Each month you are working SO hard yet still fall short of your income goals.
It may feel like you are barely scraping by. You are on a hamster wheel to nowhere.
What is happening here?
Are you spending time on tasks that don’t move the needle?
Perhaps you aren’t focusing on the right things.
It’s time to prioritize what counts so that you can finally create more income!
So what do you do?
Step 1: Motivation
First, take a step back to identify your reason for wanting more time. Having a compelling vision will help motivate you to make future improvements.
Understand what focusing on the income-generating tasks will bring.
Yes, more money is vital, but what else? Quality time with your loved ones? Will it allow you to slow down and enjoy life? Would you be able to stop missing deadlines?
It could also be a combination.
Step 2: Time Assessment
Where is your time going anyway?
Although you may have a general sense of how much time you spend on tasks, your perception is often inaccurate. Many people have blind spots here.
The planning fallacy, first proposed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in 1979, highlights that many people underestimate the time needed to complete future tasks due to an optimism bias.
Do a two-week time audit to accurately understand where you spend your time by recording your time each hour.
At first, it may seem painful to add another task, especially when you already feel overloaded.
But remember that it will be well worth it to uncover time inefficiencies and make future improvements. Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.
How to do this:
1. Break down your current responsibilities into broad categories that will cover most of your tasks.
Example:
administrative work, income-generating activities, personal and business growth, core responsibilities, family time, free time, interruptions, managing people, etc.
Look at your routine and create categories that best fit your current life and business.
If you have an area that is a current pain point, such as administrative tasks, you may want to focus there and use the two weeks to break one area down further.
2. Once you have categories, create a chart as per below.
Keep track of the amount of time spent in each category. Make sure to record as soon as possible to ensure the most accurate results.
Tally the amounts both at the end of the day and at the end of the week. If inspired, you can even create a pie chart for a more visual representation.
Pro Tip: Make sure to track your time accurately. Try not to make adjustments to make yourself feel better. Remember, this is an opportunity for improvement!
Step 3: What Moves the Needle?
While doing the time-tracking exercise, clarify which activities are the most important, impactful, and generate income.
Bottom line, what has the most impact?
Remember that 20% of your activities will drive 80% of the results.
Can you put your finger on them?
Start by creating a list of income-generating activities.
Examples could be:
- Book sales calls
- Meet with clients
- Offer sales calls
- Marketing materials
- Free offer posts
- Create materials for your program launch
- DM sales conversaions
Next, list activities that do not create much impact. Note, these activities may still need to happen; however, they may not make direct income:
- Bookkeeping
- Administrative work
- Emails
- Filing
- Free time
- Research
Step 4: Where Do You Spend Time?
After completing two weeks of time tracking, stop and reflect.
Where is your time going versus where did you feel it was going?
Perhaps you are spending too much time socializing, doing administrative tasks, or other functions that are not as impactful.
Notice any patterns or habits. Do you get sidetracked into other areas of focus? Identify what is taking up the most time.
What have you learned? Are you surprised?
Your discoveries may be unexpected but try not to judge yourself.
You have uncovered a gold mine of opportunity.
Now it’s time to take action and take control of your day.
Compare the time to your income-generating activities.
How does this line up with your income goals? Are you spending time on areas that do not create a good return on investment?
So now what?
Suppose you have identified that you are not spending time on the right tasks. What can you do about it?
Step 5: Reframe and Take Action
Once you compare where you would like to spend time versus where you are now, the next step is to shift your time to meet your goals. Where can you spend your time to make the most impact?
1. Eliminate:
Is there anything you can eliminate?
Perhaps certain items on your list have just become a habit and are not moving the needle.
You can be in a routine without recognizing that what you are doing is not working.
Do you need to do everything on your list, or are you creating more work for yourself? Evaluate your tasks to see if there is something to remove so that you can save time.
2. Delegate:
Is there anything on this list you can delegate?
If you are lucky to have support, perhaps you can give items to someone else.
If you do not have a staff, maybe it is time to hire?
If you hire someone to work ten hours a week and you can generate ten times the income, it’s worth it. Are there are possible return on investment opportunities here?
Or possibly delegating could also mean asking a friend or coach to teach you a skill or help you somehow? Who can help you save time?
3. Shift:
How can you shift time to focus on what’s important?
Is there a less impactful area that you can spend less time on to make more time to generate income?
Can you shift your time to prioritize what’s important?
Where do you have pockets of time you can free up? Do you find yourself distracted when you do certain activities? Is there anything you can shift in your current schedule?
4. Streamline:
Are there areas where you can streamline your process to save time?
Are you spending extra time that is wasteful or that you find draining?
A good indicator of a time suck is when you feel drained or hours go by with little to no progress. Notice this and work to improve this process. Where can you improve?
Always ask yourself, how may I best be set up to focus on what’s important and set myself up for success.
Recap:
Being intentional with time is key to success. Focus on what moves the needle in your business to drive income-generating activities intentionally to grow both your income and your free time.
Step 1: Motivation
Step 2: Time Assessment
Step 3: What Moves the Needle?
Step 4: Where Do You Spend Time?
Step 5: Reframe and Take Action
If you need help freeing up more time in your business, book a free strategy call to discuss your next steps forward. BOOK HERE
I would love to know your biggest takeaway and where you will do less to make more income! Send me an email at michele@micheleleah.com so I can respond personally!
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Michele x
