Time Management and Productivity Blog: November 2010

What Does Your Business Card Say About You?

Your business card says a lot about you long after you've handed it over. It needs to stand up against the hundreds of others that get handed out at every meeting, only to be tucked away in pockets and briefcases or piled up on the desk.

Image via Wikipedia

Does it look professional, provides the necessary information and reflect your business and your brand?

Does your email address match your website or are you using @btinternet, @yahoo, @hotmail or @gmail for your business email address?

Even if you don't have a website yet - you can still have a business email address that matches your company name - just register the domain and have a simple website landing page with your contact details and a little information about your business.

Are you easy to contact? While you may be reluctant to list your home address, the minimum contact information should include an email (business), phone numbers - landline and mobile. Your website (if you have one) and perhaps your social media ids - but don't try to cram too much in.

Don't make it difficult for people to contact you. I've seen business cards with only a website address ... and then the website doesn't have any contact information either. Or they've just listed a mobile number.

Make it clear and easy to read - don't make the text too small or use colours that are difficult to read e.g. light on light or silver on grey.

What's on the other side of your card? If it's Vistaprint - OK, we know they're cheap and free but pay a little extra for a more professional looking business card without the Ad. Use the reverse of the card to list your services or a special offer.

Many printers have great deals for quality, professionally produced business cards - 500 for £50.

Take a look at one's you've received and see which one's stand out and which don't.

M.A.D. Take Time To Make Time

"The greatest saving of all is better utilisation of our time. This directly affects practically every phase of the business in terms of expense and profits" Leo Burnett

Two of the things that people always want more of is Time and Money. If you save one, you could get more of the other, 'if' you use that saved time wisely.

When people are busy, rushed off their feet, too much to do, too many demands on their time - is exactly the time when they need to stop what they're doing and spend a little of that time planning.

Ironically, it's often when they feel they can't afford to stop what they're doing and just keep going. After all, every minute is precious and there's no point wasting it when they could be getting on 'doing'.

Well, it is - but more important is how you spend that time.

Are you focusing on the right things that are really going to make a difference for you?

Are you busy being busy with no real plan or purpose - just jumping in and going as quickly as you can through your to-do list?

Are you wasting time on lower priority activities that won't give you the results you need or are you simply just trying to do too much?

If you want more time - take time to make time. Get some perspective. A few minutes planning can actually make more time available, as you'll know what you're doing and why.

You'll be able to drop tasks as you realise they're not important or you'll know how to deal with them more effectively.

Not sure where to start? Try the free Time Audit.

November Competition - Free Book, Free Audit Session

This month I'm offering one lucky person a signed copy of Time Management For Dummies PLUS a one-hour Time Audit Feedback session - worth £75!

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is to download the FREE Time Audit, complete it and return it to me that's it.

BONUS: You'll also get free email feedback when you return your Audit.

The draw will be made on november 30th, don't delay, sign up today before you forget!

M.A.D. Less Waste, More Money

The UK is officially the biggest energy waster in Europe. Our worst habits are leaving mobile phone chargers, appliances (like the TV, DVD, HiFi) on standby and leaving lights on. 'Switching things off' could save up to £300 in a year.

Image by o5com via Flickr
Carry out a few energy saving tips and you could save 10-20% on the average utility bill. Especially as the weather gets colder and we're more likely to be using more anyway.

How much would that mean to a family of four ... with teenagers? All those mobile phones, TVs, DVD players, iPods, computers, laptops ....

What would 15-25% of your annual utility bills be worth to you? Here are a few ideas to save energy and money:

Don’t leave appliances on standby – switch them off! TVs, DVDs, video recorders. Save about £40 a year.
Unplug mobile phone and MP3 chargers – this could save enough electricity to power 115,000 homes.
Switch off the computer at the end of the day, switch off monitors, printers, scanners when not in use.
Change to energy efficient light bulbs and switch off lights when leaving a room.
Wash clothes at lower temperatures and save 40% less energy. Avoid using a tumble dryer.
Turn your thermostat down by 1C and save 10% on your heating bill.

See what you could you do this week to reduce your energy bills, save yourself money and reduce your impact on the environment.

Check your money habits with a free checklist and get hundreds of money saving tips.

What Does Your Email Address Say About You?

Or more importantly what does it say about your business. Yet again, I've returned from a couple of networking sessions and spotted business cards which have standard ISP email addresses.

What's more puzzling is that many of these businesses also have a website - also printed on their business card, yet their email address is for @btinternet, @yahoo or @gmail.

Now I can't think of many web-hosting companies that don't provide you with at last a handful of free email addresses with your website and it's a relatively easy process to set one or two up.

As long as your website is live or you've registered the domain name - go to the admin section or control panel on your website hosting (or ask your web designer to do this). There will be an option for 'manage email accounts' or some such. Create as many email accounts as you need info@, sales@ and enquiries@ 'name'@ are useful to start.

You might also want to set up a 'catchall' so that if someone sends an email to an invalid address it still gets through.

Even if you're not planning to use a website or it's not ready, as part of 'managing' your email accounts, you will also be able to 'redirect' them to another email address - useful if you have multiple accounts but want to manage them from one place.

You can set up accounts on your computer's email system to send from multiple accounts too. Check with your tech support if you're not too sure how to do this.

It looks so much more professional if you have your business branded email address.

November Newsletter: How To Deal With Life's Changes

"The only constant is change".

Change is something that affects all of us throughout our lives. In the current economic climate, many people are going through enforced change - either through redundancy, changing jobs, down-sizing or moving house. Loss of a loved one through death or divorce also results in a major life change.

Change can affect you in different ways and your ability to cope varies from the type of person you are, how strong you feel, what else is going on for you and your level of stress.

Read the rest of the article and get tips to help grow your business, in this month's newsletter, just click here to read it.

Register for the free monthly newsletter for free tips, advice, information and news on how to improve your time management for your business and personal life, direct to your inbox - www.clareevans.co.uk.

Smoking Breaks Are Good For You

While smoking might not be, the frequent breaks from work are.

Regular breaks during the day aren't just for smokers. Non-smokers also need to take breaks away from their desk, particularly if you spend much of your time seated in front of a computer. Productivity drops the longer you spend on a task, so more frequent breaks will actually increase your productivity.

Cary Cooper, a professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University says British workers work the longest hours in the EU, often in front of a computer, but are among the least productive.

However, Breckland Council in Norfolk have now made it compulsory for workers to clock in and out when they take a smoking break. William Nunn, leader of the council, says the move was initiated by the smokers.

"This all came about when staff contacted our HR team because they were confused about what the policy was on clocking out for smoking breaks. Some of the smokers were concerned because many of them, 54% it turned out, clocked out."

The average smoking break may last for 4-5 minutes and occur several times a day. According to research by www.onepoll.com, smokers take roughly an hour each day for their smoking break in four, 15-minute breaks a day. An earlier study in 2003 by Croner Consulting estimated this as three, 5-minute breaks.

Should regular breaks be part of good working practice or should employees be penalised for taking 'smoking' breaks from their work?

Getting The Most Out Of Twitter

Image via WikipediaI often hear people say they don't 'get' Twitter or don't see the point. How can you really expect to get business from it, it's just a waste of time?

Well as someone who's very aware of time-wasters, I know how it could become a complete waste of time - just as any other of the Social Media sites could ... if you let them.

The important thing is to know how and why you're using it and what you expect to get from it.

If you're using it for business then you need to know how you're going to use it and how to see if it's working for you.

Create your profile, include a bio with links to your website and add a picture or logo. Your Twitter profile is the first place people will look when they're connecting with you and deciding whether to follow you or not.

Twitter is a form of networking - it enables you to have conversations with your clients, contacts, prospects - albeit brief conversations but it's a good way for people to get to know you.
Tweet regularly. There's nothing worse than finding someone's profile and finding they haven't tweeted for weeks or even months. But then again - don't tweet too often. Some people seem able to churn out tweets at a rate of knots.
Don't use too much automation. Some automation is great and there are some great Twitter apps that will make life easier by feeding your tweets into various sites without having to duplicate effort.
@Reply and DM (direct message) people who respond to you. Connect with your followers.
Participate, share and pass it on. Re-tweet (RT) tweets that you find are useful or interesting. If you'd like a message re-tweeted - keep it to 120 characters to make it easier to RT without having to be edited first.
Keep it brief. Tweeting is a good discipline for keeping your message short and sweet. See just how much you can communicate in just 140 characters.

Regularly check what responses you're getting from Twitter - website traffic, enquiries, contacts, sales, customer service, increased visibility ...

A few minutes a day spent tweeting and responding should be all that's needed to establish and maintain your Twitter presence.

It's not for everyone but if you're online and using social media it should probably be part of your marketing strategy.

M.A.D. Less Is More

If you’ve got too much to do and not enough time in which to do it all, try doing less!

It’s all very well, trying to cram more into our busy lives and using our time more efficiently – after all that’s what I spend most of my time doing – helping people to use their time more effectively but it’s always worth taking that step back and actually letting some things go.

Some people have so much on their plate, it’s no wonder they never have a moment to themselves – numerous hobbies, activities, parental responsibilities, socialising, family commitments, charity work, PTA on top of working or running a business.

The most important thing, is to actually decide where and how you want to spend your time. In order to become really efficient with your time, you may actually need to start doing less.

Look at all the roles you fulfil in your life and where you spend your time. What are your priorities? Not just in your business but in your personal life - parent, partner, business owner, friend and family member.

Another way to do less – is to get someone else to do more. Know what it is that needs doing and then delegate part of your workload out to someone else.

If doing the accounts doesn’t rock your boat, get a book-keeper. If you don’t want to spend your precious free time on housework or in the garden, hire a cleaner or gardener – a couple of hours a week will make all the difference and will be well worth the outlay, leaving you more of your time to work on the part of the business that you really love or spend time with the people you care about.

Work smarter not harder.

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