Are you just being Active with your day or Productive?

Ever wonder how to be more productive in the day get more things done but you always feel to busy to do it? Well you may be focused to much on simply being active vs being productive.  Many people throughout the day are focused on low priority tasks. You should be focused on the biggest income producing activities.  There is really no such thing as time management there is simply self management. If you are able to discipline yourself to focus on high priority tasks that make the biggest difference in your business you will be able to get far more done and accomplished than the average person. If you have never heard of the 80/20 rule, I’m sure you have noticed it in your workplace or life or people you know that succeed.  Overall there are usually 20% of the things that you do that equate to 80% of the results. For example 20% of your team produces 80% of the sales.  20% of your customers make up for 80% of your monthly quota. 20% of the daily activities you do result in 80% of the growth for your company or business.  Your job is to focus on that 20% that make the biggest difference.  Prioritize those tasks that are in the 20% and do those in peak business hours.  You can shift things like for example responding to emails, handling complaints in your team, working through problems, training for your team, etc.  If you are seasoned in your field you will most likely be able to tell what is the 20% or what is the 80%.  If you are in direct marketing or sales usually the 20% will be focusing on your personal new business.  It might be tempting once you get a team going to try and focus all your energy on helping your team, but it isn’t a great idea to just right into management mode.  As the leader you want to ‘lead by example’ and give your team a benchmark to strive towards.  If you are one of the top producers in your company others will try and follow your lead, if you focus on managing everyone you will develop a team of managers.  New sales or new team members is the lifeblood of the organization so always be focused on that.  You can deal with training late at night or early in the morning or during off times.  Another way to save time and be more efficient is to train by group.  Technology has made this much easier, you could do a webinar, conference call, or skype a team training, Make a youtube video so your team can get training when it’s convenient for them, etc.  You could also delegate tasks to your team, empower people to do some of the training or sales or presentations.  A key question to ask is are you simply building more followers or developing new leaders? If you can duplicate yourself you will have a much faster time building a large organization.  Empowering your team to lead and grow can create a lot more success as a whole vs. you just doing everything yourself.  Look at it like tying a child’s shoes, sure it might be easier for you to do it, but if you take the initial time to invest in them to teach them how to tie their own shoes, you will never have to spend time to do it yourself.  Wouldn’t it be weird seeing a parent tieing their 18 year olds shoes still? Same concept you want to do with your business.  Bottom line if you can focus on high priority tasks in your business you will get far more done than just doing the first thing that comes to mind so you can appear busy. It’s never about how much time you have, it’s always about how effective you are with your time.

Wishing you Health and Prosperity – Mike MacDonald