If you’re human, then I assume you struggle, as most of us do, with balancing your time during the day. Sure, there might be days where you manage to check off every item on your list and it doesn’t seem like such a monumental task, but that situation generally tends to be the exception more than the norm for us lately.
When you take a step back from your day, what are the things you feel are affecting your ability to be more productive? Is it the extra 20 minutes we spent shopping on-line after lunch? The 15 minutes spent texting or IM’ing the new love of your life? For you Bostonians, could it be the extra 10 minutes we spent talking about the Bruins heartbreaking loss last night?
If you sat down and did an honest analysis of time spent throughout the day, how much of it is dedicated to non-work related activity?
Sure, it’s perfectly healthy to “turn off the brain” for a few minutes here and there. I find it’s a good way to reset, especially for inside sales reps who deal with unkind prospects all day who don’t appreciate that we just cold called them. Problem is, how much of that time are we really spending on our small breaks? Unfortunately it’s probably more than we think, and can eventually turn into a bad habit.
Let’s assume you are the perfect manager. Unlike most of us, you solely focus your time on work-related activities all day and yet you still don’t have enough time. What next?
There are a laundry list of books and blogs I’ve come across over the years with suggestions on how to carve out more time from your day. Some good ideas, some a bit lame, but there is one approach that I’ve seen consistently work over my career.
Empower your people.
I know it’s a bit cliché term at times but I find that it works on many levels.
First and foremost, it obviously frees up your time. Some of us have to get used to just letting go of tasks that our team can easily handle. You can’t always have complete control over all that goes around you. Plus, that level of hyper-control usually means that you’re micromanaging… and everyone loves to be micromanaged. Assuming you have a level of trust in the people on your team, delegating tasks is something you need to get into the habit of doing.
For example, we have our team write their scripts. We’re certainly there for support and guidance, but a script is never going to sound natural if I’ve written what they’re saying. Putting it in their own words can help the script to flow and the reps to absorb the material. As a result, they feel some ownership over the process, freeing me up some time to crack the whip over the other folks on my team… Just kidding, of course.
A side benefit of all this is that you end up increasing employee morale along with being able to quickly identify a rising star on your team.
So what are you doing to simplify your day? My suggestion would be to pick out just one thing that you feel is your biggest time drain (most of us know what that it is) and do something about it. Teach your reps to manage themselves. Encourage self-improvement. Empower your people.
