You’ve got a bunch of letters or documents to write. Two hours later, when you should have been long done, you’re still writing. Or re-writing. Before you know it, your day is half gone and you’re behind schedule.
Sound familiar?
The problem is explained by “Parkinson’s Law,” which says that “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”
Give yourself an hour to catch up on correspondence and you’ll use that hour. Even though you could have finished in 30 minutes.
And therein lies the answer to getting more done in less time. Get in the habit of giving yourself less time than you think you’ll need.
Allocate 30 minutes for dictation instead of an hour. Give yourself one day to finish a brief that’s due in two weeks.
The more time you allocate to a task or project, the more complex it tends to become. When you have less time, you are forced to keep things as simple as possible.
When it comes to managing time, one of my weak spots has always been research. I often go down a lot of rabbit holes, spending hours and sometimes entire days trying to find what I need. The problem is I don’t always know what I need or I’m not always sure when I’ve found it.
That’s no way to run a business.
So now, I give myself a fixed amount of time. One hour of research, for example, because I can do a lot in one hour and if that’s all I have, that’s all I usually need.
If you want to start a blog or newsletter but are concerned it will take too much time from your other work, give yourself the amount of time you think you can allocate, and no more. The odds are that’s all the time you’ll need.
Yes, you do have time to get more referrals
