By Affiliate Katie Gutierrez Miller
If you find you have too much to do and not enough time to do it, this article is for you! It’s short and to the point, which I know you appreciate since your to-do list is a mile long. To get the most out of your days this year, follow the following 5 tips.
1. Focus on top priorities. Know what your goals are and be sure to work toward them each day. We can get busy just for the sake of being busy. Instead, prioritize your days to complete the most important activities. If an activity is not going to help you reach one of your top priorities, give yourself permission to say No.
2. Chunk your day. Schedule your day so you complete what is needed. If you need to spend time following up with new business leads, schedule it on your calendar for an hour chunk. Need to create a new product or offering? Add a 90 minute chunk to your calendar. This works for fitting in workouts and other personal time as well as business items. If it’s scheduled on a calendar, most people will commit to doing that activity at the scheduled time.
3. No interruptions. Refrain from picking up the phone every time it rings, and turn off your email alerts so you do not check every time you receive new mail. An often quoted statistic is it takes 20 minutes to regain focus after being interrupted. You can lose days worth of focused time a year! Commit to being 100% focused on your task at hand. The other items can wait.
4. Deal or delete. When you take the time to go through your emails, voice messages or mail, decide what to do with the items immediately.
Deal: If they are things you can do quickly, do them. If you need more than a few minutes, schedule a time on your calendar. If someone else can take care of the item, delegate it.
Delete: Trash items you do not need or items that you know you will not read. Do you have folders full of articles you plan to read “someday” or stacks of magazines you’ll get to “sometime”? If you are not going to schedule that time, get rid of them and unsubscribe to the emails you regularly delete.
5. Delegate. To maximize your productivity, you need a support team to whom you can delegate. They can be part-time, they can be onsite or remote, but they must be people who can take care of the details of your business. Often, business owners delegate administrative duties, bookkeeping functions, the implementation of marketing plans, research projects, customer service, and other activities that are not directly impacting business growth and the business owner’s top priorities. Just asking someone to assist you 5 hours per week can often give a business owner back 10 hours worth of time.
Commit to making this year your most productive yet, and implement some solid time management habits.
Katie Gutierrez Miller is the President of Assistant Match, a company that matches busy professionals with the right virtual assistant for their business needs. Katie shows professionals how to increase income using remote administrative support. She leads seminars internationally for CEOs and has helped thousands increase their productivity (and sanity) by delegating the right things to the right people, in the most effective way. Assistant Match was recommended on NBC’s Today Show and Katie has been featured in a variety of national media outlets and local publications. For more information, visit www.AssistantMatch.com.