Are we a bunch of timewasters? This was one topic of debate at an Institute of Directors sales seminar I attended recently. The trainer asked all 100 of us 'How much time do you waste, or allow other people to waste for you?' and answers ranged from 10% to a staggering 80%, with the average being around 35%.
‘Was that a fluke?’ I wondered, so I did the same exercise with some of my audiences and guess what – similar results.
So, what can you do about it if you’re in the 10%-80% range? Here are a few tips, which can help you achieve staggering results.
One client of mine (let’s call him Mike), who is a partner in a small to medium-sized accountancy practice, followed these tips and has since publicly stated that he has made £1m worth of sales as a direct result.
Ask yourself, ‘Do I need to do this task?’ This is a different question from ‘Does it need to be done?’ The point here is delegate, which helped Mike develop both himself as a manager and his team.
When planning, ask yourself ‘what are the important things to do, (as opposed to urgent)?’ Stephen Covey asserts in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People that a significant amount of time should be spent on tasks that are important without being urgent.
In Mike’s case, spending even more time with bank managers and other professionals who could give him business was one of the major changes he made.
Be focused on what you want. This means having goals. Mike hadn’t set goals that would enable him to easily know what he needed to do, which tasks were important and what seemingly important and/or urgent requests on his time he could say no to.
Carve out time in your diary to do the necessary work – uninterrupted time, with the door shut and the phone diverted.
Mike often joked during our sessions that none of this was rocket science.
My response was – ‘You know what to do, but do you do what you know?’