Sense, Statistics and Productivity… Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of my series about time and motions studies and how they can help you business. The first of these  can be read here

I said that I would break this down further into the different elements you need to look at and share examples of what I found in my business (and how I changed things) which I hope will inspire you to do your own review, making changes that will benefit you and your business.

Today I’m going to look at you, yes you. I know that’s sometimes it’s really easy to focus on everyone else – their needs and so on but it’s time to be selfish so when you’re doing your Time and Motion study made sure you do it from a selfish perspective because that’s the only way you’re going to be able to make changes that benefit you.

But first, another little tip for making the most of your study…

The small things all add to big things – although as you’re going through the process you might notice that certain tasks can save you 5 minutes or 10 minutes and it might not feel like a lot, when you add it all together you get much larger savings that ultimately will make a difference to your day.

So, two of the biggest questions you need to ask yourself when going through this process are:

·       Think about what you enjoy doing and what you put off – are there patterns to this with client or types of work?

·       Think about why you’re doing it – is it because it’s how you’ve always done it, is there a better way?

What you enjoy doing…

Let’s look at the first of these. Over 7 years into my business I can say – with absolute certainty – that the most important thing about being self-employed is loving what you do. It is hard enough getting motivated every day but when your income relies on you getting on and doing things it’s a huge priority. Motivation is easier when you’re passionate about what you do. It can be scary in the early days when you’re looking for clients and need the money to say yes to anything and I certainly wouldn’t blame you for that because I was exactly the same but use that time to find out about the things that don’t make you happy:

·       Perhaps there is a client whose way of working that clashes with your own

·       Maybe it’s a contract which is fundamentally opposed to your own code of behaviour or ethics

·       Maybe it’s a task that you get anxious about doing and leave to the last minute

Understand what these tasks/people/situations are and avoid them – when you’re going through the Time & Motion study think about areas of your business that fall into this category and think about how you can remove or minimise them because work you don’t enjoy takes more time that the things you are passionate about (plus adds extra anxiety you don’t need).

I did exactly that – I identified the things I didn’t enjoy that were being moved from one list to the next without any real progress and I talked to clients about removing these from my remit or I found 3rd party resource to support me with completing them. It’s already made a huge difference.

Why you’re doing it…

So, alongside the what you are doing you need to look at the why. If you’ve been running a business for a while, you’ll have a lot of tasks that you’ve been doing for a long time that you’ve always done a certain way and although it works there may be a better way to do things. There might also be tasks that you do because you think you’re being useful or helpful but actually they’re not being used at all.

For me, a great example of this was my invoicing. 7 years ago, I invoiced everything manually, creating pdfs for each client. I’ve done it that was every month for the whole time I’ve been running Spinning Plates and it’s relatively straight forward but as the business has grown but I’ve not changed how I do it and that has two knock-on effects: firstly, that it’s time consuming to do and secondly that it makes it a lot harder to reconcile with bank payment to check overdue accounts.

Have a think about your own tasks and those that have evolved over time as your business had changed or grown – are they still needed or are they done in the best possible way for you? I can guarantee you can find savings on time and energy if you do this.