The vexed question of time came up in a recent discussion with a client.  I call it a vexed question because it comes up well, all the time (sorry).  How often have you complained, or heard someone else complain that they just haven't got enough time, that there isn't enough time during the day to do what they want to do, that they just need an extra hour or so.

In the case of my client they felt that the business wasn't going to go beyond a certain threshold because it relied on the owners working very hard on the technical side of the business.  There was only a certain amount time they could put into the business.  Because of that they didn't have enough time to devote to sales but they were good at administration and management, when they had the time.

It seems to me that the key issue in not just this case but for all small businesses is how to make the best use of time. That doesn't even get into the question of procrastination.

But how to judge "making the best use of time"? Is it a question of distinguishing between what is urgent and what is important?

Urgency is usually driven by deadlines, or a problem that has arisen.  And because problems are often 'squeaky wheels' whether they be customer or people problems, they often get attention at the expense of what is important to the business.

Don't get me wrong, customer problems must be fixed, and fixed quickly if they are not to become an on-going sore for the business.  But solving them doesn't necessarily have to involve you.

Time is the one thing we can't recreate. When it is gone, it is gone.  In fact in my experience it is of even greater shortage for small business owners and managers than capital.  So deciding what is important and must be done by you as owner and manager is critical.  You need to concentrate on results for the business, not on being busy.

What is important ultimately comes down to the top goals you have set for your business.  What are you trying to accomplish?  Your actions and `projects should be aimed at achieving those goals.  They are the ones that add value to your business.

If you want to try a really scary exercise, work out how much time you spend each day adding value to your business.  Paul Lemberg (http://www.paullemberg.com/blog) has conducted extensive formal and informal surveys on this question and reckons that an average it is about two and half hours, about 25% of your day.

If you are somewhere around the average then about 75% of your day is spent doing unimportant things, things that don't really contribute to your achieving your goals, adding value to your business.  Perhaps you have to ask yourself on a regular basis what are you giving up to do whatever that wasteful activity is.

Perhaps you should then ask yourself whether you should continue doing it.

(If you would like a "time waste" sheet template to use for this exercise contact me.)

So how much time do you spend creating value? If you would like the challenge here are a few steps, courtesy of Paul Lemberg, that you can take.

1. What are your top 3 goals? There could be more than 3, but don't make it more than 5.  List them in the order of importance.

2. What are the critical success factors in your business that have most to do with realising your goals?  Each goal will have one or 2 things that you do in your business that have most to do with reaching those goals.

3. What do you do to impact theses goals most strongly and quickly? On which of those critical success factors do you put your time and attention?  What do you do on a daily basis that drives those critical success factors.

4. Is what you am doing right now the most important thing you can be going in creating value in your business right now?  Is what you are doing aligned with one or more of those critical success factors?  That's the exercise above.  How much time do you spend creating value?

So here's how you change that.

• Increase the time you spend creating value by 50% - say an extra hour and a quarter each day.

• Only work on high value work in that extra 50% of your time.

• Get somebody else to handle the trivial things you are letting go.h value work
  

There's the extra hour or so you need, and it will add value to your business.

© Copyright 2010 Adam Gordon, Profits Leak Detective