Let's talk about time management!  Some people have told that have got kids and so they struggle with the balance of time, and some people don't know how to organise their week to get things done, while others feel like they're constantly being reactive rather than proactive.

So today, I'm going to share with you a few different things that are really important when it comes to getting your time management right and figuring out how you work best. Let's dive in.

#1 Analyse your week and understand how much time you have

Somebody said to me a while ago, “I just don't have enough time in the day.”  And the first thing I said to her was, I want you to actually sit down and I want you to analyse your week and I want you to understand how much time you have. So what I mean by that is, and I literally made going into this much detail, if this is something that you struggle with yet, is to sit down and say, okay, so normally I wake up at about seven 30 let's go through my week or my day. I wake up about seven 30 I have a shower, all the rest of it, and then I might just pop on to the computer for sort of 15 or 20 minutes before while the kids are getting ready for school. And then I just walk them to school and then I'm back at my desk for nine o'clock so from nine o'clock until five o'clock I have got my work day.

So my hubby goes and picks up my kids from afterschool care at around about five o'clock and then from five until seven 30 is family time and seven 30 til 10 o'clock my hobby and I sit on the couch and watch rubbish TV. So that's like, that's my day. Yeah. So you have to take a look at and say, what does your day consist of from a higher level, what time are you waking up? How much time have you got to work? How much time have you got for leisure? Those sorts of things. Yeah. So start to really look at that and things like, so, you know, cooking dinner, doing chores, watching TV, whatever it is. I want you to write it down and maybe you've got different days, so maybe some days you've got your kids in childcare and or they're at school or you've got help or whatever it is.

But I want you to work out on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and maybe even on the weekends, depending on what your week looks like. Cause maybe you do party styling and you work on weekends. Yeah. So work out what your week looks like and actually write down where you're spending your time. Now I want you to be really honest with this and really understand like what's your time, what's your family core time and what's your work time. Now look at what's negotiable and what is not negotiable, so when you've got your sheet in front of you, which I want you to physically sit down and do, then I want you to take a look at what is flexible and what is not flexible, what's negotiable and what's not negotiable. So I'll give you an example. My five o'clock till seven 30 is a non negotiable. Yeah, that's my family time.

So when I cook dinner it's when we sit down, it's when we're hanging out. What is negotiable is my 7.20 til 10:00 now I've made a decision quite a long time ago that I don't work evenings because I want to have like whatever you want to say, work life balance. But I work in the day and I try and have my evenings off. But say when I'm in a brand builder Academy launch or I'm building content, then there may be one or two nights every now and again where I'm working or I'm doing a podcast interview in the evening if it's with somebody that's not in Australia. So I know that that evening time is a little bit negotiable for me, but I'm really clear on what my week looks like and what amount of time I have to work and what amount of time I have doing other things.

So that's the first thing I want you to do – analyse your week and understand how much time you actually have and where you are spending it.

#2 Focus on the important things

Look at how much work you could actually be doing in the time that you have. So based on what you really want to do in your business, and this is where having a business strategy comes in and look at what you're aiming for and then you can start to focus on what's most important. So for example, I could 100% spend my time faffing, I could look at social, I could write some captions here and there. I could reply to emails that come in and be very reactive. Like there's a lot of stuff I could be doing, but because I understand what I need to be doing at different points in time, once again, BBA is about to start on Monday.

So I have blocked out time this past week to make sure that everything is where it needs to be. I've made sure that emails have gone out, I've made sure that I've done lives, those sorts of things. So right now at the moment that's what's most important is getting that sorted. But I have that in my business strategy as far as I'm going to be in launch and then I'm going to be in the course. So other things have not taken priority during this time. But take a look at what you want to be doing right now. Now if you've got a business where you're working with clients on a regular basis, then maybe you are taking a look at seasonality or you're taking a look at what marketing you've done in. So booking in scheduled time for clients, but work out what do you need to be doing right now.

And the one thing I do want to say that I have learned is that you can have a to do list, but it needs to be aligned with your calendar. So my calendar is the number one thing that I focus on and that I shed you all what's going to be on my to do lists from. So I don't just have a general to do list every day. It's like, okay, I've got this stuff, a BBA happening. So my to do list is one, two, three and I only ever have three things on my to do list. And the reason for that is so that I don't get overwhelmed and I don't kind of get distracted by what else I could be doing on my to do list. I have the top three things that have to be done today and even if I get one or two of them done, they're the most important things.

So that is what I want you to do is focus on the most important things and then look at how you're going to deliver those or execute on those. So there's a window of time in the morning that I would always recommend if you need to do creative or hard thinking. Then a lot of studies have shown, and not everybody's the same, but a lot of studies have shown that most people have got their creative brain going mostly in the morning. So we've have got strategies to develop or I've got key things that really require brain power. I try and do them before say one or two o'clock cause once I get to two o'clock I'm like looking for coffee and I'm looking for like stimulus to keep me going through the rest of the day. So I want you to think about what your work patterns are like and how you work best so you can make sure that you are shackling the most important things.

So when you are on the ball and you're at your best as well.

#3 Maximise the time that you have

If you are super productive and you don't have any area for give, then do you need to get up earlier or do you need to go to bed later or do you need to ask for some help so that you've got more time to do the things that you need to do? You may need to steal time away from somewhere else. If you've got something that you're constantly doing but you're like, you know… I don't want to be doing that; I don't need to be doing that and how can I potentially get that time back?

Then you need to work out well, what are your options? One thing I do want to say here is that, and I've said it before, is that we all have seasons in our life. And I do remember speaking to one of the ladies that I interviewed when I was building out Brand Builders Academy and I did a whole lot of interviews with women – she's like, “Well, I've got really young kids so I really struggle.” And so my question to you is, how can you play big right now with the time that you have? So it's not about killing yourself, trying to like, you know, work all the hours that God sends. Like it's really about thinking, okay, right now I have this amount of time, but I know that in a year or two or three, however long it is, I know I'm going to have more time.

So what can I do right now and make the most of the time that I have and then I know next year when my child goes to school or I get more childcare days or I'm going to get more time, you know, help from somebody, then I can start to commit more. But if you have the opportunity to wake up earlier, if you're not up all night with kids, then I want you to start to think about whether that's something that you can do. Otherwise you need to steal time from somewhere else.

#4 Time blocking

So at least two hours of your week. I would like you to time block time for your own business at least. Yeah, cause this is another thing is that we don't actually spend the time to work out how we can work better. So I want you to spend at least one to two hours a week doing your own business things so that you can get smarter about how you're working, what you're spending your time on, what you're prioritising and what is the most important thing in your business to be working on right now.

So time block that and respect the time that you shed in for yourself. It is non negotiable. I have said it to you a million times if you have listened to a lot of the episodes in this podcast, but I block time in my diary for different things. So whether it's podcast interviews, whether it's working on my business, whether it's doing a presentation for a speaking gig that I've got coming up, whatever it is, I block it in my diary so that I know exactly what I'm going to be doing today and I've got the time to do it. So if you say, well, I know that I've got client work, or maybe you block out three hours in the morning with one hour to check emails, check socials, have a lunch break, and then you block out another two times to do client work again or whatever, however you want to do that.

But look at how your time blocking so that you know exactly when you're doing things. But I want you to time block in time to work on your business because you are not going to get better at your time management. You are not going to grow your business and things are not going to move forward if you do not spend time on the stuff that is important for yourself.

#5 Outsource what you can

The things I want you to think about when it comes to outsourcing before you're like, I'm not making enough money. So this thing is work out what you're good at and what you're not good at. I can guarantee you that the things that you are not good at are taking you so much more time than the things that you are good at. So even though you can do something, it doesn't mean that you should.

And I want you to be reviewing this on a regular basis. So every three or six months, what am I spending more time in? What is taking up more time? What is painful for me? What is the thorn in my side? What would I rather not be doing? And is there an opportunity for me to potentially outsource this? What could that look like? The next thing I want you to ask yourself when it comes to outsourcing is what makes you money and what doesn't make you money. So stuff that doesn't make you money but needs to get done. I want you to write a list of that sort of thing. I want you to take a look at what is actually making you money that you need to focus on. And the next thing I want you to ask yourself when it comes to outsourcing is how much is this going to cost me?

Don't assume that it's going to cost so much money that you can't afford it. What I want you to do is actually speak to people, let them know what it is that you need done, test and try having a VA or some sort of support and then work out how much it's going to be. And there are so many places you can go. So make sure you check out Rosie Shilo from Virtually Yours. She has a community of VAs and she will take you through like how much time things might be and how much it might cost. And then she puts it out to her VAs.  There are people that can help you work this out as well. But one thing I don't want you to do is assume, because when you assume you will just put it off for even longer because you're thinking that it's going to cost you too much money.

But the thing is is that if you actually sit down and work it out, I can guarantee you it's not. And I can guarantee that because I know how much it costs to outsource. I outsource a lot of stuff and it is so worth it. It helps me to make more money in my business. And it also means that I am not faffing about with things that one I'm rubbish at and to take up so much time. So number five, in order to get more time in your business and to manage your time better, outsource, outsource what you can.

#6 Schedule

Number six is schedule. You'll your wake with key things. So what I mean by this is, and once again have shared it before Monday, Tuesdays and Fridays is corporate work for me. Wednesday usually is a podcasting day, client strategy, days, events, things like that.

Thursday is Xero. So my finances, running reports, putting together proposals, doing client followup that I've put proposals out and haven't heard back. So that could be corporate clients, it could be individual clients for strategy sessions. I also check like for BBA when people are on payment plans, I go in and I make sure that all the payments have gone through and that I don't wait months and then realise that a whole lot of people like their credit cards had expired and I hadn't checked it. So Thursday is my finance day. I mean obviously I don't spend all day on it but I would spend maybe two or three hours going through all of that sort of stuff. I also am looking at are there any other business development opportunities? Was there anybody that sort of said to me, Oh Suzan, we really want you to come and speak at our event.

But then we never kind of connected and finished that conversation. So for me Thursday is a money day. It is getting more work following up on work that's come through, checking up on you know, proposals, invoices, all the rest of it. So shared you your week with key things when our maybe client days for you when our days for maybe content creation and when our days for finance and business and maybe you have one day that is in your business where it's finance, content creation, business development, whatever. And then the rest of the week is all client work. You decide what works for you but give yourself a shed. You'll you know, and obviously this is flexible, like I am not set in stone every week. I can definitely flex things up. But the thing is is that now that I'm in that pattern, everything is running smoothly and I have a schedule for when I do things and how I block my time out so that the things that need to get done get done.

And the thing is, because I do spend time on my sales, finance, marketing content, it means that more business is always coming in. It's not like I'm doing work. And then I've kind of got that ebb and flow of the big dip because now there's no work and there's no customers and I've got no money coming in. So making sure that you are managing your time in this way means that you will have more consistency of revenue and clients. If you're looking for a reason why you should be doing this, of that is it.

#7 Batch where you can

These are things like content or things that you do all the time. So take a look at, is this something that you create? So it could be a blog post, it could be a podcast, it could be your socials, whatever it is.

I‘ve said before, sometimes I sit and I watch like Gogglebox or TV and I write some of my captions because I can be in flow as well. So I might take content from a blog posts I've written before or from a presentation that I've written before. And then I write a whole lot of social, like Instagram or Facebook content that I can then chop up and repurpose. But then I try and batch that as well. So take a look at what you can batch and how you can save time so that you're not constantly just doing bits and pieces. But that you're sitting for a solid amount of time, creating the content that you need and then you're done. You're done for the week. Are you done for the month of a two weeks or however long it is?

#8 Systemise

Number eight is for managing your time better and becoming more of a time Ninja is do systemise.

Look at the things that are manual in your business and work out what you can systemise. So what is once again taking up all the time, what are you constantly doing on repeat that you can maybe start to take a look at? Is there a way for me to systemise this so that it is something quick and easy or do I outsource it if I can't systemise it? But look at things that you are doing consistently that you have to do every day, every week, whatever it is, invoices, maybe proposals, whatever it might be. And look at what systems can you bring into your business that are really going to help you. And I know that one of my clients from from Brand Builders Academy said that it saved her hours and hours of time putting some of the systems in that we talked about in BBA. So it will, and saving hours means saving dollars.

Because your time is worth money. So you've really got to take a look at that. If you saved yourself five hours a week by outsourcing and systemizing, how much would you normally charge yourself out on an hourly rate? And that is what you're saving yourself.

#9 Recognised behaviours and patterns

So where are you wasting time? Are you checking your socials every five minutes? Are you constantly responding to emails as in when they come in or are you setting time up? So I've talked about the pramador method or technique before, which is really great. So basically I'll block out, it says 20 minutes, but I normally block out half an hour to an hour where I just put my phone away, I turn off my socials and I'll sit and I'll just do one thing. So, for example, recording this podcast, I've put aside an hour and I've just sat on, I've written the show nights, I've created the files and I'm now recording it.

And so I just do that in one go. I don't break it up, I just focus on that. So turn off notifications, set time for doing emails and checking socials, shared your time for client work, work for you, family time and whatever else. And then just get one thing at a time, done, take a little break if you need to and then kick on. And I think that once you really get into this habit, like if you find that your faffing and you're kind of doing bits and pieces and you're never in flow, then I would really recommend that you start looking at and recognising the behaviours and patterns that you're in because that is going to suck time away from your day and you just, you can't get it back. So you have to decide how important it is. Like if you're serious about your business, if you're serious about getting organised and getting stuff done and being more productive and getting more hours of paid work in your business, then this is something you need to be really self aware of.

And understand that this is your behaviour and then you've got to work out what you're going to do to change that behaviour. And maybe it's looking at the analysis of your week, maybe it's looking at, well what are the most important things? Maybe it's looking at how am I time blocking? But you need to take the time to look at your own behaviour and what patterns or habits you're in.

#10 Make the commitment to spend time looking your time management

Don't just sit and constantly think, “I don't have time” because you're being passive and you're not being proactive. So if you want to sort this out, then you have to commit to sitting down.

And doing the analysis, you've got to commit to changing your behaviours, changing the structure of your week, changing your shed, your UBL, changing how you are more reactive to notifications on social or to emails that are coming in. And you've got to make the commitment to look at yourself and your behaviours and what you're doing. So I don't want to hear that you're struggling with time management. If you haven't gone through and looked at all of these things and really worked out what is important to you and where you need to be spending your time. And really going back to, and I've spoken about this recently, really taking a look at your business strategy and what is the most important things for you and what is it that you're really trying to achieve at the moment I think is super important because you can't break down your big goal if you don't have it for starters.

But also then just really looking at what's the overall goal. So I've talked about this before. I have a goal that next year I want to have like a hundred women go through Brand Builders Academy. And I want to earn a certain amount of money. I want to be on a certain number of podcasts and I need to create a certain amount of content, which is the podcast every week. And then I've got a target for how many corporate clients I want as well. So looking at that big goal, then I'm looking at, well, what do I need to do every quarter to reach that? What do I need to do every month, every week, every day? So what is my goal right now in this week? And the biggest thing that I've learned from other people and something that I hear all the time when you know, really successful entrepreneurs are interviewed, is that they don't work from a to do list.

They work from a calendar and it's because their calendar is aligned with their 12 month business strategy. So if you are constantly working in a reactive mode from a, from a to do list, then I would really challenge you to start to take a look at how can I work from a calendar. And I've already shared my Kikki-K whiteboard calendar, and how I plan it out. So I've now got my launch, you know, times on my calendar. I've got my personal holidays on my calendar. I've got, you know, what I'm going to do. And then I've also engaged helps. So I had always from left brain marketing on the podcast, she does launches. So I'm doing a consulting session with her to take a look at how I can be doing things better and other things that I can systemize, other things that I can be smarter with, other things that I can outsource.

So getting help from where you need it is really important. I've got my VA's – I've got Meg who does my Kajabi, and I've got Melissa who does my worksheets and website and additional things. So you've really got to look at what is it that you need in order to execute your big vision. Who are you going to get to help you? And how are you going to nail this? That's what I want to know. So hopefully this has really helped you to understand how you can build your Ninja time management skills. There are days where I procrastinate and stuff about, but I have to say that probably 80 or 90% of the time I'm pretty focused on what it is I need to do, how I need to do it, when I need to do it, and what's required. So that is how you grow your business and you get the most out of the time that you have in your day.

Quick recap

Number one, analyse your weekend, understand how much time you actually have around work time, family, leisure, et cetera.

Number two, focus on the most important things.

Number three, if you need to wake up earlier or steal time from somewhere, then do that.

Number four was time block for your own business.

Number five is outsource what she can.

Number six was shared your your week with key things. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. What are you doing on those different days and make sure that you are giving yourself time as well as your clients.

Number seven was batch where you can, so things like content and things that you do on a regular basis.

Number eight was systemise so that you're not constantly doing manual things over and over again.

Number nine is to have self awareness and recognise your behaviours and your patterns.

Number 10 is make the commitment to spend time looking at all of this so that you can make the adjustments that you need to sound good.

I hope it does sound good because these things are really important and they're going to help you to move your business forward, but that's it for another week. I hope I answered your question cause I know I had a lot of them but thanks so much for listening and being here. Until next time, have an awesome week and make sure you keep playing big and branding bold.

 

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