It’s often the little things that can make the biggest difference, and that’s no different with your time and energy. Time is such an important commodity, and we often spend it looking for ways to work faster and more efficiently. But energy is just as important too. It fluctuates naturally throughout the day, and we only have a limited amount of it on any given day.
But if you want to perform well at work, you need to learn how to manage both. And that involves getting clear on what is eating into your available time and energy resources. Because often, it’s the little things that go unnoticed that can have the biggest impact.
Handle the tasks that are eating into your time and energy
If you want to manage your time and energy levels better, you need to start by managing your tasks. Because not all tasks are created equal! There will be things on your to-do list that don’t need to be completed by you. There’s a high chance that some of those tasks can also be automated whilst others can be scrapped altogether.
So get clear on what tasks are filling your day. Spend a few days noting down the different tasks you work on and how long they take to complete. You can then look at whether it’s something that only you can do or if someone else can take that off your plate. You can then look to plan your week like a pro and outsource more to your Virtual Assistant as a result.
Tackle the thoughts that aren’t serving you
Change is one area that can really hold your business back from the success it deserves. If you fear change, it can limit how productive you are as you focus your time and energy on outdated processes or manual implementation over automation.
You may also waste time and energy fighting against any limiting thoughts you have around your business growth. This can show up as a reluctance to outsource or an inability to reach your bigger goals.
It’s sometimes good to work through things yourself at your own pace, but when it comes to tackling those thoughts that aren’t serving you, you’ll get faster results if you work with a coach or mentor. It will cost you that initial investment but can shave years off the time it takes you to reach your goals.
Manage your actions so you can manage your time and energy
Know what actions you need to take, to help you attain your goals. It’s so easy to get hooked up on all of the little tasks on your to-do list and completing them all in order – but do they directly relate to keeping your goals on track?
The key here is to work smarter, not harder. The 80/20 rule comes into play here – you’ll usually get 80% of your results from only 20% of your actions. So focus on the actions producing those higher results and minimise the effort and time going into the others. This will help you get better results faster and ensure you’re making the best use of your available time and energy.
If you want to perform well at work, you need to learn how to manage your time and energy. So look at the three areas mentioned above and see what little things are eating into your available resources. Because it’s often the changes we make to those little things within those areas that will make the biggest difference to our business and the results we get.