FrontLine Results : Business Coaching

A Matter of Timing

LouiseBJ — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:21:17 +0000

Regular readers of this blog and my newsletter will know how I love using an old fashioned kitchen timer to boost productivity! Over the past couple of weeks I found a couple of timer tools online and tried them out for size.

The first is Slim Timer, which is web-based and works with Firefox, Internet Explorer 6+ and Safari. The second is Paymo, for which you need to download some software and it displays a widget on your computer screen from start-up. Both tools also have paid versions with more features, I used the free version.

Before starting to use these tools, you first need to spend a few minutes setting up the different activities you want to track. Whereas Slim Timer uses a very simple list, activities on Paymo can be further sub-divided into projects and again into clients; there was also an invoicing facility which would be useful if you have to submit timesheets and charge for your time.

As far as using the tools, it's a case of selecting the appropriate activity and starting the timer with a mouse click. When you want to stop timing, you just click on 'Stop'. I liked that with Slim Timer it's possible to stop timing one task and start timing another with a single click of the mouse. Paymo takes a few more clicks when you wanted to change over as you have to stop, select project, select activity, then click to Start. Both timers run in the background, ie they're not visible on screen until you want to see them. Paymo has an annoying pop-up message if it doesn't detect any computer activity for a few minutes - it made me feel guilty if I wasn't typing all the time!

If you forget to start timing an activity or want to include time spent out of the office in a meeting, both tools are easy to edit.

Slim Timer's reports are very readable - giving me both weekly totals and daily breakdown. Paymo's colourful graphs looked impressive but the more detailed reports lumped everything together for the week which I found less useful for my purposes and not so easy to interpret.

My (very non-scientific) trial was undertaken to find out what activities I'm spending most of my time on. For that purpose Slim Timer was perfectly adequate and marginally easier to use, even if it's more 'basic' in appearance. If I were tracking lots of projects for different clients, then Paymo would have the edge in terms of extra features.

Have you tried out any online timers lately? I'd love to know!

A 'Short & Sweet' Start to the Week

LouiseBJ — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:37:49 +0000

This week is going to be a busy and exciting one for me - that is to say, even busier than usual. I'm putting the finishing touches on a couple of talks for next week, planning a 'Special' radio show (details later this week!), as well as starting work with a new Mastermind group, which I'm really looking forward to. It'll be great to be a participant this time, rather than the organiser!

As we both know, there are a finite number of hours in each day, which means that something has to go (or be put on hold) to make room for the extra tasks.

So, much as I love spending time writing these blog posts, this week they're going to be a little shorter than usual.....

What have you had to give up lately to make room for something exciting?

New Ideas need New Thinking

LouiseBJ — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:26:00 +0000

As Einstein famously said, you can't solve a problem with the same thinking that caused it in the first place!

So why do we think we can come up with new ideas for our business when we keep doing the same things or mixing with the same people.

Even those of us with notebooks full of ideas need to revisit them to see if they really are 'new'.

Now that it's so much easier to find out what the latest trends are, what the thought-leaders are thinking it can be easy to be swept along the same path as everyone else. To become a 'me-too'.

Original thoughts and ideas are much harder to come by, and all the more precious for that very reason. And if it's true that there is nothing really new in this world, then coming up with a new twist to apply to an existing idea is maybe a better place to start.

Let's take a common problem facing small businesses - that of charging what their product or service is worth - and not discounting!

Rather than only listening to what fellow business owners within your networking circle might say, how about getting a different opinion from, perhaps a

Dentist
Musician
Farmer
Barrister

These people may not know anything about your business, but they will be able to tell you about charging for your product or service - from their viewpoint.

How do you come up with new ideas for your business?

Do you have the attention span of a butterfly?

LouiseBJ — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:10:00 +0000

Just as butterflies in nature flit from flower to flower, landing briefly and then moving on, butterfly business owners can’t seem to stay focused on any one topic long enough to make significant changes.

Yes, it’s the sign of a true entrepreneur to have lots of new ideas and want to pursue them. But, if those new ideas are stopping you from actually making progress – and more importantly - money in your business, because you aren’t seeing projects through to completion (or moving quickly enough), then something needs to change.

Let’s take a look at some ways you can be more focused:

Use a timer and work in short bursts of 15 or 20 minutes. During that time focus on just one task and get as much done as you can. When the buzzer goes, take a short break. Repeat as often as necessary. You’ll amaze yourself at how much you get done.

Keep a little notebook handy at all times. Use it to jot down ideas as they occur to you and capture them before they escape! One reason for a butterfly attention span is carrying too many ideas around in your head. Writing them down will free you up to concentrate on the job in hand.

If your project hasn’t got a deadline, set one anyway. Without deadlines, you’ll find yourself starting lots of projects and then letting them drift as something more urgent comes along.

Break big projects down into small action steps. It can be hard to stay focused when the overall project is too big. Work out a timeline for each step that needs to be done.

Only work on 3 projects at a time. Spreading your attention too thinly between a myriad of projects will mean that none get finished quickly. Focus on just 3 at any one time and you’ll build up an unstoppable head of steam! And, as soon as one project is complete, you can take another from your list to replace it.

The beauty of staying focused is that you will get more done in your business and make progress faster. So work with full concentration on the projects that count - and leave the butterflies to nature.

When everything seems equally important

LouiseBJ — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:09:03 +0000

I’ve found asking myself the following questions to be a good way to help with prioritising when everything seems to be equally important.

Question 1 – Do all my projects fall into one of the following categories?

Work for current clients
Marketing for new clients
Moving the business forward

Only projects that do should be considered a priority. The others can wait a while.

Question 2 – Is what I’m doing right now the best use of time?

This is a great question to ask periodically during the day. One side effect of having many projects and not being sure what to do first is that you can end up doing ‘busy work’ that doesn’t actually move anything forward. If your answer to this question is ‘no’, then stop doing whatever you’re doing and do something that is the best use of your time.

Question 3 – Is what I’m doing right now making me money or going to make me money soon?

An even better reality check question that should really help you prioritise your projects. If you’re ever unsure what you should work on next, check how quickly you’ll get a return on the time you spend :)

What questions do you ask to help you prioritise?