May I Buy Some Time Please?

If your printer runs out of ink or paper you or someone who works for you can just head over to the nearest STAPLES store and buy ink cartridges or paper.  When these are put into the printer you are back in action. The ink and the paper are commodities you use them and you just go and buy more.

On the other hand, time cannot be purchased. If you take an hour to work with a client who was booked for thirty minutes, the extra thirty minutes is lost forever.  If you are working on a marketing plan and had planned and scheduled to work on it for two hours and instead you work on it for six hours, the now lost four hours will never return, they are gone forever.

Everyone is busy, in fact, when surveyed, one of the top five items people wish they had more of is time. Every type of survey researching this question finds more time to be one of the top five most requested or wished for items. The question must be asked – if we cannot buy more time and we all want more time how do we solve this supply and demand imbalance?

The answer is we have to create more time within our day by re-allocating what each of us spends our time on. Here are three actionable steps for you to put into use right now.

The absolute number one habit to form is to create a time management system or process which you will adhere to and will work for you. In a perfect world this system would be combined with your goal tracking and action steps you may have set up. This does not have to be an electronic or digital system. It might make sense if you will be sharing the information with a number of other folks. However, the main point is that it has to work for you first.

The second habit is to stop trying to always be and look busy. Busy does not always translate into productive. Time spent being productive is one of the essential attributes we each have to have for ourselves.  Hands down regardless of the type of business you are engaged in, sales and marketing are where the majority of your time should be spent, and will be the most productive time you will spend in your business.

The third action item is grouping. The ability to group activities creates great efficiencies. A few examples would be to select an hour in the morning or the early afternoon to make your phone calls. Avoid texting and calling people up at all hours of the day.

Try out any one of these items or try out all three. Give yourself a full month or possibly two months to witness the efficiencies created.

Mitch Tublin is an advanced certified executive and personal coach who resides in Stamford, CT.