Time management can be a task that it is hard for many franchisees. There are more things to do in a day than time available creating stress and overwhelm. There are many time management strategies out there that you can implement, but here is my ‘go to’ strategy that is simple to implement and gives a great result.
Imagine if you just had one hour, with no distractions or interruptions. How much could you get done in that hour? Lots right.
So why don’t you set up that time. Set aside one hour of time where you won’t be interrupted or distracted, put your head down and get that work done that is on your to do list.
It seems really simple right, but you are not doing it and even now you could be thinking, but I will get interrupted. What if my phone rings? What if my team need me?
The simple response to this is don’t answer your phone. In fact, turn it off. Tell your team not to interrupt you for an hour. But you are still wondering how to do it, right? Thinking ‘that won’t work’.
If you had to go to an important appointment with a doctor or your accountant or someone important was going to call you and that call was going to take an hour or that appointment was going to take an hour, what would it take for someone to interrupt you? If you had to go to a doctor, you’d be required to turn your phone off. What if someone called? They’d leave a message and you’d call them back in an hour, after your appointment, and it would be something like ‘Sorry I missed your call. I was in an appointment.’
Would your team have a complete meltdown if you had to go to the doctor for an hour? Would they interrupt you at the doctor’s? Would they interrupt you on the phone if it was an important call? No right?
So why are you putting the importance of these appointments above the importance of the appointment you need to be having with yourself?
Did you know that 1 hour is less than 1% of all the time available to you in a week? Couldn’t you just put 1 hour aside for you and to get your important tasks done? I’d suggest even one hour a day. It is amazing how much of your days work you can get done in just one hour if you are not interrupted or distracted. In fact, some of you could get ALL of your work done in that hour.
So there are a couple of tricks that will make this easier to implement.
- You have to stick to it and make it a not negotiable time. You do not swap it, unless absolutely necessary. You wouldn’t swap a doctor’s appointment you have had to wait six months to get for just anything right? Then don’t swap the time with yourself.
- Make it a regular time each day or week that way everyone around you starts to learn and it also makes it easier for you to stick to.
- Teach your team how to work with you on this. Let them know when you are having not negotiable time, not to interrupt you. Let them know when it is coming up, tell them you are going into your not negotiable time in ten minutes so they can ask you the questions before you go in.
- Have some sort of physical sign to let people know you are in ‘Do not Disturb’ mode for your not negotiable time. Shut your office door, put up a big stop sign if you have to.
- Have a list of what you are going to do in your not negotiable time so that you don’t waste the first ten minutes working out what you need to do.
- Turn off your phone. You can call them back in an hour and let them know you were in an appointment. They don’t need to know that the appointment was with yourself. Remember the days before cell phones. We survived just fine not being contactable 100% of the time.
- Show up. This the hardest point yet also the easiest because it is just you that has to show up, but I can guarantee you that your team will stick to the rules once they get the hang of it, but it will be you that will not stick to it. It only takes you, but you are the weakest link in this strategy.
Make it not negotiable and see how much you get done that will have a direct result on the success of your business and also the reduction of your stress levels!
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