As a business owner, I am always trying to find ways to get ahead. The other day I was thinking that maybe the best way to get ahead was to minimize waste....the waste of my time. No matter if you are rich, poor, black or white, big business or small...we are all humbled by the one thing we all have the same amount of...time. I believe it's how we use our time that segregates us.
There are 10,080 minutes in a week. If you subtract 7 hours for sleep and 2 for eating and hygiene per day, you are left with 6,300 minutes. Consider this:
* 2 hours per week watching a game or just relaxing on the couch eats away 1.9% of your available time
* If you commute just 20 minutes to work, that takes 3.1% of your time
* Are you a golfer? Just one round per week sets you back 5.7%.
What can you do to get ahead?
1) Make the choice of being proactive with your time. I'm not saying to not go golfing, I am saying to recognize that you may have to work harder to make up for the decision to go.
2) Empower others to help you. Use your employees to perform tasks that they can do for you...such as bookkeeping, reporting, running errands, etc. This can free up lots of your time.
3) Outsourcing. What areas of your business do you spend lots of time in that don't have a good return on your investment? Some areas of business that are primed for outsourcing are: Payroll, HR and Marketing.
Challenge: Perform a time study on yourself. For one week, carry around a small notepad and track your time in 15 minute intervals. Not only will you be surprised at how much time you are wasting, but this exercise should open your eyes and enable you to make changes in your behavior to free up some of your very precious time.
