Planning for business success - the time managers most powerful accomplice
Thursday, 01 September 2011 00:00 | 
Written by Vanessa Lanham-Day | 
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I make no apologies for banging on about how you should use your time wisely. If you are a business owner you must surely realise that time is potentially your biggest enemy - but also your most powerful ally if used well.
But there is the crux of it all. If used well. It so often is not with people blindly throwing their time at all and sundry with no apparent plan or ability to differentiate between what's useful and what's not. The classic case of confusing 'activity' with 'productivity' - or 'busy fool' syndrome.
Some simple tips will make planning how you use your time so much simpler and effective ...
- Always plan tomorrow at the end of each day. This not only means that you can crack right on in the morning, but it also allows the brain to 'solve' problems unconsciously overnight - you don't have to think actively, stuff just seems to fall into place more easily the next day.
- Use a white board or similar to write your A list. The BIG goals - 7 to 9 key targets that you are heading for in the weeks and months to come and that have the potential to impact your revenue streams / business growth. E.g. Launch new website on 30th September. Plan big customer event for mid October. And so on. No detail - just the headlines and a time target that will keep you on track.These should form the basis of your daily '90' minutes working ON your business.
- Your B list is the essential tasks that you need to do every day in order to function in your business. Customer commitments and so forth. In themselves not As, but without them your business wouldn't succeed.
- And then comes the C list. The non essentials. You won't ever get them all done so probably best to stop trying. Mostly they are non important or can certainly wait until an 'admin' day. File them away out of your inbox in an 'admin' file so they don't nag at you.
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