Do you feel like you always lack time to do what matters in your job? It is the most common complaint I hear when I coach people. They want to implement the strategies I give them but feel they don’t have the opportunity.
Of course, in reality, we all have the same amount of time. What varies is how we spend it. All too often it gets used up without us making a conscious choice, or because others effectively ‘steal’ our time. These are issues we need to address if we hope to implement more strategic steps in building our businesses.
Let us begin by looking at the demands clients place on our time.
Stop Clients Stealing Your Time
Clients will swallow as much of our time as we are willing to give them, and that can be dangerous as we all want to keep our clients happy.
However, if your client has insisted on a fixed price project, then they need to accept that equates to a fixed deliverable. There is nothing wrong with reminding them that things are out of scope.
What is more, we don’t necessarily need to deliver on their timescales. We should meet the agreed deadlines for the project, but when something urgent comes up, we don’t necessarily need to jump.
Yes, giving our clients a good experience is essential, but that doesn’t mean we need to be a doormat. We are their peer, not their subordinate.
When you do help a client out, make sure they know you have gone above and beyond. Do not let them take you for granted.
Not that the client is always to blame for stealing our time. Sometimes we offer it up willingly!
I am staggered at how many of the agencies and freelancers I coach over-deliver on projects. Yes, it is great to take pride in your work and want to deliver the best, but sink that passion into building your business, not giving away that energy to a client who isn’t paying for it.
Don’t get me wrong. Exceeding the client’s expectations is a good thing occasionally. However, you will quickly find they take it for granted if you do it regularly and come to expect it all the time. That is particularly true when the client isn’t even aware you have sunk more hours into a project than you should have.
We are often our own worst enemy when it comes to time management.
Using Your Time Wisely
Many of the people I hear complaining about not having enough time do so because they are frequently in a state of firefighting. They lurch from one urgent client task to the next, primarily because they have never taken the time to stop, prioritise and put in place efficiencies that will help them in the future.
They never invest in their business, alway pouring their energies into their clients. It is hardly surprising that most are barely profitable!
We all know that the most urgent tasks are not necessarily the most important to do. However, we persist in doing them because we feel obliged. We also continue to do some tasks long after they have ceased to be of value, simply because we have always done them.
Take a step back and reevaluate the work you do once in a while. Put in place a system to prioritise that work such as Eisenhower’s Principle.
Prioritise not by its urgency, but by its value to you and the business as a whole. If you are looking for a good book on this subject, I highly recommend Getting Things Done, by David Allen.
When you do, I recommend you also prioritise tasks that will provide long term efficiencies for your business. For example, create a design system, that will allow you to work considerably more efficiently once it is in place. Alternatively write a playbook to avoid having to constantly have the same conversation with every client.
Heck, even taking the time to set up your working environment in a more efficient way can free up valuable time.
For example, people often comment on the amount of content I publish. They tell me they couldn’t find the time to blog or write a regular newsletter like this one.
Of course, I have no more hours than they do. The only difference is that I have honed my writing to be as efficient as possible and prioritised marketing my services. You can achieve a considerable amount if you are efficient about it.
Get an Outside Perspective
I am aware I sound a bit preachy. I am sorry about that. I get frustrated when I see people who feel trapped, unhappy with their circumstances and unable to work on what they know needs to be done.
I get frustrated because they are not the victims of their circumstances that they think they are. They merely need to make some tough decisions.
Of course, it is often easier to see these solutions from the outside than when you are knee-deep in deadlines. That is why so much of the work I do with those I coach is to help them prioritise the work they are doing. Perhaps you need that outside perspective too. If so, get in touch.
