Effective Time Management Skill for Agents and Advisors: Moving Toward Ideal

Knowing what ideal is will enable you to move toward it, and doing so is an effective time management skill. When you haven’t taken the time to define ideal you engage in a lot of activities, but those activities aren’t necessarily productive. They aren’t productive because you haven’t clearly defined the ultimate outcome you want. When you define your ultimate outcome it has to account for both the personal and professional aspects of your life so when you get it you get your ideal for success.

How would you describe your ideal clients? I mean if you were to list the qualities and characteristics of the people you most enjoy working with what would they be? Now how can you get more clients like that? Filling your business with ideal clients will not only make your work more enjoyable, but it will make you more profitable and you’ll be able to work with more people with less stress. Focusing on ideal clients is one major way to gain increased effectiveness from your time management efforts.

How would you describe your ideal support staff? When you’re at the point where you need the help of support staff so you can continue to grow, you want to make sure you hire the right people. A good way for you to gain clarity about what an ideal support person would do, and how they would act is to define the key accountabilities for each position. Realize that key accountabilities aren’t activities they’re outcomes. So for example, a key accountability isn’t answers the phone by the third ring the key accountability would be connects with each person contacting our office making them feel as though they’re the most important person in the world. Knowing the outcomes you expect from each ideal support staff will make it easier for you to hire right the first time. But then you have to take responsibility for managing them. When you effectively manage your support staff you save yourself a lot of time and grief.

Schedule your time based on the balance you want in your life. Balance doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. A balanced life to me doesn’t mean I am spending 8 hours sleeping, 8 hours working, and 8 hours with friends. You have to identify how you would spend your time if you could. That’s your ideal for a balanced life. Then you have to block your time for the way you want to spend it. Until you do that you’re always blocking your time for how you think you have to spend it.

When you have a clear definition in your mind, and written out for your ideal for success your helping yourself to move in that direction in less time. You have to know where you are now before you can plan where you want to be. When you’ve planned where you want to be you know the distance you have to go based on where you are now. When you know the distance you have to go you can break it down into daily journeys. When you focus on accomplishing the one or two things each day that would make that day a success you make achieve your daily journey. Achieving your daily journey means you’re focusing on the most effective use of your time each day. It’s amazing how quickly you can get where you want to go when you accomplish you’re most important things each and every day.