Coaches And Consultants: 7 Effective Time Management Strategies For Growth

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Coaches and Consultants do you ever feel like there's just not enough time to get things done? You likely have a to-do list and are constantly adding things to it. You check things off but then more keeps getting added so you feel like there's no end in sight. If this is you then you're going to love this month’s newsletter as I share some really effective time management strategies to support your growth.

Time Management Strategy #1: Time Block for Repetitive Tasks

One of the worst things you can do for your performance as an entrepreneur is schedule a lot of different things on your calendar and then try to get creative work done in between. Let’s say you open up your computer at 9:00 a.m. and you check email and spend the first hour trying to play catch up on social media and responding to messages and emails. Then you have a coaching call at 10:00 a.m., a podcast recording at noon, a team meeting at 1:30 p.m. and another coaching call at 3:00 p.m.. In between all of this, you're trying to work on a few emails to send to your list, make updates to your website, follow up with connections from a networking event that you recently attended, approve a half dozen things from your team and many more.

Your brain is literally trying to jump from creative tasks to coaching or strategy to being an interviewed expert and more.

Every time you switch tasks it takes brain power to focus on a different thing. If you want to be really effective with your time management, carve out dedicated times for your tasks. For example, have a dedicated day that is mainly for back end business things and a separate day that is for creative work. For example on days when I record videos, that is all I do that day. So time block for your major repetitive tasks and then fill in everything else in between.

Time Management Strategy #2: Set Start & End Times

Next, to be more effective with time management, have a set start and end time to your work week and also bake in at least one day off. It's really easy as an entrepreneur when you work from home to be connected to your business 24/7. How many times have you been watching Netflix while simultaneously on your phone at 9:00pm responding to client emails or engaging on social media?

If you want to be effective with time management while helping your overall physical and mental energy, then have dedicated hours that you work.

These are times where you know that you're going to be available, sitting down at your computer and responsive to clients, team or prospects. Then when your time is up, you turn off your computer and you don't open work things again no matter how tempting it is.

If you're a parent, a great time to set the end of your day is when it's time to pick up the kids from school and that then becomes family time. It took me a long time to master this component. It's really challenging because we live in such a connected world where anyone can get a hold of you at any time. You have to be really strong in your boundaries and set working hours and don’t deviate.

Time Management Strategy #3: Have Dedicated Client Days

Another really effective time management strategy for coaches and consultants is to have dedicated client days. If you work 5 days a week and you have 20 different clients spread across five days at all times of the day, then you have an issue.

Take control of your calendar and decide which days are going to be your coaching or consulting days and push your clients to schedule on those days.

That doesn't mean that things are not going to come up and sometimes you'll do a different day but for the most part you can organize your schedule so that you have back-to-back clients on dedicated coaching or consulting days. I’ve been doing this for years and it’s a game changer for my energy.

You will have your "coach or consultant hat on" and be in that mode to provide guidance, strategy, advice, etc. and you will be performing optimally because you're not doing a bunch of other things in between.

Time Management Strategy #4: Embrace Project Management

If you want to be excellent at time management, then start getting really good at project management. This may not be your strong suit. If it's not, then you want to have a team member who can take ownership of the project management for the business. Before we do anything major in the business, we have a team meeting and have a brainstorming session of all the different elements that go into that project such as tasks, who's going to own each one task and what's the timeline for each task. Then my team member who's in charge of project management will continue to flush it out and put it in our project management app. She will assign roles and due dates so everything gets done in a timely manner.

It's very important that whether your rolling out a new program or building a membership site or another major project, that you first have a project management brainstorming session.

If you don't then what tends to happen is you, as the business owner, get excited about a new idea and think it's going to be really easy to roll something out. Then your team starts on the project and you realize it's not only going to take a lot longer than you thought but it's going to cost a lot more. :( Planning gives you a better understanding of what it's going to take in terms of manpower and investment. Then you can make an informed decision as to whether you want to execute now on something or wait.

Time Management Strategy #5: Start & End Meetings on Time

If you want to be more effective at time management, honor the beginning and end time that you set for your calls with clients or your team. That's not to say that occasionally, if you're wrapping up and you have more time that you can go over with a client but you should not be consistently going beyond your scheduled time with a client. Sometimes coaches and consultants think that this is a positive because you're giving more of your time. Sometimes your client may see this as valuable but other times it may frustrate them because they have other things to do as well.

If you're going over, pushing back your schedule and running late to other meetings, you're creating a domino effect of tardiness everywhere else.

This is going to frustrate whoever else you have other meetings with that day. Start your calls on time and end them on time. I promise your team members and your clients will appreciate it and you will be more effective at getting things done.

Time Management Strategy #6: Set Deadlines

Give yourself actual deadlines to get things done. If you don't have a deadline and you just have a list, then you've given yourself till "whenever" to get it done. When you have a deadline you're more likely to get it done. So how long is it going to take you to do something? However much time you give yourself. If you give yourself 2 months to get something done it's going to take you two months. If you give yourself two days to get something done, it'll take you two days.

Most entrepreneurs are getting lost in the day-to-day and wandering aimlessly without a deadline and it takes them forever to move projects to the finish line. If you give yourself a more immediate deadline, you can get things done quickly.

I personally have whipped out 30 pages of content, created entire sales pages, entire programs, recorded a ton of videos and more all in a short time frame if I gave myself a deadline and set a goal to have it done soon. There is power in having a deadline so set them.

Time Management Strategy #7: Schedule & Take Time Off

Finally, take time off and schedule time off. If you want to be effective with your time management, make sure that your calendar isn't just filled with work things. I encourage all of my clients to have an actual day off during the week. If you're not ready for that, start with a half a day.

Now you might say, “I've got the weekends,” but these can get filled up pretty quickly especially if you have any kind of social life or you are a parent with kids in sport. When you have an extra day during the week, that can be your free day to do whatever you like.

It's the same thing with vacations. Block off vacations and work events a year in advance then fill in work in between. This will help you not to get halfway through the year and suddenly realize that you haven’t taken a vacation and you have overcommitted with client work and can’t take time off. Remember that you can't pour from an empty cup. Take time off to rejuvenate so you can come back to work rested and inspired to go.

Hope you enjoyed this article. If you want support growing a high end coaching or consulting business, check out our results and schedule a call .

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