Maybe your mother can do five things at once, but multitasking is not always the best advice for the Internet marketer. Think about it: if you’re doing five things at once, which one is receiving your full attention? It’s far better, most of the time, to focus on one thing at a time, do it well, and then move on to the next item on your list.
Keep Business Calls a Priority
While you can probably get away with stirring the soup and throwing the clothes in the dryer when you’re on the phone with your sister, multitasking while you’re on the phone can be a huge turn-off to clients and customers and could cost you their business. I don’t know about you, but I can usually tell if the person on the other end of the phone is doing something else and I find it highly annoying. Time management doesn’t mean saving time when you’re losing customers.
Focus! Focus! Focus!
Even when you’re alone, it’s important to focus on the task at hand. While you may like to work with the television on, it can be a huge timewaster and your productivity can suffer as well. Now, that’s not to say that all multitasking is evil; there’s nothing wrong with folding the laundry while you watch television in your off hours, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with doing absolutely nothing while you relax and watch TV either. In fact, you’re likely to enjoy your off time even more if you will let yourself be totally off during leisure time without trying to accomplish something every minute.
Quality vs. Quantity
While you may indeed get more done when you’re multitasking, don’t neglect the importance of quality. Clients who insist on quality work and products will only patronize Internet marketers who are able to consistently provide quality work and products. Remember, too, that word of mouth travels even faster online than it does offline and no matter how fast you produce, if you get a reputation for shoddy quality, you’ll find that reputation almost impossible to lose. Quality should never suffer for the sake of time management, but rather, effective time management should allow you to produce quality work each and every time. Save the multitasking for when you are watching television, listening to music, or leave it out altogether and enjoy quality time when you’re relaxing as well.
One of the first things financial experts tell those with money problems is to write down every single dime they spend for a period of about 30 days. This is often used as an eye-opening exercise so people can see where their money is really going so they can know where they need to make adjustments or control their spending. In the same way, keeping a time management diary can be a valuable tool to help you to see where the bulk of your time is being spent. If you are constantly being interrupted by phone calls or find yourself surfing the net when you should be working, a time management diary can help you to pinpoint areas where you might need to make adjustments.
Other ways a Time Management Diary can Benefit Your Business
When you start keeping a time management diary, don’t just note that you are working at certain times but rather write down exactly what kind of work you are doing. You don’t have to get detailed here, just jot down a few words. For example, are you conducting research, responding to customer questions or complaints, filling orders, updating your site, or what? Tracking the amount of time you spend on each work activity, at least at first, will help you to see where you are spending the bulk of your time and where you might need to make adjustments.
Be Honest!
The time management diary is for your eyes only so be honest! Write down the time you spend surfing, playing video or online games, emailing friends, and any other non work-related activities. Just like the individuals who keep finance diaries are often shocked to discover how much they spend on beverages or magazines, you may be surprised to discover where huge blocks of your time are going. Whatever you discover, once you have a record of how you normally spend your time, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what adjustments, if any, need to be made.
Time Spent on Business Activities
You may be surprised to discover that you spend a good portion of your day answering customer questions or complaints. If so, use this information wisely to streamline your business and hopefully, increase profits. For example, if you are spending a significant amount of time answering customer questions, could your site benefit from a FAQ section? What about customer complaints? Are you seeing the same complaints over and over again? Is there something you can do different to minimize those complaints? If so, it will serve you well to do so since your customers will likely tell others how they feel about your business, whether it is positive or negative.
Start keeping a time management diary today and use it as a tool to grow your business!
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