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Time Management, Part 2
Yes, you can do more with the time you have. It's a matter of using time more efficiently. Each of us has our own style of working and needs to pick solutions that match our way of doing things. Here are some solutions from successful remodelers that you may want to utilize:
*Consider a four day (10 hour day) work week for the field. That will leave you with one extra day to do office/sales/ estimating/paperwork Many remodelers have found moving to this system an absolute joy in helping them solve their time problems because it allows you to focus without interruption.
*If you start a task, complete it within the same time block. Do you find yourself looking at a new prospective job and then trying to do the estimate two weeks later? You have trouble remembering the details of what the house even looked like . Or do you start an estimate one day and finish it a week later? It takes discipline but don't start it if you can't finish it right away.
*If you have others in your office in crowded space, isolate your desk so that you can't see or hear them most of the time. If your personnel are good enough to work for you, they are good enough to work without minute-by-minute supervision.
*Avoid procrastination. Make decisions after gathering a suitable amount of information on a particular problem or situation. Handle it promptly.
*Do your hardest work when you are at your best. For some people prime time is early morning -- for others prime time should be used for your toughest industrial-strength work. Use your poorest quality working time to catch up on reading, simple correspondence, ordinary phone calls.
*Insist that all meetings have an agenda and a specified start and stop time. Avoid cluttering your mind with information that can be stored and better organized elsewhere. Consider using a scheduling book with room for addresses, appointments, and lists of items to-do. Or find a good computer personal scheduling program and use it. Starting this habit can be difficult, but it soon becomes indispensable.
*Each day before you leave your desk, straighten it and create a prioritized list of to-dos for the next day.
*Try to handle work only once. That includes paperwork, a decision or an issue. Avoid reading the letter, considering it, and putting it aside to handle later.
*Establish A-B-C priorities for paperwork by sorting it into three piles on your desk . The A pile is the most urgent, handle it first. The B pile is less urgent and comes second in priority. The C pile probably will be trashed because it gets outdated. Save 30 minutes a day for 200 working days a year and you have found TWO extra weeks!
Excerpted from Mastering
the Business of Remodeling by Linda W. Case and Victoria Downing.
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Remodelers Advantage Inc.
535 Main Street, Suite 211
Laurel, MD 20707
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