Getting Stuff Done

Let’s Just Lighten Up!

It seems that most entrepreneurs and business owners just have, “Way too many things to do!”  But what ever happened to delegating?  Everyone has heard about the benefits of delegating, but making it a habit isn’t always easy.  Like most great things in life, delegation is something to practice; the more you practice, the more confident you will be in the process.

Delegating brings so many positives to your business – for one, you will learn more about your employees when you plan them into your work schedule and delegate.  Start by looking at everything you have to do over the coming weeks and decide what you can hand off.  What holds most people back here is fear that certain jobs won’t be done to your satisfaction and you’ll have to redo the task.  Start small and you and your employees will grow into the work that needs to be done.

Personally, I find delegation works best when I give clear directions with set time lines for completion.  This practice help employees understand your vision.  Train yourself and your employees to use a feedback system; this way setbacks are not surprises and successes can be recognized quickly.
When you delegate the tasks that don’t absolutely need to be done yourself, it will free up your time to land larger clients, network with more people, or work on business development. Remember, practice builds confidence!

What’s IRL, BFN and ROFL got to do with it?

With a maximum of 140 characters at your disposal, it’s a great idea to use shorthand.  It’s actually almost impossible not to!  The more you use Twitter, the more you’re going to want to find quicker ways to say things. At the beginning, it almost seems impossible to read some people’s tweets, but once you know terms, you’ll be addicted to using them as well!

Here are some of my favourites:

ABT = about
BFN = Bye for now
BOL = Best of Luck
BTW = By the way
G2G = Got to go
IDK = I don’t know
IMHO = In my humble opinion
IRL = In real life
OH = overheard
ROFL = Rolling on the floor laughing
TTYL = Talk to you later
TY = Thank you

Did I miss any?

First Ever YYJ Women’s Connections

Last night was the first ever Women’s Connections networking event in Victoria!  The night was very unique, held in the beautiful Madrona Art Gallery, as students from UVic and VIU came together to network with business women from the community.  There were four great speakers: Hedy Fry, Mary-Lynn Bellamy-Willms, Gail Stephens, and Hilary Smith.

Here are some of the best tid-bits of information I soaked up last night:

• Believe in yourself: “Sure Fred Astaire was great, but don’t forget Ginger Rogers did everything he did, but she did it backwards and in high heels!”
• Relationships are the core of great leadership: build relationships with clients and colleagues
• Be true to yourself, be the type of leader you strive for
• Network, network, network: the more people you know, the more opportunities there are to seize
• Communicate and deliver messages effectively
• Lead a life of continuous learning; this way, you’ll never grow old

To say the least, we all had a great time and met many fascinating women in the community.  Here’s a picture of four of the board members (Karina, Teresa, myself, and Lauren):

Upping the Productivity Level

As a small business owner, one of the most difficult tasks is setting aside all of the ‘busy work’ and concentrating on the bigger task at hand.  It’s so easy to waste time, procrastinate, and get distracted with everything going on.

When I started clocking my time, I decided to implement the following three tactics:

1. Define work hours.  When working any other job, you would take a break every 4 hours, so why not do it when self employed?  I’ve found I work so much better when I stop to take a quick walk around the block or make myself a cup of coffee.  Working from a home office, it’s easy to feel the guilt of needing to work all the time, so setting defined “work times” helps to create a work-life balance.

2. Start with the least enjoyable.  It’s easy to say “oh, I’ll get to that” or “ugh, I’ll do that later” about tasks you really don’t want to do, that’s why I start with those first thing in the morning.  I feel so satisfied when I finish tasks I’m dreading, feeling energized and excited to get on with the day.

3. Control the e-mail.  For many entrepreneurs, checking e-mail obsessively is the biggest time waster.  Think of all the different places you’re inundated by email: BlackBerry, iPhone, iPod, and most of all the computer.  I used to get e-mail forwarded to the mail application on my desktop with a loud “ping” when I received a new e-mail, which I checked each time I received a new e-mail.  I’ve moved my e-mail to be received on-line and set times during the day when I check and respond to e-mail.  I’d say that this task has cut down on the most time wasted during the day.

So, how are you improving your productivity? Any tips you want to share?