During a coaching session last week, I helped the frustrated and busy owner of an agency set up a structure in his business to help him find ‘time’ to accomplish some of the things that were driving him crazy that he couldn’t seem to get done. He couldn’t seem to find time for lunch or to take a walk! He couldn’t seem to find time to work ON his business and really move his business forward. Sound familiar?
That was also me about two years ago. But then I realized it was up to me to make some critical decisions. What’s that old saying … if it’s going to be, it’s up to me! So, I made some critical decisions to set up a structure that actually gave me more freedom!
Making choices and setting up a structure, at first often feels constraining however, truthfully, it’s very freeing!!! The structure we worked on was organizing his Google Calendar!!
My client soon realized that it was up to him to make several decisions about what he wanted from his business so that he could organize and optimize his own time. By scheduling time off, he realized he was actually getting more done!
So, was the exercise time management or self-management? Here are a couple of examples of what I mean and how we both finally created more time.
In this exercise, I asked my client several critical questions:
What was missing from his calendar?
He determined he wanted space/time for lunch and a walk. So, we blocked out 11:30 to 1pm for lunch and a walk!
He also had to decide when he wanted to open his calendar for calls in the morning and finish for the day.
What couldn’t be changed?
Since he had European clients, it meant that it was necessary to hold several early morning meetings (as opposed to myself, I decided never to hold early morning meetings!). You get to decide.
Which days did he want to ‘block off’ for working ON his business?
Although in his mind, he had blocked off Monday, those hours were still available for clients or prospects to book calls – they were not blocked off for no calls which meant his workflow was often interrupted with calls instead of focusing on his projects.
Where were the upcoming speaking events, workshops or launches he was hosting?
By scheduling these in the calendar and then reverse engineering, he was able to block time in his calendar to prepare for those events!
Finally, we reviewed the recurring events and color coded them.
This way he could easily see how many networking events, or coaching calls he had in a week.
The whole exercise took about 20 minutes. Twenty minutes of self-management, not really time management.
Although he understands that the calendar set up might not be perfect yet and that he can make adjustments in the next few weeks, he realizes that his time belongs to HIM. He gets to make the choice of how he spends his time. Instead of being frustrated – he took action to get different results.
Being a CEO of your business is all about having choices.
You get to make smart choices.
So …. Are YOU managing your time or is time managing you?
One of the best ways to ‘get more time’ is to DO LESS, better!
That’s what the participants of this week’s workshop are going to do……. They are going to learn how to magnetize better clients (higher paying clients) so that they can earn more but work less.
Sound like something you’d like to accomplish???
Then join us May 12 at 10 am ET for a small, hands-on WORKshop – The CounterIntuitive Way: Magnetize Better Clients & Earn More here.
YOU CAN DO THIS!!
Diana
P.S. Whenever you’re ready… here are 2 ways I can help you GROW
1. Subscribe to the GROW Equation Business Podcast – Click here
2. Become My Next Success!
If you want to work less, earn more, I’m working with a select few service-based business owners to help them create and implement a game plan so they can have more joy, more profits and more time away from their business. Schedule your call here.
