December passed quickly with lots of writing for clients and none for me. Finally today I had time to climb back up the slippery slope. Seeing how muddy it is here, that was almost literal walking in the woods this morning, but I’m talking about the slippery slope in my mind.
I was thinking about that old maxim: works expands to fill the time allotted. Last year I spent quite a bit of time on business development, thanks to my brilliant business coach, Mary Jane Pioli. As a result, Q4 last year I really spent time thinking about how to be more efficient and spend more time on the projects I enjoy and are most profitable and steer away from the things I enjoy less or make less money.
My pal Jan told me the other day I desperately needed to update my status on Facebook to something more generic so it didn’t like I had posted it last fall (my bad….). I decided that the phrase “working hard at working less” summed it up. I actually love my work, but I love doing lots of other things too. Therefore, the more efficient I am, the more I can do more things I enjoy – work-related and not.
It’s not easy to be careful with time – there are so many things pulling for some of it. Spending time chronicling what I was doing every hour – actually writing it down – was a bit painful but a real eye-opener and it became immediately apparent where I could make some changes.
Less time on email – checking it less frequently and responding only a few times a day was a big one for me. Finding out what activities take what kind of energy and brain power and scheduling those for my most productive time – usually in the morning enables me to get more done more quickly. Saving the more mundane tasks for late afternoon when my brain isn’t as sharp makes those things less onerous and they don’t feel as pressing when I know there’s time allotted to do them.
Finally, I’ve learned how and when to outsource. I learned from my great friend Jillian at Savvy Sponsoring how to delegate and outsource. It’s a great use of resources (financial on my side and skills and talent on someone elses) and effort and it makes me more efficient, happier and more productive. 2011 feels like it’s off to a good start.
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Dear Amy -
I needed this one particulary.
“It’s not easy to be careful with time – there are so many things pulling for some of it. Spending time chronicling what I was doing every hour – actually writing it down – was a bit painful but a real eye-opener and it became immediately apparent where I could make some changes. Less time on email – checking it less frequently and responding only a few times a day was a big one for me.”
I am trying to check email firat thing and last thing. But it just piles up. I wish people with time on their hands would stop sending jokes and prayers that threaten you with disaster if your don’t send it on in ten minutes to 12 peopls.
I don’t do it – disasters or not. But I do like to acknowledge them with a word or two. They are well meaning friends.
My other gripe is that most of these posts are forwarded by someone else and have hundreds of emails including mine. Just ripe for the spammers to pick up.
I would love to run a course on how to blind copy but they would be insulted.
How do you hndle this?
Corinne Edwards´s last [type] ..COMMUNICATION – What Does Your Sign Say
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Corinne, Happy 2011! Sounds like you’ve got the ‘email issue’ too – I decided about a year ago not to answer or respond to the cute emails, jokes and ‘chain letters’. I love my friends and I appreciate that some of this is meaningful to them. I would NEVER not respond to a personal or business email – I’m not sure how people do that – but I figure if I don’t respond to the superfluous stuff people will get the hint that I’m not interested and stop sending it and so they have.
I don’t see anything wrong with a gentle note about BCC to people – I think if they realized what they were doing and how they might be exposing other people, they just wouldn’t do it. I’m leaning toward taking the direct approach. Time is too valuable and I want to decide how I use it, not somebody else! Hope that helps.
Hi Amy,
I do my best thinking in the morning also. Leave the easy things for late in the afternoon when it doesn’t take much brain power. Time can get away from you if you don’t use it wisely. And it is something that we can never get back. As for the email, I have learned to delete what I know is not important. And I keep my email list short, so I don’t have 12 people to send it to on the drop of a dime. If something bad does happen to me because of that email, will I figure bad things have happened before, so I’ll just deal with it if and when. lol
rThanks Amy for the great post.
Debbie
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Thanks for the feedback – sounds like we’re on the same wavelength on this one! Amy