Forum Moderators: phranque
What do you do to get more room for growth?
The key to releasing more productive time that's currently tied up is to streamline your processes (or create processes if you don't have any at the moment); if you can make your regular tasks & processes take up less time you should then be able to regain a fair amount of time.
Start by making a list of what you do on a day-to-day basis as well as anything which tends to eat into your time.
Once that's done look at each task and ask yourself if there is any way you could improve it, iron out faults or just make it run faster without losing quality. Even simple changes can make a big difference.
Sometimes when you're jumping through hoops to meet deadlines because of your workload you simply dont have time to change your expanded-over-time processes. Do whatever it takes to make some free time so you don't get trapped in a catch 22 situation.
Next look for tasks that are regular yet simple enough to automate. This might be as simple as learning more about the packages you use, or maybe learning about batch files.
This helps because instead of forcing you to be there to start a "dumb" or non-interactive process and watch a progress bar as it works, you can attach it to a schedule and have it ready for when *you* need it.
When used well automation makes an priceless contribution to allowing you to manage your own schedule instead of allowing your schedule to manage you!
Last but not least, if you honestly can't release time from existing processes then you might want to consider delegating some of the work if possible so you can focus on growing your business rather than getting tied up with lots of small routine tasks.
- Tony
