If you’re a business owner you will know the pressures relating to personal time management. A lot is riding on how you allocate your valuable working hours. To be sure that you and your team are being productive and organised without being unrealistic with your expectations, it’s a good idea to have measures in place to stay on top of your time management.
Be realistic about your time
Without changing your routine or habits, spend a few days monitoring how you spend your time. You may believe that you only spend 30 minutes on emails, but in reality, that task is eating-up an hour or more of your day.
Gathering this info will give you the base you need to help you make changes to how you manage your time.
Plan ahead
Writing to-do lists is the bread and butter of self organisation. At the start of each day, or week, plan what tasks you’re going to be doing and allocate time to each task. Check in with your timetable periodically to ensure you’re not going too far off track.
Do one thing at a time
One major danger in a busy work environment is the risk of ‘half work’. This is when you might be part way through a task and you start doing something else. For example, if you open your emails part way through something, and in your inbox there are a few more things to add to your to-do list. This can often lead to both things you’re trying to do taking longer, and also you’ll be giving neither your full attention.
Outsource overflow call handling
By having the safety net of a professional call answering service, you are able to stick to the office hours you’ve previously committed to. The danger of not being able to answer the phone round the clock is that you may miss valuable sales opportunities or crucial customer service emergencies. The answer here is to get some backup. If a 24/7 call answering service, such as Message Direct, has you covered, you can still stick to your timetable without missing important messages and calls.
