Most
people have heard the advice that they should work smarter not harder yet very
few people actually follow that advice. Most business owners and executives these
days are working long hours in order to achieve their goals. If you have to
work more hours than the normal business day in order to complete your work
then you are doing it wrong! Here are five strategies to help you work smarter
not harder.
Strategy
1: Focus
How
many minutes do you think that you are fully focused in a typical work hour? It
may surprise you to find out how few it really is.
Research
has shown that most people can be 5 to 10 times more productive in each work
hour. If that sounds like exaggeration to you then try this simple test.
Keep
a pad and pen beside you and start becoming aware of your level of focus.
Whenever you realize that you have not been fully focused on your work jot down
how long you have been distracted for. If you do this exercise well then you
will totally shock yourself.
If
you can develop the skill of being totally focused during your work hours you
will be amazed at how much you produce.
Strategy
2: Leverage
Leverage
is the art of using tools to increase your quality of your work and/or your
productivity. The tools could be technology, such as computer software, or they
could be organizational strategies such as better systems.
What
leverage are you currently using to maximize your results?
For
example, a salesman who sells via seminars or teleseminars is likely to gain
greater hourly returns than a salesman who sells one-to-one.
What
could you do to leverage your time, knowledge, or skills?
Strategy
3: Delegate
A
special class of leverage is delegation. Delegation is getting other people to
do aspects of your work so as to free up your time for more profitable
activities.
Let"s
look at a sales example again. If a particular salesman is very skilled at
closing sales then it may make sense to delegate the administrative tasks
associated with sales so that the salesman can spend more time closing. If the
profit from the increased sales is greater than the cost of delegation then you
have a good system.
It
always amuses me to hear business owners complaining that their sales people
hate prospecting and are really bad at it. In my businesses I"ve always
hired professional prospectors who were good at it and freed up the sales
team"s time to do what they are good at; selling! Of course this is a very
profitable strategy and everyone is happy.
Strategy
4: Time Management
I
often hear business owners saying how great a particular staff member is
because they always stay back extra hours to get the work done. I have the
opposite opinion. If you can"t get your work done in a normal day then you
are probably lacking in focus, leverage, or delegation skills or you are a poor
time manager.
Time
management is the art of organizing yourself so that you get all your work done
in a standard business day. If you combine it with the other skills, outlined
above, then you can achieve an enormous amount of productivity in that working
day and have no need for extra hours.
Organizing
a day starts at the end of the previous day. If you do this then during your
sleep your brain will help you become more efficient.
It
has been estimated that 50% of your sleep time is devoted to your brain
organizing and structuring knowledge and experiences gained during the day. If
you pre-program the next day"s activities you will find that the natural
mental processes during sleep are working with you to help you achieve your
schedule.
Learn
the basics of time management and use them every day.
Strategy
5: Discrimination
I"m
sure you know the 80/20 rule; 80% of your results come from 20% of your
efforts. The reason that this is true for most people is that they don"t
know which of their efforts is producing the best results. If you keep good
records then you can shift the 80/20 rule to work more effectively for you.
If
you knew which 20% of your activity produced the best results then you could
organize yourself to spend more time on those types of tasks and thus increase
your profit per hour. If you knew the characteristics of the 20% of your
clients who gave you 80% of your business then you could target those types of
clients.
Frank
Bettger went from a failing insurance agent to the highest earning insurance
agent in America by using the 80/20 rule to his advantage. His books are still
available and well worth a read.
Your
Strategy: Put the Five Strategies to Work in Your Business
You
now have the five strategies. All you have to do is to look at ways that you
can apply these strategies to yourself and your business.
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