Prepare yourself for a shocking, yet true, statement: Most of your time and energy is consumed by things that don’t matter much, if at all. Some research suggests 49% of our time is used up on tasks unrelated to our goals – some says 21% of our time is wasted. Either way while we are busy and fill most, if not all of our waking hours, 21% - 49% could be invested more beneficially.

Let’s look at it another way: much less time, effort and energy actually go into the things that make your business and your life a success.

When you think about it like that, it makes you wonder why you don’t just stop doing what doesn’t matter and instead focus your attention on what does.

There’s an easy answer to this. It’s that busy-ness makes you feel like what you’re working on is important. It’s also why you can be busy all day, but still feel as though you haven’t accomplished anything by the end of it.

How do you get rid of the non-essential activities in your business? The first thing you must do is make a list of all that you do. You see, right now you’re spending a lot of time on everything under the sun. If you knew what didn’t matter, then you wouldn’t be doing it, right? So that must mean that you don’t know what it is; and that means that in order to identify what is and what isn’t essential, you have to have in front of you a list of everything that you do.

With such a list you can then ask yourself, “Of these things, which of themmust I do?”

Let us take two words apart, firstly MUST

The word “must” is in the imperative. It doesn’t mean “can”, which has to do with ability. No doubt you can do a lot of things; but you don’t have the time, which is why you feel overwhelmed. You’re trying to do the impossible.

The imperative is that which generates the greatest value, makes you the most money, raises customer satisfaction the most, lifts your team’s performance the most, reduces waste the most. The biggest bang for your buck – the biggest return on your investment of time.

Not the most urgent – not the thing with the shortest time frame – not the quick win – not the thing you enjoy the most – the must is ROI and ROI alone.

Now let us take the word “I” – I mean what only you have to do. Not what you can you. Not what which it is quicker for you to do. It means that which “only you” can do.  We could all delegate or out-source many of our tasks to another person, at a lower cost point than our time, to free us up. To do that you have to know the cost of your time. The price below which it is stupid for you to work, which is easy to do. Just take your salary and add 40%. That is your base cost. Now if you were investing £1,000 into a venture what would you want back? £1,000? No probably £3,000 - £4,000 or more to make it worthwhile. So what are you going to invest your most precious commodity (time) in?  A job someone else can do?  They would charge you £500 and for you to do it “costs” you £1,000?  I pray that is not the case…

So you have to limit what you do to the essential – that which you and only you have to do. And really there are only two categories: those things which you do better than anyone else, by which I mean you produce a bigger ROI for your business when you do it, and those things that you are legally required to do by virtue of the position you hold in your company.

That’s it.

It could well be that you already knew that, and so for you the problem is how to disentangle yourself from the endless phone calls, meetings, and questions that eat up your time and deplete your concentration.

There are three things that you need to do in order to make this happen. The first is that you must change your expectations. What that means is that you have to stop assuming that you can carry on as before and that the problems will somehow go away of their own accord.

Human beings tend towards optimism. In this country we think that if the sun is shining, that that alone will make the day better. It may boost our spirits, but it won’t change our circumstances. If we want to get the minutiae under control, then we have to do things differently.

The second thing that you need to do is to create a plan that enables people in your company to learn so that they can take the minutiae from your desk and put it on theirs. That is likely to mean providing training and development (T & D) for your employees. T & D is one of those things that companies spend money on if they have some and don’t know what else to do with it. Quite often it’s considered to be an unnecessary luxury. “We don’t want to give it to the tax man, so I guess we’ll send everyone on a course.” You can hear the grudge in their voice even as they say it.

If you want your staff to be able to relieve you of the burden of the minutiae, then you will have to train them how to do it. That doesn’t necessarily mean a course. Maybe you need to think about recruiting someone who can be your assistant. This could be part-time, or even as an outsourced expert – someone who works from home, perhaps, a virtual assistant. This solution may be less than ideal. Perhaps it’s something that you don’t want to do. If that’s the case, then go back and re-read the paragraph at the end of the first point.

The third thing is to discipline yourself to follow this plan. Planning is inherently easier than execution; but like intentions alone, they will get you nowhere that’s good if you don’t put them into practice.

In order for this to work, you may need to go away, probably to a place where there is no mobile phone coverage. That’s so that if your will-power fails, and you turn your phone on, it won’t do you any good, or harm, as the case may be. Make that list of things that you do. Identify what you must do. Decide what training and development you need your staff to have in order to relieve you of the burden of minutiae that perpetually crosses your desk, and then either make sure that people get it or recruit those who can deal with as much of it for you as possible. If you do that, then you’ll have the time and energy to work on your business again.

It will be a nice change.

To discuss these ideas further, contact us here.