Not everyone works with a vision. A lot of people do things just because it is customary. However, working with a vision in mind would help one know where they are exactly headed. It would also drive people to take action. And knowing how to make your time productive will eventually lead to better results. 

Patricia Stepler works with business owners and entrepreneurs to increase their revenue and save more time by taking inspired action instead of doing things without a goal. She joins the podcast to talk about how one could achieve results, specifically in learning to delegate important things to accomplish your goal.

Activity Management

We can't manage time, but we can figure out how to manage our activities. If you can group activities, set a certain amount of time, and then keep that in a block schedule. Because if you can set up a routine, it becomes a habit that you do them. You can start by doing the thing you don't want to do first. Because once you get out of the way, then you feel like a weight has been lifted. And it's also good to have times of the day where you don't take any interruptions because one of the worst things we have are these things that disrupt our thinking. Once you have a disruption like that, it can take 15 to 25 minutes to get back to where you were. And you end up wasting time during your day. So gripping activities is a great way to avoid that.

Block Schedule

There are a lot of techniques on block schedules. One could be blocking an hour of your time for a call with a client, a two for an email response, etc. However, as an entrepreneur, this might be difficult, and you'll end up wasting time instead of going back and forth. Others start by blocking out their morning to do the things that they need to do. Then set the afternoon to meet with other people. But you have to understand that this is also a mindset switch. Because everything you set yourself becomes your habits, it also means you have to do it regularly. You can create a list of activities you have to do and check them off through the day. Try also to check how is it working for you. If not, try to look for other ways to make it work. Like, organizing yourself or developing a system and avoiding things that will make you unproductive. 

Whiteboard Technique

Writing things on a piece of paper can be good if you don't lose them! So, another technique is jotting your task on a whiteboard. If you have a few minutes to spare in your day, you can look at your whiteboard. Or even find a task that maybe you can do in 15 or 20 minutes and get that wiped out. It's a good resource to remind you of things that need to be done at a time, which isn't a block time. Because what happens in trying to remember the things you have to do – will make you forget about it even more. So, it's another good technique to become more efficient with your time.

Unexpected Things 

Some days, something's going to happen, and it will interrupt your perfect schedule. One morning, you might find you have an errand to run. It was not a choice, so it interrupted your schedule. But as soon as you got back into your schedule, you kind of played little catch-up. And you have to allow yourself that! We don't live on this perfect day. So get back on task as quickly as you can.

And if you run out of time, generally look at the most important thing you need to do. Ask yourself, "What's the most important thing for me to do today that's going to make the biggest impact on my business?". And then start with that. And then if you can get some other things in great. Maybe you can work a little faster, or keep your phone calls shorter or something to make up for that time. But we also need to forgive ourselves for the things that happen along the day – the unexpected things.

Keep it short

When you're evaluating your day, and if you go an entire week and never get a day, you feel...