Many years ago, I created my show, Today’s Business Leaders, where I do long-form interviews with entrepreneurs.
And my first guest was Lisa Malice.
Who, aside from being a good friend, is a strategic time and organizational coach.
(One of the best, in my opinion.)
I’ve worked with her on multiple occasions, but the first time, she reminded me of something that everyone knows but seems to forget.
We all have the same time in the week.
Seven days…
168 hours…
That’s all…
After that reminder, she gave me an exercise to do— a time study.
All you have to do is take a piece of paper and log what you’re doing every 15 minutes for at least two weeks.
For instance, if you’re checking emails or in a meeting…
Slap it on the paper.
When I first did the time study, it painted a stunningly clear picture of what I did each week.
And from that picture, two huge advantages came.
1. I could see the tasks I should delegate because it’s no longer efficient for me to complete them.
2. I had a complete layout of my daily tasks ready in case someone needed to fill my shoes for a day or two.
So I continued to do it on my own every now and then.
Until…
I joined Alex Charfen’s program, Simple Operations.
And that’s when I realized that I had done something wrong.
Instead of doing the time study by myself and letting that be the end of it, I should’ve rolled the exercise out to my team.
That way, we could all share the advantages.
When I realized that, thanks to Alex, I quickly had each team member at Business Marketing Engine do a 2-week time study.
And instantly, I could see those same advantages I experienced show themselves on a bigger scale.
Whenever a team member got overwhelmed, we could help them delegate.
And whenever someone went on vacation, we didn’t have to panic— we knew how to complete their tasks.
But it went beyond those things.
There was an added advantage.
The time studies allowed each team member to understand what they were spending time on and see where they could improve their routine.
That made their work lives smoother and BME all the better.
So I’m going to end this email with a small suggestion…
Actually…
Nope.
This is a big suggestion.
Do a time study, and implement the habit into your team.
If you do it and discover some space in your life for the most effective marketing around, book a call with me and my team.
Speak soon.
To your success,
Gabe.