5 Tips For Maximising Time

Let's face facts, you, me and every other person on the planet has the same 24 hours in a day. let's explore 5 tips that I've used with hundreds of business owners over the last 15 years to help maximise those 24 hours.

This is ever the quest when you’re running your own business. But before we get into the detail of how to generate more time I want to ask you this.?

Do you actually have your business? Or do you have your own job?

This question was a revelation to me. I first discovered simple yet profound theory known as the cash flow quadrant. It comes from Robert Kiyosaki best-selling author of the rich Dad, poor Dad series of books. He talks about the ways in which you earn you income.

E- The employee, trading your time and skill set for a set income each week or month.

S- Self-employed. I want you to pay particular attention here. Being self-employed still means trading your time and skillset for a set income each week or month. The only difference is that you’re not doing it for somebody else. Essentially you own your own job or you own your own service that you deliver to your clients.

B- Business owner. You have a set of products and systems in place that mean you don’t need to trade your time for money any more. Even if you don’t physically work, your business still makes money and pays you and your staff a wage. You can literally earn money while you sleep, the genuine dream!

Investor. This means you make your money from stocks and share, ForEx trading, crypto, bonds, ventures, profit shares, and investments into start-ups or other vehicles that don’t require much of your time. Only your cash flow and knowledge.

a key point to remember here, there is no exclusivity here or right and wrong here. You can generate your income being an E and an I. You can also be an S, B and I. You could also be an E but also be a B. There are no set rules for where you generate income. But the main focus I want you take away here is the difference between an S and a B.?

Self-Employment

This is the dream for a lot of people starting up their own business. But what a lot of people don’t realise, myself included is that what you’re really starting is your own job. You own, your own job, you don’t have a business, not yet.

Self-employment once it got redefined for me was a huge lightbulb going on. It highlighted to me that if I don’t work, I don’t get paid (one benefit of being employed among others). I soon realised that if I didn’t find a way to create products to sell outside of my core, face to face services. Then I’d be working forever. Particularly before I started to manage my money effectively, but that’s a different blog entirely.

Being self-employed has massive benefits, massive downsides and everything in between. As do all elements of the cash flow quadrant. I just want you to be aware that if you don’t have systems, processes and products in place to generate income while you’re not physically working. You won’t progress into having a business and you won’t be able to generate more time for yourself.

Generating time.

It’s our most precious commodity, time literally waits for no one. If I’m honest with myself, I could have made better use of my time and been more disciplined. But we live, learn and give back so the next generation can be better than ours.

You cannot generate more time without knowing where you time is going now and being brutally honest about how you’re spending your time. It all starts with analysis and honesty. Do this for yourself. Write down when you’re in bed every night and when you’re waking up.

This should total if we’re being healthy a minimum 49 hours (7hours a night sleeping) this leaves you with 119 hours remaining. Of that 119 hours take your time for commuting, school runs and other obligatory tasks that are not related to working on or in your business.

Here’s a theoretical breakdown

119 – 5 hours a week school, - 6 hours a week commuting to shared working space, - 5 hours a week for a proper lunch break.

We now have 103 hours remaining in your week. What you chose to do with those 103 hours might be 4 hours a week to exercise, 1 evening a week for socialising, 10 hours a week just down time, 3 hours a week for gaming as an example.

Now there are 80 hours remaining in the week. Here we can break them down into your job/business based activity. How much time are you dedicating to business or brand development? How much time into product development? How much time into budgeting, finances and keeping accounts? How much time into client work and projects? How much time are you dedicating to networking and building new business relationships? How much time are you actually dedicating to sales??

Actually creating time

Now you’ve analysed what you spend the same 24 hours a day we all have equally. Can you honestly say that you’re using 80 hours a week genuinely working on or in your business or your job? Being employed, you don’t need to worry about it. You get paid for your set hours and you’re done.

Being self-employed and owning your own job, you may need to complete a day’s work. Then do invoices, receipts, quotes or estimates, cook your dinner and prep up for the next day. Or you may need to do a whole day’s client project work, then still find time to make and eat food, and find time to do all the other bits that are involved in the service you provide your clients. As well as the admin parts of being self-employed.

In the past with clients I’ve generated time by creating a split list. Work ON the business (growth) and work IN business (completing tasks for clients). By defining these two categories, we then assign tasks for each, we then allow certain time frames for each task. BY running through this process we can then identify windows of free time. Or if we can’t then we know that we need to hire some help.?

Summing it up.

The above is a generic but super effective guide. There cannot be any improvement in any facet of life or business without analysis, confronting the brutal facts and a plan of action. Nothing happens without a plan.

The above is a generic but super effective guide. There cannot be any improvement in any facet of life or business without analysis, confronting the brutal facts and a plan of action. Nothing happens without a plan.

Step 1: take your sleeping time away from 168 hours.

Step 2: divide the remaining time between mandatory tasks

Step 3: The remaining time subtract your social and exercise time

Step 4: The remaining hours divide between working on your business and in your business with assigned tasks and timelines for each.

Step 5: Enjoy any windows of free time, if you have no free time work with a coach to prioritise jobs and time lines.

I hope this helped you.

Dean | Corporate Wellness Director.?