How to manage yourself through time in your business
The concept of ‘time management’ feels rather dated. And what does it actually mean? You can’t stop the clock. Yes, you can plan what you’re doing and deliver the tasks, but time is always your manager.
Which is why a time management study will only tell you how you use your time. A good start, but what you do with this information and what comes next can be more difficult to pin down.
Why not think of it in a slightly different way? How do you put yourself at the heart of everything you do? How can you be more proactive and manage yourself through time rather than have time manage you? In essence, you can put yourself in control and more accountable for what you do.
Understand how you spend your time
No, I’m not going to slip back into time management mode. But the first step will be to understand what you do with your time. This can be a real eye opener but you have to be honest with yourself. A coach can make this an easier task for you to complete.
I think there are 4 areas that describe how you work; see if you can identify activities you do in each of these.
Distraction equates to 10% of your time. These activities that are not urgent or important. Something like searching on Google without any purpose. So why on earth would you be spending time on these? It might just be habit, but more about that later.
Delusion is another set of activities that equate to 10% of your time. These are tasks that are made urgent by other people but are not important to your business. It can be a difficult one to spot when someone else is telling you it’s urgent.
Demand is 60% of your time. These activities are urgent and important to your business. Definitely an area where you want to spend your time. Great customer relationships and consistent delivery come from focussing on this type of activity.
Not Urgent but Important should equate to around 20% of your time. This is where you need to set time aside to develop your business. Plan for the future and build relationships, engage in learning or do some creative thinking. It’s vital for growth but often passed over because it isn’t classed as urgent.
This is a useful way to understand where you spend your time in the business. But you may find it hard to work differently. You’ll need to break out of the cycle of doing what you’ve always done, and create new habits.
Which is why it’s very powerful if you can recognise these old, bad habits. You can then look for ways to change behaviour. Ultimately you will be able to manage yourself through time better and grow your business.
Bad habits can waste your time
According to James Clear habits are defined as the decisions you make and the actions you perform every day. In effect how you use your time. So, if you’ve developed habits that equate to 20% of your time being spent on Distraction and Delusion activities, that surely can’t be good for your business. What you need to think about is how do I reduce that percentage? How do I spend more of my time on Demand and Not Urgent but Important activities?
James explores this topic in his book called Atomic Habits. There are a number of laws that govern your habits. And because they are easy to recognise it is possible to make the change and achieve your goals.
- Make it obvious. If you’re going to do something then make a commitment and put it in the calendar.
- Make it attractive. Understand what the benefits are of doing the action. It will increase the likelihood of you doing it.
- Make it easy. Allow yourself to set some time aside. Decide what you are going to do and avoid any distractions. Break down the barriers so it’s easy to complete the task.
- Make it satisfying. Reward yourself when you have completed the activity.
These are habits you should be developing over time. Always do what you say you’re going to do. Set yourself up to not miss an activity but if it’s absolutely unavoidable then never miss it twice.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steve Covey is another great book on this topic. He details 7 habits which you can follow to become more effective in what you do. It’s an approach to self-improvement that resonates with many business owners. There’s more detail at www.franklincovey.com/the-7-habits/habit-3
That’s the way I’ve always done it
If you are struggling with how to manage yourself through time, it’s great to utilise other resources. Why not allocate some time to read one of the books I’ve mentioned, listen to a seminar or start making a plan? Focus on activities that will make a positive change.
And yes, I know, you then go back to the day job and your usual routines. Old habits soon surface and you find yourself spending time on the same old tasks. After all, that’s the way you’ve always done it and it seems easy enough. You’re probably thinking, let’s just bin all those great ideas until the next time. They’ll probably resurface when I need to look at growing the business again. If you find yourself in this vicious circle there is a simple solution; make yourself accountable. Find an accountability buddy or a coach that you can share your goals with and then ask them to keep you accountable. It’s powerful stuff and just knowing that you’re going to have to explain to someone else how you’re progressing will give you extra impetus to get things done.
Business success as a value
This is definitely part of the Not Urgent but Important activities. You may already attend networking events, so you can build relationships and generate more business. But these are time consuming and you should really assess the value they create for your own business. One example is Business Network International (BNI); it takes a very structured approach to this networking. It’s based on celebrating business success through the ethos of ‘if I give you business, you’ll want to give me business’.
BNI encourages a mutual partnership that holds members accountable for their activities. Performance is tracked over time and measured. It’s a great way of managing yourself through time by ‘using’ networking, rather than just going along for a coffee. It’s a habit that becomes attractive because there are real benefits that people share on a regular basis.
Action Points
- Don’t think of it as managing time – think of it as managing YOURSELF through time.
- Audit your use of time to see where you’re in distraction or delusion zones.
- Put a couple of hours a week into your calendar so you can do Important, but not Urgent activities (like learning, building relationships or strategic planning)
- Read ‘Atomic Habits’ and ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ – they’re multi-million bestsellers for a reason.
- Find networking groups that work for you and use them, don’t just go along for a chat.
Related links:
https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/habits-of-highly-effective-people-summary
