500 in Timesaving Tips

A business survey once reported that 25 per cent of respondents said they would pay more than $500 for just one more productive hour in the day. Well, put your cheque book away, here are ten tips that will give you a minimum of an hour’s more production a day.

1. Order online - if you are tempted to make that trip to the office supply store, or the electronics store to purchase everyday supplies, consider ordering them online, or pick up the phone and call your local store - most will deliver. A trip to the store can take an hour or more out of your day before you know it. The same goes for banking - do what you can online.

   
   

2. Social Media Planners - Use social media management systems to handle your social media posts. You can even load up a week’s posts and schedule them to go out automatically. Think about it, one 15-20-minute session instead of logging in everyday and getting distracted.

   
   

3. To-do lists - I know this timesaving tip has whiskers, but you know it makes sense and keeps you on track, which in turn saves you time. Remember, tackle the thing on the list you dread the most first - that way it won’t be nagging at you all day.

   
   

4. Stop procrastinating - this is the biggest time thief of all. Make yourself accountable, or make yourself accountable to someone else so that you have a deadline. Often, if there is no deadline, or it’s a long way off, we make excuses for putting it off until later. Plan ahead - put a sticky note on your computer that tells you to do this job first. Then adhere to the golden rule, “Only ever touch a piece of paper once!

   
   

5. Delegate the small stuff - so many entrepreneurs are control freaks, type ‘A’ personalities who don’t believe anyone can do any job as good as they can. Get over it - you can’t do it all, so start offloading some of your work and you’ll find that extra hour and it won’t cost you $500!

   
   

6. Take mental health breaks - I know, you simply don’t have time to have a break, but it has been proven that we become more productive when we take short breaks. I’ve always liked the old story of the two lumberjacks cutting down trees. One works hard all day barely taking a break, when he looks over at the other guy he always seems to be sitting down having a break. At the end of the day the first guy looks over and sees his friend has cut down twice as many trees than he has. “How the heck did you manage that buddy; you were always sat on your backside having a rest?” “Ah,” said the ‘lazy’ lumberjack, “while I was having those breaks I was sharpening my axe!”

   
   

7. Tune into your biorhythms - most of us have a certain time of the day when we are more productive than others. You may be a morning person who arrives at your desk brimming with enthusiasm ready to tackle the day. Or, perhaps you’re a slow starter and not at your best until after you’ve had a few cups of coffee. Knowing your body will allow you to choose when you will be most effective at certain jobs. Don’t waste your high-energy creative hours in answering phone calls, or emails, tackle the tough jobs during that period. When your energy is ebbing, make some calls, talk to people and check that inbox.

   
   

8. Learn to say no - if procrastination is the biggest thief of time, then saying yes to unnecessary jobs is a close second. Time-stealers creep into your life with the words, “Could you do me a quick favour...” and “I really need your help with this, it won’t take long...” and my favourite, “You’re so much better at this than me...”

   
   

9. Meet or work, you can’t do both - meetings can steal huge chunks out of your day, while at the same time sapping your energy not to mention your will to live. If you are in charge of the meeting call it at an off-hour, such as 9:45am, or 9:50am rather than at 10:00am. It’s weird but people are more likely to arrive on time that way, and waiting for people who are late is another time thief. Even if you don’t wait for them before starting with the agenda, they will still waste time trying to catch up after they do arrive. Oh, and about agendas, make sure you have each item timed and stick to it.

   
   

10. The browser hi-jack - don’t get sidetracked when you need to check something on the Internet. You know how it is, you need to research something and before you know it you’re like Alice in Wonderland down a rabbit hole checking out the price of gold, or who got thrown off the latest reality show last night. Your inbox can hi-jack you too, how many times a day do you get a message from a friend or colleague telling you that you really must watch this video, or check a message on Facebook - Don’t do it!

    
    

It’s frightening, but this list could have easily run to more than a hundred. In this social media crazy world, we can communicate with friends, family and colleagues in dozens of different ways all over the world in seconds - and we do. It’s a wonder that we ever get anything done at all. The biggest piece of time management advice of all is to be aware of how much time you have lost today, and attempt to lose less tomorrow!

PACF is hosting a Rebuilding with Intention workshop this fall. If you are struggling to organize your business in a way that is beneficial, check out the upcoming workshop. EDP and PACF clients are eligible to apply for a reimbursement of a portion of the registration Fee. Contact our office for more details.