Happy New Year! We cannot believe that 2015 is already here. Where does the time go? Pretty soon we will be saying “where did the first quarter go?”! And in the blink of an eye, we’ll be ushering in 2016. Time my friends, is a non-renewable resource, once an hour is “spent” there is no getting it back. Yet, if you’ve ever finished a really busy day, but couldn’t exactly say what you accomplished, you may have been spending your time on the wrong things. Time truly is money. So, we invite you to think about how you will spend your time this year.
In recent Orange Leaf Consulting “Soapbox” postings, (insert link to soapbox menu) we’ve talked about the importance of having a plan. Not just a global overarching plan, but a down to the day plan.
Here are few time strategies to consider as you rev up your engine for 2015.
1. Plan to plan.
Block time for activities that will help you plan for staying on track, help you execute on your plan and time for measuring your success. It sounds simpler than it is. For example, staying on track…how often do we look up from the daily grind to see if the activities that we are doing are getting us closer to or further from our goal? Perhaps the action item would be to schedule a recurring appointment with yourself once a month for the purpose of reviewing your goals, making new ones, and measuring your success.
2. Start small.
Look at your goals and boil down your “to do” list for each item until you have at least one action item that you can do TODAY to help you get closer to that goal. For example:
a. Goal: Grow revenue by 15%.
b. Today’s action item: speak to one prospect that does not use your business.
Too often, people fail to achieve a goal because it felt too big to tackle. Boiling goals into bite-sized achievable pieces on a daily basis provides the focus you need to turn your goals into reality.
3. Improve your ROTI.
What are your highest producing activities? If you don’t know for sure, spend some time figuring that out. Then, do more of those. Improving your return on time invested (ROTI) is simply doing more of what works, and less of what doesn’t.
It’s your time friends, spend it well!
Grow Big or Go Home.