2 tools to improve how you manage your time

This article, discussed 4 different types of work that we focus on during the day:

• Not Urgent & Not Important
• Urgent & Not Important
• Urgent & Important
• Not Urgent & Important

It also referenced 2 different tools that business leaders can use to help them to focus more of their time working ON the business instead of IN it.  Those two tools are a time study and a default calendar.

Time Study

A time study is a great way for leaders to understand where they and their staff are spending their time throughout the day.  The way it works is you write down all the different tasks you do through the week and keep track of when you do those tasks.  At the end of a 2 week period, you tally up all the different tasks and determine where they fit in terms of the 4 buckets above.  After that, you can determine what percentage of your time is spent in each area.  Then you compare that to the recommended percentages of time that should be spent against each activity

• Not Urgent & Not Important - 10%
• Urgent & Not Important - 10%
• Urgent & Important - 60%
• Not Urgent & Important - 20%

Below is an example of a time study template you can use.  This article discusses more tips on better using time.

Default Diary

Now that you have an idea of where you are spending your time throughout the week, you should adjust your calendar to reflect the recommended percentages above.  A default calendar is an easy way to accomplish that exercise.  As illustrated below, a default calendar is simply blocks of time that you set for yourself to follow each week so that you can be sure that you are focussing on what is most important.

Additionally to the percentage breakout of the 4 different quadrants of work, about 50% of your time should be allocated to business development type activities and 50% to taking care of existing customers.  One mistake many business owners make is that as the business gets busy, they focus more and more time on existing customers as the detriment of business development for the future.

It is often much harder for owners to realize these things on their own and find that they need a second set of eyes to help them though these exercises.  Here is a video on blocking your calendar.

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