Manage your time with a Daily Mode of Operation
It occurred to me that 90% of the reason people fail with home businesses is because they never had a plan in the first place.
One of my greatest strengths (not to toot my own horn) is planning and scheduling.
Whether you are working for someone else or working for yourself, time is something that we never have enough of.
There is a saying that if it will save me time then I’ll buy it!
You’ve heard people say that before I’m sure.
But what is a daily mode of operation.
You will think that after close to 15 years of schooling we will know and be able to apply that concept to our lives.
This may seem very strange to you but I want you to perform this exercise.
It speaks to the root of why a daily mode of operation is important and WHY you need to get one in place if you want to be able to manage your time better.
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A Walk Through Time
Most of you reading this blog went to school. Whether you called it elementary school, primary school, secondary school, middle school or high school!
We all went to school.
When I was going to school we had what were called time-tables.
Each day you have fixed activities for specific periods of time.
That’s how we got the name first period, second period etc.
I noticed something really interesting (and this was back in primary school)
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday we had Mathematics for the first two periods.
Every week! It didn’t matter the class/grade you were in.
Math was never taught in the afternoon.
I also noticed that Physical Education was usually scheduled after Lunch for most classes.
Some classes had Physical Education before lunch.
Needless to say – if you were to study your school time-table you will be able to pick up patterns of specific activities done at specific times.
Let’s fast forward to College days where you got to “create” your schedule.
As a Freshman you didn’t really get to choose your classes. You just took what was left over!
So your day usually looked just like a high schooler – Very top heavy – Lots of classes in the morning back to back and then free in the afternoon!
Go figure.
But as you got “older” and “wiser” you said to yourself – “Self, I want more time in the bed on a morning, so I’m going to create a time-table with most of my classes in the afternoon.”
What you didn’t realize is that you were breaking all the good habits developed in secondary and primary school.
All those time-management characteristics that were drilled into you were now thrown out the window.
For the next three to five years – your time is “yours”. or so you think.
By thinking you re-claimed your time, you actually just created a huge time management problem.
You just created “dead-time” in your schedule on purpose.
And instead of doing something productive you’re usually sleeping, watching TV or goofing around during that “free time”
Back to Today’s Time Line
So after creating a mess of your ability to schedule in college – you enter the work world
OR you start your own business.
Now if you never managed time well before – what makes you feel you will be able to do it now?
But fear not – the 10 years of early education proved that this skill can be learned just as easily as four years can make you forget it.
So in your business or at your job you need to figure out what are the most important activities that need to get done today and everyday.
I’m going to focus on business – because you’re a business owner (at least trying to be).
You need to know what are the three, five, ten things that will make you money if you do them everyday.
What do I mean.
If making a phone call has the potential to make you money, then you need to be doing that everyday.
If stock taking does NOT have the potential to make you money then you should NOT do that everyday.
Think of your business like WalMart.
Look at what WalMart (or the owners of WalMart do everyday).
Is that too big!
Ok let’s think of your local coffee shop then.
What do they do everyday?
List them on a piece of paper if you have to. …….
I’ll wait……
……
……
Was a lot of what they do either selling or marketing?
Did you write down follow up?
How many emails a day do you get from Wal Mart?
When you last purchased something online from them – did they send you a feedback request?
Tomorrow I’m going to detail for you my online marketing Daily Mode of Operation so stay tuned!
2 replies to "Manage Your Time With a DMO"
Really interesting, Hilary. You bring out some great points, like the schedule we had in Elementary School. I’m a “Structure and Order Freak”, so I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s post. Your encouragement was perfect here, to: “…this skill can be learned just as easily as four years can make you forget it.”
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