Strategy #1: Eliminate
Let’s start with the strategy that may seem the most difficult: eliminate. How comfortable are you with simply eliminating a “to-do” item from your to-do list… to scratch it, to erase it. Or more complex, eliminate a project that is close to your heart because it’s not the right timing?
How do you know what needs to be eliminated?
- Something you don’t read or use, like a report for example.
- Something you feel like doing and intuitively know it’s not the right time.
- The to-dos you took because you have a hard time saying no.
- If you’re completely honest with yourself, that doesn’t add value to the system right now.
This now leads to the question:
How do I know what is NOT to be eliminated?
1. That which fills you with joy and satisfaction.
When you feel completely aligned, satisfaction appears. On a tired Friday evening, I suddenly feel like going for a run. I say no to a glass of wine, and I go. Wow, what a moment of satisfaction. I had a smile on my face throughout the race. 2. What is aligned with your vision, your goals.
In terms of business, for example, what is your goal this year? this quarter? Who is your target? What is the best offer to create satisfaction for your customers? For your employees?
Determine criteria that align with your vision and goals and then use these criteria as a filter for decision.
If you want to learn more about how to set goals to promote performance, watch the following video. 3. What is realistic to do in the current situation
If you want to do 12 projects and you only have 3 employees… There is a way to prioritize or review the scope of each project… But you’ll have to eliminate it to better manage your time!
Strategy #2: Simplify
One of the essential skills of agile leaders is to simplify the processes that allow for delivery. Some elements cannot be eliminated, but to do more and manage your time better, why not simplify processes? Any ideas?
- Decrease the number of approval levels.
- Give more responsibility to certain roles.
- Eliminate certain administrative parts of the processes if no one consults them and has no legal benefits!
What could you simplify that wouldn’t negatively impact the value you create for your customers and employees?
Strategy #3: Automate
Here are two examples to illustrate what automation can do for you.
Example 1: Create value and measure your efforts
When I started my business, I focused on content creation. I spent a lot of time on social media and didn’t have much time to measure results. Illogical, isn’t it? With all this time spent, I didn’t have time to measure the result. I’m sure you can find something like this in your daily life: you know it creates value, you put a lot of time into it but don’t have a lot of time to measure the success of your efforts? For my part, I decided to automate. I bought software to schedule publications in advance, this system provides reports. The time was reduced to a time slot of 3 hours per week to prepare and program social networks and 1 hour to analyze the results. This created ease to adjust the next content in a relevant way.
Example 2: Creating value and optimizing time
Customer service is important to us. We spend a lot of time validating appointments, following up, etc. With the volume constantly increasing, this follow-up time took up a lot of space and we wanted to spend more time improving the offer, taking feedback and continuing to connect with customers, but in a different way. We went there in stage. First, we have set up calendars on the website. Clients can book their coaching meeting. Those who want to get to know us better and see how we can help them can also book their 30-minute discovery call free of charge. Bye bye complex coordination of everyone’s schedules! Then, secondly, we discovered that this tool could also validate appointments, send preparation requests to coachees and that we could customize different elements such as usage policies. Brief. We have put this in place! We have saved 8 to 10 hours per month. This is quality time that we can offer to our clients, for a cost of $18 per month. Highly cost-effective 😊
Strategy #4: Delegate
Finally, in the 4th strategy, for tasks that you cannot eliminate, simplify, automate, try to delegate them! When a company is growing and transforming, leaders are also called upon to grow personally and transform. Some tasks they used to enjoy doing now have to be delegated. This will allow them to work on what matters most in order to support growth (rather than trying to turn into an octopus and do 😊 everything). So to delegate, there are three keys:
- Work on yourself in order to let go of some of what you were doing and better manage your time: taking care of yourself and working on strategic files for example.
- Learn to delegate by considering the combination of the risks of the files and the competence of the people who will take responsibility for them.
- Continue to develop as a leader and train your teams to create a succession and be satisfied with the impact you have.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are 4 strategies to better manage your time. Start by eliminating, then simplifying, then automating and delegating.
You should have more time to deliver value… without burning you!