“Hey boss, we can’t keep working like this, we are to busy, we need help” says Jack
“Are you sure? The sales aren’t showing this, we are doing less work than last year.” Responds Pete with a concerned look on his face.
What he does next will determine how long Jack keeps working for him, what would you do?
Option 1 – The numbers don’t lie
Pete could show Jack the numbers and say that until they are higher than last year they don’t need more resources.
But Jack doesn’t care about the numbers, he only cares about how he feels, and he is working hard.
Option 2 – Are you doing the right work?
Pete could start to ask some questions to see what Jack is doing with his time.
Jack starts to keep a diary of what he does with his time, a week later they sit down together.
“So what did you notice when you looked at how you spend your time?” Pete asks.
“Well… I’m spending at least 3 hours every day collecting materials for the jobs. I didn’t realise that it was taking that long.” Jack responds scratching his head in curiosity.
“But why does it take that long, don’t we get all our stuff from ACME?”
“No, I have to visit four different suppliers to get the cheapest price, like you asked” Jack replies defensively.
“Jack, I think your busy because I forgot to tell you to stop doing that. I analysed the numbers and going to all the different suppliers wasn’t really saving us any money. You should have stopped doing that months ago.”
“Really?” Jack responds tentatively, he’s never had a boss apologise before, usually they just get angry at everyone else when they make a mistake, but Pete is different. “That will only take about 30 minutes each day as I drive past ACME on the way to most jobs.”
So the next week Jack only goes to ACME, he is saving heaps of time, getting more work done in less time. Pete’s happy because the sales are looking better and Jack is happy because he isn’t working as hard.
The moral
We often spend a lot of time working on the wrong thing, if you’re working on the wrong thing then you are wasting time. The best way that I have found to identify if you are working on the right thing is to keep a diary of how you spend your time. It doesn’t have to list every breath you take, just the broad categories of what you are doing.
At the end of a week or two look over where you are spending your time, add the different tasks together, what does it tell you, like how Jack realised he was spending 2 to 3 hours going to different suppliers to collect materials.
Now what do you need to change to work more effectively. For me I learnt that all my best creative work is done in the morning, so I moved most of my meetings to later morning and early afternoon. I also started getting up earlier, I’m often at my desk before 7am. I also know that I waste time from about 3pm, so I make that the end of the day and go to the gym or for a surf.
I also did this with my admin team and found they were doing reports that I no longer needed, this saved them a couple of hours each week.
Need help
This process is simple but not easy. If you want help then book a discovery call and we can talk about how how our services can help you build your team capacity.
“Are you sure? The sales aren’t showing this, we are doing less work than last year.” Responds Pete with a concerned look on his face.
What he does next will determine how long Jack keeps working for him, what would you do?
Option 1 – The numbers don’t lie
Pete could show Jack the numbers and say that until they are higher than last year they don’t need more resources.
But Jack doesn’t care about the numbers, he only cares about how he feels, and he is working hard.
Option 2 – Are you doing the right work?
Pete could start to ask some questions to see what Jack is doing with his time.
Jack starts to keep a diary of what he does with his time, a week later they sit down together.
“So what did you notice when you looked at how you spend your time?” Pete asks.
“Well… I’m spending at least 3 hours every day collecting materials for the jobs. I didn’t realise that it was taking that long.” Jack responds scratching his head in curiosity.
“But why does it take that long, don’t we get all our stuff from ACME?”
“No, I have to visit four different suppliers to get the cheapest price, like you asked” Jack replies defensively.
“Jack, I think your busy because I forgot to tell you to stop doing that. I analysed the numbers and going to all the different suppliers wasn’t really saving us any money. You should have stopped doing that months ago.”
“Really?” Jack responds tentatively, he’s never had a boss apologise before, usually they just get angry at everyone else when they make a mistake, but Pete is different. “That will only take about 30 minutes each day as I drive past ACME on the way to most jobs.”
So the next week Jack only goes to ACME, he is saving heaps of time, getting more work done in less time. Pete’s happy because the sales are looking better and Jack is happy because he isn’t working as hard.
The moral
We often spend a lot of time working on the wrong thing, if you’re working on the wrong thing then you are wasting time. The best way that I have found to identify if you are working on the right thing is to keep a diary of how you spend your time. It doesn’t have to list every breath you take, just the broad categories of what you are doing.
At the end of a week or two look over where you are spending your time, add the different tasks together, what does it tell you, like how Jack realised he was spending 2 to 3 hours going to different suppliers to collect materials.
Now what do you need to change to work more effectively. For me I learnt that all my best creative work is done in the morning, so I moved most of my meetings to later morning and early afternoon. I also started getting up earlier, I’m often at my desk before 7am. I also know that I waste time from about 3pm, so I make that the end of the day and go to the gym or for a surf.
I also did this with my admin team and found they were doing reports that I no longer needed, this saved them a couple of hours each week.
Need help
This process is simple but not easy. If you want help then book a discovery call and we can talk about how how our services can help you build your team capacity.
