7 Tips for Being More Effective and Working Fewer Hours

I don’t know about you, but time management never really worked for me. Mind you, there are some tips from time management that are well worth following. The main thing is to know yourself and follow your own energy in terms of “when” you do things and to use your head when it comes to deciding “what” to do.

Time is the only resource that we have a finite amount of. Will you spend it in ways that support you? Or let it while away?

(1) Work on your high payoff activities

High payoff activities are revenue-generating. These comprise marketing, delivery and business development. Determine which activities are revenue-generating and make sure that you allocate time every day for this.

Wherever you can, delegate out the rest, especially those tasks that are not your forte.

Ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?” This allows you to determine firstly, whether the task should be done at all, and secondly, whether you are the right person to be doing it.

(2) Chunk your day into set time chunks

Do the same thing at the same time each day and then stick to that routine. For example, do your marketing activities at the same hours each day. Check emails at the same times each day and so on. Allocate the times for the various activities according to your own energy rhythm.

For example, I’m an early morning person and do my most effective work in the morning. So I’ll work with clients at 6 or 7 in the morning depending on the time zone differences. On days when I’m not working with a client, I’ll often nip out for a quick coffee and make sure I’m back by 9. From 9 to 10 a.m., I focus on marketing activities. Then from 10 to noon, I write articles and work on idea development. Then at noon until 2 p.m. it’s lunch and emails.

Notice how all the scheduled activities are my high payoff ones.

Afternoons are flexible. Often I’ll do activities like research or idea-generation. Other than because I’m a morning person, I find that it takes me more energy to do things like writing than it does tasks like research, so I do those first when I’m still fresh.

I’ll stick to this routine as much as I possibly can.

This is a powerful technique which I would never have guessed would be as effective as it is. It’s allowed me to work half-days with peace of mind, knowing that if I cover the items that have been chunked into the day, I’d have completed the important things I need to do. With this, I no longer get to the end of the day feeling as if I’ve spent the whole day at the desk and yet not achieved much - something that used to be a frequent occurrence for me in the past.

How can you chunk your day?

(3) Outsource and delegate

This was one I resisted for a very long time because I felt that I “should” be doing it all myself - especially in the early days of my business. I insisted on doing the book-keeping myself, for example, because I’m a qualified chartered accountant and I knew how to. But I dreaded the day each month that ‘d allocated to book-keeping. As soon as I outsourced this, I felt such a sense of freedom. And more importantly, it freed up time for me to spend on other more lucrative activities, like preparing for talks at associations and conferences, or writing articles for publications.

The same thing happened with maintenance of my website. I quite enjoyed creating my website but maintaining it was a different matter.

Plus, these tasks are administrative in nature and definitely not revenue-generating.

So which tasks to you know that you don’t enjoy doing but you keep on doing it because you think you should? Outsource and delegate those as a matter of priority.

If you’re thinking that you can’t afford it, do think again. I wouldn’t advise that you go into debt in order to outsource, but outsource even when you think you aren’t at the income level you think you should be at before you do so. It will free up your time and energy and open up avenues for more income.

(4) Take inspired action when the inspiration hits

Sometimes inspiration hits us in the middle of nowhere. It doesn’t work by the clock. So when you get the inspired idea, you’re going to have to be the judge and take the most appropriate inspired action.

If it’s an article topic, write it down in an “Ideas Journal”. If you get a string of points for a talk you’re giving, write them down. Then carry on with whatever you’re focused on. If it’s an inspiration to phone someone, tune in - is it just the idea to phone that person or is it the intuitive hit to actually make that phone call straight away. Learn to listen to your intuition and ideas, and learn to discern whether the inspired action is to just write down the ideas and carry on, or briefly stop what you’re doing to act on the idea immediately.

Once again, it comes back to knowing yourself. Be honest! If you’re one of those people for whom inspiration hits but you talk yourself out of it over time, then, you must take that inspired action immediately, before you talk yourself out of it.

(5) Only check your emails at set times

Resist the temptation to check your emails every time one comes in. Email is addictive. Set specific times in the day to check your emails and only check your emails then.

When you get to your emails, deal with the ones that need attention immediately. Batch up any others to read into a “To Read” folder and read them when you get to your reading time. Then clear it out.

My goal every day is to get my Inbox down to less than a page long…and I’m working on getting it totally clear each day.

(6) Create a “To DAD” List

Don’t carry everything around in your head. It takes up energy needlessly. Get everything down onto a list and you’ll find that you’ll clear your head. The “To DAD” list is your “To Do And Delegate List”.

In the left hand column, write down the to-dos for yourself but only write down those items that you absolutely MUST do today. (Clue: High payoff activities and those for which you have an imminent deadline). You should have only a few items in this list, no more than 5.

Everything else goes in the right hand column - “To Delegate”. Allocate whom to delegate each task to - your virtual assistant, your webmaster, your book-keeper, and whomever else you outsource to, and also your Divine Self (or Higher Intelligence or Universe or Source, whatever you call it). Typically, the items that I delegate to my Divine Self are things that I know are coming up for me that I want worked on “in the background”. Examples are: Get ideas for my next newsletter topic, line up 60 people for my preview teleseminar, get 5 clients ready to sign up when we launch the website product.

Doing this allows you to free up your mind and releases energy that you can channel into the activity you are focusing on.

(7) Stop multi-tasking

If you think about it, there really isn’t any such thing as multi-tasking. We can only ever focus on a single activity at any one time. You may be able to handle a number of things in quick succession relative to someone else, but at any point, you can only do one thing.

If, for example, you’re listening to a class recording and writing emails at the same time, you’re actually zoning in and out between one and the other. You miss bits and pieces in between, and ultimately it takes you longer to get things done. If your class recording isn’t important enough for you to be fully present with it, then don’t bother listening to it.

Also, read my e-book, “How to Get Out of the Busy-ness of Life and get Busy Living Life” which tells you how to focus and concentrate effectively. If you haven’t already got a copy, just email me and request one and I’ll send it to you.

YOUR TURN

A trait of super-successful people is that they don’t just implement one thing at a time. They pick several and get them going. If you don’t feel that you can put all 7 of the above ways into action right now (why not?), then pick at least 3 and run with it. You’ll be pleased you did because you’ll be more effective and have more free time to do other things you love.