Many business owners find it challenging to keep their time fully usable and productive. Despite your efficient management systems, it is possible that there are a few things that cause you to waste so much time. In fact, regardless of your precautions, it is possible that your will eventually get interruptions. You should devise a good plan to address these time wasters:
- Family and friends: It is certain that family and friends are more important than your business, but it doesn’t mean that they can steal your productive time during office hours. The family should provide full support and agree to not cause disturbance, so you need to communicate well with them. There should be a clear schedule, so you can separate between family and business time. Things can be a bit challenging when dealing with friends, but if you are being upfront and clear about your situation, they should agree as well.
- Customers: Customers are king and you should serve them really well. But, there could be a few customers who waste too much of your time. You shouldn’t let one customer to cause you to ignore hundreds others. You should make sure that all customers get proper attention and if one customer takes too much time to manage, then you need to do something. A good way to do this is to allocate a fixed amount of time when dealing with clients. This will allow you to manage time more effectively. Again, you should inform the customer politely that there are other customers that you need to take care as well. To avoid complications, you should prepare solutions for likely problems associated with your products and services. This will increase your response time immensely.
- Employees: Managing employees can be quite difficult and they may cause constant interruptions. Disgruntled employees could cause disruptions and reduced productivity in your business. The management team should implement an open door policy, so all their concerns can be addressed immediately. During specific time, you must arrange an appointment with representations of the employees to discuss all internal issues. If these problems are detected early and addressed immediately, it is possible that your business operations will run much more smoothly. It is a good idea to invest in training programs for your employees. Although this may sound like time consuming, but employees can be more productive in the end.
- Internet and mobile devices: It is a common fact that digital distractions have caused significant productivity problems in many businesses. There should be a clear policy to limit the use of Internet during business hours. Employees should be given clear explanations that high productivity will be good for them. Any delay could cause added stress when deadline must be met immediately. It is a good idea to set daily goals for each employee to make sure that their level of productivity remains high. The Internet and mobile devices should be used only to boost productivity.