How do you schedule your time?
Scheduling your day is not an easy task. Some of us are victims of habit, while others prioritize and plan. I decided to have interlocking schedules based on priorities. Daily routines and monthly routines, but not daily routines. I try to cram in as much work as possible during each day, but the issue (not necessarily a problem) is when to do the deep thinking work.
Does busy work get the best of you?
Many people feel that managers should not do busy work (repetitive tasks). But, when you have a small business, and can’t find reliable people to do some of your critical data entry, calls, and other “busy work” sometimes managers can get overloaded. Even checking the quality of your workers’ busy work is in itself busy work. Even if you take frequent breaks, your mind can easily get frazzled if you are doing too much.
Finding that right time to think
Many of us would do much better in business if we would find time to really think and evaluate all of the tasks that we do in our business. We all have limited resources, and business is the art of using our resources most efficiently to get maximum profits and/or output. The confusing part is that the maximum profits are often delayed, and creating a solid foundation for your business is more important than short term profits in my mind. If you are frazzled with busy work all day long, you might brush over critical decisions and make some very expensive mistakes. It seems logical that the more important a decision, the more time you would invest in it — and the most time when your mind is in a good state to deal with such issues. So, how do you create those windows of time?
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Bathe and meditate before making business decisions
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/07/23/bathe-and-meditate-before-making-business-decisions/
Weekly self-meetings
If you have a weekly meeting with yourself, this is a great way to make decisions. You can take notes throughout the week as to what you will be thinking about. It does not hurt to discuss these decisions with others as they might have some valuable input or at least a very different point of view. My thought is that late at night is the best time to think deep thoughts. The universe is quiet then, and distractions from outside are minimal. There are no phones, there are less radio waves in the atmosphere. There is no screaming, and there is no commotion. Most people are asleep or doing quiet things at home like watching television or using their computer. I also suggest meditating and bathing before doing important decision making activities. And if you are really busy on a particular week, you can have a shorter meeting and postpone important decisions to another week when you are less frazzled.
Is the beginning or the day or the end of the day the best time?
For me, late at night is my favorite time of any 24 hour period. For others, you might think better in the morning. My friend is the opposite of me. I like staying up late at night, he likes getting up early in the morning. But, the result we have is the same. I normally retire around 2am while he gets up at 2:30 am. We are often awake at the same time if I go to bed really late which sometimes happens when I have to finish up piles of work. He finds miraculous clarity early in the morning. He gets a lot of all types of work done at that time including tasks which require deep thought, and just routine answering of emails. For those who prefer 7am in the morning, if you are fresh at that time, then do some deep thinking. But, remember, the quality of your thoughts depends on the stillness of the outside atmosphere as well as the clarity of your mind. So, if your mind is clear at a particular time, then take advantage of that clarity for critical tasks.
What about busy work?
I like doing busy-work late at night when I am half asleep too. After I have lost my clarity and it is even later at night, it is a good time for repetitive tasks which don’t require too many brain cells. Doing my Twitter outreach is a perfect example of a brainless task. I just follow members from relevant accounts. I’ll add 1000 at a time, and I do this several times per week for my main account. There are different types of busy work. Some require some thinking while others require almost no thinking. I advise saving the brainless tasks for when you are most fatigued. But, try to make yourself extra fresh for those tough decisions that could take hours to work out!