Not having enough time is a common lament of business people. How long do you spend each day on unimportant things; things that don’t really contribute to your success? Do you KNOW how much time you’ve spent reading junk mail, talking to colleagues, making coffee and eating lunch? And how often have you thought, “I could achieve so much more if I just had another half hour each day.” Bad news – no one has figured out how to make days longer!
And, are you aware of when in the day you check your e-mail, call important customers or do your long-term planning?
Most people find they function at different levels of effectiveness at different times of day as their energy levels fluctuate. Activity Logs help you to analyze how you actually spend your time. The first time you use an activity log you may be shocked to see the amount of time that you waste! Memory is a very poor guide when it comes to this, as it can be too easy to forget time spent on non-core tasks.
Keeping an Activity Log for a week helps you to understand how you spend your time, and when you perform at your best. Without modifying your behavior any further than you have to, keep note of the things you do, as you do them. Every time you change activities, whether opening mail, working, making coffee, working on a product issue or whatever, note down the time of the change. (I have a simple tool that I use with clients. If you want one, drop me an email message.)
Once you have logged your time, analyze your daily activity log. You may be alarmed to see the amount of time you spend doing low-value tasks! After reviewing the log, you will want to figure which things that you do that are better suited to others on your team.
Your analysis should help you to free up extra time in your day by applying one of the following actions to most activities:
• Eliminate jobs that you shouldn’t do. These may include tasks that someone else in the company should be doing, possibly at a lower pay rate.
• Schedule your most challenging tasks for the times of day when your energy is highest. That way your work will be better and it should take you less time.
• Try to minimize the number of times a day you switch between types of task. For example, read and reply to e-mails in blocks once in the morning and once in the afternoon only.
Activity logs are useful tools for auditing the way that you use your time. They can also help you to track changes in your energy, alertness and effectiveness throughout the day.
By analyzing your activity log you will be able to identify and eliminate time-wasting or low-yield jobs. Following this plan allows you to ensure that your business will grow the way you always dreamed it would. Most people I work with resist the time tracking. Yet, in the end they learn a lot, and feel better about how they plan on using time going forward.