When I first started in business, I thought I needed to pack my schedule everyday to feel like I was truly working. Down time was just not acceptable to me, my thought process was the busier I was the more successful I must be. The problem comes in that I was so busy running around I really wasn’t getting anything done.
Each day I would have my list of networking events to go to, my list of articles I wanted to read, committee meetings I needed to attend and so on. Busy busy busy was my motto. The problem was that when I sat down and actually wrote out all the time I spent running around and how much actual work I got done, I realized that I really wasn’t doing anything. I was actually falling behind on returning client phone calls, I had this nice large stack of business cards from people I had met, yet I never managed to call them back.
What was I doing wrong? It finally came to me that I needed to look at each situation and ask myself three simple questions.
1.) Was this particular thing getting me business? Could I attribute business coming from what I was doing? Did I meet someone who bought my services, or referred me to someone who would buy my services.
2.) Was I receiving some kind of knowledge from what I was involved in? Perhaps I was attending meetings that has an educational component. I could walk away with a nugget of knowledge.
3.) Was I meeting people who I would become friends with? I am not talking superficial friendships. But people who I could call on for advice, for a referral. People whom I knew would be apart of my life for the long term.
When looking at the events, meetings, programs, you attend on a daily basis, ask yourself these questions. While ideally you will get all three from what you are doing, this wont always happen. You need to at least get one of them. If you are not you need to reevaluate if your time is being best served with what you are doing. Perhaps you feel sentimental about this group, ok but if you have four or five groups like that, is this the best use of your time? You may want to consider letting someone else I would have my list of networking events to go to, my list of articles I wanted to read, committee meetings I needed to attend and so on. Busy busy busy was my motto. The problem was that when I sat down and actually wrote out all the time I spent running around and how much actual work I got done, I realized that I really wasn’t doing anything. I was actually falling behind on returning client phone calls, I had this nice large stack of business cards from people I had met, yet I attend these meetings on your behalf.
Look at your schedule and see if you have set aside time to wok on your business. This is time that you return client phone calls, perhaps solicit new clients. This would be a set time each week that you do not attend meetings, you just spend in the office catching up on work. By setting aside time to do this, you will not become overwhelmed with all that you have to do. All to often we push these items to the next day and before we know it a week has gone by. People often want their question answered today not next week. My husband had a sign created that says, “If I wanted it tomorrow, I would order it tomorrow”.
Make time in your schedule to finish up tasks in a timely manner by clearing out some of the unnecessary meetings, and tasks you don’t need to be doing. Remember you can run on a treadmill for an hour, while this is great exercise, you didn’t really go anywhere.
Originally published in the Democrat & Chronicle on September 15th, 2015.