Time Management

I Didn’t Want to Write This

by

On Tuesday I scheduled myself to write an article for my ezine, and found myself struggling. Now it’s Thursday morning, and it just hit me that my struggle to write provided me with perfect topics for this week’s article.

As I mentioned, on Tuesday I was scheduled to write this article. It was the first item on my list, but all I could do was sit there and stare at my computer. Nothing was coming to me. I started fiddling around with email, looking at old articles, going on Facebook… and before I knew it, the day was almost gone. I hadn’t written an article, and because I was stuck on the idea that it MUST be done first, little else on my list was accomplished either. Added to the mix were my feelings of failure and frustration, and I had a recipe for an all-around bummer of a day.

The lesson? Keep your priorities in order, but if something isn’t working, move on, rather than losing your momentum.

The process of article writing has been a great teacher. As you know, I am forever getting writing ideas from the day-to-day happenings in my life (see current article). One thing I’ve learned the hard way is that when the mood to write strikes, I MUST drop everything and write. This habit developed out of sheer frustration from being too strict of a time manager. Here’s what I mean. I’d be working on a task and suddenly come up with a great idea for an article. In the past, I’d stick to my guns and keep working on the task at hand, trusting that I’d remember the idea and write the article later. But that never happened. Many “aha” moments of inspiration were lost forever.

The lesson? If you’re in the middle of something, and suddenly find yourself motivated to do a task that you generally find challenging – take advantage of the moment and do it!

Now it’s 7:15am on Thursday and I’m finally in the process of writing this week’s article. The ezine goes out at 10:30am, and I was just thinking, “Well, I’m not inspired to write, so maybe I’ll work on something else for a little while.” That’s valid, right? Because I’m not INSPIRED. But the fact is that this ezine is an integral part of my business plan, and is due to go out shortly. So I’m muscling my way through it, hoping I’m coming up with a few useful tidbits for you.

The lesson? You can’t be inspired all the time, so sometimes it’s time to push through and do what MUST be done.

Do you find some of these lessons contradictory? Yep – welcome to life! This is the challenge: knowing when to use each lesson. Am I inspired to write or avoiding my accounting? Am I appropriately muscling through an article or am I pushing too hard and coming up with garbage? Am I moving on to keep my momentum or dodging a necessary task?

I’d love to hear how you deal with these kind of conflicts, either in this blog or in a short session with me. I’m happy to give you 15 minutes of my time to sort out the contradictions. Just contact me!

Batch Instead of Distract

by

Recently I spoke to the Ventura Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners about Virtual Assistants, and the topic of “batching” tasks for efficiency came up. I found this article I wrote in September of 2009 back when I was still doing Virtual Assistance work myself.

Last week I had a very rude awakening. I woke up early, got right to work and put in a solid 4 hours before lunch. I then added up the hours I’d billed for actual client work and they totaled just one and a half hours!

WHAT?!? I worked all morning and could bill for less than half of my time? How did that happen?

The answer is distractions. I’ve written about this before, with phone calls and emails being the biggest culprits. But after this recent experience, I realized that I needed to upgrade my skills and start “batching” my tasks.

Batching means grouping together similar tasks and doing them all at once, but on a less frequent basis. For instance, instead of checking email constantly, check it just twice a day. Or instead of paying each bill as it arrives, put them aside and pay them twice a month.

  • What is the true value of batching?
    There is an unavoidable mental lag time that happens when you shift your attention back and forth between different tasks. According to experts*, the cost of distractions is over 25% of your time (in my case, it was over 50%!). When distracted, you may require up to 45 minutes to resume the major task that was interrupted.

I encourage you to make the effort to implement batching in at least one area of your work. Where else can you get a 25% return on your investment?

* The Cost of Not Paying Attention: How Interruptions Impact Knowledge Worker Productivity, Jonathan B. Spira and Joshua B. Feintuch, quoted in The 4-Hour Work Week, Timothy Ferriss

Tell Me What You CAN Do!

by

A few years ago, I was listening to a client complain, “I don’t have time to do this, I don’t have time to do that… “.

We’d been having this conversation for months, and in frustration I burst out, “I’m not interested in what you can’t do, tell me what you CAN do!”

Not the most elegant delivery, I’m admit, but my point hit home. From that outburst, my client profoundly shifted the way she managed her business and her life. We identified the inner voice that silently kept her stuck in paralyzing inaction.

Can anyone relate? So what are you focusing on – the problem or the solution?

Now before I am accused of being one of those annoying “just think positive and bury your head in the sand if anything negative comes your way” types, let me clarify. I’m not talking about being happy-happy all the time, I’m talking about learning to direct your thinking so that you are in alignment with what you want out of life.

Now that I’ve given my disclaimer…

The biggest complaint I hear these days has to do with a lack of time, so I’m including one example of how to replace paralyzing thinking with a perspective that is more in line with your goals.

Current Perspective: I’m busy from 8 to 9, 10 to 11:30 and 2:30 to 5

By focusing on the busy time, you’re giving yourself messages that you are busy, there is not enough time, and you’ll get nothing accomplished. This subconscious belief directs your actions and becomes self-fulfilling. You’re likely to get nothing accomplished. With this perspective, you’re convincing yourself that you have no time at all.

Simple Alternative: I have time available from 9 to 10, and 11:30 to 2:30

Now you’re giving yourself the opportunity to see the time that was completely invisible to you before. Without rearranging a single appointment, suddenly four hours just opened up!

This perspective shift can be used on any belief based in “can’t”, “don’t have” and “not enough”. Try it on money issues, doubt about your own abilities or any perceived lack of resources. If you get stuck, email me. I’ll do what I can to help you turn those paralyzing phrases into motivating mantras!

Distractions and Solutions

by

On a recent poll on Facebook, I asked for business owners to share the biggest distractions they face each day. I’m including the top three here, along with a few tips for minimizing the impact of the distractions.

WARNING: All of these tips will require you to change. Distractions are a part of life, and trying to eliminate them is impossible – you’ve got to manage yourself around the distractions.

WARNING #2: These tips are basics, and you are likely to think, “Well I already know that!” You may know it, but are you DOING it? Don’t let the “I know” syndrome lead you away from a deceptively simple tip that could be just the solution you’re looking for!

#3 Top Distraction: Email

I was surprised this wasn’t #1, actually! So how do you deal with the pinging and flashing that pulls you away from your priorities?

  • Turn off all notifications. This means all sounds, visual alerts, icon appearing – everything.
  • Turn off automatic send and receive. This means you receive email when YOU decide.
  • Put checking your email in your schedule like an appointment. I check at 10:30am and 3pm. No one sends me emergency emails, so even a response time of 24 hours is appropriate in my business.

Basically, you must reframe how you think about email. It is a communication tool, NOT a priority manager.

#2 Top Distraction: Daily Operations

And I’ll lump in another category, “busy work”. The best thing to do to deal with the pull of daily operations is to have superior priority and time management. I could teach an entire class on this, but will limit myself to just a few tips.

  • Plan your day the night before. If you go into work and then start planning your day, you may not get it planned until noon. And then, seriously, what’s the point? When you go into your office clear about your priorities and others make demands of your time, you’ll be able to easily discern where that new demand fits into your plan.
  • Close the door. If you’re in an office, this is a literal suggestion. If you work from home, then it means turning off the phones, internet and email so that you can work on that priority list. With focus, you will complete the list in much less time than you expect, and you will deal with the rest of your day (and the people in it) much more cheerfully!

#1 Top Distraction: The Internet

With pop up notifications, social media, chat, and icons showing us how many “friends” we have waiting, is it a surprise that we are distracted by the internet? The internet is a distraction machine, and because we can’t expect it to change, we must change.

  • Don’t leave social media running while you’re working on projects that require concentration.
    Change your home page from one with flashy articles that will distract you to something simple like Google.

The bottom line? Determine your priorities, and make sure your environment doesn’t cut in line in front of them!

Virtual Assistants Can Help with Caterpillars!

by

THANK YOU to Jeanette Barnes of Old Fashioned Office for contributing this article! Visit her site at www.OldFashionedOffice.com.

Are Caterpillars Interfering with Your Online Business?

I truly feel lucky to live in the country and best of all, run my online business from the comfort of my home office. I get to look out the window and marvel at the trees, flowers, birds and other wildlife. It sure helps to relieve the stresses of the day.

But, living in the country can also have a downside. I don’t know if it was the exceptionally cold winter we had, but Mother Nature has been playing some tricks around here. I love all types of birds, but there is this one goofy cardinal that has decided he wants to attack the rear view mirrors on my car. I finally decided to put bags over the mirrors and he stopped. But, then I noticed he was on the ground jumping up and down attacking my chrome hubcaps!

Probably the weirdest thing that has happened is a swarm of caterpillars – and I mean swarm! They were coming out at night and literally covering my porch. As soon as I opened the door, they would come slithering into the house. This went on for about 2 weeks and I had no idea how to get rid of them.

After they disappeared, I noticed a big cocoon in one of the bushes. Not too much later, there were scads of beautiful, small butterflies all over the place. I’d never seen anything like this. Those icky caterpillars grew up and gave me a sight to enjoy!

What does this story about caterpillars have to do with business? As an online entrepreneur, you’ve probably discovered there are a million and one things you need to do to keep your business running – things like keeping and acquiring new customers, product launches, social media updates, wading through all your emails, preparing for your upcoming teleseminar, etc.

All these tasks are just like the caterpillars that were swarming on my porch. They’re tedious, time consuming and just plain not fun. Plus, they keep you from doing what you do best.

There is a solution – partner with a Virtual Assistant. If you haven’t heard this term before, a Virtual Assistant is highly skilled in the tools, techniques and procedures needed to run an online business. They partner with you to take the day to day tasks off your plate and turn them into butterflies – so you can sit back and enjoy your online business, gain more freedom, and increase your bottom line.