“Time = life;
therefore, waste your time and waste of your life,
or master your time and master your life.”
– Alan Lakein
In order to manage your time effectively you need to know what tasks you actually do and figure out which things are not productive — the Time Suckers. If you don’t know what are the time suckers they can do more than steal your time, they can affect both your health and that of your business.
I’ve mentioned one time sucker before, procrastination, but here’s a twist on that old demon. Procrastination isn’t all bad. How can that be? Consider this, if you’re facing a task in your MLM business that you tend to procrastinate about doing its an indicator that this is a task that you should consider outsourcing, delegating, or automating. Now if you’re procrastinating on a task that directly generates money then you do have an issue — perhaps your chrematophobic. Regardless of why you, and your business, suffer from your procrastination, time management will banish it.
Another time sucking demon is perfectionism. While sometimes perfectionism is a form of procrastination where you keep trying to make something better instead of just using it as is. Now perfectionism again like procrastination isn’t all bad. Of course you should put your best foot forward in all aspects of your business but you have to strike a balance. Work your hardest on those tasks you choose to do and accept that you’ve done your best instead of trying to perfect it… nothing is ever perfect.
Being a “Yes” man is another time sucker. Yes you have an MLM business which means you are the chief cook and bottle-washer but you can’t do everything and you shouldn’t try to. If you do you risk burn-out and your health will suffer, as will your happiness and your business. Remember its ok to say NO sometimes. If you don’t have the time for something and it doesn’t directly affect your business income then feel free to say no.
Now these last three time suckers are related to all tasks of your business but there are some tasks that are in and of themselves time suckers. For example:
- phone calls
- reading blogs
- social networking
- planning
- learning (about new products, ideas, etc)
- house hold chores
- relationships
Now my wife would say all of these are important as she is a part of my MLM business but I would suggest that house hold chores aren’t quite as important as the rest. So what do you do about time-sucking, yet important, activities?
- Prioritize — assign each task a level of importance
- Schedule — determine when you will do each activity each day, don’t let the task control your time.
If you prioritize and schedule you will turn time-suckers back into tasks to be done.
What are your time suckers?
“A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life.”
– Charles Darwin
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