Time Management For IFAs - Blog

Oct 09 - Prioritising For Profit

Most of us are tightening our belts and being careful about how and where we spend our money, in the current economic climate.  How many of us are as careful about how and where we spend our time?

Time Management might not seem like a particularly exciting subject but when you think about where you spend your time and what it's actually costing you, it puts the importance of good time habits into perspective.

One of the most relevant quotes I found and use often, is:...

To read more - just register for the free IFA Time Life Newsletter and you'll also receive my free Top Time Tips for you and your business.

TM4D - 12 Step Programme

For all of you who don't have time to read the book!

Step 1 - Click here to order the book - and make an added contribution to Cancer Research by using my link.

Step 2 - When Amazon confirm the order, make a note of the delivery date

Step 3 - Book 10 minutes out in your diary on said delivery date (lunch break or when you finish work).

Step 4 - Book arrives - take the opportunity for a break. Spend 10 minutes (that you've already booked time for) reading the Table of Contents and the Intro - this will take about two to three minutes. Spend the remaining time making a note of which Chapters are most relevant to your immediate needs.

Step 5 - Decide how many Chapters you need/want to read to make the biggest impact. There are 18 chapters in all, two of those are in the Parts of Tens - so shorter and not all may be relevant.

Step 6 - Now set aside 30 minutes in your diary each day (or every other day) for the Chapters you need/want to read. Either at the very beginning of the day, before you get going or at the end of the working day - you might think of relevant points you want to address. Prioritise the most important chapters first.

Step 7 - Read first 'most relevant chapter' - decide on one key action you're going to take or a tip that you can apply from what you've read.

Step 8 - Take action. Apply the tip or take the necessary action as soon as possible.

Step 9 - Next 30 minute slot - read the remainder of the existing chapter or the second 'most relevant chapter' (Rinse and repeat steps 5-7, as necessary). Some chapters are a little longer and may have actions and checklists that you need to complete. Set yourself a target for when you plan to complete the book. (Ch1)

Step 10 - Take the book with you everywhere, so you can put the tip in Ch17 into action and keep reading when you've got a few minutes spare.

Step 11 - Give yourself a pat on the back (Ch10).

Step 12 - If you're having trouble with any of the Steps 1-11 - give me a call.

Organise Your Diary, Contacts And Tasks

I've just had a demo of a great new time management tool E-link, which enables you to link your calendar, tasks, contacts, emails and documents in one easy-to-use front-end. Impressed by the initial demo which does many of the things I've always wanted to do with Outlook, without having to buy into a full blown CRM system, which I don't need or find that either Outlook doesn't quite do what I want in the most intuitive way or that I need to purchase any number of Add-ons to get close.

Now I need to start using it in earnest with real data but I'm already excited by the possibilities of linking emails, contact history and documents. I'll keep you posted and let you know what I think.

Time Management For Dummies

Today, the day it's actually published and I finally get a copy in my hand. Well, I have to say - I'm pretty chuffed and had to go and show it off at a local network meeting, despite still having a head full of cold, so not totally able to celebrate.

It's available to order on both Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com - get your copy now while stocks last! www.clareevans.co.uk/timemanagementfordummies.htm

Using Your Time Effectively

Like most people I hate sitting in traffic jams at the best of times and the coast road, between where I live and Brighton, is notorious for doubling the time of your journey at peak time, so knowing that the network meeting I was attending was due to finish just as the after work rush hour started, I took my laptop with me.

Instead of getting frustrated sitting in traffic, I went down to the Marina, plugged in, powered up and sat working for a couple of hours. Not only a quieter, less distracting space but I cleared a batch of updating that I'd been putting off for a while as a lower priority task and then only took twenty minutes to get back home once the traffic had cleared.

Think about better ways to use your time with a little forward planning.

Early Or Late?

I'm sure most people endeavour to arrive on time - after all we're business professionals and it wouldn't do to turn up late and keep clients or prospective customers waiting but there's so much that can go wrong and things being what they are, it will. I've been ultra-conscious having just written about not being late - it wouldn't do for me to turn up late now would it! So much so that I've been arriving ridiculously early - I'd feel so bad if I did arrive late.

How often have you arrived just in the nick of time? You make it but just by the skin of your teeth, stressed and flustered having negotiated yet another traffic jam on the M25 or every traffic light being against you, slow traffic (especially caravans and tractors) on single lane roads, roadworks and detours.

Plan to arrive early - not just in the nick of time. Planning is good and essential to using your time effectively but when you plan things too closely you don't leave any slack time for when something unexpected comes up. Knowing a route well, gives you a better chance of estimating travel time but also makes it easier to leave things to the last minute, then when you discover they're digging up the road again and the traffic is backed up all along the coast road and you're going to be late. Fortunately, I can walk fast or know a short-cut or am lucky to find a parking space quickly but my 20 minute journey can easily become 40 minutes or longer with road works and traffic thrown into the mix.
- Aim to arrive at least 10 minutes early or 30 minutes if it's a longer journey.
- Get things ready before you leave - don't rush out of the door, grabbing things as you go.
- Leave extra time to allow for delays.
- Catch an earlier bus or train.
- Allow time for parking.
- Phone ahead if you know you're going to be delayed or late.

Better to arrive early rather than late and if you are early - it's not wasted time. Take a book, newspaper or your laptop with you so you can do some work while you wait. I managed to read a whole book on a  recent journey up to London. I left plenty of time to get to the station - as I said, I've been so conscious about arriving early that I was there about 30 minutes before the train was due to leave. I had an hour to read on the train and while I sat waiting for my meeting and although it was a packed late train back home - I'd all but finished the book by the time I got back to Brighton.

If you expect other people to turn up on time for you - make sure you turn up on time for them. Have as much respect for someone else's time as you would expect them to have for yours.

Set Your Office Hours

If you work from home it can be helpful to have a flexible working day to fit in around family and home life but don’t blur the lines between the two.  Create a structure of core hours.

Start work at roughly the same time each day.  By all means take breaks during the day to have some ‘home’ life, or time to get chores done.  But place a time limit around these.  Set a fixed start time and finish time to your working day or your likely to end up working late into the evening – just because there are still things to be done.

Plan your time at the beginning of the week and if you need to take a half day for home based tasks or school commitments – sports day, school play, car servicing etc.  Book this in and plan your work around it.  How many hours do you work in a week?  Spread them out across six days rather than five or work four long days and have three days off.

When working from home you can at least choose the hours you want to work but make sure it’s not getting in the way of the rest of your life.  Working at weekends can be a good time to catch up on things at the end of the week, or spend some time planning for the week ahead.  There’s no reason why you need to stick to 9-5 but make sure that you don’t end up working a 50-60 hour working week.

If your family and friends are complaining that they never see you, take a look at whether you’re really using your time effectively.

March Newsletter - Remembering Names

Do you have problems remembering names or are you really lucky and never forget a face ... or a name? If like many of us you go to network meetings or social events where you will be meeting a large number of people, how do you remember all those names?

To read more - just register for the free IFA Time Life Newsletter and you'll also receive my free Top Time Tips for you and your business.

Is Email Ruining Your Life?

Are you deluged with email? It's becoming a big problem these days.  So much so that there's a Money Programme special tonight on BBC2 at 7.00pm - Email Is Ruining My Life.

Apparently:

two million emails are sent every second; 62 per cent of us check work emails when we're at home or on holiday; and in the UK, a third of office workers suffer from "email stress". It's pretty obvious that the technology is hugely beneficial to the workforce, but paperless communication needs to be controlled (rather than having it control us).

Is email a problem for you?  Do you waste time on your emails rather than actually getting on with more important work?  Are you checking your email constantly throughout the day?

• My first bit of advice is to switch off the email alert so that it's not pinging or flashing at you every time an email comes into your inbox.

• Set the mailbox options to only check for new messages periodically.  That way, there's less distraction wondering what's come in during the last five minutes.

• Only check your emails two or three times a day.  Unless you need to respond instantly to customers as soon as an email hits your inbox (unlikely), you really only need to check your inbox a couple of times a day, morning and afternoon.  Do it AFTER you've achieved your first important task of the day.  That way you're less likely to get distracted early on in the day.

• Create folders and filters to organise your incoming mail - automatically sort mail into the appropriate folder by subject or sender as it comes in, so you can easily see what's important and what's not.

• When you do check emails - set aside a specific time to do this - 15-20 minutes at a time.   Don't jump straight in and start responding to the first one. Take a few minutes to sort them into urgent/action, non-urgent and reading.  If you can't deal with an email straight away, schedule time to deal with it later.

Plan your time for emails in the same way you plan the rest of your time and it doesn't have to ruin your life!

If you miss the programme you can always read more tips on managing your email  on my website.

A solution for feeling overwhelmed

An interesting article in Investment News for any financial advisers feeling overwhelmed, frustrated and ineffective - with plenty of tips on solving the most common problems to inefficient time management.

- Email
- Doing too much
- Lack of focus
- Being reactive rather than proactive

You can read the full article here.