Are you finding it hard to keep up with the jobs you need doing? Are you a bit like us saying “Yes” to clients, but really not being sure if there’s time for their job to be done?
We’re pleased to say a light bulb moment happened for us during our Christmas break and now, more than two months later, the solution is working for us.
We’ve all probably found it easy to put appointments with clients in our diaries, so why not also put the tasks to do their job in there too? We know, it’s not rocket science, but sometimes something simple like this can be overlooked when we’re drowning in work.
Whenever you agree to take on a client’s job take a look at your calendar (we use Google Calendar) and find when you can realistically slot in the task that needs to be done. Our tasks are kept in a different colour to actual appointments denoting that there may be some flexibility if a more important appointment or task comes along with a pressing deadline.
If you use a calendar like Google you’ll get the reminders that it’s time to begin the next task and you get a great deal of satisfaction if you actually go through the process of DELETING the task once you’ve done it. It’s nice to look at the end of the day and see a clean slate.
Another thing that has worked well for us is if you know a task is going to take you 30 minutes, why not put it in for an hour? What then happens is you (a) feel less stressed but (b) you often find yourself with extra time in your day where you can get ahead with the next day’s tasks, take an early minute or find time for that extra one that you really thought you couldn’t squeeze in.
We’re certain there’s plenty of other solutions around, but we can honestly say this one is simple and (face palm) we should have been doing it long ago. If you’re using something like Google Calendar, it’s also a free solution too. It may be March but it’s not too late to implement our New Year’s Resolution and set yourself up for a less stressed 2018.
Footnote: And it’s nice that the process has meant we can once again start scheduling in preparation of blogs for our website too.
