I was recently talking to a friend of mine about what I’ve been up
to. I have 4 busy daughters, a husband who is active at work and the
community, and I run my company. I always seem to have lots going on and
lots coming up. That is the way my life is, and I generally like it.
While we were talking I shared some things I do to help be more
efficient. These kinds of things are second nature to me, but she was
fascinated by them. I have shared a few of these in the past, but I
realized that with all of the new readers we have to the blog may
benefit from some of these tips as well.
1. Group Like with Like.
Efficiency suffers when you keep trying to jump from thing to thing.
For example, if I were writing this blog post then I suddenly stopped to
place an order for books, then replied to a few emails and then came
back to this blog. Why is that less efficient? Because I need to get
back my train of thought. I also have to login to the ordering program.
Emails can be time consuming and can pull me to other social media
venues. Emails can also lead me to other things that need done. Nothing
can be more discouraging than realizing how much is left to be done.
For a time I was checking my email twice a day—at the beginning and
the end of the day. That was great when it was just me running the
company, but now that I have more projects and more team members I find
that checking my email about every 2 hours is the best system.
Do you see another piece of my program? I reevaluate my system
periodically to make sure it is the most efficient way to do things.
2. Recognize the cost of doing it yourself.
We’ve discussed this many times, but I will make the point again
here. I recognize that I spend money and emotional capital each time I
try to do more than I’m capable of doing. Also, within my professional
life, it is far more expensive for me to spend hours working on
something that someone can do better than I can. Constantly evaluate
areas where you can outsource tasks to others.
To determine the opportunity cost of doing it yourself figure out how
much time it takes you, your hourly rate and your level of expertise
doing it.
3. Make sure you set clear boundaries.
This is in your personal and business life. I have found that the
best way for me to do this is to have an office away from the house. I
couldn’t always do that—during those times I had to be much more
disciplined—but now I have set hours when I am at my office and set
times at home. I recognize sometimes doctor’s appointments will take me
from the office early and sometimes a business meeting will hold me
late, but for the most part I work to have set hours each day.
This also means that you have to be firm with family and friends. If
you told a boss at any hourly job that you simply weren’t going to come
in, were going to come in late, or that you were going to show up when
you felt like it, you simply wouldn’t have a job long. Flexibility of
the self-employed is nice, but it is also a reason that many people fail
on their own. It is too easy to lose the discipline necessary to have
success in business.
Action Steps
- Look over your calendar for this week and see what you have on your to-do list.
- As much as possible group things together.
- Decide your hours, and stick to them.
- See if there are any tasks on your list that should be done by others and begin to search for them.
Share some of your questions, results, or tips.
Your Coach for the Journey, Tiffany Colter, The Writing Career Coach
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Tiffany Colter is
a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to
published writers. She can be reached through her website at
writingcareercoach.com.
This
blog originally posted on WritingCareerCoach.com on May 29, 2012.
