Are You Busy or Productive?

Ever have days when you seemed to be busy all day long, but at the end of the day you did not have much to show for the time? There is a distinct difference between activity and accomplishment. Do you relate to that feeling? Me too.

My solution revolves around time management. Each evening I write my “to do” list for the next day. Back in my property management days, it meant looking at not only new items to be accomplished but reviewing the completed work orders to determine what had been completed. Frequently it also involved a site visit to personally inspect the work performed. With a home based business, the buck stops right here at my own desk.

I am responsible for the action items placed on the schedule and I am responsible for the follow through to be certain they are completed. Anyone who has ever owned a small business understands this very well. Owning a home based business generally means one person, or perhaps a couple in the case of a partnership or marriage, shoulders all of the responsibility. In this case, “if it is to be, it is up to me” has absolute significance.

Scheduling time slots for specific tasks and committing to a complete and focused performance of that specific activity and only that activity during that time slot is imperative. Avoid answering personal emails or personal phone calls or any other distraction. If you have to lock your office door and seclude yourself, then do it.

Schedule specific times for the five things every successful entrepreneur does every day.

1. Meditate and visualize your goals in absolute detail using all 5 senses. Be certain your goals are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely)
2. Income producing activity – lead generation, conversations with potential business partners and follow up conversations.
3. Personal development – personal development always precedes financial results
4. Mastermind with other leaders who have the same forward-thinking goals and mindset for success
5. Cultivate the expectation of leadership. BE the leader, DO what the leaders do, and you will HAVE what the leaders have.

These rules apply whether you have a home based business, a small business, or a franchise. These principles apply regardless of the industry.

Schedule your time in 30 to 60 minute blocks depending on the task. Plan ahead so that you know you can and will adhere to the schedule.

Time management insures that your time will be more productive rather than just busy. If it helps, you can set a kitchen timer or the alarm on your watch or the timer on your phone.

No one wants to face themselves in the mirror night after night and admit that nothing was actually accomplished that day. A day is a precious commodity, don’t waste it.

Time Trap

Examine carefully the things you want most in life and prioritize your day accordingly. The biggest waste of time in the world is working very hard at something which should not be done at all. The second biggest waste of time is picking up and putting down a task many times and never actually finishing it. How many of you have projects in the garage or around the house which you started and left partially done? Maybe you spend an hour or so on it one day and then do not touch it again for a week or even longer? Do you realize you spend at least half of your time setting up and cleaning up the project which leaves almost no time for actually completing the task? McKenzie in the “Time Trap” talks about single handling everything. Start a project and see it through to completion before you start anything else. Your efficiency goes up, your productivity goes up and your wasted time and frustration go down.

The single handling of tasks is absolutely crucial in your home based business. It is far too tempting to get up from your desk and go to the kitchen, toss in a load of laundry, or make personal phone calls. All of the temptations are surrounding you at all times. Any excuse to avoid picking up that thirty pound phone and making your business calls. There are so many conveniences by having a home based business but there are also the distractions and excuses. Guard your time and your productivity very closely. This is your business, not your hobby. You can easily discover that you have wasted the entire day and accomplished nothing. Taking one day off once in awhile is not a bad thing but forming a habit of it will be a disaster. Waste too many days and you will have a “non-profit business from the discomfort of your home.”

There are several things you can do to effectively manage your time. These techniques are important whether you have a job, a home based business or simply want an organized life. The first technique is to make a list of the projects, tasks, calls, or activities you need to accomplish the next day. Arrange them by priority or by time. For instance if you have a tight time schedule and you need to attend training calls at specific times, call prospects back at specific times, and go to the bank during business hours, you may choose to plan your day in time blocks. The super important factor here is absolute focus during those blocks of time. If you schedule calling back your leads from 9 am to 11 am then spend those 2 hours laser focused on calling your leads and not answering silly personal emails or cleaning your desk or making coffee. Call your leads. Absolute focus on that one task only and accomplish as many productive calls as possible in that time frame. If you schedule a time block to work on your marketing or a time block to work on your personal development, then do only that during that time slot. Be very protective and focused during that “golden time.”

Make your list the night before or plan your week on Saturday or Sunday and stick to the plan. An organized life is always more productive.

You may also arrange your list by priority of task. Decide the most important thing to be accomplished and rank it as number one. Select the second most important and so on. Finish number one before you even look at number two. Remember single handling. One way to do that is to say “If I was to be called out of town for a month tomorrow and I could only do one thing before I left, what would that one thing be?” Circle it on the list to show it as top priority. “If I could do one more task, and one more task. . .” Perhaps set up 3 or 4 or 5 tasks and rank them in order of importance. I can not stress enough that you MUST make a list, plan and stick to your plan.

If you have a job, your boss will dictate some of your time and priorities. As the owner of a home based business, YOU must set your priorities and manage your time. You are the CEO of your own company. You would not want an employee to waste time. As the CEO of your own business, you need to hold yourself accountable for the use of your time.