Whether I’m talking with a seasoned business owner or the new owner of a one person start up, I often hear the same thing – “I know what I need to do. I just can’t seem to find the time to focus and get it done.”
And here, I’ll tell you something that I know you already know. You’ll never find the time, you have to create it.
But how?
Start by looking at what you’re doing now. For the last 20 years or so, I’ve been using a time management matrix based on the one presented by Stephen R. Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (which is an awesome book, if you haven’t read it.)
The matrix looks at the relationship between importance and urgency. It reveals the activities that occur when we’re working in a particular quadrant of the matrix as well as the results we can expect when we devote our time to these activities.
Urgency is easy to identify. Urgent activities are visible and pressing. They “trigger” action. A ringing telephone is urgent.
Importance is a little more challenging. Important activities help you create results in your business. But it may be difficult to differentiate ahead of time whether a telephone call is important or not.
The goal is to spend as much time as possible working in quadrant II (important/not urgent), with an understanding that sometimes you’ll have to work in quadrant I (important/urgent). Successful business owners have processes in place that help them avoid quadrant III (unimportant/urgent) and IV (unimportant/not urgent) activities. You just don’t have time for them.
Putting it into Action:
For the next three days, keep track of how you spend your time. If you’re like most owners, you’re spending most of your time (apart from direct value delivery) in quadrant I, though you’re probably inadvertently spending time in quadrants III and IV, particularly when you’re tired or stressed. This is a waste of your most precious resource – your time.
Once you’ve identified where you’re wasting your time, put processes in place that free you to pursue quadrant II activities instead. Voila – Time Created.
If you’re not sure exactly how to spend all the time you’ve found, I’ll be sharing my recommendations for exactly what to do in your newly available quadrant II time in future posts.
Take Good Care.
Do Great Work.
Have a Wonderful Day!
Melissa
P.S. Do you have an insight into this process that could help others? A question that came up for you but isn’t answered in this post? Please leave a comment so we can chat and others can benefit from your thoughts. TY M
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