Back Library Contents
How many times have you said, "There's not enough hours in the day to get everything done?" Well, there's always enough time to get your most important work done, if you plan for it. What is your most important work? If you are the owner of your company, the answer is easy: doing work every week, to make sure your company is continuing to profitably grow!
Think about it. If you are it, the lead dog, the head honcho, the big Kahuna, who besides you is going to understand or even really care, about where your company needs to be, this time next year. Who, besides you, is going to really care about how profitable the company is?
If you are a "one person show," it is even more important that you spend part of your time doing work that you think will give you the best future growth. Granted, if you spend every minute of your day doing production, selling, ordering, bookkeeping, receiving, filing, shipping, answering the telephone and sweeping the floor, you won't have very much time to do your most important work.
Therefore, it is vital that you spend a portion of your time, each week, planning and working on your future. There is an old pilots adage, called the 5P's, that states, "Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance." This statement is even truer in business. Those who only live and work for today, never get to a bright tomorrow!
The first step towards finding the time to build your future is in developing a sense of urgency about it. A sense of urgency will help you find the time (and methods) to work on your future. Think about it. You have faced many urgently important situations in your life. If you thought it was urgent enough, you found the time to deal with it. The same cause and effect will also help you always find the time in your business.
The method for each of you will be different. Some of you may work an hour extra each day, some will get some extra help, and some will get serious about learning (and using) good time management techniques. What you do and how, doesn't matter. Getting it done does.
As you snort to yourself and think, "yeah right, I have never been able to do that," I'll leave you with one last thought.
If your house were going up in smoke, you'd find the time to save it, no matter what, right? If you don't take the time to take care of your future it could go up in smoke too!