Time management advice is found in great abundance on the
Internet. You can determine how to schedule your day, how
to set your priorities, how to delegate, and how to tackle
your to-do list.
As a service business owner, you face an enormous number of
tasks and responsibilities each and every day. What I've
come to realize in my years of self-employment that my most
valuable asset isn't my contact database or my marketing
materials or my business plan.
It's my time.
Most entrepreneurs are time-starved. It seems everyone
wants a piece of you -- your clients, your family, your
prospective customers, your friends, your employees or
subcontractors. For most service business owners, there
always seems to be too much stuff to fit into too little
day.
The most valuable time management question that
time-starved entrepreneurs need to ask themselves before
agreeing to do something is, "How will this serve me?" A
business coaching colleague asks the same question a little
differently, "Is what I'm about to do going to increase the
confusion/complexity in my life?"
That's it -- pretty simple, isn't it? So, before I'm about
to embark on joining a new organization or committee, or
before I'm about to think of another sideline path for my
business, I just ask myself this one simple question.
The answer leads me to my next step.
Now, a word of caution here---don't get caught in the "but
crack". If your answer is, "Well, yes, it'll be good for my
business but it's.....", you've just fallen into the "but
crack", which means that you've negated everything that
came before the "but" in your thinking. If there's a "but"
attached to your sentence, more than likely what you really
need to do is the opposite of what you're saying.
So, in the example above, "Well, yes, it'll serve my
business well but it's going to take the next 8 weekends to
pull it off," it may not be the great opportunity you think
if you already are concerned about the havoc it might bring
to your life.
What if you're unsure of how this opportunity/task/chance
will serve you? How do you make that determination?
I borrow a page from life coach Cheryl Richardson's book,
Take Time for Your Life, and create what she refers to as
an "Absolute Yes List." This is your list of the top 5
priorities in your life. For most of us that would include
spouse/significant other, family, work or business, hobby,
volunteer effort, and yourself. You did remember to
include yourself, didn't you?
Remember, your time is your most valuable asset. If you
don't create time for yourself and make that your #1
priority, I will guarantee you that no one else will do
that for you. When I used to deliver my work/life balance
speech to various women's professional organizations, I
would have the participants create their "absolute yes"
list and then take a survey of hands to see how many had
included themselves on the list. Typically less than
one-third of any group put themselves on their list, and
less than 5% of that number listed themselves first.
If what you're considering doesn't fit on your "absolute
yes" list, then it's an "absolute no." If it does match
your top 5 priorities, then give it the, "How will this
serve me?" test.
Creating your list of your top 5 priorities and applying
the "how will it serve me" question are the two best tools
at your disposal as a service based business owner to
regain control of your most valuable asset -- your time.
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Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business
Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals
learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their
expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To
claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing
Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizU.com . Ask
Donna an Internet Marketing question at
http://www.AskDonnaGunter.com .
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