Something a little disheartening happens to me every day. I get people un-subscribing to this eZine with a version of the following message: "I like your eZine. I just don't have time to read it anymore."
Do you sometimes feel like the world has run out of time?
We don't have time for our families, time for our friends, time to answer our email or time to market our businesses. In fact, over the years, the lack of time to actually do marketing is the number one complaint I've heard about marketing. We often know what to do; we just can't seem to get around to doing it.
So (other than voting today, if you're in the U.S.), reading this eZine could be the most valuable time you spend today. Print this one out. Read it a few times, tack it to your refrigerator and work at putting these ideas into action. The payoff could be huge.
Here are a few things I've learned about time and getting the important things done that keep my business moving profitably forward.
A Matter of Priority
We have lost our sense of priority. Everything is urgent. Nothing is truly meaningful. We just have a zillion things to get done - NOW! Not only is this extraordinarily stressful, it is living an illusion, a lie. Because some things are certainly more important than other things.
Without priority, we are at the complete mercy of external events. We go wherever the wind blows. And we don't get done what truly matters. For now, just let me focus on business- related activities.
There are really only three categories of activities Independent Professionals spend their time with:
- Income-Producing Activities
- Marketing Activities
- Everything Else
Let's look at them in some depth:
Income-Producing Activities
Your goal should be to dedicate about 50%-60% of your time to this category. This includes actual time spent working with clients, other billable time and time developing passive income products and services.
It also includes developing services and programs, long and short-term planning and increasing your capacity and skills to deliver value to your clients and to grow your business, such as professional development.
For instance, coming up with a workshop that will generate new income, working on your pricing structure, and improving your coaching skills are all long-term Income-Producing Activities.
It also includes time to read, think, study and learn with the aim of working smarter, not harder. It has been proven that time put into planning and into building your skills is an investment that pays dividends as high as ten to one.
Marketing Activities
Your goal should be to dedicate about 20%-30% of your time to this category. This can include a wide variety of marketing activities (which also includes sales activities) such as networking, speaking, writing, sending eZines, making follow-up calls, sales appointments and preparing proposals.
Just as importantly, this must include time to learn about marketing. You need to take a few hours every week to study marketing ideas (books, tapes, CDs, teleclasses, eZines). If you want to be a truly effective marketer, you can't just go through the motions, you need to know what you're doing. Study the experts.
And a certain amount of time needs to be spent on marketing planning and strategy. How exactly are you going to promote that workshop you've developed? Again, for every hour you put into planning, you'll see a dramatically higher return on your marketing activities.
Everything Else
Your goal should be to limit the time you spend on Everything Else to about 20%. The trouble is, it's not unusual for people to spend 50% or more in this area. This is the monstrous time and energy sucker that eats away at your business success. This is where you need to cut the fat.
This is a long and growing list: Email and mail, paperwork, bills, bookwork, errands, returning calls, computer troubleshooting, organizing, etc. Your aim here should be very simple - to dump as many of these items as you can - at least by 50%.
Again, this will take a small investment - of money, not of time. Hire a bookkeeper and someone to handle your files and office tasks on a part-time basis. Get an expert to organize your email so you get less spam and your top-priority email is filtered into one email box. (I've done it and my hundreds of daily emails get handled in less than an hour a day.)
Get a professional organizer to come in to work with you for several sessions to organize paper, details and your schedule. These amazing professionals will not only get you organized, they'll leave you with skills you can use for a lifetime that will save you time every single day.
If your could cut your time on Everything Else from 50% to 20% and it cost you $1K or $2K per month (most can do it for a lot less), wouldn't you make that up many times over by putting your time and attention on the much more important categories of Income-Producing and Marketing?
Making It Work
Your first task to make this system work is to start making the distinction between the three categories. In other words, notice exactly where you are spending your time and energy. And then work at cutting down the time spent doing Everything Else.
Your next job is to work at increasing the time you spend on Income Producing and Marketing. And where almost all of us can spend more time in these two areas is in long-term planning and development (creating that new workshop) and in improving your marketing skills (the best way to market that new workshop).
If you work on this diligently (and I don't pretend that it's easy) I predict you'll see the following results.
- You'll be less stressed and overwhelmed
- The little stuff gets handled without you doing it
- You'll feel more on purpose and more fulfilled
- You'll experience more control and power
- You'll bring in more business with less effort
- Your income will increase - often dramatically
I'm sure you'll agree that these results are well worth the effort!
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Here are some specific strategies for planning and keeping on track.
* Have your daily schedule and daily to-do items on one page (or in a large planner - a teensy-weensy monthly calendar won't do) that's in front of you at all times. If you use a PDA, transfer your schedule and to do's to this one page that you can scan at a glance.
* Only write the to do's that you actually intend to get done today. You may choose to have a master list that includes everything, but transfer items from that list to today's list. And don't list too many items.
* Make sure you always include Income-Producing and Marketing Activities on your daily list. They won't get done unless you put them on your list and you make them a priority.
* Schedule certain marketing activities on a regular basis and don't get distracted from implementing. For instance, go to certain networking events every month and put out your eZine twice monthly without fail.
* Get and stay organized. A tidy office and a clear desk help you put your mind on what's most important. Clutter and disorganization actually drain your energy and keep your attention on Everything Else.
