How to Know If You’re Living Up to Your Potential

If you aren’t, you will spend a lot of time justifying what you’re doing 

Photo: Martin Dimitrov/Getty Images

If you are not living up to your potential, you will know.

You will know even if you try to do everything in your power to avoid knowing. You will know because you will spend a lot of time trying to convince yourself that you’re doing your absolute best. You will know because you will find yourself rationalizing, listing facts and figures to prove you’ve made it.

I got this degree.

I graduated — that was once the biggest accomplishment I could have ever thought of.

I live in this place, and I didn’t imagine I would.

I’ve made this much, and I never thought I could.

I traveled here.

I paid this off.

… And anyone would say that’s enough.

On and on the accomplishments will go, until you’ve inflated yourself a bit.

In a fleeting moment of gratitude, you will appreciate what you’ve built. For a brief second, that lukewarm feeling of gratitude will dissipate your dissatisfaction, and you’ll forget your unhappiness for a while.

It will return.

There is a difference between doing well for yourself and living up to your potential.

When you are living up to your potential, your deep well of longing will close up.

Nobody can draw this line for you. Nobody can tell you what is or isn’t your fullest capacity. Nobody can define what success should or shouldn’t look like for you.

You’ll have to know it for yourself.

And what if you inherently know you’re unhappy? What if you know you’re constantly reaching for reasons why you should be happy instead of simply feeling it?

That means you’re not there yet.

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When we’re growing up, we’re taught how to define “being okay” as stability.

In time, we realize that we don’t know what the hell we want out of life, so we attach ourselves to certain markers of success. We turn those markers into goals. We aim for them.

We build lives that soothe the fears of our childhood selves. As grown-ups, we find that we’re still hanging onto the training wheels.

Slowly, we realize we want to start that business. We want to influence our community. We want to travel. We want to heal. We want to be freed.

Deep down, we each have a vision for how great our life could be. When we say we “don’t know what we want,” we really mean we’re afraid to admit what we want, to face that vision head-on.

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To pursue the thing you’re most afraid of pursuing would be to realize your fullest potential.

To reach the end of your life and know, deep down, that you lived as fully, deeply, and completely as you could — that would be to reach your fullest potential.

To live in a way that made you breathless with excitement and completely at peace all at once would be to reach your fullest potential.

To pursue what makes you come alive—no matter how silly, stupid, small, or unimportant someone else might think it is—would be to reach your fullest potential.

To do the thing that has been on your mind the entire time you’ve been reading this — that is what you must do to reach your fullest potential.

There is, unfortunately, no other way to be satisfied.

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People will tell you there will always be more to hope for, more to want. Greed is stealthy like that. We get one thing and we want another, so on and so forth, until we hit a breaking point.

What most people fail to recognize is that we only want more when we aren’t pursuing what we actually need.

When you are living up to your potential, your deep well of longing will close up. You will feel full. You will go to bed at night excited to wake up the next day. You will live in a place that makes you feel like your best and truest self.

You will not wish for the world anymore, because you will have the only little piece of it you ever really wanted.

It’s not a question of whether you will live up to your potential, it’s a question of when.

• Life Lessons
• Self Improvement
• Inspiration
• Identity
• Work

4 D’s of Time Management

November 3, 2016/2 Comments/in Blog /by Wayne Farrell

We have covered a number of time management tips in various articles. In this article, let’s have a quick look at the 4 D’s of time management and how they can help you to be more time efficient. This is something we discuss in more details during the live NLP life coaching training.

What are the 4 D’s of Time Management?

Simply put, they are do, delete, defer or delegate.

Delete it.

Check whether the thing requires your attention or is worth your time. If it does not, then simply delete it. An example would be looking at all the email one gets during the day. See which of them are spam or something that you really have no interest in. If you are unsure, then in Outlook as an example, you can have a preview of the emails. Simply bulk delete all the emails that are trash.

If there are some emails that are not important to attend to right now, but you would like to have a look at them later, then you can defer them and move on. Always ask yourself if this particular thing is worth your time. Is it necessary to spend any of your time on it? Remember the Perato principle (80/20 rule) and that often people spend 80% of their time on activities that are a waste of time.

Delegate it.

Is it important or necessary for you to do the task? Is it your responsibility to do? If the answer is no, then delegate it. You might still be ultimately responsible for the task being done, example having your accounts done for year end. So the buck stops with you. However it is better to delegate the task of getting the accounts done to the accountant. This is true for many of the everyday tasks that people get involved in. Often people choose to do certain tasks as they are easier or a way of keeping busy and not getting to doing what is really important.

There is a fine line between delegation and abdication. Ensure that there is some measure in place to check that the task has been completed by the person to whom you have delegated. At the same time empower them to do the task and be understanding if the task has not been completed in quite the way you would have done it yourself. Delegating does not just have to be to subordinates. You can delegate across, upwards and to other departments as well. We will look at delegating in more detail in another article.

Do it.

I think it was Brian Tracey who spoke about the one touch rule. If a task can be completed there and then in a few minutes, then just do it. Provided of course it is not a task to delete, delegate or defer. In other words if it is important for you to do and you have the time to do it, then get it done straight away. Postponing important tasks often leads to procrastination or feelings of anxiety or stress.

You have seen people who paper shuffle. They start with a task and then get side tracked and start with another, then come back to the first and at the end of the day they were busy, but not productive. Think of when you start your car on a cold morning. You need to let it idle to get warm before you just drive it. In the same way each time you pick up or start a task, it takes some time to get into it or get your head around what needs doing. So if you don’t complete the task, then you go through that cycle again each time you pick it up, as such wasting time. If it is worth your time, then focus your time and efforts on that one task and get it done and move on.

Defer it.

There are some tasks that come across your desk that you may just not be able to deal with straight away. It might be an email about booking a family holiday. It is not important during your working day, but is important to get done. So you can defer it and look at the email later in your free time.

Similarly, you might need to meet with a team member to discuss how they can achieve better results in their sales. A very important task, yet it might be able to wait until the sales meeting in a few days. That way you can spend the time until then planning the sales meeting and getting the things done that are more important at that particular point in time.

It might also be that the task is one that can’t be completed quickly and is not of a high priority at that time and as such you can simply defer it. You might even find that some of the tasks that you defer could become obsolete and be deleted.

How can you implement the 4 D’s of time management?

A great way to implement this is to look at your to do list on a daily basis. See which tasks need to be deleted, done, delegated or deferred. Then also do that with each task that comes across your desk during the day. You may find some tasks that stay on your to do list, which you keep on moving on to another day. Ask yourself if that task really is important for you to do. Chances are it may not be. Thus again by deleting or delegating, you can free yourself from that task that might just have been sucking your time. Similarly it might be a task that you are just procrastinating on. Then ask yourself what it is about the task that keeps you from just doing it. We can look at some ways of overcoming procrastination in another article.

As always, if you need help with any issues in your business or personal life, then please feel free to reach out. We are always happy to help.

If you found this article useful, then please Like and Share it below, so that others may benefit from it also.

Tags: 4 D's of Time Management, Anxiety, Do delete delegate defer, Time management

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Time Management Techniques

Time management refers to the judicious use of time for achieving success in life. Time Management helps an individual to make the best possible use of time. It is essential for individuals to value time and allocate the right time to the right activity.

Let us go through some Time Management Techniques:

• Set your Priorities. Know what all needs to be done on an urgent basis. Prepare a “TO DO” List or a “Task Plan” to jot down tasks you need to complete against the time slot assigned to each activity. High Priority Tasks must be written on top followed by tasks which can be done a little later. Make sure you stick to your Task List.

• Make sure you finish your assignments within the stipulated time frame. Tick the tasks you have already finished. Treat yourself with a chocolate if you finish your assignments ahead of deadlines.

• Understand the difference between urgent and important work. Manage your work well. Do not begin your day with something which is not so important and can be done a little later. First finish off what all is urgent and important. Do not wait for your Boss’s reminders.

• Stay focused. Do not leave your work station if some urgent work needs to be done. Going for strolls in the middle of an urgent work breaks continuity and an individual tends to loose his focus. Individuals who kill time at work find it difficult to survive workplace stress.

• Do include time for your tea breaks, net surfing, personal calls and so on in your daily schedule. It is important. Human being is not a machine who can work at a stretch for eight to nine hours. Assign half an hour to fourty five minutes to check updates on social networking sites, call your friends or family or go for smoke breaks etc.

• Set realistic and achievable targets for yourself. Know what you need to achieve and in what duration? Do not lie to yourself. Assigning one hour to a task which you yourself know would require much more time does not make sense.

• Do not overburden yourself. Say a firm no to your boss if you feel you would not be able to complete a certain assignment within the assigned deadline. Don’t worry, he will not feel bad. Probably he can assign the same to any of your fellow workers. Accept tasks which you are really confident about.

• Be disciplined and punctual. Avoid taking unnecessary leaves from work unless there is an emergency. Reach work on time as it helps you to plan your day better.

• Keep things at their proper places. Files must be kept at their respective drawers. Staple important documents and put them in a proper folder. Learn to be a little more organized. It will save your time which goes on unnecessary searching.

• Do not treat your organization as a mere source of money. Change your attitude. Avoid playing games on computer or cell phones during office hours. It is unprofessional. Do not work only when your boss is around. Taking ownership of work pays you in the long run.

• Develop the habit of using an organizer. It helps you plan things better. Keep a notepad and a pen handy. Do not write contact numbers or email ids on loose papers. You will waste half of your time searching them. Manage your emails. Create separate folders for each client. Do not clutter your desktop.

Benefits of Time Management

Time Management refers to making the best possible use of available time.

Managing time well enables an individual to do the right thing at the right time.

Time Management plays a pivotal role in one’s personal as well as professional life.

Let us go through some benefits of Time Management:

• Time Management makes an individual punctual and disciplined. One learns to work when it is actually required as a result of effective time management. To make the judicious use of time, individuals should prepare a “TASK PLAN“ or a “TO DO“ List at the start of the day to jot down activities which need to be done in a particular day as per their importance and urgency against the specific time slots assigned to each activity. A Task Plan gives individuals a sense of direction at the workplace. An individual knows how his day looks like and eventually works accordingly leading to an increased output.

• One becomes more organized as a result of effective Time Management. Keeping the things at their proper places minimizes the time which goes on unnecessary searching of documents, important files, folders, stationery items and so on. For better time management, individuals keep their workstations, study zones, cubicles, meeting areas clean and organized. People learn to manage things well as a result of Time Management.

• Effective Time Management boosts an individual’s morale and makes him confident. As a result of Time Management, individuals accomplish tasks within the stipulated time frame, making them popular in their organization as well as amongst their peers. People who understand the value of time are the ones who manage to stand apart from the crowd. Individuals who finish off work on time are looked up to by others and are always the centre of attention everywhere.

• Individuals who stick to a time plan are the ones who realize their goals and objectives within the shortest possible time span. Managing time effectively helps employees to meet targets way ahead of deadlines and finish off task just when it is required.

• Effective Time Management helps an employee to reach the pinnacle of success quickly and stay firm at the top for a longer duration. An employee who works just for the sake of working fails to create an impression and is never taken seriously at work. Effective time management plays a pivotal role in increasing an individual’s productivity. Output increases substantially when people manage their time well.

• Better Time Management helps in better planning and eventually better forecasting. Individuals learn to plan things well and know where exactly they stand five years from now.

• Research says that individuals who accomplish tasks on time are less prone to stress and anxiety. Remember there is no point in wasting time and cribbing later. Finish off pending work on time and then you would have ample time for your friends, relatives and family members.

• Time Management enables an individual to prioritize tasks and activities at workplace. It is foolish to stay overburdened. Do not accept anything and everything that comes your way.

• Time Management helps an individual to adopt a planned approach in life.

Time Management - Meaning and its Importance

It is rightly said “Time and Tide wait for none”. An individual should understand the value of time for him to succeed in all aspects of life. People who waste time are the ones who fail to create an identity of their own.

What is Time Management ?

• Time Management refers to managing time effectively so that the right time is allocated to the right activity.
• Effective time management allows individuals to assign specific time slots to activities as per their importance.
• Time Management refers to making the best use of time as time is always limited.

Ask yourself which activity is more important and how much time should be allocated to the same? Know which work should be done earlier and which can be done a little later.

Time Management plays a very important role not only in organizations but also in our personal lives.

Time Management includes:

1. Effective Planning
2. Setting goals and objectives
3. Setting deadlines
4. Delegation of responsibilities
5. Prioritizing activities as per their importance
6. Spending the right time on the right activity

• Effective Planning

  Plan your day well in advance. Prepare a To Do List or a “TASK PLAN”. Jot down the important activities that need to be done in a single day against the time that should be allocated to each activity. High Priority work should come on top followed by those which do not need much of your importance at the moment. Complete pending tasks one by one. Do not begin fresh work unless you have finished your previous task. Tick the ones you have already completed. Ensure you finish the tasks within the stipulated time frame.

• Setting Goals and Objectives

  Working without goals and targets in an organization would be similar to a situation where the captain of the ship loses his way in the sea. Yes, you would be lost. Set targets for yourself and make sure they are realistic ones and achievable.

• Setting Deadlines

  Set deadlines for yourself and strive hard to complete tasks ahead of the deadlines. Do not wait for your superiors to ask you everytime. Learn to take ownership of work. One person who can best set the deadlines is you yourself. Ask yourself how much time needs to be devoted to a particular task and for how many days. Use a planner to mark the important dates against the set deadlines.

• Delegation of Responsibilities

  Learn to say “NO” at workplace. Don’t do everything on your own. There are other people as well. One should not accept something which he knows is difficult for him. The roles and responsibilities must be delegated as per interest and specialization of employees for them to finish tasks within deadlines. A person who does not have knowledge about something needs more time than someone who knows the work well.

• Prioritizing Tasks

  Prioritize the tasks as per their importance and urgency. Know the difference between important and urgent work. Identify which tasks should be done within a day, which all should be done within a month and so on. Tasks which are most important should be done earlier.

• Spending the right time on right activity

  Develop the habit of doing the right thing at the right time. Work done at the wrong time is not of much use. Don’t waste a complete day on something which can be done in an hour or so. Also keep some time separate for your personal calls or checking updates on Facebook or Twitter. After all human being is not a machine.

For Effective Time Management one needs to be:

Organized - Avoid keeping stacks of file and heaps of paper at your workstation. Throw what all you don’t need. Put important documents in folders. Keep the files in their respective drawers with labels on top of each file. It saves time which goes on unnecessary searching.

Don’t misuse time - Do not kill time by loitering or gossiping around. Concentrate on your work and finish assignments on time. Remember your organization is not paying you for playing games on computer or peeping into other’s cubicles. First complete your work and then do whatever you feel like doing. Don’t wait till the last moment.

Be Focussed - One needs to be focused for effective time management.

Develop the habit of using planners, organizers, table top calendars for better time management. Set reminders on phones or your personal computers.

7 Essential Time Management Skills and Strategies

7 Essential Time Management Skills and Strategies

Susanne Madsen | October 4, 2018

Get the Right Things Done in Less Time with These Time Management Skills

To get ahead in your career, deliver your projects successfully and to get a promotion or a pay rise, you must learn to consistently focus on the activities that add the most benefit to your projects and your clients. The better you are at maintaining focus and managing your time, the more you will achieve, and the easier it will be for you to leave the office on time. Not only do effective time management skills allow you to get better results at work, but it also help you withstand stress and live a more fulfilling life outside of work.
The following strategies will help you get the right things done in less time.

1. Start your day with a clear focus.

The first work-related activity of your day should be to determine what you want to achieve that day and what you absolutely must accomplish. Come clear on this purpose before you check your email and start responding to queries and resolve issues. Setting a clear focus for your day might require as little as five minutes, but can save you several hours of wasted time and effort.

2. Have a dynamic task list.

Capture the tasks and activities you must do on a list and update it regularly during the day. Revisit this list frequently and add new items as soon as they appear. Make sure your list gives you a quick overview of everything that’s urgent and important, and remember to include strategic and relationship-building activities as well as operational tasks.

3. Focus on high-value activities.

Before you start something new, identify the activity that would have the most positive effect on your project, your team, and your client if you were to deal with it right now. Resist the temptation to clear smaller, unimportant items first. Start with what is most important.

• To help you assess which activities to focus on first, ask the following:
• What does my client or my team need most from me right now?
• What will cause the most trouble if it doesn’t get done?
• What is the biggest contribution I can make right now?
• Which strategic tasks do I need to deal with today to help us work smarter tomorrow?

4. Minimize interruptions.

The more uninterrupted time you get during the day to work on important tasks, the more effective you’ll be. Identify the activities that tend to disrupt your work, and find a solution. Basically, one of the most essential time management skills is to not get distracted. For example, avoid checking emails and answering the phone when you’re in the middle of something important. Once you have broken your flow, it can be difficult to reestablish it. Instead, discipline yourself to work on a task single-mindedly until it’s complete.

5. Stop procrastinating.

If you have difficulties staying focused or tend to procrastinate, you may benefit from creating an external commitment for (deadline) yourself. For instance, schedule a meeting in two days’ time where you’ll be presenting your work and by which time your actions will have to be completed. It’s also very effective to complete the most unpleasant tasks early in the day and to allow yourself small rewards once you’ve completed them.

6. Limit multi-tasking.

Many of us multi-task and believe we’re effective when we do so, but evidence suggests that we can’t effectively focus on more than one thing at a time. In order to stop multi-tasking, try these tips: Plan your day in blocks and set specific time aside for meetings, returning calls and for doing detailed planning and analysis work at your desk. Whenever you find yourself multitasking, stop and sit quietly for a minute.

7. Review your day.

Spend 5-10 minutes reviewing your task list every day before you leave the office. Give yourself a pat on the back if you achieved what you wanted. If you think your day’s effort fell short, decide what you’ll do differently tomorrow in order to accomplish what you need to. Leave the office in high spirits determined to pick up the thread the next day.
Give these essential time management skills a concerted effort, and you’ll find your days and projects running much more smoothly!
This article first appeared on Susanne Madsen’s Developing Project Leaders blog. Susanne’s latest book, “The Power of Project Leadership” is available through Amazon.

Time Quotes: 66 Best Time Management Quotes

TIME MANAGEMENT

Here are 66 best time quotes organized by topics:
Be on time
Better three hours too soon, than one minute too late.William Shakespeare
Time is the best teacher
Time is the wisest counselor of all.Pericles
Time is the school in which we learn, time is the fire in which we burn.Delmore Schwartz
Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.Rodin
Time as he grows old teaches many lessons.Aeschylus
Histories make men wise.Francis Bacon
Use your time wisely
Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.William Penn
The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it.Shoppenhauer
Time = life; therefore, waste your time and waste of your life, or master your time and master your life.Alan Lakein
Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.Charles Richards
The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.Stephen R. Covey
Ordinary people think merely of spending time. Great people think of using it.Author Unknown
Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much can be done if we are always doing.Thomas Jefferson
Make use of time, let not advantage slip.William Shakespeare
This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.Ralph Waldo Emerson
A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life.Charles Darwin
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.Benjamin Franklin
Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!Anthony Robbins
Check your priorities
If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to know what’s most important and then give it all you’ve got.Lee Iacocca
It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?Henry David Thoreau
Small things matter
Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves.Lord Chesterfield
You’re writing the story of your life one moment at a time.Doc Childre and Howard Martin
Do only a few things
To do two things at once is to do neither.Publius Syrus
One cannot manage too many affairs: like pumpkins in the water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other.Chinese Proverb
Focus on the present
Never let yesterday use up today.Richard H. Nelson
I don’t think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.W. Somerset Maugham
It’s how we spend our time here and now, that really matters. If you are fed up with the way you have come to interact with time, change it.Marcia Wieder
Realize that now, in this moment of time, you are creating. You are creating your next moment. That is what’s real.Sara Paddison
The time for action is now. It’s never too late to do something.Carl Sandburg
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.Ralph Waldo Emerson
Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got.Art Buchwald
This is the beginning of a new day.
God has given me this day to use as I will.
I can waste it or use it for good.
What I do today is important, because
I am exchanging a day of my life for it.
When tomorrow comes,
this day will be gone forever,
leaving in its place something
that I have traded for it.
I want it to be gain, not loss;
good not evil; success not failure;
in order that I shall not regret
the price I paid for it.Author Unknown
Lost time gone forever
He lives long that lives well; and time misspent is not lived but lost.Thomas Fuller
He who know most grieves most for wasted time.Dante
Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.Samuel Smiles
Money, I can only gain or lose. But time I can only lose. So, I must spend it carefully.Author Unknown
One thing you can’t recycle is wasted time.Author Unknown
Lost time is never found again.Proverb
The importance of time
All that really belongs to us is time; even he who has nothing else has that.Baltasar Gracian
Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.Theophrastus
Time is money.Benjamin Franklin
Gaining time is gaining everything in love, trade and war.John Shebbeare
Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.M. Scott Peck
Your greatest resource is your time.Brian Tracy
You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.Henry David Thoreau
Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.Laertius Diogenes
Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions.John Randolph
Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.Thomas Edison
Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.Peter F. Drucker
Don’t procrastinate
What may be done at any time will be done at no time.Scottish Proverb
A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.Baltasar Gracian
One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is worth half-a-hundred half-finished tasks.Malcolm S. Forbes
To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.Eva Young
A year from now you will wish you had started today.Karen Lamb
The surest way to be late is to have plenty of time.Leo Kennedy
While we are postponing, life speeds by.Seneca
You may delay, but time will not.Benjamin Franklin
Never leave ’till tomorrow which you can do today.Benjamin Franklin
Don’t excuse, you are in control
You will never “find” time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.Charles Bruxton
Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.H. Jackson Brown
The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.Michael Altshuler
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.Carl Sandburg
I am definitely going to take a course on time management… just as soon as I can work it into my schedule.Louis E. Boone
In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is lacking.Sir John Lubbock
Those who make the worse use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.Jean De La Bruyere
The great dividing line between success and failure can be expressed in five words: “I did not have time.”Franklin Field

Importance of Time Management for Business Owners

Written by Orbital Shift | Sep 30, 2016 12:44:00 PM

Business owners can, and should, cultivate a workplace that values time management. Here are some tips for business owners to improve time management in the workplace.

Why Time Management is Essential for Leadership

Business owners and managers lead by example. The values and work ethic displayed by a company's decision makers have a direct influence on company culture, and many times, on a business' profitability. Time management improves the efficiency and effectiveness of a business, and business owners should continuously work on developing, or improving, their own time management skills.

Time Management Benefits

Time management is one of the most important skills to have, but it is often a concept that many businesses, and people, struggle with. Small businesses, in particular, cannot afford to waste time with bad time management and inefficiency. However, the benefits of good time management practices are immeasurable. Businesses that utilize good time management are better positioned to consistently deliver their product, or service, on-time.

Good time management also means that a business is able to solve problems that arise without it significantly impacting day-to-day operations. This is essential for businesses that rely on constant output to increase ROI - a planned, structured schedule provides extra time for problem-solving or unforeseen circumstances.

Business owners can, and should, cultivate a workplace that values time management. Here are some tips for business owners to improve time management in the workplace.

1. Prioritize

   Prioritizing each item on your to-do list will help you stay focused on hitting your day-to-day, and overall, goals. Ask yourself, "What absolutely needs to be done by the end of the day?" Rank each item by its importance - or deadline - and start working down the list. If anything unexpected comes up during the day, you can feel better knowing that the most time-sensitive tasks have already been addressed.

2. Set Measurable Goals

   This is essential for both business owners, and employees. Establishing clear-cut goals will help you measure the success of your work and effectively track progress that you have made toward that goal. As a company, you should be asking questions like "Where do we want to be next year, at this time? How much revenue do we need to make next month to stay on track?"

   The answers to your questions should form measurable, tangible goals that you can communicate to your employees. Time management means that you are not only productive with your time, but your productivity is focused on achieving your company's goals.

3. Plan Ahead

   Planning ahead today saves you time, and unnecessary stress, tomorrow. Once you have established your goals, you can also start working on a feasible timeline to reach them.

   An important part of planning is to be realistic about what you can achieve and how quickly you can work through that timeline. Don't fall into the trap of being overly-ambitious with every deadline - although time is money, ensuring that you have enough time to deliver a high-quality product, or service, should always be a top priority. Never meeting deadlines can discourage your employees as well, so be sure to set reasonable goals and communicate to your team exactly what needs to be accomplished to meet them.

4. Know When to Delegate

   As a business owner, your time is often divided between day-to-day operations and big-picture responsibilities. Knowing when it's appropriate to delegate some of those tasks to other team members can save you quite a bit of time. It's also a great opportunity to motivate your employees with increased responsibilities and challenges.

   A great way to approach what should, and shouldn't be delegated, is to estimate the time it would take for someone else to complete the task. Would it involve extra training? Would I spend more time reviewing their work than the time it would take me to do it myself? These are all questions that you should be asking before making the decision to delegate.

Using Software for Time Management

Time management, like many things, can be much easier when utilizing helpful tools. Time management systems, like employee time tracker apps, provide a simple, straightforward way to manage your staff schedules. Cloud-based time tracking systems allow you to manage your employees' schedules, as well as your own, right from your smartphone or desktop.

Tracking time on a shared interface also allows business owners to demonstrate transparency and teamwork. With the ability to quickly manage schedules and assign tasks, you can rest assured that your employees know what is expected of them, and you can ensure that every employee is pulling equal weight in the company's success.

Test Before You Buy

Finding the best solution for managing your time often requires a bit of trial and error. What works for one business owner may not necessarily work for another, and we encourage you to try out a few different techniques to find one that truly helps you manage your time.

At Orbital Shift, we offer a 14-day free trial to give you an opportunity to use our workforce management software risk-free, with no hidden fees or charges. We know the value of time management for business owners, and we want you to experience our software before you make the decision to fully utilize it for your organization.

10 Tips to Find and Win the Best Clients

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John Rampton

VIP CONTRIBUTOR

Entrepreneur and Connector

     

December 19, 2014 6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

With 2014 rapidly coming to a close, there’s no better time to plan for next year. As an entrepreneur or business owner, that planning should include methods to attract new clients.

However, instead of just attracting any client for the sake of a sale, put your energy and resources into landing the absolute best clients for your company. Here are 10 tips for accomplishing that goal.

1. Know who your clients are.

If you want to find the best clients for your business, then you have to really know whom to target by narrowing your focus. Tom Patty suggests in the Wall Street Journal that you ask questions like "What do they do?” and "What do they value?" Once you have this information, you can tailor messages specifically to attract them on the networks where they’ll discover you.

2. Have a better voice mail.

Instead of leaving a generic and basic voicemail, record a voicemail that offers a call-to-action. Mark Heinz of Heinz Marketing LLC says your voicemail should answer a question, direct them to your website or tell them how to schedule an appointment. His gives this example:

“Hi, this is Matt from Acme Products. I’m currently helping another customer, but can’t wait to help you, too! Please leave me a short message with your number and I’ll call back as soon as possible. In the meantime, please visit my website, at www.AcmeProducts.com, for a sneak preview of our new products and promotions.”

My personal voicemail tells people to text or email me. This is the best way to get ahold of me. I don't like to talk on the phone. Whatever you prefer, make sure your voicemail is to the point and has a clear call to action.

Related: 3 Surprising Ways to Find New Clients

3. Attend trade shows.

Attending trade shows is a great way to network with influencers and prospective clients within your industry. More importantly, however, trade shows are a great way to also discover how your industry is changing.

While at a trade show I like to hang out around the speaker sessions. That's typically where the people who pay top dollar go. They want to learn. Those are the people that I've always had the best luck with becoming my customers. They are people paying to learn, not just in the exhibit hall paying to acquire customers.

4. Start a newsletter.

Create some riveting, unique content and then give it away for free by having site visitors sign-up for a newsletter. Not only does this establish you as expert, it will also give you the email addresses of prospective clients. Now that you have these email addresses, you can begin to communicate with these important, potential clients.

5. Help the local community.

You can build trust with top-notch clients by supporting a local community organization or sharing advice with others. Patrick Bishop, author of Money-Tree Marketing, suggests to Entrepreneur that you "Set up a fund-raising program that benefits a school, like a discount card. At the same time the kids [are selling them, they are] promoting your business.”

6. Work with other companies.

My buddy Brian Honigman taught me this trick. By teaming up with complimentary businesses, you're spreading the word about your business. Furthermore, you’re gaining exposure to clients who may be interested in the products or services that you’re offering. For example, if you are selling a line of pet grooming product, then you might leave brochures at local vet offices or place ads on websites that focus on pet care.

In short, you want to have presence where your top prospects are hanging out. I've used this successfully over the past three years to win over the best clients in the industry. It works amazingly well. Teaming up with other companies can provide much more credibility that going at it alone.

Related: The Fastest Way to Find New Customers

7. Make them feel special.

If you really want to win over clients, go all out to impress them. Content marketing expert Nick Davis suggested to me years ago that "I needed to make each person I meet and interact with feel special in some way. When you make someone feel special it creates a bond with them. Even in the online world, make them feel that connection."

Since learning this technique, I have started hugging most people that I meet. When you meet me, I'm going to hug you. It's my thing. This makes people feel special and it's something that most people don't realize but feel. It's helped me over the years to create amazing relationships that have turned into long-term clients.

8. Showcase your work.

Clients want to see results. So, how can you show them these results if you’ve never worked with them? The best place to start is by creating a powerful online portfolio.

Kristi Hines notes on FreshBooks that there several ways to share your portfolio online. These range from:

• A full website.
• A one-page portfolio on your blog.
• Links on social networks.

Once you’ve settled on the best location to showcase your work, consider including corporate logos of companies you’ve previously worked with and a video highlighting what you do best or examples of previous work.

By creating an online portfolio you’re not only giving clients an idea of the quality of work you provide, you’re also establishing their trust in that you can handle the job at hand.

9. Ask for referrals.

Don’t hesitate to ask your current clients for referrals. As the American Institute of CPAs notes, “Current clients lead to future clients.” Why? Because we tend to trust people we know. Just remember to thank clients for their referral by offering a gesture of thanks, such as taking them out to dinner or offering them a discount.

10. Help people.

I learned this lesson at a startup community I've been apart of for years called StartupGrind. They encourage people to not "pitch" each other but ask the other person how you can help them. These types of relationship have proved to be the best relationships I've ever had.  It has gotten me countless clients as well as lasting relationships.

Use these tips to win over the best clients in the world.  The more you have a plan, the better your business will succeed over the coming years.  What additional tips have you found to win clients?

Related: Aim Directly at Your Target Market to Land New Clients

5 Keys to Building Business

5 Keys to Building Business Relationships

BY ELIZABETH HARR  |   APRIL 10, 2019

Few would argue with the notion that building business relationships is critical in professional services. And while marketing efforts put toward pricing and service strategy, or articulation of a firm’s competitive position, their real advantage lies in the strength of their relationships.
An important body of Hinge’s research, Inside the Buyer’s Brain, Second Edition, found that most buyers who are trying to select a firm rely heavily on a firm’s relevant experience and expertise. These factors are represented by the top two bars in the chart below. This makes intuitive sense — if buyers know you are an expert in your service area, they are more likely to buy from you.

Just like any personal relationship, business relationships require continual maintenance.  A mutual benefit and ongoing communication are important ingredients to success. In the long run, having close and trusting contacts will give you an edge, especially when other marketing tactics aren’t working.  Here are 5 keys to building and maintaining business relationships:

1. Routinely Reach Out to Important Contacts

It is impossible to have weekly or monthly conversations with all of the contacts in your CRM system.  But you can focus on the valuable ones.  Pinpoint your best clients, partners, and vendors and continually check up on them. Express your interest in their business and let them know that you are here to help. If you want to keep the relationship alive make this outreach routine.  If you let too much time go by, your eventual contact will seem less genuine. And don’t ignore the power of your LinkedIn connections. When executed properly, a social media strategy is the digital sister to in-person networking – and it can be fast and efficient way to ensure your are routinely reaching out.
Download the The Visible Firm Guide

2. Offer Help Before You Ask for Help

Building business relationships doesn’t mean tapping into your resources whenever you need something.  If the only time you ever contact a former client is when you have a new service offering, your gesture won’t seem authentic.  Similarly, if you call your vendor only when you are looking for a good deal, don’t expect to get one.
Spend time figuring out how you can help your important business contacts. What value can you offer to spark the conversation?

3. Ask for Feedback

Instead of assuming your clients and vendors are happy, ask! Open communication is a basic component of any relationship. When you ask your contacts how they feel, you promote a two-way conversation that can uncover areas for improvement.  Some firms conduct client satisfaction surveys to gather feedback.  But usually it’s best to pick up the phone and talk to your closest contact at a firm.  If this is your top client, you want to make sure they are content.

4. Find Ways to Connect with Less Valuable Contacts

As new contacts enter your world, try to build trust over time with email marketing.  Because you can’t interact with everyone in your email address book on a weekly basis, leverage technology to do some of the work for you.
Customer relationship management (CRM) systems allow you to set up email sequences that will routinely send email to your contacts. This is no substitute for a real relationship, but it will at least keep your firm on the top of people’s minds.
Note that this does not mean blasting your list with non targeted emails.  Instead, focus on educational content that your audience will find relevant and practical. There are two types of emails to consider:

1. Educational emails provide content that is meant to be informative. These emails give something of value to the reader without asking for anything in return. Because educational emails are highly valued by your audience, they should make up about 80% of the emails that you send out.
2. Offer emails are for when you want the recipient to do something, such as download a presentation or paper, and you are hoping to move them to a deeper level of engagement. Whether this engagement is a meeting or trying out one of your services, you want them to take a specific next step. Although offer emails should account for the other 20% of emails, you wouldn’t want to send these until you’ve created value for your audience. And offer emails should only go to folks who have already downloaded several pieces of your content. Unless specifically requested, you absolutely would not want an offer email to be sent to someone you just met at a networking event.

Here are a few tips we’ve discovered for highly effective email marketing:

• Ensure the look and feel of your email reflects your brand at every touchpoint.
• Ensure they are mobile friendly.
• Segment your distribution list so you can be strategic about which emails go to which list.
• Remember the 80/20 rule. No matter how many or how few emails you send out, the balance of them (80%) should be educational, while the remainder (20%) are offers.
• Make sure you have a way for people to unsubscribe.
• Consider the subject line carefully. To encourage high open rates, go with 40 characters or less, and be very clear. Subject lines aren’t the time to be too clever or leave too much up to the reader’s imagination. Just say what the email is about. Trust us, the payoff will be there.
• Lastly, be aware that there are certain trigger words that can send your email straight into the spam or junk folder. Words like “cheap” or “sale,” and sometimes even “free,” when placed in the subject line can signal the email is spam and it won’t get through the filter.

5. Educate, don’t sell.

If building relationships requires trust and credibility, then educating – as opposed to selling – is a big enabler of professional services relationships.
Download the The Visible Firm Guide
And the most effective way to educate is through a consistent flow of thought leadership. By definition, thought leadership marketing makes your expertise highly visible to the public. Regardless of whether your experts are publishing on your blog, in other publications, on social media, or elsewhere, their association with your firm makes you more visible to potential leads. The depth of content required to build your profile as a high visibility expert means that potential buyers have the opportunity to learn a lot about your firm before making initial contact.
This level of visibility and expertise increases the trust and credibility of your firm. Think of it this way: there’s a reason that popular brands at a grocery store sell better than store brands, despite typically coming with a higher price tag. People trust what they know.
In your experience, what are some other ways of building business relationships in the professional services?
Additional Resources: 

• Understand your buyers. Win more business. Read the latest findings from Inside the Buyer’s Brain, Second Edition, the biggest study of professional services buyers to date. It’s free!
• Join Hinge University and take the in-depth courses and read the step-by-step How-Tos to take your brand to a new level of sophistication and engagement.

How Hinge Can Help:
Let Hinge help you create and implement a research-based strategy to increase your firm’s visibility and growth. Hinge’s Visible Firm^® Program is the leading marketing program for professional services firms that want to market themselves like industry leaders. Ask about it today!