Another week is gone...
Hard to believe it is Friday already... another week has flown by. If you are like me you have the feeling that although you worked hard you did not get everything done that you wanted to.
So today I want to offer a tip a friend gave me that has become a core of my time management...
For the next 30 days carry a notepad with you and write down everything you do during the work day. I mean write down everything, from a phone call to lunch, from reviewing email to meetings, even breaks. A month from now you will have a breakdown of everything you did... and you might not be happy.
He shared with me one of his coaching clients results, and in a 46 hour week these time eaters appeared...
- 4.4 hours chatting with peers who dropped by his desk
- 1.8 hours on hold
- 4.8 hours in the car
- 2.5 hours in a sales meeting spent reviewing deals
- 3.5 hours eating lunch (none with clients)
- 5.6 hours returning / deleting e-mails
- 3.6 hours on Facebook
- 1.4 hours on Fox News
That would be 27 plus hours spent not on prospecting, sales presentations or closing sales. Add in 9.8 hours of paperwork and that was a little shocking I'm sure.
If you really look at your week there are so many things we do that suck up time, even though we don't notice. What holds us back from our goals? Often the answer is "not enough hours in the day".
But there are enough hours, we just need to be better at utilizing them. So next week be more aware of time passing by and how you are using it. It will make a difference.