Everyone Has 1440 Minutes a Day!

Time is one of those things that cannot be expanded, but it can be better managed. Every one of us has 24 hours or 1440 minutes a day. Some business people are better managers of their time than others. Business people need to allocate the number of hours per day that they are prepared to spend at work and then prioritise how they are going to spend that time.Managers need to consider and balance:Technical Issues:

• Sales
• Client/customer work

Management Issues:

• Planning
• Controlling operations
• Administration
• Staff leadership
• Developing new products and services
• Training and development
• Conferences

So how do you better manage your time? Here are some ideas:

• Establish daily and weekly priority goals/to do list. Mark off the task when it is completed and periodically prepare a log sheet of the amount of time you have spent on various tasks
• Control the telephone. Do not allow it to control you. Perhaps you should have messages taken during the day and have very specific return telephone time allocations: one in the morning, the other in the afternoon
• Have a ‘quiet period’ each day so that you can use the ‘quality time’ to plan your business
• Consider and analyse those persons or tasks that cause you to waste time. Can you change your management style to overcome these time wasters? For example, it might be better if you visited someone else’s office or business premises rather than have them come to yours. The visitor can close the interview or meeting and basically leave
• All meetings should have an agenda and a time limit and you should start and finish on time
• At meetings, make sure someone takes minutes, distributes the minutes and follows these up at the next meeting. If this type of activity continues at all meetings it will speed up the meeting process

Management of time is essential if you wish to be successful in business. It involves planning, delegation and elimination of bad time wasting practices. Remember, everyone is allocated the same amount of time each day. How you spend it will have a significant impact on how you perform as a business person!This has been posted by Jason Lougher. Jason is a chartered accountant who moved back to the Bay of Plenty – his favourite part of the world – to work with small and medium enterprises. Jason’s passion is taxation and effective tax structuring, trust set up and intergenerational planning, Inland Revenue audits and tax disputes, and business development. Jason works closely with the other directors to combine their skill sets to achieve the best outcome for clients. Additionally Jason is on the NZICA Bay of Plenty Local Leadership Team and is a Business Mentor with Business Mentors New Zealand.Legacy Chartered Accountants has offices in Whakatane and Tauranga.