I mentioned last week about this tool to enable you to get crystal clear clarity on not only how much time you are spending in the business but also exactly what you are doing. When I work with business owners this is a first step approach to understand how constrained they are and what capacity they have to spend in expanding and developing their business.
The way this works is by creating a time matrix spreadsheet. Below I have attached the template that we normally use. The first column is all the tasks and activities – keeping it at a high level that you are involved in. List what you think but when you get into it others may pop up that you did not list originally.
The idea is to do this on a daily basis – best to do it halfway through the day and at the end of the day and add the time spent next to each activity area. This is a simple process but will provide you with a clear picture of where you are spending your most valuable commodity: your time.
I would suggest that this is done in detail for at least 2 weeks, ideally a full calendar month, during a period where it is a standard working week – rather than an unusual situation – eg Staff on leave. Over a 2 week period, you should have enough data to get a clear picture of, what you are doing in your business. Most of the time when people do this they are surprised about the results and exactly what they are doing.