Are You The Victim of Time Bandits?
by Debra S. Valle

• Proven ways to manage your schedule and handle interruptions

Most professionals start their businesses with the best of intentions. They want more freedom, fulfillment, financial success—and the kind of independence that would never be possible in a corporate environment. As skilled professionals (lawyers, designers, writers, photographers, coaches, and consultants) they are equally driven by a passion for their “work” as well as a desire to be in control of their destiny.

For many professionals the entrepreneurial dream starts to warp at exactly the same time their business starts to take off. Suddenly they are working harder to attract new clients, with more of the day lost to managing operations, accounts receivable, administrative tasks, and equipment failures . . . and less and less time available to do the work they love.

For some this becomes a nightmare. They feel trapped running the “business” of their business—the same business they once hoped would liberate them from the corporate workday grind.

My work with the Successful Professionals program has shown me there is another way to do the work you love by better managing time, tasks, and the interruptions which frequently derail our forward momentum.

Below are a few tips adapted from the wonderful work and materials of “Successful Professionals”—a program originally designed by Mark Powers and Shawn McNalis to help lawyers manage time, attract clients, and address staff and cash flow issues. Their processes are now available for coaches. Their systems and tools are great, practical and smart—and have been incredibly useful in my work with clients and with my own business.

Put time on your side
How many times have you complained, “I have no control over my time,” “I am constantly being interrupted and can't get my real work done,” or “There are just not enough hours in the day”?

What I have discovered is that for “single shingle” professionals and small business owners, success is directly proportional to their ability to manage time and interruptions.

Manage your routine tasks
Growing your business, seeing clients, returning phone calls, preparing for presentations, sales calls or cases; time spent researching, handling administrative tasks, bookkeeping, and managing staff issues are a few of the tasks that occur daily or weekly for most professionals. By using a “time template” where you actually set aside blocks of time in your calendar for specific, routine tasks, you begin to create a simple scheduling infrastructure that allows you to control the flow of your day.

According to Mark and Shawn, time and motion studies reveal that similar tasks (such as returning phone calls or emails) take less time—sometimes by as much as a factor of four—when they are grouped together. It's the “stop,” “change,” and “start again” that slows you down.

Here's how you begin:

1. Make a list of routine activities in your business that must be accomplished on a daily or weekly basis.
    
2. Group like activities together.
    
3. Look at the flow of your day or week and block specific times when you will . . .

• return phone calls and emails for an hour (usually the beginning or end of the day);
• meet with or call clients;
• work behind closed doors on specific projects (“production mode”);
• meet with staff regarding ongoing client work;
• meet with staff regarding office issues and administrative tasks;
• handle bookkeeping, billing and budgeting tasks.

Productive people don't manage time itself; they manage themselves and their businesses within specific blocks of time and train those around them as to their availability.

Manage interruptions
As long as you are in relationship with others there are always going to be a certain number of interruptions beyond your control. Some interruptions are truly important, such as talking to clients or referral sources. Other interruptions (some 80% of interruptions according to estimates) are either self-imposed—such as surfing the net for vacation ideas—or unexpected, such as family issues, drop-in visitors, or equipment failure.

Mark and Shawn tell us that industrial engineers have determined the average length of an interruption is seven minutes and the amount of time needed to recover from an interruption is three minutes. That's 10 minutes per interruption. Now imagine that on average you experience 10 interruptions per day. That's 100 minutes each day multiplied by five days a week, or 500 minutes a week!

Can you afford to lose the equivalent of eight hours each week to mismanaged interruptions? Most small businesses cannot. But there's hope.

Here's one way you can pre-empt or re-route interruptions.

1. Begin by tracking interruptions through the use of an “interruption log.” Create an excel worksheet where you describe all the unexpected interruptions that occur. Do this for one week.

Use your interruption log to monitor the following:

• length of the interruption
• purpose and subject
• who and what happened
• rate the level of importance to your business (a,b,c)

2. Now put what you learned about interruptions to work for you.

• Create standards for what constitutes a “valid” interruption, one that's acceptable.
• Create a list of emergency scenarios that you will address if they occur. Make sure this list is small and select.
• Make a second list of scenarios that can be managed by someone else, a “designated hitter” with the authority to take appropriate action on your behalf.
• Give the list to who screens your calls or office visits.
• Create time every day—preferably at day's end—to check with your designated hitter to review any actions taken.
• Create open space in your calendar each day to handle the miscellaneous other interruptions that are unpredictable yet still require your attention.

Be in control
By creating standards for how you and your office staff schedule routine tasks and manage interruptions, you create more open space in your daily calendar—“extra” time that gives you the flexibility and sense of control you need to begin creating a life that is in balance and more in keeping with your initial desire for freedom, personal fulfillment, and financial success.

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