Time Management III

We’ve been talking about the myth of time management and the not-so-mythical twin villains, Ima Timewaster and Busy B. Interruptus. It’s not time we must manage, remember, but our activities; and these girls are adept at tricking us into running down the clock with fruitless pursuits.


Alertness to their wicked ways is the first step toward thwarting their plans. Here are a three other tools:

Plan your attack.  In other words, prioritize.

If you’ve set short- and long-term goals, you’ve already begun. But it needs to be done on a micro-term basis as well. That is, daily. 

Set aside the first part of each morning for a fortifying round of planning, and let no one and nothing interrupt you. Reviewing your progress to date, set your daily agenda accordingly. Schedule your most demanding tasks for your most productive time—and you know better than anyone else when that is. Are you a morning person? Do you get a burst of energy at 3:00 pm? Does your brain function at peak efficiency between 10 and 11:30 am? Whenever you’re sharpest, that’s the best slot for your biggest challenges and creative endeavors.

Delegate. One of the unmanageable aspects of time is the fact that, no matter how you try, you can’t make it stretch. Work wisely with the hours you have, but don’t try to do the impossible. Sometimes, not everything will fit in your schedule.

Being your own boss is one thing, but you don’t need to be your own secretary, accountant, publicist, and customer service department as well. What’s your particular area of expertise? Why did you establish this business? Probably it had something to do with something you love, something that no one else can do like you. If that’s the basis of your company, then that’s likely the work you should be focusing on—it gives you the best return on your investment.

Is your day filled with drudge tasks, necessary duties that detract from your main purpose, or mundane things that others might be more efficient at than you? Those are the tasks you should outsource. Yes, you’ll have to pay someone to do them; but it will free you to pursue the real money-making operation of your business. For financial as well as emotional purposes, delegating makes good, practical sense.

Be consistent. Nobody likes to feel stuck in a rut, but it’s good to establish a routine. Most of us go to bed and get up about the same time each day and take our meals on a fairly regular schedule; it’s good for our minds and our bodies. Similarly, it’s good for our business to establish a routine and to stick with it. Put systems in place and keep them running smoothly.

You’ll be more productive on a daily basis and will be able to get through crises with a minimum of panic.

Putting these three concepts into practice can send Ima Timewaster and her Busy B. sister out into the cold, looking for someone else’s time to disrupt. Don’t bother to wave goodbye; just say good riddance!

Time Management II

Last time, we cautioned you to beware that sneaky co-worker, Ima Timewaster.

Today, let’s identify her twin, Busy B. Interruptus. This engaging person is often thought to be one of the good guys. But despite her innocent appearance, she’s a serious threat to productivity. She’s always flitting here and there, never resting—but somehow, never accomplishing anything.

What’s your defense? Stop her with your trusty weapon, Goals. Set your sights on where you want to be by lunch, by the end of the week, or next quarter. Then, once embarked, stay the course despite Busy buzzing in your ear. Having reached that destination, proceed to your goal on the next horizon. 

A number of tools are available to help you with this. These can be anything from stone-age calendars and lists to specialized software. Many can be web based or accessed by smart phone and can also be tailored to fit your specific needs. Some of the top names: Replicon, BillQuick, Harvest, and ClickTime. Investigate the time-management possibilities and choose the one that best fits your situation and work style.

So, do you know where you’re headed? Plot your course, take off, and don’t let the Timewaster Twins waylay you.

That’s not all the tips we have, but you’ve got enough to chew on for now. We’ll pass out more next time. In the meantime, we wish you happy travels!

Time Management

Do you realize “time management” is a misnomer? It’s a myth. Time is inflexible; it moves inexorably at its own speed no matter what we do. Though we can’t force time to work for us, it is possible to take control of our work and arrange it to fit the time frame available.

This is especially important for business owners, who often fill multiple job descriptions in a typical day. If you feel frenzied but never seem to accomplish anything, what you need is not more time, but better organization. Realizing the problem is with your habits rather than the clock is the first step toward taking charge of your work day.

Grasp this concept, and you’re armed and ready to search out your archenemy, the sneaky Ima Timewaster. Whispering lies in your ear (It’ll only take a moment or Let me just check one thing), this thief steals your productivity. Track your daily activities and train yourself to recognize her subtle disguises wherever she lurks. These can be such innocent activities as emailing, surfing the net in the guise of “research,” personal phone calls, or repetitive tasks that can and should be automated.

What do you do when you spot her? Sometimes the little trickster will dart from one hiding place to another. The best strategy for rooting her out is to clear away the underbrush, one shrub at a time. Make a conscious effort, for instance, to make no personal phone calls at work this week; while you’re at it, limit time-sucking chit-chat in business calls and stick to the business at hand. Next week, just say “no” to your favorite computer game, or make wise use of the TV remote’s “Off” button.

Happy hunting. In our next post, we’ll share a few more goodies from our bag of tricks. 

Our Gift to You This Holiday Season

Holiday stress got you frazzled? Here’s a gift for you.

When faced with the pressures of life, emotional turmoil is only one aspect of the problem. Hormones like adrenaline and cortisol accelerate the heart rate, tense major muscle groups, and can even thicken the blood. All that can be beneficial as a short-term thing, when you need that “fight or flight” edge adrenaline is famous for. But bathing in those hormones over an extended period can cause cardiovascular disease and other illnesses. Prolonged stress is simply unhealthy.

What’s the solution? Quit your job, leave your family, and live on an island paradise? We don’t advise it. Sometimes, attempts to get away from it all merely create a new set of stressors. As long as we’re alive, we’ll have problems to deal with. The trick isn’t escaping the drama, but knowing how to deal with it.

Our gift to you this holiday season is a three-pronged key to reducing the damaging effects of stress in your life.

1) Find your stress buttons.

Usually we think of this in broad terms. For instance, many people will tell you that money is a major stress trigger.  But that’s too vague. What is it, specifically, about money that troubles you? Do you have too much month at the end of the paycheck? Does mounting debt make you suffocate? Are your accounts in such disarray you don’t even know where you stand? 

Whether the trigger is financial, familial, job-related, or otherwise, once you isolate it, you’re better equipped to meet it head-on. If you’re not sure how, don’t be afraid to enlist the help of an advisor, be it a financial planner, a family counselor, or a professional organizer. That’s what they’re there for!

2) Slay the dragon of self-defeat.

Once you grab the bull by the horns, you might find the critter has some unexpected allies. Interruptions, unplanned expenses, illnesses or injuries, car breakdowns, or sewer back-ups are just a few of the things that can make you lose your grip. When sewage happens, your mental response is vital to staying above it.

In these tense situations, beware of the “woe-is-me” attitude that casts you as a helpless damsel in distress. For example, instead of thinking This could only happen to me! or I don’t have time for this, see yourself as a stalwart knight who’s up for any challenge. This is unexpected, but I can manage it or I can adjust my schedule and it’ll work out fine.

3) Know when to take a breather.

Some days, no matter what your attitude, everything seems to go wrong. At such times, the best option can be simply to take a break. Separate yourself temporarily from the stressors to whatever degree is practical. The distraction can give you a chance to regroup, think more clearly, and ease the flow of stress hormones surging through your system.

Phone a friend who always makes you laugh. Work a brain-teaser, or write a poem. A longer-term solution might involve exercise. Take a brisk walk, go to the gym, or enroll in yoga classes. Get out and play in the sun. These activities relieve stress and also fire up the brain’s reward center. People who exercise regularly show greater self-confidence during stressful situations and are calmer in general than those who neglect physical activity.

Life happens; there's nothing we can do about that. Our wish is that this gift can help you take charge of your life in the coming year.

A Parable

Your philosophy professor sometimes uses visual aids to explain a concept.

Today, he stands before the class, an empty gallon jar on the podium beside him. It reminds you of a store your grandmother used to take you to sometimes, where they sold pickles in bulk. Your mouth waters at the memory of biting into that sour, juicy cucumber.

As you wonder what’s up with the pickle jar, he opens a box of golf balls and places them, one by one, into the jar until it can hold no more. He looks up at the class. “Is the jar full?”

Of course it is; anyone with eyes can see that. “Yes,” you all say, though personally, you’d like a pickle.

He nods, then sets the box down and grabs another from behind his desk. This one is filled with pea gravel, which he pours over the golf balls. He stops two or three times to shake the jar to allow the pebbles to filter down, but he keeps pouring until all the spaces are filled with gravel.

He looks up again. “Is the jar full now?”

You and your classmates glance at one another sheepishly; you’d all thought the jar was full before! He’s right, though; it wasn’t then, but now it is. “Yes,” you all say.

He nods and picks up yet another box. When he tips it over the jar, you see he’s now adding sand. Which, of course, fills in all the tiny spaces between the gravel. Clever.

You all anticipate his question this time. Almost before he asks, “Is the jar full now?” you answer, “Yes.” Because now, of course, it surely is.

But your professor’s not finished yet. He takes the Styrofoam cup from which he’d been periodically sipping and pours the coffee into the jar on top of everything else. When it’s all trickled to the bottom, he pulls another cup from behind the podium and empties it in, too.

You all laugh. It was a neat trick.

The professor scans the room, meeting each student’s eye. “Anyone care to tell me what lesson this illustrates?”

The student in front of you, who happens to be on the golf team, raises her hand. “Even when you hit a lot of balls into the bunker, there’s still room for coffee?”

You all laugh again, including the professor. But he shakes his head. “Though that’s true, it’s not my point.” He lays his hand on the jar. “This is your life. The golf balls are the things that you hold most dear, whatever that may be. Golf, for some—“ he gestures toward the student in front of you. “And for others, God, family, friends, whatever your passion. The things that you value so much that if everything else were lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.”

You nod. That makes sense.

“The pebbles represent other things that matter, like your job, house, and car. Without them, your life would have big gaps. The sand is everything else. The small stuff. Things that might be good or fun, but if they didn’t exist, you’d be none the emptier.”

He picks up the box that had contained the sand. It was still more than half full. “If I’d put the sand into the jar first, I’d have had no space for anything else. No gravel. No golf balls. Same thing is true of your life. Spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, and you’ll have no room for the important things.”

It sinks into your mind like sand filtering down through the pebbles.

“Now,” says the professor, “who would like to articulate today’s lesson?”

The golfer raises her hand. “Where life’s priorities are concerned, golf comes first.”

You all laugh again, but the professor sobers quickly. “If that’s your passion, you can make that choice. But for the rest of us, it would look a little different. The lesson is this: we must first fill our lives with the things that are most critical. Our family, our health, our faith. There will be time for the other necessary things, like doing the laundry or changing the oil. But give priority to your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

You rub your jaw. Yes, it all makes sense. But you have a question, so you raise your hand.

“I get that,” you say. “But what’s with the coffee?”

The professor smiles. “Glad you asked.” He picks up one of the empty cups. “No matter how full your life is, there’s always room for coffee with a friend.”

Makin' a List, Checkin' It Twice

The winter holiday season is fast upon us, for better or for worse. But before we make our gift (or Grinch) lists, we business owners have another important matter to attend to: collecting documentation for our visit with our CPA.

You have made an appointment, haven’t you? And you’ve scheduled it for well before the end of the year? Because it’s important to discuss your situation now, so you’ll know if you should do anything to reduce your tax burden (such as buying equipment or funding a retirement account) before December 31.

Let's say your appointment is set for just after Thanksgiving. What will you need to take with you? That depends on your individual circumstances. The following list isn’t comprehensive, but it’s a good start:

o   Your most current business Profit & Loss  and Balance Sheets.

o   Estimates of your expected income/expenses to complete the year.

o   Anticipated Schedule K-1s from other companies you may have an ownership in, and W-2s from other companies you may be receiving income from.

o   Anticipated cash balance at the end of the year. As mentioned above, you may need to go ahead and purchase now those large items you have planned for the future, in order to reduce your 2012 tax liability.

Note to business owners with inventory: Don’t take your computer’s word for it that you have X number of items A, B, and C. Take a physical year-end inventory to monitor “shrinkage” caused by theft (whether external or internal), breakage, or whatever. We'll will need accurate information to prepare your Business Personal Property Tax return.

Finally, don't forget to make a list of questions and issues to discuss with your CPA, like: 

o   Any “life change” you have experienced in 2012 – marriage, divorce, new baby, adoption, new dependent, etc. 

o   If you’ve sold your home, bought a home, made investment gains or suffered losses, made new investments in a partnership or company… just to mention a few.

o   Questions about how upcoming changes in tax law will affect you, such as those associated with Obama-Care.

o   If you’re approaching retirement, you might discuss whether to take Social Security as soon as you’re eligible or if it would be more beneficial to wait.

Once you’ve made your appointment, created your list, and located the pertinent documents, you’ll be able to relax, kick back, and 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

On Not Being a Turkey This Season

November. The word evokes a variety of images: Turning back the clocks. Bare tree limbs chattering in chill winds. The warm glow of a stuffed turkey on the table with the family gathered round. Gorging on feasts of college football. Organizing your financial records.

Say what? You mean that last isn’t part of your typical November? Maybe it should be; tax season’s just around the corner, you know.

Whether that groan was in response to what I just said or from overeating, buck up and get moving. Much like the mess in the kitchen, bookkeeping responsibilities don’t go away if you ignore them. Let them sit too long and strange, fuzzy things can creep out of them.

But this strikes no fear into your heart because you’re already on top of things, right? A place for everything and everything in its place, color-coded, arranged newest-to-oldest, clearly labeled, and bound.  Kudos! We love our OCD friends.

For the more relaxed of us, though, there’s still time. We don’t really gain an hour with the passing of Daylight Savings; those sixty minutes merely shift to another part of the clock. Let’s put them to use for something other than sleeping. You’ll be glad you did when you pull up your tax forms and have to decide what numbers to put in the boxes.

Better yet: if you set up a simple system this year for keeping organized in the future, you might be able to actually sleep that extra hour next November.

When gathering your yearly records, do you scrounge around the kitchen, laundry room, and den searching for errant papers? Once you find them, see where they’ve tended to congregate. That’s where you should put a meeting place for them—a box, a large envelope, or whatever works best. Keep it accessible and use it daily, and organization will be easier in subsequent years.

But when choosing the right depository for your records, bypass the bushel basket; there’s no need to keep every scrap of paper that crosses your palm. How can you know what’s important? For a starting place, get out last year’s tax return and see what you needed to prepare it. Then add documentation for any new real estate transactions, inheritances, investments, losses, etc.

To make things even simpler, separate your business records from personal, if applicable. For a home-based business, some of these might be the same, such as if you claim a portion of your real estate and utilities as business expenses. In our next post, we’ll discuss tax planning with your CPA before the end of the year so there are no surprises! Call and make an appointment now for December.

Oh, yeah, one more thing: while you’re at it, don’t forget to organize your electronic files too. Sure, the computer has a handy search feature, but that’s only for emergencies. It’s more efficient to be able to put your cursor on what you want the first time.

Wise decisions concerning time investments are as important as financial ones. With the days growing shorter before tax season descends, let’s take both seriously. You’ll be thankful you did.