Time Management

ed-xpert

What strategies do you use to manage your time most effectively during business hours ?

As a sole trader, it can be difficult to manage the day to day running of a business alone. You've got administration, marketing, sales, accounting and a host of other things to do in order to keep the business afloat.

Any tips, ideas would be really helpful.

Many Thanks:)



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Pennywise

Time management and workload planning had been my downfall for years, not just as self employed, but also in the 15 or so years before as an employee. I was never on top of things, always fire-fighting, stressed out and not performing to my abilities. I tried all the fads, i.e. writing to-do lists and prioritising, using personal organisers, software, etc. etc but nothing worked - everything I tried to manage and schedule my workload and to-do list failed after just a few days. Even worse when I started my own business. I always blamed everyone around me for being unreasonable, HMRC, the local council, clients, employees, or whoever.

Then at a course, there was a short talk by one of the motivational speakers, which I nearly didn't bother attending because I've been on them before and thought it was nothing but gimmicks. But, he hit the nail on the head within his first few words. It was a eureka moment for me. He simply said that for effective workload planning, "just do it". I.e. don't faff around with making lists, organising your workloads, etc., "just do it". Get yourself to the stage where instead of half reading a letter and putting it in a file to deal with later, just finish reading it there and then, reply to it and file it - he said in most cases, that takes only marginally more time than writing it into your planner. Same with incoming invoices - don't put on the pile that's forever building up for action - open your book-keeping software and log it in straight away, so you can file and forget - even better, why not write the cheque or schedule the BACS payment at the same time, so you don't need to think about it again. The motto is file and forget.

Of course, that kind of reversal of process can't happen overnight. It took me about six months. I started bit by bit, one type of work at a time. Its a progressive thing. Easy and quick things first - just deal with the things that only take a few moments. Obviously you can't ignore everything else, so you need to keep your planning system running as well. But week after week, month after month, things get better as your "to do" list shrinks.

After six months, I didn't have a to do list at all. Everything was done as soon as it came in, whether bills, letters, emails, orders, or whatever. Quite a journey but worth it.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

I agree with PW, people tend to prevaricate rather than just doing. I have a rule to touch things once. Something arrives, email, letter etc, I review, action and file. If it needs a second step or third, then I diarise to take the next action etc. I find this has been a huge help and saves valuable time.

Good luck

timnicebutdim_2

I think the key to effective time management is about balance and managing your workload according to the needs of the business.... For me batch/project work is best as if I was to deal with every email, invoice, query as it came in, i would grind to a halt! So I put all the recurring 'maintenance' work into batches (i.e day to day routines which are important but don't need to be done right away) and do them every 1-3 days.

Then I have urgent, high priority tasks and this is my 'to do' list if you like. In the case of a sole trader I would imagine these would be cashflow, sales, book keeping. Lastly there's project work, i.e. big one off's including development work as you need to have time to improve the system e.g. marketing, procurement.

I agree that faffing about with lists isn't productive - nor is it good for job satisfaction as you constantly feel like your behind! Best way is to keep it as simple as possible so it's clear in your head what needs to be done and how much of a priority it is.

cr1mson

A long time ago I used to work in this kind of thing. One of the exercises we did was to give people stickers and everytime they touched a piece of paper they had to put a sticker on it. I know it sounds a bit OTT but it really acted as a visual tool to encourage people to deal with things straightaway and the either action, forward, file or bin!

Guess harder to do nowadays due to emails though!

C

Mistral001

I agree with PW. I have not heard that one about "just do it", but it does ring true.

It is all so "Noughties" to talk about "juggling balls in the air" and "managing your time", but really it is nothing special or new. It is as PW says about getting things done.

Only handling a thing once is a good idea if you can do it. Also never have a copy of anything in the office. Only have the original in the office. There is a temptation to make copies so that you can write on it and keep the original for safe-keeping, or to make a copy to give to someone in the office.

With regards to lists? That can cause people to slow down. My rule is not to make a list unless you are going to refer to each item one at the time. So that means if you make a list of maybe 10 things you have to do in a day, the list has to be picked up and referred to at least ten times during that day. If it gets looked at just a couple of times, it is a waste of time doing it as far as I can see,

One other thing about lists. I find that if I have to do them, I do them on a small white board I keep at the side of my desk and rub out each item as I get them done. This works well with me. It means that only the things that has to be done in the future are shown and once you rub an item out, you have to be absolutely sure that it has been done completely and not put on hold or no loose ends to be tied up etc. In other words it enforces a certain discipline on you.

heretolearn_2

On the same lines; do one thing at a time. 'multi-tasking' sounds good in theory but all it means is you get yourself in a tizzy with umpteen half-done, half-finished tasks and end up stressing yourself out because you are doing too much at once. This was my problem in the past. You feel busy because you are always rushing around, but you don't get much really achieved.

So whatever you are doing; give it your full attention and get it dealt with properly before you move on. Even if you have 10 urgent things to do today, you'll get more of them finished if you work your way through one at a time, instead of switching backwards and forwards every few minutes.

Get diary and block out some regular times each week for, say, marketing activity, doing your accounts, and an hour a week to look at the overall picture and do some strategic planning, for example preparing next year's budget, looking at the last month's financials, or researching a new product/service.