Ever wish you could clone yourself to get more done?
When I started working with Eric, he had been in business for about 6 years and had not been on a vacation that entire time. Six years of no vacation! The first homework assignment that I gave him was to schedule a 3-day getaway with his wife, and during that time they were to plan a one-week family vacation with the kids.
What Eric learned on that getaway was that his marriage was in trouble, and he didn’t know it. His wife was tired of him being more married to his business than he was to her. They ended up planning two vacations, one with their kids and one with just the two of them. That was 15 years ago, and he’s never missed a vacation since…all while still growing his business and profits.
So how did he get more time?
Here are the 3 things he worked on:
1. Managing himself better. You can’t really manage time, you can only manage yourself. He learned how to prioritize and make better decisions based on his priorities. If you’ve got 100 things on your list, you can’t get all of them done…just get the right ones done. What you’ll find is that when you start prioritizing better, your list will get shorter as the unimportant things drop off.
2. He learned how to delegate better. Too many business owners don’t delegate because they have been disappointed with results in the past, and that’s because they weren’t doing it well. Oftentimes we say “Do this,” when we really mean “Achieve that.” Get agreement on what the end result looks like and you’ll have better delegation. If you’re not sure what to delegate, look at your list and see which tasks require the least skill and which you enjoy the least. Start with those.
3. He got rid of his “superhero-itis.” It may be true that you are the best at what you do and nobody can do it as well as you can, but if you can teach your team to do it 85% as well as you can, that’s still pretty good and no one will notice the difference. Besides, think about the message you send to your team when you try to be the hero…you’re basically telling them that they aren’t good enough. Teach them to be the superheroes instead!
If you’re ready to free up more time, schedule a 15-20 minute chat with me and we’ll identify and work on your biggest challenge around time.
I can’t create more time, but I can help you use your time more effectively.
Author: Mark McNulty, Business Coach in Louisville, KY