When we are building a businesslife often becomes more and moreaboutstaying on track and staying ontime in our distraction packed world. This can be especially true when we are working alone in a home-based or direct marketing business without the luxury of having an on site assistant.There just are not enough hours in our work day to accommodate everyone and everything around us and still efficiently build our business.
Establishing Rules
When we work for ourselves, it may seem that those around us feel our time is limitless that we can somehow manifest more hours in the day than they can.After all, we are in charge of our own schedules and not bound by an employer's time clock. What can be especially troubling, however, are the sacrifices we find ourselves allowing to make up for lost work time.
We have to take responsibility for educating those around us.Likewise, we have to do what we can to quell the interruptions.
Time Termites
I often refer to these distractions as Time Termites.In other words, people and things that nibble away at our work time. We don't always know how dangerous termites can be until the damage is done. It is the same with Time Termites that may potentially harm your productivity.'
A few suggestions on how to best handle the Time Termites:
Hire a virtual assistant to screen telephone calls.
People generally prefer to hear a live voice on the other end of the call.Think a virtual assistant is too expensive?Look at it this way:For every fifteen minutes you spend on the phone, you have lost 25% of a productive hour you had available to work.
Shut the ringer off on your phone and send everything to voice mail
Yes, turn the ringer off. When we're truly working with focus, we cannot drop everything and chat. Change the voice mail message to let the caller know when you'll be returning calls.
This may help to alleviate those callers who telephone repeatedly hoping to catch you 'between things.'
Put an auto responder on your e-mail and create rules in your in box
Most of us have a tremendous number of e-mails to sift through and simply sorting and deleting these takes more time than most of us realize. Even scanning through 600 e-mails at a mere minute apiece is a great deal of time to sacrifice during a work day.
Lock your office door or otherwise establish that you are unavailable
A client of mine has a necktie that he places on his office door at home to let the family know that he is not to be disturbed."Daddy is working," is the message the tie conveys he says."I may not wear a tie to work, but my toddler understands that the tie on the door means business."
Kill the commercial radio
Having music in the background while you are working is one thing; it is quite another to have commercial radio stations interrupting your concentration and work flow.One of my clients insisted that he was not distracted by the radio, yet when I asked him what the latest five commercials were about, he fired off the answers without missing a beat.His productivity has increased immensely since he removed the radio from his office. Background noise is a Time Termite you may not consciously be aware of.
If we are to succeed in building our business, we obviously have to establish and enforce boundaries.This can be difficult, however, when those around us perceive that we are always available. Remember, the person ultimately responsible for you and for your business is you.
Hailed as a premiere Creativity and Wellness Instructor, Laura Garrison has been a business coach, consultant, artist and entrepreneur for many years. The focus of her core business is building referrals for businesses through networking. Please visit http://www.WorksofHearts.com for a free gift account and more information.
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