Time Is Money: Spend It Wisely

‘Time is money’. Nowhere is this truer than in financial services. And it isn’t about how much time you have. It’s how you use the time you have that will ultimately determine your level of success.

You have two options about how you spend your time. You can focus on tasks or on results.

Professionals who focus on tasks usually complain they are too busy to market and sell. In reality, they have allowed themselves to be caught up in the service trap. They hide behind task-based activities so they always look busy, because they have no sales pipeline, and no relationships.

Professionals who focus on results spend the majority of their day on the right type of activities. It takes discipline and motivation to focus results-based activities.

They include:

Client continuation
Obtaining referrals
Generating new meetings
Relationship management
Pipeline building

You should spend the majority of your time performing these types of activities; it takes courage because, to some degree, they expose you to possible rejection.

Here are five tips to manage your time better, and use it to get the right things done.

Make a personal plan.
Set big goals in the key areas of referrals, relationships, retention and results. These four Rs will take your business to its highest levels.

Big goals sharpen your focus and keep your feet moving. That’s what takes you closer to realising your highest possible potential.

Get organised.
If everything has equal priority, then nothing has priority. Create folders with ‘to-do’ lists, to manage your clients and prospects. Assign A-B-C priority labels to each task:

A: Important: must be done that day
B: Important: must be done that week
C: Not important: can be done that month

If you prefer, you can do this electronically, using your phone, tablet or device.

Make a daily and weekly schedule.
Maximise the time you spend executing your activities, instead of preparing to do them. Do the hardest and most important thing before anything else.

This creates momentum that sets you up for the rest of the day.

Block your time.
When you do the same activity for a period of time, momentum builds. You get better at the activity and difficult activities actually get easier. Blocking your time also protects you from interruptions.

Reserve time-blocking for your top 20% of activities: they produce 80% of your results.

Live in your calendar.
Until your goals consistently hit your calendar, you won’t consistently hit your goals. When you need to get something done, schedule it in your calendar instead of adding it to a never-ending ‘to-do’ list.

It takes discipline and courage

To focus on the right activities because, to some degree, they expose you to rejection. Nobody likes to be rejected.

Stay focused. In time, you will get better at these activities, and what’s difficult now will get easier. Follow my advice and you will outthink, outsmart and outsell your competitors.