Are poor time management habits holding your team back?
A new Deloitte study confirms that over 70% of workers and leadership feel distracted and unproductive due to poor time management.
Time is one of the commodities business owners never seem to have enough of. One of the consequences of this is that their families suffer. Those that can devote sufficient time to their families usually complain that they never have the time to take on new business opportunities.
Whether it is time to take that long-awaited holiday, time to spend with the family, market or systemize the business, there is never enough of it to go around.
As an entrepreneur type leader in a growing organization, a quick decision is often made to jump into a new skill set, learn it, and add it to the owner or leaders’ personal capacities stack. It’s an urge that on the surface appears cost effective and time efficient. STOP IT! You are wrong. It is a mirage!
Stop and Think
To make time and time management into a financial advantage, the business owner or leader needs to stop and think. “How do I prioritize and concentrate on using my talents that produce the most revenue and profits?”
As the leader, you need to seek ways to alleviate the mundane tasks, for its these that can easily passed on to other team members. The business owner needs to prioritize what they do, so they can concentrate on doing the most important and time-saving jobs first.
As the owner or leader, you select the area you wish to specialize in. It may be technical sales, financing, accounting, or production leadership. By focusing on that limited area, the company gains the advantage of your top dollar hourly billable rates and allows you time to focus on setting up others on your team to be the high performers in other areas of the company. For you the owner, this saves time working on less impactful actions.
Novel approaches, like Buyback Time Managing, focus on using your time efficiently and finding your highest value talents and maximizing your billing value primarily focused on that talent. Read Dan Martell’s book “Buy Back Your Time” on this smart time management approach. This approach focuses on tasks that generate more revenue per hour, thereby allowing the business owner to effectively “buy back” their time for higher-impact work.
The best thing about looking at time management as your business advantage is it works extremely well in all business styles – remote, in office and hybrid.
Remote, In Office and Hybrid Work Environments
Encompassing time management boosts productivity, improves employee satisfaction, and drives greater financial success. It helps businesses manage the challenges of each setup with greater flexibility and efficiency.
Time management boosts efficiency in any work environment:
- Remote Work: Good time management helps remote teams stay productive and meet deadlines, even without a supervisor.
- In-Office: In a traditional office or plant setting, managing time efficiently helps minimize distractions, streamline operations, and advance a culture of accountability. It also makes better use of resources and quicker decision-making.
- Hybrid Work: For hybrid teams split between office and remote work, effective time management compares and measures collaboration and solo tasks. Smooth transitions and high productivity, no matter where everyone is working, is the result.
Time is a Differentiator
The driving force behind managing your time is to accomplish your ultimate goals.
Poor time management, chronic procrastination, and a lack of time management skills are not just individual problems—they can cripple your business’s growth. If you or your team are struggling in these areas, it’s time to take action.
Mastering time is not just a skill—it is a differentiator for success. To truly gain control over your business and boost productivity, consider the following strategies and examples:
- Are you dedicating enough time to working on your business rather than getting stuck in it?
EXAMPLE: A concrete Redi mix business owner spends 30 hours a week handling tasks like customer calls, equipment maintenance, and invoicing instead of focusing on growth strategies. Essential needs like vendor negotiations and quality control checks were being neglected, costing an additional 10% in potential revenue. By delegating these tasks, the owner reclaims time for sales and business expansion, leading to 15% more client purchases and greater revenues.
2. Is your team leveraging time-blocking strategies, like a Default Diary, to stay focused and productive?
EXAMPLE: A floor cleaning service manager adopts time-blocking by dedicating Monday mornings to scheduling high-revenue commercial jobs and staff coordination. Crews spend 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on intensive deep cleaning tasks, like stripping and waxing floors, then move to routine maintenance jobs from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. This schedule helps maximize daily productivity, with crews managing three large jobs and five maintenance tasks per day, boosting revenue by 20%.
3. How often do you review your time log to see where your hours are going?
EXAMPLE: A vending machine manufacturer business owner tracks their time and discovers 15 hours a week lost to meetings and scheduling. Realizing the drain, they streamline meetings and automate scheduling, reclaiming precious hours. With newfound focus, they shift their energy to high-impact activities like driving sales and expanding the business customer engagement efforts, turning wasted time into growth opportunities.
4. What percentage of your leadership and team consistently create and follow a daily to-do list?
EXAMPLE: A sales team lead sets up a daily to-do list every morning with the top three priorities for the day. This practice improves focus and ensures that high-impact tasks get completed before less important ones.
5. Are you leveraging both time and strategic planning to maximize output?
EXAMPLE: An indoor amusement park business owner combines strategic quarterly planning with daily execution by breaking long-term goals into monthly and weekly action plans. The operations and customer engagement teams align their daily activities with these goals, ensuring focused, productive work. This initiative-taking approach reduces last-minute stress and improves collaboration, maximizing overall output and goal achievement.
6. Are you and your team using Daily Goal sheets to track and prioritize tasks?
EXAMPLE: An internal housewares product design team uses a shared Daily Goal sheet to keep track of individual responsibilities and deadlines. By focusing on these prioritized tasks, they reduce bottlenecks in their workflow. In the same company, a purchasing manager begins each day by filling out a Daily Goal sheet, listing three critical tasks to accomplish by the end of the day. This practice helps them avoid getting distracted by non-urgent requests.
7. Do you have a clear system for delegating tasks to free up your time for more strategic work?
EXAMPLE: An accomplished CEO follows Dan Martell’s “Buyback Rules” by delegating low-value tasks like email filtering and meeting scheduling to an assistant. This frees up valuable time for high- leverage activities that drive business growth, such as strategic partnerships.
Your Takeaway
Imagine you have spent a week putting out fires, only to realize that your key business goals remain untouched. Without effective time management, this scenario is all too common, and it is one of the main reasons businesses fail to grow.
Poor time management habits, chronic procrastination and the need for skill improvements are the most consistent factors in failing to grow. Ready to take control of your time and see how your business performs? Seek out an expert and talk about the key core changes that can lead to massive productivity gains.
© October 2024