Willis Cooper Chartered Accountants

Time saving strategies #2

Following on from yesterday…

Having mastered the art of delegation, helkp everybody else to master it too. That way, everybody will be able to delegate large parts of their workload - saving you an enormous amount of money and creating a much more satisfying work environment.

Make meetings more effective by holding them at the most productive time of day for both you and your contact, by having a written agenda to stick to, and by agreeing an action plan before departing.

Work out your “prime time” - which is the part of the day that you are the most creative and productive, and reserve that part of the day for your most important tasks.

Don’t procrastinate - especially with seemingly difficult or unpleasant tasks. As Mark Twain once said, “If you have to eat a frog, don’t look at it too long!”

Either invest in a small dictating machine, or utilise the notes function on your mobile phone. Use it to make note, dictate important thoughts to ensure that all those great ideas that come up do not go to waste.

If you have any other thoughts or strategies, we would love to hear for you..

Remember, effective planning ensures that you are at least starting the right way, by monitoring and measuring you ensure you are doing something about it..

Time saving strategies

The most important way you can ever use your time is to decide what is most important, and the do it. In other words, you must always put FIRST things FIRST!!

Look at each task, and ask “Will this move me closer towards achieving my goals?” If the answer is “no”, only do that task after you have done the other tasks that will.

Remember the 80:20 rule… i.e. that 20% of the effort usually generates 80% of the results. Make sure you identify (and do) everything in that 20% group.

Use the above tests to draw up a prioritised “to do” list every day.

According to Sir John Harvey-Jones, “leaders should only do what only they can do!”

So ask yourself the question “How much of my time is spent doing work I am over-skilled for?” Multiply that figure by how much your time is worth an hour to calculate the money you are wasting each year by being ineffective at delegating. And then multiply that figure by the number of years until you retire to give you an estimate of the money you can save by becoming a really effective delegator.

Some tips above in ensuring that you are working onn your business, rather than in it. Set yourself apart by working smart.. rather than just working!