Upfront: Time management begins with you

By Steve Noe

Ideal Computer Systems offered dealers an excellent free online educational series called “Best Strategies for a Lifetime of Profitability and Efficiency,” April 12-16.

The five-day series featured top OPE industry consultants — Bob Clements and Jeff Sheets of Bob Clements International, as well as Jim Yount of Jim Yount Success Dynamics — covering the following five topics on successive days: customer service, inventory management, service department, sales and marketing, and time management. Since I don’t have enough room to recap all five Webinars, I will highlight the time management Webinar, which was presented by Clements with Sheets moderating.

Clements divided time management into five categories: 1) Putting out fires; 2) Dealing with interruptions; 3) Doing planned tasks; 4) Working uninterrupted; and 5) Uninterrupted downtime.

A former history major, Clements said, “The past is the key to the future. Think back to yesterday and see how much of your time was spent in each category.” He then offered several excellent tips on how to manage each of the aforementioned categories effectively.

Create time management goals: The focus of time management is actually changing your behaviors, not changing time. A good place to start is by eliminating your personal time-wasters.

Implement a plan: You need to not only set specific goals, but track them over time to see whether or not you’re accomplishing them.

Use time management tools: The first step in physically managing your time is to know where it’s going now, and planning how you’re going to spend your time in the future. Tools give you the ability to measure. It’s all about measuring and managing. You can’t manage what you don’t measure, and you can’t measure what you don’t understand. Tools help you understand where your time is going and what’s happening with it.

Prioritize: If you have 20 tasks for a given day, how many of them do you truly need to accomplish? You should end each night or begin each morning by making a to-do list and then prioritizing those tasks.

Learn to delegate: For effective time management, you need to let other people carry some of the load. An owner’s job is to work on the business, not in the business. Don’t be your number one employee. You have to delegate.

Establish routines: While crises will arise, you’ll be much more productive if you can follow routines most of the time. Break firefighting habits by putting processes in place.

Set time limits for tasks: For example, reading and answering e-mail can consume your whole day if you let it. Instead, set a limit of one hour a day for this task and stick to it.

Be sure you are organized: Are you wasting a lot of time looking for information? Take the time to organize yourself and your departments. The more organized you are, the better you’re going to be at managing your time.

Don’t waste time waiting: While you are waiting (e.g. appointment at a doctor’s office), always bring something to do (e.g. marketing plan or balance sheet to review, blank pad of paper to plan your next day, or checkbook to balance).

Learn to say “yes” and “no:” Learn to make quick decisions and say “yes” or “no” — not “maybe” — to employees, customers and even vendors. No lengthy explanation is necessary. A simple “No, I can’t do that” is enough.

Unplug: Make yourself the manager of your technology rather than being managed by it.

Take time off: You can’t do it right now during busy season, but by July or August, as the season starts to wind down, take time off — get away from your dealership. If you don’t, you’re not running your business — your business is running you. After taking time off, you will return to work refreshed, more productive and more efficient.

Clements concluded the Webinar by stressing that you should implement these time management tips immediately. He recommended taking a look at the five time management categories, try to manage just one hour of time for five to 10 days, and then stretch that out to two hours a day, and so on. “With time management, you’re not managing time, you’re managing yourself,” he said. “To manage yourself, you have to change your behaviors over time basically, so you can achieve the goal you set.”

Sorry, but I must go now. Need to manage my time wisely to meet my next deadline!

OPE Editor Steve Noe
snoe@m2media360.com