient — aim to be effective
Derek Stockley has spent the last 25 years running management training programs around Australia and has observed that many small businesses work hard at being efficient (“doing the job right”) rather than being effective (“doing the right job”). “You become so caught up in running your business on a day-to-day basis, you leave the most important things, like growing your business or planning for the future, for another day,” he says. “Then real damage can occur. You need to stop every so often and spend time on the things that really matter.”
3 Be realistic, not reactive
If your work involves a lot of contact with customers or clients, be careful not to let instant responses to queries and demands take up all your time. “[Small business owners] feel the relationship with their clients is the most important thing and so they operate in a very reactive way,” says organisational psychologist Rachel Clements. “They don’t take the time to see they’re often going round in circles, and not achieving much.” Instead, complete tasks in a logical order and be realistic about what you can achieve for each client. It’s better to deliver a realistic amount of work on a given day than promise a quick turnaround and fail to meet that deadline.
4 Prioritise tasks as soon as they come in
Derek Stockley recommends dividing tasks into three categories: what must be done, what should be done and what could be done. Start with the tasks in the first category and, if you have time left over, begin those in the second. Only when they’re finished should you think about tackling the third group.
5 Don’t overload yourself
“Many of us spend a lot of time repeatedly juggling and sifting through all the things we have to do. That means we often feel overwhelmed and stressed and helpless,” says psychologist Eve Ash, managing director of management training resource company Seven Dimensions. “Clear your desk and make a short, realistic list of things you can achieve in the next day, week, month and year.”
6 Designate a “power hour”
Cathy Adams suggests that you put aside an hour a day in which no-one is allowed to interrupt you and when you don’t take calls or check emails. This “power hour” will give you some space and time for quality thinking.
7 Be fully equipped
Always make sure you have a well-organised workplace so you don’t waste time looking for things. “I see people getting up all the time to find a hole-punch or a stapler and wasting so much time,” says Denis Healy.
8 Protect your interests
Don’t allow interruptions by colleagues, clients or friends unless their issue is more important than what you’re doing. Be polite, but firm. For instance, if someone drops by your office and asks if you have a minute, Healy suggests that you respond by saying: “No, I don’t. I’m working on a deadline,” then offer to schedule a meeting at a different time.
9 Control your entries and exits
It can be awkward drawing a meeting to a close when it’s held in your office and your colleagues are in the mood for a chat. Healy recommends you hold meetings in a colleague’s office or, better yet, in a meeting room so that you have control over your comings and goings.
10 Streamline meetings
For every meeting, draw up an agenda and allocate a time for each item, then invite people to attend only for items that are relevant to them, says Cathy Adams. That way, your colleagues will spend a limited, but productive time in the meeting.
11 Start the stopwatch
Don’t allow little activities like returning phone calls and checking emails to clutter up your whole day. Psychologist Eve Ash suggests making a list of tasks that would each take up around five to 10 minutes then challenging yourself to get them all done within the hour. “It’ll give you a great sense of accomplishment when you succeed,” she says.
12 Plot your phone calls
Think about each phone call before you make it, jotting down the key points before you start dialling. And return calls in the order of priority, not in the order you received them.
13 Learn to delegate
According to Derek Stockley, many people in small businesses micro-manage their affairs, believing it would take too long to teach someone to perform a task they could complete in half the time. He labels it “a short-term fix”. It’s far better, he says, to spend time teaching your staff. Good, well-trained staff members who get job satisfaction from being trusted to work without constant supervision are a valuable resource.
14 Quit procrastinating
“If you realise you’re procrastinating over something, then do that job first,” says Stockley. Procrastination can lead to lost business opportunities. It can also have a damaging psychological impact, according to Rachel Clements. “It’s often about a fear of failure and that can really set in if it’s allowed to go on too long,” she says. “It can even lead ultimately to self-sabotage.”
15 Get subscription-savvy
If industry newsletters are a source of valuable information, says Derek Stockley, make sure you subscribe to them. That way you won’t have to spend time every day roaming the internet or leafing through newspapers and magazines to keep up with work-related news. Someone else has already done it for you.
16 Set up your Google Alert feature
Google Alert is an internet monitoring service that delivers to your inbox any new items relating to your preferred topics: particular industries or markets, for example, or even developments in your local community. “It’s a great way of being able to keep in touch without physically going out to find out the news,” says Stockley.
17 Take control of your inbox
Sebastian Giacone, managing director of IT consultancy Solutionware, recommends switching off your email at a certain time of the day so you can focus on work without being distracted. He also suggests organising your inbox into folders, including a folder of “social” or “chat” emails. That way you can deal with the most important emails first or with emails on similar subjects at the same time. File anything not terribly important into a “read later” folder.
18 Colour-code your emails
Set up your inbox so that emails from certain contacts appear in colour, advises Denis Healy. For example, organise your system so emails from staff appear in red, those from colleagues are blue and messages from friends appear in green. Colour-coding saves time by allowing you a quick overview of the contents of your inbox.
19 Dodge the spam
Technology market research company The Radicati Group recently estimated that 29 4 billion emails are sent around the world each day. Trawling through your inbox to separate the genuine emails from the junk takes time. Sebastian Giacone advises investing in
an effective spam-filtering program.
20 Outsource your IT support
Having someone on staff as an IT troubleshooter can be costly, according to Giacone. It can also be inconvenient, with problems put on hold whenever that person is unavailable. Outsourcing the role can be more effective. “It’s hard for any one person to stay ahead in a technology that’s changing so rapidly. With an IT specialist, they’ll typically have 10 or more staff. They can put their heads together and come up with solutions,” says Giacone. Moving to cloud-based solutions for company software, storage and email systems can also be a time-saver, leaving you and your staff free from software maintenance duties.
21 Catch up with mobile technology
Many experts are now advising small businesses to invest in smartphones (like iPhones and Blackberrys) and tablets (such as iPads) so key staff members can work on the move. Check out our
tablet review and technology stories to find out what the latest mobile devices can do for you.
22 Know your patterns
Think about whether you’re an early morning person or if you’re more productive later in the day, then schedule your most mentally challenging work for that period. Most of us have a slow-down after lunch, so Derek Stockley suggests planning to do less important tasks then.
23 Be easy on yourself
When you haven’t achieved all you’d hoped, don’t beat yourself up about it, says Eve Ash. Punishing statements about how you’re running out of time or feeling panicky don’t help. They’ll only make you more stressed and less effective.
24 Look on the bright side
Negativity is contagious. Avoid sharing your problems with the rest of your workforce. Instead, focus on what you’ve achieved and where the business is heading. It will make you – and your staff – more productive in the long run.
25 Say “no”
Cathy Adams says many small-business owners have a habit of taking on too much (often things that don’t particularly relate to their goals). Then they run out of time for the really important work. Be firm and realistic about how much free time you have available. You need to take time for yourself to rest and revive.
OUR EXPERTS
Denis Healy is an accredited business coach, and the executive director of global productivity specialists PEPworldwide. Before setting up the company, he was a senior executive at a number of IT companies, including IBM.
Rachel Clements is an organisational psychologist and director of psychological services at the Centre for Corporate Health. She is a specialist in the field of occupational stress and improving the way businesses function.
Cathy Adams is a senior management and communications trainer with the Australian Institute of Management NSW & ACT, and was previously a facilitator, business coach and business development manager at Leadership Management Australia. Among the courses she runs is Managing Your Time.
Derek Stockley is a training, learning and performance management consultant, serving government, business and the not-for-profit sector. His company, Derek Stockley Pty Ltd, organises training programs throughout Australia, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and the Solomon Islands.
Eve Ash is a psychologist,business facilitator, executive coach and managing director of Seven Dimensions, which has produced around 500 films, videos and TV episodes about business and personal success, distributed in over 40 countries. She has also co-authored two books, Rewrite Your Life! and Rewrite Your Relationships!
Sebastian Giacone is the managing director of IT consultancy Solutionware, which specialises in networking infrastructure, business solutions and IT support. One of his major interests is helping people make their businesses run more smoothly through the efficient use of appropriate technology.