The Good and the Bad

Yesterday a good friend shared with me an idea she uses for time and energy management. She has a chart. On the left side she list those things that she is good at and loves to do. On the right she lists those things that she either is not good at or hates to do. Keeping the chart in front of her, she can concentrate on her strengths, and find a way to offload the things she does not like to do.

This can be very effective. We are energized when we accomplish things we love to do and are good at. Brian Tracy says that each of us has a skill that we are absolutely excellent at and we should hone and polish that skill to be the best that we can be.

A chart of strengths and weaknesses can be the start of the search of the one thing you are truly great at doing.

Time Management

I attended a wonderful seminar yesterday by Brian Tracy called “Maximum Achievements”. There were many take aways, but one of the simplest, yet profound, was a rule about time management. The rule is this.

“If you would not pay someone else to do something – don’t do it yourself”.

Think about this. If the task is not worth paying for, then you are losing money. For sake of simplicity, assume that your income is $50,000. Doing the math this translates to $25 per hour. If you spend an hour on a non-productive task, you have just blown $25.00. Taking this a step further, if you delegate a needed task to someone else, you have freed up the time for yourself, and can probably pay someone else less than your own hourly rate – you are now ahead.

Several months ago I had lunch with a friend who has a home-based business with no employees. She commented how she hates to file and do routine office tasks. We decided that she should hire a part time person to do the things she dislikes. Not only would she be relieved of drudge work, but she would be money ahead. Her billing rate is about $150 per hour – she could easily hire a part time person for ten percent of that amount.

How are you spending your time?

Will Limkemann

Daily Planning

In his wonderful book “The Ultimate Sales Machine”, Chet Holmes starts with a chapter called “Time Management Secrets of Billionaires”. How refreshing to start a sales tome on the important art of manging the scarecest resource of all – time. Other experts have suggested making lists of how you spend your time. Of course, this is a look at history. Chet recommends that you look forward planning each day, prioritizing the tasks to be performed during the day, and then not only alloting a specific amount of time for each task, but listing a start and ending time.

Too often I see business owners who operate in total chaos. They move from one crisis to another, and are never on time for anything. Because of the example they set, their employees operate in the same culture of chaos. If businesses that operate in this mode are profitable, it is purely by chance. Poductivity can be significantly improved by following the six steps of time management outlined by Chet:

1. Touch it once – take action on each e-mail or letter when you first read it and dispose of it. If you have a meeting, make sure it results in meaningful action.

2. Make lists. People who don’t keep lists are reactive – those who do are organized.

3. Plan how much time you will spend on each task.

4. Plan the day. Be specific and have a time slot for everything.

5. Prioritize. Focus on difficult projects first. Many people drown in buwywork that produces few results. Tip for sales people and one-person businesses: devote 2.5 hours per day in new business development activities.

6. “Will it hurt me to throw this away?”. 80% of all filed or stored information in never referred to again. So why save it?

Time management requires learning new habits – but is a process that can yield great rewards to a business owner.

Will Limkemann
Limkemann Business Advisors
440-871-0976