Cybercletch LLC » Time Saving Tips

Tuesday’s Time Saving Tip: Prioritizing Face Time

Pat — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:23:31 +0000

If you do any networking at all, you likely get many requests for face-to-face meetings over coffee or dinner. Meeting in person is most effective when you want to make a connection to understand how you can be mutually beneficial to each other. Granted, these meetings may be an opportunity for future business, but you need to ensure any time away from your office and clients isn’t affecting your existing income.

In corporate offices, where meetings occur in the same space, face time is efficient, but if you’re an entrepreneur working from a home office, it may not be. For workers, such as a Virtual Assistant who is paid for only the hours worked, meetings can be a major time suck with a negative impact on the company bottom line.

Be smart about your meetings. Before rushing out to meet someone, try to determine the value of that connection first.

Does it make sense to interrupt your work day and guaranteed income to meet with a person who may, or may not, positively impact your business? Spend a little research time on the phone with the contact to determine if the connection has immediate or long term benefits. If the benefits are unknown or long term, put the face-to-face meeting off until a time that won’t impact your profit. Get together during a slower work season, or when you’re in the same area. Keep in mind it’s not just the face time you spend away from the office, it’s also the travel time and money spent on gas and food that affect your bottom line.

If you explain your time is at a premium, but you’d like to have a quick telephone conversation to better understand their business, the contact will feel valued instead of discounted. Fifteen minutes on the phone is a far better use of your time and allows you to:

determine if your business is a good match for theirs
determine if their business is a good match for yours
recognize a referral you may be able to provide for their business
explain how they can recognize a good referral for your business

And you’ll have accomplished this with time to spare…

Photo Credit

Thinking Social Media? Start Here!

Pat — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:00:13 +0000

This is the BEST place to start your foray into social media. With one “submit” you can see if your chosen user name or vanity URL is available across all the social media platforms you plan to use. Keeping your user name consistent helps establish your brand and makes it easier for others to find you.

Tuesday’s Time Saving Tips: Know When to Hold ‘em

Pat — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:00:50 +0000

Kenny Rogers sang about knowing when to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em, when to walk away and when to run. The same advice can be applied to your business.

Business can get crazy and we begin to fall behind. It’s at that time we need to set aside a few minutes to take stock. Is there anything that can be temporarily put on the back burner? Perhaps long enough to come up with a solution? How necessary is that task? Evaluate the importance of an item against how busy you are in any given moment.

If you determine the task is absolutely necessary to the success of your business but you are having difficulty finding the time to complete it, perhaps you ought to consider some assistance. If you take the time to check your course of action with each hand you’re dealt, moving your business forward is less of a gamble and more of an investment – with far better odds.

Tuesday’s Time Saving Tips: Keyboard Shortcuts

Pat — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:43:15 +0000

If you’re like me and spend a lot of time at the keyboard, shortcuts can shave seconds off your work immediately, but have you thought about how much time they save over the long term?

Here are my favorite shortcuts because I use them several times a day:

Windows
CTRL C: Copy
CTRL X: Cut
CTRL V: Paste

Mac
Command C: Copy
Command X: Cut
Command V: Paste

Press the ctrl or command button and the c, x, or v when you want to copy, cut or paste any files, images, or text.

Tuesday’s Time Saving Tips: 6 Recommendations for More Effective Meetings

Pat — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:32:45 +0000

The work day is crazy. We book a meeting and all of a sudden the date and time is looming, and we’re not prepared. So much time is wasted in meetings!

Whether your meeting location is across the conference table, over the phone or on the web, here are some quick tips to make your meetings more effective:

Plan, plan, plan! Book the meeting and jot down your agenda ideas. Keep the document on your desktop so you can add to the points of discussion/consideration between scheduling and the meeting day. Planning includes determining whether a meeting is required in the first place; consider whether the same results can be achieved via email.
Send an agenda out to all participants 24 hours to a week ahead of time. Request their feedback in advance or ask them to be prepared to present their input during the meeting. Give/ask for a time frame to complete their presentation.
Create the schedule and final agenda prior to the start of the meeting.
Stick to the agenda and to the task at hand. There’s nothing more frustrating than late start because social time between participants delays it.
Keep attendees on task throughout meeting so the pace is maintained by ensuring all are actively participating.
Finish with an effective follow up plan. Be clear on who is responsible for what. Document decisions and email a summary to each attendee with necessary deadlines.

Following these 6 meeting recommendations will create more effective meetings while freeing time for you and your attendees to accomplish other important tasks.

The Need for Perfection Can Cost You Business

Pat — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:44:02 +0000

“Do not let the pursuit of perfection get in the way of progress.”

I had a client who wanted me to build a temporary three page site to use as a business calling card. It was temporary because she was planning to replace it with a larger site once she determined the content she wanted included.

This temporary site has never been published.

Why? Because it will never be perfect. The graphics and layout have been completely redesigned three times, the content has been rewritten several times as she’d find new ways of describing her business… and then she’d require new colors. The money she spent on this “temporary” site could have easily purchased her final site had she been able to determine what she wanted. I wonder how many clients she’s missed because of her inability to make a decision and move forward?

We’re raised to believe that mistakes are costly. Inaction costs us more.

“You cannot afford to wait for perfect conditions. Goal setting is often a matter of balancing timing against available resources. Opportunities are easily lost while waiting for perfect conditions.”
~Gary Ryan Blair

Photo Credit: jilles / CC BY 2.0

Tuesday’s Time Saving Tips: Think Delegation BEFORE You’re Buried

Pat — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:40:17 +0000

As an entrepreneur and business owner, you started out loving what you do. The job is exciting, you’re passionate about your work. Why else would you work so hard for such long periods of time?

Long term, you can’t maintain that initial start up pace or you’ll eventually face burnout. You’ll become tired and find yourself buried in tiny tasks required to accomplish the big picture. The tasks you’ll no longer enjoy doing.

If you let yourself get to this point, you’ll lose the passion for your business.

Consider delegating BEFORE you’re buried.

As you work on your business, contemplate the steps you’re performing and evaluate the following:

Do I enjoy doing this?
Is this task part of my skill set? Will I spend a lot of time learning how to complete this task rather than doing it?
Is this the best use of my time? Could I be earning more money or would I be happier and more efficient performing a different task?
If I don’t enjoy this task, how much time do I waste avoiding it?
What are the steps I perform so I could pass all or a portion of of this task onto someone else?
What type of skills would someone need to complete this task effectively?

If you evaluate your tasks before you’re desperate for help, you’ll be halfway to actual delegation. Too many of our clients come to us when they are overwhelmed and too busy to slow down to determine HOW they want us to help them.

You may even consider delegating smaller tasks BEFORE you actually require help. This way, when the need to delegate is critical, you’ve already tested and found a reliable assistant who is ready, willing and CAPABLE of delivering the results you expect.

And if you’re already buried? Call me, I’ve got a shovel.

Photo Credit: vernhart / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Tuesday’s Time Saving Tips: Plan Each Day for Success

Pat — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:33:55 +0000

“Plans are nothing; planning is everything.”
~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

Let’s face it, if you’re the person who can create lofty goals without breaking them down into smaller tasks to accomplish, you are in the minority.

Each day is a bite-sized piece of my larger plan.

Recently, you may have made some New Year’s resolutions. Or like me, you may have chosen not to. I make goals. Annual goals. Then I break them down into plate sized chunks and then again into bite-sized pieces. Depending on the type of goal, I may also start with bite-sized pieces until I build the plate and eventually meet the larger goal. Either way, it’s the daily achievement of the small pieces that creates the end result.

Daily goals, when realistically set, also stop those feelings of overwhelm that easily discredit your efforts.

The behaviorist in me knows those daily goals should be easily achievable in order for you to WANT to reproduce your efforts. You know what that means? Ensure successful completion!

My coaching partner at the Golden Apple Center for Inner Excellence suggested, “Pad your schedule for shit happens time.” It was some of the best advice I’ve received to date.

If creating a plan and failing to achieve those daily goals is frustrating, remember to pad your time for rush hour traffic, last minute deadlines or surprises. At the beginning of each day, prioritize your tasks and decide which ones can be shuffled to tomorrow’s list, if necessary.

Hold yourself accountable but give yourself a break when needed.

You will be far more productive if you include downtime, personal time and family time in your daily plan. They are important to your success and well being – make time for them!

Plan to succeed!

If you work your time management plan to ensure the achievement your daily goals, the success quickly builds to effectuate your long term goals.

Photo Credit: light_arted / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Tuesday’s Time Saving Tips: How a VA Can Free Up Your Time

Pat — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:47:45 +0000

This is the first installment in a Tuesday’s Time Saving Tips Series. The time saving tips will focus on ways you can become more productive, whether it’s through technology, business knowledge or office and home organization. They’ll be short and to the point – because that will save you time reading!

The first time saving tip should be obvious…

How Can a Virtual Assistant Free Up Your Time?

The ultimate purpose of hiring a virtual assistant is to free up your time for what’s truly important in your life. Here are the top five reasons my clients use my Virtual Assistant services:

They are able to focus on the part of their business that brings them joy and money.
They have more free time to spend with loved ones.
They spend less time trying to complete tasks that are not in their area of expertise.
They spend less time trying to find the right person to complete a particular task. If I can’t do it, I know someone who can.
I stay on top of technology and business trends so I can share the key information with my clients which keeps them on top of trends in their business.

Can you use a little more time?

Photo Credit: Leo Reynolds on Flickr / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0