You will certainly know how important it is to be efficient if you work in an environment where you have to account for every single second of the day. Many small-business consultants and professionals work on the basis of billable hours, where they have to provide a certain set of services to a client and record the amount of time that is spent. We categorise this according to the amount of time that we spend brainstorming or researching, or devoting to an issue that may be billed at a set rate, or even by reference to the physical amount of time needed to perform a task.
In all cases, when calculating a client’s bill according to the passage of time, time management and measurement is very important. This skill is not something that we are “born” with unfortunately and is something that must be practised and fully understood. We often get sidetracked by a variety of external things and as our lives are so dimensional and complex, distractions abound. During all our waking hours our minds are “working overtime,” thinking and planning what we have to do at some future stage of our lives. Our complex thought processes do not make it easy for us to focus on being wholly efficient when it comes to time management and we sometimes have to rely on external tools such as time management software.
Sadly, a typical workday is littered with non-billable tasks and other actions that quite simply can be referred to as wasteful. Some of us have a carefree attitude and quite frankly hate being told what we should be doing, but nevertheless you must categorise and prioritise if your income relies on billable hours.
You have to avoid unnecessary non-billable distractions. Anything that can be classified as “optional” should be discarded if it impinges upon time that could otherwise be billed. Be careful when categorising requests on your time, as if they have anything to do with employee building relationships, or valuable client events, even though they may be “non-billable,” such events or meetings could be very important indeed. You never know when something very valuable could develop from these events in the future.
You would be quite amazed if you used time tracking software to see how much more efficient you could become as a consequence of using this valuable asset. Focus on each box of time and you will be able to see whether you have used that time efficiently or not. Make sure you don’t make the same mistake again if find you’ve been extremely inefficient!
If you are consistent in your use of online time management tools, additional time will be freed up for more billable work. The software gives you an audible and visual cue and when it is time for you to move to the next task, you should never ignore this. If you find that you have not completed the task in question, make additional time for it later on – and once again, make sure you do not make the same mistake in future.
Tags: business, internet business, online business, time management, time tracking
